Building a SaaS Company with Operational Discipline: Betterworks CEO Kris Duggan (Part 2)

Sramana Mitra: What did you do after WebEx? Did you stay until when WebEx was acquired by Cisco?

Kris Duggan: I left right around that time – a little after the IPO until right after the acquisition. After that, I was invited to join a DFJ-funded company to run sales globally. It was called Social Tech. It was an early stage company that had about 20 people. That was my first sales leadership role. I did that for three years. I had a really good run with the company but I really wanted to get more involved in starting something and that’s what drove me to Badgeville.

During my transition, I actually ended up getting involved with a company called Palantir. Palantir, obviously, has a very successful track record and is probably one of the most successful companies in Silicon Valley. I joined them when they were quite young and was involved in helping them think about their go-to-market and sales strategy. All of that helped me prepare to start my own company, which was Badgeville.

Sramana Mitra: How long were you in Palantir?

Kris Duggan: I was in a full-time role probably for about a year, and then transitioned into more of an advisory role for a couple of years after that.

Sramana Mitra: What year does that bring us up to?

Kris Duggan: That brings us up to 2010.

Sramana Mitra: Is that when you started Betterworks?

Kris Duggan: That was when I started Badgeville. Just to finish the timeline, Badgeville was from 2010 to 2013. Betterworks is from 2013 to now.

Sramana Mitra: Very quickly, walk me through what happened with Badgeville. What were the circumstances of founding Badgeville and what happened to the company?

Kris Duggan: If you’ve seen the TV show Silicon Valley, that entire show is modelled on Badgeville.

Sramana Mitra: There are many stories of Silicon Valley that could be modelled after Silicon Valley.

Kris Duggan: I was the only employee. I had this idea that some of the things that make social games really successful could be applied to enterprise software. At that time, it didn’t have a word, but it became known as gamification. The company grew very fast. We had a lot of customers. We actually launched at TechCrunch. I remember being on stage and launching the company. We won Audience’s Choice.

That led to us getting funding. Over the period of three and a half years, we raised $35 million in capital. The Board wanted to put in a very senior CEO to scale the company. They did that. Unfortunately, I would say they didn’t bring in the right person, which resulted in my departure from the company. That was what caused me to found Betterworks.

This segment is part 2 in the series : Building a SaaS Company with Operational Discipline: Betterworks CEO Kris Duggan
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