Doug Camplejohn
(00:00)
Hi everyone, this is Doug Camplejohn. Welcome to this week’s episode of Revenue Renegades. I’m very excited to welcome an old colleague and friend, Mike Gamson, to the show. Mike is the co-founder and managing partner of Permanent Capital Partners, and I had the distinct pleasure of working with Mike when he was running the wholesale show at LinkedIn. Welcome, Mike.
Mike
(00:22)
Thanks, man. I’m glad to be here and excited to reconnect in this way.
Doug Camplejohn
(00:26)
Likewise. Maybe just for the audience, give a little background about your current gig. Tell us about Permanent Capital Partners, the firm, and how you look at the world.
Mike
(00:37)
Absolutely. Permanent Capital Partners is a multi-strategy financial services company. I spend most of my time in Permanent Capital Ventures, which is a subsidiary of that, where I and six other partners execute an old-school Series A venture strategy. We focus on technical founders who have proven product-market fit by securing their first handful of customers.
We’re all operators turned investors and bring our operating experience—especially in go-to-market execution—to help founders achieve their full enterprise aspirations by taking great products and bringing them to as many customers as possible.
Doug Camplejohn
(01:20)
That’s awesome. How old is the firm?
Mike
(01:22)
We started about four years ago and really hit our momentum around two and a half years ago.
Doug Camplejohn
(01:29)
Fantastic. What kinds of companies do you focus on?
Mike
(01:35)
We focus on B2B companies, mainly enterprise, though we sometimes move into SMB and mid-market. We’re very much an applications-focused firm. Today that often means AI-native companies. But more broadly, we look for products that solve real business problems clearly and measurably—faster and cheaper than alternatives—so a rational buyer would choose them.
Doug Camplejohn
(02:09)
Got it. Your website is, by design, a little stealthy. Can you share examples of companies you’ve invested in?
Mike
(02:18)
Yes. We made an intentional decision to be more investing-focused and less content-focused. The firms we invest in usually have five to ten customers, sometimes tracking with around a million in ARR, but we aren’t dogmatic about that.
We’ve invested in companies like Compa and Lyric, which we’ve talked about publicly, as well as newer ones like Wisdom in dental revenue cycle management and Tidal Wave in mortgage tech.
Doug Camplejohn
(03:19)
Fantastic. So, for entrepreneurs who have achieved their first product-market fit and are looking for a Series A, you’re their guy. Let’s rewind the clock a bit. Jeff Weiner comes in after Reid Hoffman and talks with you about joining LinkedIn and moving to California.
Mike
(03:56)
Not exactly, but close. I grew up in Chicago and lived in San Francisco in the late 1990s, working at Advent Software as a product manager and marketer. I had great mentors there, including Steve Luzic and Dan Nye.
In 2006, I left Advent, moved back to Chicago, and started a small ad tech startup with college friends. Dan was my advisor. A few months in, he called and said, “I’m becoming CEO of a new company called LinkedIn—you should join me.” My wife was eight months pregnant, we’d just bought a house, and I wasn’t going anywhere.
Over the next few months, Dan convinced me to at least fly out to meet Reid Hoffman and the founding team. I met Reid—wildly compelling even then—and fell in love with LinkedIn’s potential. Dan hired me with a very open-ended job description: “Figure out something to do for money.”
At the time, LinkedIn wasn’t yet thriving. The consumer side worked; the enterprise side hadn’t started.
The site crashed regularly. When Dan’s CEO tenure ended, I was disappointed. Then Jeff Weiner joined. I expected to be fired—I was the old CEO’s guy and didn’t even live in California.
But Jeff’s first question to me in our meeting changed everything: “What kind of leader do you aspire to be?” I said, “An empathetic one.” He replied, “Why empathy and not compassion?” That conversation led to a two-hour discussion that changed my career.
Doug Camplejohn
(08:56)
Can you explain that compassion versus empathy distinction?
Mike
(09:01)
Sure. In the parable Jeff shared, a person lies in the road with a boulder on their chest. The empathetic passerby feels their pain so deeply that they’re overwhelmed and can’t help. The compassionate passerby understands the pain but stays grounded enough to act.
At work, we need compassion more than empathy. Empathy can paralyze; compassion empowers action. Leaders must understand others’ perspectives but stay composed enough to help effectively.
Doug Camplejohn
(10:22)
I love that parable. It really highlights Jeff’s influence on the culture.
Mike
(10:27)
Absolutely. That conversation changed my life. For the last twenty years, I’ve been working to practice compassion—and Jeff was a huge part of that growth.
Doug Camplejohn
(10:39)
He was an inspiration to me too. Set the stage for us—what was LinkedIn like when you joined? How big was it?
Mike
(10:54)
There were about 100 employees, mostly in product and engineering. The sales team had maybe six people selling individual subscriptions. My job was to find something else to do for money, which eventually became building out the B2B recruiter product line.
When we first pitched monetizing LinkedIn’s data, Reid stopped me: “How is that good for our free members?” That principle—putting members first—became foundational for everything that followed.
