RevOps Co-op's RevOpsAF 2025 U.S. conference was held in New Orleans, Louisiana in May, as one of the only RevOps conferences created by RevOps professionals for the RevOps community.
Sessions in this post:
There will be another post with the remaining sessions I attended coming soon.
I also wrote about the 2024 conference sessions in three blogs that start here.
The 2025 US RevOpsAF conference sessions kicked off on Wednesday, May 7, with opening remarks from Matthew Volm, CEO and Founder of RevOps Co-op.
Matt thanked Tessa Whittaker, VP of RevOps at ZoomInfo, for sponsoring the amazing gospel choir at our breakfast. And thanked the awesome crew at RevOps Co-op for all their hard work putting on this event. đ
He began by asking: Why are you here?
To learn?
To get hired?
To hire someone?
To karaoke? đ¶
Through the power of community, people who attended last yearâs conference were hired, promoted to VP roles, built integrations with companies they met last yearâŠ
Why does it matter?
Because RevOps is the most important job at every company on the face of the planet.
Because:
A bit of history and context:
In 2007, the first blips of RevOps were mentioned on LinkedIn. The rise of AI correlates with the rise of RevOps (Matt joked that we made it 8 minutes into the conference without saying AI). People, process, tech, and data are important for RevOps, and AI can be positioned as the center of those subjects.
Things get tricky: Why RevOps can be difficult:
The RevOps Co-op community provides a great starting point to help wth education, but now there is a RevOps certification based on Stephen Diorio's book, Revenue Operations, which provides a comprehensive foundation about the 35 gears in the company that RevOps touches and turns. Many people in a company focus on their own gears only, but RevOps needs to talk to and educate these departments about the other gears. Stephenâs been doing this for 40 years, teaching it at work and teaching it as an MBA class in the future.
RevOps needs to understand the math of finance and growth.
And communicate the value of RevOps to the C-suite.
Thank you, Matt!
See this LinkedIn post and comments here.
Ryan Westwood, CEO at Fullcast, gave the opening keynote at RevOpsAF 2025 about âWhy RevOps is the Power Seat at the Table.â Ryan introduced himself and explained he has exited 3 companies, one of which he grew from $0-$400 million.
Growth is everyone's obsession, he said.
He was able to take one and a half years off to think. He realized what he cared about most was not the money, but the phone calls from people about the things that impacted their lives. The people you build the business with are the reward.
Be critical and choosy about the people you work with. Make sure they bring out the best in you, and you'll get the reward. Focus on the people.
When you are interviewing at a new company, ask the right questions to determine if these are the people you want to spend time with. The questions rarely asked are the ones that dictate the culture. We spend an embarrassing number of hours at work. You should spend the same amount of time and consideration choosing the people you work with as choosing a partner in life.
Ryan gave a Vin Diesel quote: âWhether you win by an inch or a mile, a win is a win.â
He has been winning in inches. The last 1% of work is where many other people give up, and that is where the money is made.
Every company is focused on:
And the challenge is doing both at the same time.
If you speak to the CEO, use the context of these two above items to speak their language to explain RevOps priorities.
Growth without efficiency is chaos.
Efficiency without growth is stagnation.
Do you understand the budget of the company in totality?
Lots of cash burn means you need growth.
Lots of EBITDA (Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation, and Amortization) means efficiency is more important.
Compare last year to this year's numbers for the two above topics to see what needs to be done.
And what if a leader has a bonus related to a specific topic or metric? What do you need to do, and what do they care about from RevOps?
Understand how the budget is operating.
By looking at financial statements in this way, you can also gain an understanding of the competition. Are they in a spending era or not? Are their active investors looking for higher margins that give leadership job security?
People are skeptical of data, so make sure it is credible data so that they trust you.
RevOps is not siloed, and it owns data, so it is in the best position to be strategic outside of the CEO⊠unless you don't play your cards right, if you are a glorified admin and take orders from the CRO.
