What happens when you set out to build a product but discover the real opportunity is in building a community? That’s the story behind Matt Volm, co-founder and CEO of RevOps Co-Op—a now-thriving global community for revenue operations professionals.
In this episode of the Revcast-produced podcast series RevOps Revolution, Matt joined host Jeff Serlin (Chief RevOps Officer at Revcast) to share the journey from struggling startup life to founding a community that now supports over 16,000 RevOps practitioners. Matt opened up about product-market fit, the evolution of revenue operations, and how community-led growth can unlock powerful opportunities for people and businesses alike.
From Software to Community
Creating a new professional community wasn't the original plan; the goal was a RevOps software product. While at early-stage company Funnel IQ, Matt and his co-workers set out to develop a data and BI platform for RevOps teams. “We built a product there, we brought it to market. We had some paying customers, but ultimately just never found product market fit,” he said.
But something else did take off: the community side of their go-to-market effort. When the product didn’t land, Matt and his team pivoted fully into growing RevOps Co-Op.
“We've just been focused on the community as our business ever since,” Matt said. “Now we have… 16,000 plus members from all over the globe.”
Why the Community Took Off
One factor Matt credits is timing. As RevOps became more established in the period of 2019–2021, many early practitioners were lone operators figuring it out as they went—often working remotely and lacking internal resources.
Matt describes: "[RevOps] was also a new function, right? No one goes to college and gets a degree in revenue operations, so everyone's typically learning on the job or learning as you go. And so you now have this environment where you as a revenue operator are typically the only one. Or maybe you have a small team at your company that are on the RevOps squad, but you're trained on the job or based on your experience, so you don't know what you don't know. So as you encounter all of these new challenges and things that you're facing every single day, there's always that question of, 'Am I doing this right? Are there better ways to do this?' And you don't have a big group of people internally at your company that you can go to. So a community is a great place to go and leverage and get value from all of those things that may not exist within your company."
Early growth focused on simplicity and value: a Slack group, a curated weekly newsletter, and personalized outreach on LinkedIn. The goal wasn’t scale for its own sake, but meaningful engagement.
Jeff, a longtime RevOps practitioner himself, agreed: “That’s something that only a community can give you, because it gives you that leverage and that reach that you couldn’t get otherwise.”
Applying RevOps Principles to Community-Building
Jeff described how he has joined other communities and groups related to the RevOps role, but found most didn't gain nearly the momentum and success experienced by RevOps Co-Op. He asked Matt how they knew they had reached an inflection point in terms of RevOps Co-Op's own product-market fit.
Matt said one of the things they did from the beginning was set their own OKRs and goals. He gave the example that his first goal may have been “let’s get 250 members.” Once they hit that goal in about 5 days, since they didn't have any history on how fast they could build traction, he’d adjust the next goal.
A Function That’s Here to Stay
Both Jeff and Matt discussed the legitimacy RevOps has gained as a strategic function. “Every business that has revenue has operations,” Matt said. “It’s just a question of where that responsibility lives.” For example, if it’s a very early stage company, it may reside with the first sales hire.
He described how the ways we drive revenue—cloud, SaaS, consumption-based pricing, and now AI—have evolved, but the fundamentals haven’t. “There's still people, process, and technology that ultimately drive those revenue outcomes.”
Jeff agreed and added, “You have to manage change. You have to define what you want to do and how you want to do it, and then you have to find the technology that enables that.”
Building for the Long Term
Even with tens of thousands of members, Matt keeps his mindset grounded. “Every day, I wake up and think about how we can get new members into the community today and make sure people show up for our events.”
Eventually, engagement grew enough that it became self-sustaining. “You reach this inflection point where there's enough people in there that feel comfortable, and so engagement just starts to naturally happen,” Matt said. “Then you shift your focus from driving engagement to moderating it.”
It’s also about offering options. Not everyone participates in the Slack group; some prefer live events, others want content. And that’s okay. “Participate in the things that are valuable for you,” Matt advised.
What matters most, he said, is showing up: “The more that you put yourself out there, the more opportunities you create.”
What’s Next for RevOps Co-Op
The future is bright—and expanding. RevOps Co-Op is scaling up its in-person offerings with more local gatherings, roundtables, and conferences, including the RevOps AF events in the U.S. and Europe.
Perhaps most notably, the team is working on a professional certification. “We want to provide people the ability to have a certificate in revenue operations and have a very clear set of guidelines of what that means,” Matt said.
Jeff, reflecting on his own experience at Marketo during the rise of lead gen certification programs, applauded the move. “I think getting that out there and pulling something off like that would be very valuable.”
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To hear the full discussion, check out the episode of The RevOps Revolution podcast. Or learn more about RevOps Co-Op and browse their content and programs directly at their website.
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