Value Inspiration Podcast

This podcast interview reveals why the best software breaks all the rules. My guest is Sunil Patel, CEO of Tekmetric.  Before building software, Sunil owned and operated multiple auto repair shops, giving him a rare insider's perspective on the industry's real problems. He's a practical entrepreneur who's obsessed with simplicity and hates wasted effort. When in 2016, eight years after iPhones hit the market, shop owners still couldn't leverage that technology to run their business, Sunil decided to be the one to change that. And this inspired me to invite Sunil to my podcast. We explore how breaking industry norms and staying true to first principles creates remarkable companies. Sunil shares hard truths about why they turned down big clients, cut all marketing spending to zero, and raised the least funding in the industry - yet still became the market leader and only profitable one. You'll discover the counterintuitive decision that shocked his competitors but doubled customer loyalty overnight. Here's one of Sunil's quotes that captures his business philosophy:  "We used first principles thinking. Everybody in our space wants to copy features from one another. Their sales team says 'we can't win against Tekmetric because they have these features' and they try to emulate what we've built. I don't approach development that way. I want to figure out what we're trying to solve." By listening to this podcast you'll learn: Why maintaining the right departmental hierarchy prevents overselling and product gaps What approach led Sunil to solve in one click what competitors needed 60-80 clicks for When saying "no" to customers with big wallets and long wishlists makes you more money Why hiring the right people trumps everything else in scaling a business For more information about the guest from this week:  Guest: Sunil Patel  Website: https://www.tekmetric.com/  Want to dig deeper into the 10 traits of remarkable SaaS companies? Get my book The Remarkable Effect at https://valueinspiration.com/book Or sign up for Espresso with Ton at https://valueinspiration.com/daily - a 2-minute daily email to sharpen your thinking and strategy. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This podcast interview focuses on the entrepreneurial journey to discovering powerful strategic frameworks through trial and error. My guest is Sharat Potharaju, CEO of Unicode. Sharat is a serial entrepreneur with 15 years of experience. He navigated through a decade of ventures that didn't scale before founding Uniqode in 2019. His company has since grown to serve over 50,000 businesses worldwide, including Fortune 500 companies, by creating innovative technology that connects physical and digital worlds through mobile experiences. What makes Sharat's story remarkable is his methodical approach to business building, where he combines weekly deep strategic thinking with rapid experimentation frameworks, always maintaining that impact—both for employees and customers—is what drives his entrepreneurial energy. And this inspired me, and hence I invited Sharat to my podcast. We explore how an entrepreneur's decade of failures can become the foundation for remarkable success. Sharat challenges conventional wisdom by dedicating specific time each week for deep thinking about long-term strategy while handling day-to-day operations. He reveals why being selective about advice is crucial for maintaining entrepreneurial confidence, and how balancing luck with persistence creates the conditions for breakthrough success. His approach makes products dead-simple for users while sticking to strict testing methods to know what works. Here is a quote that captures one of Sharat's most striking business lessons: "It's important to love your product, but it's even more important to be obsessed about the problem that you're trying to solve. Because if you're not obsessed about the problem, eventually you'll just fall in love with your product and lose your focus on vision." By listening to this podcast you will learn: Why entrepreneurial success typically takes a decade, not overnight, and how to mentally prepare for this reality How to implement a "Wednesday deep thinking" practice that balances long-term vision with short-term execution The secret to filtering advice from well-meaning investors, mentors, and colleagues without losing your entrepreneurial confidence How to create frameworks for experimentation that prevent chaos while maximizing learning For more information about the guest from this week:  Guest: Sharat Potharaju  Website: uniqode.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This podcast interview focuses on the entrepreneurial journey of finding purpose and transformation through failure. My guest is Imran Syed, CEO of Hatchproof. After leading a high eight-figure exit at Instapage as COO, Imran witnessed how misalignment among leadership destroyed tens of millions in enterprise value during a failed product launch. Instead of moving on, this failure became his obsession. He spent six months deeply researching why people stay at or leave organizations before founding Hatchproof, creating a company built around the belief that work should have purpose, meaning, and fulfillment. And this inspired me, and hence I invited Imran to my podcast. We explore the counterintuitive approach of obsessing over problems rather than solutions, and why most entrepreneurs get this backward. Imran challenges conventional wisdom about scaling teams, explaining why the future belongs to smaller, tightly-aligned organizations rather than sprawling enterprises. His approach turns traditional metrics upside down, focusing on revenue per employee over headcount growth, and demonstrates how creating clear value frameworks enables sustainable business decisions. Here is a quote that captures one of Imran's most striking business lessons: "You have to have an obsession with the problem, not the solution. A lot of entrepreneurs are very anchored on their solution, and they struggle when the market tells them something different. If you obsess with the problem, you'll find the solution—it may not be the first one, but you'll eventually get to it." By listening to this podcast you will learn: How to distinguish between an "itch" and a "burning desire" when evaluating startup ideas Why investing six months in problem research before building anything created Imran's foundation for success How creating a simple four-value framework dramatically improves decision-making and prevents feature bloat Why revenue per employee is becoming the critical metric for AI-era companies, replacing the traditional focus on headcount growth For more information about the guest from this week:  Imran Syed  Website: hatchproof.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This podcast interview focuses on the entrepreneurial journey of turning transparency into business advantage. My guest is Zach Wasserman, Cofounder and Tech Evangelist of Fleet.  With over a decade of experience in open source software development, Zach helped create the widely-adopted OSquery project at Facebook in 2014, which has since become an industry standard for device visibility and is now governed by the Linux Foundation. After transitioning through a role at Kolide (later acquired by 1Password), Zach became the maintainer of a project that would eventually evolve into Fleet. Throughout his entrepreneurial journey, Zach discovered that what truly energizes him is "building software that's making someone's life better" - specifically IT administrators and security professionals who manage company devices. This human-centered approach led him to transform a personal passion project into a rapidly growing company that's challenging traditional business models in enterprise software This inspired me to invite Zach to my podcast. We explore how being open source gives Fleet a strategic edge. His approach rejects the common belief that enterprise sales requires complexity and secrecy. We discuss how community building leads to faster adoption and better results than traditional sales tactics. The formula is simple: be transparent, earn trust, and close deals faster. Here's one of his quotes: "The best way to lose a deal is to our own open source product, because those people remain prime prospective customers that we really need to continue to understand and figure out how we are going to build enough new value in that premium product for them to want to pay for it." By listening to this podcast, you will learn: How building on existing open source foundations can give startups immediate credibility with enterprise customers Why passionate early adopters can close deals remarkably easily compared to traditional prospects The entrepreneurial wisdom of identifying and connecting with actual budget holders while still maintaining engineer enthusiasm How customer-driven unexpected use cases can dramatically expand your market vision and product roadmap For more information about the guest from this week:  Guest: Zach Wasserman  Website: fleet.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This podcast interview focuses on what it takes to build a successful software company by following your convictions even when easier paths tempt you. My guest is Jan Bruce, CEO of meQuilibrium (MeQ). In 2011, after years in the media industry during its technological disruption, Jan witnessed firsthand how stress and resistance to change were devastating careers and organizations. Despite having no background in technology or clinical work, she made the bold decision to create a software solution when she barely understood what a software application was.  For the first five years, she and her team worked for almost nothing, deliberately avoiding the tempting direct-to-consumer route that was attracting massive funding for competitors, instead patiently building a B2B model that would prove more sustainable long-term. And this inspired me, and hence I invited Jan to my podcast. We explore the counterintuitive leadership decisions that led to her company's success while competitors faltered. Her approach challenges conventional wisdom in three critical areas:  avoiding the "capital trap" of raising too much money too early,  resisting the temptation to pursue direct-to-consumer strategies despite industry hype,  and having the patience to discover your true value proposition through customer insights rather than preconceived notions.  Jan's leadership journey reveals that sometimes the most profitable path is the one where you say "no" to what everyone else is saying "yes" to. Here is a quote that captures one of Jan's most striking business lessons: "There was a time when there were a lot of we had potential competitors entering in the direct to consumer space, and they were raising a lot of money, which, as you know, from a tech perspective, capital can deliver speed to build. And so there's always that temptation to, well, should we do it to get the money? But we didn't do it, and it was the right thing to do." By listening to this podcast you will learn: How to achieve "funding freedom" by bootstrapping until investors need you more than you need them Why saying "no" to popular market trends can create a sustainable competitive advantage How to discover your true value proposition by listening to customers rather than industry hype The leadership mindset required to build a profitable software company when you have no technology background For more information about the guest from this week:  Guest: Jan Bruce  Website: meQuilibrium.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This podcast interview focuses on the entrepreneurial wisdom gained through building a data-driven business from scratch. My guest is Samuel Logan, Founder and CEO of Evidencity.  After bootstrapping Evidencity as his fourth venture, Samuel Logan has spent a decade building a company with a profound mission: creating transparency to eliminate modern slavery in global supply chains. His journey began by addressing a critical gap in the market—helping multinational corporations access reliable data about their suppliers in regions where information wasn't available online. What started as a network of people physically retrieving documents in over 80 countries evolved into a sophisticated data platform that now helps uncover hidden networks facilitating forced labor. Samuel's commitment to transparency goes beyond simple compliance, focusing on the 30% of companies truly willing to "lift up the rocks and see what's underneath" their supply chains. And this inspired me, and hence I invited Samuel to my podcast. We explore the counterintuitive decisions that transform good companies into remarkable ones. His approach challenges the "move fast and break things" mentality that dominates the startup world. Samuel reveals why the hardest business choices often aren't about what to do, but about what to stop doing—especially when everyone around you expects the opposite. We discuss why sometimes you need to step back and work "under the hood" of your business rather than racing forward, and how what seems like an obvious path in the market can often be a "mirage." Throughout our conversation, Samuel shares the moments where slowing down actually accelerated his success and why rebuilding foundations allowed him to capitalize on opportunities his competitors couldn't see. Here is a quote that captures one of Samuel's most striking business lessons:  "If we had not made the decision around the data schema that we made, we would today not be in the position that we're in to leverage the AI technology that's in the market. Frankly, we need to leverage that to keep up with the pace at which things are moving right now." By listening to this podcast you will learn: How to recognize when your business needs to take two steps back to ultimately move ten steps forward Why your first hires post-funding should focus on leverage points rather than immediate revenue generation How implementing "user manuals" for leadership creates vulnerability and clarity that transforms team dynamics How to structure pipeline confidence-weighting systems that prevent optimism bias in your forecasting For more information about the guest from this week:  Samuel Logan  Website: Evidencity.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This podcast interview focuses on entrepreneurial decision-making and product development. My guest is Rich Kahn, CEO of Anura. Rich has been building tech companies since 1993. In 2003, while running an ad network with his wife, clients began complaining about traffic quality issues. When he discovered no commercial fraud detection solutions existed, he reluctantly built one himself. Years later during an M&A process, potential acquirers showed minimal interest in his primary business but significant interest in this internal tool he'd developed. The rest is history.  And this inspired me, and hence I invited Rich to my podcast. We explore the practical realities of identifying your most valuable product, even when it's not what you initially set out to build. Rich shares how he tested his solution against market leaders before spinning it off as a standalone company, and why focusing on measurable results rather than flashy features has been crucial to his success. Here is a quote that captures one of Rich's most practical business decisions: “We added a guarantee to Anura for two key reasons:  First, our accuracy is not a gimmick.  It's the real deal.  Second, because no one else in the industry is willing to address false positives – real people misidentified as fraud.  It's usually the number one issue that clients have with a fraud solution.  We are so confident in our solution; we have no problem guaranteeing it.” By listening to this podcast you will learn: How to recognize when your side project has more market value than your core business Why solving measurable problems creates stronger differentiation than marketing hype When to build technology in-house versus partnering with others The practical challenges of scaling a technical business in a constantly evolving landscape For more information about the guest from this week:  Rich Kahn  Website: anura.io Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This podcast interview focuses on building remarkable software that creates sustainable competitive advantage. My guest is Geordy Murphy, CEO of Fobesoft. After three decades as a successful restaurateur who owned one of San Francisco's top four restaurants, Geordy sold his business and relocated to Florida. Despite having no software background, he identified a critical gap in the market while cycling one morning in 2014.  