In the small startups I've been a part of, the Customer Success Manager has been more like the interface for the user to parts of the product we haven't had tim

In the small startups I've been a part of, the Customer Success Manager has been more like the interface for the user to parts of the product we haven't had time to refine. Our teams are still small, so this person has been essential in helping out in places where the product isn't as refined as we'd like: training, setup + onboarding, UX roughness, etc. They've also been helpful in understanding our customer's pain points, so we can best direct our modest resources. We regularly learn more about what our product should be from these interactions. Our users are also very non-technical, so they've been a helping hand getting slow-moving organizations on board. That that end, they regularly receive positive feedback from our users, and are essential at reducing churn. I can understand why the author had an issue with Hubspot and Google- these are well established companies with refined products and larger teams. Certainly seems like you could end up as a salesman.