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In this episode of Prodity: Product by Design, Kyle chats with Jason Monberg, CEO of Presence, about the power of product thinking, the thrill of building from scratch, and the importance of team chemistry. With over 25 years of experience spanning engineering, product management, and entrepreneurship, Jason shares lessons from starting companies like Carbon Five and Presence, including how to find the right people, build resilient teams, and apply technology thoughtfully. We also dive into the hype and reality of GenAI, navigating constraints in enterprise organizations, and yes—even homemade pizza ovens. It's a wide-ranging and insightful conversation you won't want to miss.Jason MonbergJason Monberg is the founder of South Park Products and the former CEO of Presence. He has over 25 years of experience in digital product development. He previously served as VP of Product Management at MarkLogic, where he drove product strategy and achieved $80 million in annual revenue. Jason also founded Carbon Five, a consultancy specializing in agile software development, and helped grow Composite Software to $20 million in revenue.Links from the Show:Company: Presence Consulting LinkedIn: Jason MonbergBook: The Art of Game Design: A Book of Lenses by Jesse SchellOther: Ooni Pizza OvensMore by Kyle:Follow Prodity on Twitter and TikTokFollow Kyle on Twitter and TikTokSign up for the Prodity Newsletter for more updates.Kyle's writing on MediumProdity on MediumLike our podcast, consider Buying Us a Coffee or supporting us on Patreon
In this episode of FP&A Tomorrow, host Paul Barnhurst (The FP&A Guy) sits down with Jeff Casale and Rich Wagner to explore the role of Financial Planning & Analysis (FP&A). They discuss how AI, external data, and continuous planning are transforming the industry, making FP&A a more strategic function. The conversation covers the power of AI-driven forecasting and how businesses can leverage external economic indicators to gain a competitive edge.Jeff Casale is the CEO of Board, a leading FP&A software company. With previous leadership roles at MarkLogic, Dell Technologies, VMware, and EMC, Jeff has a deep understanding of enterprise technology and how finance functions can drive business growth. Rich Wagner is the Field CTO at Board and the former CEO & Founder of Prevedere, a predictive analytics company that leverages external data for accurate forecasting. With over 20 years of experience in technology, consulting, and Fortune 500 leadership, Rich brings valuable expertise in the intersection of AI, finance, and business strategy.Expect to Learn:How AI is transforming financial planning, reducing manual work, and improving decision-making.Why integrating external data is essential for more accurate forecasting and risk management.Why traditional budgeting cycles are outdated and how real-time, agile forecasting is becoming the new norm.How CEOs and finance leaders rely on FP&A teams for strategic decision-making.How finance professionals can improve their skills and become more valuable business partners.Here are a few relevant quotes from the episode:“AI is revolutionizing FP&A by reducing manual work and improving time-to-value.” - Rich Wagner“The companies that embrace continuous planning will be the winners in their industries.” - Jeff Casale“External data helps FP&A teams anticipate risks, not just react to them.” - Rich WagnerThis episode reinforced the idea that FP&A is evolving into a strategic powerhouse. AI, external economic data, and real-time forecasting are changing how companies plan, react, and make decisions. FP&A professionals must develop both technical and strategic skills to stay relevant.Operator's Guild:Operators Guild is where the best CEOs, CFOs, VPs of finance, and BizOps leaders in the business connect, network, and grow together. Built by operators for operators, this members-only community is home to more than 1000 of the most elite high-growth operators in the world. Experience connection and knowledge share with professionals who understand you like no one else does. Learn more and apply at https://bit.ly/3F6sghSFollow FP&A Tomorrow:Newsletter - Subscribe on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/build-relation/newsletter-follow?entityUrn=6957679529595162624 Follow Jeff:LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeffreycasale/Board- https://www.board.com/Follow Rich:LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/rich-wagner1/Prevedere -
