Podcasts about saas ceo

This episode comes to you live from SaaStock USA. Fresh off the Founderpath Center Stage, Savneet Singh joined Alex Theuma to discuss how he took PAR from having just weeks of cash left to the billion dollar public company it is today. Tune in to hear Savneet's candid take on what it really takes to lead under pressure and scale with purpose, including: - Stepping into the CEO role with only a few weeks of runway. - The urgent actions taken to avoid bankruptcy—including a ~20% workforce cut in 10 days. - Why transparency and accountability set the foundation for PAR's cultural turnaround. - The shift from “feel-good” values to bold principles like Speed, Ownership, and Winning. - How AI is being operationalised at PAR—with a sharp focus on efficiency and product experience. - The real sacrifices of being a SaaS CEO and why you need to be “all in” if you want to be the best.      Check out the other ways SaaStock is helping SaaS founders move their business forward: 

What if your relentless hard work is actually costing your business more than it's helping?In this episode, Bill explores the hidden costs of overwork, particularly when leaders confuse effort with effectiveness. He shares a cautionary tale of a CEO who pushed too hard, micromanaged excessively, and ultimately failed—highlighting how unchecked hustle undermines both personal well-being and team performance. Topics explored in this episode: (0:42) The Hidden Price of Hustle* Overwork has obvious personal costs, but its impact on the business is often overlooked.(2:40) The CEO Who Couldn't Let Go* The story of a SaaS CEO who tried to control every part of the company, despite lacking expertise in many areas.* A promising company failed due to leadership that was anxious and overreaching.(5:27) From Hero to Enabler* True success comes not from doing everything, but from rallying a capable team.(6:38) The Real Cost of Doing It All* Personal sacrifices become habitual and ultimately unsustainable.* Overworking leaders limit their organization's potential by suppressing ownership and innovation.(8:30) Redesigning Leadership for Scale* Leaders who are central to every decision become bottlenecks.* Overworking doesn't inspire teams—it demoralizes them.* Evolving leadership is the key to scaling without personal burnout.Bill Gallagher, Scaling Coach and host of the Scaling Up Business podcast, is an international business coach who works with C-Suite leaders to achieve breakthrough growth. Join Bill in the Growth Navigator Coaching Program: https://ScalingCoach.com/workshop Bill on LinkedIn: https://www.LinkedIn.com/in/BillGallBill on YouTube: https://www.YouTube.com/@BillGallagherScalingCoach Visit https://ScalingUp.com to learn more about Verne Harnish, our team of Scaling Up Coaches, and the Scaling Up Performance Platform, which includes coaching, learning, software, and summit. We share how the fastest-growing companies succeed where so many others fail. We help leadership teams with the biggest decisions around people, strategy, execution, and cash so that they can scale up successfully and beat the odds of business growth. Did you enjoy today's episode? If so, then please leave a review! Help other business leaders discover Scaling Up Business with Bill Gallagher so they, too, can benefit from the ideas shared in these podcasts.Subscribe via Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3PGhWPJSubscribe via Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/3PKe00uBill on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/billgall/ Bill on Twitter/X: https://x.com/billgall This episode was produced by Story On Media: https://www.storyon.co/

It is a special day as we welcome a true industry icon to the podcast! Today, we are thrilled to have Frank Passanante, Global Head of Sales at Hilton, joining us for a conversation that has been a long time in the making. Eric has crossed paths with Frank through the MPI Foundation and has been looking forward to having him on the show to share his insights.  In this episode, Frank discusses his career, the art of sales, and the enduring strength of the Hilton brand. A Passion for Hospitality from a Young Age Frank's journey into the hospitality industry began in his early teens. While on a family vacation at the Hilton Hawaiian Village, he discovered a book by Conrad Hilton, Be My Guest, which ignited his passion for the hotel business. From that moment, he began working various jobs in hotels and restaurants before specializing in sales. He joined Hilton right after university and has remained in the industry ever since. Sales as a Noble Profession Frank believes sales is a noble profession centered on solving customer problems and providing value. He feels that true sales success comes from genuinely caring about customers and helping them find the right solutions. Frank integrates Lisa McLeod's Philosophy of Selling with Noble Purpose into his sales approach, focusing on customer impact rather than revenue alone. His mindset aligns with Hilton's founding purpose—spreading the light and warmth of hospitality. Building a Strong Sales Culture Recruiting the right people is essential to maintaining a strong company culture. Frank refers to The Ideal Team Player by Patrick Lencioni, which identifies three key qualities for success: humility, which prioritizes teamwork and continuous learning; hunger, which drives ambition and goal-setting; and emotional intelligence, which ensures strong interpersonal skills. At Hilton, hiring, training, and performance management are structured around those virtues to create a high-performing, customer-focused sales team. Adapting to Changing Buyer Behavior The landscape of meeting and event services has evolved in the post-COVID era. Modern buyers expect a seamless blend of self-service digital tools and personalized support for more complex needs. So, they developed a three-channel sales strategy at Hilton: digital self-service options that empower customers to research and book independently, direct sales for high-touch transactions requiring expert guidance, and voice-assisted support for critical moments in the buying process. Companies that fail to adapt to these shifting expectations risk missing valuable opportunities in today's rapidly evolving market. AI and Continuous Learning AI and automation are reshaping the industry, so Frank is committed to future-proofing the Hilton sales teams. The company promotes an always-learning mindset and prioritizes a coaching culture. Combining continuous learning with a strong coaching environment ensures that the Hilton sales professionals remain effective and adaptable. Building a Coaching Culture Frank emphasizes the power of coaching in leadership and business success. He stresses the importance of being coachable, asking the right questions, and seeking feedback to progress quickly. His organization holds monthly coaching sessions for leaders, focusing on practicing real-life coaching conversations to build communication skills. The Art of Difficult Conversations Having tough conversations is easier said than done. As a former SaaS CEO, Frank found that employees initially hesitated to voice their concerns. However, by welcoming constructive criticism and encouraging dialogue, he built a culture where feedback became a strength rather than something to fear. Continuous Learning & Expanding Perspectives Frank stays ahead by reading business publications, white papers, and research from Forrester and Gartner rather than constantly chasing new frameworks. He values learning from industries outside his own, believing that cross-industry insights spark fresh ideas. Year of the Travel Maximizer Hilton has identified 2025 as the Year of the Travel Maximizer. Their recent Meetings Maximizer report highlights trends like extreme preparedness, where attendees demand detailed agendas and networking guidance. Hilton developed resources to meet these evolving needs, including the World's Most Welcoming Events playbook, to help planners create more engaging experiences. Looking Ahead Frank is excited about Hilton's rapid expansion, with over 800 new hotels added in 2024 and 500,000 rooms in the pipeline. Next year, they will celebrate significant openings, including the iconic Waldorf Astoria New York and new Waldorf locations in Sydney and Tokyo.  Bio: Frank Passanante Senior Vice President, Global Head of Sales and HRCC, Hilton Frank Passanante sets the B2B strategy for Hilton through all selling channels. He's passionate about forging strong customer partnerships that drive mutual success, building winning sales teams through intentionally developing a coaching culture, and quickly adapting strategies to meet the continually evolving nature of B2B sales. In his current role as Senior Vice President, Global Head of Sales, and HRCC, Frank collaborates closely with commercial leaders worldwide on coordinated global B2B strategies. He takes great pride in his team of purpose-led sales professionals, who consistently develop meaningful customer relationships and consult on solutions. He describes his team as caring, committed to their clients' outcomes, and striving to be the best in the business.  Frank built and refined his hospitality sales and marketing expertise over three decades, with the vast majority of those years devoted to Hilton in various on-property, regional, and corporate roles. Actively engaged in industry organizations across all travel segments, he has served on the Professional Convention Management Association Board of Directors, the U.S. Travel Association Meetings Mean Business Coalition, and the Events Industry Council APEX Business Recovery Task Force. Currently, he is engaged with the US Travel Association Group Travel Network and the GBTA Allied Leadership Committee. Connect with Eric Rozenberg On LinkedIn Facebook Instagram Website Subscribe to The Business of Meetings newsletter   Listen to The Business of Meetings podcast Connect with Frank Passanante On LinkedIn Hilton Trends Report 2025 – The Vacation Maximized 2025 Hilton Trends Report – Special Section: The Meetings Maximizer – The Next Generation of Meetings & Events Books mentioned: Be My Guest by Conrad Hilton Selling with Noble Purpose by Lisa McLeod The Ideal Team Player by Patrick Lencioni The Advantage by Patrick Lencioni The Five Dysfunctions of a Team by Patrick Lencioni The Medici Effect by Frans Johansson Kitchen Confidential by Anthony Bourdain      

In this episode of Confessions of a B2B Entrepreneur, join host Tom Hunt as he sits down with Kris Rudeegraap, founder and co-CEO of Sendoso, to explore his journey from non-technical founder to scaling a successful B2B gifting platform. Kris shares invaluable insights on founder-led sales, product marketing, and the effective use of AI in outbound sales.

In episode #268, I address a debate that arose a recent SaaS CEO and CFO dinner in San Francisco. - What is Rev Ops? - CFO or CRO? Be in the know! Join our SaaS community. https://www.thesaasacademy.com/offers/ivNjwYDx/checkout

Welcome back to The Private Equity Podcast, by Raw Selection! Today's guest is Jon Sonnenschein, Private Equity Operating Partner and former SaaS and software CEO. Jon shares insights on driving cultural change in portfolio companies, blending his experience as a CEO and Operating Partner.Breakdown:[00:00] Jon Sonnenschein discusses his experience as a Private Equity Operating Partner and former SaaS CEO, focusing on cultural transformation in portfolio companies.[00:30] From Chicago to Silicon Valley, with 20 years in startups, followed by joining private equity and leading growth at Earth Solutions.[00:59] The "star player bias" in talent acquisition and the importance of aligning cultural dynamics.[01:28] Addressing the balance between legacy culture and private equity-driven professionalization.[03:21] Transitioning from founder-led to private equity-backed and retaining core cultural elements while driving professionalization and growth.[05:18] Jon shares how he elevated long-term employees for cultural continuity while introducing professional FP&A expertise.[06:15] Jon explains his approach to understanding a company's culture by interviewing employees at all levels.[07:44] The role of listening and valuing employee perspectives in identifying growth opportunities.[09:11] Validating feedback through patterns, experiments, and data-driven approaches.[10:57] Testing new markets through structured, accountable experiments to assess viability.[11:56] Jon's methods for influencing cultural change without alienating long-term employees.[13:20] Professionalizing the product organization and using customer feedback to guide decisions.[15:17] Transparency, one-on-ones, and open forums to drive cultural change and employee engagement.[18:11] Creating psychological safety and fostering innovation through direct communication.[19:38] Jon reflects on insights from being an operating partner and how they inform his executive approach.[21:06] The importance of collaboration between operating partners, deal teams, and CEOs.[22:28] Recommended readings include Thinking Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman and The Hard Thing About Hard Things by Ben Horowitz.[24:48] Jon emphasizes the importance of tackling culture head-on and shares key takeaways for private equity professionals.To be added to the book waitlist, you can email alex.offer@raw-selection.comThank you for tuning in! Connect with Jon on LinkedIn here. To get the newest Private Equity episodes, you can subscribe on iTunes or Spotify here.Lastly, if you have any feedback on the podcast or want to reach out to Alex with any questions, send an email to alex.rawlings@raw-selection.com

Episode 264 – The Difference Between Booking Date and Revenue Start Date In episode #264, I tackle a question from a SaaS CEO in Spain. They messaged me on LinkedIn about dates. Sales wants to record the contract on the execution date, and finance must begin revenue on the subscription start date. What's the right process? - Bookings dates - Revenue on the P&L Have SaaS questions? Join our community: https://www.thesaasacademy.com/offers/ivNjwYDx/checkout

Davey Jones is the CEO of Formalytics, the company behind Bdow (formerly Sumo), a popular lead generation tool that helps businesses grow their email lists through optimized pop-ups and forms. Davey is also the co-founder of Davey & Krista, a branding and website design agency that has helped countless businesses establish impactful brands. With a background in both agency ownership and SaaS, Davey shares his unique insights into building businesses, scaling software, and transitioning from service-based work to product-driven success.

In this episode we speak with Mike Ettling, the CEO of Unit4, a software company that specializes in the professional services, public services, education, and nonprofit sectors.  Mike was recognized by The Software Report as a Top 50 SaaS CEO of 2023. Unit 4's integrated suite of AI-powered ERP software solutions built on a robust platform helps elevate businesses, delivering visibility and control over finances, projects, procurement, reporting, forecasting and payroll. The company has 2,700 colleagues across the globe and serves more than 5,100 customers. Mike is a CEO, investor, builder of world class teams, champion of diversity and continuous learner, and he's passionate about people.  From his first leadership role in the Boy Scouts, to exec positions in the tech industry, his career has revolved around elevating, engaging and enabling people. I am your host RJ Lumba.  We hope you enjoy the show.  If you like the episode, click to follow.

In this episode of SaaS Fuel, we explore the journey of Dave Dittenber, who transitioned from a humble dishwasher in Northern Michigan to a tech innovator revolutionizing the restaurant industry. Discover how Dave's innovative solutions, such as BYOD (Bring Your Own Data) and Mabel, a virtual restaurant assistant, are enhancing decision making and streamlining operations without losing the essential personal touch.Learn practical tips for improving employee efficiency through customizable checklists, gamification, and structured processes within mobile apps. Finally, dive into the strategic challenges and partnerships that have fueled the growth of Dave's tech-driven solutions in the hospitality sector. Don't miss this episode— it's a masterclass in balancing people, processes and technology for operational success. Key Takeaways00:00 New leadership, changing market, outdated business models.03:56 Platform as a service enables scalable, sticky relationships.08:45 Leadership, followership, security insights from experts.11:41 Balancing technology and hospitality in restaurant management.16:21 Alerts to adjust TV for marketing initiatives.18:18 Historical data alone can't accurately predict sales.23:00 Need easy, customizable checklists to improve documentation.24:13 Easy-to-use customizable checklist for staff operations.28:13 Technology aids onboarding, enhances communication, personal touch.34:18 Lacked technology expertise after co-founder Frank passed.37:52 Challenges in adapting technology due to uncertainties.40:38 Shifting focus from small customers to enterprise.43:00 Converting convenience stores to digital for efficiency.47:11 Our product ensures user-centric data solutions, strategically.51:15 Different standards; resilience and learning are essential.52:46 Transitioned from simple bank debt to private equity.Tweetable QuotesStrategic Sales Relationships: "Instead of going out like lead gens and a lot of things that we were told in the beginning that we had to worry about, like, we can be a lot more tactical or strategic by through relationships and getting to know people." - Dave Dittenber 00:48:15Bootstrapping and Private Equity: "We bootstrapped, and we self funded, probably the 1st 2 years. And then as we were looking to say, okay, as you're gonna, you know, be more viable and you're gonna build build a business, it has to be investable." - Dave Dittenber 00:53:19The Weight of a Title: "The other thing is sometimes they put the CEO title behind your name and you think that you should know everything." - Dave Dittenberg 00:54:53Transparency in Business: "We also are really transparent with our investors. Right? If we're gonna go do something or thinking about doing something, you know, we communicate that." - Dave Dittenberg 00:55:09SaaS Leadership LessonsEmbrace an Unconventional Journey: Dave's path from dishwasher to tech entrepreneur highlights the importance of diverse experiences in shaping innovative solutions. His background in hospitality provided unique insights that a traditional tech background might not have offered. Embrace and leverage unconventional journeys to drive innovation in SaaS products. Integrate Technology with Human Touch: Dave's innovations like BYOD and Mabel show the importance of integrating technology to enhance human operations rather than replace them. The concept of “augmented intelligence” rather than “artificial intelligence” emphasizes that technology should support human decision making,...

クラウド化が遅れている物流業界は、2024年問題による輸送能力不足という課題に直面しています。このような状況下で、アセンドは複雑な業務オペレーションの標準化に挑戦し、Vertical SaaSの立ち上げに取り組んできました。創業者が語る起業の経緯、SaaS開発の苦労、そしてブレイクスルーの瞬間を時系列で追いながら、Vertical SaaS企業としての成長過程を探ります。この事例を通じて、他のVertical SaaS起業家に向けた貴重な教訓と学びを提供していきます。 ハイライト 起業までの経歴：コンサルタント・シンクタンクでの経験 社会変革を目指してなぜ起業という手段を選んだのか？ 物流業界の魅力と構造的課題 SaaSで解決できる問題とその限界 Vertical SaaSにおける「非合理の理」と成長フェーズに至るまでの苦労の4年間 ARR成長フェーズへのブレイクスルーポイント アセンドの今後の展望：SaaS+αの戦略 ALL STAR SAAS FUNDとの2年間の協業を振り返って 日下瑞貴 アセンド株式会社 代表取締役社長 1990年北海道江別市生まれ。早稲田大学政治学研究科（政治哲学専攻）修了後、PwCコンサルティング合同会社にてサプライチェーンマネジメント案件に従事。その後野村総合研究所に移り、官公庁や業界団体を中心に、物流業界に関する政策提言・戦略策定プロジェクトに従事。行政と連携しつつ物流改革を進める中で、運送会社不在の中で行政主導の改革に限界があることを認識。運送会社のDXを推進する事で荷主とフェアに取引できる環境を目指しアセンドを創業。3児の父で、趣味はランニングと読書。

Savneet Singh was recruited to take over PAR as CEO in 2019. Since then, he's doubled revenues to $400,000,000, changed the culture, and rapidly expanded the product suite. Why is the market only valuing him at $1.5 billion? Will they hit $500,000,000 before Dec 2024?

The Future of Restaurant TechnologyIn a recent episode of "The Thoughtful Entrepreneur Show," hosted by Josh Elledge, the CEO of PAR Technology Corporation, Savneet Singh. He shared valuable insights into the evolving landscape of technology in the restaurant industry. ParTech, a leading provider of software, hardware, and services to fast-growing or large restaurant chains, is at the forefront of this transformation. This episode delves into the key themes discussed in the episode, offering actionable advice and expert insights for restaurant owners, CIOs, and marketing officers looking to leverage technology to enhance the consumer experience.ParTech specializes in providing comprehensive technology solutions tailored for restaurant chains. Their offerings include streamlined and efficient Point of Sale (POS) systems, customized loyalty programs designed to increase customer retention and engagement, and robust online ordering platforms that cater to the growing demand for digital convenience. Savneet emphasized the critical role of technology in bridging the gap between consumers and the brands they love, highlighting how advanced technological solutions can enhance customer engagement, improve operational efficiency, and enable restaurants to quickly adapt to changing consumer behaviors and preferences.The conversation also touched on the future of self-checkout and the increasing role of mobile phones, emphasizing their convenience, speed, and ability to provide personalized recommendations and offers. Additionally, the potential advancements and challenges in the use of AI and robotics in the restaurant industry were discussed, noting how automation of routine tasks can enhance accuracy and efficiency, despite the challenges in implementation.About Savneet Singh:Savneet Singh is an award-winning software / SaaS CEO with deep expertise across the retail, fintech and payments industries. Savneet is currently CEO of PAR Technology Corporation, a provider of point of sale software to the retail industry. Under his tenure, the Company has transformed from a distressed provider of hardware to a fast-growing SaaS business. This work has included two significant capital raises, two large acquisitions and a dramatic change in workplace culture. Prior to PAR, Savneet has extensive experience as both an investor and Board Member, having served on a number of both public and private Boards, including a listed SPAC.About PAR Technology Corporation:PAR Technology Corporation develops and markets products that assist hospitality operators around the world to better manage money, materials, people and the guest experience. PAR has provided solutions, including software, hardware and services to the world's largest restaurant chains and their franchisees for 40 years. Today our extensive offering includes technology applications for the full spectrum of hospitality and restaurant operations, from independent table service restaurants to international QSR chains and five-star destination resorts, all backed by PAR's global service network.The Company has nearly 100,000 installations in 110 countries worldwide. PAR is also a leader in providing computer-based system design and engineering services to the Department of Defense and Federal Government Agencies.Links Mentioned in this Episode:Want to learn more? Check out PAR Technology Corporation website athttps://partech.com/Check out PAR Technology Corporation on LinkedIn athttps://www.linkedin.com/company/partechnologyCheck out Savneet Singh on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/savneetsingh/Don't forget to subscribe to The Thoughtful...

“We understood the problem very well, and it was a very real problem in the market.”Today, Johnny (@johnnypage13) and Matt (@mattverlaque) are joined by Marcel Petitpas, co-founder and CEO of Parakeeto as well as head strategic coach at SaaS Academy, as they explore Marcel's journey from a service business owner to a SaaS entrepreneur, emphasizing the importance of understanding one's business model and mastering operations for success. Marcel explores the transition from service to SaaS, emphasizing the importance of identifying real problems, strategic positioning, and efficient service delivery for profitability. The discussion offers valuable insights for SaaS founders on leveraging agency relationships, optimizing operations, and the long-term impact of content marketing for business success.Timestamps:(0:33) - Introduction(3:46) - Marcel's journey: from Apple store to SaaS CEO(7:41) - The art of transitioning from service to SaaS(11:22) - The pitfalls of skipping essential business steps(16:09) - Leveraging podcasts for business growth and authority(19:59) - Maximizing podcast appearances for lead generation(23:08) - The long-term impact of content marketing(25:13) - The journey from passion to expertise in business(26:59) - The ripple effect of improving service business models(28:49) - The challenge of agency profitability and client satisfaction(33:18) - Exploring performance-driven agency models(39:58) - Leveraging agencies for SaaS growth(43:36) - ConclusionCheck out Marcel Petitpas on:➤ Instagram | LinkedIn | Website | Parakeeto

In this episode, we speak with Tianyi Jiang (TJ), CEO and Co-Founder of AvePoint, an independent software vendor of SaaS solutions to migrate, manage and protect data. More than 17,000 customers trust AvePoint's Confidence Platform to optimize their SaaS operations and secure collaboration. AvePoint's SaaS solutions are also available to managed service providers via more than 100 cloud marketplaces. TJ co-founded AvePoint in 2001 and has served as the company's CEO since 2005.  TJ was recently named a Top 50 SaaS CEO of 2023 by The Software Report. TJ launched MaivenPoint, an edtech company that enables educators, students and organizations to create engaging learning experiences to meet their unique, evolving needs. I am your host RJ Lumba.  We hope you enjoy the show.  If you like the episode, click to follow.

This podcast interview focuses on the entrepreneurial journey to help overcome performance challenges in SaaS revenue operations. My guest is Aaron McReynolds, Co-Founder and CEO of Alysio. Aaron is a tech entrepreneur on an ambitious mission. He's got over eight years of experience in sales and sales management. Working for companies like Qualtrics, Octa, and Lacework gave him a proven track record of leading and growing sales teams in various markets, such as enterprise, corporate, and international. The challenges he faced during that period inspired him and his co-founder to found Alisio in October 2022.  Their mission: to empower sales professionals with the tools and insights they need to achieve their goals and refine their Sales teams. And this inspired me, and hence I invited Aaron to my podcast. We explore why, instead of building a tool primarily for revenue operations, he decided to bet on the end-users (sales reps), thereby challenging the traditional approach of building tools for Sales backend operations. We discuss the toughest challenges he had to overcome early on his journey, thereby prioritizing the success of the business over personal considerations. He elaborates on his 'Minimalist Funding Approach' - acknowledging the necessity of funding, but still advocating for a lean approach. And last but not least, he explains why he and his team decided to take AI off their roadmap.  Here's one of his quotes: We see, in the future, essentially a three-legged stool. And to us, that three-legged stool is comprised of the three most important parts of any sales organization: customers, revenue, and people. And so you talk about customer data: Salesforce HubSpot. You talk about revenue data: Clari, Gong, Outreach. And then, when you talk about the people, 'How do you understand the people who are your most important asset and most valuable asset?', that's almost always where the crickets come up. During this interview, you will learn four things: How he identified a gap in sales tools despite using all the popular ones. How they are creating a market perception to be a much bigger company than they really are. Aaron's leadership style to use humility to make up for the things he doesn't know as a SaaS CEO. Why he's focused on understanding and rewarding individual sales performance, challenging the norm of board, organization-level metrics. For more information about the guest from this week: Aaron McReynolds Website Alysio Subscribe to the Daily SaaS Reflection Get my free, 1 min daily reflection on shaping a B2B SaaS business no one can ignore. Subscribe here Yes, it's actually daily. And yes, people actually stay subscribed (Just see what peer B2B SaaS CEOs say) My promise: It's short. To the point. Inspiring. And valuable. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Episode 537: Shaan Puri (https://twitter.com/ShaanVP) and Sam Parr (https://twitter.com/theSamParr) talk about alternative New Year's resolutions and Sam meets a SaaS CEO that quit everything to start a +$1M trash collecting business.  No more small boy spreadsheets, build your business on the free HubSpot CRM: https://mfmpod.link/hrd — Show Notes: (0:00) Intro (1:00) Shaan's apology (6:00) “F” New Year's goals (8:00) Gen Z Bingo Cards (10:00) New Year's anticipations (12:30) Year of Obsession (14:30) New Year's reflection (20:00) The magic word (22:00) Lone Star Trash (31:30) Marketing advice for trash daddies (40:30) Birdie (45:30) Sam needs advice (53:00) Camp MFM — Links: • Year of Obsession - https://twitter.com/zachpogrob • Anti-MBA - https://www.theantimba.com/ • Spencer Scott's Twitter - https://twitter.com/AKASpencerScott • Harry's pre-launch email - http://tinyurl.com/ycw 6xc25 • Birdie - https://www.birdie.design/ — Check Out Sam's Stuff: • Hampton - https://www.joinhampton.com/ • Ideation Bootcamp - https://www.ideationbootcamp.co/ • Copy That - https://copythat.com • Hampton Wealth Survey - https://joinhampton.com/wealth Check Out Shaan's Stuff: • Try Shepherd Out - https://www.supportshepherd.com/ • Shaan's Personal Assistant System - http://shaanpuri.com/remoteassistant • Power Writing Course - https://maven.com/generalist/writing • Small Boy Newsletter - https://smallboy.co/ • Daily Newsletter - https://www.shaanpuri.com/ Past guests on My First Million include Rob Dyrdek, Hasan Minhaj, Balaji Srinivasan, Jake Paul, Dr. Andrew Huberman, Gary Vee, Lance Armstrong, Sophia Amoruso, Ariel Helwani, Ramit Sethi, Stanley Druckenmiller, Peter Diamandis, Dharmesh Shah, Brian Halligan, Marc Lore, Jason Calacanis, Andrew Wilkinson, Julian Shapiro, Kat Cole, Codie Sanchez, Nader Al-Naji, Steph Smith, Trung Phan, Nick Huber, Anthony Pompliano, Ben Askren, Ramon Van Meer, Brianne Kimmel, Andrew Gazdecki, Scott Belsky, Moiz Ali, Dan Held, Elaine Zelby, Michael Saylor, Ryan Begelman, Jack Butcher, Reed Duchscher, Tai Lopez, Harley Finkelstein, Alexa von Tobel, Noah Kagan, Nick Bare, Greg Isenberg, James Altucher, Randy Hetrick and more. — Other episodes you might enjoy: • #224 Rob Dyrdek - How Tracking Every Second of His Life Took Rob Drydek from 0 to $405M in Exits • #209 Gary Vaynerchuk - Why NFTS Are the Future • #178 Balaji Srinivasan - Balaji on How to Fix the Media, Cloud Cities & Crypto • #169 - How One Man Started 5, Billion Dollar Companies, Dan Gilbert's Empire, & Talking With Warren Buffett • ​​​​#218 - Why You Should Take a Think Week Like Bill Gates • Dave Portnoy vs The World, Extreme Body Monitoring, The Future of Apparel Retail, "How Much is Anthony Pompliano Worth?", and More • How Mr Beast Got 100M Views in Less Than 4 Days, The $25M Chrome Extension, and More

In this episode, Nick Mehta will share ten significant mistakes he made during his career, and how these failures shaped his journey as CEO of Gainsight. Mehta will impart valuable lessons on resilience and growth, offering attendees actionable takeaways for their own entrepreneurial ventures. This is a must-listen for anyone seeking to learn from real-life experiences and turn failures into opportunities for success in the software-as-a-service (SaaS) world. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- SaaStr hosts the largest SaaS community events on the planet. Join us in 2024 at: SaaStr Annual: Sept. 10-12 in the SF Bay Area. Join 12,500 SaaS professionals, CEOs, revenue leaders and investors for the world's LARGEST SaaS community event of the year. Podcast listeners can grab a discount on tickets here: https://www.saastrannual2024.com/buy-tickets?promo=fave50 SaaStr Europa: June 5-6 in London. We'll be hosting the 5th SaaStr Europa in London for two days of content and networking. Join 3,000 SaaS and Cloud leaders. Podcast listeners can grab a discount on Europa tickets here: https://www.saastreuropa2024.com/buy-tickets?promo=fave20 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- This episode is sponsored by: Northwest Registered Agent When starting your business, it's important to use a service that will actually help you. Northwest Registered Agent is that service. They'll form your company fast, give you the documents you need to open a business bank account, and even provide you with mail scanning and a business address to keep your personal privacy intact. Visit https://www.northwestregisteredagent.com/saastr to get a 60 percent discount on your next LLC.

Presenting performance metrics at a board meeting is a critical skill for every SaaS CEO, CFO and executive team member - Dave "CAC" Kellogg and Ray "Growth" Rike share a few best practices during this episode including:First slide provides a holistic executive summarySecond slide establishes the foundation for every other slideThe importance of showing trends and establishing contextMistakes to avoidThis episode encapsulates much of the content from two different presentations shared at SaaStr annual 23' and SaaS Metrics Palooza 23'See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Bsolve agency did $800k revenue in 2022. 50/50 Co-founders decided to take a pay cut to invest $150k in their new SaaS tool SPRobot to help with document management. Will they hit $1m ARR in their first 12 months?

CEO, "I'm not happy with VC ArrowRoot who forced us to sell for 5x when I thought we could have gotten 8x". How this experienced SaaS CEO led his company through multiple debt and equity rounds since 2008 to $35m ARR today. 

Our guest is Matt Martin. Matt is CEO and Co-founder of Clockwise. Before Clockwise he helped build RelateIQ, a company acquired by Salesforce for $390 million. He has previously been a front-end software engineer, a civil litigator, and a founder of a variety of software startups. He holds a B.A. from Dartmouth and a J.D. from UPenn in Philadelphia. You can find Matt on LinkedIn at: https://www.linkedin.com/in/voxmatt/ This week's episode is brought to you by Netsuite which provides you the visibility and control you need to make better decisions faster. Learn more at netsuite.com/scale - NetSuite dot com slash [SCALE] --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/uncharted1/support

Being a first-time female entrepreneur in a male dominated space is no easy feat, and Tracy Young's journey starting a tech company in the construction industry is truly inspiring. She co-founded PlanGrid after recognizing the inefficiencies of paper blueprints and digitized them with tablet-friendly software that streamlined construction processes. Tracy's innovative solution caught fire and drove massive organic growth for PlanGrid. As the company expanded and shifted to enterprise sales, Tracy's team developed strategic and empathetic approaches to address diverse customer needs. She also built a strong sales team, learning from experienced reps and empowering her employees. Ultimately, Autodesk acquired PlanGrid, validating both Tracy's and PlanGrid's value. Building on her success, Tracy launched TigerEye to help sales teams optimize their strategies and unlock their full potential. Tracy's story showcases the incredible achievements of women entrepreneurs in male-dominated industries, and how game changing innovation can happen anywhere in your organization. Chapters02:44 Tracy Young explains the problem PlanGrid solved in the construction industry   06:14 Tracy Young and her co-founders quit their jobs to work on PlanGrid full-time   08:21 PlanGrid starts selling to friends and receives positive feedback   10:41 PlanGrid's user base grows through word-of-mouth and virality   16:31 PlanGrid transitions to selling to enterprise customers   19:58 Challenges of selling to enterprise customers and expanding product offerings   22:18 Tracy Young discusses the importance of understanding the needs of different decision-makers   33:00 Autodesk acquires PlanGrid   38:06 Tracy Young and her husband co-found TigerEye   45:23 Tracy Young shares where to find TigerEye and connect with her  About GuestTracy Young is the co-founder of TigerEye, a software company that helps sales leaders track and predict the future performance of their sales teams. She was also the co-founder and CEO of PlanGrid, a construction software company that was acquired by Autodesk. Tracy has been recognized as one of Forbes' Top 50 Women in Tech and a Top 50 SaaS CEO by the SaaS Report.About CompanyTigerEye is a software company that helps sales leaders track and predict the future performance of their sales teams. Social Links You can learn more about and connect with Tracy Young in the links below.Connect with Tracy on LinkedIn: (99+) Tracy Young | LinkedInCheck out TigerEye's website: TigerEye — AboutYou can learn more about and connect with Alice Heiman in the links below.Connect with Alice on LinkedIn: (99+) Alice Heiman | LinkedInCheck out Alice's website: Alice Heiman - Alice Heiman

Founding a successful SaaS company has never been easy, but as of 2022, it got much harder. Valuations took a hit, investment dollars became scarce, and for the first time ever, SaaS companies actually started laying off employees. In this episode of TECHtonic, Thomas is joined by Phil Alves, SaaS entrepreneur, CEO of DevSquad, and host of SaaS Origin Stories, a podcast where he interviews SaaS founders. In this fantastic conversation on the current state of SaaS, they discuss:How the current economic environment is impacting SaaS companiesThe best approach to starting a SaaS companyHow AI plays into SaaS valuationsWhether AI will soon start to replace technical staffReady to learn more? Keep up to date on this subject by subscribing to TSIA's Research Journey, The Year of Profitable SaaS today!

In our latest episode, we're thrilled to feature Dan Balcauski, Founder of Product Tranquility, as we navigate the world of SaaS pricing models.About Dan Balcauski Started his career in product management at National Instruments, based in Austin, Texas. Ascended to the role of Product Strategy Principal at SolarWinds, a SaaS company serving DevOps and IT professionals. Made a significant shift to B2C, leading product at LawnStarter Lawn Care. Boasted a successful freelance career as a product manager, earning a place in the top 3% of PM professionals worldwide on Toptal. Imparts his industry knowledge as a program leader at Northwestern University, where he teaches product strategy. In 2019, Balcauski launched Product Tranquility, a venture dedicated to assisting B2B SaaS CEOs in defining pricing and packaging for their products.A Personal AdventureWhat sets Balcauski apart is his remarkable spirit of adventure. Before starting Product Tranquility, he embarked on a personal voyage as an independent travel consultant, planning and undertaking a global expedition through 21 countries. This extraordinary journey demonstrated his fervor for continuous learning, during which he acquired new skills ranging from digital marketing and Spanish proficiency to kiteboarding and Argentine Tango.Join us as we dive deep into the insights and stories Balcauski brings to the table.Value-Based PricingIn our engaging chat, Dan Balcauski brought up some crucial insights regarding the struggles businesses often face while setting up pricing in the SaaS industry. There's often a lack of structure, leading to heated debates rather than an organized approach. To combat this, Balcauski introduces the 'Services' model.Key Challenges in Pricing: An unclear target customer profile: Companies often struggle to understand exactly who they are serving. Poor understanding of how they create customer value: Businesses might be unclear on the unique value they deliver to their customers. Unclear product differentiation: Companies often grapple with distinguishing their products from others in the market. Underappreciation for the depth of decisions in pricing and packaging: Many overlook the vast array of factors impacting pricing, focusing only on surface-level elements. The 'Services' Model:The 'Services' model stands for Segments, Value, Competition, and Strategy, and was designed to address these challenges. Segments: Understand the specific context and constraints of your customer segments, as they dictate what they value most. Value: Recognize how each segment perceives value and rank orders value drivers, influencing how they value your product. Competition: Be aware of the competitive alternatives each segment has available. What would they use if your product didn't exist? Strategy: This comes in the Michael Porter sense of the word. Strategy involves trade-offs; you can't be everything to everyone. Decide who you're going to target, how you position yourselves in their minds, and how you'll balance the different elements of SaaS packaging. This includes price metrics, price models, offer configurations, etc. The combination of these four components informs the price level you set, helping your business achieve its objectives. The 'Services' model ensures a more thoughtful, strategic approach to pricing, moving away from arbitrary decisions.What is value based pricing? Dan Balcauski clarified the concept of value-based pricing and distinguished it from other terms like value metrics and price metrics.Value-Based PricingValue-based pricing, at its core, concerns how value is divided between buyer and seller in a transaction. This notion dates back to Adam Smith and the concept of trade, where specialization and trading lead to overall improvements for everyone involved.“...goes all the way back to Adam Smith with trade, right, you've got the butcher, the baker, and the candlestick maker, they don't all try to, you know, bake their own bread and cut their own meat, etc. Because it's better if we all specialize, we're all better off if we specialize in trade, right.” - Dan Balcauski Value Metric vs. Price Metric Value Metric: Using a 'Jobs to be Done' framework, the value metric is how customers measure the effectiveness of your product in achieving their specific outcomes. These outcomes could be economic (saving time, decreasing costs, increasing revenue), emotional (reducing anxiety, boosting status), or social (contributing to causes like climate change, equal rights, education, health care). Price Metric: While value metrics focus on the customer, price metrics focus on the product. The price metric is the unit of value for which the customer is charged concerning the product (e.g., number of users, API transactions, gigabytes of data transferred, etc.). Ideally, the value metric and price metric should be correlated, meaning that the way customers derive value from your product should inform the units by which you charge. Outcome-Based PricingThe question of charging based on actual value delivered, like a CRM charging based on deals closed every month instead of the number of users, led to the discussion of outcome-based pricing. This model aligns the vendor with the customer's success, creating a 'pure' form of value-based pricing.While this approach is theoretically appealing, Balcauski explains it doesn't always work in practice. Exceptions include companies like Stripe, which directly participates in the payment flow and therefore aligns its success with its clients' success.Outcome-based pricing may not work well for companies outside the flow of the success metric. It can lead to complications in reporting and potential conflicts, given that what is considered 'success' may not be clearly defined or could be interpreted differently by different parties. Therefore, while enticing, outcome-based pricing requires careful implementation to avoid straining customer relationships.Bundling and Unbundling in Pricing Models**Bundling, Unbundling, and Usage-Based Pricing**Bundling and unbundling, while seemingly contrary, are not in tension with usage-based pricing. These concepts represent different dimensions of product packaging that can evolve independently. According to the Silicon Valley CEO Jim Clark, the only two ways to make money in business are bundling and unbundling.The history of the PC industry illustrates this with the evolution from monolithic providers like IBM to the unbundling of the operating system from the CPU architecture (as seen with the Wintel monopoly), and then back to bundling via Apple's integration of software and hardware. Dan highlights that such industry transformations often occur cyclically and are influenced by broader market trends rather than by single companies.The Nuances of Pricing MetricsPricing metrics, while essential for defining a product's price, can either aid or hinder a company's competitive positioning. The choice of pricing metric depends significantly on the market context and should ideally align with the customer's business needs and the perceived value of the product. Innovative pricing strategies, like Rolls Royce's "power by the hour" for jet engines, demonstrate how such metrics can mirror customer value, thereby streamlining the buying process.However, such innovative strategies may require substantial resources to educate the market about the change and may be more successful if driven by industry leaders or highly innovative products. Finally, Dan advises caution when attempting to be distinctive with pricing metrics, as this can result in increased effort to justify the difference to potential customers.AI and Pricing for Solo TravelersThe final part of the interview revolved around a hypothetical AI application designed to assist solo travelers, with features like tracking reservations, making dynamic dinner reservations, and offering real-time travel updates. The proposed monetization strategy is a freemium model, with added features for premium users.In response to this idea, Dan expresses concern about the target audience of solo personal travelers due to their potential limited spending power. He urges the developers to consider different customer segments thoroughly, understanding their specific needs and the context in which they'll be using the app.The importance of understanding customers' contexts is emphasized, using the example of airlines, who vary ticket prices based on the nature and timing of travel. Understanding these distinct customer segments and their unique value drivers can guide pricing decisions effectively.In addition, Dan encourages the consideration of competitive alternatives from a 'Jobs to be Done' perspective. Instead of focusing on similar apps or startups, the developers should consider what the target user is currently using to solve their problem if the proposed app didn't exist. By understanding these competitive alternatives and their inherent limitations, developers can better define their product's differentiated value and devise a pricing strategy that accurately captures this value.Episode Recap In this intriguing episode, Dan Balcauski offers his deep expertise and unique perspectives on the world of SaaS pricing models. We delve into various aspects, ranging from the 'Services' model to value-based pricing, outcome-based pricing, bundling and unbundling, as well as the exciting realm of AI in pricing strategies. Each topic comes with a host of insights and stories from Dan's vast experience, illustrating the depth of his knowledge and his ability to communicate complex ideas with clarity and impact.Balcauski's unique background, blending his passion for product strategy and global travel, sets the stage for an engaging, insightful conversation that leaves listeners with a wealth of valuable takeaways. Whether you're an established SaaS CEO or a budding entrepreneur, the wisdom shared by Dan Balcauski is sure to elevate your understanding of pricing and packaging in the SaaS industry. Listen to the full episode now. And don't forget to follow Dan: Product Tranquility Dan's LinkedIn 

Jennifer Smith is the CEO & Co-Founder of Scribe, A screen capture tool that turns any process into a step-by-step guide. Jennifer shares a day in the life of a tech CEO, how she came up with the idea for Scribe and insights on Product-Led Sales. SPONSORS: • Surfe (Connect your CRM with LinkedIn in 60 seconds) - https://www.surfe.com?fpr=ssp use this link with promo code JWSURFE5 for a 5% discount on your first year • Overloop (Run multi-channel outbound campaigns, from a single platform) - https://get.overloop.com/ssp use this link for an extended trial and additional onboarding hours • Close (The CRM Built for Growth) - https://refer.close.com/ssp EPISODE LINKS: • Connect with Jennifer on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jenniferreneesmith/ • Try Scribe for Free: https://scribe.how/tryfree CONNECT WITH JESSE: • Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jessewoodbury/ • Twitter: https://twitter.com/jessewoodbury • Website: https://jessewoodbury.com/ HELP GROW SSP: • Join the Slack Community: https://launchpass.com/saas_sales_players • Subscribe! • Leave a rating, write a review and share • Ask about 1:1 performance and career coaching with Jesse • Check out the above sponsors, it's the best way to support the show GUEST HIGHLIGHTS: Ian Koniak, Brandon Fluharty, Scott Leese, Jamal Reimer, Jen Allen-Knuth, Andy Paul, Collin Mitchell, Rafael Figueroa, Tim Zielinski, Christian Banach, Rajiv 'RajNATION' Nathan, Belal Batrawy, Christine Rogers, Chris Beall, Dustin Brown, Patrick Baynes, Jeroen Corthout

Rafael "Rafa" Figueroa is the CEO of Overloop. In this episode he shares his journey from being a Personal Banker to the CEO of Overloop. We talk customer success, growth and he shares his insights on SaaS sales and the tools that will power the revenue behind next round of amazing companies. Connect with Rafa on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rafafigueroa1/ Special offer for fans of SSP: https://get.overloop.com/ssp Join the Free SSP Slack Community: https://launchpass.com/saas_sales_players If you enjoyed this episode, please rate, review & share. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/jesse-woodbury/support

This episode is brought to you by ⁠⁠Avidbank⁠⁠. Avidbank is one of the most experienced search fund lenders in North America, having funded over 40 separate transactions since 2014, for a total of over $300M. They are deeply familiar with the search fund model, and understand the nuances of the fundraising process, dealing with sellers, communicating with your equity investors, LOI reviews, and everything else in between. Reach out to Anthony Rodriguez (arodriguez@avidbank.com) or Conor Tidgwell (ctidgwell@avidbank.com) to learn more. * This episode is brought to you by Symphony. Symphony not only performs technical due diligence engagements for search funds, Private Equity firms, and strategic acquirers, but they also partner with those buyers on an ongoing basis on all things product (outsourced development, team augmentation, new product prototyping, UI refreshes, QA professionalization, and so on). Symphony is offering a full 15% off of any of their services for listeners of In the Trenches. Just go to the Contact form on their website and tell them that you're a listener of the podcast to receive this discount! * Though search funds have historically acquired companies within countless different industries, software has been among the most popular and sought-after industries among searchers for many years now. Because of this, I chose to conduct a survey of SaaS CEOs (who became owners/CEOs by way of the search fund model) for two reasons: (1) To better understand the complexion of the "typical" software acquisition within the search fund ecosystem; & (2) To see whether or not the the complexion of the "typical" software acquisition has changed over time. As you will see from the data presented in today's episode, I feel safe in concluding that, yes, the profile of the typical SaaS acquisition has indeed changed over the past few years, in some cases quite materially. Today's episode will walk you through how and why I arrived at this conclusion. *Special Note for today's episode*: Because this post is necessarily heavily on stats and graphs, I would strongly suggest viewing the blog post (as I can only verbally describe graphs so well!), which you can find at this link.

