Traction

On this episode of the Traction podcast, host Lloyed Lobo of Boast.AI welcomes Mark Roberge, Managing Director at Stage 2 Capital. Previously, Mark was the CRO at HubSpot seeing it from the earliest stages through post-IPO.   “When to scale?” and “How fast?” are two mission-critical questions for start-ups, yet most entrepreneurs lack a rigorous approach to answering them.   After peeking inside the go-to-market machinery of hundreds of start-ups over the last decade, Mark Roberge shares a scientific, data-driven approach to go from zero to billion fast.   In this episode, Mark specifically covers:   2:39 - How he met the founders of HubSpot 5:16 - How his role evolved from selling to running sales at HubSpot 7:17 - Moving from being an individual contributor to a manager 14:37 - The time it takes to understand retention 19:34 - Why he doesn't enjoy starting upstream in a company in the early stage 25:17 - When are you ready to scale? 31:20 - How fast should you scale? 37:35 - The different aspects of the go-to-market system 42:12 - Where specifically do you scale? 48:22 - Where's the line on unhealthy growth? 51:21 - Key hires to make during each stage of growth 54:40 - Key traits of a sales leader and when to bring them on board 58:45 - When to go global 1:01:12 - The process for assessing disruption risk for pricing 1:06:09 - How much to spend on marketing   Learn more at https://tractionconf.io    Connect with Mark Roberge: https://www.linkedin.com/in/markroberge/   Learn more about Stage 2 Capital at https://www.stage2.capital/ This episode is brought to you by:   Each year the U.S. and Canadian governments provide more than $20 billion in R&D tax credits and innovation incentives to fund businesses, but the application process is cumbersome, prone to costly audits, and receiving the money can take as long as 16 months. Boast automates this process enabling companies to get more money faster without the paperwork and audit risk. We don’t get paid until you do! Find out if you qualify today at https://Boast.AI.   Launch Academy is one of the top global tech hubs for international entrepreneurs and a designated organization for Canada's Startup Visa. Since 2012, Launch has worked with more than 6000 entrepreneurs from over 100 countries, of which 300 have grown their startups to Seed and Series A stage and raised over $2 Billion in funding. To learn more about Launch's programs or the Canadian Startup Visa visit https://LaunchAcademy.ca    Content Allies helps B2B companies build revenue-generating podcasts. We recommend them to any B2B company that is looking to launch or streamline their podcast production. Learn more at ContentAllies.com

On this episode of the Traction podcast, host Lloyed Lobo of Boast.AI features a talk by Sarah Tavel, General Partner at Benchmark from the IRL Traction Conference in Vancouver. Sarah started her career at Bessemer Venture Partners, and invested in Pinterest when it was a small five person company with about 30,000 registered users. She loved the company so much that she joined Pinterest to become their first product manager. Sarah led product at Pinterest through a period of hyper-growth, and when she left the company they had 100 million monthly active users.  In this session, Sarah shares the framework to build iconic businesses covering: Hierarchy of engagement Growing engaged users Retaining users once you've brought them in Building mounting loss and accruing benefits into your product Making your product self-perpetuating with virtuous loops Learn more at https://tractionconf.io Connect with Sarah Tavel: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarahtavel/ Learn more about Benchmark at http://www.benchmark.com/ This episode is brought to you by: Each year the U.S. and Canadian governments provide more than $20 billion in R&D tax credits and innovation incentives to fund businesses, but the application process is cumbersome, prone to costly audits, and receiving the money can take as long as 16 months. Boast automates this process enabling companies to get more money faster without the paperwork and audit risk. We don’t get paid until you do! Find out if you qualify today at https://Boast.AI. Launch Academy is one of the top global tech hubs for international entrepreneurs and a designated organization for Canada's Startup Visa. Since 2012, Launch has worked with more than 6000 entrepreneurs from over 100 countries, of which 300 have grown their startups to Seed and Series A stage and raised over $2 Billion in funding. To learn more about Launch's programs or the Canadian Startup Visa visit https://LaunchAcademy.ca  Content Allies helps B2B companies build revenue-generating podcasts. We recommend them to any B2B company that is looking to launch or streamline their podcast production. Learn more at ContentAllies.com

