Podcast appearances and mentions of david skok

The Herle Burly was created by Air Quotes Media with support from our presenting sponsor TELUS, as well as CN Rail.Greetings, you curiouser and curiouser Herle Burly-ites. We have a great show teed up for you today. It's not an American topic, because it's broader than that (which we'll get to in a minute) but if you watched Trump's inauguration, you couldn't help but notice all the “tech-bro billionaires” seated on the dais, in their places of honour, flanking the incoming President. Musk, Zuckerberg, Bezos, Cook.So, I want to have a conversation about this growing influence of big tech and business... on our government, our politics ... and how they view journalism and media today.I couldn't have a better guest to do that with: David Skok! David is the founder, CEO and Editor-in-Chief of the very excellent “The Logic”, Canada's Business and Tech Newsroom. Prior to that, he was the associate editor and head of editorial strategy at The Toronto Star. And the managing editor and vice-president of digital for The Boston Globe.And, there's a Canadian context for all of this is: Tobi Lütke, founder of Shopify, is part of a group of tech entrepreneurs who have just launched a new platform called “Build Canada”, an effort to influence government policy on issues like immigration, healthcare and so on.Thank you for joining us on #TheHerleBurly podcast. Please take a moment to give us a rating and review on iTunes, Spotify, or your favourite podcast app.Watch episodes of The Herle Burly via Air Quotes Media on YouTube.

In this episode, David Skok, founder and CEO of The Logic, discusses his journey from traditional journalism to leading a digital-first news outlet. He reflects on his time at The Boston Globe, where he helped the publication transition to a digital subscription model. This experience laid the foundation for his decision to launch The Logic, focusing on Canada's innovation economy and providing high-quality, in-depth reporting.David explains how Clayton Christensen's theory of disruptive innovation influenced his approach to digital media. He saw an opportunity to address gaps in Canadian tech and business coverage, and launched The Logic in 2018. He highlights the challenges of building a digital publication in a space dominated by legacy media and how his publication has carved out its niche by focusing on critical, analytical journalism.The discussion also covers the impact of Bill C-18 on the media landscape in Canada, with David offering insights into how it aims to level the playing field between big tech platforms and smaller news organizations. He also touches on the role of The Logic Summit, an annual event that brings together leaders in tech and business, as part of his broader mission to foster a stronger innovation ecosystem in Canada.And John Ruffolo of Maverix Private Equity joins Matt Cohen to discuss the latest tech and venture capital news.About David Skok:David Skok is the founder and CEO of The Logic, a business news publication focused on Canada's innovation economy, with five bureaus across the country. Backed by the Financial Times, The Logic has become a prominent source of in-depth business journalism under his leadership.With over 25 years of experience, David previously held senior roles at The Toronto Star and The Boston Globe, where he led digital strategy and helped grow BostonGlobe.com's digital subscriptions by 40%. He also co-created Globalnews.ca, one of Canada's leading digital news platforms.David holds a Nieman Fellowship from Harvard University and a Bachelor's degree in journalism from Ryerson University. He also serves on the board of the Online News Association and advisory boards for several journalism institutions.In this episode, we discuss:News Rundown with John Ruffolo:* (01:31) Elon Musk's epic week * (02:00) Discussion on the rise of reusable rocket systems and the implications for space exploration* (03:26) Information Venture Partners (IVP), a Toronto-based venture capital firm, decides not to raise its fourth venture fund, citing market conditions and personal circumstances* (05:00) The trend of venture funds consolidating and shifting towards more niche or special purpose vehicle (SPV) investments is explored* (09:00) Geoffrey Hinton, known as the "AI godfather," wins the 2024 Nobel Prize in Physics for his contributions to AI* (12:00) Shopify President Harley Finkelstein's controversial comments about the lack of ambition in the Canadian tech sector, and the push for more risk-taking in AI development* (14:50) John Ruffolo responds, emphasizing the need for better access to capital and support for Canadian entrepreneurs, rather than a lack of ambition being the primary issue* (19:00) Matt and John discuss the large investments being made in U.S. data center developments and AI infrastructure, noting the contrast with Canada's lack of similar projects* (23:00) A story about Anguilla's earnings from the ".ai" domain surge, and how it now accounts for 20% of the island's government revenueInterview with David Skok:* (24:53) David Skok discusses his early years in journalism and how his experiences shaped his career* (27:21) His experiences at The Boston Globe, leading its transition to a subscription-based model and the lessons learned from that time* (31:00) The evolution of digital content consumption and how consumers' preferences for news have changed* (33:36) Clayton Christensen's disruptive innovation theory on David's decision to start The Logic, and his approach to navigating the shifting media landscape.* (41:55) The founding of The Logic, initial challenges, and the importance of building a subscription-based media outlet* (45:00) The competitive nature of the Canadian media landscape and the challenges of securing talent and resources for a startup media company* (49:13) David explains The Logic Summit, how it serves as a platform for bringing together Canada's innovation and business leaders, and its growing significance* (51:58) The implications of Bill C-18 and how it affects relationships between media outlets and tech platforms like Google and Meta* [56:43] The rise of generative AI, the challenges of copyright for news organizations, and the impact on journalistic integrity* [59:00] David outlines The Logic's approach to using AI and how they manage its integration with journalistic standards.Fast Favorites:* Favorite podcast: Pivot by Kara Swisher and Scott Galloway* Favorite newsletter or blog: Stratechery by Ben Thompson* Favorite tech gadget: His iPhone* Favorite new trend: Generative AI* Favorite book: The Innovator's Dilemma by Clayton Christensen* Favorite CEO to watch: Marc Benioff from SalesforceFollow Matt Cohen and Tank Talks here!Podcast production support provided by Agentbee.ai This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit tanktalks.substack.com

Artificial intelligence has its roots in Canadian research, but some experts worry the country risks being left behind as AI accelerates. David Skok, editor and CEO of The Logic, explores how to seize this moment in the new book, Superintelligence: Is Canada Ready for AI?

Adam Robinson is the CEO and founder of Retention.com, an industry-leading Shopify Ecommerce solution for increasing cart abandonment revenue.Adam bootstrapped Retention.com to 14M ARR with 6 people in 2.5 years, and is on the road to reaching 50M ARR by 2024. Retention.com delivers innovative customer growth solutions for e-commerce brands to monetize their first-party audience, successfully generating over $1bn in retail sales for Shopify stores since its inception in early 2020. Before starting Retention.com, Adam founded, bootstrapped and sold Robly Email Marketing, a marketing automation SaaS, for 8 figures to private equity in 2021. Adam is on a mission to support startup founders by sharing lessons learned from his entrepreneurial journey through his weekly podcast “10 years in the Making”, and posts content twice-daily on LinkedIn. When he's not busy building a unicorn startup in public, he's spending time with his wife, Helen, newborn daughter, Emma, and dog Bonnie in Austin, TX.To learn more, visit: http://honestecommerce.coResources:Subscribe to Honest Ecommerce on YoutubeWatch the video episode to see what Adam is sharing on his screenConnect with Adam linkedin.com/in/retentionadamShoot Adam an email if you have questions adam@retention.comFollow Adam on Twitter @retentionadamQuickly and easily grow your email list and boost your shopping cart abandonment revenue with retention marketing solutions retention.com

Leagh Turner In Conversation With David Skok

Leagh Turner In Conversation With David Skok

Government is trying to reshape the media landscape..the future of media from three very different perspectives: Peter Menzies, David Skok, and Derek Fildebrandt on this week's No Nonsense.

Hub Dialogues (part of The Hub, Canada's daily information source for public policy – https://www.thehub.ca) are in-depth conversations about big ideas from the worlds of business, economics, geopolitics, public policy, and technology.The Hub Dialogues feature The Hub's editor-at-large, Sean Speer, in conversation with leading entrepreneurs, policymakers, scholars, and thinkers on the issues and challenges that will shape Canada's future at home and abroad.This episode of Hub Dialogues features host Sean Speer in conversation with David Skok, the CEO and editor in chief of The Logic, a fast-growing online media site dedicated to journalism on innovation and technology, about the state of the news media in Canada and its future in the digital age.If you like what you are hearing on Hub Dialogues consider subscribing to The Hub's daily email newsletter featuring our insights and analysis on public policy issues. Subscription is free. Simply sign up here: https://newsletter.thehub.ca/.The Hub is Canada's leading information source for public policy. Stridently non-partisan, The Hub is committed to delivering to Canadians the latest analysis and cutting-edge perspectives into the debates that are shaping our collective future.Visit The Hub now at https://www.thehub.ca. Our GDPR privacy policy was updated on August 8, 2022. Visit acast.com/privacy for more information.

Subscribe on Apple Podcasts and Spotify If you use Apple, please leave a rating and review.Journalists in their 40s are under no illusions to the need for sustainable business models in news publishing. Being suddenly laid off is a rite of passage.“Those of us who started in journalism in the late ‘90s, early 2000s, very early on we were awakened to the challenges of the business models,” said David Skok, founder and CEO of The Logic, a four-year-old publisher focused on the growth of the knowledge economy in Canada. “We didn't have the church and state separation as much as others did in terms of  understanding the news industry is as much about product and business strategy as it is your editorial. I've always said you could have the best lede or nut graf in the world, but if it didn't load on your phone in .01 seconds, it was invisible to the reader.”Founded in 2018 and now with 20 employees, The Logic is an independent publication focused on the knowledge economy in Canada as it transitions away from an economy largely dependent on sectors like mining and real estate. David describes The Logic as “a combination of the business model/product of The Information with the editorial focus of The Financial Times.” On this episode of The Rebooting Show, David and I discussed why The Logic doesn't consider itself a tech publication, differentiating through original reporting and why a subscriptions-based business model isn't subscriptions-only. Starting from scratchDavid is a veteran journalist, with roles at the Boston Globe and The Toronto Star. He started The Logic almost four years ago after recognizing the challenges legacy news organizations face in changing their business models provides an opportunity for new entrants with the right focus.“I had been a disruptor from within [large news organizations] and seen a lot of the same mistakes being committed and a lot of the same barriers to innovation. I wasn't seeing a lot of success in large organizations, not because the effort wasn't there, but because they're large organizations and they're slower moving. There was an opportunity, particularly in the Canadian market, which hadn't had a lot of innovation in a while, to start something new.”Going beyond techTechnology long moved from a vertical coverage area to a horizontal. There is a tech angle to just about every news story. For The Logic, that means going beyond technology to zero in on the big story of the Canadian economy shifting its focus to industries like crypto and electric vehicles.“You can't cover tech anymore without covering the future of everything. Early on, we branded ourselves as a technology publication because it was a way for people to digest what we were doing, but it was almost a Trojan horse. We're really about the future of the entire economy, not just tech. What we try to do is cover it through a lens of innovation and forward-thinking.” DifferentiationBeing unique and meaningful are the ways to stand out in crowded markets. For The Logic, that means focusing on in-depth, reported stories as opposed to chasing SEO traffic by rushing up an explainer of “What is SWIFT?”“[The Information's CEO] Jessica Lessin has talked a lot about this: How do you be 10x better than your competition? You have to make sure you stand out. Do we have unique access to someone or something? Are we telling you something original, breaking original reporting you can't get anywhere else? All our work is based on original reporting so that we can define the agenda as opposed to fo

