Consensus, the leading B2B demo automation SaaS company, today announced the appointment of Doug Johnson as its new CEO. Garin Hess, who founded Consensus in 2013 and has served as CEO for the past 10 years, will transition to an active strategic role on the Board of Directors.
Under Hess’ leadership, Consensus has become the leader in the rapidly growing Demo Automation category. Gartner announced the category earlier this year and G2 recently reported that Demo Automation is the newest software category with the most buyer traffic. Consensus has over 400 customers and nearly 200 employees, and is growing revenues at more than 40% year-over-year.
“I am delighted to welcome Doug to Consensus as our new CEO,” said Hess. “Doug has a deep understanding of the SaaS industry, technical selling, and the needs of modern buyers, and he has a proven track record of success in growing and scaling companies of our size. This move allows me to continue to add value to Consensus in ways that I excel at, especially overall product strategy, while Doug focuses on what he is expert at – scaling the company while caring for customers during a high growth period.”
Johnson brings over 20 years of success in enterprise software. Johnson is known for listening closely to market needs, his customer-driven approach, and his expertise in growing and scaling companies. He has a proven track record of success in the enterprise software market. Prior to Consensus, he was CRO, President, and CEO of several technology companies.
“Consensus is the most exciting project I’ve ever worked on,” said Johnson. “Not only is the culture that Garin and his team built at Consensus fantastic, but demo automation is a key component of enabling modern B2B buyers to move through the complex purchasing process more quickly and is already having a major impact at some of the most influential software companies in the world. I am excited to dig in and partner with our customers as we collaborate together to make buying enterprise software easier.”
Fifteen of the top thirty software companies have chosen Consensus demo automation to accelerate their buyers’ through the purchasing process. Earlier this year, Consensus announced a $110M Series C growth investment round led by Sumeru Equity Partners.
“We are excited to see Doug join Consensus as CEO,” said Jason Babcoke, Managing Director at Sumeru Equity Partners, the primary growth investment firm backing Consensus. “Doug is a highly experienced and successful SaaS leader, and we believe he is the perfect person to lead Consensus through its next phase of growth. We are confident that Consensus will continue to influence and lead the B2B demo automation market under Doug’s leadership.”
Hess originally coined the term Demo Automation in 2014 in an effort to try to explain the then nascent demo technology they had just brought to market.
“Back then I only dreamed that one day Demo Automation would become a category,” said Hess. “So, it’s immensely rewarding to see that not only is the technology helping our customers shorten sales cycles by as much at 68%, but also that the enterprise software market in general is starting to realize that Demo Automation is critical across all parts of the buyer journey. This is the right inflection point in the market to add someone with Doug’s expertise at the helm. We’re fortunate to have him.”