On this month’s episode of the Struggle, Alex Theuma speaks with Liam Boogar-Azoulay, Head of Marketing at MadKudu, a predictive lead scoring solution for SaaS companies.

Liam has had somewhat of an unusual path professionally and personally. When everyone was moving to Silicon Valley, he moved away from it, landing in Paris. While most people would hone their skills in a particular area first and then dare to start their own company, Liam’s first job was starting Rude Baguette, a blog devoted to startups.  

He had started it almost as soon as he moved to Paris. Rude Baguette would end up being one of the biggest startup publications in France, which employed 10 people. That is until Liam brought it to bankruptcy, a slow one as you will hear him describe in this interview, but a bankruptcy nevertheless. In retrospect, he knows exactly what went wrong but at the time some of his flaws were hidden. One thing he realized from the experience is that he had enjoyed building the brand far more than being a CEO. With that in mind, he joined Algolia as their first ever Brand Director, 11 weeks after he had filed for bankruptcy. They caused mistakes, which he would repeat at Algolia, a company he joined 11 weeks after filing for bankruptcy.

He would spend a total of a year and a half at Algolia, leaving it in almost as dramatic a fashion as folding Rude Baguette. His time there was marked by some incredible feats like a full rebrand but also some pretty big mistakes, deriving from often not knowing what to do but never admitting to it or asking for help, his innate need to always portray he knew the answer getting in the way. By the time he started with Madkudu, Liam knew there were major gaps he needed help with or he would fail again. Admitting to his vulnerabilities openly Liam asked for an executive coach. MadKudu’s founders said yes.

As with all the other guests on The Struggle, we have the utmost respect for Liam for his openness, honesty, and willingness to learn from his shortcomings so others can learn from them too.

As you will hear in the interview, Liam met Madkudu’s founder Frances at SaaStock. In fact, for a long time, Liam used to think SaaStock was called SaaStalk because of all of the invaluable conversations that take place during our conference for founders, executives and investors. If you want to partake in the networking, the life-changing conversations and lasting relationships, join us in Dublin this October for SaaStock19.

Check out the other ways SaaStock is serving SaaS founders

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