Welcome back, everyone! I hope you enjoyed the last episode where Will Taylor and I chatted about the viability of a partnerships-led-only growth strategy.  I'm the luckiest podcast host again this week because I get to speak to an ecommerce thought leader who now runs a niche product and partnership offering supported by someone who cut her teeth in partnerships at Gorgias - an ecomm platform known to have a well-oiled partner program.  Coming to this episode today is Nik Sharma, CEO of Sharma Brands, HOOX, and 1180 Media. With him is the amazing Dillon Duchesne, who leads partnerships and biz dev for HOOX. The theme of today's episode is How CEOs need to be heavily involved and support a 1:1 partnerships strategy to ensure its success - especially early on.  Today, Nik, Dillon and I chat about: How having a niche offering eases the partnership equation What the GTM was like given the fact Nik operates an agency and a tech that does offer some of the same creative services as the agency (i.e. landing pages) How HOOX positions itself with agency partnerships “Let us pay your rent” - increasing the margins and ROI on services… not necessarily commissions as an incentive. Why Nik uses the “Kim Kardashian red carpet experience” analogy with his partnerships strategy How Dillon enables her partners differently now vs in her previous tech partnerships role How Nik “paves the road” to ensure Dillon can continue driving her race car on the road behind him Nik's advice to CEOs on launching a partner program Sponsors: Reveal - A free account mapping solution. ‍Partnerhub® - for finding and managing your partnerships. ‍

From the SaaStock 2022 Scale Stage: Tom Lyons, Chief Executive at The Currency is joined by Zeb Evans, founder & CEO ClickUp, who shares how ClickUp grew to over six million users in five years. What does it take for a SaaS company to stand out in a crowded industry and leapfrog over the competition? When ClickUp launched in 2017, it intentionally entered a category full of legacy players and moved full speed ahead by building an industry-leading product. In this session, Zeb Evans, CEO and Founder of ClickUp, will share the secrets behind ClickUp's success, including building a globally recognized brand, developing an innovative product, and cultivating a strong company culture.

Welcome to the new season of The Cure is conversation 2023 ----------------------Please visit our sponsors page https://www.aiglossary.info/ Welcome to our The Cure is conversation , where the goal is to provide our listeners with the latest and most effective strategies for promoting mental well-being. The Cure is conversation mission is helping you take care of your mental health because is just as important as taking care of your physical health, and this podcast is here to support you on that journey. However, in order to access all of the valuable resources and information that we offer, we do require a paid subscription. This subscription will give you access to our full archive of articles, expert advice, and community forums, where you can connect with like-minded individuals who are also on their own mental health journeys. The Cure is conversation team understand that the idea of a paid subscription may seem daunting, but we promise that it is well worth the investment in your mental health and happiness. -----------------------------Jeff reveals .....How his artistic side influenced his business? We're all on a journey toward finding our way in the world, and I have always felt called to become a CEO and entrepreneur. At the same time, the kid in me just wants to create art. Design. Music. Film. Content? How do I balance the pursuit of business and art? Is there a way to find the art in business? Or infuse my art into my business? To make art my business? SaaS CEO or Writer/Director? Both? From working in the corporate healthcare SaaS sales world my entire career, I saw the shift in how people made buying decisions. I saw the growing importance of digital marketing and social media. To evolve, I needed to embrace it. To get involved. --------------- Are you ready? Do you have room for new? Have you made space for all new positivity in your life ? Join QueenB.Divine as she share her insight to stay healthy and ready for 2023 A kick start before the new Podcast of The Cure is Conversation begins a new in 2023 JUNCTION - INTER-MIND-VENTION (The Book) OUT now get yours @ Available @ Amazon rb.gy/63q7fl or at https://www.bluntreflections.com/----------------------------------------------- In this video QueenB.Divine shares insights to help be the best version of you. Meet QueenB.Divine who is passionate about Mental Health, because of her own personal journey and understands that the best way to achieve our life's goals is to take a proactive and integrative approach to being healthy and happy. Subscribe 4 more insights & motivation Please check out the interview on The Lost traveler podcast https://www.henryallen.org/podcast Share this video with friends https://youtu.be/J04S0fh6-eU Do you want to talk ? do you need a listening ear ? Download the Owwll app code QD512321...Talk to Queen B. Divine --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/queen91/message

Today on the show Nana is joined by Russ Hawkins, the President and CEO of the leading data technology company, Agilence. Russ has spent over 35-years in the tech industry, helping established organizations and small start-ups reach their full potential by driving change from the "inside." He's here to give you leadership advice in the Tech Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) field.  KEY TAKEAWAYS One of the most important things you need to have when it comes to leadership in technology is a goal or series of goals. These can be long or short term but they're needed because you can't move in the right direction if you don't know where you want to go. A strategy business owners can use to avoid getting stuck in the day to day operations of their company is to completely understand those day to day operations to the point where you can hire the best people for the job and then stay out of their way.  Processes and procedures are so important but it's also vital to understand how those processes and procedures interact with each other. That allows for the best autonomy for your departments and all you have to do is step back and oversee.  On an ongoing basis your business should be investing in the technologies that allow your business to run and grow. The main thing is keeping the lights on then you have to look at if the investment is going to give you a return or avoid a problem.  Every manager needs to have a plan for if they win the lottery and leave the business. Will the business be able to continue to function without you?  A good leader develops employees and gives them the right tools and infrastructure to do so. When people are trusted and supported they grow and achieve.  BEST MOMENTS ‘Without meeting your short term goals, it's impossible to achieve your long term goals'  ‘You have to make sure your finances support what you're trying to achieve'  ‘If you're only relying on yourself then you only have a team of one to draw experience from' ‘As a leader you need to direct the team in the right direction and tell them what we want to achieve together'  EPISODE RESOURCES  Agilence rhawkins@agilenceinc.com VALUABLE RESOURCES Productize ebook Leave your comments on the show's facebook community page: https://www.facebook.com/Buildvaluebychoice Get your free valuation here: https://bit.ly/get-free-valuation Podcast website: https://infhorizons.com/podcast/ Don't forget to subscribe to the podcast and share it. ABOUT THE GUEST  Russ Hawkins is the President and CEO of the leading data technology company, Agilence. Russ has spent over 35-years in the tech industry, helping established organizations and small start-ups reach their full potential by driving change from the "inside." Russ is responsible for developing the overall strategy and leading the growth of SAAS Analytics & Reporting company Agilence, which helps retailers, grocers, and restaurants improve their operational effectiveness and uncover preventable losses using the data already in their hands.  Before Agilence, he transformed two early-stage tech companies into successful businesses by leading go-to-market strategies focused on product development, re-brands, and customer profile analysis resulting in exponential growth and success. ...

Enabling your teams to grow and get better is the ultimate leverage point for your business, and all the energy shouldn't just be on recruiting, it can and should be on skill acquisition for team as well as longevity in culture.   1:00 - using enablement to reduce the pressure from your success team and other customer facing teams  2:00 - Using the total cost of sales to help with training, resources, and truly enabling the team to function better  3:20 - We're all human, using the language resonates and matters not just what fits If you get value from this episode, be sure to subscribe and share the episode with your friends, as we all can benefit from more positivity and leadership in today's society. Go to www.SellingSaaspodcast.com to get episodes sent directly to your inbox and get the weekly newsletter.

Brandon sits down with Colin Johnson, co-founder and CEO of Aprika. Aprika is the developer of Mission Control, a native project management & professional services automation solution.Colin and his partner Chris, both active surfers, loved the idea of a recurring revenue stream from a SaaS business. Learn how they used their years of experience in Salesforce to support themselves while slowly building out what would eventually become Mission Control.Colin talks about why they chose to bootstrap their company from day one, having a clear vision of what they wanted to build, how they prioritize a quick setup for customers and the speed bumps they've had to overcome to end up where they are today.Tune in to an inspiring conversation between two passionate founders that shows perseverance combined with skill is an unbeatable force! Check out Colin Johnson: LinkedIn and Aprika Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

From the SaaStock 2022 Bootstrap Stage: Mohannah Ali (CEO Hotjar) and Alex Delivet (Founder & CEO Collect). Startups need to juggle various critical business decisions when planning for future growth. From VCs and funding rounds, to private equity or staying bootstrapped, the choices are never easy. In this session, Mohannad shares his experience taking Hotjar, the leading product experience insights platform, from its decision to stay bootstrapped to $40 million ARR until its acquisition to Contentsquare in 2021. He provides insights on the strategies used to build continuous growth in the bootstrapped stage, the considerations and processes for acquisition, and the impacts of a new partnership on the business. ~~~~ Want access to ALL content from SaaStock 2022? With a one-time $10 fee, it's yours. Click here to watch all content: https://bit.ly/S22Content

Revenue Operations - the buzz has continued in 2022 but how to introduce and then maximize the return on investment is still a work in process.Cliff Simon, the Chief Revenue Officer at Carabiner Group, an early leader in Revenue Operations stopped by to share his insights into how to maximize the return on RevOps.First, we discussed if Revenue Operations is viewed and delivering as a Strategic function or being relegated to tactical activities such as data management, revenue technology administration, integration, and report development. Cliff shared that Revenue Operations MUST be a strategic, data-driven organization that surfaces and highlights opportunities for increased revenue growth in partnership with the C-Suite.One large risk, despite the best intentions, RevOps often gets so overwhelmed with daily, reactive activities that they forget to take the time to step back and take a more holistic, strategic approach to the insights they are gaining from the data, metrics and process improvement opportunities they see every day. One reality is that RevOps as a profession has grown so quickly, as highlighted by the increase from 5,600 to 17,000 RevOps titles on LinkedIn today, and the 30K+ open positions being promoted online today. This increase in demand for RevOps professionals has led to the current lack of experienced Revenue Operations leaders who understand the strategic impact of Revenue Operations.How is a strategic Revenue Operations function be measured to show the return on investment? Though it is hard to benchmark the impact RevOps has on financial performance metrics, RevOps should be responsible to surface the insights, metrics, and benchmarks for internal revenue performance metrics to the executive team, including highlighting the opportunities for increasing revenue growth and revenue efficiency. One recent research program highlighted that companies with a centralized Revenue Operations function grow 30% faster than those without the function.Today's reality is that the majority of Revenue Operations departments are still primarily focused on tactical activities, and only at $50M ARR and above do companies have the resources and capacity to have a Revenue Operations leader is truly strategic. However, companies should invest early in a RevOps function, and that includes having Sales Ops and Marketing Ops as roles that report into a broader Revenue Operations organization.Another topic Cliff highlighted is that RevOps owns the process to "document" the processes that underly and support the entire Revenue lifecycle. This supports the growth of the company, and as new leaders and resources enter the organization, they can quickly under the "current state" of revenue-generating processes and the associated performance (in the form of metrics) to better inform their decisions on how to evolve the organization and accelerate revenue performance.What metrics should RevOps be measuring: 1) Revenue Growth; 2) Sales Cycle Time; 3) Win Rate; 4) Pipeline Generation Metrics; 5) Net Dollar Retention (including churn)If you are a SaaS CEO, CFO, CRO, or Revenue Operations leader, this conversation with Cliff Simon provides some great knowledge nuggets on increasing the impact that Revenue Operations can make in your company.

Brad Redding calls his first startup a "successful failure." It didn't end well, but he learned several very important lessons that helped him be more successful with his second startup, Elevar. Now the bootstrapped SaaS company is growing steadily with 45 remote employees. And Brad is learning fast to be a capable CEO of a larger SaaS software company.  Brad's deep experience with e-commerce advertising data and conversation tracking analytics helped him find a problem to solve. He and his cofounder funded the development of the first product by providing consulting services to the same customers they were trying to serve with their new software product. It took three years before they found product-market fit and started to grow steadily and profitably. Now Elevar is a growing SaaS business that helps 6,500 e-commerce and direct-to-consumer brands that use Shopify to ensure the accuracy of their conversion tracking data and analytics. Brad has never raised outside funding and he has no intention of raising money or selling the company. "I am certainly evolving as a leader through reading. Leaders are readers. And through coaching and through surrounding myself with other leaders who have grown companies to the size we are growing into.  "The way I look at is that no longer can I just assume that I'm going to figure it out on my own. I need to invest in myself, invest in my leaders, invest in my brain and my habits, and improve everything. Not necessarily all at once, but over time. "It's all about the team. You build the people and bring in the right team and the team is going to build the business and that business is going to evolve. If you just stay in the game long enough and have the right team and the right people leading, you'll follow the customers and solve their problems." In this episode, Brad explains: The painful lessons of his first startup that he was able to apply and do differently with Elevar, his second startup Why he bootstrapped Elevar instead of raising VC funding Why he doesn't think of products and services as two different things when solving customers' problems How he is intentionally investing in self-development to learn to be the CEO he needs to be to continue to grow the company Why it took three years to find product-market fit despite being a domain expert in his industry   Learn more at practicalfounders.com.

MAJOR DAUGHTER IN CONVERSATION WITH CEO AT WAVVE.CO JEFF DOLAN We're all on a journey toward finding our way in the world, and I have always felt called to become a CEO and entrepreneur. At the same time, the kid in me just wants to create art. Design. Music. Film. Content? And there is my challenge. My quest. How do I balance the pursuit of business and art? Is there a way to find art in business? Or infuse my art into my business? To make art my business? SaaS CEO or Writer/Director? Both? From working in the corporate healthcare SaaS sales world my entire career, I saw a shift in how people made buying decisions. I saw the growing importance of digital marketing and social media. To evolve, I needed to embrace it. To get involved. In 2018, I started a marketing agency that led to me exiting corporate America and putting into practice all the marketing strategies I had learned. After 3x'ing revenue in about 3 years for one of my first clients, I knew I could execute on what I knew. Now, as a first-time CEO of the small SaaS startup, Wavve, I'm stretching and learning new skills in my quest to fulfill my calling. And I'm eager to find my community, serve them, and build alongside them. I'm passionate about helping creators and entrepreneurs on the journey with me. https://wavve.co/ --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/major-daughter/message

The public SaaS CEO who's not holding back his thoughts!A really inspiring episode with the CEO and Founder of Oneflow. We're talking about what failure teaches you that success can't, the power of team vs. idea, why outsourcing the hiring process is stupid, why VC-money ain't smart money, how to build a stellar sales team, and much more.Anders' LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/andershamnes/Josef's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/josef-fallesen-98440864/Are you curious about closing more deals and getting more booked meetings by video messaging? Read more about Vaam (Video messaging for Sales) on vaam.io.The music: Learning - Averro, AROM, Tore Phttps://open.spotify.com/track/5GOQtwi7xTnEoNqHrBOWem?si=4365c043e90e4444 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Thomas Brown creatively bootstrapped his software company and ran it as a very small "lifestyle" business before committing to growing his SaaS business with a larger team. Thomas was an independent insurance claims adjuster in the 1990s in New Orleans, Louisiana before quitting his job to start one of the first insurance claims management software companies called ClickClaims. It grew slowly and profitably as a very small company for over 10 years before Thomas sought help from advisors to see how he could grow to the next level and learn to be a real CEO of a bigger SaaS company. E-Claim is now a steadily growing vertical SaaS business with 18 employees and over $4 million in ARR. They have helped independent insurance adjusters and insurance carriers process over 2 million claims with their ClickClaims product since he started the company in 1999. "I know this sounds cliche, but I didn't get into this for the money. I got into it because I'm a guy from South Louisiana who's been through a bunch of hurricanes and knows the horrors that people go through. And I wanted to make it better. So you reach a point in the business where you start to think about not what it means for you, but what it means for others. What can you do for your employees and their careers? What other charities can I go and support with this money someday? And then you think about it, and you say, you know, hell, I want to double it, because I could do a lot of good with a lot more money." In this episode, Thomas explains: How he started his company and built a software solution after experiencing a massive industry problem himself How he grew a $4M+ ARR SaaS company without funding with just 50 customers Which creative side businesses he started to generate enough cash to build and start his software company How trusted business advisors helped him gain the knowledge and the confidence to be the SaaS CEO and team leader required to keep growing his company Why he is inspired to make a bigger impact with his employees and in his community by continuing to grow his business

In this episode of the SaaS Revolution Show, our host Alex Theuma is joined by Avi Meir, Co-Founder and CEO at Travelperk, to give us his lessons on entrepreneurship and adaptation. Avi shares:

In this week's episode of the SaaS Revolution Show Michelle You, Co-Founder and CEO at Supercritical, joins our host Alex Theuma to talk us through building a SaaS product to save the world, it's growth lessons from a net zero hero. Michelle shares: ✅ Why she chose to sell Songkick (and the process behind the exit) ✅ Some of the biggest mistakes she's made and what she learnt from them ✅ How she's built a mission-driven culture at Supercritical ✅ Where she wants Supercritical to be in 10 years time ✅ Plus: a sneak-peek into her speaking topic at SaaStock 2022 and more!

Marketing as an AMPLIFIER to Sales productivity!!!The quote above was the primary focus of my discussion with Mark Stouse - the CEO of Proof Analytics.Mark self-identifies as a communicator turned marketer turned SaaS CEO. Over this journey, Mark has developed a strong perspective on how to prove ROI, especially for marketing investment.What are the metrics that matter to a Chief Marketing Officer? Mark says this is very straightforward: "Marketing's mission is to help Sales sell more product to more customers faster and more profitably than Sales could do by themselves". Simply stated, it is measured by more deals, bigger deals and faster deals - Deal Velocity! Calculating how marketing measures these should be the primary point of any metric that Marketing captures and reports.When pushed on the top three metrics, Mark responded that KPIs (data) by themselves are not enough. Data is the measurement of what happened in a particular time for a specific place - ALL in the past. Analytics, specifically regression analysis, enables a marketer to predict and forecast how future marketing investments will impact Sales productivity as measured by pipeline and revenue.The B2B SaaS industry is still young when measured against other industries such as manufacturing, retail, or consumer packaged goods. As such, the maturity of using sophisticated analytics to predict the future in the industry is still in its infancy - especially compared to larger, more data-intensive B2B online companies.An example of using data on a more granular level was Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) and Pipeline Coverage Ratio. By understanding how specific cohorts perform in top of funnel conversion, the marketing ROI can be increased materially through enhanced targeting.Next, we pivoted to Mark's concept of Marketing exponentially impacting Sales productivity. Mark has an interesting take on the concept: Marketing should invest more time helping Sales improve conversion rates in the middle and bottom of the opportunity funnel versus primarily being focused on top of funnel market engagement. Mark used a military analogy where the Air Force provides air cover to the ground troops. Why does Mark believe the above? Marketing has conditioned business leaders to think that Marketing is primarily a brand awareness and engagement function versus a selling process amplifier. Mark highlighted TRUST as a key ingredient to enhancing conversion rates and accelerating deal velocity. What drives a buyer's confidence - trust is a crucial ingredient to building buyer trust. The more confidence a buyer has that a company and their product will impact their buying process, measured by win rate and sales cycle time.As a marketer, a pivotal question is what are we doing to increase the buyer's confidence and trust, resulting in helping Sales close more deals faster!If you are interested in hearing thought-provoking ideas on how Marketing can use data and analytics to enable Marketing to become an exponential multiplier to Sales productivity - this conversation with Mark is fascinating.

