CS Connect

Customer Success leaders deserve better. And I'm fixing that with CS Connect Two years ago, I decided to take the leap. No safety net. No guarantees. Just a scrappy little idea: CS Connect. 🎢 The goal? To go from a small meetup group to a thriving Customer Success community in Europe. Sounds bold, right? It was. And let me tell you—it’s been WILD. 🤪 Some days felt like climbing Everest without oxygen. Other days? Like hitting a jackpot in Vegas. 🎰 🎢 Here’s the reality of the last two years: 💡 We experimented with several formats —virtual, in-person, hybrid, you name it. 📣 We talked to CS leaders, future CS leaders, and even the skeptics to validate our mission. 🎯 We refined what we stand for: Nurturing the next generation of CS leaders. By providing: 1️⃣ Practical tools. 2️⃣ A community that actually cares. 3️⃣ Mentorship from real-deal leaders (not LinkedIn influencers with “opinions”). Because let’s face it: 👉 CS leadership has been lonely AF for too long. 👉 Leaders stuck in silos, reinventing the same broken wheel, and Googling their way through problems they shouldn’t face alone. 👊 Leadership doesn’t have to feel like this. And that’s the point of CS Connect: A community built by CS leaders, for CS leaders. Who's with me on this journey Bayron Toruño Solano Anastasiia Romasiuk Alexandra Sagaydak Anastasiia Tatsenko   Katrina Kugelmeier   Laura Kightlinger Ragna Ghoreishi Markus Leitlein Jennifer Peters Laura Geuens Tarek Slimani Leoš Gerlich Sara Arecco Delia Visan, 🚨 Now, I’m not spilling all the beans just yet. 🚨 50+ CS leaders have already joined our waitlist. 𝗧𝗵𝗲𝘆’𝗿𝗲 𝘀𝗮𝘆𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗬𝗘𝗦 𝘁𝗼 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝗻𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻, 𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗼𝗿𝘀𝗵𝗶𝗽, 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝘀𝗼𝗹𝘂𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗱𝗼𝗻’𝘁 𝘀𝘂𝗰𝗸. Wanna join us? Go check out www.joincsconnect.com 🔥 and get on the waitlist - https://lnkd.in/es5X--jb Your move. 🚀 What’s stopping you from getting the community and support you deserve? Super duper special credits to my amazing wife Lotte Damen-Karkera for building the website from the brand book that Lisa Lapon made for CS Connect. 🥂 Cheers to unapologetic growth. #customersuccess #csm #community

No one gives first-time CS leaders a playbook. We just get the pressure. Its a wrap for CS Dojo #1 ✅ I thought the first CS Dojo would be… chill. Maybe a couple of good questions. Some light discussions. A few frameworks. I was wrong. In less than 2 days, 20 seats were gone. 95% showed up. And within 5 minutes, it felt like we’d lit a fire. 🔥 Real challenges. 🧠 Tactical knowledge bombs. 💬 Vulnerable, honest conversations. We had 2 seasoned experts. 1 brave CS leader in the hot seat. And one question everyone wanted answered: “How the hell do I scale and lead a CS team… when no one ever taught me how?” Here’s what I learned: First-time CS leaders are hungry for real support. Not another generic “leadership workshop.” They want practical tools, not theory. Community, not confusion. Clarity, not chaos. Here’s what we gave them (and what you can steal too): ↪ Know your ICP inside-out → stop guessing, make your own. start solving. ↪ Understand your financial impact → because CS is a revenue engine. ↪ Apply the 80/20 rule ruthlessly → stop doing everything. ↪ Build your CS org like a product → test, iterate, scale. ↪ Push back with data → not opinions. If you’re a first-time CS lead feeling overwhelmed, let me say this: It’s not that you’re bad at your job. You were just never given the manual. That’s why we created CS Dojo. A space to learn what actually works. With people who’ve been there. No fluff. No faking it. Thank you for making the first session a hit Prateep Bandharangshi Christina Streitberger Jonathan Orschiedt Cosmea de Vriend Achraf Maouloudi Myrthe Groothuis Brooke Serguson Alina Elena Toma Celia López Díaz Martina Kircheis Roxana Cucolas Yoram Hendriks Lieve De Herdt Mélody Grelat Laura Gorlero Lara Baeckers Ana Negara David Stip Ewelina Special thanks to our experts: Denny Burda and Kostadin Lilov 👉 DM me “DOJO” for early access to session #2. Seats will be limited again - 20. P.S. What’s one challenge you wish someone had warned you about before stepping into leadership? Let’s help the next wave of CS leaders by dropping it in the comments 👇 #csm #leadership  

👏 This was so much fun!!! Thank you CS Connect and especially Markus and Bayron for organizing! 😍 I met a bunch of wonderful people and had great exchanges! Thank you for joining us Jennifer, Bojan, Jörg, Manleen, Fabian, Silvan, Stephan, Ian, Jennifer, Sven, Annika, Nora, Sofia Thank you #SoSafe for hosting and sponsoring us! Loved the questions guys! Especially Bojan and Ian kept me on my toes 🥰

Most first-time CS leaders don’t fail because they’re bad leaders. They fail because they’re set up to fail. First-time CS leaders get thrown into the deep end—no playbook, no guardrails, just expectations. 🔥 You’re suddenly managing a team, but no one tells you how. 🔥 You’re a solo CS leader, building from scratch, with zero direction. 🔥 You’re a first-time Head of CS, expected to "own the number" with no roadmap. And somehow, you're supposed to work miracles. The reality? Most new leaders get crushed by both sides. Pressure from the top. Demands from the team. And a whole lot of “figure it out” moments. I’ve been there. I’ve coached others through it. And I know it doesn’t have to be this way. So we at CS Connect are launching something new: ✅ A monthly training session for first-time CS leaders—whether you’re leading a team, a function, or an entire CS org solo. 🚀 Small group. 20 seats max. 🚀 First session in 2 weeks. 4 seats already booked. 🚀 If you're in, grab your spot before they fill up. Our industry experts for this session: Denny Burda CCO River Consultancy Group LTD Kostadin Lilov Head of Customer Success | Lokalise Don't let your leadership role kill you Sign up here: https://lu.ma/ws0n9eh9 and learn how to thrive in it instead. Learn. Leap. Lead. Who else thinks CS leadership should have a real playbook? ------------------------------------------------- #csm #customersuccess #dearcsm #leadership 📆 Upcoming CS Connect events: https://lnkd.in/dFUhe9as