Listen now (31 min) | ‘The news industry is as much product and business strategy as editorial’

Alan Gleeson is the Founder of Work With Agility, a strategic B2B marketing consultancy with a passion for supporting tech startups to generate leads and to grow their businesses. Alan started his career in financial services, joining Barclays on their graduate programme. He joined Palo Alto Software, a leading SaaS company in 2004 where he acted as the Managing Director for the European subsidiary for a number of years. More recently, Alan has worked for a number of leading SaaS startups, in a mix of full time and consultancy engagements. In this episode we cover: 00:00 - ShoutOUT Costumer Messaging via SMS, Email, WhatsApp & Messenger 00:50 - Intro 02:34 - What To Plan Before Expanding Internationally 04:29 - Common Challenges When Branching Out 07:33 - Branching Differences Between EU & US Companies 09:52 - Considering Region, Culture & Language When Expanding 19:54 - CMO, Alan's Playbook & EU Vs US B2B Companies Market 23:51 - Finding The Right Team For Your SaaS In A New Market 27:24 - Hiring Someone Full Time & Salary Expectations 32:45 - Alan's Favorite Hobbies To Get Into a Flow State 33:37 - Alan's Vision When Starting Work With Agility 38:06 - Alan's Piece of Advice for His 25 Years Old Self 39:46 - Alan's Biggest Challenges at Work With Agility 41:12 - Instrumental Resources for Alan's Success 42:58 - What Does Success Means for Alan Today 44:19 - Get in Touch With Alan Get in Touch With Alan: http://www.linkedin.com/in/alangleeson (Alan's LinkedIn) Alan's Email Mentions: https://matrixpartners.com/team/david-skok/ (David Skok) https://medium.com/@msuster (Mark Suster) https://www.aprildunford.com (April Dunford) Tag Us & Follow: https://www.facebook.com/SaaSDistrictPodcast/ (Facebook) https://www.linkedin.com/company/horizen-capital (LinkedIn) https://www.instagram.com/saasdistrict/ (Instagram) More About Akeel: https://twitter.com/AkeelJabber (Twitter) https://linkedin.com/in/akeel-jabbar (LinkedIn) https://horizencapital.com/saas-podcast (More Podcast Sessions)

David Skok is the CEO and Editor-in-Chief of The Logic. He joins us in this edition of the WRIT Race to discuss the media's role in covering the federal election campaign in Canada. And asks whether we're focused on the things that really matter. "This will be an election campaign framed as a referendum on Canada's response to a global pandemic, with parties jockeying for position on how the governing Liberals did or didn't manage the crisis. But I hope this election will also surface hard questions about the direction of the country."

A Changing Landscape for Business and Entrepreneurship in 2021

A Changing Landscape for Business and Entrepreneurship in 2021

This is The Founders' List - audio versions of essays from technology’s most important leaders, selected by the founder community. Alongside our latest NFX Essay "The Hidden World of Pricing: Uber, Trulia, Etsy, Superhuman & More with Madhavan Ramanujam", we decided to release multiple supplemental pricing articles on The Founders' List. David Skok joined Matrix Partners as a General Partner in May 2001. He has a wealth of experience running companies. David started his first company in 1977 at age 22. Since then David has founded a total of four separate companies and performed one turn-around. Three of these companies went public. This post looks at how to create scalable pricing using multiple pricing axes, and discusses the different types of axes that can be used. David's featured article in this episode: - Scalable Pricing: A Key Tool For SaaS Success Read the full NFX pricing essay here - https://www.nfx.com/post/the-hidden-world-of-pricing/

Client communication is one of the most important things a veterinary clinic can do, but they might not go as far in facilitating it as they should. This week, Shawn & Ivan are joined by Taylor Cavanah of PetDesk to discuss effective client communication. Taylor recommends The Challenger Sale by Matthew Dixon & Brent Adamson (amzn.to/3nZ4rKD), For Entrepreneurs by David Skok (bit.ly/38XecV4), & Spook Country by William Gibson (amzn.to/3bUHUfE). Learn more about Taylor at https://petdesk.com/about-us/.

El Churn es una métrica que sigue siendo crítica pero no es consistente entre compañías (acaba siendo una opinión) y pierde el sentido para presentar ante inversionistas o internamente. El Net Dollar Retention es la división de lo que le cobraste durante 12 meses al cliente en el año anterior y el año actual. Permite medir el valor de un cohorte de clientes a lo largo del tiempo incluyendo expansión de ingresos, cross-selling o el propio churn. Hoy hablamos del impacto que tiene entender esta métrica y su impacto en la valuación de empresas SaaS.No olvides darle "me gusta" al vídeo en YouTube, compartirlo o bien dejarnos una reseña en cualquiera de las plataformas de podcasting en audio en donde nos escuches.Estos son los enlaces a los temas de los que hemos hablado:Cuenta de Martin Casado en Twitter: https://twitter.com/martin_casadoAndreessen Horowitz (a16z): https://a16z.comSimpson's Paradox in Measuring Net Dollar Retention Rate: https://tomtunguz.com/simpsons-paradox-ndr/Churn is Dead, Long Live Net Dollar Retention!: https://www.slideshare.net/ramblingman/churn-is-dead-long-live-net-dollar-retention-saastr-annual-home-saastr-2020-revisedCharla de Dave Kellogg: https://youtu.be/D3Lwz-Pe1YcCanal de SaaStr en YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/Saastr/videosSaaStr Blog: https://www.saastr.com/blog/For Entrepreneurs de David Skok: https://www.forentrepreneurs.com/saas/Síguenos en Twitter:Danny Prol: https://twitter.com/DannyProl/Claudio Cossio: https://twitter.com/ccossioEstamos en todas estas plataformas:Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/saas-product-chat/id1435000409ListenNotes: https://www.listennotes.com/podcasts/saas-product-chat-daniel-prol-y-claudio-CABZRIjGVdP/Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/36KIhM0DM7nwRLuZ1fVQy3Google Podcasts: https://podcasts.google.com/?feed=aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5zaW1wbGVjYXN0LmNvbS8zN3N0Mzg2dg%3D%3D&hl=esBreaker: https://www.breaker.audio/saas-product-chatWeb: https://saasproductchat.com/

This episode is sponsored by Onboard, a customer onboarding software that helps you automate, optimize, and create the perfect journey for every customer.Be sure to check out onboard.io, where they're currently looking for early beta customers and the founders will work directly with you to help improve your onboarding process! Go to: https://www.onboard.io/ (Onboard.io) Mark is the Co-Founder & CEO of Speak on Podcasts, which is an Outbound Prospecting Coach at the  Sales Impact Academy,  CRO at Task Drive, a B2B SaaS Revenue Growth Consultant at Yello O & Mentor at Growth Mentor. By  day Mark works with B2B companies to increase revenue by helping them with their Lead Generation and Data Enrichment strategies & by night he helps B2B SaaS companies scale revenue with their Sales & Marketing Automation and Customer Journey Optimisation.. Revenue Generation is Mark's brain default state and his personal mantra is to give without expecting anything in return. During this interview we cover: 00:00 - Reduce User Churn with Onboard.io (A word from the Sponsor) 01:19 -  Intro  02:34 - Mark's Background (From Prospectin to B2B Revenue Growth) 07:34 - Channels for Building a Predictable and Scalable Outbound System 08:51 - How to Source Leads who are More Likely to Buy or Convert 11:04 - Key Metrics to Look at to Keep the Pipeline Flowing  14:40 -  How to Invest on Acquiring the first &  Right Customers  17:09  - How to Better Build the Customer Profile for Higher Success in Positive Responses 18:56 -  If you Create Content, Customers Will Come? 20:48 - What's the Story Behind Launching Speak on Podcasts? 23:03 -  Why You, as a SaaS Founder or Marketer, Should Launch a Podcast 35:02 - How Should We Be Thinking About Lead Generation Through Podcasting as a Marketing Channel 37:58 - Mark's Top Marketing/Sales Stack Tools  39:31 Get In Touch With Mark Mentions: https://blog.close.com/5-myths-about-saas-sales-you-probably-believe/ (5 Myths About SaaS Sales Founders Usually Believe) https://www.google.com/search?client=safari&rls=en&q=Speak+On+Podcasts&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8 (Speak On Podcasts) Terms: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Customer_lifetime_value (LTV) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Customer_acquisition_cost (CAC) https://blog.hubspot.com/customers/ideal-customer-profiles-and-buyer-personas-are-they-different (ICP & User Persona) People: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dskok/ (David Skok) https://www.linkedin.com/in/orengreen/?originalSubdomain=uk (Oren Green) https://www.linkedin.com/in/randfishkin/ (Rand Fishkin) https://www.linkedin.com/in/tomhuntio/ (Tom Hunt) Companies: Task Drive https://www.convertflow.com/ (Convert Flow) https://zapier.com/?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=gaw-row-nua-search-trademark-brand_exact&utm_adgroup=brand-misspelling&utm_term=zappier&utm_content=_pcrid_446258242264_pkw_zappier_pmt_e_pdv_c_slid__pgrid_93034149789_ptaid_aud-884433608118%3Akwd-372858063527_&gclid=Cj0KCQjws536BRDTARIsANeUZ5-MMoWaxFtbPmanvHsTR7uVjRNub-5A28YSMcfgksLghKp3EtNSANkaAg1xEALw_wcB (Zapier) https://feedly.com/i/welcome (Feedly) Get in touch with Mark: https://www.linkedin.com/in/markcolganmarketing/?originalSubdomain=uk (Mark's Linkedin) Tag us & follow: https://www.facebook.com/HorizenCapitalOfficial/ (Facebook) https://www.linkedin.com/company/horizen-capital (LinkedIn) Instagram: @Horizen.Capital https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCYvpqdVVSlSMunWiEwlMjzw (YouTube) More about Akeel: Twitter - https://twitter.com/AkeelJabber (https://twitter.com/AkeelJabber) LinkedIn - https://linkedin.com/in/akeel-jabbar (https://linkedin.com/in/akeel-jabbar) More Podcast Sessions - https://horizencapital.com/saas-podcast (https://horizencapital.com/saas-podcast) 

In this episode of Big Tech, co-hosts David Skok and Taylor Owen discuss how our understanding of the impacts big tech has on society has shifted over the past year. Among these changes is the public’s greater awareness of the need for regulation in this sector.In their conversation, David and Taylor reflect upon some of the major events that have contributed to this shift. The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the need for better mechanisms to stop the spread of misinformation. And it has shown that social media platforms are capable of quickly implementing some measures to curb the spread of misinformation. However, the Facebook Oversight Board, which their guest Kate Klonick talked about in season 1, is not yet operational, and won’t be until after the US presidential election; even then, its powers will be limited to appeals rather than content oversight.In July 2020, the big tech CEOs testified in an antitrust hearing before the US Subcommittee on Antitrust, Commercial and Administrative Law. “That moment,” Taylor Owen says, “represented a real turning point in the governance agenda.” This growing big tech antitrust movement is showing that law makers, now better prepared and understanding the issues more clearly, are catching up to big tech. The public is starting to recognize the harms alongside the benefits of these companies’ unfettered growth. In season 2, Matt Stoller spoke with David and Taylor about monopoly power, and how these modern giants are starting to look like the railroad barons of old.From diverse perspectives, all the podcast’s guests have made the point that technology is a net good for society but that the positives do not outweigh the negatives — appreciating the many benefits that platforms and technology bring to our lives does not mean we can give them free rein. As Taylor explains, “When we found out the petrochemical industry was also polluting our environment, we didn’t just ban the petrochemical industry and ignore all the different potential positives that came out of it. We just said you can’t pollute any more.” With the technology sector embedded in all aspects of our democracies, economies and societies, it’s clear we can no longer ignore the need for regulation.