Dave Kellogg is a seasoned venture capitalist, serial tech executive, and one of the most respected voices in SaaS metrics. As an Entrepreneur in Residence at Balderton Capital, he brings decades of experience leading companies like Host Analytics, Salesforce, MarkLogic, and Business Objects (acquired by SAP). A sought-after speaker, Dave's SaaStr talks consistently rank among the most watched, and he's known for his bold predictions and sharp analysis of industry trends. He is also an advisor, director, blogger, and podcaster, sharing insights that shape the future of SaaS and enterprise software. In this conversation, we discuss:Dave Kellogg's bold predictions for 2025 and how he scored himself on last year's forecasts, from AI's continued hype cycle to the rise of PR as the new SEO.Why venture capital is evolving, with AI-first companies reshaping funding strategies and a widening gap between US and European investment trends.The future of search—why traditional SEO may be dying and how businesses must adapt to AI-driven content discovery.The unlikely revival of branding—how companies are rediscovering brand differentiation in a "sea of sameness" where SaaS products look increasingly alike.AI's impact on SaaS metrics and go-to-market strategies—can AI-driven sales and marketing tools help companies achieve the Rule of 40?The future of LinkedIn and social media in business—Dave's concerns about LinkedIn's engagement-driven model and why it might be entering the "social media death cycle."Resources:Subscribe to the AI & The Future of Work NewsletterConnect with Dave Kellogg on LinkedInAI fun fact articleOn How AI is Making Networks Smart
Dave Kellogg is a former CEO and CMO with operational experience across companies from $0 to $1B+. He served as GM/SVP of Service Cloud for Salesforce, CEO of MarkLogic, and SVP of Marketing at SAP / Business Objects. Today, he is principal at Dave Kellogg Consulting, EIR at Balderton Capital, and author of the popular SaaS blog Kellblog (www.kellblog.com). He has also served as an independent director across 10 startup boards and has a unique perspective on what top-performing SaaS companies do and what role the CMO should play.We talk about:- Being a great partner to sales and why it is marketing's job to make sales easier- Mastering the art of becoming the dispassionate analyst, presenting the facts- Being a partner to the CEO- Dave's thoughts on the importance of benchmarks, his POV on category creation, lead gen vs. demand gen, ChatGPT, and more.Timestamps(00:00) - Introduction (06:09) - Dave Kellogg's Journey (11:09) - Insights on Blogging and Career (16:09) - What Makes a Great CMO (21:09) - Aligning Sales and Marketing (28:48) - Leveraging Data and Market Research (33:48) - The Role of Brand and Category Creation (38:48) - The Future of AI in Marketing (43:48) - Understanding SaaS Metrics (48:48) - Closing Remarks Send guest pitches and ideas to hi@exitfive.comJoin the Exit Five Newsletter here: https://www.exitfive.com/newsletterCheck out the Exit Five job board: https://jobs.exitfive.com/Become an Exit Five member: https://community.exitfive.com/checkout/exit-five-membership***Today's episode is brought to you by PharosIQ. In 2024, you face tougher pipeline challenges than ever: reduced budgets, tighter resources, and fewer active buyers. Yet your growth goals remain unchanged. PharosIQ leverages down-funnel intent signals along with targeted demand solutions to help you build your pipeline efficiently. They help B2B marketing leaders reach their ideal buyers and generate leads that actually convert for businesses of all sizes. Generating leads is easy; generating leads that convert is what separates PharosIQ from the competition. Check them out at PharosIQ.com/exitfive; book a meeting with their team …PLUS, their team is giving away memberships to Exit Five so go check out their website that's P-H-A-R-O-S-I-Q dot com slash exitfive one word right now. ***Thanks to my friends at hatch.fm for producing this episode and handling all of the Exit Five podcast production.They give you unlimited podcast editing and strategy for your B2B podcast.Get unlimited podcast editing and on-demand strategy for one low monthly cost. Just upload your episode, and they take care of the rest.Visit hatch.fm to learn more
