Driving Revenue Growth with the Power of AI and Strategic Leadership with Todd Thomas of woodchuck.ai

AI is revolutionizing revenue operations, and with it, the role of the CEO is evolving as well. In the latest episode of Revenue Reinvention, Todd Thomas, Founder and CEO of woodchuck.ai, offers insights on driving revenue growth and establishing a robust revenue operations framework as companies expand.  

Drawing on his extensive experience in business development and sales, Todd highlights how crucial it is for the CEO to be closely connected with the revenue team. He provides valuable advice on integrating leadership with revenue strategies to ensure smooth and effective growth.  

Listen now to hear: 

Todd on the role of the CEO in driving and overseeing revenue operations: “Anything that drives or impacts revenue falls under Revenue Operations. I think it's the CEO's job to drive that organization, and if you get large enough and you want to bring in a CRO to run your revenue operations and build out a team, you certainly want to grow to the scale that's necessary. But even when you do bring in that CRO, I still think the CEO is always part of that revenue organization. Your CEO should always be your biggest salesman, your big closer, the hammer that you bring in to close a deal.” 

Todd on the importance of customer feedback in product development: “It doesn't matter how awesome you think your product is, you've got to get it into your actual end users as fast as possible. They will tell you what they like and what they don't like, and that will supersede anything that your engineers or your internal QA teams can do. It'll surpass anything that they can do. You will never get it right, but your customers will be happy to tell you what you have wrong and what you have right. So get it in your customers hands as soon as possible.” 

Todd on a diverse and collaborative process when making decisions: “You're going to make better product decisions, better marketing decisions, if you involve  a really diverse group of people from your company as you're making those decisions,  and ideally include your customers. So if you think it's time to reiterate on your product or you're thinking about bringing in a new product—have a workshop and bring in execs, bring in the accounting team, bring in your sales guys, bring in your customer success team, bring in a couple of clients that have familiarity with your products, and do the whiteboarding and the brainstorming with them.” 

Links and resources 

Todd Thomas is the Founder & CEO of woodchuck.ai, an AI Wood Waste Diversion & renewable energy platform; turning waste into energy.  Todd has built his career harnessing emerging technologies to drive efficiencies and create new commercialization opportunities. Experience with startups to Fortune 100 companies across industries. Todd is a recognized voice in AI, ML, sustainability, biomass, entrepreneurship, connected products & services. 

Todd has an Economics degree from Claremont McKenna College, has studied Strategy Execution at the Harvard Business School, and has an MBA and an MS in Data Science from the WP Carey School of Business, ASU.