Create camaraderie with the C-suite. Explain that you understand the full go-to-market motion. Put yourself on the same playing level by saying âI see what you see.â
When trust in data equals trust in you, your influence skyrockets.
He told a story about how a lead got an auto response that said, âSorry, you're not big enough to be a customer,â which was wrong, and RevOps fixed it. Someone in the company had said that fewer than 50 users was not ideal, then someone else at the company mixed it up and thought that was 50 employees as the target market.
Lesson: If you notice communication that is in conflict with the brand, call it out. Let the C-suite know that brand and reputation are important to you.
Most board members are also investors. Investors need money. If you have $25,000 as a bonus, give it to a VC (venture capital investor) as a limited partner so you're becoming an investor of the investor of your company that you work for â this is the ultimate chess move.
You will get introductions from the VC, which will accelerate your career because if you're a CEO, you take those VC recommendations.
You can get to operating partner, interim exec, be an advisor, or join a board.
Note: don't always put your advisories at the top of your LinkedIn â that sends a bad signal to your current CEO of your company that you are distracted. Wait until the advisory is over.
Raising money every 18 months is no longer realistic. There is more time between VC investment rounds, with an average of over 2 years. Lots of equity is eaten in the early stage now, and there is more ownership dilution. Know your numbers for your amount of equity. The most strategic founders and RevOps leaders preserve leverage at every stage.
Only ~50% of startups make it from Seed stage to Series A, even in boom years.
Know that the different stages of a company require different amounts of time spent advising. A seed stage founder may call an advisor 50 times a week, so you might want to look for Stage A and beyond, and set boundaries on your time, as well as looking at the probability of exits, such as repeat founders and product market fit.
RevOps leaders have a front-row seat to the metrics that matter.
You can help founders see clearly when it's time to pivot, change direction, or even step away.
See the LinkedIn post and comments for this session here.
The RevOpsAF panel, Why You Need to Pay More Attention to MOPs (Marketing Operations) Today, featured Camela Thompson, Natalie Furness, Nic Zangre, and Todd Sprinkel.
The disconnect:
80% of sales happen through digital channels (no salesperson)
But 54% of execs say their primary focus is improving salesperson productivity
Key concerns:
Nic said tooling and philosophies have to change to keep teams aligned. You need data warehouses, and reporting can no longer be done in a CRM.
Natalie said many clients have ops teams siloed, causing challenges. A shared data platform and shared ops work well, but the challenge is getting stakeholders to invest in that infrastructure.
Todd talked about learning marketing automation platforms at the beginning of his career, but the scope of work in marketing ops has broadened to own more of the customer journey.
Nic: Getting âAI readyâ requires a holistic data strategy to train it. And Salesforce is no longer the source of truth.
Natalie: You canât be an expert in everything, so know there are other people you can learn from in a company to go-to-market together.
Todd thinks saying the MQL (marketing qualified lead) is dead is wrong. MQL as a goal is dead; it should only be a signal to make sense of whatâs happening.
How do you manage leadership expectations of using AI in MOps?
Camela said do not choose the hardest problem to solve first (cold outbound). Start small, like using AI to standardize industry fields.
Natalie said she has a hierarchy of AI needs. You need to go through or progress through all the levels in order and canât just skip to the last stage.
See the LinkedIn post and comments for this session here.
Jeff Ignacio presented âHow to Learn RevOpsâ at RevOpsAF 2025.
Jeff was working in Financial Planning and Analysis at Google, where he partnered closely with Global Sales Operations. Then he took a job at a startup and learned on the job, combining other disciplines and applying them to go-to-market work.
Many people in RevOps donât have this extensive tour of duty. When you start working at a company that has no info on what RevOps is about, itâs up to you to shape what RevOps is. It also means no onboarding, and you have to figure it out.
PEAS: process, enablement, advisory, systems
Process defines the standardized workflows that align marketing, sales, and customer success to drive consistent revenue outcomes.
Enablement equips teams with holistic programs of tools, training, and content to effectively engage prospects, close deals & more. Not just Slack updates and Gong call listening.
