Hey, I’m Sophie, founder of Noxit — we help leaders set and cascade meaningful goals across their teams. Welcome to Ready, Set, Goal, the podcast where we dive into how high-growth leaders align, scale, and keep their teams moving in the same direction.
In today’s episode, I’m joined by Alina Vandenberghe, co-founder and Co-CEO of Chili Piper. Back in 2016, she and her husband sold their house to launch the company — driven by a bold vision to revolutionize the B2B buying experience. Today, Chili Piper is a category-defining platform trusted by companies like Gong, Spotify, and Monday.com, helping them convert leads faster and smarter.
Alina is a true builder, with strong opinions on leadership, growth, and scaling without losing focus. In this episode, we explore her approach to goal setting, team alignment, and leading through fast growth.
It’s such a pleasure to have you here, Alina! I actually saw you speak at SaaS in Malmö a while back.
So nice to be here, thank you for having me! That Malmö event was fun. I’m usually based in Brooklyn, New York, but I lived in Europe for a while and still go back often.
Tell us a little about your background. Who are you and how did your journey to founding Chili Piper begin?
I grew up in Eastern Europe, in Romania. I always dreamed of moving to the U.S. and being part of the tech world. Initially, I was climbing the corporate ladder, aspiring to be a Fortune 500 CEO — I even had that written on my bedroom door when I was 12! But after moving here, I realized I’m a builder at heart. I thrive in startup environments. Founding Chili Piper with my husband nine years ago was a natural fit — and I can see myself building for decades to come!
Tell me about Chili Piper. What exactly do you do?
We help revenue teams — mostly mid-market and enterprise SaaS — improve demand conversion. Traditionally, when someone fills out a form on a website, they’d get a generic “thanks, we’ll be in touch” message, and companies would lose over half of their leads. With Chili Piper, our JavaScript tool instantly qualifies leads and routes them to the right sales rep or account manager — no waiting. We integrate with CRMs and use real-time data augmentation to make sure every buyer gets a VIP experience.
That’s such a powerful way to keep conversion high. How big is your team now?
We’re 140 people across 40 countries. At first, I thought success meant thousands of employees — but now I value lean, efficient teams. With the right tools and structure, you don’t need huge headcount to make a big impact.
You’ve scaled impressively — how do you align your team around goals as you grow?
Early on, we used the 2MOM framework, but found it too heavy for fast-moving teams. Now, we set company-level goal annually (e.g., ARR growth, CAC targets) and let individual teams build their quarterly game plans. These game plans define the actions, activities, and expected impact based on historical data.
For example, our marketing team sets assumptions about pipeline, conversion rates, and top-of-funnel metrics like impressions or account penetration. Every quarter, we evaluate progress, adjust strategies, and co-create new activities — with full flexibility.
How do you track this in practice? Are there shared tools
Yes — we use Snowflake and Sigma for data analysis. It took time to identify the righ intermediary metrics that drive pipeline results. I’m proud we now have that clarity, but I wish we’d figured it out two years earlier!
And how does this translate to individual employee goals?
We split performance 50/50 between team metrics and individual contributions. Everyone knows the team goals, and each person is also accountable for the activities they own. We do biannual individual assessments, plus peer reviews, to evaluate impact. If something didn’t work, we analyze whether the strategy was flawed or if the market shifted.
Do you ever feel like the system still has room for improvement?
Absolutely. Metrics and cadences are never perfect. But the hardest thing — and something I may never fully crack — is figuring out if someone is truly thriving. Culture is personal. What energizes one person drains another. I’ve worked in environments where I looked successful on paper, but felt miserable. I’d love to build a company where people genuinely enjoy their work — but it’s a moving target.
That’s such a powerful reflection. So many companies struggle to get goal-setting and alignment right. Thanks for sharing your experience and insight!
Thank you for having me. It’s been a pleasure.
🎧 Ready, Set, Goal is a podcast by Noxit. Stay tuned for more episodes where we dive deep into leadership, scaling, and high-impact execution.
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