On this episode of the Traction podcast, host Lloyed Lobo of Boast.AI welcomes Oji Udezue, Product Lead at Twitter (and former CPO at Calendly) and Michael Litt, Co-Founder and CEO at Vidyard.   The most successful IPOs and fastest-growing private companies of the past decade all started with a freemium, self-service product. Zoom, Atlassian, Slack, Dropbox are just a few.   But building a freemium, self-service product when you already have a successful enterprise business can seem like a daunting task.   There are a million questions: “Will it cannibalize my sales efforts? Do I need to build a new product? What mindset and skills do I need to have on the team?   In this session, Oji Udezue and Michael Litt join us for a masterclass on how to build a freemium, self-service offering to go from sales-led to product-led to drive massive growth. They'll be covering:   10:30 - The greatest risk to execution for a company 17:45 - Nuances and tactics involved in building a PLG strategy 24:20 - How to transition from sales-led to PLG 32:32 - How do you structure your product team? 43:42 - The concept of crossing the chasm 47:41 - The thought process of carving out a specific feature of functionality 50:01 - How to add virality, network effects, and viral loops to a product that isn’t necessarily viral 54:46 - Things Oji has done to create virality 57:29 - A good place to draw a line for paid versus free services 59:10 - How to create friction-free onboarding 1:05:09 - When is the right time to contact a customer? 1:09:00 - How to prioritize features with feedback from thousands of people 1:13:40 - Tips to empower customers to become ambassadors to grow your business 1:16:54 - Tools being used, from enabling to tracking Learn more at https://tractionconf.io   Connect with Michael Litt: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaellitt/?originalSubdomain=ca   Learn more about Vidyard at https://www.vidyard.com/   Connect with Oji Udezue: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ojiudezue/   Learn more about Twitter at https://www.twitter.com/ This episode is brought to you by:   Each year the U.S. and Canadian governments provide more than $20 billion in R&D tax credits and innovation incentives to fund businesses, but the application process is cumbersome, prone to costly audits, and receiving the money can take as long as 16 months. Boast automates this process enabling companies to get more money faster without the paperwork and audit risk. We don’t get paid until you do! Find out if you qualify today at https://Boast.AI.   Launch Academy is one of the top global tech hubs for international entrepreneurs and a designated organization for Canada's Startup Visa. Since 2012, Launch has worked with more than 6000 entrepreneurs from over 100 countries, of which 300 have grown their startups to Seed and Series A stage and raised over $2 Billion in funding. To learn more about Launch's programs or the Canadian Startup Visa visit https://LaunchAcademy.ca    Content Allies helps B2B companies build revenue-generating podcasts. We recommend them to any B2B company that is looking to launch or streamline their podcast production. Learn more at ContentAllies.com  

On this episode of the Traction podcast, host Lloyed Lobo of Boast.AI welcomes Jason Lemkin, Founder at SaaStr, and Justin Kan, Co-Founder at Fractal.is.   Justin co-founded Kiko Software, a Web 2.0 calendar that pre-dated Google Calendar by four years; Justin.tv, a lifecasting platform; Twitch, a live streaming platform for esports, music, and other creatives that was acquired by Amazon for almost $1 billion. More recent roles include Partner and GM at Y Combinator and CEO of Atrium, a software-powered law firm for startups. He is now a general partner at Goat Capital as well as his work at Fractal.   Jason co-founded NanoGram Devices: nanotechnology to dramatically enhance the performance of power sources for implantable medical devices, which was acquired for $50 million just 13 months after founding; EchoSign, the web's most popular electronic signature service which was acquired by Adobe; and now SaaStr, the world's largest SaaS community and $70+ million SaaS venture fund.   In this session, they'll share “sage advice” that VCs give startups and deconstruct the biases.   Specifically, they discuss: 2:10 - A warm intro to investors - what if you don't have one? 3:37 - The type of cold emails to write 5:20 - Why now is the best time ever to raise money  8:45 - Giving up control of a company 10:59 - The biggest issue that founders face 13:09 - The consequence of having no accountability 14:55 - How many investors till it's considered to be too many 19:38 - Big funds writing small checks 23:37 - Why you should update your investors regularly Learn more at https://tractionconf.io   Connect with Jason Lemkin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasonmlemkin/   Learn more about SaaStr at https://www.saastr.com/   Connect with Justin Kan: https://www.linkedin.com/in/justinkan/   Learn more about Fractal.is at https://www.fractal.is/   This episode is brought to you by: Each year the U.S. and Canadian governments provide more than $20 billion in R&D tax credits and innovation incentives to fund businesses, but the application process is cumbersome, prone to costly audits, and receiving the money can take as long as 16 months. Boast automates this process enabling companies to get more money faster without the paperwork and audit risk. We don’t get paid until you do! Find out if you qualify today at https://Boast.AI. Launch Academy is one of the top global tech hubs for international entrepreneurs and a designated organization for Canada's Startup Visa. Since 2012, Launch has worked with more than 6000 entrepreneurs from over 100 countries, of which 300 have grown their startups to Seed and Series A stage and raised over $2 Billion in funding. To learn more about Launch's programs or the Canadian Startup Visa visit https://LaunchAcademy.ca Content Allies helps B2B companies build revenue-generating podcasts. We recommend them to any B2B company that is looking to launch or streamline their podcast production. Learn more at ContentAllies.com

