Jimmy Fitzgerald President & COO, Paddle

Company

Paddle is the leading Revenue Delivery Platform for SaaS companies that powers rapid growth across acquisition, renewals and expansion, whilst reducing the operational and regulatory headaches that arise on that journey.

Founded in 2012 by Christian Owens and Harrison Rose, Paddle has raised over $90m from investors such as FTV Capital, Notion Capital, 83North and Kindred Capital.

Search Background

Paddle had been growing aggressively for several years and were a regular presence in the Deloitte ‘Fast 50’ (even touted as the fastest growing software company in the UK by several sources). Christian and Harrison knew that the opportunity ahead of them was huge, but they were also acutely aware that, as first-time founders, every year of growth took them further into personally unchartered territory.

Together with the board, they made the decision to launch a search for a Chief Operating Officer who could act as their commercial ‘sparring partner’ for the next phase of growth.

Requirements

Erevena were tasked with finding a strong, commercial co-pilot to the founders and SLT. The ideal candidate would have high levels of empathy for the hyper-growth journey Paddle were on and would be able to foresee potential pitfalls and roadblocks that might lay ahead. They would have an impressive track-record in commercial leadership roles, heavy experience in enterprise SaaS, international pedigree (Paddle already serves 2000+ customers in over 100 countries) and a strong general management profile.

Result

After an extensive search, we were beyond delighted that Jimmy Fitzgerald agreed to join Paddle as President and COO in April 2021. Jimmy has 20+ years of experience helping SaaS companies to scale and previously spent a decade at ServiceNow, where he led the company’s customer success, go-to-market and growth strategies. He also founded the APJ region at ServiceNow and, prior to this, held a series of senior leadership roles at Siebel, Oracle and SignalDemand.