In this episode of Culture Uncovered, Jena Dunay sits down with Douglas Freeman, Chief Revenue Officer at Crunchr — and Jena's former boss — to explore what it's like to build a revenue team and company culture at a people analytics platform helping HR leaders turn workforce data into real business decisions.
Doug shares how a casual 30-minute conversation about revenue strategy led him to Crunchr, and what drew him to the opportunity after years working in HR tech and recognizing the exact problem Crunchr was built to solve. The conversation dives into Crunchr's three core company behaviors — think big, ship small, win together — and the three pillars Doug uses to build his own revenue subculture: discipline, distinctiveness, and desire, including why he deliberately hires people to be themselves rather than conform to a single sales persona.
The episode also covers real examples of how Crunchr helps organizations connect disjointed HR data — from predicting retirement waves to diagnosing regrettable turnover — and candid career advice on networking, staying in touch over the long term, and how to actually sell yourself in an interview.
What You'll Learn
How Crunchr helps organizations unify fragmented HR data into a single source of truth
What Crunchr's three company behaviors — think big, ship small, win together — mean in practice
How Doug's three-pillar framework (discipline, distinctiveness, desire) shapes his approach to building a sales team
Why Doug believes salespeople should be coached within their own personality, not molded into a single mold
How to use "proof points" and concrete stories to stand out in an interview
Practical advice for keeping a professional network alive over years, not just when you need something
Company Highlights
Industry: People analytics / HR technology
Customer Base: HR and business leaders at organizations ranging from 1,000 to 75,000+ employees, including multinational companies managing data across dozens of countries
Company Stage: Founded in 2014 in Amsterdam, ~60 employees, with a second office in Boston
Culture: Curious, accountable, and collaborative across a hybrid, multinational team
Focus Areas: People analytics maturity, data trust and security, turnover diagnostics, and HR's growing strategic role
Key Practices & Frameworks
Think Big, Ship Small, Win Together: Crunchr's company-wide behavioral framework for balancing ambition with iterative execution
Discipline, Distinctiveness, Desire: Doug's subculture framework for building his revenue team, emphasizing consistency, individuality, and personal growth
"Jenify It" Mentality: Encouraging team members to personalize processes within a shared structure, then share results — successes and failures — with the team
Proof-Point Interviewing: Coaching candidates to bring concrete stories and results rather than vague claims of skill
Build vs. Buy Guidance: Perspective on why maintaining sensitive people-data infrastructure internally is often harder than the initial build
Long-Term Network Maintenance: A practice of making regular low-stakes introductions and personal check-ins to keep professional relationships genuinely alive over time
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