On this episode of the Traction podcast, host Lloyed Lobo of Boast.AI welcomes Byron Deeter, Partner at Bessemer Venture Partners.   With massive shifts and uncertainty in the markets right now, founders, CEOs, CFOs, and board members alike want to know what the new rules are to play by.   In this episode join Byron for a deep dive on what's going on in Venture Capital and how you can build a cloud unicorn in the current climate.   Byron started as a SaaS CEO and has invested in probably more SaaS IPOs and unicorns than any other VC, from Twilio to Canva, DocuSign, HashiCorp, Box, Intercom, and dozens more. Few have been doing this better, for longer, than Byron.   In this session, Byron covers:   4:29 - What's happening in VC right now 7:29 - Public and private market analysis 13:08 - What's driving decision making and advice in VC at seed and series A vs growth rounds 25:38 - Which metrics boards and investors are watching right now 30:18 - What the best companies are focusing on to drive sustained growth to $100 million 44:34 - When is the right time to build a second product, and when should you become a platform company 51:57 - Where founders should be investing and where they should be pulling back 1:01:37 - Byron's top resources    Learn more at https://tractionconf.io   Connect with Byron Deeter: https://www.linkedin.com/in/byrondeeter/   Get more resources from Bessemer Venture Partners at https://www.bvp.com/cloud   Accelerate revenue through Cloud Marketplaces with https://tackle.io    This episode is brought to you by:   Each year the U.S. and Canadian governments provide more than $20 billion in R&D tax credits and innovation incentives to fund businesses. But the application process is cumbersome, prone to costly audits, and receiving the money can take as long as 16 months. Boast automates this process, enabling companies to get more money faster without the paperwork and audit risk. We don't get paid until you do! Find out if you qualify today at https://Boast.AI.   Launch Academy is one of the top global tech hubs for international entrepreneurs and a designated organization for Canada's Startup Visa. Since 2012, Launch has worked with more than 6,000 entrepreneurs from over 100 countries, of which 300 have grown their startups to seed and Series A stage and raised over $2 billion in funding. To learn more about Launch's programs or the Canadian Startup Visa, visit https://LaunchAcademy.ca    Content Allies helps B2B companies build revenue-generating podcasts. We recommend them to any B2B company that is looking to launch or streamline its podcast production. Learn more at https://contentallies.com

How to Become a Billion-Dollar Marketer (Expert Interview) Jess Iandiorio is the Chief Marketing Officer at Starburst, an analytics startup valued at $3.3B. She's held marketing leadership positions at Mirakl (Valued at $3.5B), Drift (Exited to Vista Equity Partners for $1B), Acquia (Also exited to Vista Equity Partners for $1B+), and Endeca (Acquired by Oracle for $1B+). Jess is an expert on go-to-market strategy and category creation, is a start-up addict, and loves to build high-performing teams. Jess co-authored The SaaS CEO's Guide to Happier Customers where she created a framework for a Go-To-Customer (GTC) strategy as the next era for SaaS growth. Jess is also a passionate advocate for diversity in tech, and making start-ups family-friendly. Her most recent work focuses on an unfair judgment passed on many women which prevents their growth which she calls "She's Not Strategic" or SNS Disease. Her articles can be found on Fast Company, Venture Beat, and The Startup.Follow and connect with Jess on LinkedIn here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jess-iandiorio-514859/Key Takeaways:-When seeking an extremely successful company to work for, look for a large market, a differentiated product, leadership you want to work for, and long-term financial stability.-Investing in paid LinkedIn marketing allows you to target precisely, and paired with metadata, to scale your spend for tighter management of ROI and lead flow.-When advancing into a billion-dollar market, be pragmatic in your approach, focus on your ideal customer profile, and identify what winning looks like in each unique industry.Join our free B2B Mentors networking and mastermind group: https://www.activeblogs.com/liveevent/

I've been looking forward to chatting with Ved for such a long time. He's developed one of my favorite SAAS tools as of late, which is Lead Delta, a CRM for LinkedIn. Despite being on it for 15 years, I've only recently started really digging into it. Our conversation is equal parts insightful and juvenile. We talk entirely too long about Arnold Schwarzenegger, and not long enough about why Ved is so scared of hosting a new podcast with me. Enjoy!

営業組織を拡大するフェーズに、営業メンバーの育成やチームビルディングに悩む営業責任者やマネージャーが多く存在します。その結果、採用した人材が早期に退職に至るなど残念なケースも少なくありません。 そこで今回はイプロス社、メルペイ社とセールス部隊の立ち上げに従事され、現在はセールスイネーブルメントの支援サービスを展開する、株式会社マイノリティ 代表の柳澤さんに営業育成をテーマにお話を伺いました。 効果的な営業商談の振り返りなど、すぐに実践できる内容も解説いただいています。これから営業組織を急拡大する営業マネージャーや、メンバー育成従事されるセールス人材に聞いていただきたいエピソードです。 ▼ハイライト 柳澤さんのこれまでのキャリアについて メルペイ社で学んだ0→1からの営業組織拡大で重要なステップ 営業育成を開始するタイミングについて 目標達成を継続するチームづくりで重要なこと セールスの結果を最大化する1on1の工夫 営業商談を振り返り「外報」の威力 営業成績に伸び悩む人材にどう向き合うか メルペイで学んだ優秀な人材を獲得するためのリファラル文化の作り方 ポテンシャル採用で見極めるポイント 柳澤大介 キーエンスの社内ベンチャーとしてスタートしたイプロスでは創業期に入社し、営業マネージャー、マーケティング部長を経験。メルペイではメルカリグループ初の営業組織の立上げに携わり、1年でおよそ100名の営業組織を立ち上げ。その後、スマートニュースで営業企画責任者を経て現在に至る。 楠田 司 2015年より、JAC RecruitmentにてIPO前後のWEBスタートアップ特化の人材紹介チーム立ち上げ時に参画。主にVCキャピタリスト、エンジェル投資家との連携をおこないコンフィデンシャル求人を対応。2019年9月にALL STAR SAAS FUND、Talent Partnerに就任。投資先企業のハイクラス人材採用支援やSaaSスタートアップ企業でCXO、VPを目指したい求職者向けのキャリア構築コミュニティ「SAAS TALENT NETWORK」を運営。 SAAS TALENT NETWORK SAAS TALENT NETWORKは、将来SaaSスタートアップでCXOやVPとして活躍を目指す人材のためのコミュニティです。ご登録いただいた方には、業界最先端の取り組みをしているSaaS企業からの実践的な情報や、非公開ハイクラス求人など優先的に配信。その他にも、ALL STAR SAAS FUNDタレントパートナーより直接ご連絡やオファーをさせていただくこともあります。SaaS業界でキャリアアップを目指している方、SaaS業界でよりプロフェッショナル人材を目指したいと思っている方はぜひご参加ください！

Summary: AJ Bruno is an entrepreneur and SAAS startup founder with a blend of sales, business development, and leadership skills. He's founded two companies. He's built, and run the GTM methodology for sales, lead gen, and account management teams. His first company he took from 0-$25 million ARR. His second company company he co-founded is QuotaPath - SaaS sales company whose vision is to create a work where sales people and revenue teams ditch spreadsheets and have a much stronger visibility into commissions, quota, and their goals . AJ is also a father of three girls, commercial multi-engine pilot, and owner of a Beechcraft Baron 58. In this episode we talk about how a guy went from Shakespeare plays, to a call center, to founding his own company. How his approach to sales was a common thread throughout all these roles. Key moments: 07:47 - The importance of clarity and emotion in communication 12:00 - Learn sales through resilience. Setting goals and expectations. 18:30 - Choosing the right company to support you in your sales career 25:40 - AJ's approach to planning the future and living a fulfilled life Connect with AJ https://www.linkedin.com/in/ajbruno3/ (LinkedIN) Connect with Us! https://www.linkedin.com/company/53108426/admin/ (LinkedIN: ) https://stories-of-selling-human.captivate.fm/ (Website: )

Amir is Sisense CEO and chairman of the board - focusing on infusing analytics and business intelligence in every application and every user. Amir has led startups to become industry leaders with hundreds of millions in revenue and multiple M&As. He is a serial entrepreneur, specializing in growing big data and cybersecurity businesses, with over 25 years of experience as a leader in these fields. During his previous tenure at NICE Actimize, he grew the business 10x to a $200M revenue run rate. Previously he was co-founder of Cyota, which he sold to RSA Security. He lives in New York, father of three, holds an MBA from Columbia University and has been acknowledged as a Top 50 SaaS CEO.

Ryan Fyfe is the co-founder and COO of Workpuls, an employee monitoring, and time tracking software. Previously, he founded Humanity, an employee scheduling software product. Show Notes: https://saasclub.io/294 Join Our Email List Get weekly SaaS learnings, new podcast episodes, and actionable insights right in your inbox: https://saasclub.io/email/ Join Our Community for Free SaaS Club is the community for early-stage SaaS founders and entrepreneurs. https://saasclub.co/join

Ryan Fyfe is the co-founder and COO of Workpuls, an employee monitoring, and time tracking software. Previously, he founded Humanity, an employee scheduling software product.Show Notes:https://saasclub.io/294Join Our Email ListGet weekly SaaS learnings, new podcast episodes, and actionable insights right in your inbox:https://saasclub.io/email/Join Our Community for FreeSaaS Club is the community for early-stage SaaS founders and entrepreneurs.https://saasclub.co/join

International expansion is a huge milestone for SaaS CEO's. When perfectly timed, it can boost revenue growth by 13%. But, expanding too early can stifle growth, or burn resources. To succeed, you need a solid go-to-market strategy, underpinned by customer data, cultural awareness and clear objectives. There's a lot to think about! In discussion with Krish Subramanian, CEO of Chargebee, commercial strategy expert, Carrie Osman, and two CEO's of global SaaS companies will share how to perfectly time, plan and execute a global expansion strategy. This episode on the SaaS Revolution Show is from the SaaStock Blueprint Series: CEO edition.

Lindsay Padilla: CEO and Co-Founder, Hello Audio My guest today is Dr. Lindsay Padilla. Lindsay is an ex-community college professor who accidentally started a business while on the tenure track. Now, as the CEO and co-founder of the Hello Audio software, which takes your content and creates private audio feeds to make learning on the go much easier for your people, Lindsay challenges online industry norms of unfinished courses and unconsumed content with her product. All of her business ideas were born out of her tenure-track years teaching adults online at a community college, the ridiculous amount of learning she's done in all things education, and the years spent growing her course creation business online. Episode Highlights: Learn how Lindsay used her knowledge as a successful online course business owner to launch her SAAS product Hear about some of the challenges she has experienced in launching her new product and her tips on how to avoid her mistakes Listen in to learn what to do if you're thinking about launching any new product in the marketplace and how having an audience has been the key to her success Tune in learn more about Hello Audio and how it can be used to get your content into your students ears. To see how Hello Audio is used from a customer perspective, join us in the Scale Your Business Summit. We will use Hello Audio to deliver summit content to attendees via their private audio feed. Links mentioned in this episode: ✅ Sponsored by Course in a Box on AppSumo ✅ Where you can find Linday: https://www.helloaudio.fm/ and https://www.instagram.com/helloaudiofm/ ➡️Episode show show notes: https://destinicopp.com/podcast/lindsaypadilla --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/destini-copp/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/destini-copp/support

In this new episode, Thibaut receives Marius Stäcker, CEO of ToolTime. Marius founder ToolTime in January 2019 and has since raised over €20 million to digitize the craftsmen market in the DACH region. In this interview, you'll discover how a European SaaS CEO buys, how to approach Marius, and what to avoid. You'll also discover the metrics Marius is tracking as well as the way he's making decisions. You can find Marius on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/mariusstaecker/ (here). ToolTime is looking for a VP of Sales, https://www.tooltime.de/jobs#job-404886 (check the job here). Enjoy the show!

Warum gründen Menschen ihr eigenes Unternehmen? Weil sie ein Bedürfnis haben, dass der Markt nicht abdeckt. Bei mir persönlich war das so mit meinem Modelabel V-SUIT und genauso ging es Susanne Klepsch, CEO von Meetfox (früher Coachfox), die nach der überraschenden Übernahme des Familienunternehmens einen Coach suchte - aber keinen geeigneten fand. Was als Marktplatz für Coaches startete ist heute mit Meetfox eine digitale Toollösung für Coaches selbst. Über die ersten Jahre im Start-Up, den Aufbau eines 12-köpfigen globalen Teams und Fundraising als junge Frau, erzählt uns Susanne im Interview.Hol dir Tipps für:Start-Up gründenFunding/Venture CapitalInternational Leben & ArbeitenBusiness Model Analyse

Lloyd is the Founder of Armbrust American, a U.S. manufacturer of surgical masks and PPE launched in May 2020 making over $10MM annually. In 2008, he founded OwnLocal, a Y Combinator-backed startup responsible for generating $300+ million in revenue for more than 3,000 local publications over the last decade. Lloyd currently lives in Austin, Texas with his wife and five children.