Enterprise Knowledge COO Joe Hilger speaks with Matthieu Jonglez, Vice President of Technology at Progress. Progress' mission is to be the trusted provider of the best products to develop, deploy, and manage high impact applications. Two of them, MarkLogic and Semaphore, are used to solve complex data problems by delivering data agility. In this episode, Joe and Matthieu discuss how MarkLogic and Semaphore address customer needs, the importance of context with your data, and the future of Artificial Intelligence at Progress. To learn more about Enterprise Knowledge, visit us at: enterprise-knowledge.com. EK's Knowledge Base: https://enterprise-knowledge.com/knowledge-base/ Contact Us: https://enterprise-knowledge.com/contact-us/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/enterprise-knowledge-llc/ Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/ekconsulting
Dave Kellogg is a former CEO and CMO with operational experience across companies from $0 to $1B+. He served as GM/SVP of Service Cloud for Salesforce, CEO of MarkLogic, and SVP of Marketing at SAP / Business Objects. Today he is principal at Dave Kellogg Consulting, EIR at Balderton Capital, and authors the popular SaaS blog Kellblog (www.kellblog.com). He has also served as an independent director across 10 startup boards and has a unique perspective into what top performing SaaS companies do and what role the CMO should play.We talk about:- Being a great partner to sales and why it is marketing's job is to make sales easier- Mastering the art of becoming the dispassionate analyst, presenting the facts- Being a partner to the CEO- Dave's thoughts on the importance of benchmarks, his POV on category creation, lead gen vs demand gen, ChatGPT, and more.Send guest pitches and ideas to hello@exitfive.comExit Five on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/exitfive/Exit Five on Twitter: https://twitter.com/exitfiveco***Thanks to our 2023 presenting sponsors Demandwell, Jasper, and Zapier.This episode is brought to you by Zapier. Zapier empowers anyone to automate their work across 5,000+ apps, so that every person and business can move forward at growth speed. We power over 2.2 million businesses, from startups to Fortune 100, and we've been doing it for over a decade. Learn more + get started for free at zapier.comThanks to my friends at hatch.fm for producing this episode and handling all of the Exit Five podcast production. They give you unlimited podcast editing and strategy for your B2B podcast. Get unlimited podcast editing and on-demand strategy for one low monthly cost. Just upload your episode, and they take care of the rest. Visit hatch.fm to learn more
Meet SquadCaster Dan Turchin. He hosts and produces the show AI and the Future of Work.Here's What The Show's About:Host Dan Turchin, PeopleReign CEO, and InsightFinder advisor explores how AI is changing the workplace. He interviews thought leaders across high-tech who share their experiences and insights about artificial intelligence and what it means to be human in the era of AI-driven automation. In This Episode:This is one of Dan's favorite episodes of the 2022. It's their third annual long, strange trip into the mind of a Silicon Valley legend.Dave Kellogg is one of the best marketers, CEOs, tech provocateurs, and board whisperers around. He was an executive at iconic companies like SAP, MarkLogic, and Salesforce turned investor and board director who is now an executive in residence at Balderton Capital. In this episode, they discuss everything that matters for the tech economy… startup growth metrics, generative AI, how to get funded in 2023, and their favorite jam band.Also In This EpisodeJoin the SquadCast CommunitySubmit your show to be featuredA pre-roll from About IBD from Amber TrescaCreditsWritten and produced by Arielle NissenblattMixed and designed by Vince Moreno JrArtwork and logos by Alex WhedbeeMusic by Shawn VallesHosted by Zach Moreno and Rock FelderTranscripts by Sabeena Singhani
This is one of my favorite episodes of the year. It's our third annual long, strange trip into the mind of a Silicon Valley legend. Dave Kellogg is one of the best marketers, CEOs, tech provocateurs, and board whisperers around. He was an executive at iconic companies like SAP, MarkLogic, and Salesforce turned investor and board director who is now an executive in residence at Balderton Capital. In this episode, we discuss, well, just about everything that matters for the tech economy… startup growth metrics, generative AI, how to get funded in 2023, and of course our favorite jam band.Listen and learn: What Dave got right… and not so right… in his 2022 predictions How startups can survive downturns How to fix the problems at Salesforce, Amazon, and Facebook What single theme will characterize 2023 in Silicon Valley What will happen to startups that raised massive rounds in 2021 Why virtual companies won't outperform companies built around hubs in tech centers What's ahead for consumption-based pricing and PLG Why generative AI poses an existential threat to Google References in this episode: Dave's (excellent) blog Peter Fishman, Mozart Data CEO, on AI and the Future of Work Derek Steer, Mode co-founder, on AI and the Future of WorkHow ChatGPT can detect Alzheimer's disease
