Our interview covers the following: The shift from a service business to SaaSFocusing on the problem and nothing elseRaising moneyThe balance between confidence and vulnerability in the leadership teamEmployee experienceI hope you enjoy the latest episode of SaaS Open Mic!

John and I sit down to talk about the success he’s seen running his agency like a subscription business, and: Agency versus subscription modelHIstorical data and billing practicesLTV, ARPA, and other SaaS metricsTracking lead source and its contribution to revenueChurn and customer retentionTracking custom attributesPricingResources Black PropellerJohn Thornton on LinkedinBlack Propeller on Twitter 

Alexa and I discuss: The myth of a no sales product-led growthRepeatable trends, Tests, and Metrics: When this happens, know why it will happenMarketing-qualified leads versus product-qualified leadsCombine customer firmographic data and product usage to get to closed-wonWhen to you add a sales team to your self-serve modelLead scoring and prioritizationHow to test and measure the benefits of your product-led sales motionCommunity: where to talk and read about product-led salesHope you enjoy this SaaS Open Mic episode!ResourcesAlexa Grabell on LinkedInAlexa Grabell on TwitterPocus

Thomas has sold hundreds of businesses in his 10 years in M&A and understands what it takes to hit your target valuation – but you have to know where you're headed if you want to draw a roadmap to get there. We discuss company benchmarks and how companies can decide on which areas of the business to focus on and when it's best to bring in outside help. In this episode we cover: What founders can do to prepare for an acquisitionGoal setting and making the right hiresCommon distractions to scaling startupsHow the team at FE International helps businesses find areas of focusHow to grow an M&A company and market trendsLinks and Resources:Thomas Smale on LinkedInFE InternationalListen, subscribe, and share wherever you enjoy podcasts.

Userflow lets your team build customized in-app tours, checklists and surveys, without code. It’s a tool to help drive onboarding and trial conversions. It was a conscious choice of the Userflow team to focus on product-led growth from day one. They try to avoid hiring people to solve problems and look into improving the product instead. “The essence of product-led growth - it’s an approach where you think product first instead of people first.”Topics covered in this episodeWhat is product-led growth and what is the difference between product-led and sales-led growthThe SaaS industry maturing into PLGHow too much customization can make it harder to move away from sales-led motionsExamining if PLG is working within a companyHow to tackle support questions proactivelyThe best tools for product-led growthLinks and ResourcesEsben Friis-Jensen on LinkedInEsben Friis-Jensen on TwitterUserflow Listen to the episodeAs always, you can find this episode — along with all previous episodes — in your podcast player of choice. Just search for “SaaS Open Mic”. If you enjoy it, please take a moment to leave us a review, it’d really help us reach a wider audience. Thank you! 

On this weeks episode, Tatiana shares her insights about:When and why Tatiana started Revolv Culture Solutions Before and after: What employee engagement looks like and how it is measuredMethodologies and strategies to cultivate cultureThe role of leadership in creating cultureWhere remote work goes wrong and what to do about itHybrid work modelsCreating successful events and off-sites for a remote workforceThe future of remote work **Links and Resources:**[Tatiana Correa on LinkedIn](https://ca.linkedin.com/in/tatiana-correa-95375594)[Revolv Culture Solutions](https://www.revolvculturesolutions.com/)[ChartMogul](https://chartmogul.com/company/)**Listen to the episode**As always, you can find this episode — along with all previous episodes — in your podcast player of choice. Just search for “SaaS Open Mic”. If you enjoy it, please take a moment to leave us a review, it’d really help us reach a wider audience. Thank you!

What I love about this episode is Adam's willingness to share his thinking and strategy about what it means to succeed as an enterprise solution. We cover:Strategies to diversify and promote your brandHow consumer buying trends impact GMV, and how GMV impacts related-SaaS entrepreneurshipHis approach to analyze, research, and acquire SaaS businesses in the ecommerce spaceWhy acquirers should prioritize relationships and customer alignment over SaaS metricsThe importance of net dollar retentionStrategies to improve net dollar retentionLinks and Resources:Adam Crawshaw on LinkedInAssemblyHow 2 startups scaled to 50M ARR and beyondChartMogulListen to the episodeAs always, you can find this episode — along with all previous episodes — in your podcast player of choice. Just search for “SaaS Open Mic”. If you enjoy it, please take a moment to leave us a review, it’d really help us reach a wider audience. Thank you!

