This company won Calix's innovative partner of the year award

On today's episode of Connected Nation, we ask what it takes to win the partner award for innovation given by Calix every year. The answer: be a disruptor. 

We'll talk with the CEO and Co-founder of Camvio about winning the award and find out how the company has been and is approaching innovation including leveraging AI years before AI was "cool." 

Recommended links:

Jennifer Logsdon, CEO & Co-founder, Camvio LinkedIn

Camvio website

Chapters

• 0:10 What is Camvio?
• 2:00 Using AI before it was "cool"
• 4:11 Winning the partner award for innovation
• 5:16 Jennifer's background
• 6:43 Lessons for other CEOs
• 9:45 More about Calix

Transcript

Jessica Denson (00:07):

On today's podcast, we head back to Calix Connexions 2025, which took place in Las Vegas, Nevada in mid-October. On this episode, we ask what it takes to win the partner award for innovation given by Calix every year. The answer: be a disruptor. We'll talk with the CEO and co-founder of Camvio about winning the award and find out how they're being so innovative, including using AI years before AI was quote unquote "cool." I'm Jessica Denson and this is Connected Nation.

I'm still in the exhibitor hall of CEX Connections 2025, and I have stopped by the Cambio booth because it has won the partner award for innovation. Jennifer Logston is with me. She's the CEO and Co-founder of Cambio. Uh, thank you for joining.

Jennifer Logsdon (00:56):

No problem. Thanks for having us.

Jessica Denson (00:58):

So, talk about what Cambio is before we get into this award that you guys have won.

Jennifer Logsdon (01:02):

Perfect. So Cambio is a modern O-S-S-B-S-S, so we're a billing company and we started about six and a half, seven years ago with really a, a model to disrupt the legacy providers.

Jessica Denson (01:15):

And, um, you're co-founder of it. What, what led to that? That's kind of exciting,

Jennifer Logsdon (01:19):

Right? Yeah, yeah. Um, what led to that? So, I've been in the industry for a long time and we really noticed that the industry needed some disruption. They were old legacy clunky systems. No one was doing things in a modern, productive way. So we said, you know what? We could do it better. So we came in and instead of doing something that takes 45 steps, let's do it in three. Why not? Mm-hmm

Jessica Denson (01:40):

<affirmative>. And so how did you do that? You just look at the system and recalibrate, or what is it that you did differently?

Jennifer Logsdon (01:47):

Um, I think we started with best practices, right? So we'd been in the industry for a long time and we'd really asked our customers. We would listen to them and find out what's working, what's not working, and ask them their future state, if I can do this, what would be look like? And that's what we did with cameos. We put together a beautiful workflow and used some AI behind the scenes and made it happen.

Jessica Denson (02:07):

Oh, you were already using AI then before It was cool, huh?

Jennifer Logsdon (02:10):

Of course. We've been using it for many, many years.

Jessica Denson (02:12):

So what are some lessons learned over that process? 'cause I can imagine, um, I'm guessing you saw this need, you are like, this has taken too long. Um, let's try to come with some solutions and that would really be a niche for you. Um, how did you involve ai? How did you know? Talk a little little bit more about that.

Jennifer Logsdon (02:30):

Yeah. Um, so I would, some of those questions

Jessica Denson (02:35):

<laugh>, they're hard

Jennifer Logsdon (02:36):

Ones. Yeah, those are, those are some, some good questions. Like how, how we actually did it, how we involved AI in it, as I, I would say, uh, something we really thought about was best practice. What are you doing? How are you doing it? So we'd listen to our customers uhhuh, and so we'd kind of jump feet first in there. I, in the very beginning, we tried different platforms to see what would work, what we didn't like, what we did like. 

So no one knows. We, it's, it's always involving right? Uhhuh, so just like cambio. But once we started following kind of what other people are doing and what they're doing, right, then we decided, hey, this is what we wanna use. And then we put it into our platform. Awesome.

Jessica Denson (03:10):

No, that's a good answer. I don't wanna give you too, you to give proprietary information away. Of course. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Of course we do

Jennifer Logsdon (03:17):

Competitors here.

Jessica Denson (03:18):

Yeah. Yeah. I've seen them. Don't listen. Um, no, but it's, it's interesting that you were already thinking to use ai. Um, and then when people were starting to talk about it, 'cause it's really happened where the general populace anyway, has really talked about in the last year or two. Was it really something you're like, oh, this is just the world catching up to a place a lot of industry insiders already were?