Overview Today's guest is Dipti Borkar, Vice President and General Manager, SaaS, Azure Databases at Microsoft. Prior to joining Microsoft, Dipti was the Founder and Creator of Ahana, a cloud managed service. Dipit has vast experience working in startups such as Counchbase, and Marklogic, and began her career working as a software engineer for IBM. In today's episode, Dipti shares how Databases have evolved over the past 15 years, her predictions for the future of technology and provides actionable advice for those looking to start a career in technology. About Dipti Borkar Dipti is a senior technology executive and entrepreneur with over 18 years of experience in cloud, open source and distributed data / database tech including relational, NoSQL, and federated systems. Dipti is the Vice President & General Manager at Azure Data, Microsoft where she leads product and engineering teams to make cloud databases simple and smart. She founded Ahana and created a cloud managed service for SQL on data lakes where she played many roles including Chief Product Officer and VP of Cloud / Open source engineering. Prior to Ahana, she held various different executive roles at Alluxio, Couchbase and IBM. At Couchbase she held several leadership positions over the years leading and building out the product, engineering and world-wide solutions engineering teams. At IBM, Dipti managed large world-wide dev teams for DB2 Distributed where she also started her career as a software engineer in the DB2 LUW kernel. She also served as Chairperson of the Linux Foundation / Presto Foundation community for many years. Dipti holds a MS in Computer Science from UC San Diego with a specialization in databases and holds an MBA from the Haas School of Business at UC Berkeley. She is very passionate about empowering and mentoring women in tech and open source. Learn more about our mission and become a member here: https://www.womenindata.org/ All Data Bytes listeners get 20% off of WiD membership by using the code: DATABYTES20 --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/women-in-data/support
Dave Kellogg, serial CEO, investor, and advisor, is a prolific blogger over at Kellblog.com. His annual predictions are a must-read for anyone in tech. This year's insights were no exception. Dave recently joined Balderton Capital as an executive in residence. His illustrious career has spanned exec stints at iconic companies like Host Analytics, Salesforce, MarkLogic, and Business Objects before it was acquired by SAP. Among other accolades, Dave's SaaStr talks routinely rank in the top few most watched.Dave owns two dubious distinctions: in over 100 episodes, he's one of only three repeat guests on the podcast. He's also the biggest Grateful Dead fan we know. The two are only loosely correlated.Listen and learn:The single SaaS metric that matters most in 2022Dave's advice to innovators: "don't pave cow paths"What's different about the venture ecosystems in Silicon Valley and EuropeWhat's ahead for Web3 and blockchain in the enterpriseWhy the future of decentralized services requires centralized platformsIf 2021 was a Grateful Dead song...References in this episode:Dave's 2022 predictionsDave's favorite marketing book: They Ask You AnswerMoxie Marlinspike on Web3Anshu Sharma and the privacy vaultCausal inference wins the 2021 Nobel Prize in Economics
Max Schireson, prev. CEO, MongoDB 1:20: Max started his career at Oracle where he became frustrated with the limitations of relational databases. He then moved to MarkLogic where he discovered XML databases and the flexibility of that format got him excited about the potential for new databases. From there, he moved to MongoDB as CEO just as NoSQL started to take off. There, he was exposed to the distribution potential of open-source. With an open-source business, people used your product well before you sold it to them. The company was very early when he joined. There were 20 employees and $10Ks - $100Ks of revenue. However, they already had a fair amount of open-source adoption. 7:40: Technical support became incredibly challenging at MongoDB since users were so sophisticated. 