Biotechnology — the use of biological processes for industrial and other purposes, especially through genetic manipulation of micro-organisms — is a field experiencing massive growth worldwide. For many decades, advances in biology have been made in large academic or corporate institutions, with entry to the field restricted by knowledge and financial barriers. Now, through information sharing and new means of accessing lab space and equipment, a whole new community of amateur scientists are entering the molecular biology space. The emergence of this growing do-it-yourself “biohacker” community raises ethical questions of what work should be allowed to proceed.In this episode of Big Tech, co-hosts David Skok and Taylor Owen speak with Ellen Jorgensen, a molecular biologist and Chief Scientific Officer at Aanika Biosciences. She is an advocate for democratizing biotechnology by enabling more individuals to have access to lab space and equipment. Jurisdictions are taking different approaches to biotechnology, with some, such as the European Union and Africa, being more restrictive than others, such as China. What makes the fragmentation of governance surrounding genetic modification different from fragmentation in internet or tech governance is that biotechnology’s raw material is a global interconnected web of life. A biological modification can have unintended, even disastrous, impacts worldwide. For example, says Jorgensen, “What I’m concerned with is things like gene drives, which is a variety of CRISPR gene editing that [is] self-perpetuating.…So, 100 percent of the offspring, where one of the parents has this gene drive, all have the gene drive. So, it can spread through a population, particularly one with a short lifespan, like mosquitoes, within a very short period of time. And here, for the first time, we have the ability to potentially wipe out a species.” As Jorgensen points out, with such high stakes, we have an “inherent motivation to regulate.” Working together on a global set of standards, and setting aside their own ethical or moral understandings to find a solution that works for everyone, will present a challenge for nations.

Online advertisement and social media platforms have had a major impact on economies and societies around the globe. Those impacts are happening in retail, with the shift in spending from brick and mortar to online; in advertising, where revenues have moved from print and broadcast to online social platforms; and in society more broadly, through algorithmic-amplified extremism and hate speech. The big tech companies at the centre of these shifts have little incentive to change the nature of their operations. It now falls to nations around the globe to find ways to regulate big tech in the face of what many view as a market failure. In this episode of Big Tech, co-hosts David Skok and Taylor Owen speak to Damian Collins, a British member of Parliament and former chair of the House of Commons Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) select committee. As chair of DCMS, Collins led the investigation into Cambridge Analytica’s role in the Brexit referendum. He was also involved in the creation of the International Grand Committee on Disinformation and “Fake News.” Collins doesn’t blame the tech giants for their inaction, but rather sees the problem as governance policies that have lagged behind. There is a need for policy to catch up and ensure citizens are protected, just as other complex global markets, such as the financial industry, have done. International cooperation and information sharing enable nations to take on the large global tech companies together without each needing to start from scratch.

Journalism has had a storied history with the internet. Early on, the internet was a niche market, something for traditional publishers to experiment with as another medium for sharing news. As it gained popularity as a news source, newsrooms began to change as well, adapting their business models to the digital age. Newspapers had historically generated revenue through a mix of subscriptions, advertising and classifieds. But internet platforms Craigslist and Kijiji soon took over classified. Google Ads presented advertisers with more refined marketing tools than the newspapers could offer. And Facebook and Twitter made it possible for readers to consume news for free without visiting newspaper’s website. In this episode of Big Tech, co-hosts David Skok and Taylor Owen speak to Emily Bell, the director of the Tow Center for Digital Journalism at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism. Newsrooms are left with few options to make money now. Unless you are a large outlet with a sizable online subscriber base like The New York Times, your capacity for local reporting will be hampered by the economic need to focus on stories that have the broadest reach. Many media conglomerates have cut back their local reporting, creating news deserts across large regions. Not having local reporters on the case is having negative impacts on democracy, too. As Bell explains, “Where there is no local press…local officials tend to stay in office for longer. They tend to pay themselves more.” Smaller local news outlets that can build a relationship with their readers can see success if their readers are able to pay the subscription fees. But it is often poorer communities, where people can't afford local news subscriptions, that most need the services of good local journalism. Bell sees an opportunity to rethink the way news is funded: first, by looking to communities to decide what level of reporting they require, and second, by resourcing it accordingly. 

Is it possible to access the internet without interacting with the big five American tech companies? Technically, yes, but large swaths of the web would be inaccessible to consumers without the products and platforms created by Apple, Amazon, Facebook, Microsoft and Alphabet, Google’s parent company. In this episode of Big Tech, co-hosts David Skok and Taylor Owen speak with Matt Stoller, the director of research at the American Economic Liberties Project and the author of Goliath: The 100-Year War Between Monopoly Power and Democracy. Stoller looks at how the political landscape has changed from the time of the railroad tycoons to the modern Silicon Valley tech monopolies. Each of these companies has established itself in a market-leading position in different ways. On mobile, Apple’s App Store is the only way for software developers to reach iPhone customers. Google controls search, maps and online advertising. Amazon’s website is the dominant online retail platform. “In some ways, it’s a little bit like saying, well, you know, that railroad that goes through this one narrow valley that you have to take to get to market, well, that’s not a monopoly, because there are other railroads in the country,” Stoller says. “Well, yeah, maybe there are, but it doesn’t matter if you need that particular railroad to get where you’re going…. that’s what Amazon is like in a lot of the sectors that it deals with.” Finally, underpinning much of the internet are Microsoft Azure and Amazon Web Services cloud data centres. Is corporate power a political problem or a market problem? Skok, Owen and Stoller discuss topics ranging from the robber barons of the 1930s and the antitrust reforms that followed, to the current environment, one that evolved over several political generations to become, as Stoller describes it, a crisis of concentration separated from “caretaking,” in which profits can amass through domination rather than through better products or services. 

Social media platforms have assumed the role of news distribution sources, but have largely rejected the affiliated gatekeeper role of fact-checking the content they allow on their sites. This abdication has led to the rise of fake news, disinformation and propaganda. In this episode of Big Tech, co-hosts David Skok and Taylor Owen spoke with journalist and Rappler founder Maria Ressa just days before her conviction in a high-profile cyber-libel case against her, as well as her colleague Reynaldo Santos, Jr. and Rappler Inc. as a whole. On Monday, June 15, the Manila Regional Trial Court Branch 46 ruled that Ressa and Santos, Jr. were liable, but that Rappler as a company was not. This case is viewed in the larger context as an attack on journalistic freedoms protected under the Filipino Constitution. Ressa has repeatedly come under fire by the Duterte government for calling out what she sees as illiberal-leaning and propaganda. Facebook was a key component of President Rodrigo Duterte’s election in 2016. Ressa explained, “On Facebook, a lie told a million times becomes a fact.” The disinformation that spreads on social media platforms is having real-world impacts on how citizens view democratic institutions. “If you debate the facts, you can’t have integrity of markets. You can’t have integrity of elections….This is democracy’s death by a thousand cuts,” said Ressa. 

Efforts to contain the COVID-19 pandemic have essentially shut down the economy. Now, as regions now look to reopen, the focus is shifting to minimizing further infection by monitoring the virus’s spread and notifying people who may have been exposed to it. Public health authorities around the globe have deployed or are developing contact-tracing or contact-notification mobile apps. Apple and Google have partnered to develop a Bluetooth-based, contact notification application programming interface, now available as an update for their mobile operating systems. In this episode of Big Tech, co-hosts David Skok and Taylor Owen speak with Carly Kind, director of the Ada Lovelace Institute, an organization studying issues around data and artificial intelligence. In April, the institute published a report on digital contact tracing called Exit through the App Store?There are concerns about this technology’s rapid and expansive rollout. First, around data collection: some jurisdictions are developing their apps to store data centrally rather than at device level. Next, technical considerations: for example, Bluetooth-based apps only register proximity and don’t account for other metrics, such as whether the contact happened outdoors, where infection risk is lower. Further, concerns about Apple and Google’s tech-focused solution, which infringes on the public health space: “From a power and control perspective, you can’t help but feel somewhat afraid that two companies control almost every device in every hand in the world and are able to wield that power in ways that contradict, right or wrong, the desires of national governments and public health authorities,” Kind cautions. Finally, there are concerns about how health-tracking apps, and our access to them, could impact our freedom to move about: we need to think about the ways these apps could marginalize individuals who don’t have the technology to prove their health status.

The impact of COVID-19 on the global economy was swift and substantial. Unemployment numbers are reaching depression-era levels and nations are clamouring to unveil stability packages intended to lessen the economic impact. Will these measures work to restore the economic status quo, or is this an opportunity to rethink our economic structures? In this episode of Big Tech, co-hosts David Skok and Taylor Owen speak with Joseph Stiglitz, a Nobel laureate economist and a professor at Columbia University, about lessons from past economic crises, and how those lessons apply to the economic fallout of COVID-19. This time around, tech companies command much of the market, and many of them are experiencing stability, if not growth. Zoom and Netflix, for example, have seen surges in their share price. Unfortunately, the tech industry introduces new labour-market issues: digital platforms often require fewer employees to operate than other industries like manufacturing or air travel. With comparatively small staff numbers, tax breaks and growing monopolies, technology companies have an outsize effect on society. Stiglitz argues that taxing these companies in “an adequate way” could have a positive social impact. “The fact is: we lowered the corporate taxes rather than trying to capture back for the public some of the enormous profits that are accruing to the tech giants,” he explains. These companies could emerge from the pandemic more dominant than ever.

*Episode OutlineEpisode Outline* -------------------------------- [02:39] Mark’s experience in the HubSpot team [07:16] Steps he used to achieve product-market fit [11:13] Lead indicator of retention [12:04] Steps in identifying leader and getting the economics right [14:34] The process of getting prospects through the funnel [16:35] Lessons from managing and onboarding people [19:22] The importance of getting data through customer cohorts *Mark’s Inspirations:* ---------------------- John McMahon ( https://www.linkedin.com/in/johnmcmahon1/ ) David Skok ( https://www.linkedin.com/in/dskok/ ) Brian Halligan ( https://www.linkedin.com/in/brianhalligan/ ) *Connect with Mark* ------------------- LinkedIn ( https://www.linkedin.com/in/markroberge ) Twitter ( https://twitter.com/markroberge )

Episode 11 | Where do you get your information from? Original news is in serious decline, yet times of crisis are when the community leans most heavily on reliable news sources. Co-hosted by Edward Greenspon and PPF Fellow in Residence Sean Speer, today's conversation with Senator Paula Simons and David Skok of The Logic is about the current state of media and journalism, media competition and the further impacts of COVID-19.

