Courtney Byrd has spent her career evangelizing the fast-paced technology shift across technology and software channels while remaining passionate and focused on driving the adoption of proven technology in collaboration with the largest technology manufacturers in the world. With over two decades of experience in the technology ecosystem, it seemed only natural for Byrd to launch Ascend Source in 2018 where she serves as CEO.
Ascend Source aims to accelerate transformation for enterprise organizations by leveraging its unique ability to identify value drivers, advise on strategic outcomes and connect a complex ecosystem.
“From the onset of her career, Courtney has been devoted to driving innovation that allows organizations to trust, consume and make better decisions faster,” said her colleagues. “Her passion for ensuring leaders aren’t held hostage by untrustworthy data or a lack of information has allowed Courtney to be a part of transforming hundreds of enterprises across the globe.”
Under Byrd’s leadership, Ascend Growth has become a trusted advisor to a community of technology sellers, implementation partners, OEM partners and user groups linked together by the end customer and their need to drive transformation continuously. The company’s growth has generated over $400 million in incremental software revenue and Byrd has engaged a 35,000 ecosystem.
Byrd has also been instrumental in the launch of the Aspire2Ascend podcast that is comprised of customers, technology sellers and partners coming together. Byrd has also maintained 250% year-over-year growth at Ascend and has moderated several advisory boards to shift and guide complex ecosystems.
The most important risk she took throughout her career was the simple decision to start Ascend Source, said Byrd. “After that initial risky jump came a series of risks and decisions that were made in order to become a sustainable and scalable company,” she said. “To be uncomfortable can oftentimes feel risky but to become impactful means you must take risks while trusting in the value your company brings to the market and the invaluable team you’ve built along the way.”
Noting her superpower as the ability to read minds and compel, Byrd credits the ability to listen as the most important leadership skill. “When learning how to listen, observe and then become a sponge for knowledge, it allows me the great privilege to learn from some of the most impactful business leaders of our lifetime while driving tremendous change within their businesses,” she said.