In this episode of SaaS Open Mic, I talk to Jenna Wyer (@Jenna W.), Vice President of Partnerships and Head of Payments at Recurly.Jenna has an impressive background in partnerships and payments from her time with Recurly, Spreedly, and as the founding VP of Sales at Braintree. This means she’s no stranger to navigating relationships with payment giants like Stripe and the intricacies of how complex software work together.Topics covered in this episode:What partnership means at Recurly to generate revenue and marketing materialsHow to identify and approach a potential partnersShared pipeline: collaborating with partners to build pipeline and new businessWhy some partnerships fail and others succeedWhere to start for more information, content, and resources in the partnership spaceLinks and Resources:Jenna Wyer on LinkedInRecurlyCrossbeamPartnership LeadersBraintreeChartMogulListen to the episodeAs always, you can find this episode — along with all previous episodes — in your podcast player of choice. Just search for “SaaS Open Mic”. If you enjoy it, please take a moment to leave us a review, it’d really help us reach a wider audience. Thank you!

In this episode of SaaS Open Mic, I talk to Adam Jones (@AdamJones85), Vice President of Sales for Thinkific, a product-led company that helps businesses create, market, and sell customized online courses.What’s especially interesting for our listeners is that Thinkific’s sales organization and strategy was layered on 6 years into building the business. And just 5 years later, that same sales organization helped them take the company public. Adam discusses his experience with the IPO.Listen in to hear how Adam’s sales leadership compliments a product-led business model. You’ll hear:The company’s decision process to build a sales team (but avoid selling to enterprise)His approach to structuring product-led sales teamsHow his role has changed since the IPOWhat he would have done differentlyThinkific’s guiding sales principles Links and Resources:Adam Jones on LinkedInAdam Jones on TwitterThinkificHootsuiteFiverrUberPredictable Revenue Virtual SummitTo Sell Is HumanChartMogulListen to the episodeAs always, you can find this episode — along with all previous episodes — in your podcast player of choice. Just search for “SaaS Open Mic”. If you enjoy it, please take a moment to leave us a review, it’d really help us reach a wider audience. Thank you!

Matt Spiegel is a licensed lawyer and serial entrepreneur. His first tech startup was called MyCase, a SaaS product that, “keeps all of your important case details — documents, contacts, calendars, emails, tasks, invoices — in a single, organized location.”The transition from criminal defense law to SaaS started as a “scratch your own itch” kind of thing. A typical day for Matt meant receiving dozens of calls, texts, and emails every day from nervous clients wanting updates and resolution — often while he was in court. This inspired an initial personal build that transformed into a full-fledged legal practice management platform.Matt’s first SaaS success led to more and after some experimentation in B2C, he decided to start another B2B legal tech company, Lawmatics. In this episode of SaaS Open Mic, Matt shares his learnings and approach to building businesses.Can thinking about your exit strategy narrow or diminish your exit strategy? Or at the very least your focus? Matt thinks so:“Build your business as if you’re going to build this massive business that’s going to buy other businesses one day. Some entrepreneurs build a company to sell it quickly, but I feel like you don’t build a great company, necessarily, by doing that. You might cut corners if you are building to sell in a couple of years” Matt Spiegel, LawmaticsHead over to your favorite podcast platform or listen below. We discuss:From criminal defense law to SaaS: how and why Matt started his first legal tech startupGetting out of your comfort zone to try something new and ultimately, coming back to what you loveWeighing the options of taking a break from entrepreneurship vs. the decision to ‘just keep firing’Reactive vs. proactive startup ideasWhat strategies can be used to tackle different market segmentsUnderstanding how customers spend and how to marry that with your product strategyLinks and Resources:LawmaticsMatt Spiegel on LinkedInMyCaseAppFolioLawmatics raises $2.5M to help lawyers market themselvesChartMogulLike, subscribe, and if you’re feeling generous, share your favorite episode(s) with a colleague.