Tope Awotona (CEO & Founder of Calendly) and Blake Bartlett (Partner at OpenView Ventures) are this week’s guests on The SaaS Revolution Show. This is a session from SaaStock Remote 2021. Last year, ⅓ of tech founders struggled to secure funding. In the early days of SaaS unicorn Calendly, raising money was also a big challenge for Tope Awotona. To get the company off the ground, he had to take a different path. This included investing his life savings, stretching every dollar and doubling-down on virality. Whilst a struggle, this ultimately benefited the business model, leading to the creation of a product that ‘sold itself’. In conversation with Blake Bartlett, Tope shares how he overcame these early challenges to drive the company's extraordinary growth. You'll learn the secrets behind one of the most successful product-led businesses in the world. Check out the other ways SaaStock is serving SaaS founders 🇺🇸 SaaStock USA 2025: 13-15 May 2025 | Austin, Texas. Connect, learn and thrive at the leading conference for B2B SaaS Founders, Operators and Investors from Pre-Seed to Series C. (https://ti.to/saastock/saastock-usa-2025) 🇮🇪 SaaStock Europe 2025: 12-14 October 2025 | Dublin, Ireland. "The best SaaS conference for founders, execs & investors in Europe, period." - Christoph Janz, Partner, Point Nine. (https://share.hsforms.com/1FbUpCXpJT8um3MehUUYcAg3upof) 🤝 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)