>> Live, from Bellevue, Washington, it's theCUBE. Covering Smartsheet Engage 18. Brought to you by Smartsheet. >> Welcome back to theCUBE's continuing coverage of Smartsheet Engage 2018, I am Lisa Martin with Jeff Frick in Bellevue, Washington, our first time here. Second annual Smartsheet Engage and we're very please to be joined, welcoming back to theCUBE, Mark Mader, the CEO of Smartsheet. Mark, it's great to have you on the program. >> Thank you, good to be with you. >> Great job on the keynote. >> Thank you, appreciate it. >> So, you can see the buzz behind us, we just got out of the keynote, where, you guys kicked it up, there was a coupla things Jeff and I were talking about that were unique, that I haven't seen very much of at all, in all the keynotes that we go to. One, you started off with an explorer who had a very empowering, enlightening message, all about communication. And then, something that you did that I thought was really cool, that I don't think I've ever seen, is you actually, during your keynote, went into the audience, where you have about 2000 customers here, representing 1100 companies, across 20 countries, and just ad-libbed, hey guys, tell me about your company, how is Smartsheet empowering you, and as you said, that was all natural. >> I think part of it making it real for somebody, is giving you somebody that's relatable. So, we started off the conversation, as you said, with Ed Viesturs, arguably the most famous accomplished climber in the world, today, and he talked about the importance of communication and preparation, and teamwork, and clear decision making, in a context that was spectacularly visual, right, this mountain and those climbing shots, so, people relate to that, and then when you introduces those conducts in the business setting, it's like, oh, yeah, this applies to me, it applies to all of us. So, the notion of getting into the crowd, in a non-rehearsed way, is to really get people comfortable with, hey, I can share something, I can share an experience, and there's no one right answer, it's my experience. >> And that's why you're here, as you said in your keynote, and we know this as well, if companies aren't designing technology for the users, what's the point? >> Yeah, you're right and, one of the things I tried to highlight was, when you say for the user, it's not just for the user, the end user, like developed by a few people, spread to everybody, but it's empowering each and every person to say, hey I want to do something more transformational. I want to manage, automate, scale it, I don't want to be given that solution by someone, I want to do it. And there are hundreds of millions of people, who have the appetite and the interest, and the need for it. So, that's what we're trying to sell into. >> You know, Mark, we got to, so many shows, right, and everyone's chasing innovation. How do we get more innovative? Especially big companies, right? And you did show two really interesting messages, one, was your kind of core message, empowering everyone to improve, how they work, so, like you said, not just the top level decision makers, not down in the developer weave, but everybody up and down this stack. And then you shared a statement covey quote, really talking about how do people, keep 'em engaged and the way people are engaged is that they feel they're empowered to do something for their clients and their customers. So it's such an importannt piece and I think it's easy to talk about, harder to execute, but what is the answer to innovation? Giving more people the data, the tools and the power to take all that and do something for their customers, and thereby unlock all this tremendous value that you already have in your four doors. >> Absolutely, and I think the point of unlocking, so we have, you have 100% of your workforce. If you empower only 4.3% of them, for instance, the developers in your group, you're leaving so much opportunity on the table. And again, you don't get that unlock or that innovative spirit by just using something. You have to live with it, you have to work with it, you have to wrestle with it, And through that, innovation occurs. Ideas get generated. So, if you can get that ideation happening at the midpoint of your company, not the top 5%, huge opportunity. >> I think you were even quoted in the press release, maybe around the IPO that happened a few months ago, congratulations, >> Thank you. >> In saying that, maybe naysayers in the beginning, when you were a company of six, as you were talking about in your keynote, people thought, you're going to build this on a spreadsheet construct? And you said, but four hundred to five hundred million people know that construct. >> Right, right So you're going into an audience if knowledge workers, of which there's a massive percentage, designing something for lines of business, IT, finance, marketing, sales, who actually need to work with that, we're not talking about API's and developer and code speak, you're building this for a very large percentage of the population. >> We are, and I think when we talk about serving a large population, it's tempting to say, well, they can't handle much, let's go with the most common denominator. Let's give them something super, super simple. The problem