近几年，无论是从国家的政策上，还是企业发展的势态上，我们都可以发现，数字经济势不可挡，拥抱数字化是不可逆的趋势。 2020年，突如其来的一场疫情，使得许多公司都陷入了困境。但从另一方面来看，疫情加速了数字化的普及。在数字化升级的背景下，SaaS服务成为关注焦点。 为什么大家非常关心SaaS（软件即服务）这个赛道？ 或许，我们可以从腾讯公司高级执行副总裁，腾讯云与智慧产业事业群总裁汤道生在2021腾讯云启产业生态年会分享的观点中找到答案： 过去，国内企业信息化常常基于传统海外厂商的数字平台产品，体系比较封闭，客户去整合多家产品的门槛高，交付效率低。过去5年，国内消费市场经历了移动时代的升级，传统IT厂商的产品逻辑已经不能跟上移动时代的需要，新一代企业数字化产品必须符合国内市场的服务模式，并向产业互联网的云时代跃迁。基于云原生的SaaS产品落地更容易、使用更便捷、弹性更灵活，会是未来的大方向。这是一个关于经济发展的问题。数字化升级，SaaS服务，要帮助中国企业找到更能兼具效率和成本的解决方式。那么，SaaS企业站在风口，如何抓住先机，更好地跑出加速度？ 为此，我们访谈了3家头部SaaS企业CEO或创始人，他们分别是：小鹅通（知识服务类SaaS提供商）创始人兼CEO鲍春健、道一云（一站式办公SaaS服务商）CEO陈侦、Convertlab（数字化营销SaaS提供商）联合创始人兼CEO高鹏。 下面，就来听听他们对2021年SaaS行业发展的趋势性看法吧。 一、小鹅通鲍春健： 做好SaaS的关键， 要有用户为本，客户成功的思维1.主动进化、不断更新定位 刚开始做小鹅通的时候，对自己的定位是知识付费的一个工具，但后来，发现一大堆教英语、考研、钢琴的老师和机构都在用小鹅通，我们便逐步开始在教育行业的应用，给自己贴了一个“专注于新教育的服务商”的标签。 但在经历过2020年的疫情后，社会上对小鹅通直播功能的需求量突然暴增，各行各业的人都在用小鹅通，小鹅通变成了全场景、全行业的工具，成为众多企业自己的“知识服务平台”，我们也开始认真盘点自身的能力：原来的用户都在线下，今天因为移动互联网、因为疫情，大家都跑到了微信生态里，亟需在微信生态里固定化一些商业场景。 不管是知识付费、在线课堂还是其他业务，其实我们都是在帮一个组织通过内容的形式产生对人（员工，合作伙伴，消费者）的交易或者合作，未来还可以对他们进行持续服务。这一系列都是基于微信生态带来私域流量的基础上，发生的新商业模式可能性。所以，我们把微信、企业微信作为小鹅通底层的设施，依托腾讯云的支撑，将我们的功能做了一些划分，实现了从获客引流到营销裂变，从知识产品生产到产品交付，从用户沉淀到精细化管理的全链路数字化经营闭环，打通每一个用户从公域流量到私域矩阵的路径，帮助大家真正完成一站式管理。 2.疫情下的团队压力测试 疫情期间，大家都走到了线上，开始了直播教学、在线课堂。当时，小鹅通刚刚制定完2020全年目标，但这个目标在接下来的一个月内就几乎全部完成。可能有很多人说，小鹅通运气真好，一夜之间就站上了疫情带来的在线直播与教育风口。然而所谓的风口，对一个创业公司而言，更像是一场全方位的压力测试。 大年初一，我们试着动员大家回到这场战役来，几乎所有同事都主动报名加入。有一位湖南的同事，在疫情期间公交停运的情况下，大冬天骑着共享单车去隔壁村借电脑；一位东北的同事，爬到了室外屋顶上接客户电话，只因为屋顶通话信号好一些，电话打完，手机、手、脸，都粘在了一起。 虽然当时动员了全部技术人员参与到抗疫行动中，但因为使用量实在涨得太快，后台的稳定性受到很大挑战。那段时间，我们一直是被客户的需求推着走，基本上大家每天只能睡3、4个小时，腾讯云的人也陪着我们一起加班。以前，公司是一周开一次会，从疫情开始变成每天都开会，每天五点之前写日报，发到群里所有人共享，才能赶得及把问题都调整过来，推动产品快速迭代。 每次他们发完日报以后，我都会发一条鼓励的话，下面齐刷刷地刷屏加油，小伙伴这种团结、这种力量感，远比业绩报表上的数字让我觉得满足，也是我们互相解压的一种非常好的方式。风口来了，一个人跑是远远不够的，只有团队跑得够快，才能接得住客户的需求。 3.为客户提供真正有帮助的服务 一个SaaS产品是否成功，最重要的评判标准，是有无为客户提供真正有帮助的服务。“服务”是小鹅通非常重视的一个维度。很早的时候，我经常背着包去客户那里做回访，目的不是“成交”，而是看看客户在使用产品的过程中是否遇到了困难。 每次见完客户，我都挺兴奋的，因为客户提了新的需求，我就能立马打电话给程序员同事研发新功能。但是在公司成长的过程中，随着团队越来越大，花在管理上的时间越来越多，这时候我感觉自己离客户越来越远。有一天，我意识到这是一个问题时，便尝试用直播来与客户实现直接沟通，于是就和同事们策划了一个直播栏目——《来给老鲍提需求》。 我做直播的时候，办公室里坐着一排产品负责人，他们和我一起倾听客户的需求。同时，公司内所有电视都在同步播放直播，所有员工都能第一时间看到我们跟客户的对话，了解需求是怎么来的。 以前提需求的流程是：客户提需求给群里的服务管家，服务管家收集之后给到产品经理，产品经理给到产品负责人，产品负责人再给我，到我这的时候，可能中间有一些非常重要的东西已经被砍掉了。直播面对面，解决了这样一个问题。但更重要的是，直播给客户带来信任。我们做SaaS或者To B的时候，你光卖一个工具给别人是不够的，还需要保证后续对客户需求的理解、新功能的开发及迭代维护。我们常说希望做客户的“外包CTO”，但如果只有服务态度而无法真正帮到客户就不能称之为“CTO”。所以，我希望通过这个直播间，让客户感受到自己买到的不仅是软件，而是真正“活”的CTO，能够第一时间理解他的需求，帮助他迭代，让客户在这个过程中拥有足够的参与感和安全感。 笔记侠：鲍春健在腾讯工作9年，腾讯的“用户为本”和“开放”已经深入他的骨髓。他自称自己和团队虽然是一个木讷的工程师，但用户和客户要的本就不是一个能说会道的工程师，而是一个能听懂他们需求的工程师。不论是产品定位的迭代，还是加班加点上线新功能，又或是CEO走到一线听客户反馈，我们都可以看到小鹅通始终保持着“客户成功思维”。SaaS未来的趋势走向很多，但若想真正把握住未来的先机，“客户成功思维”的初心一定不能丢。 二、道一云陈侦： SaaS，从单打独斗到群策群力疫情之后，大家越来越接受SaaS，从原来说“是不是选择SaaS”，到现在问“用什么SaaS更合适”。线上办公和远程协同深入人心，当客户下决心把业务搬到云上，变得更加移动化、线上化，整个市场对SaaS服务和数字化的认知至少提前了三年。 为此，我认为SaaS企业重点要关注三个方面：底座，连接，低代码。 1.找准底座 2004—2013年是我们公司的黑暗时代，我们很努力，也获得了头部客户的认可，但是怎么做，都没办法实现大幅增长。一方面，客户、投资人没太关注这个赛道，另一方面，在整个市场环境里，分工还不太明确。在一个增长有限的大环境里，个体再怎么努力也是非常受限的。 2014年，我们放弃了自己的APP，选择基于企业微信来做面向中小企业的云办公SaaS平台。公司在快速增长的过程中，通过和腾讯的底层融合，再结合新一代云技术的发展，在通用产品的基础上，专研行业深度解决方案，探索通过新一代协同为客户增值。目前，我们在企业微信上已经有72万家注册企业和800万活跃用户。 在2014年，生态还不是流行的词汇，SaaS企业发展的主流是“做大做全”。选择企业微信作为底座，我们没有太大的纠结，一是看好腾讯的开放，开放的核心是边界清晰；二是深耕赛道，更容易找到发力点。 回头看，道一云的发展，非常受益于这次选择。我们在2014—2017年快速积累了几十万家注册企业，完成了自己的产业互联网转型，抢到了产业互联网的先发优势。2017年，外界开始关注这个赛道。2018年，腾讯正式提出了产业互联网，2019年我们接受了腾讯产业生态投资。到今天，客户、SaaS同行、大厂都形成共识：产业互联网有很大的发展机会。 2.深度连接 业内对产业互联网发展的关注，带来最大的变化就是市场增量出来了。现在讨论更多的，是谁能更好地满足客户价值。各行各业出现了更多的SaaS创业者，和关注解决某个具体问题的工具。 做To B十年，我深刻体会到To B采购的“理智”。客户不会因为一个广告就决定用谁家的东西，一定是货比三家，去挑出最适合他，最懂他的解决方案。从需求端看，这决定了SaaS要靠整合，让客户更容易地找到他想要得东西。 从供应端来说，通过聚合，通过更高的协同效率，可以把成本降低。 这和线下的批发市场类似。为什么大家愿意去批发市场做生意？因为人流量、资金量、物流设施等通过聚合，进一步降低了经营成本。过去单打独斗的最大问题是成本高，收益覆盖不了经营的方方面面，聚合让各方都受益。2019年，我们加入了腾讯SaaS加速器。在同期的学员中，我们和法大大合作了电子签章，和易企秀共建了营销云。在加速器的体系里，大家在产品的磨合上已经有了相当的基础，从底层技术到战略方向，更容易达成共识，连接和集成都更容易。 最近，腾讯千帆也推出单点登录的IDaaS，大家通过IDaaS和IPaaS可以更容易的跟别的SaaS厂商展开合作。比如我们最近在服务一些客户的时候，他们先后购买了我们和其他厂商的产品，希望我们之间是互相打通的，利用腾讯千帆推出的新的IPaaS，大大降低了对接工作量。 腾讯提出，无论是CRM、财务、法律等通用类SaaS产品，还是针对行业场景的垂直SaaS产品，都需要长在开放生态上，基于开放标准在云上连接起来，才能共同抓住国内企业数字化的巨大市场机会。 我理解，这里说的连接，不只是一个简单的流量市场概念。腾讯云或者企业微信，更多扮演的是底层设施的角色，在上面我们需要联合其他解决方案供应商，基于客户场景，通过共创的形式实现模式和方法论的创新，才能推动整个SaaS产业走得更快。 3.低代码 中国SaaS创业者面临两座大山：一个是中小客户付费意愿不强，一个是大客户的高度定制化需求。 其中，中小客户付费，未来应该要靠低代码来解决。（低代码平台，可让平台上的每一个人成为开发者，能将身边的工作数字化，低代码开发因此成为“数字生产力”）。 从获得感来讲，客户需要一个更灵活、更强大、更低成本的工具，这是必然的趋势。中小企业的特点是，标准化产品能满足他们一部分需求，但是没有这么多预算去请定制化的公司，研发满足适合他们业务特点的各种管理系统。快速交付，按年收费的低代码开发平台，非常适合他们提高自身数字化水平和信息化水平。SaaS产品研发需要持续迭代，不能用今天的功能去满足昨天的需求，需要创造新的需求场景，尝试满足用户明天的需求。基于此，未来的SaaS企业都应该具备低代码的能力。 笔记侠：开放、透明、分享、责任，都将成为新经济的新关键词。给用户和客户多样选择，让他们高效找到最全面、最合身的解决方案，是数字化落地的关键。 对于创业期的SaaS公司而言，最大的问题是成本高，营收无法覆盖全部经营支出。借助产业生态，可以加速行业协同，推动行业创新，成本优化。 三、Convertlab高鹏： 合作，比“拼个你死我活”更重要1.从传统营销到数字化营销 在信息化时代，很多公司都是用CRM（客户关系管理系统）来覆盖客服、销售、营销。在这种格局下，营销部门没有得到很大关注。直到2012年左右，数字营销领域的老大Adobe提出了一个新概念“营销云”，也就是数字化营销。 在这个背景下，传统CRM逐渐没落。传统CRM是信息化时代的产物，主要是记录信息、处理信息，但是在数字化时代，你还需要主动感知消费者，主动和消费者交互，这就涉及到所谓的数字化、自动化、智能化等一系列数字化营销新命题。 但是我们回过头来看，别说数字营销了，很多企业对营销本身都不够了解，都觉得营销就是一群不爱学习的人整天搞促销。也就是说，我们对营销的理解更多是执行层面，忽视了营销的策略性作用。 2.数字化营销给SaaS行业带来机遇 那么，企业为什么需要做数字化营销？ 第一，时代和市场倒逼的产物。 外部因素是用户习惯变化，我们过去的营销模式太烂了，用户体验非常不好，但因为当时处于流量红利期，并没有人注意到这个问题。而在流量红利消失后，获客成本越来越高，才有人开始注意到我们需要更懂用户的营销模式，由此，“私域”的概念和模式开始盛行。 而内部因素是企业需要建立新的能力，改变原本的工作机制。比如，零售企业，它的商管部门、电商部门、会员部门、营销执行部门、媒体采买部门等，需要有一个新的基础设施围绕“以用户为中心”协同起来，企业与用户之间的关系需要被重新定义。 第二，疫情的爆发使得数字化发展走向拐点。 因为疫情，很多对线下营销依赖较强的传统行业，都受到了不同程度的打击。所以，很多传统行业（如处方药、保险、房地产）也开始考虑启动数字化营销。 有需求，就会有市场。既然很多企业开始意识到数字化营销的重要性，这会给服务数字营销SaaS企业带来什么机会？ 首先，国内的技术型SaaS服务商正在崛起，而且数量越来越多。但是，这个市场相对来讲还处于早期，远远没有到你死我活的时候。再加上中国企业的需求非常复杂，差异化也很大，这也意味着这块蛋糕非常大。所以，相比于竞争，我认为更重要的是SaaS服务商如何一起把数字化营销这个蛋糕迅速做大。 以Adobe为例，营销里面一共有三块蛋糕，一块蛋糕是媒体，一块蛋糕是服务，还有一块蛋糕是技术。Adobe的技术已经占到整个营销蛋糕的27%~29%，时至今日，Adobe在营销科技领域里面已经有9000多家产品供应商了。 而中国现在的数字化营销发展还处于“混沌”阶段。我们自己做的调研发现，技术只占整个营销蛋糕的1%~3%。因此，我认为，国内所有SaaS厂商应该一起携手，聚集成一个生态，共同为客户提供整体解决方案。 比如，我们擅长的是数字化营销领域，可以通过用户数据平台（CDP）结合线上线下多个合作方，深度刻画用户画像，形成标签。但只给客户提供用户画像的标签，并不能解决客户的营销需求。所以，我们还需要联合其他SaaS企业，共同为客户提供整体解决方案。比如，联动营销自动化服务（MA），高效输出个性化营销素材，并针对不同用户进行个性化触达，提升用户转化率。这两种SaaS平台的身份打通和能力结合，将能够帮助客户打通获客、转化、留存到运营的全周期营销。SaaS厂商之间的互联互通，将产生1+1大于2的作用，为企业客户带来体系化的能力提升。3.生态决定特征 我们有一个基本的判断——本地营销生态决定营销云的特征，生长在北美体系的营销云、生长在印度环境的营销云，跟生长在国内的营销云肯定不一样。比如北美，往往跟EDM脱不了关系，印度大部分都是围绕着APB展开的，中国应该是围绕着微信生态展开的。 笔记侠：产业互联网发展进程有有三大特征：市场增长从人口红利驱动转向创新驱动；营销模式从流量驱动转向口碑驱动；新兴技术从概念走向落地。其中，C2B是腾讯面向产业互联网的主要优势，把C端的能力与经验输出给合作伙伴，提供公众号、小程序、企业微信等连接器，让企业更好地服务用户，提升供需匹配效率，最终实现C2B2C。四、结语 SaaS只有两种：有价值的和无价值的，基本不存在中间地带。只有你的解决方案能解决客户的需求，才能为企业带来用户，带来商业价值。SaaS产品如果专精于一个功能，部署成本很低，但只能满足客户的单一需求。于是，生态应运而生，各个厂商聚集到一个生态中，共同合作，为客户提供整体解决方案。 中国科学院院士、复旦大学副校长金力说，社会化的基础是利他主义，利他性被认为是进化的结果，可提高整个物种的生存力，群体的生存是比个体的生存更好的生存策略。 也正如“古典经济学之父”亚当·斯密在《国富论》一书中所要表达的观点：分工产生效率，协作产生效益。

近几年，无论是从国家的政策上，还是企业发展的势态上，我们都可以发现，数字经济势不可挡，拥抱数字化是不可逆的趋势。 2020年，突如其来的一场疫情，使得许多公司都陷入了困境。但从另一方面来看，疫情加速了数字化的普及。在数字化升级的背景下，SaaS服务成为关注焦点。 为什么大家非常关心SaaS（软件即服务）这个赛道？ 或许，我们可以从腾讯公司高级执行副总裁，腾讯云与智慧产业事业群总裁汤道生在2021腾讯云启产业生态年会分享的观点中找到答案： 过去，国内企业信息化常常基于传统海外厂商的数字平台产品，体系比较封闭，客户去整合多家产品的门槛高，交付效率低。过去5年，国内消费市场经历了移动时代的升级，传统IT厂商的产品逻辑已经不能跟上移动时代的需要，新一代企业数字化产品必须符合国内市场的服务模式，并向产业互联网的云时代跃迁。基于云原生的SaaS产品落地更容易、使用更便捷、弹性更灵活，会是未来的大方向。这是一个关于经济发展的问题。数字化升级，SaaS服务，要帮助中国企业找到更能兼具效率和成本的解决方式。那么，SaaS企业站在风口，如何抓住先机，更好地跑出加速度？ 为此，我们访谈了3家头部SaaS企业CEO或创始人，他们分别是：小鹅通（知识服务类SaaS提供商）创始人兼CEO鲍春健、道一云（一站式办公SaaS服务商）CEO陈侦、Convertlab（数字化营销SaaS提供商）联合创始人兼CEO高鹏。 下面，就来听听他们对2021年SaaS行业发展的趋势性看法吧。 一、小鹅通鲍春健： 做好SaaS的关键， 要有用户为本，客户成功的思维1.主动进化、不断更新定位 刚开始做小鹅通的时候，对自己的定位是知识付费的一个工具，但后来，发现一大堆教英语、考研、钢琴的老师和机构都在用小鹅通，我们便逐步开始在教育行业的应用，给自己贴了一个“专注于新教育的服务商”的标签。 但在经历过2020年的疫情后，社会上对小鹅通直播功能的需求量突然暴增，各行各业的人都在用小鹅通，小鹅通变成了全场景、全行业的工具，成为众多企业自己的“知识服务平台”，我们也开始认真盘点自身的能力：原来的用户都在线下，今天因为移动互联网、因为疫情，大家都跑到了微信生态里，亟需在微信生态里固定化一些商业场景。 不管是知识付费、在线课堂还是其他业务，其实我们都是在帮一个组织通过内容的形式产生对人（员工，合作伙伴，消费者）的交易或者合作，未来还可以对他们进行持续服务。这一系列都是基于微信生态带来私域流量的基础上，发生的新商业模式可能性。所以，我们把微信、企业微信作为小鹅通底层的设施，依托腾讯云的支撑，将我们的功能做了一些划分，实现了从获客引流到营销裂变，从知识产品生产到产品交付，从用户沉淀到精细化管理的全链路数字化经营闭环，打通每一个用户从公域流量到私域矩阵的路径，帮助大家真正完成一站式管理。 2.疫情下的团队压力测试 疫情期间，大家都走到了线上，开始了直播教学、在线课堂。当时，小鹅通刚刚制定完2020全年目标，但这个目标在接下来的一个月内就几乎全部完成。可能有很多人说，小鹅通运气真好，一夜之间就站上了疫情带来的在线直播与教育风口。然而所谓的风口，对一个创业公司而言，更像是一场全方位的压力测试。 大年初一，我们试着动员大家回到这场战役来，几乎所有同事都主动报名加入。有一位湖南的同事，在疫情期间公交停运的情况下，大冬天骑着共享单车去隔壁村借电脑；一位东北的同事，爬到了室外屋顶上接客户电话，只因为屋顶通话信号好一些，电话打完，手机、手、脸，都粘在了一起。 虽然当时动员了全部技术人员参与到抗疫行动中，但因为使用量实在涨得太快，后台的稳定性受到很大挑战。那段时间，我们一直是被客户的需求推着走，基本上大家每天只能睡3、4个小时，腾讯云的人也陪着我们一起加班。以前，公司是一周开一次会，从疫情开始变成每天都开会，每天五点之前写日报，发到群里所有人共享，才能赶得及把问题都调整过来，推动产品快速迭代。 每次他们发完日报以后，我都会发一条鼓励的话，下面齐刷刷地刷屏加油，小伙伴这种团结、这种力量感，远比业绩报表上的数字让我觉得满足，也是我们互相解压的一种非常好的方式。风口来了，一个人跑是远远不够的，只有团队跑得够快，才能接得住客户的需求。 3.为客户提供真正有帮助的服务 一个SaaS产品是否成功，最重要的评判标准，是有无为客户提供真正有帮助的服务。“服务”是小鹅通非常重视的一个维度。很早的时候，我经常背着包去客户那里做回访，目的不是“成交”，而是看看客户在使用产品的过程中是否遇到了困难。 每次见完客户，我都挺兴奋的，因为客户提了新的需求，我就能立马打电话给程序员同事研发新功能。但是在公司成长的过程中，随着团队越来越大，花在管理上的时间越来越多，这时候我感觉自己离客户越来越远。有一天，我意识到这是一个问题时，便尝试用直播来与客户实现直接沟通，于是就和同事们策划了一个直播栏目——《来给老鲍提需求》。 我做直播的时候，办公室里坐着一排产品负责人，他们和我一起倾听客户的需求。同时，公司内所有电视都在同步播放直播，所有员工都能第一时间看到我们跟客户的对话，了解需求是怎么来的。 以前提需求的流程是：客户提需求给群里的服务管家，服务管家收集之后给到产品经理，产品经理给到产品负责人，产品负责人再给我，到我这的时候，可能中间有一些非常重要的东西已经被砍掉了。直播面对面，解决了这样一个问题。但更重要的是，直播给客户带来信任。我们做SaaS或者To B的时候，你光卖一个工具给别人是不够的，还需要保证后续对客户需求的理解、新功能的开发及迭代维护。我们常说希望做客户的“外包CTO”，但如果只有服务态度而无法真正帮到客户就不能称之为“CTO”。所以，我希望通过这个直播间，让客户感受到自己买到的不仅是软件，而是真正“活”的CTO，能够第一时间理解他的需求，帮助他迭代，让客户在这个过程中拥有足够的参与感和安全感。 笔记侠：鲍春健在腾讯工作9年，腾讯的“用户为本”和“开放”已经深入他的骨髓。他自称自己和团队虽然是一个木讷的工程师，但用户和客户要的本就不是一个能说会道的工程师，而是一个能听懂他们需求的工程师。不论是产品定位的迭代，还是加班加点上线新功能，又或是CEO走到一线听客户反馈，我们都可以看到小鹅通始终保持着“客户成功思维”。SaaS未来的趋势走向很多，但若想真正把握住未来的先机，“客户成功思维”的初心一定不能丢。 二、道一云陈侦： SaaS，从单打独斗到群策群力疫情之后，大家越来越接受SaaS，从原来说“是不是选择SaaS”，到现在问“用什么SaaS更合适”。线上办公和远程协同深入人心，当客户下决心把业务搬到云上，变得更加移动化、线上化，整个市场对SaaS服务和数字化的认知至少提前了三年。 为此，我认为SaaS企业重点要关注三个方面：底座，连接，低代码。 1.找准底座 2004—2013年是我们公司的黑暗时代，我们很努力，也获得了头部客户的认可，但是怎么做，都没办法实现大幅增长。一方面，客户、投资人没太关注这个赛道，另一方面，在整个市场环境里，分工还不太明确。在一个增长有限的大环境里，个体再怎么努力也是非常受限的。 2014年，我们放弃了自己的APP，选择基于企业微信来做面向中小企业的云办公SaaS平台。公司在快速增长的过程中，通过和腾讯的底层融合，再结合新一代云技术的发展，在通用产品的基础上，专研行业深度解决方案，探索通过新一代协同为客户增值。目前，我们在企业微信上已经有72万家注册企业和800万活跃用户。 在2014年，生态还不是流行的词汇，SaaS企业发展的主流是“做大做全”。选择企业微信作为底座，我们没有太大的纠结，一是看好腾讯的开放，开放的核心是边界清晰；二是深耕赛道，更容易找到发力点。 回头看，道一云的发展，非常受益于这次选择。我们在2014—2017年快速积累了几十万家注册企业，完成了自己的产业互联网转型，抢到了产业互联网的先发优势。2017年，外界开始关注这个赛道。2018年，腾讯正式提出了产业互联网，2019年我们接受了腾讯产业生态投资。到今天，客户、SaaS同行、大厂都形成共识：产业互联网有很大的发展机会。 2.深度连接 业内对产业互联网发展的关注，带来最大的变化就是市场增量出来了。现在讨论更多的，是谁能更好地满足客户价值。各行各业出现了更多的SaaS创业者，和关注解决某个具体问题的工具。 做To B十年，我深刻体会到To B采购的“理智”。客户不会因为一个广告就决定用谁家的东西，一定是货比三家，去挑出最适合他，最懂他的解决方案。从需求端看，这决定了SaaS要靠整合，让客户更容易地找到他想要得东西。 从供应端来说，通过聚合，通过更高的协同效率，可以把成本降低。 这和线下的批发市场类似。为什么大家愿意去批发市场做生意？因为人流量、资金量、物流设施等通过聚合，进一步降低了经营成本。过去单打独斗的最大问题是成本高，收益覆盖不了经营的方方面面，聚合让各方都受益。2019年，我们加入了腾讯SaaS加速器。在同期的学员中，我们和法大大合作了电子签章，和易企秀共建了营销云。在加速器的体系里，大家在产品的磨合上已经有了相当的基础，从底层技术到战略方向，更容易达成共识，连接和集成都更容易。 最近，腾讯千帆也推出单点登录的IDaaS，大家通过IDaaS和IPaaS可以更容易的跟别的SaaS厂商展开合作。比如我们最近在服务一些客户的时候，他们先后购买了我们和其他厂商的产品，希望我们之间是互相打通的，利用腾讯千帆推出的新的IPaaS，大大降低了对接工作量。 腾讯提出，无论是CRM、财务、法律等通用类SaaS产品，还是针对行业场景的垂直SaaS产品，都需要长在开放生态上，基于开放标准在云上连接起来，才能共同抓住国内企业数字化的巨大市场机会。 我理解，这里说的连接，不只是一个简单的流量市场概念。腾讯云或者企业微信，更多扮演的是底层设施的角色，在上面我们需要联合其他解决方案供应商，基于客户场景，通过共创的形式实现模式和方法论的创新，才能推动整个SaaS产业走得更快。 3.低代码 中国SaaS创业者面临两座大山：一个是中小客户付费意愿不强，一个是大客户的高度定制化需求。 其中，中小客户付费，未来应该要靠低代码来解决。（低代码平台，可让平台上的每一个人成为开发者，能将身边的工作数字化，低代码开发因此成为“数字生产力”）。 从获得感来讲，客户需要一个更灵活、更强大、更低成本的工具，这是必然的趋势。中小企业的特点是，标准化产品能满足他们一部分需求，但是没有这么多预算去请定制化的公司，研发满足适合他们业务特点的各种管理系统。快速交付，按年收费的低代码开发平台，非常适合他们提高自身数字化水平和信息化水平。SaaS产品研发需要持续迭代，不能用今天的功能去满足昨天的需求，需要创造新的需求场景，尝试满足用户明天的需求。基于此，未来的SaaS企业都应该具备低代码的能力。 笔记侠：开放、透明、分享、责任，都将成为新经济的新关键词。给用户和客户多样选择，让他们高效找到最全面、最合身的解决方案，是数字化落地的关键。 对于创业期的SaaS公司而言，最大的问题是成本高，营收无法覆盖全部经营支出。借助产业生态，可以加速行业协同，推动行业创新，成本优化。 三、Convertlab高鹏： 合作，比“拼个你死我活”更重要1.从传统营销到数字化营销 在信息化时代，很多公司都是用CRM（客户关系管理系统）来覆盖客服、销售、营销。在这种格局下，营销部门没有得到很大关注。直到2012年左右，数字营销领域的老大Adobe提出了一个新概念“营销云”，也就是数字化营销。 在这个背景下，传统CRM逐渐没落。传统CRM是信息化时代的产物，主要是记录信息、处理信息，但是在数字化时代，你还需要主动感知消费者，主动和消费者交互，这就涉及到所谓的数字化、自动化、智能化等一系列数字化营销新命题。 但是我们回过头来看，别说数字营销了，很多企业对营销本身都不够了解，都觉得营销就是一群不爱学习的人整天搞促销。也就是说，我们对营销的理解更多是执行层面，忽视了营销的策略性作用。 2.数字化营销给SaaS行业带来机遇 那么，企业为什么需要做数字化营销？ 第一，时代和市场倒逼的产物。 外部因素是用户习惯变化，我们过去的营销模式太烂了，用户体验非常不好，但因为当时处于流量红利期，并没有人注意到这个问题。而在流量红利消失后，获客成本越来越高，才有人开始注意到我们需要更懂用户的营销模式，由此，“私域”的概念和模式开始盛行。 而内部因素是企业需要建立新的能力，改变原本的工作机制。比如，零售企业，它的商管部门、电商部门、会员部门、营销执行部门、媒体采买部门等，需要有一个新的基础设施围绕“以用户为中心”协同起来，企业与用户之间的关系需要被重新定义。 第二，疫情的爆发使得数字化发展走向拐点。 因为疫情，很多对线下营销依赖较强的传统行业，都受到了不同程度的打击。所以，很多传统行业（如处方药、保险、房地产）也开始考虑启动数字化营销。 有需求，就会有市场。既然很多企业开始意识到数字化营销的重要性，这会给服务数字营销SaaS企业带来什么机会？ 首先，国内的技术型SaaS服务商正在崛起，而且数量越来越多。但是，这个市场相对来讲还处于早期，远远没有到你死我活的时候。再加上中国企业的需求非常复杂，差异化也很大，这也意味着这块蛋糕非常大。所以，相比于竞争，我认为更重要的是SaaS服务商如何一起把数字化营销这个蛋糕迅速做大。 以Adobe为例，营销里面一共有三块蛋糕，一块蛋糕是媒体，一块蛋糕是服务，还有一块蛋糕是技术。Adobe的技术已经占到整个营销蛋糕的27%~29%，时至今日，Adobe在营销科技领域里面已经有9000多家产品供应商了。 而中国现在的数字化营销发展还处于“混沌”阶段。我们自己做的调研发现，技术只占整个营销蛋糕的1%~3%。因此，我认为，国内所有SaaS厂商应该一起携手，聚集成一个生态，共同为客户提供整体解决方案。 比如，我们擅长的是数字化营销领域，可以通过用户数据平台（CDP）结合线上线下多个合作方，深度刻画用户画像，形成标签。但只给客户提供用户画像的标签，并不能解决客户的营销需求。所以，我们还需要联合其他SaaS企业，共同为客户提供整体解决方案。比如，联动营销自动化服务（MA），高效输出个性化营销素材，并针对不同用户进行个性化触达，提升用户转化率。这两种SaaS平台的身份打通和能力结合，将能够帮助客户打通获客、转化、留存到运营的全周期营销。SaaS厂商之间的互联互通，将产生1+1大于2的作用，为企业客户带来体系化的能力提升。3.生态决定特征 我们有一个基本的判断——本地营销生态决定营销云的特征，生长在北美体系的营销云、生长在印度环境的营销云，跟生长在国内的营销云肯定不一样。比如北美，往往跟EDM脱不了关系，印度大部分都是围绕着APB展开的，中国应该是围绕着微信生态展开的。 笔记侠：产业互联网发展进程有有三大特征：市场增长从人口红利驱动转向创新驱动；营销模式从流量驱动转向口碑驱动；新兴技术从概念走向落地。其中，C2B是腾讯面向产业互联网的主要优势，把C端的能力与经验输出给合作伙伴，提供公众号、小程序、企业微信等连接器，让企业更好地服务用户，提升供需匹配效率，最终实现C2B2C。四、结语 SaaS只有两种：有价值的和无价值的，基本不存在中间地带。只有你的解决方案能解决客户的需求，才能为企业带来用户，带来商业价值。SaaS产品如果专精于一个功能，部署成本很低，但只能满足客户的单一需求。于是，生态应运而生，各个厂商聚集到一个生态中，共同合作，为客户提供整体解决方案。 中国科学院院士、复旦大学副校长金力说，社会化的基础是利他主义，利他性被认为是进化的结果，可提高整个物种的生存力，群体的生存是比个体的生存更好的生存策略。 也正如“古典经济学之父”亚当·斯密在《国富论》一书中所要表达的观点：分工产生效率，协作产生效益。