11:50: The transition away from support as a business model was necessary as users were finding fewer issues with the product. Max walks through the shift towards an open core model bifurcating free and paid functionality. 13:40: Deciding between paid and unpaid features was challenging. They discovered that paid features were good for operating at scale, and while they could have made more money by charging for additional support, they felt that having the best free open-source product on the market should take priority. 17:50: They didn't focus on stars as a core metric as it is only a rough measure of momentum. Instead, they focused on things like Google Trends (how often people searched for MongoDB), how often someone would put MongoDB on their LinkedIn as a skill, and if MongoDB was posted on Indeed in job recs. 22:20: Marketing and community came in the form of grassroots efforts and informal presentations. These included 'Mongo Days' where they organized engineering events across the country. Developers liked the honest and genuine nature of how MongoDB was sold to them with the sales team using phrases like “people use Mongo because the alternatives suck”. 25:30: MongoDB used an incremental approach to monetization (support then additional product functionality). They could have prioritized monetizing more sooner but instead focused efforts on the open-source. 27:15: A piece of advice from Max to open-source founders: focus on production workflows for monetization where you'll see real volume. 29:50: Open-source works best in a cloud delivery model. If someone downloads your open-source and uses it on-prem, it's hard to track and fix issues since you don't know who all is using the software (in a cloud model, you can fix issues for everyone at the same time). 32:05: Open-source can be seen as just a distribution method, but cloud products can have other great distribution methods. 36:15: A common mistake when building an open-source company is focusing on open-source adoption OR monetization instead of both. 38:20: Open-source licenses are important to protect your IP. MongoDB had a specific license that restricted how developers could use the product, which was risky since it added friction, but it didn't end up hurting adoption for them. 43:10: At MongoDB, the greatest ‘growth hack' was having a great product experience from the get-go; implementation was quick and users saw value very early.
Dave Kellogg returns to SaaShimi to share his experience working with Venture Capital and Private Equity firms. He compares VC's and PE's investment approaches, due diligence processes, and roles in a boardroom among other things. *Dave Kellogg's Bio* Dave Kellogg is a technology executive, investor, advisor, and blogger (if you don't read www.kellblog.com, you should start after you are done with SaaShimi!). Previously, he held CEO positions at Hostanalytics and MarkLogic, and prior to that SVP/GM of Service Cloud at Salesforce and CMO at Business Objects. Dave has worked in varied capacities with companies including Breeze, GainSight, MongoDB, and Tableau. He currently sit on the boards of Alation, Nuxeo, and Profisee. Dave previously sat on the boards of agtech leader Granular and big data leader Aster Data (both got acquired).
Milo Van Boeijen's bold decision to start his own camper van rental business in the south of France may have seemed a little off-the-wall at the time. But in the end, it worked wonders for his creativity and ultimately opened his eyes to the importance of marketing as a catalyst for sales enablement. Fast forward to today and he's now the director of marketing for the EMEA/APJ regions at MarkLogic, a leading operational and transactional Enterprise NoSQL database provider with over 2,500 customers worldwide. In today's episode Shaheen Samavati sits down with Milo to talk about the challenges of managing marketing campaigns for multiple regions and the vital role both sales enablement and local teams play in crafting targeted strategies to improve the company's bottom line.
Dave Kellogg is a technology executive, investor, advisor, and blogger. (if you don't read www.kellblog.com, you should start after you are done with SaaShimi!). Previously, he held CEO positions at Hostanalytics and MarkLogic, and prior to that SVP/GM of Service Cloud at Salesforce and CMO at Business Objects. Dave has worked in varied capacities with companies including Breeze, GainSight, MongoDB, and Tableau. He currently sit on the boards of Alation, Nuxeo, and Profisee and previously sat on the boards of agtech leader Granular and big data leader Aster Data.
