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Doug Valente
Customer-focused Operations Leader | SaaS | Sales-aligned GTM Champion | Expert Builder and Operator | Mentor | Growth from Exceptional Customer Outcomes | Craft Coffee Roaster | Backgammon Nerd
Doug Valente is an experienced Customer Success executive currently serving as the Vice President of Customer Success at Glassbox, a position he has held since June 2022.1 With over 15 years of experience in shaping and leading customer success strategies, Valente is known for his results-driven approach and innovative leadership style.1
Professional Background
Current Role: As the Vice President of Customer Success at Glassbox, Valente is responsible for overseeing customer success initiatives on a global scale. He is based in the Greater Seattle Area.1
Previous Positions: Valente's career history includes several leadership roles in customer success and operations:
- Vice President of Customer Success at Accredible (June 2021 - November 2021)
- Vice President Customer Success at Tideworks Technology (February 2019 - February 2021)
- Co-founder, Chief Customer Officer and COO at EvengX (November 2014 - January 2019)
- Senior Director of Client Success at Dreambox (July 2012 - December 2014)
- Director of Customer Operations and Support at Valve Corporation (June 2004 - January 2012)1
Entrepreneurial Ventures
Alongside his corporate roles, Valente has demonstrated entrepreneurial spirit:
- CEO, Founder, and Chief Customer Officer of Valente Family Coffee (July 2015 - Present)
- CEO, Founder and VP of Customer Success at Sprocket Ventures (May 2003 - Present)1
Skills and Expertise
Valente's profile highlights his expertise in:
- Customer success strategies
- Business process improvements
- Operations management
- Start-up consulting
- Social media marketing
He has also shown interest in advanced technologies, having completed a course in "Advanced AI: Transformers for NLP using Large Language Models" from LinkedIn.1
Personal Notes
Doug Valente appears to be active on LinkedIn, sharing personal anecdotes and professional insights. He recently celebrated a birthday and has mentioned having inside jokes with his wife, indicating a balance between his professional and personal life.23
Highlights
I start my new gig in a few weeks and have taken a break from LinkedIn for the last few weeks. I will share more about the role I accepted after I officially start 😌.
This is a post of extreme gratitude. For anyone in my network struggling to land a new role, I recommend you check CareerSprout's Katie McIntyre and Gaurav Valani whose Job Seeker's Q&A sessions and excellent resources I stumbled across a few months back.
I was stuck. I was frustrated. I thought I was doing something wrong.
I was.
The first presentation I sat through started with a reminder of why mindset is so important. I remember Katie explaining the "Belief Equation". Something stirred in the back of my brain.
Then Gaurav dropped the Career Roadmap bomb: " What is the ONE role you want? How do you ensure that everyone you engage knows what that is?" (I'm simplifying and paraphrasing from my notes, so it's good that all their resources are free.)
F*ck. The first rule of hole digging: When you find yourself in a hole. Stop digging.
I immediately stopped applying for jobs. I took a full week to reflect on my career.
When was I happiest, most fulfilled, and most challenged? What would that role look like today? What industries and within those industries, which specific companies would I be most interested in joining?
For the first time in many months, I felt clarity. I used the guidance Katie and Gaurav provided to re-architect my job search. I focused on where I knew I could have the most impact.
I stopped interviewing with companies I couldn't see myself working at just for a job.
It was terrifying. I had more than a dozen companies, and I thanked them for their time and removed myself from their hiring process (side note: only one responded and was sorry they hadn't moved fast enough to keep me engaged...4 weeks waiting on next steps).
As someone who has a really hard time asking others for help, I did. I acted with intention. I reconnected with the people I knew from my startup days. I felt weird. Catching up with people I worked with for years in the early 2000s (or earlier) reminded us of what we were great at. I did an inventory of my long-term career skills and formulated a plan.
Within two weeks, I was introduced to someone who wanted to know if I could help them build something. The value proposition is profound. The role checked all my boxes. My partner checked all my boxes. The solution, company, and potential. Check, check, and check.
I am excited.
I am grateful to Katie and Gaurav and their approach. It may not work for everyone but it worked for me. Thank you.
(my friends will get the reference to the picture below).
Back where I began…full circle. More later…