Dennis Mortensen, CEO and founder at x.ai, jumped onto the ecom ops podcast to share insights on how SaaS companies are creating better alternatives for eCom operations, his secret recipe of SaaS-based eCom automation and how x.ai can help streamline eCom ops.

Jen Grant has spent the last 15 years building companies from the ground-up and taking multiple companies such as Box and Looker to over a billion dollar valuation as a CMO. She also spent 4 years at Google, leading the Google Apps EDU, Gmail, and Book Search marketing teams. Now, she’s moved into the early stage CEO role at Appify, the “no code” platform for mobile apps. We talk product-market fit, marketing and sales in the age of Covid, and why women CEOs are the future. Join the conversation on the Podopolo podcast app.

Club E will be joined by Raza Hasan the President and CEO of TimeSolv to discuss his journey as an entrepreneur. TimeSolv is a time tracking solution for the legal industry and recently sold a majority stake to a US based private equity firm. Tune in to learn from a successful SaaS CEO on how to take a business from startup to an exit, how to grow a SaaS business, benefits of operating virtually and how to manage remote teams. About Raza: Raza Hasan is currently the President and CEO of TimeSolv Corporation, a SaaS time billing solution growing 30%+ annually. Raza is an entrepreneur with a broad range of expertise in software products, strategy, marketing, sales, and organizational structure; enabling him to lead TimeSolv from a failing business to a successful exit. Raza is also involved in a non-profit innovative, Prosperity Web. Prosperity Web's purpose is; partnership to change the world by creating awareness why some countries are thriving while others are poor.

Never miss a new episode: https://sendfox.com/lp/mnyll3How do you go from successful sales to building a revenue scaling machine? Today, I spoke to Omar Mohout, an ex-SaaS CEO with a successful exit, ex and current board member of several prominent SaaS companies like Esoptra, Teamleader CRM, Digipolis Antwerp and LetsBuild, a founder and a mentor of various startup and scale-up programs and platforms and an author of 7 books on growing startups.Today we spoke about the biggest challenge B2B companies face after product-market: going from successful activities and experiments to building a “machine” that can scale. Why? Because they underestimate and misunderstand the role of B2B marketing. They may hire experienced sales people from Oracle or Microsoft in a hope they’ll implement their experience in their company. But what they should be doing instead is: - Base their hiring decision on their actual sales funnel- Understand that the role of marketing is shifting “to the right” (or bottom) of the funnel. From just lead generation to actually influencing the sale and helping moving the deal through the pipeline- When building the revenue scaling machine, validate the assumptions instead of scaling based on unproven assumptions Omar’s LinkedIn profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/omarmohout/Omar’s books in English: Lean pricing: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0196Q6MCS Corporate venturing: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07DFNFWZM Lea(r)n marketing: https://leanpub.com/learnmarketing Leaving a legacy: increase your social impact https://www.amazon.com/Leaving-Legacy-Increase-social-impact-ebook

Kris Rudeegraap is the CEO of Sendoso, the leading Sending Platform. It feels like every SaaS CEO is an engineer or product genius that spends the majority of his or her time coding. Kris is an example of a salesperson turned CEO, which gives me hope for my entrepreneurial ventures in the future. As an Account Executive at Talkdesk, Kris had an idea: there has to be a better way to create a connection with customers through sending gifts. In under 5 years, his idea has turned into one of the hottest start-ups in San Francisco, raising $54M+ and expanding rapidly. In this conversation, we discuss: Creative tactics Kris used as a salesperson to hit quota Kris' evolution from salesperson to CEO What it's like leading a fast-growing company with little leadership experience How a Sending Platform can be lucrative for salespeople You can connect with Kris on LinkedIn and can check out Sendoso for more information. For more content, check me out on LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube. All other content is also hosted on MillennialMomentum.net. If you enjoyed today's conversation, please subscribe, leave a review and tell a friend. Sending nothing but love, Tom

Kris Rudeegraap is the CEO of Sendoso, the leading Sending Platform. It feels like every SaaS CEO is an engineer or product genius that spends the majority of his or her time coding. Kris is an example of a salesperson turned CEO, which gives me hope for my entrepreneurial ventures in the future. As an Account Executive at Talkdesk, Kris had an idea: there has to be a better way to create a connection with customers through sending gifts. In under 5 years, his idea has turned into one of the hottest start-ups in San Francisco, raising $54M+ and expanding rapidly. In this conversation, we discuss: Creative tactics Kris used as a salesperson to hit quota Kris' evolution from salesperson to CEO What it's like leading a fast-growing company with little leadership experience How a Sending Platform can be lucrative for salespeople You can connect with Kris on LinkedIn and can check out Sendoso for more information. For more content, check me out on LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube. All other content is also hosted on MillennialMomentum.net. If you enjoyed today’s conversation, please subscribe, leave a review and tell a friend. Sending nothing but love, Tom

Jason Lemkin was co-founder & CEO at EchoSign, sold it for $400M to Adobe, went on to create Saastr - the largest community in the world for Saas entrepreneurs. On this episode Jason speaks directly to his fellow Saas CEO and shares the mistakes he made (and saw other people make) on the road to assembling a world-class sales team, starting with the VP Sales. How to find & assess a great VP Sales, how to improve conversion rates thanks to micro-PR, how to build a hiring routine - a must-listen for CEOs & sales execs building their sales teams. Follow Jason here on LinkedIn! And let's connect and continue the conversation here on LinkedIn too!

The Organized Chaos consulting show, with Chris Ronzio, released its pilot episode back in January of 2020. If you have been listening to PMP Daily, you have already heard episodes that feature segments from the Organized Chaos show, but this pilot episode will give you background on how that show came to be and a deeper dive into Chris’s consulting journey. This is the final segment of this four-part mini-series. If you're just tuning in now, hop back to the episode titled, Organized Chaos Pilot (Part 1), to listen to the series in order.

The Organize Chaos consulting show, with Chris Ronzio, released its pilot episode back in January of 2020. If you have been listening to PMP Daily, you have already heard episodes that feature segments from the Organized Chaos show, but this pilot episode will give you background on how that show came to be and a deeper dive into Chris’s consulting journey. This segment is part 3 of 4, so be sure to tune in tomorrow for the next segment.

The Organize Chaos consulting show, with Chris Ronzio, released its pilot episode back in January of 2020. If you have been listening to PMP Daily, you have already heard episodes that feature segments from the Organize Chaos show, but this pilot episode will give you background on how that show came to be and a deeper dive into Chris’s consulting journey. This segment is part 2 of 4, so be sure to tune in tomorrow for the next segment.

The Organized Chaos consulting show, with Chris Ronzio, released its pilot episode back in January of 2020. If you have been listening to PMP Daily, you have already heard episodes that feature segments from the Organized Chaos show, but this pilot episode will give you background on how that show came to be and a deeper dive into Chris’s consulting journey. This segment is part 1 of 4, so be sure to tune in tomorrow for the next segment.

Rocket scientist with 25 yrs experience helping enterprises make 100s millions in net income gains using AI. My mission is to reduce poverty as companies invest these gains to lowering prices which lowers cost of living for you and I.

12 years working in brazilian software industry, first as a marketing professional, and as entrepreneur since 2012. Its CEO and cofounder from Ramper, a B2B prospecting automation software and one of the more fast growing brazillian startup that started in 2016 and today has more than 700 customers.    

Ian Blair, Co-Founder and CEO of BuildFire, isn’t your average SaaS CEO. Ian is like the Dos Equis man (the most interesting man in the world) of SaaS. Ian’s definition of fun ranges from driving exotic cars to surfing and flying planes the world. Oh, and did I mention he’s only 26 years old?Listen to this episode to get Ian’s unique story about the different channels of growth he focused on while scaling BuildFire into one of the largest app agencies in the country. In this episode, we’ll talk through creating sustainable organic traffic through SEO, how to multiply the effectiveness of your sales team, and Ian’s perspective on fundraising. In this episode you’ll learn:1:08 Ian’s most expensive hobby4:08 The background on BuildFire5:28 How much should you charge for your subscription software?9:17 Fundraising strategies 10114:49 Creating sustainable organic traffic for your business through SEO20:49 Scaling the sales side of your company28:38 The Salty SixThis is an actionable episode — we hope you enjoy! Get ready to #ScaleOrDie...We're excited to have you along for Season 1 of #ScaleOrDie. Before you leave, be sure to leave a ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ review, post a comment, or share with your friends! Tune into more episodes at useproof.com/scaleordie and read more stories at blog.useproof.com. Follow Dave & Proof on Twitter — @DaveRogemoser and @UseProof. We publish episodes every week so be sure to check back often for more interviews with the internet’s best minds in growth!