Episode 11 | Where do you get your information from? Original news is in serious decline, yet times of crisis are when the community leans most heavily on reliable news sources. Co-hosted by Edward Greenspon and PPF Fellow in Residence Sean Speer, today's conversation with Senator Paula Simons and David Skok of The Logic is about the current state of media and journalism, media competition and the further impacts of COVID-19.

Canada's economy has been put on notice. Leading into the COVID crisis, the biggest powers were throwing around their weight, and the world's smaller countries were beginning to feel it. In a post-COVID economy, small nations will need the savvy of the shrewdest start-ups, and their start-ups will need to be even more on their game. It's the only way a small country of relatively small businesses can excel in a big world dominated by big platforms. David Skok has a front row seat for this new competition for scale. As the founder and editor-in-chief of The Logic, he's running Canada's digital publication focused on the innovation economy, covering companies and creators who are in a race against time. Just like his media start-up. In this episode we discuss:Can the media succeed in Canada without subsidies?What do we need to create ten Shopify's?Is Sidewalk Labs' exit a victory or defeat for Canadian innovators?   

Modern digital tools have brought about new conveniences, enabling many to work from home during the COVID-19 pandemic. But despite our countless ways to connect with each other, studies increasingly show that people are more isolated, more depressed and less empathetic than before.In this episode of Big Tech, co-hosts David Skok and Taylor Owen speak with Douglas Rushkoff about the internet’s evolution from an emerging technology to the monopolistic system we have today. Rushkoff is a professor of media theory and digital economics at Queens College, City University of New York and author of Team Human, Throwing Rocks at the Google Bus and more.Rushkoff reflects on his involvement in the early internet in the 1980s and early ‘90s. At the time, there wasn’t any online advertising, and computer coding was seen as a hobby, rather than a career. As more people’s attention moved online, so did advertisers. The internet became an extension of American capitalism, seeking to capture and analyze our attention to generate growth. We see the impact now on our society, democracy and overall wellbeing. But Rushkoff explains that the problem isn’t the technology—it’s the application. “People think, ‘Oh, you used to like digital, and now you hate digital.’ No, digital’s been the same. I used to love the way that we applied digital, and now I hate the way we’re applying digital. There’s a really big difference. It’s like, I like hammers as long as people aren't hitting each other in the face with them.” For Rushkoff, it’s time to change the course of technology development, and put humanity first. 

How Will Canada's Innovation Economy Fare?

How Will Canada’s Innovation Economy Fare?

Social media platforms enable a free flow of content — regardless of source. And because of that system, content creators and online influencers (whether they are credible or not) shift public opinion, and spark polarization. Governments and platforms have been working on this issue, but now, in light of the COVID-19 pandemic, the dissemination of factual, credible information — and the removal of misleading information that could cause harm — is urgent.In this episode of Big Tech, co-hosts David Skok and Taylor Owen speak with Angie Drobnic Holan, editor-in-chief of PolitiFact, a fact-checking organization focused on reviewing statements made by political figures and rating them for accuracy. PolitiFact is one of the fact-checking sites that is part of the Facebook fact-checking program. They provide Facebook with fact-checks that are displayed alongside user posts that have been flagged as misleading. Facebook, however, is just one platform among many that are under fire for the rampant online extremism, fake news and disinformation facilitated by their products. Often, such platforms cite issues of scale (millions of posts a day) as cause for the problem and for their inability to solve it. However, as Drobnic Holan explains, the COVID-19 pandemic highlights just how much power social media platforms have when it comes to shaping the flow of information. “I am all in favour of freedom of speech and the first amendment. But I think false information is extraordinarily pernicious and it needs to be handled in a relatively aggressive manner,” she says. “It can't just be left to say, ‘oh, well, we hope people will find the right information eventually.’ No, that's not a way for a healthy democracy to function — with misinformation swirling all around and people being not sure what's true or not.” Drobnic Holan says.

Big Tech is a bi-weekly podcast that explores how emerging technologies are reshaping the world as we know it. Co-hosts David Skok and Taylor Owen, an AC regular, sit down with leading scholars, policy makers and entrepreneurs, to discuss technology's impact on society - for better or worse.  Season 2 is available now.   Subscribe on:  Apple Podcasts https://podcasts.apple.com/podcast/big-tech/id1484910273  Spotify https://open.spotify.com/show/3i7GpvRRKksv76DzCcB34J  or wherever you get your podcasts.   

Welcome everyone to our Roundtable on Sustaining the Innovation Ecosystem. Today's agenda includes Opening Comments by David Skok, CEO & Editor-in-Chief at The Logic, Special Remarks by Anthony Lacavera, Founder and Chairman of Globalive. And an important conversation with The Honourable Mélanie Joly, Minister of Economic Development and Official Languages –– with angel investors, innovation leaders and most importantly entrepreneurs.The National Angel Capital Organization (NACO) was honoured to host a collaborative roundtable on Thursday April 16 that featured an impressive selection of industry insiders who shared insights about the current state of the innovation ecosystem in light of COVID-19. The discussion also revolved around specific, tangible ways the Canadian government can better assist early-stage entrepreneurs and angel investors weather the current economic storm. This session—the third in a now-popular series delivered by NACO every Thursday—included experts “united in attacking the economic effects that are impacting all sectors and level of society,” said Claudio Rojas, CEO of NACO. “If we focus on helping each other, cognizant of the effects we're experiencing as individuals and organizations, we can better find new ways to collaborate and help the ecosystem.” The 90-minute roundtable was virtually attended by people in each province and territory across the country and presented a solid focus: building solutions to help entrepreneurs during this unprecedented time. “We hear you. We know your collective strength can help us find new solutions and shape policies that can drive the innovation ecosystem forward,” Rojas said. Attendees were also privileged to listen to remarks by the Honourable Mélanie Joly, Canada's Minister of Economic Development and Official Languages, Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada, who explained the federal government's ongoing economic response to the pandemic. The respected roster of speakers—angel investors, entrepreneurs and innovation leaders—shared candid tales of their current state, and offered Minister Joly well-informed suggestions of concrete ways Canada's government can help the ecosystem's most vulnerable entrepreneurs and startups.  “If we move too slowly in supporting startups or focus too narrowly on scale-ups, the innovation ecosystem itself and its interconnectedness will unravel and Canada will, once again, lag behind,” Rojas said. “Or we can take bold action, make bold moves and emerge in the aftermath as a country the whole world looks to for leadership.”  1)    State of the union: David Skok“This isn't really a time for fiscal restraint—this is a time for spending. This is the biggest collapse of the economic order since the Great Depression and if spending doesn't happen soon, there is a chance we could experience a lost decade” “There has never been a more necessary time for entrepreneurs and angels to work together to build a foundation of a new economy.”  2)    Proposed solutions for government from industry leaders“What the government can do in a straight-forward way is to support the construction of a world-class angel investor ecosystem in Canada that will drive our overall innovation ecosystem.” –Anthony Lacavera“I would like to see income tax deductibility for qualifying angel investments in the pre-seed stage that have been accepted into a recognized incubator or accelerator. Any company that's in one of recognized incubators or accelerators that's doing a seed or pre-seed financing and has angel investor participation—those angels should qualify for straight-forward income tax deductibility for those investments.” –Anthony Lacavera Originally Recorded on April 16, 2020. Cli

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Companies, international organizations and government agencies are all working to identify and eliminate online hate speech and extremism. It’s a game of cat and mouse: as regulators develop effective tools and new policies, the extremists adapt their approaches to continue their efforts. In this episode of Big Tech, Taylor Owen speaks with Sasha Havlicek, founding CEO of the Institute for Strategic Dialogue, about her organization and how it is helping to eliminate online extremism and hate speech. Several issues make Havlicek’s work difficult. The first challenge is context: regional, cultural and religious traditions play a factor in defining what is and what is not extremist content. Second, there isn’t a global norm about online extremism to reference. Third, jurisdictions present hurdles; who is responsible for deciding on norms and setting rules? And finally, keeping up with evolving technology and tactics is a never-ending battle. As online tools become more effective in identifying and removing online extremism and hate speech, extremist groups find ways to circumvent the systems. These problems are amplified by engagement-driven algorithms. While the internet enables individuals to choose how and where they consume content, platforms exploit users’ preferences to keep them engaged. “The algorithms are designed to find ways to hold your attention, … that by feeding you slightly more titillating variants of whatever it is that you're looking for, you are going to be there longer. And so that drive towards more sensationalist content is I think a real one,” Havlicek says. These algorithms contribute to the creation of echo chambers, which are highly effective tools for converting users to extremists.

Earlier this month, Facebook’s chief executive Mark Zuckerberg travelled to Europe ahead of the European Commission’s announcement of a new data strategy plan. The proposed regulations would seek to give Europe a competitive advantage by establishing data trusts to foster development in artificial intelligence technology. The tension between Silicon Valley and Brussels was on full display during Zuckerberg’s visit: while the tech executive was welcomed in state-visit fashion, his recommendation for European platform regulation was flatly rejected. To understand Zuckerberg’s message for the European Union, David Skok and Taylor Owen speak with Mark Scott, chief technology correspondent at POLITICO, about the proposed data strategy and its potential implications for tech giants like Facebook. The conversation breaks down a series of events that started on February 15, when Zuckerberg spoke at the Munich Security Conference about his company’s investment in building tools to address concerns around privacy, hate speech and democracy. He argued that private organizations shouldn’t be responsible for deciding what is acceptable online—rather, that should be left to governments. Then, on February 17, Zuckerberg travelled to Brussels to meet with officials at the European Commission. His visit coincided with Facebook’s release of a new white paper titled “Charting a Way Forward: Online Content Regulation.” Two days later, European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen announced the “ European Data Strategy,” absent Zuckerberg’s recommendations. “This is about trying to make sure that Europe doesn't miss out on the next wave of tech, which is frankly mostly AI,” explains Scott.

The story dates back to 1983, where David was selling CAD systems to architects in his first start up. The story tells how David squeezed 9 months sales cycle into a one day sales cycle. David strongly advocates that it’s important to get into customer’s mind and design your sales process around it.