Tracy Eiler is the Chief Marketing Officer at InsideView. She has been driving marketing strategy at both cloud-based and traditional enterprise technology companies for 25 years. At InsideView, Tracy leads the end-to-end marketing strategy and initiatives. Tracy came to InsideView from her own marketing consulting firm. Previously, Tracy held executive roles at Replicon, Cloud9, MarkLogic, Postini, and Business Objects. She also founded and ran a successful technology communications agency.
Understanding technology creates more efficient organizations
Giles Nelson, CTO of financial services for MarkLogic, joins the podcast to discuss data issues facing the capital markets, data warehousing, and Hadoop. 1:00 Giles Nelson joins the podcast. 2:00 Conventional approaches to managing data are stuck in the 1970s, according to Giles. 7:00 How to change hearts and minds. 15:00 Data warehouses—are they dead? 22:00 The balance between emerging technologies and legacy technologies. 26:00 Is the Hadoop hype gone, or just changing? 32:00 Why do firms need to be both innovative and think outside of the box, as well as stay responsible to not flush funds down the drain on a shiny new object.
AI Today Podcast: Artificial Intelligence Insights, Experts, and Opinion
The public sector, both civilian and defense agencies, have a lot to gain from AI, from predictive analytics to autonomous systems such as unmanned drones, and even logistics management. In this podcast we interview Brigham Bechtel, Chief Strategy Officer, Intelligence and Defense at MarkLogic to discuss how government, and in particular the Navy, is using AI to help with mission success. Read more ...
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. Before that Dave was SVP/GM of Service Cloud @ Salesforce where he led the $500m line of business for customer service applications. Finally pre-Salesforce, Dave was CEO @ MarkLogic where he grew the team from 40 to 240 and revenues from $0 to an $80m revenue run rate. If that was not enough, Dave currently or has previously sat on the boards of Nuxeo, Alation, Aster Data and Granular. In Today’s Episode We Discuss: How did Dave make his way into the world of SaaS over 20 years ago? How did seeing the boom and bust of the dot com and 2008 affect Dave’s operating mentality? What were his biggest lessons from being in the Sequoia boardroom when they presented “RIP good time”? How does Dave think about when is the right time to raise? How does Dave advise founders on how much is the right amount to raise? Does Dave agree that if the money is on the table founding teams should take it? Why does Dave believe 99% of companies die? The first step in being acquired by a PE house is “making the book”, what goes into “making the book”? Who is involved? How long does it take? What are the clear differences between a good book and a bad book? How should execs think about making exciting enough go-forward plans for it to be attractive to buyers but also realistic enough that they can hit it in the acquisition process? How does the selection for who receives the book look? Who decides this? What is the fundamental aim in the distribution of the book to many parties at the same time? What does Dave know now about the world of PE that he wishes he had known at the beginning? IOI’s is the next step, what are they? How do they set up the process from there? How do management meetings with potential PE acquiring firms compare to founders meeting VCs in the early days? How many meetings is normal to have in this process? How long do they last? What does Dave believe is crucial to achieve in these in person meetings? How much of a role does price play in selecting the ultimate acquiror? How much of a role does their brand and reputation play? 60 Second SaaStr: What does Dave know about the process that he wishes he had known at the beginning? The biggest misconception about the world of PE and acquisitions? Burn rate is a function of the personality of the CEO? Agree or disagree? Why? 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 Dave Kellogg
In the intersection of sales and marketing in a growing company there are always lessons learned the hard way, but once learned they can stay with you. Live from Dublin, Ireland and San Jose, CA: How do you go from innovative new technology to building and owning a category? That’s the question will dig into with John Kreisa, VP Marketing at Hortonworks – one of the fastest growing tech companies in history. We’re going to talk about the ins and out, challenges and difficulties of creating and scaling a category. Finding repeatable processes Hiring entrepreneurial spirited people New ventures put sales and marketing close in the same foxhole and from that both learn Why marketing and sales has to be a partnership About our guest, John Kreisa: John brings over 20 years of experience in technology marketing leadership to Hortonworks and is responsible for the strategy and execution of all of its marketing activities. Most recently, John led the Data Storage marketing activity at Red Hat via the acquisition of Gluster Inc. Prior to Gluster, John held various marketing roles at Cloudera, MarkLogic, Business Objects John holds a BS in Computer Science from The University of Texas in Austin. _____________________________________________ Predicable Revenue is hosted by Patrick Morrissey and sponsored by Altify the sales transformation software company.
