Dear Friends and Members of Pavilion,
We’ve come to the end of 2023. It feels like you can almost hear an audible sigh of relief after what has assuredly been one of the most difficult and challenging years many of us have experienced. For me personally, 2023 was the hardest year running Pavilion since I began working on it full time in 2018.
In 2023 alone, there were 126,000 layoffs in the tech economy. Most Pavilion Members missed their revenue targets. Only 29% of account executives within the tech economy reported hitting quota. Topline growth rates suffered as we shifted from a “growth at any cost” mindset to one of efficient growth. Silicon Valley Bank went away. And then came back. Sam Altman was fired. And then came back. Wars, conflict, and tragedy all over the world surrounded us. Many Pavilion Members either volunteered or were sent to the front lines in an effort to defend their country, their families, and their homes.
And yet, it’s also a year when all of us responded to adversity. When all of us grew as executives. When many of us started our own businesses.
It was the year of the fractional executive. It was the year of Ecosystem and Partner Led Growth. It was the year when we all learned the importance of efficiency and when board rooms began to talk about gross margin and EBITDA, not just topline revenue.
Here’s a quick summary of some of the most important milestones we hit here at Pavilion.
The Return of Chapters
In the second half of 2023, we re-introduced local community to Pavilion, beginning with our flagship chapters in London and New York. Since that announcement, we’ve launched chapters in Atlanta, Boston, Sydney, Dubai, Los Angeles, Chicago, Austin, Nashville, Seattle with more to come. The response has been overwhelmingly positive.
We just held our largest happy hour ever in New York City with over 200+ attendees. Each Chapter is building out their leadership teams and crafting local community and events tailored to their specific city - including ski trips in Denver, bourbon tastings in Nashville, and rainy runs around mountains in Seattle.
Across Pavilion, we hosted well over 100+ Salon Dinners, and 100+ community-organized PavilionX events in 2023 (and in 2024, we expect that number to grow 4x).
GTM2023, The Road to Nashville and the GTM Consortium
Speaking of events, we hosted our biggest ever in 2023. GTM2023 was our first big flagship conference and boy was it amazing. We partnered with the very best in the business including Insight Partners, Winning by Design, GTM Partners, Arbinger Institute and more to help our ecosystem truly align around profitable and efficient growth. Over 100 of the best GTM operators and CEOs either came to Nashville or joined Jacco and I on the road to level up on efficient growth models, share best practices and challenges in a difficult economy, and forge new alliances to drive growth in 2024.
While in Nashville, we also announced the launch of the GTM Consortium, a new coalition of over 150 of the world’s best B2B consulting and training companies, software companies, investors, and communities, all dedicated to creating a set of open operating standards to enable and drive efficient growth. Members include Winning by Design, Hubspot, Clari, 6Sense, Insight Partners, Pavilion, Sales Assembly, and many more.
Over the course of 2024, we’ll be rolling out dedicated roadshows and training sessions for you and your companies in partnership with the GTM Consortium. We’ll also be certifying and standardizing existing operating models to ensure you’re in compliance with GTMC standards. A great example is the CCOM (Customer Centric Operating Model) operating system used by Hubspot that embodies the principles articulated with the bowtie model and endorsed by the GTMC.
Look for much more from the GTM Consortium over the course of 2024 and beyond.
Pavilion University, Enterprise CRO School, and All Courses On Demand
Meanwhile, we had another huge year for Pavilion University. This year, we released all of our courses and schools On Demand for those that wanted the education and skills but didn’t have the time for live sessions.
And while our flagship executive schools (e.g. CRO School, CMO School, et al.) are still reserved for Executives, we made the individual sessions available on demand for all Members, including Associates. In 2023, we saw over 15,000 total enrollments in both live and on demand learning programs through Pavilion University, a 50% increase from 2022.
We were also delighted to launch a new flagship school, Enterprise CRO School, for those looking to run revenue orgs at companies north of $100M in ARR. Feedback was uniformly exceptional and we’re delighted to make Enterprise CRO School a foundational program for Pavilion Members going forward.
On The Bench Helping Over 1,000 Members
Perhaps the most impactful step we took in 2023 was continuing to invest in and enhance our On the Bench program for members who are searching for their next role. There have been over 135,000 layoffs in tech since the tech recession began and we’ve been humbled and proud to serve so many Members impacted by these layoffs through this amazing program.