Jennifer Logsdon (03:42):

I think so. I I think it's more if you have a really good strong software platform, you're already using AI and it's, it's not even called ai, right? Mm-hmm <affirmative>. The end consumer doesn't need to know about ai. They just need to know, oh, this button makes it work faster. Right? Uhhuh, <affirmative>. So I do feel like some people are catching up, however, it's still knowledge and we're all learning together. Uhhuh,

Jessica Denson (04:04):

<affirmative>, and you're looking at what's next with ai? Then I take it.

Jennifer Logsdon (04:06):

Of course, of course. Yeah. There's, we don't even know. I think everything's kind of scratched the surface, so we're excited.

Jessica Denson (04:12):

Well, it's very cool that we're talking about innovation because you are the partner award for innovation that CX has given you. Talk about, um, your, your colleague here told me that it was, um, a case study that was done. Talk about what it was, why you won that award and why you think it was, you're like, yeah, we deserve this.

Jennifer Logsdon (04:29):

Yeah, absolutely. So with camia, we have the best integration. Everything's real time. So when someone's out in the field, they go to provision, it immediately pushes to cex, support cloud and engagement cloud. So that's one thing we were had the ability to start fresh. So that's, that's phenomenal. We do bark, we do all of the other software, you know, that they have. 

So that's that one piece of it. But what's even better is our clients are amazing. So we've got one client who has seven employees and 20,000 subs, right? So they've done a phenomenal job automating everything, and it's really the combination between cameo and CX that's made it happen. So it was stories like that that really helped with the innovation.

Jessica Denson (05:07):

So when you say subs, you mean subscribers, correct?

Jennifer Logsdon (05:10):

Of course. Yeah.

Jessica Denson (05:10):

So they really used your platform to grow mm-hmm <affirmative>. And do they talk about how they did that

Jennifer Logsdon (05:16):

At all? Or? I don't think us or them are really good about telling our story, <laugh>, right? Like, we need to be better. We all need to be better. We need to brag it a little bit. Like, Hey, this is amazing. So other people could kind of follow that leap,

Jessica Denson (05:27):

Right? Um, so it's very cool. CEO uh, C-suite. I love seeing women in the C-suite. We need more of that. Just gonna say, put it out that in the universe. But, um, I love seeing that, uh, talk about your background. What brought you to, I mean, you, you talked about seeing that there was a need, but what was kind of your background leading to this?

Jennifer Logsdon (05:47):

Um, actually my background started in accounting. Oh, and I moved out to Nebraska, ironically, I worked for a now competitor of ours. So we started over there and I was a support rep when I first started and learned about the industry and I said, wow, this is a, something I didn't even know existed, right? So I had a prior company to this called Sentara, and that company helped people better utilize their billing systems. 

So that really got us into understanding. I did that for about 12 years and got understanding about the different vendors and what they're doing and how they're doing things. And then my co-founder and I said, you know what? We can do this better. Let's do it. So we just took the leap and we are here today.

Jessica Denson (06:25):

Do you, is there a certain part of you that likes a little bit of risk in trying new things?

Jennifer Logsdon (06:30):

Oh, absolutely. I, yeah, if I'm that squirrel who's gonna go across the road and, you know, play Frogger over there, but I'm, I'm excited. I'm gonna jump out of a plane with no parachute and figure it out on the way down.

Jessica Denson (06:40):

So are there any lessons learned along the way as being A-A-A-C-E-O that you would share with others who may wanna go that route?

Jennifer Logsdon (06:49):

Uh, you just have to fake it till you make it. I would say, um, get out there and do it. Start before you're ready, you know, type of things. And just learn, listen and learn. I think one of the biggest things with me in this industry is I, I too excited, too passionate sometimes. 

And they get to, I get told like, you gotta simmer down a little bit, but we just truly love what we do. So as far as yeah, do it. If, if you feel, you know, you're ready for that role. And I, I do agree, we do need more females in this, in that leadership role as well.

Jessica Denson (07:16):

Yeah, I agree as well. <laugh>. I'm just gonna agree with myself and with you. Um, so, uh, where is cameo, uh, based? You said you were, you were in Nebraska, is the company in Nebraska?

Jennifer Logsdon (07:27):

No, no, no. I lived in Nebraska for a little bit, but I'm now in Arizona. So the company is actually based in California. So we're Newport Beach, California, that's where we started. But we have a hundred percent remote staff, so everybody works throughout the us. We have no physical building, which makes it really nice. So every single day we go on a huddle and we collaborate. We, it's our team huddle and everyone checks in and says hello over Slack and it works great.

Jessica Denson (07:52):

Yeah, I, we, I work for an all remote, pretty much 95% all remote company and I love it. I, I don't think I could ever go back. 'cause it changes your life. Yeah. So, uh, this is, uh, obviously Calex does a lot with, uh, telecom industry. Do you also work with the telecom industry some too?