David Skok is a General Partner @ Matrix Partners, the firm with a portfolio including the likes of Hubspot, ZenDesk, Quora, CloudBees and more incredible companies. As for David, he started his first company in 1977 aged just 22. Since then David has founded a total of four separate companies and performed one turn-around. Three of these companies went public. David then joined Matrix from SilverStream Software, which he founded in June 1996. Prior to its July 2002 acquisition by Novell, SilverStream was a public company that had reached a revenue run rate in excess of $100M, with approximately 800 employees and offices in more than 20 countries around the world. David is also the author of foreentrepreneurs.com the must read blog in the world of SaaS metrics.   In Today’s Episode We Discuss: How David made his way into the world of SaaS at the age of 22? How David went from founding 3 public companies to entering the world of venture with Matrix? Does David agree, “entrepreneurship does not get easier with time, it just gets different”? What does David believe is the crucial step missing in B@B when it comes to finding product market fit? What is the most common mistake B2B companies make in the hunt for PMF? How should founders think about budget and resource allocation in this search for PMF? When is to early to measure unit economics and CAC? How does David think about scaling sales teams? How does one know when is the right time to hire your first sales reps? What content and learnings should you have in place when you make the hire? How does David think about payback period on a per rep basis? What have been his lessons on optimising payback period for sales reps?   What numbers is David looking for when it comes to payback period? Why is 12 months so crucial? How should founders think about sales rep compensation? What have been David’s learnings on how to integrate sales and marketing so tightly? How does marketing and customer success intertwine to be successful?      David’s 60 Second SaaStr: Who is the best board member David has sat on a board with? Why? What advice would David have for me having just joined my first board? What would David most like to change about the world of tech and SaaS today? If you would like to find out more about the show and the guests presented, you can follow us on Twitter here: Jason Lemkin Harry Stebbings SaaStr David Skok

Cada empresa tiene que determinar cuáles son sus métricas norte. En este episodio del podcast en vivo intentamos definir al menos un grupo de ellas (Churn, CAC, CLTV, MRR, ARR, Payback period, Upselling...) en las que tenemos que hacer más hincapié. Para determinar las métricas que sí importan tenemos primero que tener en cuenta qué tipo de empresa somos y en qué estado estamos (tenemos pocos clientes, grandes cuentas, estamos desarrollando producto, hemos recibido inversión...). Comentamos las métricas en las que te podrías centrar para hacer crecer tu empresa SaaS, te encuentres en etapa temprana o en etapa de escalado.Estos son los enlaces a los temas de los que hemos hablado:The 7 SaaS growth metrics that really matter: https://www.appcues.com/blog/saas-growth-metricsThe ultimate analytics stack for startups [2020 edition]: https://www.projectbi.net/ultimate-analytics-stack-startups-2020/State of SaaS Product Onboarding: https://userpilot.com/saas-product-onboarding/What I Learned About SaaS at Buildium: https://www.outseta.com/posts/what-i-learned-at-buildiumNet Dollar Retention: https://tomtunguz.com/simpsons-paradox-ndr/Este hilo de Martin Casado de Andreessen Horowitz para entender las métricas que importan en una empresa SaaS b2b: https://twitter.com/martin_casado/status/1226563695418859520?s=21Las principales métricas que no deberíamos descuidar: https://youtu.be/HSNEDsqArq8Una guía de ProfitWell: https://www.profitwell.com/blog/choosing-the-right-saas-metrics-for-different-stages-of-your-company6 métricas de producto a medir por una empresa SaaS, del blog de Amplitude: https://amplitude.com/blog/metrics-for-enterprise-saasArtículo invitado del product marketer Lars Lofgren en el blog de Andrew Chen, socio de Andreessen Horowitz: https://andrewchen.co/the-critical-metrics-for-each-stage-of-your-saas-business-guest-post-by-lars-lofgren-of-kissmetrics/2019 High Growth SaaS IPO: https://twitter.com/jonbma/status/1227085189479882752Gustaf Alströmer y Eric Migicovsky hablando de tácticas de growth en un stream de YC: https://youtu.be/oog7n_1fR-o¿Por qué el Churn es crítico? David Skok: https://www.forentrepreneurs.com/why-churn-is-critical-in-saas/Síguenos en Twitter:Danny Prol: https://twitter.com/DannyProl/Claudio Cossio: https://twitter.com/ccossioEstamos en todas estas plataformas:Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/saas-product-chat/id1435000409ListenNotes: https://www.listennotes.com/podcasts/saas-product-chat-daniel-prol-y-claudio-CABZRIjGVdP/Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/36KIhM0DM7nwRLuZ1fVQy3Google Podcasts: https://podcasts.google.com/?feed=aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5zaW1wbGVjYXN0LmNvbS8zN3N0Mzg2dg%3D%3D&hl=esBreaker: https://www.breaker.audio/saas-product-chatWeb: https://saasproductchat.com/

In this episode of Big Tech Taylor Owen sits down with Ben Scott, Director of Policy and Advocacy at Luminate, to discuss how the internet has evolved throughout Scott’s time in Washington, DC. Scott has worked for Bernie Sanders, Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton in the State Department and then on her election campaign. Discussing Scott’s evolving role in digital policy, Owen says: “wherever the internet has been, you have been.” While working on cable regulations in Washington DC in 2003, Scott realized that the internet was the next major form of communication technology, sparking an interest in net neutrality regulations. “And then in a very short period of years before it [the internet] becomes monetized and concentrated power takes it over, it becomes controlled by a handful of commercial interests and then people give up trying to fight against that and that becomes status quo. And we had intervened at that moment, stopped cable and telecom industries from grabbing hold of the internet and kept it decentralized.” Scott joined Barack Obama’s presidential campaign to draft the first ever internet policy agenda for a presidential candidate. While in the State Department, Scott saw the spread of the internet and its ability to promote democracy and enable societal change — the Arab Spring for example. During the same period, platform companies continued to grow their influence in Washington DC, and eventually, Donald Trump’s successful presidential campaign illustrated just how easily the internet could be manipulated. As Scott puts it: “if everybody's using the same tools of online manipulation and distortion and organized amplification of messages that don't actually have that much support in the public, if you are willing to go totally over the top with the most outrageous, the most sensational, the most divisive, the most controversial, provocative — that, ultimately those messages spread farther, faster than anything else.”

There’s a false narrative surrounding artificial intelligence (AI): that it cannot be regulated. These idea stems, in part, from a belief that regulations will stifle innovation and can hamper economic potential, and that the natural evolution of AI is to grow beyond its original code. In this episode of Big Tech co-hosts David Skok and Taylor Owen speak with Joanna J. Bryson, professor of ethics and technology at the Hertie School of Governance in Berlin (beginning February 2020). Professor Bryson begins by explaining the difference between intelligence and AI, and how that foundational understanding can help us to see how regulations are possible in this space. “We need to be able to go back then and say, ‘okay, did you file a good process?’ A car manufacturer, they're always recording what they did because they do a phenomenally dangerous and possibly hazard thing … and if one of them goes wrong and the brakes don't work, we can go back and say, ‘Why did the brakes not work?’ And figure out whose fault [it] is and we can say, ‘Okay, you've got to do this recall. You've got to pay this liability, whatever.’ It's the same thing with software,” Bryson explains. It is the responsibility of nations to protect those inside its borders, and that protection must extend to data rights. She discusses how the EU General Data Protection Regulation — a harmonized set of rules that covers a large area and crosses borders — is an example international cooperation that resulted in a harmonized set of standards and regulations for AI development.

There is a growing sense that governments are not able to effectively solve the problems of the world. The narrative that governments are slow, costly and not informed enough to make the right decisions. This stands in contrast to the private sector; business leaders are regarded as effective leaders because they generate incredible wealth. The “savior complex” is particularly strong among the wealthiest tech executives. Their world view is rooted in the idea that we can use technology to solve all the world’s problems. In this episode of Big Tech, co-hosts David Skok and Taylor Owen speak with Anand Giridharadas, author of Winners Take All: The Elite Charade of Changing the World. Giridharadas speaks about this rise of powerful tech executives who are using their wealth and influence to reshape systems of governance — instead of supporting democratic institutions, they are creating their own philanthropic organizations. For Giridharadas these elites are the new plutocrats who have seized power through wealth, much like the railroad tycoons of old. “There is enormous moral difference between five guys deciding to do something and a city deciding to do something. This is something I think you wouldn't have had to explain to people 100 years or 200 years ago when we actually had more faith in the idea of democratic action,” Giridharadas says. He goes on to explain that where funds are coming from is more important than the amount of funding, citing military aid to Ukraine as an example. There is a difference between $400 million dollars provided by the American taxpayer and $400 million dollars provided by a wealthy executive who isn’t elected to represent the best interests of a population. Giridharadas argues that if tech billionaires really want to help make the world a better place, they should just pay their fair share in taxes, and leave governments to solve the world’s problems.

Google and IBM are in a race to achieve quantum supremacy — both sides claim that they are winning. But what does quantum supremacy really mean? Quantum technologies have the ability to solve complex solutions to build better materials, design more effective pharmaceutical treatments or optimize large distribution networks. Nations or corporations that can harness the power of quantum technologies will have an advantage over their competitors. The leap in technology could be so great that it could have devastating impacts on the economies that lack quantum technologies. In this episode of Big Tech co-hosts David Skok and Taylor Owen speak with James Der Derian, Director of the Centre for International Security Studies at The University of Sydney and Principal Investigator at Project Q, about the impact of quantum technologies could have on peace, security, economics and society. Dr. Shohini Ghose, Professor of Physics and Computer Science at Wilfrid Laurier University provides a foundational understanding of quantum computing at the beginning of this episode.

Truth and facts are not the same thing. To find truth, we must combine the best available information (what we know to be facts) with our own lens. This is especially challenging on social media: posts may be presented as if they are truthful, but truth comes with some subjectivity. This is where fact checking tools — like the encyclopedic knowledge of Wikipedia — are essential. That is, if they present neutral information, offer unbiased results, have a transparent process and are able to be edited. In this episode of Big Tech, co-hosts David Skok and Taylor Owen speak with Katherine Maher, the Wikimedia Foundation’s chief executive officer and executive director. Maher joined Wikimedia in 2016 just prior to the election of President Trump. She is acutely aware of Wikipedia’s emerging role as a fact checking tool. Transparent revision history is a cornerstone of Wikipedia. Anyone using the tool can access the edit log and provide their own edits to correct information. Some technologies subvert this process. For example, connected devices such as smart speakers pull Wikipedia’s information to provide answers to users without allowing feedback or sharing a record of edits. Other factors influence Wikipedia’s transparency and neutrality, as well. Maher’s team is looking to address biases that exist within Wikipedia’s database; she acknowledges that there is a gender imbalance, both with Wikipedia editors (80 percent of edits are made by men) and with the low percentage of articles about women and minorities. Maher explains: “we know, for example, that an article about a woman is four times more likely to mention her marital status than an article about a man. If you're doing [AI] training of semantic pairing and you start to associate someone's marital status with their gender, in so far as there's a sort of higher correlation of value to someone being married or divorced, being a woman that propagates that bias out into all of the products that are then going to go ahead and use that algorithm or that dataset in the future.” Wikipedia will need to work to solve these issues if it wishes to remain a trusted source for facts.