Helpful links from the episode: Stripe MnSearch Summit MozCon a16z Podcast: What Time Is It? From Technical to Product to Sales CEO David Ulevitch on Twitter FULL SHOW NOTES[music]00:12 Aaron Weiche: Episode nine, The CEO Journey.00:16 INTRO: Welcome to The SaaS Venture podcast, sharing the adventure of leading and growing a bootstrap SaaS company. Here the experiences challenges wins and losses, shared in each episode, from Aaron Weiche of GatherUp and Darren Shaw of Whitespark. Let's go.[music]00:42 AW: Welcome to the SaaS venture podcast. I'm Aaron.00:45 Darren Shaw: And I'm Darren.00:47 AW: And we are back in front of a microphone, sharing our business secrets, our love secrets, everything in between, and making them public, so that we can share them with our listeners. And, if anything, sometimes it's probably cathartic and healing and everything else, wouldn't you say? 01:07 DS: Yeah, definitely, I have not yet shared any love secrets, so I'm not sure where you're going with that, but...[chuckle]01:15 DS: May be a future episode. I don't know.01:17 AW: I'm just trying to keep things broad, all the time, right? 01:20 DS: Broad, yeah. 'Cause you know we never know what we're gonna talk about.01:22 AW: Yeah, no, if this turns into a relationship podcast on how you and I get along, and our friendship and being there for each other and everything else, we could pivot right, like, software is all about pivoting at different times.01:35 DS: It really is, yeah, and I think we should definitely keep that in our back pocket.[chuckle]01:40 AW: Alright, so with that, we'll both get up off the davenport and the attempt to talk on a few different topics today, especially the deeper content we want to get into on kinda the CEO journey. We have a lot to cover there, we will probably, once again, have a hard time keeping ourself to 40 minutes but hopefully the content is appreciated. But what have you been up to since our last episode on churn a few weeks ago, Darren? 02:12 DS: What have I been up to? Well, we've talked about this Local Search service a number of times, and how we're re-pivoting that actually, speaking of pivoting, into a Google My Business Management Service. And so I hired someone new for that. Basically Allie is my primary person that is running that service and she's at capacity, so we need to hire, and so can't really launch it until we have new people hired and trained and ready to do the service. So, I hired Sydney, she worked with us in the past, she's pretty awesome. And so she started yesterday. And I put out a job posting too. And so we're just trying to get the people in place to be able to service the service because we have a waiting list of 30 people that are interested already. I don't even... Honestly, I worry that we might never even launch the landing page because we'll just keep picking people off the waiting list, 'cause the waiting less seems to be growing faster than we can hire and train people to build the service up.03:10 DS: So, it's very interesting to me that there's that much interest in the service, I think it's gonna be very successful for us, and I think we've dialed in our processes really well. So, the next thing to dial-in, is hiring and training and scaling it up so I'm excited about that. That's big for us, for sure.03:24 AW: That's awesome to have that type of demand. That part has to feel really good.03:29 DS: It feels great, and I think it's like... I had read a tweet or some one... Some luminary of the modern age, had tweeted that the biggest success factor for companies is not really product or anything, it's timing. And so having the right product at the right time, that people need, and I feel like that's precisely what we're doing with this service. So I'm excited about that. And I know there's competition out there, but it's early stages. We have a great reputation that we've built up in this space, and so I think we're really well positioned to do well with the service.04:01 AW: I'm interested, you seem to be comfortable in productized services and things like that, where the whole reason, not the whole reason but one of the reasons I got into SaaS after well over a decade in agency is I wanted to get away from services and I wanted to be strictly product-focused. But you have a good comfort level with that. But yet, man, I would be really, I would be frustrated right now. Like really, I gotta wait on services to get this awesome new thing launched? 04:32 DS: Totally. And you're like, you have a software, you just flip the switch. "Okay, sign up everybody." And so there is something beautiful with that. There are two types of services. There is a complex agency, SEO service where every case is different and everyone's got different needs, and some clients are more of a hassle than others. Same thing with something like web design where you're building out a website. There's just so many touch points with the client that it's really hard to scale that. And what I have found is with a very simple streamlined one thing type of service, so citation building, for example, it scales really well. It's like, this is what it is, you buy it, you basically get a product, really, it's a very specific thing. And there's not a lot of back and forth, there's not too much... Not to many questions about it, right? 05:22 DS: And so everyone gets the same thing. And that's where the pivot happened actually, 'cause I had turned the Local Search service into something more complicated than it needed to be, which opened the flood gates for all of that like different clients and how do we handle practitioner listings, and just lots of complication. So scaling it back to just this really helps us to build something that's scalable. And so I am comfortable with this as a productized service but I totally hear you on just services in general. They can be a real pain in the ass and very hard to scale.05:53 AW: Yeah, well, good for you. You are a braver man than I am and totally... Nothing wrong with it. Not in my wheelhouse of a fit right now but how is it right? You said you're posting, and I know this, I've talked a number of episodes on hiring, especially for sales positions, which I'll give an update on and we're continuing to do. But in talking before the podcast, you kinda have a few little tips for people in hiring and posting to job boards.06:27 DS: So yeah, this, this job posting I actually forgot to do it when I first launched the job posting. I put out... So I posted the job and I had done this last time, but we use Indeed.ca, I think, I'll see if there's any indeed.com, but we post our jobs to Indeed and so, we get a flood of applications and most people, they just press the button to apply through Indeed. I have a very specific note that says, "How to apply," and it says, "Include your resume and cover letter," and it says, "and email it to darren@whitespark.ca." It also says right in the, "How to apply," "If you just apply through Indeed, instead of emailing Daren directly then we'll know you didn't read this and it'll be really helpful for us for filtering our candidates." So this is awesome because I get... So far I've probably had about 40 applications for this job and only five of them read this instruction. Most of them are just like, it's like a volume game, they apply to every job that's on Indeed, and I don't wanna waste my time with those people, I want people that actually took the time to read this, decided this if is a job for them, and they emailed me directly. And so I have three really solid candidates already, and I just posted the job yesterday, and then the other ones, they just go straight to the bin. I don't even look at 'em. I just archive them.07:45 AW: Awesome.07:46 DS: Yeah.07:46 AW: Totally agree with you. We always ask, "Tell us about yourself, share links to wherever you're creating content or are a part of content on the web. And yeah, you get the ones that are just plain but the ones that actually take the time, you can see that they're just so much more of a qualified candidate. And it is amazing to like, if it's a job you really want or you're really interested in, put in the effort to differentiate yourself. It blows in my mind that people just fall short on that.08:13 DS: Yeah, they don't care, they're just playing a numbers game, they're like, "Well, if I apply for 100 jobs I might get two interviews, and then one of those could turn into a job." They're just lazy.08:23 AW: Finding a job should not be like a marketing funnel. I don't think.08:26 DS: Seriously. And it's like how are they not a little bit more discerning in what they apply for? It seems like they're... Like people that just do not have the right skill set that we're looking for are applying for everything it seems.08:37 AW: Yup. Well, that's a great tip. Include something that knows people care, they want it, they pay attention to detail and read things through before they take action. Those are all great pre-interview filters to help you know what you're dealing with.08:52 DS: Yeah, totally. Also, we signed up for Stripe. We did the deal yesterday. So I've been talking with a salesperson over there. So I'm so excited 'cause we're building our new account system, and Stripe just looks amazing. My developers are doing the happy dance all over the place. Just getting off of PayPal, moving over to Stripe, and Stripe billing looks so nice. Did you know they have this feature? This is a tip for all of our listeners. Stripe has a magical feature that will automatically update credit cards that are expiring. They have an agreement with Visa and MasterCard, and let's say your credit card is expiring, then, this system which only costs an extra 0.4% recurring revenue, will automatically update credit cards that are expiring. So you don't have to chase people with expired cards. Did you know that that was a thing? 09:44 AW: I didn't, I didn't at all. That is mind-blowing.09:47 DS: Right? Holy, I'm so excited about that. So this is... I think it's fairly new. But he told me that and I was like, scrambling to find a pen, so I could sign this contract 'cause oh my God, that's gonna be such a great feature.10:01 AW: Yeah, now there's a few. My CFO and some of our customer success team members would love to hear that. We run an internal report, and that will show us like, "Alright, here's who's failing, and we're communicating and making attempts." And then they usually get involved with a human reach out and it's only... It might be anywhere from three to 10 accounts in a month out of thousands that need that. But man, they would love to have that off their plate, and some of them turn into cancel billings, right? There's even more of what those are. So, wow, that sounds really interesting.10:36 DS: Yeah, look it up. They got a new feature. I think you're already on it. Yeah, 'cause I recalled getting Stripe invoices from your team. So I'm pretty sure that you already have the feature. You just need to flip the switch, maybe.10:48 AW: Yeah, no, we're not in Stripe, so.10:51 DS: Oh, you're not? 10:51 AW: No, we're not, we're on PayPal.10:54 DS: My condolences.10:57 AW: Yeah. [chuckle] But, yeah, we'll see as our process, we're just starting in on the billing system stuff decisions and... Month down the road I'll have updates on what that looks like, but that's in step. But yeah, the payment processing might change for us some day.11:15 DS: Sure. Well, what do you have updates on what's new in your world? 11:18 AW: Yeah, on the good side of things, really happy, I know I mentioned this in our last episode, but our customer success team with bringing in a new leader there, a couple of months ago is really going great. We've added on to our onboarding process where... We used to... We did a great job of getting people onboarded and set up, but we missed a number of opportunities to kind of be a little bit more consultative and outline things. And then once they got to, "Alright, go," then we just weren't as good as following up and making sure that things were progressing well. We were there if they had questions, but we weren't really leading them.12:00 DS: Totally.12:00 AW: And he already in a couple of months, Taylor has just done a great job of putting that together and getting that in motion and that was just a great example of things I know that needed to be done, but in being too many places and too many things, like it just was an area I can focus and I could lead, so I'm super happy with that. We're getting ready for... We have a couple events in the near future, Minnesota Search this week and their Summit which you've just spoken at and been at in the past.12:32 DS: Yup, that's a great one.12:33 AW: Yup. We're a sponsor at that, so excited to talk to all the local agencies and in-house marketers, at roughly around 300 to 400 attend that great one-day event. And then we're kind on a three-and-a-half weeks until MozCon. So really excited about that from every aspect. We're a sponsor from the biz dev side, seeing so many friends in the industry, yourself included, like it really is just a fun three or four days to everybody together. Yeah.13:04 DS: Yeah, I can't wait. It's going to be so fun. We'll be hanging out.13:07 AW: Yeah, on the sales side. So I'm trying to feel better about this. We did extend an offer to a new sales person on Friday. I'll know in the next couple of days, that they've accepted. I'm feeling confident that we're able to kinda meet the needs and we're a good fit for each other. But I was really, I was really trying hard to hire two or three at once and maximize training and get more output and things like that, and I just couldn't find out of the group I was talking to a good second or even a third candidate. So, a little frustrated. I'm still... I wanted our outbound sales to be up and running months ago and just hitting stride now, but yet I'm still at the beginning and really actually need another body or two for how we're planning to work this. So, that part's a little frustrating, and I go back and forth between beating myself up about it and then having to re-motivate to, it's okay, these bumps happen and work through them.14:09 DS: Hiring sales is so hard. So yeah...14:12 AW: It is.14:12 DS: And I think finding one good person is great and you might be able to get into this position where this new person is just fantastic. And that they're able to be the one that trains the next two people.14:24 AW: Yep. No, absolutely. And then from an overall perspective, it's just been a lot of fun. Google's had a number of updates, lately. It just seems like they've been on a tear, it's still around local and other things, but we're just seeing reputation and in having a product with GatherUp being related to capturing customer feedback and generating online reviews, reputation is just... The easiest way put it is, it is becoming the most visible piece of data about your business.14:53 DS: Yeah.14:53 AW: Yeah, Google just released some things today. If you're Googling phone numbers for a business or an address for a business, they're attaching reputation call-outs to all those simple type of informational services. Two weeks ago, it was a Google Q and A. That feature having automated answering that, it'll pull up reviews related to the question you're being asked. So, this shift to consumer, customer-generated data in the form of reviews and Google is doing more and more and more with it. That's fabulous for us. It just plays into what we've been talking about and we haven't seen maybe these exact things, but we are really... It feels good to know that it's right in line with what we knew was gonna happen, we didn't know how, but we've really figured it would.15:44 DS: Yeah, it's just like as I see more and more of these features come on, it's like, "Google's squeezing everybody else out, it's like they're just gonna become the only review site, it almost feels like. Other than a first party, it feels like Yelp is gonna get pushed out and some of the industry sites will get pushed out. It's just Google is doing such a good job of putting their content front center and really using their content. So, yeah, that's pretty amazing.16:09 AW: Yeah. No, and I don't wanna steal any thunder from our co-founder and my friend Mike Blumenthal but he's had his finger on the pulse of this. And you're exactly right with that. And I think at the LocalU Advanced in Denver in September, I already have seen some of this data and studies. But you're right it's gone from a dozen review site players to really one review site player. And he has some really interesting data on how it's impacted Yelp and some of the other things. And for us it even pushes more the reason why we say first-party reviews really should be treated with a lot of respect and a lot of value, because if you leave everything, all of those eggs only into Google's basket, we just think that that that's just such a huge mistake and you're missing the boat on so many other things that you can do to both improve your business and market it.17:01 DS: Yeah, is that new feature where they highlight the reviews, and then they show the different review sites on mobile, will it pull first-party into those? 17:09 AW: Yeah, reviews from the web? 17:10 DS: Yeah.17:11 AW: Yeah, yup, it absolutely will.17:13 DS: Okay.17:14 AW: Yeah, there's just a number of things... I don't know... I'm just off the... Look, first party reviews are like the utility knife that a marketer really needs to focus on because it's a tool that you can use where GMB reviews are absolutely visible and have a great amount of visibility and draw to them, but you are just missing out if you don't whip out that Swiss army knife that's in your pocket to be able to MacGyver a million things on the marketing side.17:45 DS: Yeah, totally. Totally.17:46 AW: Well cool, with that, we kinda wanted to talk about a podcast. I was lucky enough, I had a long time industry friend who passed along this podcast to me and said, "Hey I think this would be of interest to you." So thanks, Ed Kohler, for passing that along, but it's the a16z podcast, and the topic of this podcast was really understanding that the journey and the stages of being a SaaS CEO. And the title of it and we'll link it in our show notes, you can give it a listen but it was, "What time is it?" And it was from being a technical to a product to a sales CEO. And the guest on the podcast was David Ulevitch. He founded OpenDNS sold it to Cisco. He's kind of morphed into a few different things now, he's on the VC side. But the high level of it and where I wanted you and I to discuss it, I sent it your way after listening to it, but it outlined that he looked at it as like four stages that every CEO goes through or has the opportunity to go through. The first stage is more of a technical CEO.19:00 AW: You're trying to build it, get it built, is it feasible, do people want it? Then the next one you evolve into is being that product CEO, and now you're trying to figure out, do you have product market fit? You're doing discovery with customers that you think you have that with. You're listening to them so you can build the right features and evolve the right way, and ultimately are you solving those right problems? Then the next one is the sales CEO, and once you have that fit, now you're like, "Great, how do I generate more revenue so I can grow the company, acquire more customers?" And then lastly, if you are able to make it out of that is then you're that go-to-market CEO at the higher level. You have a VP of sales and a VP of Customer Success and all these other things and you're looking to, how do I scale and accelerate and have all the right pieces so that I can grow this as much as possible? 19:50 DS: Yeah.19:50 AW: And that simple look of it and just building it into four stages was something that really resonated with me that I looked at like, "Oh, I can identify with that," 'cause I've gone through... I wasn't a technical CEO 'cause I wasn't a founder day one, but I definitely came in and had to be the product CEO, and now I'm transitioning into that sales CEO.20:13 DS: For sure. You see that as you build your sales team and as you personally experiment with some of this outbound sales stuff, like yeah, you're really into that sales CEO position right now. Does it feel that way to you? Are you still... You must still though go back to product 'cause you're always on... It's a big touch point. Like, what are the new features? How are we solving problems? What are the new problems that are coming up that we want our product to solve? So you kinda jump back and forth, do you know? 20:37 AW: Yeah, no, I definitely do. I think if I had to pick one, I'm absolutely in the sales CEO. My initial thing a year-and-a-half ago when I kinda took the reins over, it was like, it gave me more control to get the right features that I felt were missing when I was out doing sales and interacting with customers. And I think we achieved...20:57 DS: Right. Right.21:00 AW: Better product market fit and we're able to do it in a good cycle. But I do. I wanna get to be that go-to-market CEO, the overseeing, and I have smart people better than me in all of these areas to do all of the right things. So I definitely wanna get there. But I do have a... I have a love for what we do and I'm very passionate about the high level of vision and problems we're trying to solve and things like that. So I think I'll always have a toe in the water over there on the product side. But, I don't know. I don't know if I'll always wanna be the stuck-in-the-sales-cycle, the one generating the majority of the bigger accounts.21:38 DS: Yeah, I feel like I'm pretty firmly seated right now in the product CEO stage. I spent a lot of my time thinking about product market fit, trying to thinking about features, a lot of the sort of research I do, like I'm kind of in the trenches as an SEO still, like I'm not...22:00 AW: Yeah.22:00 DS: I spend a lot of time researching SEO things 'cause that's what I'm really passionate about. And so, that permeates into the products that we build and then I'm the one that's sort of reviewing everything that the team is building and advising on it and working on design and layout and so... And features. So I really feel like I spent too much time in the product CEO role, and I should have the right people in place that can do that for me so I can move to that next stage. That's sales CEO. This four stages, this podcast, is a little bit illuminating for me in like helping to direct maybe where I should be because I love being a product CEO, but in order to grow the company, I think I need to focus more on becoming a sales CEO. So this has been super valuable for me to think about it in these terms.22:50 AW: Yeah, and that was a really big that... There's one comment that David made in here, right, where he said it's all about making the right decisions for the right time, and I feel like you just alluded to that, right, where you realized where you're at and then it's maybe... So what are your options to move out of that, right? Like, do you... I...23:09 DS: Yeah.23:09 AW: You need to find a product manager that can take over the product part and you...23:13 DS: Exactly. I got one, I know who he is.23:15 AW: Yeah.23:16 DS: Yeah.23:16 AW: Yeah, where you can still influence it and do whatever, but the lion share of it is off your plate so you can focus your time on the other, right? And that's... That's that same progression when I've looked at a number of these is like in order to get yourself out of it, you have to replace yourself there or find someone better than you specifically at that, and that can be hard too because to some extent, you might look at... Do you feel like you're better at product than sales and you'd only be doing sales because the company needs it, or what does that look like for you? 23:46 DS: I feel like I'm... Like, when it comes to doing sales, like if we think about any enterprise leads that come in, I have a much higher close rate and I think because I'm so familiar with the product and the industry, it helps me to come across as very trustworthy, right? People wanna hire me because I know what I'm talking about, and it really helps to close the sale. So, I think there's a great opportunity for me to transition into a sales CEO and then build our sales culture, so then start to hire, basically get to the position you're at right now.24:17 AW: Yup.24:17 DS: And so... And I have a really good guy, Nick. He is fantastic. He could definitely be the product manager. I have him doing client work right now and it's like, "Man, we gotta just ditch those clients, bite the bullet and have Nick become the product manager and I'll step out of it and spend my time on sales."24:34 DS: But you know what the trouble is? I'm the type of person that I only like to do what I like to do. [chuckle] And so, I don't love doing sales, and so that... I'm just like, "Argh, sales." Like sometimes it's like I'll have a great sales call and then it's like, "Yeah, sure, I'll send him a proposal eventually, I guess." Like, I'm just not good at staying on top of it and I'm not... I don't get pumped about sales and excited about closing the deal.25:00 AW: Yeah.25:01 DS: I just want money to come to me though I didn't have to do anything for it. I just wanna sit back and money just rains in.25:06 AW: Yeah.[chuckle]25:07 DS: That's what I want.25:08 AW: And it does sound nice, but maybe that's where you realized like, "Okay, I actually need sales people," but they utilize you as an asset, right? Where...25:17 DS: Yeah, maybe.25:18 AW: Bring Darren to the call to build trust and answer so many questions and salesperson Sarah or Sam, they're handling the communication. They're staying on top. They're doing all those things, right? Like, I think there's ways to architect that.25:32 DS: Oh, my, that's a genius idea, Aaron.[chuckle]25:34 DS: I will do that because I love the sales call. I love being on the call and chatting with the clients and learning from them and it really helps to inform the product side too, right? 25:42 AW: Yeah.25:43 DS: So, I do love that, but I don't wanna put the proposals and statements of work together and go back and forth with legal. No thanks.25:52 AW: Yeah. And I don't mind those things. I do, like I love to evangelize our product. I love to tell the story of what we do and show people, like just before we started recording today, I just got off a sales call, and we are taking someone from a competitor in the space and we are giving them exactly what they want at a massive cost reduction. Like it's just...26:14 DS: Great.26:14 AW: Yeah, wins across the board, and I love that. I get a high off of winning that deal and doing whatever, but I've realized over the years and in building agencies, like that self-awareness, here's what I'm good at, here's what I'm not very good at, and I need to find people who are good for those other areas. And then even if I like, even if it fills my tank to participate in those, then participate as long as you're not taking away from it and figure out what can you add to it without missing the gap on all of the other little pieces, right? I love being part of product, but if I had to be the product manager and all the detail and writing Jira tickets and all those other things, I would fail within weeks at that too, like I'm not a detail. I'm a big vision type person. So you gotta understand those things and then figure out how you can add to it and make it work.27:08 DS: Yeah. I think it's a bit of a lesson for me. I tend to get way too detaily. I get really deep and I'm like, "Make this donut chart slightly thicker." Like I'm really fine into the details where it's a lot of my time, right? 27:22 AW: Yeah.27:22 DS: And so this is where a product manager would fill that role for me.27:26 AW: Yep, absolutely. One thing that we talked about when we were kind of comparing notes on this was also understanding and you and I's world of running bootstrapped companies and limited resources, that some of this seems over-simplified and it's coming from someone with VC experience and revenue backed startups that's already there to play with it and everything else.27:46 DS: Yeah.27:50 AW: But what's really important is you can take from those. You can take from podcasts, from VC and big companies and whatever else, but it's finding the little pieces that you can work into your own framework, right? 28:03 DS: Yeah, absolutely. Well, one of the awesome things from this podcast, I really liked where he talked about laying out your packages and plans. So I love that idea. What he suggests is taking your packages and plans and sort of designing them for your different customer profiles. For example, small businesses, agencies, enterprise in my case, right? And so they have different needs, and so I can push the different tiers based off of those needs. So something... So, small business is our base plan, and then if you want white labeling, well, you have to have the agency plan. If you want enterprisey-type reporting, you need to be on the enterprise plan. And so having those levers that will push people to the next tier is really smart, and I don't really do that right now. So I definitely took that.28:54 DS: But yeah, it felt frustrating to be on a podcast, to listen to some of those things and think, "Well, those are all great when you are a CEO that has a leadership team where you can sit back and be big picture, but personally as a bootstrapped company, I feel like I'm running around answering everyone's questions." Right? So all the questions kinda come to me 'cause I am for the most part the leadership team, and so I'm not there yet. I don't have the resources to hire a leadership team. And so it is a little frustrating to hear these big picture things, but that's not to say that you can't take so much from it, right? 29:32 AW: Yeah. Now, understandable when you look at it and there's certain parts of it, it's like, "Oh, they make it sound so easy and this is what you do and you have a lot of room to offer a salary and all these other things to implement that."29:48 DS: Yeah.29:49 AW: But for us, all I can say is that that's what's led me that I've already seen in scaling past businesses how important that was, and really in a couple of them, I was one of those pieces, right? I wasn't the CEO, but I was the one tapped to like, "Okay, Aaron will come in and handle sales," or, "Aaron will come in and handle the brand and marketing and putting this team in place."30:06 DS: Yep.30:10 AW: And what I saw in participating as part of those teams is like this is really where the company is run, right? Because if everything hits a bottleneck of one person, the CEO, or whatever that is, you just become infinitely limited in what you can do. But it's hard in those early days where that's all that you have room for is your one thinker and a lot of doers, but you need those additional thinkers and leaders within those areas to hit those bigger strides. But it's tricky on when who's the right one, especially your first one, right? How do I find the right person to trust, invest in and know that they have, they're in great alignment with what I wanna see done with the company? 30:57 DS: Yeah. No, you're already a few steps ahead of me for sure in terms of leadership team. So you've got... Describe your structure right now. So you're a CEO and then you have a product manager.31:07 AW: Yep.31:08 DS: You have... You now have a sales manager, right? Yeah? 31:10 AW: Not sales manager. That's really the last area I need to close. So I have one person that... I do kinda double as VP of product, but we have a product manager that handles all of the day-to-day and communication with their engineering team and all those pieces, so they are pretty much the owner of that area. We have a CFO to own finances, HR, hiring benefits, all of that kind of stuff. With the recent hire of a VP of Customer Success, I have someone that owns that team and is, like I said, in 60 days has already had a fabulous impact there. And then I have someone in head of design that he kinda works with the product manager for all interface design and feature design and all that kind of stuff. So it's a little bit of a tandem there, but that really gives me that.32:01 DS: Yeah.32:02 AW: And sales is that last place where it's like I completely own that right now. We only have one sales person on staff. We're trying to bring on a second, but I need to get enough bodies and I either need one to emerge as a leader that I can say, "Hey, this is yours to own and you need to build goals and you need to train and do whatever else," or I need to find that person. But right now I'm just at the stage where I just need more staff allocated to doing sales even more so than I need a leader or a builder of that area.32:30 DS: Interesting, and you talking about your structure and all these different people and me thinking about me being that CEO bottleneck, one sort of spark of an idea that I just had was all these questions that come at me, it's a good exercise for me as a leader to look at that and say, "Who else could own this question?" Rather than me answering this, who could be the person that can make a decision on these things and then building up those people within my team and saying, "This is something you can handle," or at least, or thinking about a role of someone that can handle that and then slowly trying to siphon off these decisions, 'cause what does a CEO do? They just make decisions all day long, deciding what this should be, that should be, and it's like trying to put other people in positions to make those decisions for the company, I think, is the key to getting into that stage where I would be able to focus on being a visionary rather than the person that has to answer every question.33:32 AW: Absolutely. And yeah, I don't ever wanna be that bottleneck and I don't wanna be the only resource too. Number one, I am incredibly opinionated. And sometimes that's a strength because I'm gonna have a strong opinion and I'm gonna do research and get experience to back it up and all those different things. It's not gonna be... It's not just gonna be thrown into the wind. There's a lot to support it, but on the other end of that, sometimes that causes me to just be too stuck in my ways or only viewing it one way. And that's one thing that I found by empowering other people and giving them decisions.34:06 DS: Yeah.34:09 AW: And then just creating... I think it's really important then to create a communication cycle where you're in the loop but the loop still goes without you, right? So you don't have to be in it all.34:20 DS: Yeah.34:21 AW: And sometimes I hear the decisions and sometimes I'm like, "Huh, yeah, I wouldn't have done it that way or thought about it, but that totally works," and sometimes has more success than what I would have dreamed up. And there's still are times where I'm like, "Wait a minute, how do that get decided? I think we missed some things," and whatever else, but those are just teaching moments that everyone to talk through it.34:38 DS: Sure. Yep.34:40 AW: So the next time that we have that we can approach it differently.34:43 DS: Yep. Yeah, and the one thing I've learned more and more is that when I am not rigid on my opinion, then I often come around to the opinion of others and realize, "You know what? I think he makes some really good points and that is probably the best direction to go." And so I really try to be open and think about it from the different perspectives. I feel like that's one of the primary features of a leader, like you really have to be able to listen hard and listen well and think about what other people are suggesting 'cause that oftentimes, we'll have better ideas than you do.35:23 AW: Yep. What would it look like for Whitespark if Darren said, "I'm taking the rest of 2019 off," who would own the different areas and make the decisions and whatever else? I think that would be an interesting scenario for you to play through in your head. And then how do you maybe implement some of those or start working through some of those things so that you can peel it away? Because I find and maybe you'd find the same, like I need space to think. I can't come up with big ideas or vision or the next partnership or whatever else if I'm just so far down in the weeds on little mundane decisions on how many pixels something is, not to say I still don't stick my head down in there, but I really shouldn't do that.36:08 DS: Yeah, exactly. Well, you know what? I'm just gonna do it. I'm taking the rest of 2019 off. Good idea, Aaron.[laughter]36:14 DS: Thank you. That's it. I'm out. Good luck, Whitespark.36:18 AW: Yeah, the Whitespark team is gonna send me some hate mail for sure.[laughter]36:23 DS: Yeah. No, it's a really great thought exercise and to think about who takes over because honestly, I go on vacations and I do work hard to disconnect and the company never falls apart. It runs just fine without me. When I get back, there's some decisions that are waiting for me, but I think it does come back to really trying to assign those decisions and empowering people on my team to make those decisions without me and rather than holding the reins on some of these things. So I'm gonna really use this as a starting point to look for those decisions and say, "Who else could make this decision instead of me?"37:01 AW: Yeah. Ultimately, Darren, through those four stages, and you talk about how you're primed that second stage in the product right now, do you ultimately even wanna get to the fourth stage? Like is that where you wanna be? Because I think it's okay too to look and say like, "These things I am, this I'm not. I don't ever wanna get there. And if anything, someday I might hire a CEO and I just stay, I'm VP of Product," right? What does that look like for you? 37:25 DS: I can tell you exactly. When I look at these four stages, this is what I wanna happen. I've already passed technical CEO, the feasibility, the building, but we have a pretty good product and obviously it needs a lot more work and that's why I'm spending so much time in product, in the product CEO stage because of churn, actually. David Ulevitch mentioned this on the podcast that if you've identified... We're talking about what time it is. Well, right now, what time it is right now, it is fix the product, and that's what we're doing right now. And so when the product is fixed, I think I would love to skip sales for the most part. I would like the model that you described where I am still on sales calls and I'm thinking about sales and I'm thinking about how to grow sales, but I'm not the person closing for the most part. And then once the product is humming and we can scale, then I would love to jump to that, go-to-market CEO stage and scale the business like to $5, $10, $100 million.38:26 DS: That is my dream and that is where I want to get in the next five years. I wanna get there, and I think I can get there and I do think it really comes down to getting the right people in place at those stages, because once you get a really good product manager, you don't have to be a product CEO anymore. Once you get an awesome sales director, you don't have to be the sales CEO and then you can really focus on being that go-to-market CEO. And so these four stages are really... It's a really great framework to think about as the leader of a company and trying to say, "How are we," and then make your plans, right? Plan out how are we gonna get to those stages and what do we need to do to reach that stage? And for me, I know exactly what it is for the most part. It'll evolve over time, but I know how to get there. And so I think our road map looks pretty good for that, but I'll be a product CEO for at least another year I think.39:20 AW: That's a brilliant take, and I think the most important thing when I look at that is just that self-awareness, where even he broke down, it's really about asking where are you right now, "what time is it? ". You just answered that, and where do you wanna go. And sometimes, especially when you're so busy in the business, you don't step out and look at a framework like this or see, what type of leader do I need to be and where do I need to be focusing that gets us to the right place? 39:49 DS: Yeah.39:50 AW: And just as you're there right now, that... It's still, as you alluded to, I still have my hand in that a little bit, but we fixed a lot of the things that we needed to have that product market fit where I didn't get my rear end kicked on the sales calls I was on, and even to some extent, there's a couple more things we're releasing this year which really takes my confidence to an all-time record high, and it shows in your sales call. That's, if anything, I probably only did the product CEO so heavily just because I knew what I needed to sell to be the sales CEO, and I knew if I was gonna go into the ring and just get my butt kicked every time, it was gonna crash and burn.40:28 DS: Yeah.40:33 AW: The product had to be better. We had to shore up some of the gaps and we were able to do that. But you have to realize that, and if you're only doing... If you're not pulling up and looking at it from this level, you're gonna miss seeing that. If you only look at it in the four or five clear stages, you're not really understanding where you're at. You might not get yourself out of that stage to ever get to the next one.41:00 DS: Yeah, exactly. This framework really helps you to see where you need to focus. Yeah, it's so defeating when I, as a sales, when I'm wearing the sales hat, when the leads come in, it'll be like... We have 10,000 locations. This is a major company that wants to work with us.41:14 AW: Yep.41:15 DS: And we don't have the product for them. This is what I face on a weekly basis, really great leads that I can't service. And so this is where... This is why I'm a product CEO right now. I'm a product CEO because I have to fix our product so that we have... These people are coming at us thinking we have it when we don't actually have it, and so we're building it right now, and I can't wait to have it so I can sell it to them.41:38 AW: Then you just say, "Yep, here is your contract to sign."41:43 DS: Yeah, exactly.41:44 AW: That's awesome. Well, hey we, as I mentioned, we will link to this episode of that podcast in our show notes. Give it a listen, again, if you're a bootstrap company. Most likely you are. That's why you're listening to us as we put out episodes. It isn't about mirroring the VC. They're different. All those things are different, but there's just so many great little details and frameworks to pull out and hopefully us talking about where we're at within this four stage of the CEO's journey is helpful to you and hopefully you can take a look at it and figure out how you're, where you're at in it. Anything you wanna communicate on what's coming up or next for you, Darren before we talk again in a couple of weeks? 42:30 DS: No, nothing big to announce. I'm gonna go to LocalU this week in Johnstown, Pennsylvania. So I'm looking forward to seeing some of the LocalU friends, Mike Blumenthal, Joey Hawkins, Joel Headley. So I'll be, great to see.42:41 AW: That's a great group.42:43 DS: Yeah, really great, and I can't wait to hang out with you and the rest of the get list or the gather-up crew at MozCon. Man, I can't wait for that. It's gonna be fun.42:51 AW: It'll be a great week in Seattle, and yeah, we'll have to, no matter where we're at in our cycle, we will have to record the MozCon in person episode.43:00 DS: Yes. We should actually get that on the calendar so that we know exactly what time we're doing it and we make it happen.43:06 AW: Yeah. And something tells me it's gonna be somewhere where we can have a beverage in front of us to help with all the conversation and ideas.43:12 DS: Yeah, with laptops far away from those beverages.[laughter]43:16 AW: My wife actually told me I can't do any more jokes on you for spilling the beer. She said I wore that out, so I'm glad you did the joke instead of me.43:23 DS: Yeah, I brought it up.43:24 AW: Yep.43:24 DS: Yeah. So you're off the hook on that one.43:26 AW: She's the most critical listener of the SaaS Venture. So...43:30 DS: Great. It's good to have a critical feedback person. Yeah, for sure.43:33 AW: Yeah. You passed with flying colors. You know you're an arm's length away. You can do no wrong. But I gotta work. I gotta work on my game, so...[laughter]43:42 DS: Alright.43:43 AW: Awesome. Well, thanks, Darren. Thanks everybody for listening. We're always trying to grow our audience. So writing a review on Apple iTunes would be helpful. Sharing a link to one of our episodes on social media or letting people in your Mastermind group, your LinkedIn group, out on LinkedIn, any of that, we would so appreciate it. We're excited for the hundreds that we reach, but we would love to have more. And as always, if you have an episode suggestion or an idea, hit Darren or I up on Twitter and we would be happy to try to work that into our topics and into the upcoming shows. So with that, Darren, have a fabulous time at the LocalU event coming up, and I'm excited to see you in Seattle in July.44:26 DS: Alright. Yep, you too. Have a great week. Talk to you later.44:29 AW: Alright. Take care everybody.[music]

