This CEO Gave a Masterclass In Honoring a Company's Legacy While Evolving It at the Same Time Dominic Allon, CEO of Pipedrive, has transformed the company into an industry leader by combining grit, self-awareness, and a forward-thinking approach.
By Christopher Salvi Edited by Dan Bova
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With significant stints at Google and Intuit under his belt, Dominic Allon honed his leadership style by embracing feedback, learning from failure, and constantly challenging himself. His role at Google was transformative—he led projects that reshaped how agencies and businesses leveraged digital advertising. At Intuit, he sharpened his focus on customer-driven innovation, understanding the importance of creating tools that solve real problems.
Allon is now the CEO of Pipedrive, but getting to that position was not just about accumulating experience at big tech firms. It was about learning the nuances of leadership—how to balance ambition with empathy, how to embrace difficult feedback, and how to continuously develop the self-awareness necessary for leading a team in the ever-evolving tech industry. We discussed all of that and more during this episode of The Founder CEO.
Taking Over a Founder-Led Company
When Allon stepped in as CEO of Pipedrive in 2021, he faced the challenge of honoring the legacy of the five founders who had built Pipedrive from the ground up. "The founders had created something special," he recalls. "Their vision reimagined how salespeople manage and track deal flow."
Instead of trying to overhaul everything, Allon chose a balanced approach: he honored the founders' legacy while crafting the next chapter of growth for Pipedrive. He focused on understanding the company's core strengths, its product, and its culture before making any strategic shifts. This thoughtful transition laid the groundwork for his future plans to take the company forward.
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Growing and Innovating
Under Allon's leadership, Pipedrive continued succeeding. One of the major shifts that Allon introduced was an increased focus on artificial intelligence. For example, AI now automatically generates leads and emails, saving time. Allon's vision is to transform Pipedrive from just tracking deals to actively driving sales success with AI insights. The recently launched AI feature, Pulse, helps salespeople identify the hottest leads in their pipeline, allowing them to prioritize high-value activities with ease. Allon's vision for Pipedrive is clear: transform it from a tool that tracks deals to one that actively drives sales success with AI-powered insights.
In Allon's words, "AI isn't just a co-pilot—it's becoming the lead pilot." His focus on automation has allowed Pipedrive to stay ahead of the curve, making the CRM more efficient and freeing up salespeople to concentrate on what they do best: closing deals.
Pipedrive's Human-Centered Focus
What really sets Pipedrive apart is its dedication to users — the salespeople. From the beginning, Pipedrive has been known as the most user-friendly CRM on the market, and Allon has only strengthened this reputation. While integrating advanced technologies like AI, the company hasn't lost sight of its mission: to simplify the sales process for small and medium businesses.
This human-centered approach, paired with cutting-edge technology, has led to Pipedrive's consistent growth. Allon's leadership has seen the company expand its global reach while maintaining its identity as a CRM built with salespeople in mind. "We want to be the best in the world at helping small businesses grow," Allon says, and his strategic vision has aligned every part of Pipedrive's development toward this goal.
Making Future Plans
With AI taking center stage, Allon's next chapter for Pipedrive involves scaling its AI-powered tools and making them even more intuitive for users. His goal is to move from automation of simple tasks to providing deeper insights that empower sales teams to make data-driven decisions more easily. Beyond AI, Allon is also focused on expanding Pipedrive's footprint globally, targeting new markets while deepening customer engagement in existing ones.
But as Pipedrive scales, Allon remains committed to maintaining the company's core values. "It's important that we don't lose what made us great."
For aspiring entrepreneurs and leaders, Allon's journey offers a powerful lesson: growth is not just about achieving success, but about consistently evolving, embracing feedback, and having the courage to pivot when needed. In his own words, "Successful leaders are a composite of their innate strengths and a bunch of learned behaviors," and Dominic Allon has mastered both to lead Pipedrive into its next great chapter.
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