Jason Fan: Lessons from Growing a 200-people SaaS in the HR Tech space

Jason Fan is the co-founder and CEO of Forma, a flexible employee benefits platform trusted by companies like Microsoft, Etsy, TripAdvisor, and New Balance. Since launching in 2017, Forma has scaled to over 200 employees and helped define an entirely new category—Lifestyle Spending Accounts (LSAs).

In this episode, Jason breaks down how they landed Microsoft early in their journey, what it actually takes to win in enterprise, and why they debated for months whether to even pursue the deal.

Topics we cover in this episode:

- Why traditional employee benefits are broken and how LSAs fix it

- How Forma landed Microsoft as a customer just 2 years in

- The risks of going enterprise too early—and how to mitigate them

- What a team sport sales really looks like inside a startup

- Why product requests ≠ good product strategy

- How to build defensibility through customer experience, not features

- Jason’s approach to founder-led content and LinkedIn awareness

- Lessons from category creation in a slow-moving industry

Perfect for:

- SaaS founders building in traditional or slow-moving industries

- GTM and sales leaders navigating the jump to enterprise

- Product founders learning to say no to feature creep

- Anyone trying to educate a market and build a new category

Don't forget to subscribe to the podcast for more insights from industry leaders reshaping B2B SaaS and marketing!

Connect with Jason:

- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasonfan1203/

- Forma: https://www.joinforma.com/

Connect with me:

- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/finnthormeier/

- Website: https://www.project33.io/

- Podcast: https://open.spotify.com/show/03CXzsZp7wdqIRVDcqPTFH

Chapters

00:00 Introduction and Jason’s Background

01:40 Why Employee Benefits Are Broken

04:55 How Lifestyle Spending Accounts Work

08:10 Inventing a New Category—Before the Term Existed

10:30 What Triggered the HR Benefits Shift Post-COVID

13:41 How Forma Landed Microsoft as a Customer

16:50 Enterprise Sales as a Team Sport

19:00 Should You Bet Your Startup on One Big Logo?

21:20 When Enterprise Product Requests Derail the Roadmap

23:28 The Difference Between Scalable vs. Custom Feature Work

27:36 Why Customer Experience is a Moat

30:20 Building Products for End Users—Not Just Buyers

32:25 Product vs. Relationship: When Not to Build a Feature

34:25 Advice for SaaS Founders Entering HR

36:21 How Forma Is (Carefully) Exploring AI

38:05 What HR Teams Actually Care About with AI

39:59 Founder-Led Marketing & Jason’s LinkedIn Strategy

42:10 The Process Behind Jason’s LinkedIn Content

43:46 Why Content Helps Own the LSA Narrative

45:25 Closing Thoughts & Why HR Is a Great Space to Build

#linkedin #founderledmarketing #saas #b2bmarketing #contentmarketing #ecommerce #shopify #personalbranding

#linkedin #founderledmarketing #linkedinads #linkedinagency #founderbranding #saas #b2bmarketing #demandgeneration #demandgen #content #b2b #revenue #contentmarketing #performancemarketing #videomarketing #personalbrandingcoach #linkedin #founderledmarketing #saas #b2bmarketing #aiagents #salesautomation #outboundsales #contentmarketing #growthstrategy