Live Nov 1 from Dublin, Ireland and San Jose, CA: How do you go from innovative new technology to building and owning a category? That’s the question will dig into with John Kreisa, VP Marketing at Hortonworks – one of the fastest growing tech companies in history. We’re going to talk about the ins and out, challenges and difficulties of creating and scaling a category. About our guest, John Kreisa: John brings over 20 years of experience in technology marketing leadership to Hortonworks and is responsible for the strategy and execution of all of its marketing activities. Most recently, John led the Data Storage marketing activity at Red Hat via the acquisition of Gluster Inc. Prior to Gluster, John held various marketing roles at Cloudera, MarkLogic, Business Objects John holds a BS in Computer Science from The University of Texas in Austin.
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: Why does Dave believe it is foundational to be an ARR first company? How does Dave think startups can show their ARR first mentality from the first investor meeting? How does this help drive operational efficiency? How does Dave segment ARR into 3 distinct camps? Why does Dave argue that SaaS metrics are not nearly as simple as they seem? Which metrics does Dave believe most founders confuse? What metrics will the best VCs pick apart and dig deep on? How can founders respond with accuracy and confidence? How does Dave respond to multi-year deals? Under what conditions are they acceptable and not acceptable? How must they be reported in accounting? Where do many startups go wrong when considering multi-year deals? How important is it for them to be pre-paid? Why does Dave argue that renewals do not measure customer satisfaction?What is an accurate measurement to determine customer satisfaction? How often should this be conducted? What sample size of customer gives the right amount of data? How does Dave approach comp with regards to sales team cross-sell and upsell? Why is it not as black and white as boards often portray? Under which circumstances does Dave believe double comp is justified and not justified? How can you communicate this to your board successfully? 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 Dave Kellogg 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.
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
The Top Entrepreneurs in Money, Marketing, Business and Life
Dave Kellogg. Dave has more than 20 years of experience in high growth companies. Dave has been CEO of MarkLogic, CMO of Business Objects and member of Aster Data board of directors. Dave steered MarkLogic to $80 million in revenues. Business Objects witnessed equally impressive growth as it reached a revenue of billion dollars under his able guidance. Tune in and listen to Dave as he discusses various financial metrics of Hostanalytics. Targeting small businesses and enterprise level businesses, this company has grown 4x over the past 3 years. Read on and find out what makes this SAAS business tick. Famous Five: Favorite Book? – Chaos Monkeys What CEO do you follow? – Marc Benioff Favorite online tool? — WordPress How many hours of sleep do you get?— 8 hours If you could let your 20-year old self, know one thing, what would it be? – Go read Power: Why Some People Have It and Some Don't by Geoffrey Pfeffer Time Stamped Show Notes: 02:14 – Nathan introduces Dave to the show 03:19 – Host Analytics is a SAAS company that is disrupting the space for enterprise performance management 03:58 – Not dabbling in premise products at all 04:28 – Corporate finance does not scale up with growing company size; number of users for such a software is dependent on the centralization philosophy 04:42 – A big company might be heavily centralized with only a sprinkling of users, whereas a little company might have hundreds of users 04:52 – Pricing model is a combination of a fixed based fee and a user fee 05:00 – Fixed fee varies from 25k to 50k—both fixed fee and user fee are recurring 05:25 – User fee depends on the user type and to which extent the software features are being used 05:45 – Fixed fee per user per month may vary from a couple of hundred dollars to a thousand dollars 06:10 – Re-entered the startup world once he quit Salesforce and joined Hostanalytics 06:24 – Passed on the reigns at Mark Logic to Gary Bloom—Mark Logic is still doing very well 