RALEIGH – A former Pendo exec who helped the Raleigh-based SaaS startup scale to become a “unicorn” valued at $1 billion is now hoping to do the same with a new venture.
Jake Sorofman, Pendo’s former chief marketing officer, has jumped ship to join the Indianapolis-based software company MetaCX as its new president.
A spokesperson for Pendo notes “Jake left Pendo at the end of February to pursue other opportunities.” Joe Chernov is the new CMO, having joined Pendo “a little over a year ago as our VP of Marketing, Content & Brand.”
Just emerging from stealth mode, the startup is founded by Salesforce Marketing Cloud’s previous CEO Scott McCorkle.
The mission: to build a platform billed as a new outcomes-based approach for managing the customer life cycle.
“I like the formation-building stages of a company. It seemed like a perfect match,” Sorofman, 48, said in a phone interview on Tuesday, shortly after the announcement.
Already, MetaCX has landed $14 million in early funding led by Upfront Ventures with participation from Indianapolis-based High Alpha. It has also built and delivered a private beta and initial commercial release, which is now used by 18 early customers.
In coming weeks and months, the company said it plans to launch new product capabilities and fully activate its go-to-market functions.
Sorofman said he will be based in Raleigh working from home, but all options are on the table when it comes to possibly setting up a satellite office in the Triangle.
“At some point in the future, we will make that decision,” he said.
Sorofman is expected to work closely with McCorkle, who served as CEO of Salesforce Marketing Cloud following the company’s $2.5 billion acquisition of ExactTarget where he served as president.
“We couldn’t be more excited to welcome Jake to the MetaCX team,” said McCorkle in a statement. “Jake is a true student of enterprise software who has grown SaaS startups into category leaders, and as an influential analyst at Gartner, he helped shape the entire digital marketing landscape. Jake brings this category-creating experience to MetaCX to help us redefine the way companies work together in the supplier-buyer relationship.”