Online platforms like Facebook and Google Ads are positioned as superior tools for micro-targeting advertisements. The promise of greater returns on investment and granular control over who will engage with an ad has attracted advertisers. In this episode of Big Tech, co-hosts David Skok and Taylor Owen speak with David Carroll, an associate professor of media design at Parsons School of Design at The New School. Carroll’s own understanding of the ways in which platforms were monetizing his online activity was featured in The Great Hack documentary. His research into how online advertising systems work reveals just how little thought was put into oversight and monitoring of the systems that advertisers built. Carroll argues that financial incentives created the current data-hungry advertising environment. “The advertising complex was built to sort us into categories without knowing what our categories are. And then from there the recommendation engines were built to surface vast databases into a user interface. And those were biased towards engagement to move the chart up and then the user interface to reward people right on the surface for engagement, to move the chart up. And it was never about intelligence or goodness, it was just about greed and metrics.” For Carroll, digital advertising platforms are reminiscent of 1830s snake oil salesmen who used penny press newspapers to share misleading information. Eventually, people were protected from such ads when US Congress created the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Now, governments must step in to build the same kind of oversight bodies to regulate digital advertising.

After discovering several small charges to her credit card that totaled upward of US$900, Rana Foroohar figured her card must have been stolen. She quickly realized those micro-transactions were coming from a game her son was playing. Unknowingly, he was spending real money inside a free-to-play game. As a journalist, Rana was fascinated by the way in which apps were capturing people’s attention and wallets. In this episode of Big Tech co-hosts David Skok and Taylor Owen speak with Rana Foroohar, global business columnist and associate editor for The Financial Times and global economic analyst at CNN about her new book: Don't Be Evil: How Tech Betrayed Its Founding Principles — and All of Us. They discuss the cognitive, economic, and political impacts that big tech companies are having on our societies and economies. Foroohar discusses the risks that big tech companies’ current business models present to the global economy. While these businesses are motivated by growth (rather than profits) investors want to see profits once the company goes public. If those profits are not coming, stocks start to sink. “Uber goes out into every possible market, breaks whatever regulation it can, grabs market share, doesn't worry about making money, is allowed to continue that business model with private investors just pumping it up, pumping it up,” Foroohar says. Technology companies make up a large percentage of equity markets, and there is real concern that the economy could be heading toward a tech-led crash.

Facebook is establishing a 40-person oversight board to pass rulings on whether or not content should remain on their platform. The board aims to represent all regions of the world, rulings are set to be released in multiple languages and decisions about content to be made expeditiously. Only one researcher, Kate Klonick, was invited in to observe the process that went into establishing the framework for this oversight board. In this episode of Big Tech co-hosts David Skok and Taylor Owen speak with Kate Klonick, an assistant professor of law at St. John's University law school, and an affiliate fellow at Yale law school about what she witnessed in this process. Klonick was embedded in Melno Park without a non-disclosure agreement, given full access to meetings and was able to record all the conversations and workshops. Throughout the process, she maintained her academic immunity, not accepting anything from Facebook, not even a free hotel room. Klonick discusses the struggles faced by the team tasked with building the oversight board. At the beginning, it didn’t look like the project could be a success: “My lens is obviously from a legal perspective, and it's a little bit like when you're a hammer, everything's a nail. I look at a lot of the problems that I was seeing as they were creating this oversight board, and it was comparative constitutionalism, it was administrative law, it was democratic legitimacy.” Facebook continued to work on the oversight board, and as Kate admits, they did solve many of huge constitutional problems presented by content moderation. But she is still skeptical about how this board will scale, whether it will be overrun with appeals and how will the public will perceive its effectiveness.

Taylor Owen and David Skok have known each other for many years; their work in democracy and journalism ensures that their paths often cross. Taylor is an academic studying technology’s transformative impact on democracy. David has spent his journalism career in the thick of an ever-changing media landscape. They both recall one meeting at a restaurant in Toronto about ten years ago, when Taylor brought together a group of academics and journalists to discuss how technology was reshaping society. David was skeptical, and proclaimed to the room that nobody cares about privacy and technology. A lot has changed since that meeting. Technology’s impact on society, the economy and democracy is evident, and today, people care. On the Big Tech podcast, Taylor and David will unpack the nuanced challenges that technology presents.

Today on CHURN.FM we have David Skok, a four-time founder, investor, and author of the blog For Entrepreneurs. We chatted about how David evaluates startups to invest in, the definition of product market fit, and what he looks for after it.We also discussed the importance of churn and retention in the investment evaluation process, the key characteristics that companies with great retention share, and the power of negative churn.David also shared what a healthy LTV to CAC ratio should be, why the time to recover CAC is critical, and what attracted him to SaaS, to begin with.I really enjoyed this conversation and I hope you do too!

This week on the Sales Hacker podcast, we speak with David Skok. He is one of the pioneers of SaaS. He is a serial entrepreneur and started his first business in 1977. Three of the four businesses that he was involved with went on to IPO. He is an early investor in HubSpot and Zendesk, leading the way to the development and language of SaaS. He's on the pod today chatting about aligning your SaaS company for success. 

This week on the Sales Hacker podcast, we speak with David Skok. He is one of the pioneers of SaaS. He is a serial entrepreneur and started his first business in 1977. Three of the four businesses that he was involved with went on to IPO. He is an early investor in HubSpot and Zendesk, leading the way to the development and language of SaaS. He's on the pod today chatting about aligning your SaaS company for success. 

After 18 months of consultation, Google sister company Sidewalk Labs has released its master draft proposal to develop a portion of Toronto’s waterfront. The proposal includes everything from an affordable housing plan, to sensored pneumatic garbage shoots, to a data privacy framework in the form of an independent urban data trust. Today on Front Burner, we talk to The Logic’s editor-in-chief David Skok about what’s in the report, and what questions we need to ask ourselves when we consider building smart cities.

David Skok is a serial entrepreneur turned VC at Matrix Partners. He founded four companies: Skok Systems, Corporate Software Europe, Watermark Software, and SilverStream Software and did one turnaround with Xionics. Three of the companies he founded went public and one was acquired. Jason Lemkin is the Founder @ SaaStr, the world’s largest SaaS community and leading early-stage SaaS fund with investments in Automile, TalkDesk, Algolia and more. Jason Vandeboom is the Founder of ActiveCampaign, a sales and marketing automation platform that enables small businesses around the world to meaningfully connect and engage with their customers. Since 2013 with their transition to SaaS have grown to more than $50 million in ARR in less than five years, while maintaining profitability. Dave Kellogg is a leading technology executive, independent board member, advisor and angel investor. In his most recent role, Dave was the CEO @ Host Analytics where he quintupled ARR, halved customer acquisition costs and increased net retention rates before selling the company to a private equity sponsor. Fred Shilmover is the CEO and co-founder of InsightSquared, one of Boston’s premiere tech startups paving the way in the sales intelligence space. Throughout the InsightSquared journey, Fred has raised over $25m in VC funding from the likes of DFJ, Bessemer, Salesforce and Atlas Venture. In Today’s Episode We Discuss: Does David Skok believe that ACV should sit at the top of the metrics stack? What are the 4 metrics that fundamentally matter in your business? What can founders do to their pricing model to extract as much value from each customer? How do the very best businesses structure their pricing for value extraction? If ACV increase is a core focus for our startup, should we hire a sales rep solely selling to enterprise? What are the biggest mistakes founders make in this scenario? What can founders do to optimise revenue per lead? How does on need o approach lead targeting according to the individual skills of their reps? Is it best to start at enterprise and work down to SMB or does SMB and work up to enterprise work best? How does the product have to change with the scaling to enterprise? How does the messaging need to change with the scaling to enterprise? How do you need this change to be reflected in your pricing?     What does it truly mean to be an ARR first company? What is the right way for founders to calculate their differing ACVs? What is the right way to present that when pitching VCs? Where do many founders go wrong in how they present and discuss ACVs with investors? Read the full transcript on our blog. If you would like to find out more about the show and the guests presented, you can follow us on Twitter here: Harry Stebbings Jason Lemkin SaaStr David Skok Jason Vandeboom Dave Kellogg Fred Shilmover

S01E15 - How to design and optimize SaaS funnels? Guest: David Skok, General Partner at Matrix Partners #StartupBasics series in Insights Alley Podcast: Startup, Product, Growth, Sales & Strategy Insights for Entrepreneurs. Its a Blog/Podcast by Arun Verma. Get Notes of this conversation at https://insightsalley.com Please give feedback and suggest topics for next episodes on arun@insightsalley.com

This interview is with one of my most-requested guests and someone who’s had an outsized influence on my thinking about SaaS metrics and the wider SaaS industry. David Skok is a former entrepreneur turned VC, who founded four companies before he turned his focus to investing. He’s now General Partner at Matrix Partners. David was thinking about SaaS metrics before I was even starting out on my career. His industry-defining post, SaaS Metrics 2.0 is the go-to reference for entrepreneurs and VCs alike, and serves as a guiding light for anyone who has a need to understand the principles and measurements behind a SaaS business. This conversation was recorded at this year’s SaaStock conference in Dublin, where I was super excited to sit down with David in the SaaStock podcasting studio. There’s so much in here for anyone building or growing a SaaS business, we dive deep on certain metrics and measurements, we talk about why some metrics are only useful at specific stages of growth, and what’s relevant for businesses in 2019.

Matrix Partners' David Skok joins the Inside Intercom podcast to discuss why metrics are so important to SaaS companies today, what he looks for in early stage investments and why product-market fit is only one part of the puzzle.

Google's sister company, Sidewalk Labs, has partnered with every level of government to build the first-ever 'smart city' in Toronto — but with several high-profile resignations and mounting privacy concerns, will this project ever break ground? Reporter Amanda Roth (The Logic) has spent the last eight months investigating Sidewalk Labs and Waterfront Toronto's 'smart city' plan, and has broken story after story on the tech giant's project. David Skok is the editor-in-chief of The Logic, a new media start-up reporting on the innovation economy. He speaks with Amanda about the timeline of her reporting, how to responsibly cover big tech, and why people should be concerned by more than just potential privacy issues when it comes to this partnership.  — This episode is brought to you by Second City, Audible, and FreshBooks. Support CANADALAND: http://canadalandshow.com/join See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

During SaaStock18, alongside three tracks and a Startup Pitch stage, we ran a podcast studio. During the two days of the conference, Inside Intercom, Nathan Latka, Growth Everywhere, Build by Openview, Open SaaS Mic, The Startup Chat, and 14 Minutes of SaaS all recorded interviews with our speakers, which they will be releasing in the following weeks. We too recorded three episodes of the SaaS Revolution Show, which we look forward to publishing in the coming weeks. This week we are bringing you the first of those, a conversation with Corey Thomas, CEO of Rapid7. When he joined 10 years ago, the company was just about making 5 million in revenue and employed about 50 people. By the time Corey became the CEO, 5 years later, the revenue was 40 million. In 2015 the company went public. This year it is forecasted to reach 250 million in revenue. When asked how all that came about Corey says it was a lot of people, figuring out a lot of complicated stuff non-stop. As the CEO, Corey has a clear plan in place how they are going to reach the next important milestones such as 500 million and 1 billion in revenue. But what is the role of the CEO in such scale, concretely? Listen on to learn: How Corey views the role of the CEO A key CEO strategy for success One innovation that has really helped Rapid7 scale Alongside popping at the podcast stage, Corey also sat down for a conversation with David Skok on the Scale stage. You can watch that conversation as well as a 100 other sessions we hosted by getting our SaaStock On Demand pack. You can grab a super early bird ticket for SaaStock19 until November 1st.