07:05 – Best strategy to exit a startup is to exercise 83B options 08:00 – Exercising all options results in FMP (Fair Market Value) equaling strike price 08:07 – You lose the optionality—shares might not increase in value at a later date 09:00 – Met VC’s, entrepreneurs and angels while looking for a new opportunity after quitting MarkLogic 09:16 – Dave’s buddies coaxed him to join Salesforce as CMO 09:39 – Learnt a lot about SAAS at Salesforce. However, he found out that he was more comfortable running smaller companies 09:58 – Dave met the founders of Host Analytics through a common friend who was on their board 10:31 – HostAnalytics was clocking revenues of $10 million when Dave joined them in 2014; a great board and a proven SAAS model are the other factors which compelled Dave to join the firm 11:20 – Revenues have grown 4x since 2014 11:42 – Founded in 2001, HostAnalytics grew via bootstrapping for seven years. They finally secured VC funding in 2008 12:01 – Raised $85 million to date 12:32 – Used 75 cent “I love EBITA” stickers and funnily enough, won customers due to that 13:47 – Servicing 700 customers, as of today 13:50 – Pareto’s 80/20 principle is not applicable to them; they are bimodal with a dual focus on smaller businesses as well as enterprise businesses 14:20 – Both of them are run as different cohorts by different salesforces; revenues are split equally between small business and enterprise 14:50 – Each client is aggregating revenues of $70,000 per annum 15:13 – Payment terms are a tricky issue in SAAS 15:18 – While other SAAS players go for monthly and quarterly payments, HostAnalytics opts for annual payment 15:34 – If you are giving a discount smaller than your churn rate, then everybody wins 16:15 – Customer churn and revenue churn are surprisingly equal 16:25 – Spending on an average $1.5 to $ 2 for a dollar of AR to acquire a customer 17:16 – A team of 300 people out of which 100 are located in India, entire sales force of 60 is located in the US 17:23 – Company co-founded in US and India 18:10 – Average lifetime value of a client varies from 6x to 7x or half a million dollars 19:39 – Cloud penetration of this market is just 5% 19:57 – Finance department is 10 to 15 years behind sales in adoption of cloud 20:17 – 9.5 out of 10 people would say “Not now” 20:56 – Blended Gross Margin is lower since they have a slightly bigger services business than most SAAS companies 21:10 – ERP is a heart transplant. EPM is a knee transplant 21:20 – Services business helps reduce churn and create cash flow 22:57 – The Famous Five 3 Key Points: A big company might be heavily centralized with few SAAS users, whereas a small company might have hundreds of SAAS users. Focusing on services reduces churn and creates cash flow; however, gross margins are less compared to other SAAS companies due to this. Focusing on small businesses as well as enterprise businesses is important—at HostAnalytics, revenue is split equally between these two models. 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
Learn how the AWS Marketplace brings together customers who have challenges with ISVs who have solutions to those challenges. See how to use relational and NoSQL technologies on AWS to build enterprise and consumer apps. NBC used MarkLogic to deliver an award-winning app that can handle high traffic levels and unexpected usage spikes. NBC’s popular, Emmy-winning, “SNL 40” was launched to celebrate the 40th anniversary of Saturday Night Live, and delivers four decades of sketches and performances. Hosted on AWS, the app — as well as a browser-based platform — are powered by the MarkLogic Enterprise NoSQL database. Come learn from the team who collaborated on this project how to run your own database on AWS, and how to integrate with Amazon RDS and other data stores. A world-recognized automotive brand needed to deliver real-time response about their worldwide fleet vehicles. You will learn how they used a combination of AWS services and FileMaker Cloud, (an Apple subsidiary, procured through AWS Marketplace) to deliver high-scale dealer-facing applications.
In the LIVE from HiMSS16 series our first interview was with David Nace, MD (@DavidNaceMD), Chief Medicial Officer, Mark Logic (@MarkLogic). Enjoy as our co-host Douglas Goldstein (@efuturist) engages this enterprising thought leader and physician executive.
sponsored by MarkLogic