On this episode of the Traction podcast, host Lloyed Lobo of Boast.AI welcomes Matt Harris, Partner at Bain Capital Ventures.   Want the key to unlocking the next unicorn? Today, more and more companies are embedding finance (payments, lending, insurance, etc.) into their products — not only to drive growth and revenue but also to stay competitive.   Starbucks has the second most used payments application in the United States and they’re not a bank. Analysts estimate Shopify’s payments revenue to grow faster than their Subscription & Services revenue stream. Toast, a $2.7B restaurant management platform, launched Toast Capital in 2019 to provide its customer base with access to fast, simple, and flexible funding.   In this session, Matt discusses the key components of the FinTech ecosystem and how to embed FinTech into your products to drive exponential growth.   Specifically, Matt covers:   1:34 - How he initially got into investing 6:07 - What does FinTech mean 10:01 - Why every company will become a FinTech company and examples of embedding FinTech into products 34:36 - The additional value of embedded lending 44:50 - How does the rise of crypto and decentralized finance play into FinTech? 51:41 - How should founders think about fundraising and valuations in this environment? 59:54 - One piece of unconventional advice founders ignore but shouldn't Learn more at https://tractionconf.io Connect with Matt Harris: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mattcharris/ Learn more about Bain Capital Ventures at https://www.baincapitalventures.com/   The Fourth Wave Part 1: https://www.forbes.com/sites/matthewharris/2019/11/19/fintech-the-fourth-platform-part-one   The Fourth Platform Part 2: https://www.forbes.com/sites/matthewharris/2019/11/22/fintech-the-fourth-platformpart-two    This episode is brought to you by: Each year the U.S. and Canadian governments provide more than $20 billion in R&D tax credits and innovation incentives to fund businesses, but the application process is cumbersome, prone to costly audits, and receiving the money can take as long as 16 months. Boast automates this process enabling companies to get more money faster without the paperwork and audit risk. We don’t get paid until you do! Find out if you qualify today at https://Boast.AI. Launch Academy is one of the top global tech hubs for international entrepreneurs and a designated organization for Canada's Startup Visa. Since 2012, Launch has worked with more than 6000 entrepreneurs from over 100 countries, of which 300 have grown their startups to Seed and Series A stage and raised over $2 Billion in funding. To learn more about Launch's programs or the Canadian Startup Visa visit https://LaunchAcademy.ca  Content Allies helps B2B companies build revenue-generating podcasts. We recommend them to any B2B company that is looking to launch or streamline their podcast production. Learn more at ContentAllies.com  

