BONUS: Why Embedding Sales with Engineering in Stealth Mode Changed Everything for Snowflake – with Chris Degnan

Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast
Host: Vasco Duarte
Guest: Chris Degnan, Founding CRO at Snowflake
Date: February 14, 2026

Episode Overview

In this special bonus episode, host Vasco Duarte sits down with Chris Degnan, one of the key architects behind Snowflake’s go-to-market (GTM) strategy, as detailed in the new book Make it Snow: The Journey from Early Stage Chaos to Durable Aligned Growth Forged at Snowflake. The discussion revolves around the bold, counterintuitive decision to embed sales with engineering during Snowflake’s stealth mode. Chris shares the rationale, challenges, and transformative outcomes of this approach, offering deep insights for Agile practitioners, startup founders, and anyone interested in scaling high-growth technology organizations.

Key Discussion Points and Insights

1. Embedding Sales with Engineering in Stealth Mode

[01:42]–[04:02]

• The Challenge:
  Snowflake had no customers and no revenue at the outset. Unlike conventional advice, Chris was instructed not to focus on sales for two years, but instead to deeply engage with prospective customers and gather vital feedback.
• Investor Directive:

  “Chris, I don’t expect you to sell anything for two years... what I really want you to do is get a ton of feedback and get customers to use the product so that when we come out of stealth mode we have this world class product.” —Chris Degnan [02:32]

• Key Actions:
  • Chris’s role: recruit early users, let them “break” the product, gather actionable insights.
  • Tight integration: Breaking down silos between sales and engineering built trust and accelerated product-market fit discovery.
  • Early customer feedback led to substantive product changes before public launch.

2. The Mindset Shift: Prioritizing Feedback Over Revenue

[04:02]–[06:15]

• Counterintuitive Approach:

  • Unlike typical startups, Snowflake’s leadership deprioritized short-term revenue in favor of foundational learning.
  • Product was shaped directly by real-world uses, not just theory or projections.

• Organizational Challenge:
  Engineers and founders were initially skeptical and hesitant to give access to outsiders, requiring culture shifts and trust-building.

• Notable Quote:

  “It’s counterintuitive to not think about revenue for two years... what matters is that we have a product that people cannot live without and that’s what your job is.” —Chris Degnan [05:21]

3. Defining “Go to Market” and Its Evolution

[06:15]–[07:29]

• Definition:
  • Go-to-market encompasses both sales and marketing; building an integrated engine for customer acquisition.
• Enterprise Focus:
  • Snowflake’s initial GTM was not product-led growth (“PLG”) but direct, enterprise-centric sales by a tiny team, sometimes in total stealth (e.g., no website, Stealth on LinkedIn).
  • Early efforts were about selling the theory, then using customer trials to validate and refine.

4. Sales and Marketing Alignment—An “Existential” Need

[07:29]–[10:34]

• Common Pitfall:
  • Many organizations treat sales and marketing as separate, fostering friction and blurring accountability.
• Snowflake’s Solution:
  • Chris and Denise (his co-author and marketing leader) focused on common outcomes, not isolated metrics.
  • Shift from “marketing qualified leads (MQLs)” to measuring “quality qualified meetings” for sales.
• Notable Quote:

  “If we’re not driving revenue, if the revenue’s not growing, then how the hell are we going to be successful? So ultimately, like, revenue was king.” —Chris Degnan [09:27]

5. Coaching, Leadership, and Scaling Culture

[10:34]–[12:33]

• Systems Thinking:
  • Leadership success came from coaching and partnership, not authority.
  • As Snowflake scaled through multiple CEOs, Chris and Denise maintained consistent values, addressed misalignments directly, and held each other (and their teams) accountable for respectful cross-functional collaboration.
  • Senior hires not fitting the culture received feedback and, if necessary, were let go to protect the partnership.

6. Cultural Behaviors That Scaled—and Some That Didn’t

[12:33]–[15:21]

• Velocity & Customer Acquisition:
  • Intense focus on new logo acquisition and market share—a lesson from early investors—gave Snowflake the needed edge against entrenched incumbents.