Jennifer Logsdon (08:08):

Oh yeah, absolutely. That's like 80% of us. So cameo strength is telecom, it's the broadband or utility companies have gotten into broadband. We also do utilities. We work with a lot of municipalities as well. Um, so like the city of Pharr down in Texas, those guys got into it. I think they're, they got some innovation, um, recognition last year as well. So we loved all of those different sectors.

Jessica Denson (08:29):

So is there a different approach for each one or is it pretty much the same?

Jennifer Logsdon (08:34):

No different approach. You know, they're, what's important to 'em, what's important to a co-op might be different than what's important to a small, you know, mom and pop telecom in Iowa, right? So they're all a little bit different in what they need and their culture's different too. So we had to kind of react. But our platform works well for them all, but it's how we interact with them and how we teach 'em and, you know, our value changes a bit.

Jessica Denson (08:55):

So you said your, your staff was all remote. Is it, are they customer service related or are they all over the place? And I mean, as in what type of roles do they have that support cambio?

Jennifer Logsdon (09:06):

Yep. So, um, we have got developers, we've got, you know, New York, Florida developers all over the place. And then we have a customer success team. Um, customer success director is actually right behind me, right here. Um, so that role and we have support roles. We have a lot of our support team in Texas. That is one thing we're really proud of because everybody is a hundred percent in the US so we have no outsourcing and I can't, a lot of my competitors outsource and we've decided strategically, well, more expensive. We see a lot of value of keeping everybody here in the us.

Jessica Denson (09:36):

I see a lot of value as in when I can't understand what the person's saying. 'cause I grew up in Texas and sometimes I don't understand. Yeah. Um, so, uh, CX conference, is this your first one or have you been before?

Jennifer Logsdon (09:50):

No, it is not my first one. I've been here maybe 10 years now. So I, I've been in the industry for a while. I think the very first one we came to, we actually crashed. We didn't even pay to be here. <laugh>. We had CEX people meeting us out in the hall and they were like, yeah, we, we knew the value. We, you know, partnering with CEX was a strategic move. Yeah, CEX

Jessica Denson (10:06):

Is great. I I, I really enjoy their conference. And I say that with, um, a little bit of joking, but I go to a lot of conferences with the podcast and it's one of the few that I really have like a little bit of fun at. So, um, what are some of the, what do you think are the benefits of other people who maybe not know about CX or Cambio to come to one of these and explore this?

Jennifer Logsdon (10:27):

I think there's a lot of benefits because it's not only hearing the content and hearing people talk. I think calex one thing that they're really, really good at is telling their customers stories. So you see on the big screen, oh my, my neighboring company in Iowa or in Texas or wherever they are, they're doing this. So then afterwards, during this innovation showcase, they could actually meet one another.

 Same thing for us at the booth. We had a prospect come over and then someone right behind him, like, Hey, go talk to him. He uses it and it's gonna be more valuable learning it from him than from a salesperson.

Jessica Denson (10:55):

It, it, does it help when you hear from those that are in the field that are using your product to, what's the next evolution of cambio?

Jennifer Logsdon (11:02):

Oh, absolutely. We, we lean heavily on our clients. So we like to go after there's wolves and sheep in the industry. We like the wolves, uhhuh. So we sit our wolves down and we're like, guys, like, how are you doing things? How can we make it better? And they'll tell us, like, I get my phone number out to people and believe me, I get those texts, I get those phone numbers, sometimes not great conversations, but it helps us be better.

Jessica Denson (11:21):

What do you mean by wolves and sheeps?

Jennifer Logsdon (11:23):

So I have a theory that this industry, I mean, all industry is, right? Yeah. But just in innately, there's people who are more followers and leaders and cambio fits really, really well with those who are the leaders, the wolves, because they're out there, they're paving new paths. They're telling us what to do, what we should do. So as us being a disruptor, that's important, right? Yeah. So like, we're fighting the fight together. Yeah.

Jessica Denson (11:45):

Well, I, I wish you lots of luck, Jennifer Logon. Thank you so much and congratulations on being a partner Award for innovation for Cameo. I'll include a link, excuse me, in the description of the podcast to your company.

Jennifer Logsdon (11:56):

Wonderful. Thank you so much for having us. Yeah, awesome.

Jessica Denson (12:07):

Still ahead this year we'll continue our coverage from Calix Connexions 2025 and talk with leadership from Calix, as well as other high profile speakers and those with broadband companies from across the country. Until then, I'm Jessica Denson, and this is Connected Nation.