Doug Camplejohn
(14:14)
I remember that philosophy well—“members first, not members only.”
Mike
(14:28)
Exactly. That dynamic tension between serving members and building a business was critical to LinkedIn’s success. You can’t go too far toward either extreme.
Doug Camplejohn
(16:44)
Right. And breaking terms of service was always risky for startups trying to build on top of LinkedIn.
Mike
(16:23)
Don’t do it. It might look clever from the outside, but those companies always end up getting shut down, which is heartbreaking.
Doug Camplejohn
(17:19)
So around that time, what kind of revenue was LinkedIn doing?
Mike
(17:31)
Around $10 million—maybe $12 million. We had just reached breakeven.
Doug Camplejohn
(17:47)
You didn’t come in as a seasoned VP of Sales. How did you adapt?
Mike
(17:53)
Correct, I had no formal sales leadership experience. I had a product and marketing background. When Dan asked me to run the sales team, I hesitated because of my negative stereotypes about sales culture.
A mentor from Goldman Sachs gave me advice that stuck with me: “The opportunity of a lifetime must be acted upon within the lifetime of the opportunity.” That inspired me to jump in—and to build the kind of sales organization I’d want to work for.
I brought in mentors like Mike Stankey from Greylock, who guided me weekly on how to build a world-class sales function. One of my first hires was Brian Frank, who became my RevOps partner for the next decade.
Doug Camplejohn
(23:03)
What kind of culture did you want to create?
Mike
(23:11)
I wanted to redefine what sales meant. Most people don’t grow up aspiring to work in sales—it’s misunderstood. I wanted a team of intelligent, curious people who could sell because they loved solving problems, not because they lacked options.
We emphasized science over swagger: people who listened, asked questions, and helped the product sell itself.
We hired in cohorts of ten: four former recruiters, four SaaS sellers, and two “X factors”—elite performers from other fields. The blend created magic.
Doug Camplejohn
(28:45)
How did LinkedIn’s data advantage shape the sales process?
Mike
(29:15)
Data was the magic. Back then, recruiters depended on personal networks—their “black books.” LinkedIn instantly democratized access to talent data. That transformed the entire industry.
One of my favorite demos involved searching for a “popcorn scientist.” There were only eight in the U.S., and we could find six in seconds. That moment sold the customer instantly.
Internally, we also used data for territory management, forecasting, and go-to-market optimization years before most SaaS companies.
Doug Camplejohn
(34:15)
And you had a strict no-discounting policy, which was rare in SaaS.
Mike
(34:30)
Yes. It came from wanting absolute integrity in pricing. I didn’t want two customers comparing notes at dinner and realizing they paid different amounts. The rule was simple: the price is the price.
It built trust with customers and pride within the team. You can only do it with a strong product, but when you can, it’s powerful.
Doug Camplejohn
(39:42)
Let’s pivot—you’re known as the godfather of angel investing in Chicago. How did that start?
Mike
(40:06)
After LinkedIn’s IPO, I wanted to give back to the entrepreneurial community that shaped me. Initially, I invested without much strategy—mainly in underrepresented founders.
Over time, I focused on technical founders who needed go-to-market help. I paired capital with mentorship, especially in Chicago, to strengthen the local tech ecosystem.
Doug Camplejohn
(43:28)
Fast forward to today—post ChatGPT—where do you see meaningful breakthroughs in AI?
Mike
(44:19)
I think AI is underhyped. The next decade will transform everything again. Having worked closely with people like Kevin Scott, I’ve seen this evolution firsthand.
Every company we invest in now is AI-native. You can’t just tack AI onto legacy software—it has to be built in from the ground up.
Doug Camplejohn
(47:36)
And data is still the key.
Mike
(48:21)
That’s right. A great example is Compa. Its founder, Charlie Franklin, built a compensation intelligence platform that aggregates real-time offer data from enterprise ATS systems. That data advantage gives them a defensible moat and lets them build AI compensation analysts on top of it.
Doug Camplejohn
(51:43)
That’s fantastic. Let’s finish with a quick speed round. What’s something people would be surprised to know about you?
Mike
(52:07)
I’m a passionate cook, and most of our food comes from a small farm my family owns two miles from home.
Doug Camplejohn
(52:16)
Amazing. What do you do for fun outside of work?
Mike
(52:20)
I’m a dad of three, and we spend as much time together as possible before the kids leave home.
Doug Camplejohn
(52:27)
What product brings you joy?
Mike
(52:36)
My Kindle. I travel a lot, and it’s perfect for constant reading.
Doug Camplejohn
(52:52)
Classic choice. Lastly, how can people connect with you?
Mike
(53:00)
LinkedIn—always LinkedIn.
Doug Camplejohn
(53:02)
Perfect. Mike, great to see you and talk today. Thanks for joining Revenue Renegades.
Mike
(53:09)
Thanks, Doug. Great to reconnect and congratulations on all your success.
