In this episode of Path to Growth, Tracy sits down with Ross Rich, co-founder and CEO of Accord, to explore the real challenges and inspirations behind building a company rooted in helping B2B sales teams reach their potential. Ross opens up about the deep entrepreneurial legacy in his family, sharing how lessons in persistence and hard work from his parents laid the foundation for his own career journey—from a stint in the music industry to leading enterprise sales at Stripe, and ultimately co-founding Accord with his brother.

The conversation dives into what it really takes to create value in sales today, especially in a world flooded with automation and generic outreach. Ross explains how Accord was born out of frustration with inefficient onboarding and broken sales processes, and how he’s working to raise the bar for what sales professionals can achieve when given the right tools and structure. Tracy and Ross also unpack the evolving role of AI in sales and product development, how top performers are differentiating themselves, and why thoughtful, human-centric communication still wins.

Beyond sales tactics, the two discuss the emotional toll and mental stamina required to build a company from scratch. Ross reflects on the unique dynamics of founding a business with his brother, the role his wife plays in grounding him, and the importance of conviction, adaptability, and resilience as a startup CEO. This candid conversation is full of hard-won insights, relatable founder moments, and a deep respect for the craft of selling—and leading—with integrity.

Tracy Young sits down with Will Allred, co-founder and self-described “not really” COO of Lavender. Will shares the company’s origin story—how a failed startup pivot during the early days of COVID turned into a successful sales email copilot powered by psychology. He discusses the mindset that keeps him pushing forward (“just keep kicking”), the importance of acting with urgency, and why consistent prospecting is the lifeblood of any early-stage startup. Will also opens up about building a lean, high-agency team and the kind of culture that scales well with few resources.

The conversation dives into Will’s approach to growth via social media, including his daily habit of writing LinkedIn posts as a form of journaling. Tracy and Will trade practical advice on closing deals, managing early sales cycles, disqualifying the wrong customers, and optimizing productivity—right down to scheduling tasks directly into a calendar. Along the way, they highlight the value of mentorship, share lessons from the pandemic, and celebrate the creative instincts (like Lavender’s famous claymation wizard) that help small teams stand out.

Tracy sits down with Ron Miller, former TechCrunch journalist and now Editorial Director at boldstart Ventures, to discuss his career shift and the state of enterprise AI. Ron shares how he overcame early skepticism about generative AI, ultimately recognizing its transformative potential for enterprise workflows.

They explore practical strategies for AI adoption, including starting with low-risk, high-impact projects like automating release notes. Ron also reflects on how AI may reshape SaaS models and stresses the importance of leaders embracing change while supporting their teams.

He closes with advice to stay curious and keep learning—because in tech, change is the only constant.

In this episode of *Path to Growth*, Tracy speaks with Mallory Lee, VP of Revenue Operations at PhoneBurner and co-founder of RevTech Review. Mallory shares her path from marketing into revenue operations, her passion for building useful tools, and how she balances work and family life.

Mallory started RevTech Review after noticing how biased most tool comparisons were. She wanted a place for honest, expert reviews that help teams choose the right solutions without all the noise. Today, the platform is growing steadily, offering straightforward opinions on revenue tech without outside influence.

She also talks about why she joined PhoneBurner, a profitable and bootstrapped company with a culture of kindness and directness. After years in fast-moving, VC-backed startups, Mallory was ready for a more stable and focused environment.

Her marketing background helped her succeed in RevOps, especially in aligning teams and thinking creatively about performance. She believes many companies struggle because they change too many things at once, making it hard to know what’s working. Slowing down and measuring clearly is key.

Mallory also discusses how comp plans and credit for deals can cause tension between sales and marketing. She shares lessons on designing fair incentives and focusing on what really drives revenue.

As a working mom of three, Mallory opens up about the daily juggling act. She relies on structure, a supportive partner, and a shared family calendar. She encourages other parents not to hide their career wins, but to proudly show their kids what hard work can achieve.

Her final advice to others in RevOps or go-to-market roles is to focus on alignment. Be the person who sees the full customer journey, helps teams work better together, and brings clarity across departments.

In this episode of Path to Growth, Tracy sits down with Felicia Curcuru, co-founder and CEO of Binti. Felicia shares her journey from growing up in New Jersey as the youngest of three sisters to building a mission-driven tech company focused on transforming the foster care and adoption system in the U.S. Inspired by her sister’s difficult adoption experience, Felicia talks about the early struggles of finding product-market fit, the critical importance of deeply understanding user needs, and how her approach shifted after shadowing social workers for months.

She also offers practical advice on selling to government agencies, including how to build momentum through local adoption and leverage conferences and word-of-mouth. Felicia reflects on her fundraising strategies, emphasizing timing, process discipline, and emotional resilience. The conversation covers her leadership philosophy, values-based hiring, the role of coaching and feedback in personal growth, and the importance of building a transparent and solutions-oriented company culture. This episode is packed with actionable insights for founders and leaders navigating complex problems and systems.