is, with simple, you don't always get value. So how do you combine relevance and comfort and understanding, with capability. And the product's changed a lot since the early days, it's no longer just a grid, we have dashboards, we have forms, we have card view, we have all these elements that are now being brought forward, but one thing that we've always respected from the beginning is, don't throw away what somebody understands, and is comfortable with. That doesn't necessarily mean that it's the best, but they know it. And people are very nervous about just jettisoning the things they know, so like, embrace it. And then, what we had talked about earlier, was, how do you really listen to that customer's signal, and say okay, I'm comfortable, I like this, but I want more. And that ability to respond to that request, I think has really helped define who Smartsheet is today. You know, 12 years later. >> The other piece you talked on is kind of sideways off of that, is people have systems already in place, they have tools that they use every day. Right, there's this competition for the top layer of the desktop, but the reality is that we have many, many applications that we have to interact with every day. You guys are really taking a coopation approach with all these existing, >> Absolutely >> where it fits, where it's working, to your point, they're already using it and make it work. Integrate with. Don't try to rip and replace all these other systems that're in there. >> Yeah, and I think, you know you come across so many people in life, who want everything. I need total, complete, presence. And you're really discounting what people appreciate. And I think when you take the view of, I'm going to listen to my client, I'm going to listen to what they love and understand, and I'm going to let them articulate how they want it to work, we are in a very diverse, multi-app world today. If you actually march in somewhere and say, yeah all those decisions you made, those were the wrong decisions, you should trust me on everything, you'll be walked out of the building in about 4.2 seconds. So, we're really living that philosophy, and I think in great partnerships with Google, Microsoft and Slack, and Tableau, and others, we're actually able to demonstrate that. >> Yeah, and then to take it from the concept to reality, a great demo, I'm sure you didn't have this planned a couple of weeks ago, was, you talked about the state of North Carolina, and the preparation and the response to Hurricane Florence, and that they were very quickly able to build a super informative dashboard, to let everybody know who needed to know, what they needed to know. >> Correct. >> And how long did that take to put together? Amazing. >> That was under 24 hours. >> 24 hours? >> And the difference here is the difference between building or developing something, and configuring something. So, the difference there is when you actually build something from scratch, we have bare dirt, we need to put a foundation, we need to build a house, we need to shingle it, we need to insulate, that takes you a long time. So how about, we go to a house that exists, let's change the colors of the blinds, let's put in a certain sofa, let's furnish it. And the configuration element, versus construction, that gives people velocity. Now, what they also want is, they want to actually put their own texture to it, they want to make it their own, so the Department of Transportation dashboard that they produced for FEMA and the Coast Guard and the state governor's office, it didn't look like anybody else's dashboard. It was tailored, but it was so quick to build. And the great thing there was, so many people who accessed that site for information on on runway status and power and fuel, they could focus on the citizens as opposed to what the heck is going on, on the ground. >> Right. >> That provides a lot of purpose to our team, when we see our product used that way. >> You talked about speed just a minute ago, and speed, obviously, every enterprise of whatever size, needs to move and quite a bit quickly, to gain competitive advantage, to increase revenues, et cetera, you guys have some really very eye-catching statistics. That you're enabling customers to achieve. I read, enabling an average business leader to save 300 hours a year, 60,000 hours a year saved across on average organization. That's a big impact. How is speed a factor there? >> Yeah, I think speed I look at in a couple dimensions, One is, is it time saved, but there's also an element which is speed of experimentation So we go into an initiative, we say we have this amazing idea and we're going to have all these returns, we think. (chuckling) Well, not all the bets you place actually makes it. Or actually yields, so if you can empower a team to more quickly experiment, configure, try things, see what works and then double down behind those, if you can run five times as many plays as your competitor, you have five times as many chances to find that next winner. And so when we talk about speed, it's again, velocity of decision making, saving time, but also, organizationally, how can you unlock those possibilities? >> Part of that also is enabling cultural change. Which is not easy, it's essential for digital