On this week's episode of The SaaS Revolution Show, we take you back to the SaaStock New York stage. David Skok, Managing Partner, Matrix Partners is in conversation with Seth Besmertnik, CEO of Conductor, which was recently acquired by WeWork. They chat about the journey of 10 years to get to this exit. Speaking of journeys - our own SaaStock journey is only 6 weeks away from hitting a major milestone - our 3rd annual conference! There are still a few passes available so grab yours at saastock.com if you haven't yet, it's going to be epic. When WeWork acquired Conductor, Seth mentioned to WeWork's CEO, Adam Neumann that he Adam may have built a billion dollar company very fast but Seth had made many more mistakes than him. He wasn't exaggerating. Starting Conductor straight out of college, Seth messed up in a myriad of ways and had on many occasions almost given up and closed the company. Almost. But he never actually gave up. Seth has learned to play the long game and it paid off for him. Sitting for a chat with David Skok, he now wants to help you do the same. Listen on to learn: How he dealt with a very high churn How he made sure customers understand his product What Seth wishes he knew in the early days of Conductor David Skok is coming to SaaStock18 again this year, featuring in 2 sessions. Firstly a keynote - Get inside your buyers head to improve funnel conversion rates and then he's moderating a fireside chat with Corey Thomas, CEO of Rapid 7 entitled From $15M to $250M - Scaling with Soul. You don't want to miss either. David doesn't leave back to Boston after his talks. He will stick around meeting with as many early Stage SaaS Founders as possible, looking for the next HubSpot. Maybe that's you. if you do want to join us at SaaStock18- grab your ticket online ASAP https://www.saastock.com/tickets

If you put content up on the web and no one is around to read it, does it still provide value? That's the existential question facing every corner of the media ecosystem. A tough nut to crack. If you're an established content creator – a big media company like the NYTimes or a super popular commercial brand like Unilever – you've got a head start. An advantage. In this space, new guys are scrappy renegades who can tell us a lot about what works and doesn't work. David Skok the Editor in Chief of The Logic and James Mirtle the Editor in Chief and a columnist for The Athletic in Toronto join host Sophie Nadeau, Edelman Canada's National Media Lead to talk about chasing audience.

SHOW NOTES The average tenure for a VP sales is about 19 months. What is important to prolong that is for the VP to be adaptive to the future steps of the organization. Kirk implemented something he learned from another sales leader, put time every morning to look at what is needed long term vs where things are currently standing. Kirk finds that generally a new VP sales will bring with him people he or she has worked with before that they trust to get the job done. For the current employees he says that it is a great opportunity for them to step up and learn new skills. When Kirk steps into a new company, he prefers to have a mix of existing sales executives with new ones that he has brought on. This helps to maintain company culture. As the new sales leader in an organization, you need to first know what you are going to ask of the sales people. Is what the company did in the past going to work moving forward? With after 26 years of experience Kirk says that he wishes he knew at the beginning of his career to look at people as individuals. Meaning each salesperson has his or her own personality and skill set that works better with different types of clients. Building trust is key especially as the transaction size gets larger. Questions he goes through when starting at a new company to start selling: 1- Understand what problem you are solving 2- Who has this kind of problem 3- What is the competitive differentiation. 4- Do we have the right personal (To sell, on board and support it) When hiring a new sales person, he is looking at the DISC profile to help make a hiring decision. Looking for extroverts with high sense of urgency. Liked creative people with high sense of integrity. You should have the training program ready before hiring new members so that you can quickly ramp them up and get them selling. Even have a bonus plan set where they will get a bonus for getting up to speed quickly. He always applies fairness. He tries to fairly get a new agent a win before the expected time would be. So if its a 9 month sales cycle, he would try to help them close a deal before the first 9 months of the persons time at the company. LinkedIn: Kirk Tharp Final Five What is your favorite sales or leadership book? Customer Centric Selling by Mike Bosworth Do you have someone that you follow/read for sales/leadership ideas? David Skok (founder of hubspot) Are you available 24/7? Do you have strict personal time boundaries? Only while sleeping What is your favorite tool used for sales? DISC testing What one piece of advice do you have for all the founders/CEOs/VP Sales out there? Build a sales culture.

David Skok is a serial entrepreneur turned VC at Matrix Partners. He founded four companies: Skok Systems, Corporate Software Europe, Watermark Software, and SilverStream Software and did one turnaround with Xionics. Three of the companies he founded went public and one was acquired. In 2001 David joined Matrix Partners, who had backed his last two startups, as a General Partner. David’s successful exits as an investor at Matrix include: HubSpot, JBoss, AppIQ, Tabblo, Netezza, Diligent Technologies, CloudSwitch, TribeHR, GrabCAD, OpenSpan and Enservio. David currently serves on the boards of Atomist, CloudBees, Digium, Meteor, Namely HR, Salsify, and Zaius. You can also find David’s amazing blog here! Huge thanks to Hardi Meybaum and Jason Lemkin for the intro to David today. In Today’s Episode You Will Learn: What are the leading indicators that early stage VCs dig deep on to assess the strength of product market fit? What level of traction both in enterprise and SMB would an early stage investor deem exciting enough to pursue? What levels of engagement are sufficient enough to suggest cause for a much larger and increased round? How should founders assess sales rep productivity? What can they do to actively shorten the ramp time? How will early stage investors analyse the ramp time? What suggests repeatability of process? Why does David believe there is no point focusing on CAC/LTV in the early days? What is the single biggest thing that founders can do to show repeatability of process and revenue as fast as possible? What is the most common reason that people miss plan? How must the mindset of the founder switch from extreme frugality to hyper growth scaling? When is the right time for this transition to take place? What are the inherent challenges to this switch? Read the full transcript on our blog. If you would like to find out more about the show and the guests presented, you can follow us on Twitter here: Jason Lemkin Harry Stebbings SaaStr David Skok If you’re looking to simplify file version control, ensure data security and save time while increasing accessibility, Egnyte is the right solution for your business. Egnyte delivers secure content collaboration, compliant data protection and simple infrastructure modernization; all on a single SaaS platform. Founded in 2007, Egnyte is privately held, headquartered in Mountain View, CA and supports thousands of businesses worldwide. For more information, please visit egnyte.com/SaaStr. MonkeyLearn allows companies to easily analyze text with Machine Learning. Customers like Clearbit and Segment are using MonkeyLearn to turn emails, support tickets, customer feedback, and documents into actionable data. Their platform makes it super easy to classify texts by topic, sentiment or intent or to extract specific data such as keywords, names, and companies. MonkeyLearn makes teams more efficient by automating business processes, getting insights and saving hours of manual text data processing. And if you would like to learn more, head to monkeylearn.com/saastr, that is www. m o n k e y l e a r n .com/saastr. Plus, listeners of the SaaStr podcast will have a very special opportunity to purchase monthly plans for half the price. So, check out MonkeyLearn and start getting more out of your text today.

When Jack Beaman, CEO and Co-founder at Syft, decided to disrupt the temp worker industry, he thought he would be building a marketplace. He started off with a clear idea - create a marketplace where hospitality industry employers and temp workers would be able to find each other. What he didn't suspect was that they would find each other so efficiently that employers would experience 400% increase in workers. And they would need new efficient ways to manage them. An invaluable opportunity to create a SaaS platform they were prepared to pay for presented itself on a silver platter. Entrepreneurial Jack jumped on. Listen on to hear: How to sell and get customers in traditional industries What has helped with the adoption of tech Does traditional advertising work in SaaS Jack is one of many speakers that we will host in Dublin this October at SaaStock18. He will be joined by the likes of Corey Thomas, CEO of Rapid7, David Skok, Managing Partner at Matrix Partners and Meagen Eisenberg, CMO of MongoDB. As we are approaching the 100th episode of the podcast, we are offering a €100 discount for SaaStock18 to our listeners. Use code saasrevolution100. See more info and tickets on https://www.saastock.com

On this week's episode, we take you back to one of the panels we hosted on the SaaStock17 stage. Benedicte de Raphelis Soissan, founder of Clustree, Phil Chambers, CEO and co-founder of Peakon, and Jonathan Anguelov, co-founder and COO of Aircall discus the power of people, and how to hire, keep and develop people for the success of the company. Benedicte shares how she has grown Clustree to 25 people in the past three years, carefully crafting a hiring plan and an idea who is a right fit. Phil eludes to the importance of alignment, which Peakon has aimed to get from the first moment and has scaled to 70 people spread between three offices. Jonathan shares how Aircall has developed an outcome based onboarding process, where every employee has a bespoke and detailed plan, making sure that they get quickly on track with everything they need to know and be able to execute. Listen on to hear: What are the recruiting processes of three of the most exciting European SaaS companies How to onboard people so they feel part of the organisation and can quickly deliver How to transcend company culture through geographical boundaries How to create the company values and get a buy in from people When is the right time to establish remote teams P.S. Bringing such diverse viewpoints on key SaaS topics is one of many ways SaaStock helps to grow your company. We already have signed up over 50 exciting speakers for SaaStock18 such as Michael Litt, founder of Viddyard, David Cancel, founder of Drift and David Skok, Managing Partner, Matrix Partners. Join our Insider Sale by March 31st https://insider.saastock.com to get a 2 for1 discount code on April 1st. This is not an April fools joke. 2 tickets for the price of 1. By entering the Insider Sale, you also get the chance to win great prizes like platinum tickets, team tickets, and cool SaaStock swag.