  “...when we came out of stealth mode, we knew we had a much better product than anything else on the market. And so then it was on us to go build a sales and marketing machine to get as many customers as possible.” —Chris Degnan [13:29]

• Scaling Mistake:
  • As they approached IPO, the company deprioritized “new logos,” mistakenly believing not all were valuable. Later, they had to “reinvent” that engine.

  “New logos mattered tremendously... we forgot about it, got dumb and lazy... and then we... reinvigorated that new logo acquisition machine. And that's working quite well for Snowflake now.” —Chris Degnan [14:38]

7. Crafting the Right Market Narrative (Platform vs. Targeted Solution)

[15:21]–[18:53]

• Strategic Focus:
  • Initially, Snowflake deliberately positioned itself narrowly as an “enterprise data warehouse” instead of a “platform.”
  • Selling into existing enterprise budgets (a “budgeted line item”) was critical to achieving shorter sales cycles and initial traction.
  • Broader platform ambitions came only after dominating the initial target vertical.

  “Having a targeted market when you’re initially launching... makes it easier for your sales team. That’s what I’d say.” —Chris Degnan [18:32]

8. Enabling Technologists to See and Articulate Market Value

[18:53]–[21:53]

• Bridging Tech and Market:
  • Early on, even explaining Snowflake’s consumption-based cloud model to conservative enterprise buyers was a massive educational effort.
  • Engineers and sales teamed up to “prove it” with hands-on pilots.
  • “Don’t believe anything I say. Try it.” became a core tenet for engaging skeptical customers.
• Notable Example:
  • Snowflake’s elastic architecture enabled workflows (e.g., concurrent data loads and analytics) that traditional systems could not handle, but customers often “did not believe us” until trying it.

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On the Go-To-Market Engine’s Real Purpose:

  “The go to market engine was really about getting customers to use the product and then eventually sell them and drive revenue.” —Chris Degnan [07:19]

• On Sales-Marketing Alignment:

  “That’s the opposite instinct you should have... you should have a sales and marketing team that are kind of symbiotic—that come together and say, ‘ultimately, if we’re hitting revenue, that’s what matters.’” —Chris Degnan [09:59]

• On Maintaining Culture During Hypergrowth:

  “We didn’t want to have this animosity between sales and marketing, we wanted to have a partnership, and that was really stemmed from our partnership.” —Chris Degnan [12:22]

• On Success and Complacency:

  “Success is never a good advisor about the future, right? Like, it’s when you fail that you really learn and then you get your act together again.” —Vasco Duarte [15:21]

• On Crafting Go-to-Market Messaging:

  “It became incredibly important... selling to existing budgets is incredibly important because... if you’re coming in with an unbudgeted... line item, you have to take money from something they’ve already budgeted for. And so, that was always hard... at Snowflake, I knew I could access existing budget.” —Chris Degnan [16:45]

• On “Making It Snow”:

  “Instead of making it rain... we’re making it snow, right?” —Chris Degnan [22:42]

Timestamps of Key Segments

• [01:42] – Why Snowflake embedded sales with engineering in stealth mode
• [04:24] – Overcoming resistance: Bringing engineers on board
• [07:29] – Sales-Marketing alignment as existential, not just “nice to have”
• [10:34] – Coaching instead of command-and-control leadership
• [12:33] – Which cultural behaviors scaled, which needed redesign
• [15:21] – Narrow vs. platform messaging: Market strategy evolution
• [18:53] – Bridging the technology-market gap
• [22:07] – The story behind the “Make it Snow” title

Conclusion & Further Learning

Chris Degnan’s deep dive into Snowflake’s founding years offers a compelling blueprint for high-growth startups:

• Prioritize real customer feedback over vanity metrics and premature revenue
• Build genuine alignment between sales and marketing focused on total system output (revenue)
• Protect and intentionally scale the right cultural behaviors, especially during hypergrowth
• Craft your go-to-market message for where the market is—not just where you hope it might be

For more:

• Visit makeitsnowbook.com for the book and resources
• Follow Chris Degnan on LinkedIn for early-stage GTM insights

This summary captures the heart, actionable lessons, and personality of this standout episode—valuable for those building, scaling, or coaching agile organizations at any level.