transformation, we talk about that at every event, and it's true, but how do you put that in action? You and I were chatting off camera about one of your customers that is an 125 year old oil and gas company. How do you enable them to kind of absorb and digest a culture of experimentation so that they can really move their business forward as quickly as they need to? >> Well, I think there's a great quote that one of my mentors early gave me. And it was, "All hat, no cattle." And the "All hat, no cattle" refers to the person who talks about how big their ranch is and how big their... Where's your herd? So you can talk a lot, but you have to demonstrate it. So when they go in, and there was another gentleman who talked about this idea of transforming their implementations across 300 project managers, and the quote was, we're going to get you up and running in two to three weeks, and he goes, "Never. No chance." Now, he ended up working with us, and we proved it to him and when you get a win like that, and you can demonstrate speed and impact, those things carry a lot of weight in organizations, but you have to show evidence. And when you talk about why we're landing and expanding in some of the world's largest brands, it's not because we're just talkin' a big game, it's because you're able to demonstrate those wins, and those lead to further growth. >> Right. And then you topped it off with a bit about the catalysts. But even more, I liked the concept of the point guard. Good point guards make everybody else on the team better. They do a little bit on their own, they hit a couple key shots, but they make everybody else better. And you're seeing that in terms of the expansion, and just in the way your go to market is, you don't come in usually as a big enterprise sale, I don't think, you come in small, you come in a group level, and then let the catalyst let those point guards, built successful in their own team, and then branch it out to a broader audience. >> Yeah, and I'm a big believer, and I don't think people can be classified into catalysts and non-catalysts. That's a very sort of blunt force approach. I view it as, you've catalysts, you've catalysts that haven't been unlocked, and then you have people that aren't catalysts. But very often that point guard, is going to activate the power forward, the center and holy smokes, where did that come from? And what we see is, when we see this growth happening in companies, those players around that point guard, get lit, get sparked, and once they're sparked, it's on. And then we see that growth happen for a long, long time. >> We saw some of that quotes, quotes >> We did. (all speaking at once) >> Queen of the world? >> Queen of the world. That's a big statement. >> That's empowerment, right there. >> It is empowerment. >> And the one where, I tweeted this, one of the quotes, I won't share this product name, but it can actually seem smart, she can help reduce work place anxiety. >> Anxiety! >> Which everybody needs. So, it's been six months since the IPO, you have doubled your attendance in your second year only, at Engage, up here in Bellevue, Washington, What are some of the exciting things that you anounced this morning, that have been fueled by the momentum of the IPO has as I imagine, ignited? >> Yeah, couple big things, is we, at every tech conference, you're going to hear about new capabilities. Here are the new bells and whistles and features and capabilities we have. But what we're hearing from customers, they also want us to frame those capabilites and things that are consumable. So, not everybody wants to configure or build as we talked about earlier today, they say I have a need, it's specific to this area, and do you have something for me. More turnkey, like that gentleman I said, two to three weeks to turn and sold him my implementation team. So those are being referred to as accelerators. So we announced a few new accelerators today in the sales realm, in terms of being able to better manage engagement plans with prospects and clients and on sophisticated deals it's a very common thing. And the other piece that I think is really important is, not just talking about business users, which is a huge focus for us, but also how do we better support IT and their needs to regulate, control, have visibility and to how Smartsheet is used. So, those were a couple of highlights, and then the ability to give people more controls over how they share their data. There've been some issues in the news recently, where people have shared too broadly, they've said that's the issue, so we're hearing from our customers, give us some more fine gated controls and confidence over how our corporate information is shared with others. Well, Mark Mader, I wish we had more time, but we thank you so much for stopping by theCUBE, and chatting with Jeff and me. >> Great to see you. >> Great momentum, we look forward to a number of your execs and customers and analysts on the program tonight. >> Great, thank you. >> Thank you, good to see you. >> Thanks, Mark, good to see you again. >> We just want to thank you for watching theCUBE, I'm Lisa Martin with Jeff Frick live from Smartsheet Engage 2018. Stick around, Jeff and I will be right back with our next guest. (techno music)