Advisory involves analyzing data & trends to provide strategic insights that guide decision-making across the revenue engine.
Systems encompass the tech stack and data infrastructure that support revenue-generating activities.
You need all 4 PEAS in concert for success, and itâs never a well-oiled machine at the start.
For leaders, the acronym changes to LEAPS:
Add an L for leadership: communication, proactive development of what the business needs, and work back from there.
See the LinkedIn post and comments for this session here.
Jacki Leahy of Activate the Magic presented âHow to Sell the Value of RevOpsâ at RevOpsAF 2025, starting with an official RevOps anthem of âWe Didnât Start the Fire.â
This session gave frameworks and templates to speak the language of the C-Suite and secure approvals with confidence, since our work isnât a budget line item, changed at the pleasure of whoever is in charge.
Why youâre here, as stewards and caretakers of the revenue engine:
Use this framework to catch the rest of the company up to your brilliance, as someone who is often several steps ahead and sees patterns before others, following bread crumbs.
Whatâs the most expensive thing holding the system back?
Observe and Analyze
Use the Winning By Design Bowtie model and Theory of Constraints to uncover the most expensive friction point.
Pick one.
Strategically ignore the rest.
Yes, even if it's a dumpster fire.
Thank you to Jacki for giving the audience these adorable dumpster fire emoji pins!
Strategic means deciding what to focus on and what NOT to focus on. Strategically let things burn. Youâre not here to fix everything. Youâre here to fix the RIGHT things. Distinguish Initiatives (strategic, handled one at a time) from Ad-Hoc requests (unblock and support those within reason).
Mindset shift: You are not reactive ops, you are strategic infrastructure for revenue, so focus = ROI.
Action: Block time weekly for recurring firewatch (ad-hoc request triage time), and for deep work on ONE of your initiatives.
Socialize what youâve noticed.
Do others agree THIS is important?
Use the scientific method (observe, analyze, deduce, hypothesize) to generate buy-in and alignment for your initiativeâs hypothesis. Before you prescribe, observe. Act like a scientist, not a firefighter. Validate the constraint with qualitative and quantitative data.
Action: Do ride-alongs with those team members completing the process, 15-minute interviews, live mapping sessions, and questionnaires about friction and waste to see patterns.
This confirms the constraint is real, builds trust early through active listening, and starts to socialize the future initiative.
Design a solution that fixes the key constraint.
Crunch the numbers.
Calculate the cold, hard cash ROI of your initiative to make it a âno-duhâ investment, even for the CFO.
Jacki shared a calculator and examples.
Bring your hypothesis to leadership.
Convey impact with numbers.
Show your work.
Strategically gain momentum across the company by emulating an enterprise sales master.
Jacki shared a stakeholder account plan and templates.
Next steps: Block time on your calendar now for your deep focus initiative work
See the LinkedIn post and comments for this session here.
Cliff Simon presented âHow to Build a Stage-Appropriate RevOps Teamâ at RevOpsAF 2025.
Itâs hard to be a strategic leader and also get the day-to-day work done.
Itâs also very hard to find and retain talent.
Most companies scale RevOps reactivelyâŠwhen itâs already too late.
Instead, companies should invest in RevOps early and often for efficient, durable growth.
Two scenarios you want to avoid:
He schedules 34-38 hours of hands-on keyboard time to leave time for meetings.
Youâd rather have 3 years of a team memberâs A- game than 3 months of an A+ game, then they burnout and leave.
Too often, companies underinvest in RevOps.
Tip: Share success stories from other companies (âCompany X scaled wrong and had to rip out their CPQ mid-year. It cost them $300K.â)
As you grow to $1B, you combine to centralized RevOps, then when the team is larger, you break out into business units since it is unwieldy to have a RevOps team that size.
It doesnât matter who owns ops; what matters is that the leader CARES about ops.
See the LinkedIn post and comments for this session here.
Read more recaps from RevOpsAF 2025 in a Part 2 blog soon!