The Remarkable SaaS Podcast #156 - Akeel Jabber - On the art of building a SaaS business that’s so good, they can’t ignore you
This podcast interview focuses on what secrets investors are looking for in B2B SaaS companies. My guest is Akeel Jabber, Investment Director and GP at HoriZen Capital
Akeel is an expert in growth marketing strategy and business operations. He’s also an engineer who was previously a partner and operations director at Wired investors, a micro private equity firm focused on digital asset acquisitions and has been involved in over 15 company acquisitions.
Today, he’s a general partner and Investment Director at HoriZen Capital, an investment firm that invests and acquires SaaS companies over $500k in ARR. He’s also the host of the SaaS District podcast, where he interviews entrepreneurs and investors on topics such as leadership, B2B sales, growth marketing, innovation, scaling, funding and M&A.
The combination intrigued me, and hence I invited Akeel to my podcast. We explore what’s essential to make the ‘marriage’ between a start-up and investor magic. What do investors look for, what do they value and care about, and what turns them off. Besides that, we discuss (through the eyes of an investor) what it takes to build a remarkable software business.
Here are some of his quotes:
When you're building a company, try to think outside the box, and be so good they can't ignore you.
There's kind of two kind of trends that I found with how people stumble upon starting to their company
Number one, you have the people who just know it from the beginning: I'm an entrepreneur. I have to build something.And then once I build the next one, I go to the next one, and it's just in my DNA.
And then there's the other side, that people don't think about it. They're stuck into a problem that they never even thought to monetize or build as a solution. So, they just build a solution, because they're creators
The moral of the story is like, it doesn't matter. You don't have to be a born entrepreneur think that it's built into you, you just have to be able to look around for a problem to solve.
If you feel you can solve it, take that courage, take that step, I think you have nothing to lose, you'd be surprised with yourself.
During this interview, you will learn four things:
- That it doesn’t matter how you start and build your SaaS business. The power is in starting. Ideas are cheap. The value is in bringing it alive
- Why you should avoid fitting into the norm – build your business the way you want to build it.
- That your ability to have customers stick around for the long-term is more important than growing fast.
- That we tend to be proud in saying we’re doing ABCDEFG – but focus is king. It’s more important to showcase how you do 1 thing extremely well.
For more information about the guest from this week: