Dominique Levin
CEO
Mountain View, California
My Role
I set the direction for Winning by Design, with a laser focus on propelling B2B organizations to accelerate and optimize recurring revenue. I take pride in fostering an environment where our crew has autonomy, empowered to be their best selves and do their best work everyday. We provide the opportunity for everyone to master their craft and become the CEO of their own job.
What makes our business structure different from most is our upside down pyramid model – customers are on top, supported by our crew (employees), and then the CEO and the rest of leadership at the very bottom enabling everybody else. The result? Our customers truly get the respect and attention they deserve and our employees are given the opportunity to shine. Finally, I act as the final customer impact officer. I oversee customer success by ensuring that all of our clients achieve recurring impact.
What I love most about my role
We are creating a new industry. What gets me out of bed in the morning is the excitement that comes with cultivating something unique, something that has never been done before – developing the science of revenue (and reinventing work for our own team in the process). We help companies put scientific, proven, and repeatable principles, frameworks, and blueprints into practice so that our clients can optimize revenue via sales, marketing, and customer success. We have created a new profession of “revenue architect” in the process.
If you believe that the science of revenue is 96% process and 4% people, then your results will be more ‘by design’ and more predictable. The side benefit? With the right processes in place, anybody can learn to be successful in your organization and you can and should open up roles to more diverse candidates – even those without a fancy college degree. That is much needed in the tech industry, where we see few women and even fewer candidates of color or with disadvantaged backgrounds.
We’ve been flexible from day 1. I help people find their voice and build their dream jobs by reinventing the ways we work. At Winning by Design, we created a remote and flexible culture from day one, years before it was in vogue. We allow people to work from anywhere and to work as much or as little as they want. We advocate for our people to have lives outside of work, encouraging side hustles, non-profit endeavors, or taking time for peer coaching.
How I define success
There are three questions I ask myself to define success:
1. Are our employees engaged and happy?
2. Are we producing recurring impact for our clients?
3. Do we have a social impact, not just a business impact?
The best piece of business advice I ever received was
A product-led or customer-led approach will always win and produce superior results over a sales-led or marketing-led approach. Don’t worry about giving away knowledge and advice for free. For us, that means providing open source content, blueprints, and educational YouTube videos free of charge. Knowledge exchange is one of the best ways to develop a customer base and attract top talent.
What would I tell my younger self
If you don’t like the culture or rules of the existing business world, don’t be afraid to start your own company.
What 2B Bolder mean to me
Take risks. You only live once!
Years of Experience
More than 28 years of business experience.
I recommend you focus on developing these 3 skills to succeed in a role like mine
1. Creating new markets: I understand how to identify gaps in the market to create opportunities
2. Synthesize & strategize: I get excited when there is the opportunity to synthesize many data points, trends, and opinions and convert them into a holistic, simple message or strategy.
3. An eye for HR: I can quickly identify a person’s super powers. I know how to place the right person into the right position.