How to turn an untapped market into an IPO with Frederic Kerrest, Okta

Sep 13, 2018

Ask episode

Chapters

Transcript

Episode notes

It was early on in his time at Salesforce that Frederic Kerrest knew SaaS was going to be huge. On paper, enterprise on-premise software ruled the world, banking $500B in revenue a year. In comparison, Salesforce, which in 2002 was the only one charging on a subscription basis, had an ARR of around $25M. But Frederic knew that was destined to change. The tables would turn.

He spent five years at Salesforce, working in sales and business development. He started and built the Latin America sales organization, Mobile group and OEM / Reseller programs. This week’s guest on the SaaS Revolution Show, Frederic Kerrest, left Salesforce when he had learned a huge amount about SaaS and in 2009 co-founded Okta, a company that brought identity management to the cloud. The company went public last year on NASDAQ, an experience Frederic covers extensively on the podcast.

Listen on to learn:

What the road to IPO has been like for Frederic and Okta
What is essential in the preparation for it
What has played the biggest role in its success

Inspired by Okta and Frederic’s story we want to bring one lucky SaaS Revolution Show listener to SaaStock and SaaS.City for free, with something money can’t buy on top - an invite to our Speaker’s dinner. It’s a once in a lifetime chance to meet exceptional founders and have up-close conversations with them. To enter, go to saasrevolution.show and sign up for the raffle until Wednesday, September 19th at midnight. We will announce the winner at next week’s episode.

Check out the other ways SaaStock is helping SaaS founders move their business forward:

🇮🇪 SaaStock Europe: 14-15 October 2025 | Dublin, Ireland
Book tickets: https://saastock-europe.com/tickets/

🇺🇸 SaaStock USA 2025: April 2026 | Austin, Texas
Book tickets: https://saastock-usa.com/

🤝 SaaStock Founder Membership: A private members group of B2B SaaS founders between $100K - $10M ARR who are committed to growth and helping others (https://www.saastock.com/founder-membership/)

🌎 SaaStock Local: Monthly meet-ups in cities all around the world, bringing together SaaS enthusiasts and experts to discuss the most pressing topics in SaaS (https://local.saastock.com/home)