Inspired by Steve Jobs' philosophy that "if you can identify a problem and solve that problem, you have opportunity," Geordy founded Fobesoft with a vision to change how restaurants manage finance. What started as a self-funded venture with manual data entry evolved through persistence, strategic pivoting during COVID, and finding the right technology partnerships. And this inspired me, and hence I invited Geordy to my podcast. We explore the counterintuitive approach he took to scaling a vertical SaaS business when everything seemed to collapse. While many companies cut back during COVID, Geordy doubled down on technology investments after securing angel funding. His journey reveals how industry expertise combined with technological innovation created a solution that convinces the moment people see it. His methods challenge conventional wisdom about rapid customer acquisition and demonstrate how focused simplicity beats feature complexity, especially in specialized verticals. Here is a quote that captures one of Geordy's most striking business lessons: "Years ago, I read an article that when there's a downturn, so many companies start cutting, cutting, cutting. But the ones that survive and come out when the economy comes back up are those that didn't cut. They spend a little more, look for another opportunity - and that puts you ahead of all the competition." By listening to this podcast you will learn: How deep vertical expertise can compensate for lack of software industry experience when building a SaaS company Why doubling down on product quality during market downturns positions you for accelerated growth afterwards How to create a systematic "customer journey" that increases retention after experiencing rapid growth challenges Why understanding your ideal customer profile prevents wasting resources on prospects that can't benefit from your solution For more information about the guest from this week:  Geordy Murphy  Website: fobesoft.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This podcast interview focuses on the entrepreneurial journey of persistence and adaptation. My guest is Maximus Greenwald, CEO of Warmly. After working at Google, Max and his co-founders quit their jobs to start a company with what he calls "the world's worst idea" - Tinder for co-founders.  What makes his journey fascinating is how he navigated through six pivots over three years, each time confronting the challenges of product-market fit, customer alignment, and sustainable growth.  Throughout this process, Max grappled with the central question many founders face: when to explore new ideas and when to commit fully to execution. And this inspired me, and hence I invited Max to my podcast. We explore the challenges of finding focus in startup chaos, the tension between vision and execution, and the counterintuitive reality that momentum often precedes perfection. Max's leadership principles cut through typical startup fluff with refreshing directness, challenging conventional wisdom about when to sell, how to pivot, and what metrics truly matter for early-stage companies. Here is one of his quotes  “In any company revenue is oxygen, and you need oxygen to live and to succeed. And so as we were starting to make money and make money fast, [..] we saw a excitement in the company and a devotion to work harder that we had never seen in our earlier six pivots. That's one of the most critical things: having momentum gets everyone excited to keep pushing along.” By listening to this podcast you will learn: The hidden pitfalls of pursuing product-market fit over generating actual revenue Why standard metrics often mislead early-stage founders away from what truly matters The real challenge of knowing when to stay the course versus when to pivot Why some customers might be holding back your company's growth potential For more information about the guest from this week:  Maximus Greenwald  Website: warmly.ai Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This podcast interview focuses on the entrepreneurial challenge of revitalizing a 20-year-old SaaS business in a market with hundreds of competitors. My guest is Ash Didwania, CEO of Workzone. Ash took the helm of Workzone in December 2023 after the company was acquired by Big Band Software. Despite being profitable with a sticky customer base (7-year average customer lifetime), long-tenured employees (9-year average), and a must-have product, Workzone had been experiencing a six-year decline in revenue. Instead of the typical turnaround approach of immediate disruption, Ash took a counterintuitive path - learning first, focusing on existing strengths, and engaging deeply with customers before making changes. And this inspired me, and hence I invited Ash to my podcast. We explore what it takes to reverse a multi-year revenue decline while maintaining 40%+ EBITDA margins in a highly commoditized market. Ash shares how he challenged the conventional wisdom about business turnarounds by taking a path few would dare to follow. His counterintuitive approach transformed not only the company's financial trajectory but also reshaped how the entire team viewed their mission, their customers, and their path to growth. Here is a quote that captures one of Ash's most striking business lessons: "Throwing money at a problem can get you short-term results. It will not get you long-term sustainability. And so again, one of the thesis here was because we want to grow in a sustainable fashion while also improving our EBITDA margins, in some ways that acted as a forcing function, which is despite the fact that we were profitable, we did not want to tap into the profit pool and start deploying investments before identifying levers of growth that already existed." By listening to this podcast you will learn: How to turn around a declining SaaS business without sacrificing profitability or disrupting what works Why deep customer understanding can be more valuable than new feature development  How to create organizational focus through a single metric that aligns every team member The power of planning for multiple contingencies (Plans A, B, C, and D) in sales and go-to-market For more information about the guest from this week: Ash Didwania Website: workzone.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This podcast interview focuses on transforming how B2B companies leverage customer interactions for growth. My guest is Krishna Raj Raja, CEO of SupportLogic.  From his early days as one of VMware's first support engineers, Krishna discovered something the industry had missed - the most valuable customer insights were being lost in departmental silos. Yet instead of accepting conventional solutions, he chose to build something the market initially rejected but customers immediately embraced. This inspired me, and hence I invited Krishna to my podcast. We explore the counterintuitive approach of building a B2B software company by deliberately ignoring what investors and the market considered essential. His journey reveals how challenging established industry assumptions can uncover massive business opportunities that others miss, while creating natural barriers to competition through a unique product philosophy. Here is a quote that captures one of Krishna's most striking business lessons:  "If customers are excited and investors are not seeing it, this is the right opportunity to go after, because this is an opportunity they're not going to fund."  By listening to this podcast you will learn: How to identify massive market opportunities in the disconnect between investor skepticism and customer excitement Why focusing on six wildly successful customers yields better results than chasing rapid-scale When deliberately ignoring industry "must-haves" creates stronger market positioning How to turn early customer enthusiasm into effortless enterprise sales For more information about the guest from this week:  Krishna Raj Raja  Website: supportlogic.com  Book: supportexperience.ai Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This podcast interview focuses on the critical decisions that define successful scaling. My guest is David DeWolf, CEO of Knownwell. After growing Three Pillar Global to 2000 employees across nine countries, David learned that sometimes the best way to scale is to deliberately slow down. During COVID, he made the bold choice to retain all employees despite revenue decline - a decision that led to tripling the business within a year. Now with Knownwell, he's applying these scaling lessons to build an AI company with intention, starting with 500 customer interviews before writing a single line of code. Their mission: To help professional services firms prevent "surprise churn” by elevating human relationships and experiences. And this inspired me, and hence I invited David to my podcast. We explore what it really takes to build an AI company that elevates rather than replaces human relationships. His approach challenges conventional wisdom about scaling, product development, and leadership - drawing from lessons that helped him grow his previous company from startup to 2000 employees and survive multiple market crises. But what's most fascinating is how he's applying these insights to tackle one of the biggest pain points in professional services: the struggle to see relationship problems before they become relationship crises. Here's a quote from David: We had an inbound lead that found us through the podcast and ended up signing a rather large contract before we even not only wrote a line of code, but before we had an engineer on staff. By listening to this podcast you will learn: How to secure major contracts before writing a single line of code (and why this might be smarter than building first) Why CEOs should never delegate customer relationships, even when scaling rapidly How staking your brand position before having a product can accelerate your go-to-market strategy Why implementing lightweight business systems early gives you an unfair advantage in scaling For more information about the guest from this week: David DeWolf Website: knownwell.com   Subscribe to the Daily SaaS Reflection Get my free, 1 min daily reflection on shaping a B2B SaaS business no one can ignore. Subscribe here. Yes, it's actually daily. And yes, people actually stay subscribed. (Just see what peer B2B SaaS CEOs say) My promise: It's short. To the point. Inspiring. And valuable.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A story about transforming a horizontal solution into targeted value propositions This podcast interview focuses on the entrepreneurial journey to build sustainable growth by deeply understanding customer needs over chasing broad market opportunities. My guest is Nick Wassenberg, CEO of Cludo. Nick is a marketing veteran turned CEO with an entrepreneurial mindset shaped by working closely with founders. Previously, as employee #12 at Fulcrum, he experienced rapid-growth dynamics firsthand. His diverse background spans manufacturing, healthcare, financial services, and global consulting – driven by an insatiable curiosity to understand how different businesses work. In June 2023, he became the CEO at Cludo. Their mission: To get website visitors of critical organizations the most relevant, timely, and trusted answers. And this inspired me, and hence I invited Nick to my podcast. We explore his strategic decisions in his first 90 days. He shares how he's transforming Cludo's approach from serving everyone to deliberately focusing on specific customer segments where they can deliver the most value. Last but not least, he shares his insights on how understanding the hidden patterns in customer behavior shapes both product development and go-to-market strategy. Here's one of his quotes: “If I were going to start from the beginning, I wouldn't say 'let's have 27 different industry categories.' We would pick one and build a product that was amazing for them, and then pick another, and then broaden out from there. That's an easy mistake - your eyes get pretty big, especially in a solution set like ours. Some amount of it is universal and universally applicable - but you still have to close the niche down and find your way that way.” By listening to this podcast you will learn the following: The importance of aligning your solution with your customer's top priorities rather than trying to elevate the priority of your specific solution Where he's investing his marketing budget to solve the current challenges of trying to make outbound work in complex B2B sales The strategic advantage of focusing on input metrics that drive outcomes rather than just measuring outputs The importance of building strengths in areas outside your comfort zone to drive business growth For more information about the guest from this week: Nick Wassenberg Website: cludo.com  Subscribe to the Daily SaaS Reflection Get my free, 1 min daily reflection on shaping a B2B SaaS business no one can ignore. Subscribe here Yes, it's actually daily. And yes, people actually stay subscribed (Just see what peer B2B SaaS CEOs say) My promise: It's short. To the point. Inspiring. And valuable. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This podcast interview focuses on the entrepreneurial journey to make effective leadership development available for everyone. My guest is Smadar Tadmor, CEO of Claro Mentor. Smadar Tadmor is a visionary leader who's on a mission to change the way organizations develop their managers. With over 30 years in HR and organizational development, she founded three successful consulting companies before spotting a critical gap: most leadership development programs weren't driving real behavior change.  This insight led her to found Claro Mentor in 2022, creating a platform that makes personalized leadership guidance available for every layer of an organization.  What makes her story particularly compelling is her transition at this stage in her career - moving from being a top-tier consultant to a first-time tech startup CEO, embracing a beginner's mindset while leveraging decades of domain expertise. And this inspired me, and hence I invited Smadar to my podcast. We explore her remarkable transition from successful consultant to first-time tech CEO, where she had to unlearn decades of habits to build something entirely new. She shares candid insights about the struggles of perfectionism, the surprises of product-market fit, and how bootstrapping forced tough but transformative decisions that shaped their innovative approach to leadership development. Here's one of her quotes: “I left behind an amazing 30 years of career where I was top-notch consultant, well known... and start from a place where I know nothing. And it's very humbling to be at this point. From that perspective, I could be very open to explore and take risks that I think in a different way I wouldn't be doing.” By listening to this podcast, you will learn the following: Why starting with 'knowing nothing' became Smadar's biggest advantage The surprising reason their initial AI coaching approach failed - and what insight changed everything How bootstrapping revealed a truth about their product they wouldn't have discovered otherwise The counterintuitive approach that doubled their customer adoption For more information about the guest from this week: Smadar Tadmor Website: claromentor.com Subscribe to the Daily SaaS Reflection Get my free, 1 min daily reflection on shaping a B2B SaaS business no one can ignore. Subscribe here Yes, it's actually daily. And yes, people actually stay subscribed (Just see what peer B2B SaaS CEOs say) My promise: It's short. To the point. Inspiring. And valuable. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This podcast interview focuses on the entrepreneurial journey to transform thoughtful validation of the problem into confident scaling of his SaaS business. My guest is Robbert Lodewijks, Co-founder and CEO of Hulo AI. Robbert Lodewijks is an entrepreneur who understands the delicate balance between patience and ambition. His journey began with a profound realization during his studies in Taiwan - that impact requires more than just good technology. What makes Robbert's story intriguing is his methodical approach: spending four years in research before launching, then bootstrapping to validate, and only then accelerating with venture funding. This disciplined progression showcases a rare blend of scientific rigor and entrepreneurial instinct. And this inspired me, and hence, I invited Robbert to my podcast. We explore how early-stage founders can build confidence through validation rather than rushing to scale. His insights reveal how methodical customer development, thoughtful bootstrapping, and strategic timing of funding can create a stronger foundation for growth. What's particularly fascinating is his scientific approach to sales and his insights on avoiding the common pitfalls of enterprise customer development. Here's one of his quotes:  "We have one really clear definition [of success], and that is in the amount of water that we have saved. In the end, that relates to all our goals, because if we save so many Olympic-sized swimming pools of drinking water, which is 4 million (our BHAG), then it also means that we will probably build a very profitable company and make a huge impact on the world.” By listening to this podcast you will learn the following: That patient validation beats premature scaling because it builds stronger foundations. How to avoid pure sales hustle and having to rely on individual talent to secure the growth of your SaaS business. How to get everyone aligned in your company to create business velocity (not just departmental speed) Why you should always start your validation processes with end-users rather than just decision-makers. For more information about the guest from this week:  Robbert Lodewijks  Website: hulo.ai Subscribe to the Daily SaaS Reflection Get my free, 1 min daily reflection on shaping a B2B SaaS business no one can ignore. Subscribe here Yes, it's actually daily. And yes, people actually stay subscribed (Just see what peer B2B SaaS CEOs say) My promise: It's short. To the point. Inspiring. And valuable. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This podcast interview focuses on the entrepreneurial journey to transform messy wearable data into standardized enterprise gold. My guest is Marco Benitez, CEO of Rook. Marco is a tech entrepreneur on a mission. He's a former Tae Kwon Do champion who transformed his athletic discipline into entrepreneurial success.  At just 22 years old (while still in college), he and his co-founder built a machine learning system for hospitals, which they successfully sold in 2006. This got him involved in clinical research - thereby working for pharmaceutical giants like Roche and Novartis. This is where stumbled across big challenges that were caused by the absence of enough meaningful health data. And this became the founding idea behind ROOK, which he founded in June 2017.  What began as a heart rate monitoring platform in 2018 evolved into a sophisticated B2B platform that now integrates with over 300 wearable devices.  Their vision: to create a healthier world by making health data accessible and meaningful.  And this inspired me, and hence I invited Marco to my podcast. We explore the journey of building a groundbreaking health data platform. Marco tells the story how COVID destroyed their fitness-center business model, and what lessons he learned in the process of pivoting. He shares his insights on enterprise sales cycles, pricing strategy, and team building. Last but not least he explains how he's deliberately portraying the startup's challenges to find the right cultural fit and his mantra of "cut through the noise and keep walking" when it comes to facing tough decisions.  Here's one of his quotes Once you switch your mind, instead of selling a product, you are selling data, and you are really selling a problem, that's when they put your price on you. Because if you are selling a very good solution to their problem, that's when they are will say, ‘This is a no-brainer. I don't care how much you are going to charge to me.' During this interview, you will learn four things: What insights changed their ability to charge premium prices in enterprise deals? What's he's doubling down on successfully to shorten the typically long sales cycles.  Why he emphasizes radical transparency, sharing financials and challenges with potential hires. His secrets to staying persistent and disciplined, even when facing doubts or lack of motivation For more information about the guest from this week: Marco Benitez Website: Rook  Subscribe to the Daily SaaS Reflection Get my free, 1 min daily reflection on shaping a B2B SaaS business no one can ignore. Subscribe here Yes, it's actually daily. And yes, people actually stay subscribed (Just see what peer B2B SaaS CEOs say) My promise: It's short. To the point. Inspiring. And valuable. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This podcast interview focuses on the entrepreneurial journey to make buying and selling in B2B remarkably easier.  My guest is Mark Fershteyn, Founder and CEO of Recapped. Mark is a tech entrepreneur on a mission. He has a passion for building things from scratch. He specifically prefers going from "zero to one" rather than maintaining existing systems, describing himself as someone who enjoys "bushwhacking through the jungle" and forging new trails. His entrepreneurial journey includes diverse experiences: He co-founded Tryhard Games LLC. Led sales at App Academy, a coding bootcamp, and has a remarkable history of taking on challenging situations. At Citrix, he volunteered to manage their worst-performing sales team - one where no one was making quota. Within 6-9 months, he transformed it into a top-three revenue-producing vertical. In Jun 2019, Mark founded Recapped, a customer collaboration platform that helps B2B sellers work more effectively with buyers.  Their mission: to solve the "messy middle" of sales and change the way how B2B sales teams collaborate with buyers and close deals.  And this inspired me, and hence I invited Mark to my podcast. We explore how he transformed Recapped from a side project into a game-changing deal collaboration platform, achieving a remarkable 44% win rate for customers - far above the industry standard of 15-18%. He reveals counterintuitive insights from his sales process optimization at Citrix and elaborates on his approach to building a remarkable software company. Last but not least, he shares his unusual incentive approach that helped him and his team to significantly grow a high-quality pipeline. Here's one of his quotes I fundamentally believe 90% of your Salesforce data should be client-facing and should be shared with the prospect... if you're not on the same page, get them out of your pipeline and go focus on deals that are actually going to move the needle. During this interview, you will learn four things: Why he would split the focus 50/50 between product and distribution if he would ever start again? How he's increased close rates by deliberately blending in more professional services How 10% of features but 10x the marketing can outperform having more features but less visibility How the science of selling is 80-90% of success, while art is only 10-20% - making the process repeatable matters more than individual talent For more information about the guest from this week: Mark Fershteyn Website: Recapped Subscribe to the Daily SaaS Reflection Get my free, 1 min daily reflection on shaping a B2B SaaS business no one can ignore. Subscribe here Yes, it's actually daily. And yes, people actually stay subscribed (Just see what peer B2B SaaS CEOs say) My promise: It's short. To the point. Inspiring. And valuable. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This podcast interview focuses on the entrepreneurial journey to successfully merge and integrate two distinct SaaS companies while balancing stakeholder interests, maintaining growth, and navigating complex market dynamics. My guest is Randy Wootton, CEO of Maxio. Randy is a serial CEO. Before becoming CEO, he held senior positions at industry giants like Microsoft and Salesforce, where he led sales, service, and marketing teams. His career has given him a truly global outlook. He has worked internationally, opening up divisions in England and Australia, and has hired teams across multiple countries, including France, the UK, the US, Japan, and Australia. In March 2015 he moved to Rocket Fuel, a first-generation AI company. He started as their CRO, quickly turned CEO, and took the company private 2 years later. He then became the CEO of Percolate, where he led the company's transformation from a mid-market social media product to an industry-leading content marketing platform.  And now, since May 2022, he is the CEO of Maxio, a billing and finance operations platform for B2B SaaS companies. Their mission: to help its customers amplify their recurring revenue and decipher their next stage of growth. And this inspired me, and hence I invited Randy to my podcast. He provides invaluable insights for B2B SaaS CEOs navigating growth and mergers by sharing candid experiences from this process. He discusses his strategic decision-making frameworks and highlights the challenges of brand management post-merger and the complexities of transitioning from sales-led to product-led growth. He also zooms into the complexities of expanding into new markets and how to go about that. He ends with advice on fostering innovation, managing stakeholder expectations, and personal development.  Here's one of his quotes As you think about your expansion strategy and your growth agenda, there's going to be a set of things you're just going to grow within your current segment. But then you're going to think about which category we should explore next. But as you start, you've got to get really clear about what you do better than anyone else. During this interview, you will learn four things: The four key support pillars for B2B SaaS CEOs. How to go about merging distinct company cultures so the business becomes stronger and keeps delivering on growth expectations. What he would have done differently if he could deal with the branding opportunity again. His framework for evaluating expansion opportunities to find the next area of growth for the company. For more information about the guest from this week: Randy Wootton Website: Maxio Subscribe to the Daily SaaS Reflection Get my free, 1 min daily reflection on shaping a B2B SaaS business no one can ignore. Subscribe here Yes, it's actually daily. And yes, people actually stay subscribed (Just see what peer B2B SaaS CEOs say) My promise: It's short. To the point. Inspiring. And valuable. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This podcast interview focuses on the entrepreneurial journey to democratize customer evidence and change the way B2B software buying decisions are made.  My guest is Evan Huck, Co-founder and CEO of UserEvidence. Evan's journey in the tech industry is a testament to his entrepreneurial spirit and sales acumen. He started his career as an SDR (Sales Development Representative) in 2010, joining TechValidate as their first sales employee. This early experience laid the foundation for his future success. What's remarkable about Evan's career trajectory is how he rapidly climbed the ranks in sales leadership. At TechValidate, he built and managed the sales organization, growing it to a 50-person team. His success in this role led to TechValidate's acquisition by SurveyMonkey in 2015, where Evan continued to excel in enterprise sales leadership positions. Despite his success in larger companies, Evan's passion for early-stage startups led him to co-found UserEvidence in August 2020. This move was inspired by his firsthand experience of the pain points in B2B sales and marketing, particularly the challenge of creating and leveraging customer stories at scale. Their mission: Helping quality software vendors with satisfied customers stand out in a noisy marketplace. And this inspired me, and hence I invited Evan to my podcast. We explore how the process of collecting quality customer evidence is still broken. Evan explains how they're approaching the problem in a way that was unthinkable before. He shares strategies for cutting through the intense market noise today. Last but not least he elaborates his lessons learned from building successful sales teams from the ground up with junior talent. Here's one of his quotes What we're trying to do is introduce some truth or scientific rigor or data driven approach to helping buyers assess the value that a vendor is delivering.  I'd argue that the stakes are getting a little bit higher today, where there is a big cost if you get something wrong. Without infinite budgets now and infinite VC funding like you kind of got to get it right.  During this interview, you will learn four things: What's working well for UserEvidence's own growth and pipeline generation when it comes to reaching the right buyer via outbound. Why Evan's deliberately choosing to organize his business around sales-led growth, not product-led growth.  What non-obvious opportunity many companies have when they centralize and democratize customer feedback across company functions Why he'd focus on more durable categories like vertical SaaS over crowded go-to-market tools if he'd had the chance next time. For more information about the guest from this week: Evan Huck Website: UserEvidence Subscribe to the Daily SaaS Reflection Get my free, 1 min daily reflection on shaping a B2B SaaS business no one can ignore. Subscribe here Yes, it's actually daily. And yes, people actually stay subscribed (Just see what peer B2B SaaS CEOs say) My promise: It's short. To the point. Inspiring. And valuable. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This podcast interview focuses on the challenges and strategies of implementing product-led growth (PLG) effectively (and when to stay out of PLG). My guest is Wes Bush, product-led growth pioneer, founder of Productled.com, and bestselling author. Wes is widely recognized as one of the pioneers of the product-led growth movement, challenging an entire industry to rethink their approach to SaaS growth. In 2016, he introduced a freemium product at Vidyard that gained over 100,000 users in less than 12 months, sparking his passion for PLG. He's a Bestselling Author: His book "Product-Led Growth: How to Build a Product That Sells Itself" has sold over 100,000 copies globally, primarily through word-of-mouth.  Meanwhile, he has partnered with 408+ SaaS companies to generate over $1bn in self-serve revenue. Based on that experience, he recently released his new book, The Product-Led Playbook, to discover a simple system to scale your SaaS to 7, 8, or even 9 figures in self-serve revenue with a small team. His vision:  For every company to have a free product experience that enables them to serve before they sell.  This inspired me, and hence, I invited Wes to my podcast. We explore the critical differences between successful and unsuccessful PLG implementations. He highlights the importance of treating PLG as a comprehensive business strategy, not merely a product or marketing tactic. We discuss the importance of choosing the right go-to-market strategy based on product complexity and value addition. I.e., when to opt for Sales-led Growth, and when for Product-Led growth. Last but not least, he shares his framework for deciding what to offer at no cost.  Here's one of his  quotes What separates the companies that really see success with product-led growth versus the ones that don't? ... They are thinking about product-led growth not just as a product thing; they are treating it as a company thing. They are actually building a product-led business. During this interview, you will learn four things: What key questions to ask to determine which approach fits your SaaS company better  What's required to be crystal clear about before implementing PLG?  Why he believes a hybrid PLG + Sales-led growth approach will become dominant (60%+) for B2B SaaS, with pure PLG and pure sales-led each around 20% What we can learn from PLG when it comes to building better websites? For more information about the guest from this week: Wes Bush Website: Productled.com Subscribe to the Daily SaaS Reflection Get my free, 1 min daily reflection on shaping a B2B SaaS business no one can ignore. Subscribe here Yes, it's actually daily. And yes, people actually stay subscribed (Just see what peer B2B SaaS CEOs say) My promise: It's short. To the point. Inspiring. And valuable. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This podcast interview focuses on the entrepreneurial journey to build a global SaaS company with 25 million users without venture funding. My guest is Aytekin Tank, Founder and CEO of Jotform. Aytekin founded Jotform in 2006, creating a pioneering WYSIWYG online form builder that has grown to serve over 25 million users worldwide today.  What's remarkable is that he bootstrapped the company from the ground up. This allowed Jotform to remain 100% independent and define its own rules and company culture as it grew. Under his leadership, Jotform has experienced impressive international growth, with offices in seven different cities around the world. Their growth and style were recognized as Jotform was named one of the "Best Privately-Owned Companies in America" by Entrepreneur Magazine. Aytekin is not just a successful entrepreneur but also an automation enthusiast. He recently published a book titled "Automate Your Busywork. His book shares his insights on the automation philosophy he applied to grow Jotform. This inspired me, so I invited Aytekin to my podcast. We explore his biggest lessons learned from bootstrapping a form-building tool to leading a global company with 25 million users. He elaborates on his approach around continuous innovation and maintaining momentum (rather than worrying about competitors) and shares his insights on prioritizing product development and growth. Last but not least, he talks about how he recently gave new meaning to his 'Founder' role and why every SaaS entrepreneur should do that. Here's one of his quotes Being a founder is not just about leading a team, coaching a team, managing a team. But it's also about improving myself, growing myself. Because being a founder is about growth. It's about growth mindset. It's about growing yourself with the company. It's about growing your company. And it requires some dedication to do that - growing knowledge and learning. During this interview, you will learn four things: How he's working with customers to ensure JotForm's success His first principles for managing growth and avoiding getting bogged down in busy work. How he's organized his development teams and their rituals to ensure momentum on the one hand and optimal alignment on the other hand. How he approached competition from Google Forms to come out stronger themselves.  For more information about the guest from this week: Aytekin Tank Website: Jotform Subscribe to the Daily SaaS Reflection Get my free, 1 min daily reflection on shaping a B2B SaaS business no one can ignore. Subscribe here Yes, it's actually daily. And yes, people actually stay subscribed (Just see what peer B2B SaaS CEOs say) My promise: It's short. To the point. Inspiring. And valuable. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This podcast interview focuses on the entrepreneurial journey to eliminate the risk that cost businesses thousands of $ per second of downtime. My guest is Ozan Unlu, Founder and CEO of Edge Delta. Ozan has had an unconventional career path that spans multiple disciplines. He started as a nanoscientist and researcher before transitioning into the tech world. His professional journey includes roles at major tech companies. He worked as a Software Development Lead and Program Manager at Microsoft, and as a Senior Solutions Architect at Sumo Logic. In September 2018, he founded Edge Delta after recognizing the need for a new approach to handling the exponential growth of data in modern organizations. Their mission: Change the way enterprises manage their data - particularly in mission-critical systems. And this inspired me, and hence I invited Ozan to my podcast. We explore what it takes to navigate the complexities of building a successful B2B SaaS company in a competitive landscape. He elaborates on his approach to solving mission-critical problems and building credibility in deep-tech enterprise markets around a new category. Ozan also shares how he's maintaining a long-term vision while addressing urgent needs - and what he's doing differently to assemble and align a world-class team. Lastly, he discusses the challenges of market education, gaining early adopters, and scaling efficiently.  Here's one of his quotes If you're at an early-stage startup, look at how you're solving problems. Don't put more problems on other people's plates. Say, “Hey, this is how I'm solving a problem. This is what I think is the best approach.” And if people disagree with you, just make sure you're walking away with a mutual commitment.  We do this all the time, whether it's myself or someone else at the company where you say, You know what, I disagree, but I'm committed. Let's go do it that way.  That's super important because when you're dealing with companies that make hundreds of millions of dollars in profits a day, that is very hard to fight against if you aren't all in lockstep and marching forward. During this interview, you will learn four things: What he learned from their rapid growth period (6x employees in one year) and what he'd do differently next time. Why he's saying no to companies like Apple (even though they might be able to help them). Why he continues to focus on solving big technical problems rather than taking an easier route. What he's done to build credibility and trust in the market. For more information about the guest from this week: Ozan Unlu Website: Edge Delta Subscribe to the Daily SaaS Reflection Get my free, 1 min daily reflection on shaping a B2B SaaS business no one can ignore. Subscribe here Yes, it's actually daily. And yes, people actually stay subscribed (Just see what peer B2B SaaS CEOs say) My promise: It's short. To the point. Inspiring. And valuable. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This podcast interview focuses on the entrepreneurial journey to redefine software's role from engagement-driven to impact-driven solutions. My guest is Daniel Saks, CEO of Landbase. Daniel's entrepreneurial journey has deep roots in a 100-year-old family business. He grew up in Niagara Falls, Canada, where his family owned a furniture store founded by his great-great-grandparents in 1908.  However, the 2009 recession forced the century-old family business to close, which became a pivotal moment in Daniel's life. Instead of lamenting the loss, he was inspired to explore how technology could have saved small businesses like his family's store.  This experience led him to co-found AppDirect, a B2B subscription commerce platform that grew to generate over $3 billion in annual transaction revenue. In May 2023, he co-founded Landbase, which he leads as the CEO. He sees Landbase as his "second business" with a continued mission of "helping B2B businesses or entrepreneurs thrive." This time, the focus is on applying agentic AI to go-to-market strategies.  And this inspired me, and hence I invited Daniel to my podcast. We explore what's broken in the way companies still automate today. Daniel shares a compelling vision for the future of B2B SaaS powered by agentic AI - thereby creating a 5x lager market than today's software industry. He discusses how companies can achieve significantly better results while allowing executives to "reclaim their day." He also explains how this new technology can help build digital credibility, which is essential for companies to stand out. Here's one of his quotes I think that era of software, including business software, was all driven by what is the amount of hours that someone spends in your tool. And I think those are all the wrong metrics. My kind of goals with Landbase and agentic AI is the opposite. It's actually: how few, how little amount of time does a human have to spend in the software, but how much impact does the software make for the human so they can have more time to do what they love. During this interview, you will learn four things: What he's doing differently to create defensible differentiation.  His approach to helping his customers avoid waste of resources and money as they speed up their Go-to-Market activities. Why he advises against imposing previous playbooks/values on new ventures. What he learned from speaking to customers about their biggest painpoints that helped him to build far better products. For more information about the guest from this week: Daniel Saks Website: Landbase Subscribe to the Daily SaaS Reflection Get my free, 1 min daily reflection on shaping a B2B SaaS business no one can ignore. Subscribe here Yes, it's actually daily. And yes, people actually stay subscribed (Just see what peer B2B SaaS CEOs say) My promise: It's short. To the point. Inspiring. And valuable. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This podcast interview focuses on the entrepreneurial journey to transform toxic sales automation. My guest is Mark Kosoglow, CEO of Operator. Mark is a tech entrepreneur on a mission. A big mission. He's a sales expert who played a crucial role in helping scale Outreach from zero to over $230 million in revenue in just 8-years.  Being part of the rising growth of sales automation, Mark realizes how too much automation and the mantra of Growth at all Costs has wrecked outbound. It's created a massive problem, which he refers to as ‘The Great Ignore.' This inspired the idea of founding an operator in April 2024.  Their mission is to make outreach more human, insightful, and valuable for both sellers and buyers. And this inspired me, and hence I invited Mark to my podcast. We explore how  The Great Ignore has not only created a sales execution problem for all of us - but has also fueled a much larger Societal problem. He shares a masterclass on the art of what effective sales is really all about. He elaborates on what he's done differently to build rapid traction - with buyers that stay and become fans from the start. Last but not least, he talks about his lessons learned in harmonizing work-life priorities. Here's one of his quotes "Most platforms, good advice is the antithesis of how they create revenue. So if I'm like a ZoomInfo or someone like that, I make money by people buying more accounts and more contacts. Therefore, for me to suggest something that would require less contacts and less companies would be the antithesis of what I'm supposed to be doing, which is growing my business." During this interview, you will learn four things: What sales skills to home in on to succeed in the evolving sales landscape  How he's staying sane, flexible and performing better in the crazy world of building a startup in a market that's overwhelmingly crowded.  How his Waitlist grew to 1,500 people within 24 hours of announcement. How building a personal brand is of value to any sales to stand out - not only top management. For more information about the guest from this week: Mark Kosoglow Website: Operator Subscribe to the Daily SaaS Reflection Get my free, 1 min daily reflection on shaping a B2B SaaS business no one can ignore. Subscribe here Yes, it's actually daily. And yes, people actually stay subscribed (Just see what peer B2B SaaS CEOs say) My promise: It's short. To the point. Inspiring. And valuable. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This podcast interview focuses on the entrepreneurial journey to build mission-critical billing infrastructure for complex B2B SaaS pricing models. My guest is Griffin Parry, Founder and CEO of m3ter. Griffin Parry is a serial Entrepreneur. In 2013, he founded GameSparks, a backend-as-a-service platform for video games, which he sold to Amazon in 2017.  Combining his firsthand experience with the challenges of usage-based pricing at GameSparks with the problems he encountered at a much larger scale at AWS became the founding idea behind m3ter. He founded m3ter in October 2020 - it's a platform that helps B2B Software companies manage complex pricing and automate complex billing calculations.  Their mission:  To enable B2B Software companies to deploy and manage usage-based pricing intelligently. This inspired me, and hence, I invited Griffin to my podcast. We explore what it takes to build a successful pricing and billing infrastructure company. Griffin shares his experience identifying and solving real market problems. He talks about the importance of a strong founding thesis and continuous iteration and why he opted to build for operational complexity and enterprise integration from the start. Last but not least, he shares some of his big lessons on how he defined his ideal customers and what not to do when approaching those customers if you want to gain traction.  Here's one of his quotes Early on, we overdid it. We would go, 'We are revolutionizing your pricing. And they go, 'Okay, why?' And we go, 'It's going to allow you to ship product faster because you're gonna have more pricing agility. We just weren't talking the same language as them. We just pulled it back, pulled it back, simplified the story, and now we meet them where they are. We go, 'Billing operations is a real pain point for you, isn't it? And they go, 'YES.' During this interview, you will learn four things: Griffins' 3 success factors in growing his business.  How he's building trust with his ideal customers from the start. What he's doing differently to give development a headstart when it comes to building new products. Why he hired a data scientist from day one - and why you should possibly too. For more information about the guest from this week: Griffin Parry Website: m3ter Subscribe to the Daily SaaS Reflection Get my free, 1 min daily reflection on shaping a B2B SaaS business no one can ignore. Subscribe here Yes, it's actually daily. And yes, people actually stay subscribed (Just see what peer B2B SaaS CEOs say) My promise: It's short. To the point. Inspiring. And valuable. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This podcast interview focuses on the entrepreneurial journey to change the way healthcare nurses can work to improve patient safety. My guest is Hadassah Backman, CEO of Guardoc Health.  Hadassah has nursing roots: She started her career as a registered nurse and has built hands-on experience in emergency room and hospice care.  This clinical background gives her unique insights into the challenges faced by frontline healthcare workers. Besides that, she holds a master's degree in public health policy and management from Columbia University.  At this intersection, the big idea for Guardoc was born - which she founded in July 2021 - in the middle of COVID-19. Guardoc is a clinical data integrity solution that uses artificial intelligence to address nursing challenges. Their mission: to prevent medical errors, reduce wasted nursing hours, and improve care for chronically ill older adults. And this inspired me, so I invited Hadassah to my podcast. We explore what's broken when it comes to supporting nurses in preventing medical errors.  Hadassah shares her vision of how to solve it and how she bootstrapped her way to delivering a solution that nurses just kept talking about. She elaborates on some of her big lessons learned (and the resilience needed) in getting traction and attracting funding. Last but not least, she advises on building momentum through laser-sharp focus and smart product development decisions.  Here's one of her quotes We have apps streaming to our phones. You can watch your kids on your phone remotely. You can open doors and close doors and lock people out. There are all these things - but we still haven't figured out how to help what, to me, is the most important workforce. Because they really deliver holistic care to patients so that they can provide the care that they were trained to do and that they want to do. And so that really compelled me to ask: why isn't there a solution that captures mistakes? During this interview, you will learn four things: Why taking a 'user-centric' approach is not enough to succeed in building a successful software business.  How she started to deliver remarkable value without having built any product yet - and how that helped accelerate the journey. What she did differently to put a flywheel for growth in motion for her business - in a world that requires a high-touch GTM approach. How she's built a resilient mindset to navigate the challenges of entrepreneurship successfully. For more information about the guest from this week: Hadassah Backman Website: Guardoc Health Subscribe to the Daily SaaS Reflection Get my free, 1 min daily reflection on shaping a B2B SaaS business no one can ignore. Subscribe here Yes, it's actually daily. And yes, people actually stay subscribed (Just see what peer B2B SaaS CEOs say) My promise: It's short. To the point. Inspiring. And valuable. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This podcast interview focuses on the entrepreneurial journey to build deep vertical business solutions that deliver 10x value for every 1x in price charged. My guest is Dan Uyemura, CEO of Pushpress. Dan has had an entrepreneurial spirit from a young age. He was a Dot-com era pioneer: During college, he founded Mixture.com, a platform that was ahead of its time and preceded social media giants like Myspace.  After working in tech, including a stint at Myspace, he made a dramatic career pivot by opening his own CrossFit gym.  He quickly got frustrated with the poor software options available for gym management. So in January 2012, he leveraged his tech background to create PushPress and rebel against manual paperwork and complicated, overpriced software. Their mission: to make gym management