On this episode of the Traction podcast, I welcome Wade Foster, Co-Founder & CEO at Zapier. This episode is moderated by Arjun Chopra, Partner at Floodgate VC..   Before he was Zapier’s CEO, Wade played saxophone in a blues and jazz quartet. Started as a side project in 2011, today Zapier boasts more than $100 million in revenue & more than 3 million users. All this with ONLY a $1.2 million seed round in 2012.   In this session, Wade shares his top secrets in taking Zapier from a side project to a unicorn on a bootstrapped budget.   Specifically, Wade shares: 0:16 - From playing the sax to dominating a market in SaaS 3:53 - The process of validating the idea, picking the first few apps to integrate, and getting to product market fit 7:30 - Initial product pricing and how it's evolved over time 10:15 - Philosophy around fundraising and budgeting 14:05 - Growing the team with no offices 17:11 - Zapier's go-to-market approach 20:24 - What Wade wishes he did less of, in hindsight   Learn more at https://tractionconf.io Connect with Wade Foster: https://www.linkedin.com/in/wadefoster/   Learn more about Zapier at https://zapier.com/   This episode is brought to you by: Each year the U.S. and Canadian governments provide more than $20 billion in R&D tax credits and innovation incentives to fund businesses, but the application process is cumbersome, prone to costly audits, and receiving the money can take as long as 16 months. Boast automates this process enabling companies to get more money faster without the paperwork and audit risk. We don’t get paid until you do! Find out if you qualify today at https://Boast.AI. Launch Academy is one of the top global tech hubs for international entrepreneurs and a designated organization for Canada's Startup Visa. Since 2012, Launch has worked with more than 6000 entrepreneurs from over 100 countries, of which 300 have grown their startups to Seed and Series A stage and raised over $2 Billion in funding. To learn more about Launch's programs or the Canadian Startup Visa visit https://LaunchAcademy.ca  Content Allies helps B2B companies build revenue-generating podcasts. We recommend them to any B2B company that is looking to launch or streamline their podcast production. Learn more at ContentAllies.com    

In this discussion, Patrick Lor, Managing Partner at Panache Ventures and co-founder of iStock Photo, shares valuable insights on navigating startup funding. He emphasizes the importance of storytelling and relationship-building with investors. Patrick also tackles how founders should approach fundraising, retain ownership, and provide value to VCs. He reflects on his journey, the impact of resilient leadership, and lessons learned from both successes and failures in his career. A must-listen for aspiring entrepreneurs!

On this episode of the Traction podcast, host Lloyed Lobo of Boast.AI welcomes Kipp Bodnar, CMO at HubSpot.   Today’s most innovative companies will have a media company embedded in them - that’s what Kipp believes. HubSpot, Salesforce, Amex, and Adobe are a few companies that have leveraged this strategy to drive multibillion-dollar outcomes.   Kipp oversees all demand generation activity worldwide, building out the EMEA and APAC marketing teams, and managing HubSpot’s field marketing, localization, strategic partnerships, and social media efforts. He also serves as a marketing advisor for SaaS companies and is the co-author of The B2B Social Media Book: Become a Marketing Superstar by Generating Leads with Blogging, LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, Email, and More.   Kipp tells us about HubSpot's experience building a media arm by leveraging education, content, and advocacy to not only drive awareness but also exponential growth and revenue.   Specifically, Kipp discusses:   3:08 - Kipp's backstory 5:05 - Benefits to becoming a media company 10:53 - How a podcast network ties into the bigger picture 12:49 - Driving traffic to new marketing sources 15:43 - What's needed to build a media company? 19:43 - Ensuring your content stays relevant 26:37 - The effort behind building a massive community 30:19 -  Deciding which marketing channel to prioritize 36:19 - Common business models outside of ads 40:51 - How to keep growing your audience 45:49 - Where is the media company strategy headed? 51:13 - How do you prioritize the best ideas and find great marketers? Learn more at https://tractionconf.io   Connect with Kipp Bodnar: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kippbodnar/   Learn more about HubSpot at https://www.hubspot.com/   This episode is brought to you by: Each year the U.S. and Canadian governments provide more than $20 billion in R&D tax credits and innovation incentives to fund businesses, but the application process is cumbersome, prone to costly audits, and receiving the money can take as long as 16 months. Boast automates this process enabling companies to get more money faster without the paperwork and audit risk. We don’t get paid until you do! Find out if you qualify today at https://Boast.AI. Launch Academy is one of the top global tech hubs for international entrepreneurs and a designated organization for Canada's Startup Visa. Since 2012, Launch has worked with more than 6000 entrepreneurs from over 100 countries, of which 300 have grown their startups to Seed and Series A stage and raised over $2 Billion in funding. To learn more about Launch's programs or the Canadian Startup Visa visit https://LaunchAcademy.ca  Content Allies helps B2B companies build revenue-generating podcasts. We recommend them to any B2B company that is looking to launch or streamline their podcast production. Learn more at ContentAllies.com  