Summary:

In this episode, Tracy sits down with Jess Schultz, founder of Amplify Group, to talk about building a consistent, scalable go-to-market strategy. Jess shares her journey from finance to sales, her experience in venture capital, and how she identified the need for fractional go-to-market and RevOps leadership. She emphasizes the importance of trusting the process, building good habits, and maintaining clear ICPs and positioning. Jess also dives into early-stage sales challenges, the evolving role of RevOps, and how AI is reshaping—but not replacing—the fundamentals of human-centered selling. Plus, hear Jess’s advice for founders preparing to scale, her views on bridging sales and marketing teams, and why consistency wins in the long run.

Key Topics:

• Building pipeline through consistent personal marketing

• Moving from founder-led sales to a scalable GTM motion

• The biggest mistakes early-stage companies make with sales and RevOps

• How AI is changing (and not changing) the B2B sales process

• The future of RevOps as a strategic growth function

• Why clarity and consistency are the foundation of growth

In this episode of Path to Growth, Tracy Young speaks with Rose Punkunus, founder and CEO of Sudozi, about her career journey from data and finance roles at major tech companies to founding a startup solving procurement and spend visibility challenges.

Rose begins by sharing her early life story, having emigrated from Shanghai to the United States at age three. Her childhood was marked by frequent moves as her father pursued a new medical career in pathology, taking the family from Rochester to Atlanta to West Virginia, and ultimately to Long Island. Growing up in diverse communities shaped her appetite for learning and adaptability—traits that would serve her well in the tech industry.

Much of the conversation focuses on Rose’s years at Uber, where she led global pricing and later served as CFO for the U.S. and Canada business during a period of rapid expansion. She explains the difficulty of pricing a two-sided marketplace, particularly when dealing with different rider expectations, driver incentives, and constantly changing local dynamics. She was responsible for building Uber’s finance data science team and bringing machine learning models into revenue forecasting—efforts that helped turn city-level data into executive-ready financial projections. This experience was pivotal in planting the seeds for her future company.

After Uber, Rose joined other startups in senior finance roles, where she repeatedly encountered the same problem: a lack of visibility and coordination around vendor spend. Procurement decisions were often made in isolation, and finance teams were left reacting to invoices without understanding the context or timing. These experiences led Rose to found Sudozi, a platform that helps teams orchestrate procurement workflows, manage vendor relationships, and gain clarity on spend before it happens. She envisions Sudozi evolving into a system where not only procurement decisions are centralized, but payments and forecasts are integrated with context at the core.

As a leader, Rose emphasizes the importance of open communication and clarity. She believes culture is best observed in how people behave when the CEO isn’t in the room. For her, communication, respect, and shared purpose are non-negotiable foundations for building a team. She also sees her job as clearing roadblocks and bringing in external context to inform the team’s decisions, while trusting her colleagues to own and execute.

When asked about navigating difficult moments, Rose shares her approach to crisis management: taking a moment to process before reacting. She strives for a consistent and measured response, which helps her team feel safe sharing bad news as well as good. Once grounded, she quickly prioritizes next steps and focuses on forward motion. It’s a pragmatic mindset rooted in action and supported by calm.

In a surprising detour, Rose reveals she once coached high school volleyball while working in the Bay Area. She describes coaching as one of her most formative leadership experiences, particularly because it involved mentoring young girls as they developed not just athletically, but also emotionally and socially. Those lessons in empathy, communication, and confidence continue to influence how she leads today.

Looking ahead, Rose sees tremendous potential in procurement orchestration as a new category. She believes Sudozi is well-positioned to offer not just oversight of procurement workflows, but also direct payment capabilities and more accurate budget forecasting. By centralizing decision-making and contextualizing spend, she hopes to transform how companies manage financial operations.

Rose concludes the conversation with advice for early-career professionals: take more risks. The start of a career is the lowest-cost time to explore, pivot, and experiment. She cred...

In this episode of Path to Growth, Tracy Young talks with Sarah Franklin, CEO of Lattice and former CMO at Salesforce, about her unconventional career journey and the leadership lessons she’s carried with her along the way. Sarah shares how her background in chemical engineering and biochemistry laid the foundation for a career in tech, marketing, and now executive leadership. She reflects on the transition from CMO to CEO, what she brought with her from 15 years at Salesforce, and how frameworks like the V2MOM help her set priorities and keep teams aligned.

The conversation also dives into how AI is already transforming the HR space—and why now is a defining moment for HR leaders to take charge of their tech stack. Sarah and Tracy discuss decision-making, leadership in times of crisis, the difference between selling to revenue teams and HR teams, and how to maintain curiosity and courage through change. Sarah closes with heartfelt advice to those early in their careers: trust yourself more, think long-term, and always be learning.

This episode is packed with real talk, practical insight, and thoughtful reflections from one of tech’s most respected leaders.