Steady when it gets messy
I stay calm, ask better questions, and help turn ambiguity into next steps.
Customer Success | Implementation | Customer-facing startup operator
I help software customers feel heard, get unstuck, and find value faster.
My name is Luke Warner, and I am an empathetic problem solver with a background in SaaS startups across customer success, marketing, and growth. I've built CS plans from scratch, supported high-touch customers, and helped growing teams turn customer relationships into adoption, retention, and revenue.
Career Highlights
- Founding CSM → Director of CS Built MaxOne's CS function from scratch across onboarding, adoption, renewals, and customer operations.
- $300K → $1.2M ARR Helped lead growth at USR as an early hire owning lifecycle, CRM, email, web, social, and paid systems.
- 25 customers / ~$1.8M ARR Supported Dover's high-touch CX pilot across 40-50 stakeholders and helped shape the CS motion.
What I care about in my next role
Who I’m building with
What we’re building
How it impacts the customer
What people can count on from me
I care about doing right by people.
The people side of the work has always mattered most. I like being someone customers and teammates can trust when the answer is not obvious and the stakes feel real.
Deeply relational
I care about earning trust, following through, and making people feel supported.
Culture builder
I am a team-first player, and do my best work when collaborating with teammates.
What you can’t see from my resume
Specific Work Outcomes
Dover
Turning churn risk into renewed adoption
Rebuilt trust with a new Head of People, onboarded recruiters, and helped save an at-risk customer relationship.
Problem
True North Fleet had been a longtime Dover customer, but usage had stalled. A new Head of People joined the company, had never used Dover before, and was considering bringing in her own hiring processes. That created a real churn risk, especially because her recruiting team also saw Dover as a potential competitor to the way they already worked.
What I Did
I focused first on earning trust with the new Head of People. I walked her through the platform, helped her understand that Dover was there to make her team’s work easier, and showed how it could support faster, more efficient hiring. From there, I helped onboard her recruiters, answered questions, joined additional calls with hiring managers, and became more embedded in their hiring workflow than a traditional CSM motion might require.
Result
We kept True North Fleet as a customer, rebuilt trust with a new decision-maker, got the recruiting team bought into the platform, and increased adoption across the account.
What It Demonstrates
This story shows how I approach at-risk accounts: understand the customer’s world, earn trust with new stakeholders, identify what is blocking adoption, and do the practical work needed to help the customer succeed.
MaxOne
Protecting trust during a major product outage
Led customer communication through a high-pressure outage and helped preserve trust through honesty, urgency, and steadiness.
Problem
During my time as Director of Customer Success at MaxOne, we went through a major platform transition that caused a serious outage across our customer base. For several weeks, many customers were affected, and some were unable to use the product in the way they needed. It created a high-pressure moment with real churn risk.
What I Did
As the primary customer contact, I owned communication throughout the outage. I focused on being prompt, honest, calm, and clear. I kept customers updated, acknowledged the impact, avoided overpromising, and worked internally to understand timelines and advocate for what customers needed. My goal was to make sure customers knew we were taking the issue seriously and working as quickly as possible to resolve it.
Result
The outcome was mixed, as some customers needed an immediate solution and chose to leave. But with others, we were able to preserve trust by communicating proactively, following through on commitments, and showing up consistently during a difficult moment. The experience made me a much stronger customer communicator and taught me how much trust can be built, or lost, in moments of pressure.
What It Demonstrates
This story shows how I handle hard customer situations: stay calm, communicate clearly, tell the truth without creating panic, advocate internally, and protect the relationship even when the product experience is not where it needs to be.
Universal Speed Rating
Building lifecycle systems that helped the team scale
Rebuilt CRM lifecycle stages, automated sales and marketing workflows, and layered in AI-assisted reporting across a 15K-20K contact base.
Problem
When I joined Universal Speed Rating, the CRM was messy, under-segmented, and full of manual work. We had roughly 15,000-20,000 contacts, but they were not organized cleanly across lifecycle stages, lists, or communication paths. That made it harder for sales, marketing, and customer-facing teams to follow up quickly, personalize messaging, and understand where people were in the funnel.
What I Did
I rebuilt the lifecycle structure inside the CRM and created automated workflows across the full funnel: new contact, lead, sales qualified lead, opportunity, customer, and churned. Those workflows connected marketing emails, sales tasks, internal notifications, reporting, and customer/prospect segmentation. From there, I layered in AI-assisted workflows for paid ad reporting, performance dashboards, campaign planning, and lifecycle analysis.
Result
The systems saved time, reduced manual work, improved segmentation, created cleaner handoffs, and gave the sales team faster follow-up paths with fewer missed tasks. That operational foundation supported the company’s growth from roughly $300K to $1.2M ARR.
What It Demonstrates
This story shows how I use systems thinking to create leverage. I can build customer and revenue operations infrastructure that helps teams move faster, communicate better, and scale without relying on manual work.
What People Say
Dillan McCullough
Director of Sales, Universal Speed Rating
Collaborated on sales and marketing strategy, customer acquisition campaigns, email campaigns, and customer storytelling at USR.
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“Luke has a rare ability to turn customer insight into action. He moves quickly, tells customer stories well, and helps teams connect strategy to real execution.”
Brock Dale
Director of Customer Success, Universal Speed Rating
Worked together on customer messaging, onboarding email campaigns, and customer case studies at USR.
Testimonial
“Luke is the kind of guy every team hopes for, a natural culture builder who makes the work enjoyable while raising the bar for everyone around him. Reliable, communicative, and thoughtful in his work. He consistently delivered real value and insight in both my role on the sales team and within customer success. I still use marketing tactics and strategies that he taught me in my work today. I'd love the opportunity to work with him again in the future.”
Brittany Nickell
Chief of Staff, Assembly
Direct manager at Dover during Luke’s time on the Customer Experience team.
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“Luke brings empathy, ownership, and steadiness to customer work. He builds trust with customers quickly and is the kind of teammate people want beside them.”
Eli Schoonveld
Recruiter, Insight Global
Worked under Luke as a marketing content manager at Universal Speed Rating.
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“Luke leads with clarity, encouragement, and trust. He gives people room to own their work while staying close enough to help them do it well.”
Olivia LeBaron
Customer Success / Operations Manager, Universal Speed Rating
Worked alongside Luke as a colleague at Universal Speed Rating.
Testimonial
“I had the opportunity to work with Luke over the past three years, and he was someone I could always count on. He's a strong communicator, follows through on his commitments, and consistently takes ownership of his work. I appreciated working with him and know he'll make a positive impact on whatever team he is on.”
Payton Mills
CEO, Raiz
Lifelong friend who can speak to Luke’s character, integrity, and loyalty.
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“Luke is loyal, steady, and deeply principled. He shows up for people with integrity, and that character carries into the way he works and leads.”
Why Customer Success
Customer Success is where the work clicked.
After time across sales, marketing, and growth, the common thread has stayed the same: my passion and skill-set belong when I am earning the customer's trust, helping drive value through product, and becoming a strategic advisor for our customer base. I am a Customer Success Manager at heart.
I started my career at fast-moving startups where the job was rarely just one job. That shaped how I work: I like being close to customers, close to the product, and close to the team trying to figure out what needs to improve next.
The marketing and growth chapter gave me a broader view of the customer journey, but it also clarified what I want to do long term. I want to own relationships, solve problems with customers directly, and help people get measurable value from software.
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If you’re building a team that cares deeply about customers, I’d love to talk.
Best-fit roles include Customer Success, Implementation, Customer Experience, Account Management, and customer-facing startup roles where relationships, adoption, and trust matter.
If you want to get to know me outside of work, start here →