First Block with Christina Cacioppo, Co-Founder and CEO of Vanta

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Welcome to First Block, a Notion series where founders and executives from the world's leading companies tell us about the many “firsts” of their startup journeys. Hosted by our Co-founder and COO Akshay Kothari, this series explores the many ups and downs that founders face as they build their companies, and what they've learned along the way.

In our third episode, we spoke with Christina Cacioppo, Co-Founder and CEO of Vanta. Vanta is the leading trust management platform that helps simplify and centralize security for organizations of all sizes.

Christina shares her insights from building Vanta, specifically the role of a customer in building a product and how she gained the confidence to start a company.

In this episode, we do a deep-dive into:

• Building a company in public

• Moving from a venture capital role to an operator

• Leading an industry forward

• The role of customer feedback

• Having conviction in yourself

What’s in this episode:

• 00:00: Intro

• 05:22: The Beginning of Vanta

• 11:52: First Customers

• 18:15: Ideal Customer

• 21:25: Customer Obsession

• 25:12: Founder Priorities

• 27:24: Cash Flow

• 31:03: Building a Leadership Team

• 33:13: Competition

• 39:07: Day in the Life of Christina Cacioppo

Read the full transcript here: