Building the network I wish I had
Why senior Solutions leaders need a private arena to pressure test innovation
I’ve spent the last decade at ServiceNow watching us grow from $800 million to over $12 billion in revenue.
When you operate at that level of scale, leading a global organization of 2,500 people, the air can get pretty thin. You become the person Sales and Product turn to for the answers. You spend your life helping everyone else navigate their challenges and ensure the engine keeps running.
But eventually, you start to look around and realize and ask yourself: where’s my support system?
I’ve been in this industry for 25 years. I’ve seen every shift from the birth of virtualization to the current AI mandate. But even with that tenure, there is no manual for what we are facing right now.
When James was building the PreSales Collective, I was an early supporter because I care deeply about this profession. But I was also honest with him: it wasn’t built for people in my position to get real value.
Most spaces are designed for practitioners. But for those of us navigating the technical and organizational weight of global scale, we need something different. We don’t need more general networking; we need a private arena to pressure test new innovation and surface the best practices that actually move the needle at the enterprise level.
James and I have been talking about this gap for years. How can we build a network for people like me? How can get these Solution execs in a room together to talk strategy and hash out real ideas? We didn’t want to build another general forum. We wanted to create an exclusive network where peers can move past the fluff and get into the meat of how these changes actually come to life in a global organization.
We are in the middle of the most significant shift in GTM strategy in a generation. Whether we are discussing the decentralization of the Solutions function or the rise of Forward Deployed Engineering, these are massive organizational challenges that no Solutions leader should have to navigate alone.
Ultimately, I’m building the resource I wish I had a decade ago. Back then, as I was first learning to navigate the complexities of global leadership, I didn’t have a private circle of peers who could help me see around corners. SolutionExec is my way of ensuring those of us in the thick of it right now (and even the next generation of leaders) don’t have to figure it out in isolation.
If you’re interested in being part of this, there are three ways to get involved.
Join the Network: Sign up at solutionexec.com to start receiving our executive content and get invited to our exclusive events.
The Roadmap: Register for our Virtual Kickoff on March 4. James and I will be breaking down our 2026 programming and talking to some top voices in the space like Alok Agrawal at Rubrik, Leah McTiernan at Docusign and Channing Ferrer at Brevo.
Follow along: Listen to the podcast to hear James and I dig into what’s top of mind for me and how I’m approaching things in my role at ServiceNow.
Looking forward to building this with you.
Jeff Margolese