What does it take to leap from vineyards to tech—and thrive?

In this episode, we sit down with Dimple Athavia, a former winemaker (now, Customer Success Manager at Mimecast) who turned her love of chemistry, nature, and craft into a high-impact career in Customer Success. Her path is curiosity in motion: from studying microbiology and viticulture, to traveling the world for harvests, to building a drinks venture that sparked a deep fascination with digital products, data, and scale.

Dimple shares how she broke into her first CSM role—treating interviews like iterative sprints, translating experience into CS language, and reaching out to a podcast guest for mentoring with a clear, respectful ask. That single outreach led to a new opportunity and a lasting lesson: be specific about what you need, make it easy for mentors to help you, and turn inspiration into action.

We chat about:

Early love of science leading to a winemaking degree and global harvest work
Building a CSM career through podcasts, clear outreach and mentorship
Strategic customer conversations that map goals and influence
Practical AI use for research, memory support and preparation in CS
Guidance for emerging leaders on trust, clarity and coaching

She also shares how AI fits into the modern CSM toolkit—from researching public signals before first calls to surfacing insights and personalizing every touchpoint. For her, data directs attention; real conversations build momentum.

If this conversation sparks an idea for your career or customer strategy, share it with a colleague, hit follow, and leave a quick review to help others discover the show.

💚 This episode is brought to you by Deployflow: https://deployflow.co/

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👉 Follow Dimple: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dimple-a-21a37b150/

👉 Learn more about Deployflow & P-Suite by Deployflow and get a quick squad estimate at: https://deployflow.co/p-suite/

👉 Learn more about Mimecast, a company transforming the way businesses manage and secure human risk: https://www.mimecast.com/

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About Women in Customer Success Podcast:

Women in Customer Success Podcast is the first women-only podcast for Customer Success professionals, where remarkable ladies of Customer Success connect, inspire and champion each other.

Follow:

Women in Customer Success

Website - https://www.womenincs.co/podcast
LinkedIn - linkedin.com/company/womenincs

Host Marija Skobe-Pilley

LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/mspilley/

Check out our Courses:

The Revenue CSM - https://womenincs.co/the-revenue-csm