1. Showpad & Ghent:
a powerful combo
Hendrik Isebaert - VP Sales
Hendrik@showpad.com
1/28/2019
Stanford University, European Entrepreneurship & Innovation at Stanford Engineering School

2. Intro to Showpad
and our vision

3. Sales enablement as a category
Very high growth and some strong, well financed contenders
Integrations
• Sales enablement is most commonly seen under
“Sales Tech”
• It does however act as a bridge between
marketing and sales with MKT often being
economic buyer
• Currently, Forrester states that 54% of B2B
companies have or are implementing SE with
19% more planning on it in the next 18m
• Consolidation has started to intensify in 2018
and expected to continue into 2019
• In 2018, top 3 players raised roughly $200M

4. “89% of consumers make buying decisions based on
experience, ahead of price and product”
Forrester, 2017

5. “The majority of B2B buyers choose a vendor
based on the buying experience”
CEB, 2018

6. The best buyer
experience wins

7. How do you deliver this?
Best buying
experience
Capable of engaging
with the modern buyer
Sales
Having smart,
informed sales reps
Buyers

8. Sales Enablement for the Modern Seller
The All-in-One Sales Enablement Platform
Engagement
Training and
Coaching
Content
Data | Analytics | AI
Integrations

9. Marketing engagement
System of record vs System of engagement
Marketing
Automation
Streamlining, automating, and
measuring marketing tasks and
workflows
Built for the marketer
CRM
● Managing and analyzing
customer relation data
● Ecosystem of applications
built around it: Forecasting,
CPQ, ....
Built for the manager
Sales Enablement
● Content: right content at the right time
● Training & coaching: skills & knowledge
● Engagement: Present, share & collaborate
● Closing: Closing a deal (Sign, CPQ,..)
Built for the seller
Sales engagement
System of Record
AI

10. Showpad is recognized as a leader by analysts
• Showpad and Seismic recognized
as leaders by Forrester Wave
• Main other contenders are
Highspot and to a lesser extent
Bigtincan
• Other companies are legacy
platforms with less growth and
innovation than Showpad
Forrester wave Q3 2018

11. How the Ghent
eco-system
propelled Showpad
to success

12. Role of Universities and Business Schools
• In Flanders, there are 4 major universities all
within 30-45 min drive from each other
• Networks hence extend across campuses
• E.g. Showpad:
• PJ = Leuven University
• Louis = Ghent University
• Vlerick Business School historically also a
breeding ground for entrepreneurs (campuses in
Brussels, Ghent, Leuven)

13. The Belgian Innovation Scene
• Mapping of key Belgian Innovation players
(their initiatives, investments and engagements)
• Yellow = company // Red = investment vehicle //
Blue = individuals // Green = institutes
• Visible concentration of influence, mainly
around individuals
• There is a magic “Top 8” to be discerned
who’ve founded, invested and contributed to
many of the innovation success
• Together, they have impacted at least 120
companies as a founder, CEO, investor or part of
the board.
https://medium.com/@eforcat/the-netlog-innovation-mafia-ae6bb70d9fc6

14. Netlog as a source of Ghent’s success
• Netlog was founded by Lorenz Bogaert and
Toon Coppens (both part of Magic Top 8)
• Today, the “Netlog Maffia” is a well known
concept in Belgium
• Most notable start-ups emerging from Netlog
are In The Pocket, Showpad, Twoo and
Xpenditure
• Pieterjan and Louis were both employed at
Netlog as respectively Head of Business
Development and Strategic Partnerships
Manager
https://medium.com/@eforcat/the-netlog-innovation-mafia-ae6bb70d9fc6

15. From colleagues to co-founders
https://medium.com/@eforcat/the-netlog-innovation-mafia-ae6bb70d9fc6
• Founded a digital product
studio in 2010
• Reacting to mobile revolution
• One customer asked to develop
a trade-show application
• Spun off from ITP in 2011
• Jeroen Lemaire continued
running ITP
• Showpad was born

16. Showpad’s early days

17. Showpad’s early days

18. Showpad’s early days

19. High Quality investors
• Series A (2M$) +
following rounds
• Deliveroo, Kraken,
Gramm, Engagor,
Amplidata, …
• Belgium based
• Series B (9M$) +
following rounds
• Bitmovin, Collibra, iZettle,
Mimecast, Templafy, …
• London Based
• Series C (50M$) +
following rounds
• Airwatch, Ali Baba,
Bynder, Cloudcraze,
Docusign, Twitter, ...
• NYC Based

20. The butterfly effect
https://medium.com/@eforcat/the-netlog-innovation-mafia-ae6bb70d9fc6

21. The Showpad
success story

22. Team of almost 400 employees
(Only 80 when I joined as an MBA intern 3.5 years ago…)

23. Ghent

24. Chicago

25. London

26. Munich

27. San Francisco

28. Learncore Acquisition (50M$)
Purpose-built platform for the
onboarding, coaching, and ongoing readiness
of all customer-facing teams.

29. An extract of some of our customer logos

30. Strong growth since 2011
Note: Conversion rate: $1.15 = €1

31. Balanced business between EMEA and US
Note: Conversion rate: $1.15 = €1

32. Always hiring
smart & ambitious
people! :-)
Hendrik Isebaert
Hendrik@showpad.com