 the easiest part of starting a fitness business.  And this inspired me, and hence I invited Dan to my podcast. We explore his journey from MySpace coder to gym owner to software entrepreneur. Dan shares his insights on what it takes to create a competitive advantage that's hard to beat. He elaborates on empathy-driven support, value-based pricing, and the "layer cake" approach that makes his SaaS products invaluable. He emphasizes the importance of focusing on customer value over traditional SaaS metrics and shares innovative strategies to outmaneuver competitors. Last but not least, he shares his data-driven decision-making framework and lessons on team building.  Here's one of his quotes "Money is an output. It's the result of energy spent somewhere else. So the problem is, a lot of people build those businesses around money. How do I make more money? How do I generate more money? How do I increase my top line? Or bottom line? The reality is that's an output, and you can never affect an output. You can only affect the input. And the input is the order of magnitude and the sheer volume of value you provide to customers. That's what you got to focus on." During this interview, you will learn four things: How he's tuning his product strategy to grow a highly defensible position against competitors. His framework for building conviction and speeding up decision-making in feature development How he overcame the balancing act of horizontal feature breadth with vertical depth improvements His approach to innovating pricing models to outmaneuver competitors and accelerate growth. For more information about the guest from this week: Dan Uyemura Website: Pushpress Subscribe to the Daily SaaS Reflection Get my free, 1 min daily reflection on shaping a B2B SaaS business no one can ignore. Subscribe here Yes, it's actually daily. And yes, people actually stay subscribed (Just see what peer B2B SaaS CEOs say) My promise: It's short. To the point. Inspiring. And valuable. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This podcast interview focuses on the entrepreneurial journey to democratize political data and anticipate regulatory changes. My guest is Victor Kristof, Co-founder and CEO of DemoSquare.  Victor is a fascinating individual with a unique blend of academic excellence, entrepreneurial spirit, and a passion for leveraging technology to enhance democratic processes. He holds a Ph.D. in Machine Learning from Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne, where he developed algorithms and statistical models to study human behavior within social and political systems. That research became the foundational idea behind DemoSquare, a SaaS startup he co-founded in November 2022.  Their mission: to "democratize democracy" by making political and regulatory data more transparent and accessible with artificial intelligence. It will change how companies and their public affairs teams navigate the complex world of politics and regulation and, potentially, how citizens engage with democracy. And this inspired me, and hence I invited Victor to my podcast. We explore the journey of transforming academic research into a change-making political data platform. Kristof shares his lessons learned by doing customer interviews and pivoting in the right direction. He highlights the value of sharing ideas openly, adapting to constant change, and maintaining resilience in the face of rejection. Last but not least, he offers practical advice on investor relationships, sales strategies, and personal stress management.  Here's one of his quotes I've heard several times people saying, "I have this super cool idea. I don't want to share it with anyone until I do it. I had the complete opposite experience. Even when it wasn't completely ready, we were not selling it, just talking about it to people, not even in a professional or formal context. You go to a party, you go to a family gathering, and you meet with some friends. You just share your ideas and see what's happening. The most important feedback I got came from these informal discussions. I cannot count how many introductions to potential customers I've gotten through these informal discussions. During this interview, you will learn four things: How to gather feedback and validate your idea - and use both positive and negative feedback to refine (or even pivot) your product. How finding the right co-founder can have a multiplicative effect on your business. How to stay resilient in the Face of Rejection from both customers and investors. What to look for to select investors who will make a difference for your business.  For more information about the guest from this week: Victor Kristof Website: DemoSquare Subscribe to the Daily SaaS Reflection Get my free, 1 min daily reflection on shaping a B2B SaaS business no one can ignore. Subscribe here Yes, it's actually daily. And yes, people actually stay subscribed (Just see what peer B2B SaaS CEOs say) My promise: It's short. To the point. Inspiring. And valuable. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This podcast interview focuses on the entrepreneurial journey to help all of us to have conversations that drive action and meaningful connections. My guest is Joaquim Lecha, CEO of Typeform.   Joaquim (Kim) is a tech entrepreneur on a big mission, bringing over 20 years of experience in high-growth companies. He started his career in M&A, strategy, and financial advisory. In 2012 he joined the tech world as the CFO of Socialpoint, a world-renowned mobile game developer, later taking on the role of Chief Operating Officer. In 2018 he joined Typeform as Chief Operating Officer and quickly rose to become the CEO. Their mission: to create a world where conversations drive action and meaningful connections.  Under his leadership, Typeform has grown impressively (+$1B valuation), now serving well over 150,000 paying customers worldwide and achieving profitability. He recently got recognized as one of the Top 50 SaaS CEOs of 2023 by The Software Report. This inspired me, so I invited Joachim to my podcast. We explore what it takes to profitably scale a SaaS business as it experiences rapid growth. He discusses what fueled their initial growth and what strategic changes he had to make to ensure growth won't stall. Last but not least he offers practical wisdom on product development, customer-centric innovation, and maintaining resilience in the face of challenges. Here's one of his quotes I was coming from games. I had not heard from those types of products so many times the word 'Love'. People love Typeform. So my most immediate reaction to all of that is, how can we make more people aware of this great product?  And I even thought, since I come from a financial type of background; 'if we can find that scalable with quick feedback loop type of motion, and in addition to that, it's got a less than 12 month payback period. Then we can fund it.'  So with that in mind, we got to work. We grew our customer base by 2.5x and our revenue by almost 4x. During this interview, you will learn four things: How to ensure your pricing reflects the true value your product provides to customers - so you don't undervalue your offering. How to choose marketing and sales approaches that can bring in thousands of new customers and provide quick feedback loops. How he found a segment in the market where Typeform provided the most value - and what that meant to their growth trajectory.. What to focus operations and hiring strategy on - if you aim to create a sustainable, resilient, and easily scalable business over time. For more information about the guest from this week: Joaquim Lecha Website: Typeform Subscribe to the Daily SaaS Reflection Get my free, 1 min daily reflection on shaping a B2B SaaS business no one can ignore. Subscribe here Yes, it's actually daily. And yes, people actually stay subscribed (Just see what peer B2B SaaS CEOs say) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This podcast interview focuses on the entrepreneurial journey to build a successful bootstrapped SaaS company in the highly competitive scheduling software market. My guest is Bridget Harris, Co-founder and CEO of You Can Book Me. Bridget has had three distinct careers, showcasing her versatility and adaptability: She started in the television and film industry. Then, transitioned to politics, serving as a political advisor focusing on constitutional reform and the House of Lords. Her political career culminated in a role as an advisor to the UK Deputy Prime Minister. Finally, she co-founded YouCanBook.Me, where she now serves as CEO. Their mission: To provide the best booking experience for businesses' clients and customers.  Under Bridget's leadership, YouCanBook.Me has achieved impressive growth: The company has reached $5 million in Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR) without external funding. That route was a deliberate one. She decided from day one to avoid external funding that might have distorted business priorities, saying "I'd rather make a million dollars slowly than lose a million dollars fast", And this inspired me, and hence I invited Bridget to my podcast. We explore her bootstrapping journey over the past 12 years. She shares how she's successfully competing in a saturated market against well-funded competitors and tech giants like Google and Calendly. She elaborates on how she's maintaining a customer-centric approach while managing limited resources. Last but not least, she shares insights on how she overcame the challenges of pricing, overcoming feature bloat, refactoring legacy code, and adapting to market change. Here's one of her quotes Feature bloat is real. You can say, 'Let's be really generous about our free tool and have loads of features in the free tool.' All you're doing is confusing free users who need a really simple tool and don't want to think because they're not paying for the software. So they just literally want it to work.  So if you have a problem that your free users can't contact support, it means that your free tool is more complicated than it needs to be.  During this interview, you will learn four things: How she's aligning her entire team so they deliver on time and grow an eagerness to go above and beyond.  What she learned from refactoring their pricing approach and the lessons nobody talks about is that  How to avoid feature bloat in your development process. What she's doing differently to create the best customer experience.  For more information about the guest from this week: Bridget Harris Website: You Can Book Me Bootstrappers Manual Subscribe to the Daily SaaS Reflection Get my free, 1 min daily reflection on shaping a B2B SaaS business no one can ignore. Subscribe here Yes, it's actually daily. And yes, people actually stay subscribed (Just see what peer B2B SaaS CEOs say) My promise: It's short. To the point. Inspiring. And valuable. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This podcast interview focuses on the entrepreneurial journey from the last 5 years to turn Plum into the best Talent Intelligence solution on the market. My guest is Caitlin MacGregor, Co-Founder and CEO of Plum Caitlin MacGregor co-founded Plum in 2012 and has been an earlier guest on my podcast (#54 in February 2019).  She was voted "most likely to save the world" in her high school yearbook, foreshadowing her future as an innovative entrepreneur. Before founding Plum, Caitlin built two other businesses, which gave her insights into the need for change around talent processes in the age of automation. Fast forward, she was recently selected for the EY Entrepreneurial Winning Women™ North America Class of 2024, a program that supports high-potential women entrepreneurs. Caitlin's drive to democratize access to psychometric data so that no one would have to rely on luck for someone to realize their superpower still underpins the core of the company - although how this is brought to market has evolved a lot. And it's noticed - HR Tech voted Plum the best Talent Intelligence solution in the market in 2023 This inspired me, and hence I invited Caitlin back to my podcast. We explore the journey over the past 5 years. How did the market change in general - in particular in relation to how we attract and manage talent? She also shares what this means to all of us in the coming years. She then drills into how this has changed their priorities around product strategy and Go To Market. As we discuss this, she reveals some valuable lessons learned in product development, positioning, and segmentation, and how her role as CEO changed in this period of rapid change.   Here's one of her quotes 12 months ago, we were working on how we best resonate. It was really just about how you get to that Aha moment, and it really has nothing to do with the product and the solution. It was really like the Why. Why should you care about Plum? How do we align to a top three boardroom problem? And how do we connect to that strategic problem [....] so we were able to get into a strategic conversation with the right people that had the power to decide to do things differently.  During this interview, you will learn four things: How Plum expanded from talent acquisition to full employee lifecycle management  What made them decide to bet on Enterprise instead of SMBs What internal capabilities organizations need to develop and prioritize to gain competitive advantage and become the winners of the future?  How her role as a CEO had to change to effectively lead the rapidly growing organization that Plum is today. For more information about the guest from this week: Caitlin MacGregor Website: Plum Plum Flourish Assessment Subscribe to the Daily SaaS Reflection Get my free, 1 min daily reflection on shaping a B2B SaaS business no one can ignore. Subscribe here Yes, it's actually daily. And yes, people actually stay subscribed (Just see what peer B2B SaaS CEOs say) My promise: It's short. To the point. Inspiring. And valuable. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This podcast interview focuses on the entrepreneurial journey to make complex code understandable for business leaders. My guest is Matt Van Itallie, Founder and CEO of Sema. Matt has a diverse background spanning law, consulting, education, and tech, and he has held leadership roles at edtech and govtech companies like Social Solutions, and PeopleAdmin.  He earned his J.D. from Harvard Law School after studying history at Swarthmore College. He's also a thought leader on the impact and responsible adoption of AI in the tech industry. This multidisciplinary experience gives him a unique perspective as a tech founder and CEO. In September 2017, he founded Sema, a codebase scanning tool.  Their mission: to bridge the gap between the technical and non-technical worlds, particularly in the context of software development. And this inspired me, and hence I invited Matt to my podcast. We explore how most tech organizations carry more debt in their codebase - and the business risks that brings. Matt shares his vision of how to solve this - in a world where AI-generated code and Open Source are rapidly gaining popularity. He discusses the learning process he had as a founder in creating a singular, non-consensus vision for the company - and how their unusual approach upfront helped them gain deep differentiation and first-mover advantage.  Here's one of his quotes What I know now that I didn't know as a baby entrepreneur was there are so many different versions of 'No,'  except 'Here is some money.' Everything else is 'No'  "I love it. So interesting. I can really see this helping. This is a pain point. Yes, I want to pilot Yes, I want to tell my friends." That's all No. It's all versions of No, except "here is some money." During this interview, you will learn four things: How he uncovered a new, totally overlooked, target market where his product quickly became mission-critical, rather than a nice to have. Why he's prioritizing building trust-based relationships with key players in the industry and how he's achieving this. What he's doing differently around creating a team that is more than the sum of its parts. His recommendations on choosing your business model wisely.  For more information about the guest from this week: Matt Van Itallie Website: Sema Subscribe to the Daily SaaS Reflection Get my free, 1 min daily reflection on shaping a B2B SaaS business no one can ignore. Subscribe here Yes, it's actually daily. And yes, people actually stay subscribed (Just see what peer B2B SaaS CEOs say) My promise: It's short. To the point. Inspiring. And valuable. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This podcast interview focuses on the entrepreneurial journey to drive change and adapt as a B2B marketer in an evolving business landscape. My guest is Christian Klepp, Co-Founder of EINBLICK Consulting and Host of the B2B Marketers on a Mission podcast.  Christian is a global citizen, entrepreneur, podcast host, and B2B branding expert with over 13 years of experience across diverse markets. Throughout his career, he worked with major global brands like Philips, Caterpillar, Samsung, and Logitech.  