Raphael Fontes

Enigma
DISC Type : cid

Senior Vice President, Customer Operations at Squarespace

New York, New York, United States

Overview

Raphael Fontes is the Senior Vice President of Customer Operations at Squarespace, where he leads a global team of over 500 people. With more than 28 years in the tech industry, including eight years at Google, he has deep expertise in scaling global operations and enhancing customer experience. People he has worked with describe him as passionate, curious, and competent.

Originally from Brazil and now based in New York, Raphael is a self-described geek and an amateur photographer. He has extensive international experience, having led teams and business operations in Latin America, EMEA, and the United States. He is married and has three children.

He was responsible for establishing Squarespaces European headquarters in Dublin and scaling the team from 30 to over 110 people.

Personality Overview

Persuasive & Assertive

Hard To Convince

Fast Follower

They can sound friendly and charming but can quickly change gears to become inquisitive and probing  They are likely to ask many questions and look heavily for supporting proof as well as information. They are generally strong communicators and are not easy to convince.

Topics They Care About

Customer Feedback Strategy
He has spoken on podcasts about integrating customer feedback into product development to create a human-centric support experience at scale.
Global Team Leadership
He manages a team of 500+ people and has a long history of developing and managing operations teams in Brazil, Argentina, Poland, and Ireland.
Trust & Safety
At Google, he managed several anti-spam and abuse operations teams, focusing on areas like invalid clicks and publisher policy enforcement.

Media Appearances

Developing a scalable customer feedback strategy with Raphael Fontes – Squarespace SVP of Customer Operations. Featured in YouTube

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Developing a scalable customer feedback strategy with Raphael Fontes – Squarespace Podcast. Featured in Zendesk Blog

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Work History

1-2021
Senior Vice President, Customer Operations at Squarespace
8-2018 - 1-2021
Vice President, Customer Operations at Squarespace
6-2017 - 8-2018
VP, Customer Operations | MD, Squarespace Ireland at Squarespace
3-2014 - 6-2017
Director, EMEA Operations at Squarespace
5-2011 - 3-2014
Product Quality Operations (currently Trust & Safety) Manager, EMEA at Google

Education

2000 - 2002
MBA from ESPM
1993 - 1997
Bachelor of Engineering - BE from Escola de Engenharia Mauá

More Information

Social Presence :

Prographics :

Exp : 27 Location : New York, New York, United States Job Level : Leadership Designation : Senior Vice President, Customer Operations at Squarespace
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Insights For Selling To Raphael

During A Call Or A Meeting

DO's

  • Leverage 'negging', or the art of asking negative questions like "you must not be convinced yet..."
  • Use a combination of data as well as stories for your pitch, a ppt might not be necessary
  • Use phrases like ‘clear evidence’, ‘data-based results’ etc.

DONT's

  • Don’t brush off any concerns, take all questions seriously. They are easily deterred
  • Avoid making offhand commitments, understand the root of their concerns first
  • Avoid long presentations and just 'high-level' value proposition, dive into the details

When Cold Calling

When Writing An Email

While Negotiating & Closing

    The secret to closing fast with Raphael is

  • Proven value, strong objective evidence are important for them, rapport can impact decisions a little.
  • Will you ever get a clear answer from Raphael

  • They are practical and friendly, but can give a clear response with a little prodding

Insights For Deal Planning

    How fast (or slow) will Raphael move?

  • They like to be detailed, so unless they develop strong conviction, they can take their time to arrive at decisions
  • Can Raphael take some risk or not?

  • They evaluate their decisions systematically and do not take risks that often, unless you can get them to develop strong conviction

You And Raphael

Personality Compatibility


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