#385 – Speed is the strategy: Redefining Enterprise software for a changing world

A story about speed as strategy—and why saying no to billion-dollar deals built a stronger company.

This episode is for SaaS founders who feel stuck between landing big logos and building what actually scales.

Most SaaS companies don't fail because they lack ambition. They fail because they chase the wrong customers.

Mark Walker, CEO of Nue, took a different path. With decades in enterprise software—ERP, CRM, NetSuite—he joined Nue in March 2022 when it was pre-revenue and a "science experiment." He made one decision that changed everything: focus on speed over complexity. When Nvidia came calling, he said no. When asked to build for everyone, he picked his peers instead.

And this inspired me to invite Mark to my podcast. We explore why treating speed as your core product creates defensible value. Mark shares his philosophy on saying no to wrong-fit customers, building modular systems that compress implementation from years to weeks, and why honesty beats hype when competing against legacy vendors. You'll discover why OpenAI went live in 8 weeks and Anthropic in 12—and what that speed signals to the market.

We also zoom in on two of the 10 traits that define remarkable software companies:

• They acknowledge they cannot please everyone
• They aim to be different, not just better

Mark's story is proof that when you optimize every decision for customer speed, saying no to complexity becomes your competitive advantage.

Here's one of Mark's quotes that captures his approach to market focus:

"If you want to be great at something, you have to be bad at something else. There are no NFL linemen who are also World Champion marathoners. They're both elite athletes, but they're not the same athlete."

By listening to this episode, you'll learn:

• Why the fastest implementations come from saying no to features, not adding them
• What happens when you tell a billion-dollar prospect they're not the right fit
• When modularity beats monolithic systems in multi-model revenue businesses
• Why traditional enterprises are preemptively switching systems before they know what's coming

For more information about the guest from this week:

Guest: Mark Walker, CEO at Nue

Website: nue.io