RevGenius Member Spotlight: Jeff Igancio

Jeff is a powerhouse in the RevOps space. His intelligence, wit, and candor make him such a presence to be around. Mix that with his humility and you have such a dynamic individual to be around.

Whether it’s writing for the Mag, supporting the #rev-ops community, or offering his time to the LA chapter, Jeff has given his all to RevGenius. We have the utmost gratitude to him and his efforts to help bolster the ops community within RG.

Below is our interview with Jeff Ignacio:

Introduce yourself to our audience. Tell us who you are and what you are currently focused on.

Well hello there! My name is Jeff Ignacio and I am currently the Head of Revenue Operations at a great startup in Los Angeles called UpKeep.

Prior to joining this amazing company I’ve had a number of different career lifetimes. You could say that I have had an “I” shaped career where I worked as a generalist, then a specialist, and now back to a generalist role. In order, I worked at Accenture as a technology consultant, then in sales for a few years, took time away to get my MBA at the University of Michigan, worked in FP&A at Intel and Google. For the last 7 years, I’ve dedicated myself to working in Go-To-Market/Sales/Revenue Operations.

I have a real passion for building businesses by helping them turn the “scalability corner”. At UpKeep I’m dedicated to helping us become the #1 maintenance management software in the market. I lead a team that covers Marketing Operations, Sales Operations, and Sales Enablement.

It’s a challenge I truly relish. Every day is a new day.

What 3 words come to mind when you think of RevOps?

So many words come to mind. RevOps is like a Rorschach test sometimes. Everyone seems something different. Here we go:

Focus. Alignment. Simplicity. Teamwork (sorry I added a fourth!)

How did your journey lead you to RevOps?

For those who follow me on LinkedIn I think my journey has been told many times but it’s humbling to recall where I came from. I “fell into the craft” like many of my peers. Perhaps I was destined to help GTM leaders find pathways to growth.

I worked in sales twice. I absolutely bombed and failed the first time around. In fact, to pay the bills I learned how to build websites and install/configure open source software for non-profits and SMBs. Who knew that years later that technical aptitude would come in handy.

Then I worked in finance supporting Sales for Google. I specialized in a few key areas that I still apply daily today. Namely: quotas, incentive design, headcount planning, unit economic analysis, budget and planning, and market analysis.

Shortly after I realized I truly enjoyed partnering with my Sales Ops counterparts at Google. They seemed to have the pulse of the business more than I did on the finance team. I craved the opportunity to see what was happening at the frontiers of our business. So I made the leap into Sales Operations.

Typically when you leave a job you spin along one or two axes. The more axes you spin on the longer the ramp time. Those three axes are level, function, and industry. In my case, I changed levels into a “director” role in a new function (“sales operations”). At startups, it’s often found that as a “director” you’re really a Team of One.

What’s your prediction for the future of RevOps?

The term Sales and Marketing Operations are still very much making their way through most industries. Revenue Operations should be more than just a veneer of these well-worn treads. At its best, Revenue Operations is an exercise in alignment across all of the GTM functions. Marketing Ops (MOPs) came in to marry the business acumen and technical expertise required for the contemporary marketing department. Sames goes for the Sales organization with its Sales Ops (SOPs) partners.

If you think about the evolution of the new technologies in both the Sales and Marketing space it’s no wonder that IT and Business Systems groups sighed a huge relief when companies could bring on Operators who also had administrative abilities.

But Revenue Operations, RevOps, is an entirely different beast altogether. Instead, it’s a function that brings marketing, sales, and post-sales leaders together. The very best outcome of bringing these leaders together is to create a unified vision, strategy, and executable roadmap with everyone marching to one beat.

The coming years will showcase a few changes in the RevOps landscape such as:

• Tech stack designed for the “RevOps” function instead of bootstrapped connectors between departments
• Metrics designed to hold RevOps and Chief Revenue Officers accountable beyond topline achievement
• RevOps ranks filled with more talent coming from customer-facing roles and from strategic consulting firms. RevOps should be true business partners as opposed to tactical executors.

What gets you out of bed every morning?

Aside from my caffeine addiction, I love the challenge of making it easier for prospects and customers alike to access anyone at my company that can help them.

At the end of the day, if RevOps is doing its job well then our Go To Market capabilities should be second to none among our peers. I also love building teams and helping them to reach their own personal goals.

That’s what gets me up in the morning. It also keeps me up at night.

What would you say your personal superpower is?

Personally, it’s the ability to be a universal translator. As a Gemini, I’ve always been able to straddle multiple audiences speaking as a polyglot. In one meeting I’m sitting with our executive team going over business strategy and in the next session I’m chopping it up with an audience discussing technical project management. RevOps is never boring.

What made you dive headfirst into the RevGenius community?

Everyone wants to belong to something.

RevGenius is an incredible platform connecting multiple flavors of go-to-market professionals together. Also, your success is directly correlated with the effort you put in. I’m here to help others. I’m here to continue growing myself.

Why should other RevOps professionals join RevGenius?

Aside from being one of the fastest-growing groups out there, it’s also one of the most diverse. If you’re in RevOps and you come from a technical route, it wouldn’t hurt to sit down with those with different backgrounds from yourself. I often find myself reading sales books or marketing books to get inside the heads of my stakeholders. Better yet, why not just talk shop with RevGenius community members.

In fact, I think the industry is still stuck with a glass ceiling for those in RevOps.

There are very few VP of RevOps roles out there and there are (I think) zero Chief Revenue Ops Officers out there. In fact, many companies stop just short of Senior Director. Companies would do well to recognize the value of an executive-level talent in an Operations role. I’m working personally to growing the space in its own right. Celebrating and recruiting talented people who would make wonderful RevOps peers.