Led by Fred Mather and supported by the exceptional Stephanie Reck and John Montague, On The Bench served well over 1,000 Members over the course of the year, and helped over 300 Members find new roles.
Pavilion exists first and foremost to serve and to help our members when they need it most, and On The Bench is perhaps the brightest and best example of areas where we are dedicated and focused on ensuring that our global community feels supported through difficult times.
While 2023 was an uncertain and difficult year for many, we (and I personally) are very optimistic and bullish both for the economy in 2024 and for the Pavilion community. As you may have heard me discuss on the Topline podcast (with my wonderful co-hosts, Pavilion members Asad Zaman and AJ Bruno), we see positive signs from central banks (notably the Fed) on easing interest rate hikes, and anticipate we may even see falling interest rates into 2025.
This will create some much needed tailwinds (or perhaps simply the absence of headwinds) that, in combination with the efficiency measures many of us took in 2023, will position our companies and our businesses for sustainable and durable growth.
Within Pavilion, you can expect to see some incredible improvements to your experience that will make membership even more valuable.
The Continued Momentum of Local Chapters
While we reintroduced chapters in 2023, most Members haven’t yet felt their impact. You can expect that this will change in 2024. From Dubai to Raleigh-Durham or wherever you may be based, you’ll have a vibrant local chapter, tailored to your region, that will be fostering local community and hosting local events. In our biggest cities, you can expect working groups based on stage of growth for your company, your functional area (e.g. CMOs of New York), and even micro-communities based on areas of interest (e.g. AI Leaders of San Francisco). Your chapters will serve as the connective tissue linking your local neighborhood to the global Pavilion community.
An Improved and Integrated Member Experience
At the same time, we’ll be releasing a new member portal in early 2024 that will unite all of the disparate elements of your Pavilion experience in one place. We’ll still be using Slack for real-time communications, but you’ll have an easier “home” to access the member directory, manage events, register for courses, and even build your own sub-groups based on areas of interest. There will even be a Pavilion mobile app coming to your smartphone within the first half of 2024!
Everything will be easier to find, more accessible, and more understandable.
Matchmaking, Curated 1x1 Introductions, and Mentoring
We’re also excited to re-introduce targeted 1x1 matchmaking in 2024. We’ve already begun testing this with the Women of Pavilion global group and have been receiving rave reviews. We’ll be using our new matchmaking service to create tailored networking opportunities for you across Pavilion (similar to the old Lunch Roulette, but more powerful and customizable) and using that same underlying platform to introduce mentoring opportunities so you can easily find people within the community that have “been there, done that” for challenges you are currently facing.
I promise that this is going to be an incredible part of your Membership and will help you quickly and easily build new and meaningful relationships that will change the trajectory of your career for the better.
Incredible Events and Courses Powered by the GTM Consortium and Our Amazing Partners
Pavilion is the nexus that connects many disparate elements of the high-growth go-to-market ecosystem. That is partially because we’ve been so successful at partnering with the very best firms in the world, from Insight Partners to Winning by Design to the Arbinger Institute.
The consequence of those partnerships is best-in-class events and educational programs that we’ll be rolling out over the course of 2024. We’re kicking things off with CEO Summit in Scottsdale, AZ in January but you can also expect CMO and CRO Summits, a dedicated EMEA Summit focused on the European ecosystem, and, of course, GTM2024, this time in Austin, Texas.
We’ll also be launching 40 brand new schools and courses, with new offerings rolling out every month so there will always be a new class to take and a new event to attend both locally and globally.
What Pavilion Stands For: Helping You Unlock and Achieve Your Potential
The through line for all of this – the constant that has remained unchanged since we first started getting together in New York in 2016 – is a commitment to helping you navigate an uncertain world armed with the tools, ideas, skills, and relationships you’ll need to build a successful and meaningful career and life.
Wherever you want to go - whether to the C-suite, to start your own business, or to help your existing company soar - Pavilion will be there for you.
We’ll do it as a global community, committed to giving before we get, supporting each other in times of difficulty, and guided by a steady belief that life is not zero sum - that iron sharpens iron, and that together, we can forge a path to achieving our wildest ambitions and dreams.
That’s why we’re here. That’s why we’ve always been here.
I can’t wait to tackle 2024 with you. It’s going to be an amazing journey because we’re going to do it together. If you need anything, as always, simply reply to this email.
Happy Holidays and Happy New Year!
Sam Jacobs