He is a true "third-culture kid." He grew up in Austria, the Philippines, Singapore and China - and is currently living in Canada, giving him a multicultural perspective and ability to bridge East and West. In 2019, Christian took a leap of faith and co-founded his own B2B branding and marketing consulting firm called EINBLICK. He's also the host of the popular "B2B Marketers on a Mission" podcast, where he interviews talented professionals in the B2B space and provides a platform for sharing cutting-edge insights with the B2B community. Being a regular listener of his podcast inspired me to invite Christian to my podcast. We explore why marketing isn't optimally leveraged inside many B2B SaaS companies. He shares insights from well over 100 podcasts on what marketers should do differently to increase alignment and buy-in across the organization to make a larger impact. Last but not least, he explains how to avoid complacency in marketing and how, by leveraging different perspectives, the company can stand out more and increase resilience to adapt faster to market change. Here's one of his quotes The way that marketers need to deal with addressing buy-in is they need to understand how their organization works. How does your company generate revenue? Where is the most revenue coming from? Which industries? Which customers? Do you understand what EBITDA is? Because if you don't understand, you better start learning about it quickly because that's what your board cares about. During this interview, you will learn four things: How to turn marketing into a core driver for the business.  How to get insights that matter beyond just interviewing customers. How to approach podcasting strategically, get instant value, and what to prioritize first to get going. How to go about analyzing competitors' strategies to further strengthen differentiation. For more information about the guest from this week: Christian Klepp Website: EINBLICK B2B Marketing on a Mission Podcast (Spotify / Apple) Subscribe to the Daily SaaS Reflection Get my free, 1 min daily reflection on shaping a B2B SaaS business no one can ignore. Subscribe here Yes, it's actually daily. And yes, people actually stay subscribed (Just see what peer B2B SaaS CEOs say) My promise: It's short. To the point. Inspiring. And valuable. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This podcast interview focuses on the entrepreneurial journey to empower business users, especially in SMEs, to easily find insights in their data without technical complexities. My guest is Thomas Wulff Wilhelmsen, Co-founder and CEO of Less. Thomas and his co-founder Daniel previously worked as consultants in the data space before founding Less. Their experiences and frustrations in this role inspired them to create an analytics product for people like themselves. And that led to the birth of Less in September 2022. The name "Less" embodies their goal of stripping away complexities to build a product that focuses on the end goal and takes care of the technical aspects behind the scenes. Their mission: Set doers free to do what they do best: Roll up their sleeves and solve problems.  And this inspired me, and hence I invited Thomas to my podcast. We explore what's, after decades of development, still broken in the Business Analytics solutions market. Thomas shares his lessons learned from steering Less' journey as a customer-funded startup. He shares how he got early traction with paying customers and how he's creating a culture of analogical thinking to solve problems in creative ways.. Last but not least, he'll inspire you with his fresh perspective on crafting a compelling narrative that sells.  Here's one of his quotes "We've been focusing more on the persona than on the sector or industry. We call them doers. People that are curious by nature, that are frustrated with being dependent on other people and want to build cool things that they can show to other people in their teams and drive that change internally." During this interview, you will learn four things: Where he finds inspiration from taking Storytelling for his business to the next level. What he's done differently from the start to get traction and stay in control as the business grows.  How he ensures everyone understands what's important, and does the right things right to create fans from the start. Why he embraces being "customer funded" rather than just bootstrapped. For more information about the guest from this week: Thomas Wulff Wilhelmsen Website: Less Subscribe to the Daily SaaS Reflection Get my free, 1 min daily reflection on shaping a B2B SaaS business no one can ignore. Subscribe here Yes, it's actually daily. And yes, people actually stay subscribed (Just see what peer B2B SaaS CEOs say) My promise: It's short. To the point. Inspiring. And valuable. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This podcast interview focuses on the entrepreneurial journey in identifying an emerging opportunity and building an innovative, fast-growing company that transforms how we shop online. My guest is Angelo Coletta, CEO and Co-founder of Zakeke. Angelo is a serial entrepreneur who has founded and exited multiple companies.  In 2017 he co-founded Zakeke, an AI Visual Commerce platform. It's doing groundbreaking work in transforming the B2B customer journey and shopping experience. With this focus, it's now  serving 10,000+ eCommerce brands worldwide across 400+ industries Their mission:  To improve the industry's environmental footprint through the use of technology in the display process, the shopping experience, and the purchasing experience. And this inspired me, and hence I invited Angelo to my podcast. We explore how the shopping experience is still broken today - and why. Angelo shares his how he's building an organization to fix this and shares anecdotes about his lessons learned in choosing the right team, fostering a culture of innovation, and setting ambitious long-term goals. He then elaborates on creating resilience across the business, customer-centric product development, and how strategic acquisitions and investment in eco-system helped to scale their business. Here's one of his quotes I wanted to create a company that was totally based on a long-term vision. This is one of the most difficult choices to make when you start because it means you burn more money in the first years of the company. My opinion is that if you don't start as a long tail business, it's difficult to transform a company with 200 or 300 big customers into a company able to serve 1000s of customers, maybe most of them small customers. During this interview, you will learn four things: Why have a global mindset from day 1. Why focus on product excellence first before you consider a marketing push? What Angelo specifically prioritizes when it comes to hiring the right people that will help the company grow in good and tough times.  The strategies he applied to establish trust and leverage their growth opportunity via the e-commerce ecosystem.  For more information about the guest from this week: Angelo Coletta Website: Zakeke Subscribe to the Daily SaaS Reflection Get my free, 1 min daily reflection on shaping a B2B SaaS business no one can ignore. Subscribe here Yes, it's actually daily. And yes, people actually stay subscribed (Just see what peer B2B SaaS CEOs say) My promise: It's short. To the point. Inspiring. And valuable. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This podcast interview focuses on the entrepreneurial journey to make social a positive place again - for everyone. My guest is Matthew McGrory, CEO of Arwen AI. Matthew is a tech- entrepreneur on a big mission. He has held tech leadership roles: IT Director at Logicalis, Director Managed Services at Acora, and Managing Director at Carrenza (a cloud service provider acquired by Six Degrees Group),  In the period from July 2018 and September 2020 he took a break from his corporate life to become a House Husband. In that period he developed a passion for using AI to drive positive change. That led him to cofound Arwen AI in September 2020. Arwen AI is a platform that helps its customers actively moderate and manage their community, across both paid and organic. Their mission: to make social media a more positive place by filtering out hate speech and toxicity.  And this inspired me, and hence I invited Matthew to my podcast. We explore what's broken in today's Social Media world. Matthew shares his vision to make Social a place without toxicity and spam. He then elaborates on his hard-won lessons from his journey to speed up direct sales and benefit from using ecosystems to grow even faster. Last but not least, he shares his framework to increase resilience across the organization.  Here's one of his quotes I thought, 'This is great, we'll create some technology, fix the problem and everyone will buy it.' I was so wrong on that part. I got to about demo number 200, it was with a US broadcast news organization. And the head of digital said, 'Listen, I'm protected by the First Amendment, I can let anything go up on my channels. I don't have to get rid of it. You're giving me an extra job to do. An extra cost. Tell me why this is valuable to my business. Tell me how it makes me money or saves me money.' During this interview, you will learn four things: How he gained traction in a market where customers resisted to buy because they saw the solution as an extra job and an extra cost.  What he did differently to gain technical and commercial momentum. What he invested in early on to get access to strategic accounts and speed up the commercial contracting process in enterprise sales situations. How he goes about to keep the business humming, and keeping everyone aligned and motivated - especially in tough times. For more information about the guest from this week: Matthew McGrory Website: Arwen AI Subscribe to the Daily SaaS Reflection Get my free, 1 min daily reflection on shaping a B2B SaaS business no one can ignore. Subscribe here Yes, it's actually daily. And yes, people actually stay subscribed (Just see what peer B2B SaaS CEOs say) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This podcast interview focuses on the entrepreneurial journey to take GTM efficiency to the next level for enterprise SaaS companies. My guest is Josh Ellars, CEO of OpenGTM. Josh has over 15 years of experience leading successful go-to-market (GTM) functions at high-growth SaaS companies like Metalogix, Qualtrics, and OpenGov. This extensive background gives him unique insights into scaling SaaS businesses. In 2021 he founded Patri, which was rebranded OpenGTM in 2023. OpenGTM is platform to create content buyers love, capture high-intent leads, and uncover the truth behind your buyers and pipeline.  It's mission: to unite sales, marketing, customer success, and product around the attributes of highly-retained customers in order to boost revenue and retention. And this inspired me, and hence I invited Josh to my podcast. We explore what's broken in today's world of Go-to-Market (GTM). Josh shares his wealth of experience in scaling SaaS businesses. He emphasizes the importance of the "sell, design, build" methodology, where market demand pulls product development. He also explains, how their approach helps companies cut through the noise of the crowded go-to-market tech landscape. And last but not least he shares some big lessons learned on differentiation and growing efficiently. Here's one of his quotes Too often in Go To Market and in company building in general, we're driven by product market fit. And that's wonderful. But a big portion of that is really identifying: Is there security and regulatory fit? Is there a financial fit? Can we get some sort of return out of this investment we're making in this customer? And I absolutely saw that I had to learn the hard way and lose some very large deals. That got me thinking that I think there's a better way to to vet these opportunities.  During this interview, you will learn four things: What B2B SaaS companies should look for beyond product-market fit to grow more efficiently. Their framework that drives product strategy in order to build remarkable products.  How they avoid getting caught up in tech-stack rationalization.  How to expand market scope gradually while maintaining a narrow focus on the ideal buyer profile.  For more information about the guest from this week: Josh Ellars Website: OpenGTM Subscribe to the Daily SaaS Reflection Get my free, 1 min daily reflection on shaping a B2B SaaS business no one can ignore. Subscribe here Yes, it's actually daily. And yes, people actually stay subscribed (Just see what peer B2B SaaS CEOs say) My promise: It's short. To the point. Inspiring. And valuable. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

#326 - Niklas Hanitsch, CEO of SECJUR - on balancing culture and growth challenges A story about maintaining a blue ocean market in the rapidly evolving compliance automation landscape. This podcast interview focuses on the entrepreneurial journey to sustain in a heavily competitive market. My guest is Niklas Hanitsch, Co-founder and CEO of SECJUR. Niklas is a tech entrepreneur on a Mission. He was an idealist punk who turned lawyer, then SaaS founder. He's got deep expertise in data privacy, compliance, and agile product development. And entered the prestigious Top 40 under 40 list by Capital Magazine in November 2023.  Over the years, he grew the belief that while data protection and compliance requirements are important, the implementation should not become a stumbling block for companies. And that became the big idea behind SECJUR, an AI-driven compliance automation platform, which he founded in December 2017. Their vision: A world where businesses are always compliant, but never have to think about it. And this inspired me, and hence I invited Niklas to my podcast. We explore how personal tragedy grew into entrepreneurial drive. He shares how he bootstrapped the company towards growth, navigated fundraising during a recession, and built a resilient team culture from the start. Beyond that, he elaborates on his frameworks for strategic decision-making, hiring for values fit, and relentlessly delivering customer value. Last but not least he shares practical advice on how to stay motivated and sane in the crazy world of building a software business. Here's one of his quotes "Bootstrapping was definitely something that made us successful because we had time to really focus on the business and not focus on fundraising, on report creating reports and stuff like this. So we learned a lot about what customers really want in that time, because we could spend all our time with customers." During this interview, you will learn four things: How Bootstrapping gave him an advantage you cannot get when you start your venture with VC backing.  His approach to staying ahead of the competition as the market gets more crowded.  His advice (having been a lawyer himself) on how to go about committing to contracts His 3-step framework for hiring talent For more information about the guest from this week: Niklas Hanitsch Website: SECJUR Subscribe to the Daily SaaS Reflection Get my free, 1 min daily reflection on shaping a B2B SaaS business no one can ignore. Subscribe here Yes, it's actually daily. And yes, people actually stay subscribed (Just see what peer B2B SaaS CEOs say) My promise: It's short. To the point. Inspiring. And valuable. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This podcast interview focuses on the entrepreneurial journey to finally solve the problem of managing all your personal and professional relationships. My guest is Matt Achariam, Co-Founder and Co-CEO of Clay. Matt has a diverse background in product development and design.  He was a principal at design agency FortySix, working with clients like Disney, BBC, Expedia, and the University of Pennsylvania and held product roles at Custora (acquired by Amperity) and LayerVault (acquired by Tiny Capital) and  He has a lifelong obsession with the craft of design, sparked by childhood curiosity about why certain objects elicit feelings of joy. This led him to question the status quo in relationship management software - and that's how the vision behind Clay was born. In 2018, he and his co-founder, Zach Hamed, founded the company, an app for managing personal and professional relationships.  Their mission: to help people be more thoughtful and helpful with their relationships, ultimately helping them achieve more and be happier by putting others first. And this inspired me, and hence I invited Matt to my podcast. We explore his journey of building Clay. Matt shares how he and his team create meaningful differentiation beyond just solid functionality. He elaborates how they gained early traction and created strong organic growth that enables them to now manage over 100 million relationships. Last but not least, Matt shares his insights on navigating tradeoffs, maintaining confidence in decision-making, and staying true to company values while scaling rapidly. Here's one of his  quotes Be very clear about the values and the lines that you will cross and won't cross because when things start speeding up, momentum is something very precious.  