Dave Kellogg is CEO of Host Analytics and prolific blogger. Join him as he takes you through lessons learned from Host Analytics on the top questions every SaaS CEO wrestles with. Dave was CEO of Host Analytics from 2012 to 2018 where he quintupled ARR while halving customer acquisition costs in a highly competitive market, ultimately selling the company in a private equity transaction.   Missed the session? Here’s what Dave talks about: When is the right time to raise money? How can you better manage the board? Should you worry about competitors? If you would like to find out more about the show and the guests presented, you can follow us on Twitter here: Jason Lemkin SaaStr Dave Kellogg

May I have your attention, please? Will the real startup founders please watch this video? We’re gonna have a podcast here! Today is a special day! We’re announcing my NEW show, it’s called Escape Velocity. It’s a video podcast show where I interview the world’s top SaaS CEO’s to deconstruct and learn what it took for them to succeed and grow. So let’s kick things off with a question… Have you been wondering how to improve customer support for your startup without spending more $$$? Maybe you think the obvious solution is hiring more support staff How about something more far-fetched that can actually boost the quality of your support, but also get your engineers to think more like your customers, fix software bugs faster, and add new features? In the very first episode of Escape Velocity, Proof’s CEO Dave Rogenmoser shares his simple customer support strategy which achieves all of the above. But that’s just one of the many things we covered. Check out the full Escape Velocity show below. Seriously…so much food for thought, it’s like Easter dinner at your grandma’s. During our conversation, we cover: 1. Customer Support Power Hours2. Building your company for exit (or not) 3. Learning through failures 4. How to fight churn rate5. The role of a company leader 6. Success – brilliance or good timing We’ve prepared a HUGE 6-course menu here with very Saa(u)Sy appetizers, but if you want to skip to the main course, go to the 30 minute mark… The idea behind Customer Support Power Hours is brilliant in its simplicity. You take your co-founders, engineers, EVERYONE on your team…you sit together and hammer away support tickets. Who knew this would be so effective? It works because if an engineer messed up the coding, they can just jump on the spot and fix it for the client. It also gives them the ability to understand what exactly the customers need, build new features, and get a real sense of how the software works. If you don’t involve your engineers in customer support, they cannot feel the repercussions of writing crappy code. So there’s simply NO BETTER WAY to expose your team to your software’s bugs and opportunities than having them interact with customers in real time. It will help you create the customer-centric culture your startup needs. In order to be a 3-star-Michelin chef, you should engage your entire team with the quality of your service. Catch the full ep here and then drop a comment letting me know any questions you have about this awesome new podcast chapter. Ha ha, guess there’s a startup founder in all of us. -- Dan Martell has advised more startups than his hometown has people and teaches startup founders like you how to scale. He previously created, raised venture funding for and successfully exited two tech startups: Flowtown and Clarity.fm. You should follow him on twitter @danmartell for tweets that are actually awesome. + Instagram (behind the scenes): http://instagram.com/danmartell + Facebook (live trainings + Q&A): http://FB.com/DanMartell + Twitter (what I'm reading): http://twitter.com/danmartell

CEO of BlueSnap, Ralph Dangelmaier has grown both public and private technology companies with a focus on marketing, sales, & product development. In this episode, we learn about how Ralph developed the leadership strategy that named him a Top 50 SaaS CEO by the SaaS Report and earned him a place on Ernst & Young’s Entrepreneur of the Year program. Show Notes and other links from the show: https://www.teddhuff.com/the-tedd-huff-show/21 Support this podcast

Shep Hyken sits down with Nick Mehta, CEO of Gainsight. They discuss why you should be proactive instead of reactive, how the subscription model is shaping customer loyalty, and why making your customers happy is no longer enough.  Shep Hyken’s opening monologue is about consistency. Three important points:Your product has to meet the customer s needs every time.Your omni-channel presence must have a consistent experience.The attitude of the employees must be consistent.Top Takeaways:You have to proactively ensure that you’re delivering success to your customers. If you wait until they call you to voice their complaints, it may be too late.Because of the subscription model and the numerous options available to consumers, they don’t have to be loyal to any one company. If you can’t deliver your customer’s desired outcome, they will find someone else who can.Keeping your customers happy isn’t enough anymore. Today, they have to get more value from you than they can get anywhere else. This is why Jeff Bezos says he isn’t scared of his competitors. He’s scared of his customers, because they have the choice to leave every day.Companies are realizing that they need somebody whose job is to ensure customers are getting maximum value. According to LinkedIn, the third fastest growing job title in 2018 is Customer Success Manager.You have to proactively ensure your customers are achieving their desired outcome. Three ways to do that are:Start at the beginning of the process by on-boarding the customer and getting them up to speed on how to use your product/service.Ask them what it will take for them to continue doing business with you in the future.Reach out to them over time to make sure they’re getting value and reaching their desired outcomes.About: Nick Mehta is the CEO of Gainsight. In his six years as CEO, he’s secured over $156 million in funding, expanded the employee base to over 500 employees, and been recognized as the third best SAAS CEO out of 5,000 nominees. He also co-authored the book Customer Success: How Innovative Companies Are Reducing Churn And Growing Recurring Revenue. Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and your host of Amazing Business Radio. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jon Stein is the Founder & CEO @ Betterment, the online financial advisor built for people who refuse to settle for average investing. To date, Jon has raised $275m in VC funding with Betterment from the likes of Bessemer Ventures Partners, Menlo Ventures, Kinnevik and Francisco Partners, just to name a few. Prior to founding Betterment, Jon spent 4 years as a consultant at First Manhattan Consulting Group where he really honed his experience in working with banks and brokers including revitalizing a bank in Australia with the launch of a best-in-market auto-finance offering, resulting in 50% lift to revenue. As a result of his phenomenal success with Betterment Jon has won many awards including Fortune’s 40 Under 40. In Today’s Episode We Discuss: How Jon made his way into the world of startups and came to found democratize the world of investing with Betterment? When does Jon believe is that critical moment when the founding team must hire their first employee? What is the right strategy to build the candidate pipe for hiring those first employees? Where does Jon see many go wrong here? What 1-2 questions does Jon always find the most enlightening to ask in the interview? Once hired, what have been some of Jon’s biggest lessons in terms of optimising the onboarding experience and the first 60 days? How has their process changed over time? How does Jon determine when a stretch candidate is a stretch too far? If so, what does Jon believe is the right way to let go of an individual? What does Jon believe to be the 3 core roles of the CEO in any company today? From those, what has Jon found most challenging? What did he do to level up and overcome the challenges? How does Jon approach transparency with the team in delicate cases like fundraising and acquisition etc? With the team and product in place, scale can occur, what are the 2-3 things that all companies need to focus on when product market fit has been achieved? How does Jon determine when is the right time to really put the pedal to the metal and scale? Jon’s 60 Second SaaStr: Jon’s favourite book and why? What does on know now that he wishes he had known at the beginning? What is Jon’s biggest strength and weakness? 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 Jon Stein

Host Kyle Racki welcomes listeners to LTV, formerly Proposify Biz Chat. In this show, he’ll draw from his experiences of building SaaS company Proposify to frankly discuss the challenges of scaling a business, and offer wisdom to other entrepreneurs. Download now to learn more about upcoming episodes, and hear Kyle explain the rebranding of Proposify Biz Chat. See more: https://www.proposify.com/podcast  

Steve Lucas is the CEO @ Marketo, the world leader in marketing automation for companies of any size. Prior to their IPO and eventual sale to Vista Equity partners for $1.79Bn they raised over $100m in VC funding from the likes of Battery Ventures, IVP, Mayfield and Lead Edge Capital. As for Steve, prior to joining Marketo, he served in many leadership positions at SAP, Salesforce, Microsoft, BusinessObjects, and Crystal Decisions. If that wasn’t enough Steve also sits on the board of Tivo, SendGrid and The American Diabetes Society. In Today’s Episode You Will Learn: How did Steve make his way into the world of SaaS and come to be CEO @ Marketo? Why does Steve describe his experience at Salesforce to be life-changing? What were the core takeaways for Steve? How has that impacted how he operates today with Marketo? What does Steve mean when he says Marc Benioff is a “master of relevance”? Why does Steve believe the key to success as a CEO is accessibility? How can CEOs be both vulnerable and strong in today’s SaaS world? What are the 2 different types of CEOs and how they engage with their CMOs? What do the best do? What do the worst do? Why does Steve believe that the “CRM” term is incomplete? How does Steve fundamentally believe the way that customers want to be engaged with has changed? How can marketers enact this level of personalisation and engagement with such large customer bases? How does the role of artificial intelligence fit into this mass scale personalisation? How does Steve view the broader martech landscape? Why does Steve strongly believe that we will be entering a period of consolidation in martech? How does Steve view the emergence of new categories such as ABM? How does this impact his overarching view on the next wave for martech?   Steve’s 60 Second SaaStr What does Steve know now that he wishes he had known when he started? Management upgrade is the most important role of CEO, agree? What keeps Steve up at night? How does that influence his running and operations of Marketo? 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 Steve Lucas

Today, I'm talking with , a serial SaaS CEO and Marketing Scientist. While he runs many businesses, his primary focus is currently , a tool that helps franchise businesses automate marketing, selling, operations, and pretty much anything that takes a lot of time. G. has built several successful SaaS businesses and he attributes much of their success to the way he created their marketing plans. In today's interview, G. walks through exactly what goes into these marketing plans, why they are so effective, and how you can build your own. G. really knows his stuff and provides the sort of unique perspective the startup world needs more of.

This month David tells me how having customer success as first hire shaped the way they grew Hotjar and why he feels that most founders focus too much on optimizing while missing the bigger opportunity.

On the latest episode of the SaaS Revolution Show Alex is joined by Chris Hall, CEO at Dutch marketing tech company Bynder. In the conversation they touch on the pillars that define the journey of a CEO - from scaling and growing the company, its culture and its people to the personal transformation a CEO undergoes and how to deal with it. One key lesson he has picked on the way is that the most satisfying thing about being a CEO is seeing every person succeed in the right role. Founded in 2013, Bynder was a spin-off from Label A, a web development agency Chris ran with his co-founders Roland Keijzer and Stefan Pelders. The company bootstrapped its way to $10 million ARR in the following three years. “When you are bootstrapped, your only problem is cash,” Chris says. “Every purchase you make feels like it's coming from your pocket.” To seize the potential Bynder had for growth, it needed the sort of cash injection that comes with VC funding. By August 2016, Bynder secured a $20 million Series A round. Chris had to very quickly transition from the entrepreneur that fixed everything to the CEO that would let go and allow others to do it. Listen on to hear: How to stop micromanaging people. How to tackle the challenges of being the CEO of a venture-backed scaling company. How to balance the act between listening to your own gut and what blogs and podcasts are telling you to do. How to get and keep the right people at the different stages of a company growth. How to create an authentic and genuine culture and live up to the words you put out as CEO. Please let us know how we are doing by leaving a review on your favourite podcast application.

Tim Kopp, Tim is a Managing Partner with Hyde Park Venture Partners one of the leading early stage VCs in the Midwest. Prior to joining Hyde Park Venture Partners, Tim was the CMO of ExactTarget for 6+ years, leading a global team of nearly 300 amazing marketing leaders. Tim helped grow ExactTarget from $47M to $400M in revenue, through IPO, and ultimately to a $2.7B sale to Salesforce. He previously spent 10+ years in consumer marketing with P&G and Coca-Cola. You can follow his advice for startup executives and marketing leaders at his newly launched website:www.cmovc.com. In Today’s Episode You Will Learn: How Tim made his way into the world of B2B marketing and then made the transition into the world of venture? Why does Tim believe marketing in B2B is unbuilt and uninspired? What would Tim like to see change? What are SaaS CEO’s doing wrong with regards to organisation and scaling of their marketing team? What questions should they be asking? Why does the best B2B marketers come from the world of B2C? What makes them more effective than current B2B marketers? Why is ABM the most revolutionary thing to happen to marketing for the last decade? How can startups and CEOs integrate ABM into their current marketing forecasts? 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 Tim Kopp

Josh McCarter led the spinout of a small firm and with great leadership and a big vision, re-focused the company into new markets and the company experienced explosive growth. As a software-as-a-service (SaaS) company, Booker’s platform empowers firms such as spas, salons, dance studios, and photographers to manage their appointments, their staff, and their customers, and, importantly, be able to transact with those customers. With a recent acquisition, Booker has become an end-to-end platform that a service-based business can use to both run their operations and grow their sales. In today's show, Josh discusses the keys to the firm's growth and how the SaaS model works. 

Michael Perry, owner of Kit, an online marketing software that lets people connect eCommerce sites to different social media platforms. Listen as Nathan and Michael talk about how they started their respective businesses, how they’re using Facebook to target clients today, and why Kit should be so attractive to entrepreneurs. Famous 5Favorite Book? – Search Inside YourselfWhat CEO do you follow?— Mark ZuckerburgWhat is your favorite online tool?— ClaraDo you get 8 hours of sleep?— NoIf you could let your 20 year old self know one thing, what would it be?— Nothing f****** matters Time Stamped Show Notes:01:15 – Nathan’s introduction01:43 – Welcoming Michael to the show01:47 – Defining small business survivalist 02:20 – How Michael currently makes money02:23 – The idea for Kit03:37 – How Kit started and how many clients currently working with it04:32 – No one wants to invest in technology for SMB—But they should!05:20 – “We didn’t want to be an agency, we wanted to become a software company and create a digital person that can work for SMB owners 24/7”06:16 – Right now, Kit has about 2000 paying customers08:22 – People have this misguided notion that everything on the internet should be free—this is simply not the case09:03 – Acquisition cost per customer is at $21 via Facebook11:26 – Kit is not a non-profit—it’s all about revenue11:48 – What revenue number would you love to hit in 2016? -$150,000-$200,000 MRR12:19 – Hitting those metrics is not an option13:26 – 99% of the time it’s the people behind the business that make the business GREAT13:34 – It’s better to have a good team than a good idea15:05 – @MichaelPerry Michael@kitcrm.com 3 Key Points:SMB business owners would be wise to invest in technology early—the long-term gains outweigh the upfront expense.Just because something is on the internet, doesn’t mean that it should be free.It’s your team—not your ideas, not your products—that make your business great. Resources Mentioned:Kit –an online marketing assistanceHost Gator - Powerful web hosting made easy and affordable. The Top is FOR YOU if you are: A STUDENT who wants to become the CEO of a $10m company in under 24 months (episode #4) STUCK in the CORPORATE grind and looking to create a $10k/mo side business so you can quit (episode #7) An influencer or BLOGGER who wants to make $27k/mo in monthly RECURRING revenue to have the life you want and full CONTROL (episode #1) The Software as a Service (SaaS) entrepreneur who wants to grow to a $100m+ valuation (episode #14). Your host, Nathan Latka is a 25 year old software entrepreneur who has driven over $4.5 million in revenue and built a 25 person team as he dropped out of school, raised $2.5million from a Forbes Billionaire, and attracted over 10,000 paying customers from 160+ different countries.   Oprah gets 60 minutes or more to make her guests comfortable to then ask tough questions. Nathan does it all in less than 15 minutes in this daily podcast that's like an audio version of Pat Flynn's monthly income report. Join the Top Tribe at http://NathanLatka.com/TheTop  

This episode was recorded at Saastr Annual 2016 featuring Jason Lemkin, Founder @ Saastr and Josh Stein, Partner @ DFJ. For those that do not know, Josh is arguably one of the most successful investors in the SaaS space having backed the likes of Box, Twilio, Yammer and many more from the very earliest of stages. In Today's Show We Cover: What is the fundamental differing between a great and a good CEO in SaaS? Is it possible to learn to become a great CEO? What did Aaron Levie do to enable Box to scale so successfully? How can startup founders determine whether they have the ability to go the distance as CEO? 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 Josh Stein If you enjoyed the conversation with Keith today and want to save your space at what promises to be the best Saastr Annual ever, Saastr Annual 2017! You can buy early bird tickets here!