David Skok is a serial entrepreneur turned VC at Matrix Partners. He founded four companies: Skok Systems, Corporate Software Europe, Watermark Software, and SilverStream Software and did one turnaround with Xionics. Three of the companies he founded went public and one was acquired. In 2001 David joined Matrix Partners, who had backed his last two startups, as a General Partner. David’s successful exits as an investor at Matrix include: HubSpot, JBoss, AppIQ, Tabblo, Netezza, Diligent Technologies, CloudSwitch, TribeHR, GrabCAD, OpenSpan and Enservio. David currently serves on the boards of Atomist, CloudBees, Digium, Meteor, Namely HR, Salsify, and Zaius. You can also find David’s amazing blog here! In Today’s Episode You Will Learn: How did David make his way into the world of SaaS? What was it about Matrix that made him want to make the transition from operations to VC? Metrics: Why are metrics so important? What role do they play in an organisation? How do good founders respond to questions on not achieving sales targets? What metrics in SaaS really determine the trajectory of the business? How can founders examine unit economics to determine whether they have a sustainable SaaS business? How does David address sales rep productivity? How much in ARR should they be booking in relation to their annual comp package? Negative Churn: What is negative churn? Why is it fundamental for SaaS startups to have a strong grasp of their negative churn? How does negative churn affect the pricing axis? What can startups do if they have no alternative product to upsell to? Upsell: To what extent should founders be willing to engage in customisation in order to upsell a product? What are the dangers? What should founders be mindful of? To what extent is upsell the responsibility of customer success? Should they have a hand in the sales process? What are the dangers and concerns? How important is it for a startup to track their champion with the customer company? Does it matter if your champion leaves? What should you do if so? If you would like to find out more about the show and the guests presented, you can follow us on Twitter here: Jason Lemkin Harry Stebbings SaaStr David Skok

Ian Blair. He founded BuildFire while he was in college and has grown up to become one of the most successful app builders with 30 employees and close to 10K apps in the app store. His expertise is online marketing and growth hacking. Famous Five: Favorite Book? – Good to Great What CEO do you follow? – David Skok and Jason Lemkin Favorite online tool? — Ahrefs How many hours of sleep do you get?— 7.5 If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – Ian wished he would have taken a crash course on how the world actually works   Time Stamped Show Notes: 01:55 – Nathan introduces Ian to the show 02:37 – BuildFire is a mobile app building platform that allows non-technical people to build their own app with no coding required 02:50 – BuildFire is like the WordPress for mobile app 03:18 – BuildFire allows customization 03:36 – Ian started BuildFire in college 03:40 – BuildFire has a reseller program 04:18 – In 2013, they were making $300K a year 04:32 – It was just for white labelling 04:42 – BuildFire was officially built with the technology in 2014 05:02 – BuildFire has raised $2.5M so far in a convertible note 05:46 – It was in 2015 when BuildFire broke their $1M a year mark 06:20 – In January of 2016, BuildFire 2.0 was launched where they added customization 06:48 – Since then, things took off 07:05 – In December 2016, BuildFire was doing a little less than $300K a month 07:33 – This year, BuildFire is developing 07:59 – BuildFire has an ongoing subscription fee and upfront payment 08:20 – BuildFire is getting close to $200K a month for their SaaS side 08:33 – BuildFire is now leaning more into their professional services 09:15 – Total number of customers 09:25 – Customers pay starts at $59, $149 or $499 a month 09:50 – Average a month is around $400 per customer 10:40 – Team size is 40 10:57 – Ian self-funded BuildFire initially 11:11 – Their current CTO started the initial development for BuildFire 12:00 – BuildFire gets customers mainly through online marketing 12:20 – Paid ads spend is around $10K a month 12:30 – BuildFire also has a lot of organic traffic and they’re going to tradeshows as well 13:48 – Monthly logo churn 14:25 – Revenue churn 14:50 – BuildFire is on its way to a more predictable revenue model by the end of 2017 15:31 – CAC 17:00 – SaaS businesses are capital intensive 20:00 – The Famous Five   3 Key Points: Listen to your customers and make adjustments to your products depending on their needs. Online marketing is a necessity for every businesses. College won’t teach you how the real world works.   Resources Mentioned: Simplero – The easiest way to launch your own membership course like the big influencers do but at 1/10th the cost. The Top Inbox – The site Nathan uses to schedule emails to be sent later, set reminders in inbox, track opens, and follow-up with email sequences GetLatka - Database of all B2B SaaS companies who have been on my show including their revenue, CAC, churn, ARPU and more Klipfolio – Track your business performance across all departments for FREE Hotjar – Nathan uses Hotjar to track what you’re doing on this site. He gets a video of each user visit like where they clicked and scrolled to make the site a better experience Acuity Scheduling – Nathan uses Acuity to schedule his podcast interviews and appointments Host Gator– The site Nathan uses to buy his domain names and hosting for the cheapest price possible Audible– Nathan uses Audible when he’s driving from Austin to San Antonio (1.5-hour drive) to listen to audio books Show Notes provided by Mallard Creatives

Dave Kellogg is the CEO @ Host Analytics, the leader in cloud-based enterprise performance management (EPM). Previously, Dave was SVP/GM of Service Cloud at Salesforce and CEO at unstructured big data provider MarkLogic. Before that, Dave was CMO at Business Objects for nearly a decade as the company grew from $30M to over $1B. Dave has also worked in various capacities with the likes of Breeze, GainSight, Tableau and MongoDB and previously sat on the boards of ag tech leader, Granular (acq by DuPont for $300M)  and big data leader Aster Data (acquired by Teradata for $325M). In Today’s Episode You Will Learn: How Dave made his way into the world of SaaS with Salesforce, came to be CMO at Business Objects and now running his own SaaS company as CEO at Host Analytics? What does David believe is the single most important metric in SaaS? How should SaaS companies structure the first four lines of their financial statements? Why is retention and renewal not always an accurate sign of customer satisfaction? How does Dave look to analyse churn? What is the post-mortem? What is more important, logos or expansion? If a startup’s churn is too high, what is the top 3 things they should do? Why must you have a “standard taxonomy” for churn? How can you construct this? How does David think about taking existing customer and up-selling them? How does he view this in contrast to cross-sell? Does Dave agree with David Skok on the need for more than 1 variable pricing mechanism? Why does Dave not encourage usage based pricing? How does Dave analyse the benefits of multi-year contracts paid upfront? How does this distort TCV and inflate the figures? Does upfront payment misalign the provider and the consumer, in terms of care and support? With that in mind, how does David view billing frequency? Contract durations? 60 Second SaaStr What does Dave know now which he wishes he had known at the beginning? What is the 90 day rule? Why is it important? How much ARR should a good sales rep add in relation to comp? If you would like to find out more about the show and the guests presented, you can follow us on Twitter here: Jason Lemkin Harry Stebbings SaaStr Dave Kellogg

In this interview, David Skok explains effective sale strategies and how people buy. We also discuss reducing churn, increasing retention and the importance of improving your sales funnel.

Part 2 with David Skok, now David is a serial entrepreneur turned VC at Matrix Partners. He founded four companies: Skok Systems, Corporate Software Europe, Watermark Software, and SilverStream Software and did one turnaround with Xionics. Three of the companies he founded went public and one was acquired. In 2001 David joined Matrix Partners, who had backed his last two startups, as a General Partner. David’s successful exits as an investor at Matrix include: HubSpot, JBoss, AppIQ, Tabblo, Netezza, Diligent Technologies, CloudSwitch, TribeHR, GrabCAD, OpenSpan and Enservio. David currently serves on the boards of Atomist, CloudBees, Digium, Meteor, Namely HR, Salsify, and Zaius. You can also find David’s amazing blog here! Huge thanks to Hardi Meybaum and Jason Lemkin for the intro to David today. In Today’s Episode You Will Learn: What is negative churn? Why is it fundamental for SaaS startups to have a strong grasp of their negative churn? How does negative churn affect the pricing axis? What can startups do if they have no alternative product to upsell to? To what extent should founders be willing to engage in customisation in order to upsell a product? What are the dangers? What should founders be mindful of? To what extent is up sell the responsibility of customer success? Should they have a hand in the sales process? What are the dangers and concerns? How important is it for a startup to track their champion with the customer company? Does it matter if your champion leaves? What should you do if so? 60 Second SaaStr If you would like to find out more about the show and the guests presented, you can follow us on Twitter here: Jason Lemkin Harry Stebbings SaaStr David Skok

David Skok is a serial entrepreneur turned VC at Matrix Partners. He founded four companies: Skok Systems, Corporate Software Europe, Watermark Software, and SilverStream Software and did one turnaround with Xionics. Three of the companies he founded went public and one was acquired. In 2001 David joined Matrix Partners, who had backed his last two startups, as a General Partner. David’s successful exits as an investor at Matrix include: HubSpot, JBoss, AppIQ, Tabblo, Netezza, Diligent Technologies, CloudSwitch, TribeHR, GrabCAD, OpenSpan and Enservio. David currently serves on the boards of Atomist, CloudBees, Digium, Meteor, Namely HR, Salsify, and Zaius. You can also find David’s amazing blog here! Huge thanks to Hardi Meybaum and Jason Lemkin for the intro to David today. In Today’s Episode You Will Learn: How did David make his way into the world of SaaS? What was it about Matrix that made him want to make the transition from operations to VC? Why are metrics so important? What role do they play in an organisation? How do good founders respond to questions on not achieving sales targets? Why are SaaS businesses immune from being measured on standard financials like GAP financials? What metrics in SaaS really determine the trajectory of the business? How can founders examine unit economics to determine whether they have a sustainable SaaS business? How does David address sales rep productivity? How much in ARR should they be booking in relation to their annual comp package? 60 Second SaaStr If you would like to find out more about the show and the guests presented, you can follow us on Twitter here: Jason Lemkin Harry Stebbings SaaStr David Skok

Hardi Meybaum is a General Partner @ Matrix Partners and similar to Josh Hardi is a natural born entrepreneur. Prior to becoming a VC Hardi was a Founder of GrabCAD where he built the company into the world’s leading cloud-based collaboration platform for engineering teams to manage, share, and view CAD files. He sold GrabCAD to Stratasys in 2014 for a reported 100m dollars, and continued to lead GrabCAD for the next year.   In Today’s Episode You Will Learn: 1.) How Hardi made the transition from founding GrabCAD to becoming a General Partner @ Matrix? 2.) When times were really hard for Hardi in making the move to the US, what were the big elements that drive him to continue? What stopped him from giving up? 3.) What does Hardi's time allocation split look like? How does he look to optimise this? 4.) How much of a role has David Skok played in Hardi's progression? What are the key takeaways from the mentorship? 5.) What are the right reasons to start a company? How does Hardi assess founder product fit? Items Mentioned In Today’s Show: Hardi’s Fave Book: Deep Work: Rules For Focussed Success Hardi’s Fave Blog: David Skok: For Entrepreneurs Hardi’s Most Recent Investment: SketchDeck As always you can follow Harry, The Twenty Minute VC and Hardi on Twitter here! Likewise, you can follow Harry on Snapchat here for mojito madness and all things 20VC. Angelloop is the leading post funding management platform for private market investors and their portfolio companies. They help investors manage and track their portfolio companies on the cloud while providing them with access to their investments performance data. Angelloop helps founders of startups track their performance, manage their cap table and keep their investors in the loop. Investors get free access while their portfolio companies pay only $49/Month. Use or share the promo-code 20MinVC to get your portfolio companies online with a two month trial. This episode was supported by Wunder Capital, the leading online investment platform that allows individuals to invest in large scale solar projects across the U.S. Wunder’s solar investment funds allow you to earn up to 11% annually, while diversifying your portfolio, curbing pollution and combating global climate change. Do well by doing good and sign up for a free account here and join the thousands of people that are already achieving their investment targets.

David Skok from Matrix Partners and creator of highly acclaimed forentrepreuners.com joins us to talk about the evolution of Customer Success as a strategy in SaaS, how its now taking over board meetings, and why Hubspot has the right idea.

Part 2 of Mike Volpe's interview with David Skok, General Partner, Matrix Partners and four-time entrepreneur.

On this episode of The Growth Show, HubSpot CMO Mike Volpe sits down with David Skok from Matrix Partners. Skok started his first company in 1977 at age 22, and since then has started four separate companies, three of which went public. Through his experience as a founder and now an investor, Skok has become one of the leading thinkers on growth and building a business -- and specifically in the areas of sales and marketing.

The Harvard Business School professor and David Skok discuss how news companies should respond to the Internet.