When you move really fast, you have to move with confidence. And if you don't have the confidence and that foundation, you're not going to be able to make decisions rapidly. During this interview, you will learn four things: His unconventional approach towards creating a "minimum remarkable product" instead of a "minimum viable product"  How they strengthen their differentiation by focusing on things other than just functionality, and where he focuses to find inspiration. How they've managed to achieve all their growth to be entirely organic and driven by word-of-mouth What signals, he in hindsight, wishes they had paid more attention to in order to grow even more. For more information about the guest from this week: Matt Achariam Website: Clay Subscribe to the Daily SaaS Reflection Get my free, 1 min daily reflection on shaping a B2B SaaS business no one can ignore. Subscribe here Yes, it's actually daily. And yes, people actually stay subscribed (Just see what peer B2B SaaS CEOs say) My promise: It's short. To the point. Inspiring. And valuable. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This podcast interview focuses on the entrepreneurial journey to build a business that can survive crises and emerge stronger every time. My guest is Lee Rubin, founder and CEO of Confetti.  Lee is a visionary culture leader with over a decade of experience in B2B sales. In 2014 she founded Wekudo - a remote corporate event planning agency. The idea behind it came while working at ZocDoc, where she struggled with the bureaucracy and logistics of planning team-building events.  Soon after that, she founded Confetti, realizing that the problem could only be solved through a combination of technology and people (not just people).  Under Lee's leadership, Confetti achieved exponential 600% growth during the COVID-19 pandemic and grew it as the leading solution for virtual team-building through a relentless focus on quality experiences. Their mission: to simplify event planning while empowering organizations to build stronger, happier, and more holistic teams through unforgettable shared experiences that make work life more memorable. And this inspired me, and hence I invited Lee to my podcast. We explore her journey to build a successful B2B SaaS company in a period when most of her competitors ceased to exist. Lee shares her story about a remarkable pivot during Covid, and why she decided to do nothing when "back to work" kicked in again. She also shares how she wasted 3 valuable years at the start, and what she could have done differently to avoid that. Last but not least, she elaborates on what ingredients she doubles down on to build a product people just keep talking about. Here's one of her quotes The main contributor to our success is that we built a platform that had a very strong form of agility. The platform can support various different use cases if we really want it to. It allowed us to pivot super quickly [during Covid]. The last invoice that we got from an in-person event and the first invoice that we got for a virtual was 10 days. We didn't spend time sitting in sadness that our events business was in shambles. We got right back to the drawing board, back to playing and having fun and trying to see what sticks - and the virtual events stuck. During this interview, you will learn four things: What she has done differently to survive during & post-COVID when other competitors closed their doors. How she managed to pivot her entire business in less than 10 days when Covid started.  What she learned from niching down, where everyone else was widening the net - and how that played to their advantage.  How she's embedded delivering "wow factor" in every aspect of her company - and why this has become unnegotiable for her.  For more information about the guest from this week: Lee Rubin Website: Confetti Subscribe to the Daily SaaS Reflection Get my free, 1 min daily reflection on shaping a B2B SaaS business no one can ignore. Subscribe here Yes, it's actually daily. And yes, people actually stay subscribed (Just see what peer B2B SaaS CEOs say) My promise: It's short. To the point. Inspiring. And valuable. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This podcast interview focuses on the entrepreneurial journey to create a sticky and healthy B2B SaaS business. My guest is Emeric Ernoult, Founder and CEO of Agorapulse. Emeric is a serial entrepreneur with 20 years of experience in social media and SaaS. He co-founded affinitiz, one of the first modern social network SaaS platforms in France in the early 2000s. In 2010 he founded Agorapulse, social media platform. He grew it from generating €140,000 in annual revenue to achieving the same figure every three days, without taking significant outside funding.  This makes Agorapulse an inspiring bootstrapped SaaS success story. Hence I invited Emeric to my podcast. We explore his insights on what it takes to create a successful B2B SaaS company without having to rely on external funding. He shares is big lessons learned running the business through a PLG motion, and explains why they've pivoted to a sales-led SaaS motion, thereby moving up market. Last but not least, he elaborates on his approach to customer segmentation, creating measurable business value, and how to enable constant evolution Here's one of his quotes "Do not raise money. VC firms and investors are going to tell you that you're going to get more than money... if you don't know how to leverage that money, you're basically just given away part of your company for something that you're not going to get value from." During this interview, you will learn four things: Why you should prioritize investing in amazing customer support, especially when bootstrapping and the product is still evolving How to go about hiring people that have the highest chance to bring your company success What to focus on when you want to transition from PLG to a sales-led motion His first principle when it comes to prioritizing features to create products people start talking about and keep talking about.  For more information about the guest from this week: Emeric Ernoult Website: Agora Pulse Subscribe to the Daily SaaS Reflection Get my free, 1 min daily reflection on shaping a B2B SaaS business no one can ignore. Subscribe here Yes, it's actually daily. And yes, people actually stay subscribed (Just see what peer B2B SaaS CEOs say) My promise: It's short. To the point. Inspiring. And valuable. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This podcast interview focuses on the entrepreneurial journey to turn a startup into a +$100M ARR growth business. My guest is Jim Yu, Founder & Exec Chair at BrightEdge Jim Yu is the visionary. He started his career at Mercator Software (now IBM), serving as Director of Product Development, and then moved to Salesforce.com, where he was a Director of Product Management.  He graduated from university when he was 16 years old, and holds an MBA from Stanford University, a Master's in Systems Engineering from the University of Virginia, and a B.S. in Computer Science from the University of South Dakota.  In 2007 he founded BrightEdge where he's been at the helm as CEO for 16 years. He grew BrightEdge into a global leader, helping more than 8,500 of the world's largest brands drive measurable, predictable revenue from their websites and search engines Their mission: to help marketers deliver content that resonates with their audience and drives business impact. More specifically, BrightEdge aims to transform online content into tangible business results, such as traffic, revenue, and engagement. And this inspired me, and hence I invited Jim to my podcast. We explore his journey of building BrightEdge into a successful SaaS company that crossed the $100M ARR bar. He elaborates on his first principles when it comes to building core differentiators, being intentional about market choices, and setting clear milestones for each growth stage. Lastly, he shares his advice on managing go-to-market investments and staying driven by a strong mission to scale intelligently. Here's one of his quotes It really paid off was when we found the big box retail segment. So if you think about social networks, they have a lot of web pages that represent musicians or people or things like that. But on the retail side, they have a lot of products, they have a lot of categories. And if those show up well on search, it leads directly to purchases and revenue.  So the next use case we built into our technology was connecting the dots back to purchases and orders. And so then you could see, as you optimize for organic search, what was the impact on revenue, and then that's when we started to really get forth. We ended up getting most of the big retailers. During this interview, you will learn four things: Why he has been intentional about certain GTM techniques and how he's picked his verticals to bet on. His first principle on making strategic choices that are aligned with the core capabilities and DNA of the company. His approach to scaling, and when to step on the gas and when not. How he defined their unfair advantage and what makes them different as a company For more information about the guest from this week: Jim on Linkedin Jim on Twitter Website: BrightEdge Subscribe to the Daily SaaS Reflection Get my free, 1 min daily reflection on shaping a B2B SaaS business no one can ignore. Subscribe here Yes, it's actually daily. And yes, people actually stay subscribed (Just see what peer B2B SaaS CEOs say) My promise: It's short. To the point. Inspiring. And valuable. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This podcast interview focuses on the entrepreneurial journey to solve the most challenging productivity challenge in Manufacturing: human action. My guest is Max Fischer, Founder and CEO of Deltia. Max is a mechanical engineer. In 2014 he was a founding member of HackZurich, the largest hackathon Switzerland has ever seen.  In 2015 he co-founded Actyx and digitized 40+ factories. In this startup, he led product management, sales, and marketing teams.  Meanwhile he has established himself as a thought leader in the space of digital transformation for the factory floor. In November 2022, Max founded Deltia, a startup focused on helping factory operators track, analyze and improve efficiency by identifying the best possible processes and assisting workers with digital tools. Their mission: to make human work in manufacturing more productive and less error-prone by taking out the guesswork.  And this inspired me, and hence I invited Max to my podcast. We explore what's broken in identifying productivity opportunities in manufacturing. Max explains how for the first time ever - this is possible. He shares some of his big lessons on building the company, especially when it comes to foundational questions like "who's it for" and 'what's it for' - and how that helped them remain highly focused.  He elaborates on his first principes for building the platform - and how that helps them stay resilient and offer scalable solutions. . Here's one of his quotes There are a lot of decisions that you take both on the technical level and what customers you're serving. Who is the user that you're trying to focus on? We decided quite early on to not specifically target the Toyota's of this world. The automotive OEMs are basically the best-run manufacturing companies in the world. There are use cases, obviously, also for technology, no doubt about that. But I think a big opportunity is to help the 98% of other factories to come to a similar level to where Toyota of Volkswagen are today. During this interview, you will learn four things: Why functionality is important - but not as important as system design  How to go about building for business scalability rather than just technical scalability of your solution. Why the dream is not to help Toyota or Volkswagen - but companies much smaller and weaker than those brands. What they are doing differently to accelerate stakeholder buy-in from IT, legal, and Unions. For more information about the guest from this week: Max Fischer Website: Deltia Subscribe to the Daily SaaS Reflection Get my free, 1 min daily reflection on shaping a B2B SaaS business no one can ignore. Subscribe here Yes, it's actually daily. And yes, people actually stay subscribed (Just see what peer B2B SaaS CEOs say) My promise: It's short. To the point. Inspiring. And valuable. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This podcast interview focuses on the entrepreneurial journey to redefine the way we learn and solve the growing skills gap. My guest is Ruban Phukan, CEO of Goodgist. Ruban is a serial entrepreneur with more than two decades of experience building technology products that solve real-world problems. He's written books about AI and holds several patents in this field.  He was part of Yahoo's first data scientist team, collaborating closely with co-founder David Filo to use data to address complex business problems.  In 2005, he co-founded Bixee.com, India's first vertical search engine employing patented technology. This company then merged with market leader MakeMyTrip and DataRPM, a pioneering Enterprise AI platform for industrial IoT, which was then acquired by Progress Software in 2017. He 2019 he co-founded GoodTrade.AI, an asset management and investment analysis platform centred around Generative AI. Most recently he co-founded GoodGist, an AI startup for upskilling and research that tackles the challenges of scaling corporate skill development.  Their mission: To organize the world's knowledge and make it universally accessible, conversational, and digestible in bite-sized chunks on demand. Their belief is that this creates a significant moat for their clients against competitors in today's fast-paced landscape, And this inspired me, and hence I invited Ruban to my podcast. We explore the challenges of continuous learning in today's fast-paced technological environment.  He explains his first principles for making his strategic bets and why he opts to take a platform approach rather than a point solution approach. Last but not least, he explains his lessons from niching down and verticalizing his GTM approach around the platform.  Here's one of his quotes We don't try to build a custom solution for a custom problem. We try to look at the problem and say, 'Okay, so we are not trying to only solve for a gas turbine failure, how do we build that technology, so that now instead of just only solving for data coming out of gas turbines, it can also look at data coming out of smart cars? How can it also handle data coming out of smart televisions? So, the focus has always been in trying to understand the problem and try to generalize, so that it can solve more business use cases, without having to recreate something new every single time. During this interview, you will learn four things: How he's accelerating traction by packaging his horizontal platform around highly valuable & business-critical problems. How he goes about successfully serving the mid-market and large enterprise companies in their own unique ways. His approach to identifying new value possibilities in the market that are worth building solutions for. How he makes decisions on what to invest in, and what not.  For more information about the guest from this week: Ruban Phukan Website: Goodgist Subscribe to the Daily SaaS Reflection Get my free, 1 min daily reflection on shaping a B2B SaaS business no one can ignore. Subscribe here Yes, it's actually daily. And yes, people actually stay subscribed (Just see what peer B2B SaaS CEOs say) My promise: It's short. To the point. Inspiring. And valuable. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This podcast interview focuses on the entrepreneurial journey that required a 180-degree pivot to find strong product market fit. My guest is Ryan Leitzeiser, Co-founder and CEO of Obie Insurance. Ryan has over 10 years of experience in an executive role in technology and commercial real estate (CRE) investment and development. Having worked at Hudson Capital Investments and as an Investment Analyst at Ram Real Estate, he has a strong background in CRE valuation, underwriting, asset management, and private equity.  In July 2018, he co-founded Obie, a Y Combinator-backed startup that's set out to make some waves in insurance technology. Their mission: To provide a simple, affordable, and transparent insurance experience for landlords and real estate investors. This inspired me, and hence, I invited Ryan to my podcast. We explore what's broken in the world of insurance, particularly when it relates to Real Estate. He shares his experiences and big lessons learned from having to pivot the business. He elaborates on what he did wrong, and the courage it took to correct course - the then turn that into a growth engine that is hard to stop. Last but not least he talks about some of the essential traits to develop to build a business that lasts. Here's one of his quotes Insurance is an admin nightmare for them [Lenders] during the closing process. We provide them with technology and tools as it relates to insurance for their consumers so that mistakes are not made. And ultimately, for a lender, this help that we provide them ultimately unlocks a ton of customers for us. In fact, we have lenders that will charge their customer base a fee, if they don't use us. During this interview, you will learn four things: What traits to look for in employees if you want to attract people who can solve customer problems and provide great experiences. What to do differently if you want your customers to make your solution mandatory for anyone they do business with.  