On this episode of the Traction podcast, host Lloyed Lobo of Boast.AI welcomes Greg Smith, CEO and Co-Founder of Thinkific.   With over 400+ employees and 10M+ students, tech unicorn Thinkific brings the incredible power of education and business to entrepreneurs across the globe.   Greg shares his lessons learned from building Thinkific from 0 to IPO through navigating many hard fought battles.   Specifically, Greg shares: 5:12 - Finding early customers and product-market fit   13:31 - How customer acquisition has evolved from the early days 17:15 - The long-term vision for Thinkific 24:32 - Prioritizing what to build first 29:13 - The early days of raising funding 32:11 - The recommended way to build relationships with investors 40:38 - Why choose IPO over raising more venture dollars 50:32 - Key factors that drive excitement from investors 53:03 - Avoiding burnout and staying on course 59:56 - How to source candidates 106:08 - What he would (& wouldn’t) do again when building a unicorn Learn more at https://tractionconf.io Connect with Greg Smith: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gregsmith-thinkificceo/?originalSubdomain=ca Learn more about Thinkific at https://www.thinkific.com/     This episode is brought to you by: Each year the U.S. and Canadian governments provide more than $20 billion in R&D tax credits and innovation incentives to fund businesses, but the application process is cumbersome, prone to costly audits, and receiving the money can take as long as 16 months. Boast automates this process enabling companies to get more money faster without the paperwork and audit risk. We don’t get paid until you do! Find out if you qualify today at https://Boast.AI. Launch Academy is one of the top global tech hubs for international entrepreneurs and a designated organization for Canada's Startup Visa. Since 2012, Launch has worked with more than 6000 entrepreneurs from over 100 countries, of which 300 have grown their startups to Seed and Series A stage and raised over $2 Billion in funding. To learn more about Launch's programs or the Canadian Startup Visa visit https://LaunchAcademy.ca  Content Allies helps B2B companies build revenue-generating podcasts. We recommend them to any B2B company that is looking to launch or streamline their podcast production. Learn more at ContentAllies.com  

On this episode of the Traction podcast, host Lloyed Lobo of Boast.AI welcomes Michelle Zatlyn, Co-Founder & COO at Cloudflare, Shawn Abbott, Partner at Inovia Capital, and Mahendra Ramsinghani, Founder at Secure Octane & Author at Startup Boards. Together, they give us a masterclass on building high-performing boards and productive relationships.    Topics covered include:   12:22 - What do investors expect from founders when it comes to their board? 23:52 - Why momentum is the source of all authority you have as a founder 32:49 - Working through imposter syndrome 42:44 - Resolving conflict between board members 50:16 - At what point do you decide to start a board, and how do you pick the right people? 1:00:02 - The most entertaining board member experiences   Learn more at https://tractionconf.io Connect with Michelle Zatlyn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michellezatlyn/ Learn more about Cloudflare at https://www.cloudflare.com/   Connect with Shawn Abbott: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shawnabbott/?originalSubdomain=ca Learn more about Inovia Capital at https://www.inovia.vc/   Connect with Mahendra Ramsinghani: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mahendraram/ Learn more about Secure Octane Investments at https://www.secureoctane.com/   This episode is brought to you by: Each year the U.S. and Canadian governments provide more than $20 billion in R&D tax credits and innovation incentives to fund businesses, but the application process is cumbersome, prone to costly audits, and receiving the money can take as long as 16 months. Boast automates this process enabling companies to get more money faster without the paperwork and audit risk. We don’t get paid until you do! Find out if you qualify today at https://Boast.AI. Launch Academy is one of the top global tech hubs for international entrepreneurs and a designated organization for Canada's Startup Visa. Since 2012, Launch has worked with more than 6000 entrepreneurs from over 100 countries, of which 300 have grown their startups to Seed and Series A stage and raised over $2 Billion in funding. To learn more about Launch's programs or the Canadian Startup Visa visit https://LaunchAcademy.ca  Content Allies helps B2B companies build revenue-generating podcasts. We recommend them to any B2B company that is looking to launch or streamline their podcast production. Learn more at ContentAllies.com