His learnings on growing confidence and commitment from others. What he's learned to be critical behaviors to adhere to in a company if you want to build a business that lasts.  For more information about the guest from this week: Ryan Letzeiser Website: Obie Insurance Subscribe to the Daily SaaS Reflection Get my free, 1 min daily reflection on shaping a B2B SaaS business no one can ignore. Subscribe here Yes, it's actually daily. And yes, people actually stay subscribed (Just see what peer B2B SaaS CEOs say) My promise: It's short. To the point. Inspiring. And valuable. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This podcast interview focuses on the entrepreneurial journey to build a lean organization that has the power to win the biggest brands in the retail market. My guest is Ed Bradley, CEO of Virtualstock. Ed started his career in wholesale distribution and has extensive international experience in Supply Chain across Australia, Singapore, United States, and Canada.  In 2004, he co-founded VirtualStock. During this period, the company pioneered new ways for retailers' to expand their product range, increase transparency with suppliers, and provide detailed order information for customers.  It made the product evolve into a global drop shipping and marketplace SaaS platform Today, the company has 20 years of experience in logistics, supply chains and e-commerce, as well as an extensive roster of blue-chip clients.  Their mission: Sell more products online, without the risk This inspired me, and hence, I invited Ed to my podcast. We explore the 20-year journey of building a lasting SaaS business. Ed shares what worked and what didn't, how he managed to grow the business without external capital, and how working with the largest retailers in the UK enabled this. He elaborates on why he's keeping the organization lean, and how that helped to create meaningful and durable differentiation, survive major setbacks, and win the bulk of the UK retail market as a customer.  Here's one of his quotes People will always buy from people. And so it's all got to do with understanding the customer. In our world, that means two things: our customer is the retailer, but we need to understand their customer, who is the consumer. And so if you get those two things right, if you really have that knowledge, and you care about their business, and you care about their customer, then the rest will follow.  During this interview, you will learn four things: How one customer can accelerate the trajectory of your business.  Why he'd opt for bootstrapping the business again if he ever got the choice.  How to keep your organization lean - and why that helps to grow defensible differentiation.  How he survived a major crisis in the business, and how this made them come out stronger.  For more information about the guest from this week: Ed Bradley Website: Virtualstock Subscribe to the Daily SaaS Reflection Get my free, 1 min daily reflection on shaping a B2B SaaS business no one can ignore. Subscribe here Yes, it's actually daily. And yes, people actually stay subscribed (Just see what peer B2B SaaS CEOs say) My promise: It's short. To the point. Inspiring. And valuable. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This podcast interview focuses on the entrepreneurial journey to change the way we think and use about Business Intelligence. My guest is Ryan Janssen, Co-founder and CEO of Zenlytic. Ryan is a serial entrepreneur and visionary leader in data analytics and AI. He brings experience from previous roles at Ernst & Young, McKinsey, Private Equity and venture Capital funds, and Ex Quanta: AI Studio, giving him a strong background in AI and data analytics.  His time in the VC world likely gave him valuable insights into what investors look for, how to pitch effectively, and how to strategically scale a business. All his hands-on experience let him to co-found Zenlytic in July 2020. It's a BI tool for commerce brands and DTC businesses.  Their mission: making data insights accessible and actionable for everyone. And this inspired me, and hence I invited Ryan to my podcast. We explore what's still broken in enabling non-data scientists to create unique insights to compete with the largest brands in the world. Ryan shares his big lessons learned in building a company that pioneered the promise of generative AI. He elaborates on his first principles around value creation and what he's doing differently to stay lean while delivering high performance as a business. Last but not least he shares his tips on being able to prioritize long-term thinking as the company grows and create a business that lasts. Here's one of his quotes I think the real winners will be the people that are building nimbly. The people that are applying creative uses of this tech and finding creative new ways to deliver value that doesn't look very much like the generation of software that preceded them. During this interview, you will learn four things: What you can do differently to ensure faster development and better quality with a lean team. Why you should break predictability to find new growth opportunities. How you can outcompete much larger big companies on their own strength. When you have lots of leads the challenge is not how to close them - but how you qualify them  For more information about the guest from this week: Ryan Janssen Website: Zenlytic Subscribe to the Daily SaaS Reflection Get my free, 1 min daily reflection on shaping a B2B SaaS business no one can ignore. Subscribe here Yes, it's actually daily. And yes, people actually stay subscribed (Just see what peer B2B SaaS CEOs say) My promise: It's short. To the point. Inspiring. And valuable. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This podcast interview focuses on the entrepreneurial journey to solve a global challenge: helping field sales sell more and faster. My guest is Zach Barney, Co-founder and CEO of Mobly. Zach Barney is an experienced SaaS sales leader and entrepreneur. He has been building and leading SaaS sales teams since 2010 at companies like Vehlo, Nearmap, Teem, and HireVue. Over his career, he has personally closed over $4 million in ARR, and his teams have closed over $40 million.  In 2023, he co-founded Mobly to reduce the high percentage (+25%) of sales activity that never gets logged into CRM systems. Their mission: To redefine lead capture and qualification for event marketers. And this inspired me, and hence I invited Zach to my podcast. We explore what's broken in the lead generation process at in-person events. Zach explains his journey with Mobly to solve this problem - and elaborates how this fits in a much broader vision. He elaborates on the big lessons he learned around gaining traction and using pricing as a lever for growth. Lastly, he elaborates on how he's building a moat around his product. Here's one of his quotes We learned that we needed to change our pricing model. Our first handful of customers we were grossly under-charging them and it was largely due to the fact that we were pricing based on the number of seats. Somebody would openly tell us 'Yeah, well this person can share the license with this person.' So, we realized 'I guess we made a mistake on how we price this because this should be like a $20,000 contract and you're telling me that you're gonna pay 2000…' During this interview, you will learn four things: How he and his co-founder managed to get very comfortable doubling down on building a product without hardly spending anything. What he changed to his pricing strategy to increase average deal-size AND make grow each customer account from there onwards. What strategic choices he made around phasing his product strategy to ensure they got traction as early as possible - and keep growing it. Why he's decided to build defensible differentiation around data and not features.  For more information about the guest from this week: Zach Barney Website: Mobly Subscribe to the Daily SaaS Reflection Get my free, 1 min daily reflection on shaping a B2B SaaS business no one can ignore. Subscribe here Yes, it's actually daily. And yes, people actually stay subscribed (Just see what peer B2B SaaS CEOs say) My promise: It's short. To the point. Inspiring. And valuable. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This podcast interview focuses on the entrepreneurial journey to outcompete everyone in the category. My guest is JJ (Projjal) Ghatak, Co-founder & CEO of OnLoop. JJ (Projjal) is a tech entrepreneur on a mission. He held business leadership roles across technology (Uber), management consulting (Accenture Strategy) and corporate development (Essar Capital). Besides that, he's a proud naturalized Singaporean, SMU Scholar, Stanford MBA, and awarded World Economic Forum Technology Pioneer 2022. In 2020, JJ founded OnLoop in an attempt to solve a problem he'd experienced throughout his career: How hard it is for managers to turn high potential individuals into high performing teams.  Their mission: Convert every manager in the world into a great manager.  And this inspired me, and hence I invited JJ to my podcast. We explore the broken world of employee & team performance. JJ shares his journey of solving this problem by driving everyday habits and feedback rather than mere documentation. He shares his biggest lessons on creating product market fit, demand generation, and how to strategically prioritize your focus as a CEO as your company evolves. Lastly, he elaborates on his approach to challenge the status quo and outcompete established players.  Here's one of his quotes Most enterprise software is built as a System of Record. So if you look at employee engagement software, what it is, is a quarterly survey, which is then creating dashboards and data. And so it's a System of Record, not a System of Action.  What you need to drive behavior is a System of Action. So if you think about it from another analogy, people understand is, you don't get fit by doing an annual health checkup every three months. You get fit by going to the gym. And actually 10,000 steps is the best thing that happened to fitness because it made it very easy to drive a system of action. And we think about team health and team performance in the exact same way During this interview, you will learn four things: The framework JJ is using to help him ensure he's focused on the most impactful priority on his list - every day. That founders should focus on creating value, and salespeople on capturing value. And why it will hurt you if you mix this up. His perspective on identifying their ideal customer segment to capture value and scale revenue in a predictable, repeatable way. His first principles when it comes to building remarkable products. For more information about the guest from this week: JJ (Projjal) Ghatak Website: OnLoop Subscribe to the Daily SaaS Reflection Get my free, 1 min daily reflection on shaping a B2B SaaS business no one can ignore. Subscribe here Yes, it's actually daily. And yes, people actually stay subscribed (Just see what peer B2B SaaS CEOs say) My promise: It's short. To the point. Inspiring. And valuable. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This podcast interview focuses on the entrepreneurial journey to win the global content plagiarism battle. My guest is Jon Gillham, CEO of Originality AI.  Jon Gillham is a tech entrepreneur on a mission. Before he started his SaaS business, he ran a content marketing agency.  Having been one of the earliest adopters of generative AI through his agency, he understood the wave of plagiarism problems that was coming, even before Chat GPT and GPT-4 were released. That became the founding idea behind Originality AI - a company he founded in November 2022. Their mission: help Web Publishers be sure they are producing Original Content and can hit publish with integrity. This means: publishing unique, Human-Created content ... the kind Google and we, the readers wants! And this inspired me, and hence I invited Jon to my podcast. We explore the growing challenge of AI-generated content -and how this impacts trust. Jon shares the challenges he's faced on his journey to solve the problem. He also explains why he decided to focus on a very specific niche and not education, while he was offered contracts with brand names as big as Harvard and Purdue. Lastly, he elaborates how they are able to build extremely competitive products with just 1 simple organizational tweak. Here's one of his quotes We built and ended up launching the weekend before Chat GPT launched. And when Chat GPT launched it kind of blew things up. We had people coming from all different parts of the world. Academia was coming our way. User-generated sites were coming our way to say - this is now a problem that we need to wrestle with. During this interview, you will learn four things: What to do / not to do when you want to create defensible differentiation with your product. Why he turned away very big sales opportunities - and why that was a critical, but right choice. How he maintained a good work-life balance (and what he learned from that in hind-sight). How to outperform all your competitors on review sites. For more information about the guest from this week: Jon Gillham Website: Originality AI Subscribe to the Daily SaaS Reflection Get my free, 1 min daily reflection on shaping a B2B SaaS business no one can ignore. Subscribe here Yes, it's actually daily. And yes, people actually stay subscribed (Just see what peer B2B SaaS CEOs say) My promise: It's short. To the point. Inspiring. And valuable. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This podcast interview focuses on the entrepreneurial journey to tackle a very challenging industry problem and scale impact. My guest is Theo Saville, Co-founder and CEO of CloudNC Theo is a Manufacturing and Mechanical Engineer (M.Eng, University of Warwick), with a background in defense, laser-based metals 3D printing research at Warwick Manufacturing Group, and sales.  He entered metals 3D printing expecting to be able to harness a technology ready to disrupt manufacturing but gradually became disillusioned with the state and future applicability of the technology. When he was exposed to CNC machining, he quickly realized its disruptive potential if it could be automated to the same degree as plastic 3D printing.  And that led him to co-found CloudNC in 2015. Their mission: to make single-click manufacture a reality. And this inspired me, and hence I invited Theo to my podcast. We explore what's broken in today's manufacturing world and how that's growing to a $400 billion industry. Theo shares his journey of solving a complex problem in a very unusual - but effective way. He elaborates how they're looking for leverage in everything - and how that's led to using video marketing to get over 10M+ impressions a month - showcasing software to automate machines. Last but not least, he stresses the importance of setting clear objectives - especially as your startup scales.  Here's one of his quotes The idea was to first build software that makes it automatic to program these machines. And we raised our seed rounds on the basis of that. We realized after, I think, two or three years that it would take 10 years to actually build software that was capable enough to be saleable to any factory with these machines, there's just too much variation from factory to factory. So we went, I know, let's reduce the complexity of the problem. Let's build our own factory, make it really simple and standardized, and then copy and paste factories, and in that way, disrupt the industry.  During this interview, you will learn four things: How they pivoted from selling a new platform to individual manufacturers to a model where they simply plug in what they already use.   What made them decide to move from a product-led sales approach to an eco-system-led sales approach? How they created defensible differentiation and a unique value proposition in the very crowded market for manufacturing software. What unusual opportunities niching down has provided them. For more information about the guest from this week: Theo Saville Website: CloudNC Subscribe to the Daily SaaS Reflection Get my free, 1 min daily reflection on shaping a B2B SaaS business no one can ignore. Subscribe here Yes, it's actually daily. And yes, people actually stay subscribed (Just see what peer B2B SaaS CEOs say) My promise: It's short. To the point. Inspiring. And valuable. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices