The SaaS Revolution Show

Bridget Harris, CEO and co-founder of youcanbook.me, had initially assumed she would be raising money for the online scheduling tool she was building with her co-founder. Bridget and Keith Harris spoke to many investors, looked at many term sheets and soon began grasping a peculiar fact - running a company with VC funding doesn’t make things easier, if anything, it may make them more difficult. The latest guest on the SaaS Revolution Show, Bridget has been bootstrapping youcanbook.me for the past six years. While the bootstrapped route is not for the faint-hearted, it allowed them to grow as fast as they wanted, even if that required expert knowledge of the difference between cash flow and actual income The company now employs 13 people and recently reached $2 million in ARR and is well on track to get to $3 million by the end of the year. Listen on to learn: How you learn to determine which expense makes sense and which doesn’t What made Bridget well suited for the bootstrapped path How to know when to take a risk and when not to How to make the finances work in a bootstrapped company and still grow What is a defining characteristic of a great entrepreneur P.S. We are bringing SaaStock on Tour. First up is London on March 21st. Spend the day in the company of 300 SaaS founders, their executive teams and local VCs and see Des Traynor Co-founder and CSO of Intercom, Ryan Singer, Head of Strategy at Basecamp, Peter Holten Mulhmann CEO of Trustpilot, Philippe Botteri Partner at Accel and Laurence Bret Stern, CRO at Pipedrive to name a few. https://www.saastock.com/ontour/city/london    Check out the other ways SaaStock is helping SaaS founders move their business forward: 🇮🇪 SaaStock Europe: 14-15 October 2025 | Dublin, IrelandBook tickets: https://saastock-europe.com/tickets/🇺🇸 SaaStock USA 2025: April 2026 | Austin, TexasBook tickets: https://saastock-usa.com/🤝 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)

Paddle's traction and growth is the stuff of dreams. A company helping software creators sell since 2012, it has been recognised by Deloitte as the fastest growing software company in the UK. With hundreds of customers and a recent $12.5 million Series B round, the company has remained under the radar most of this time. How does that happen? On this episode, Christian Owens, Paddle's CEO gives a very clear explanation. In the heart of the growth are the sincere customer relationships that Christian and his co-founder Harrison have been building and maintaining since day 1. The two co-founders fostered genuine friendships with their first hundred customers by trying to deeply understand their challenges and building Paddle together. Christian and Harrison approached these people as human beings they admired rather than businesses they sold to. Their belief was, if Paddle was the right tool to address their challenges, they could become customers one day. Listen on to learn: How Paddle approached people initially and got their first customers How they built sincere relationships and maintained them Why they never advertise their referral program How to make product decisions with both customers and strategy in mind What Christian has learned as a Thiel fellow P.S. Christian is one of 129 incredible speakers we have lined up for SaaStock18. If you are based in London, hop over to the Meetup https://splashthat.com/sites/view/saastockmeetup-leaseweb.splashthat.com we are hosting together with Leaseweb on September 27th where Christian will share even more details on how to scale worthy of a Deloitte first place.    Check out the other ways SaaStock is helping SaaS founders move their business forward: 🇮🇪 SaaStock Europe: 14-15 October 2025 | Dublin, IrelandBook tickets: https://saastock-europe.com/tickets/🇺🇸 SaaStock USA 2025: April 2026 | Austin, TexasBook tickets: https://saastock-usa.com/🤝 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)

Fred Shilmover, CEO of InsightSquared, shares how he has grown the company the past 7 years by staying laser-focused and not expanding globally. It has been there since day -1, back when Fred applied for an MBA to figure out what SaaS company he wanted to create. Fred did a proper research what would be of most value to people. Eventually, he figured that to deliver the best value to customers and not have a bloated product, the focus should be only on revenue. A lucky early sale to a cohort of similar companies showed a pattern that what they were onto made sense. Fred created a prototype putting together loads of spreadsheets and gave that to his co-founders to build a product. In the first year, he made all the sales. Somewhere there Fred made the decision that sales efforts would be focused solely on The North American market. With that geographical focus, InsightSquared now has close to 1000 customers, has banked $27 million in funding and employs 130 people. In that, he is a prime example that to grow, SaaS founders have to do less. Listen to learn how he has kept his focus on: Why a CEO should do a tour of duty for all main functions How to avoid building the wrong product at the start What is the cost of defocusing How to manage your appetite when you are hungry for many things How the strategy of a company should change through its different stages If you like the episode, please leave us a review.    Check out the other ways SaaStock is helping SaaS founders move their business forward: 🇮🇪 SaaStock Europe: 14-15 October 2025 | Dublin, IrelandBook tickets: https://saastock-europe.com/tickets/🇺🇸 SaaStock USA 2025: April 2026 | Austin, TexasBook tickets: https://saastock-usa.com/🤝 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)

As is often the case in tech, timing is crucial. It’s hitting the sweet spot of offering a solution when a market is just ready but not overflowing with competitors. Hanno Renner, CEO and co-founder of German HR solution Personio, and the latest guest on the SaaS Revolution Show got his timing just right. He launched the company two and a half years ago in Munich at a time when the HR industry in Europe was ripe for digitization. In fact, it was so ripe in the small and medium businesses segment that to this day Hanno hasn’t had to do a cold call to sell his product. 30% of prospects still come from organic referrals. However, there is more to scaling and success than timing and luck. In Personio’s case, the hardest thing has been growing the organisation that supports the somewhat easier product adoption. Listen on to hear: How to interview candidates for fit How to avoid making hiring decisions out of necessity What guiding principles to use when setting an organisation Why you should seek the advice of business angels How to rely more on your gut feeling when you hire If you like the episode, please leave us a review.    Check out the other ways SaaStock is helping SaaS founders move their business forward: 🇮🇪 SaaStock Europe: 14-15 October 2025 | Dublin, IrelandBook tickets: https://saastock-europe.com/tickets/🇺🇸 SaaStock USA 2025: April 2026 | Austin, TexasBook tickets: https://saastock-usa.com/🤝 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)

Peter Holten Mühlmann, CEO of Trustpilot, an online review community, talks with Alex Theuma on the latest episode of the SaaS Revolution Show and offers practical wisdom such as when is the right time to go international, how to fundraise and what is the question every CEO needs to be answering as a company scales. Trustpilot’s story began ten years ago in Copenhagen when Peter decided all companies with online presence deserved to show they have happy customers through reviews and ratings. Peter initially had a very naive idea how he was going to build an Internet company and what his business model would be. Get on the front page of every paper in Denmark, become viral and make money from AdWords. After this business model earned €4 to the company, Peter figured he had to find a better way. Hundreds of cold calls and asks for people to review every site they had ever used later, Trustpilot began to gather momentum. Approaching unicorn status today, the company operates from 7 offices around the world, but Copenhagen is still the main HQ. Trustpilot has grown to over 600 people. The reviews that companies showcase are seen 2 billion times each month. In the interview, Peter talks at length that the key to scaling successfully is maintaining personal balance throughout the journey and relentlessly answering the pivotal question Why we exist as a company to everyone around. Listen to learn: How to fundraise as a European company How to know when to go international How to outsource scaling to all your employees How to remain sane on the journey of scaling a SaaS company If you like the episode, please leave us a review.    Check out the other ways SaaStock is helping SaaS founders move their business forward: 🇮🇪 SaaStock Europe: 14-15 October 2025 | Dublin, IrelandBook tickets: https://saastock-europe.com/tickets/🇺🇸 SaaStock USA 2025: April 2026 | Austin, TexasBook tickets: https://saastock-usa.com/🤝 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)

On the latest episode of the SaaS Revolution Show Alex is joined by Chris Hall, CEO at Dutch marketing tech company Bynder. In the conversation they touch on the pillars that define the journey of a CEO - from scaling and growing the company, its culture and its people to the personal transformation a CEO undergoes and how to deal with it. One key lesson he has picked on the way is that the most satisfying thing about being a CEO is seeing every person succeed in the right role. Founded in 2013, Bynder was a spin-off from Label A, a web development agency Chris ran with his co-founders Roland Keijzer and Stefan Pelders. The company bootstrapped its way to $10 million ARR in the following three years. “When you are bootstrapped, your only problem is cash,” Chris says. “Every purchase you make feels like it’s coming from your pocket.” To seize the potential Bynder had for growth, it needed the sort of cash injection that comes with VC funding. By August 2016, Bynder secured a $20 million Series A round. Chris had to very quickly transition from the entrepreneur that fixed everything to the CEO that would let go and allow others to do it. Listen on to hear: How to stop micromanaging people. How to tackle the challenges of being the CEO of a venture-backed scaling company. How to balance the act between listening to your own gut and what blogs and podcasts are telling you to do. How to get and keep the right people at the different stages of a company growth. How to create an authentic and genuine culture and live up to the words you put out as CEO. Please let us know how we are doing by leaving a review on your favourite podcast application.    Check out the other ways SaaStock is helping SaaS founders move their business forward: 🇮🇪 SaaStock Europe: 14-15 October 2025 | Dublin, IrelandBook tickets: https://saastock-europe.com/tickets/🇺🇸 SaaStock USA 2025: April 2026 | Austin, TexasBook tickets: https://saastock-usa.com/🤝 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)

Eric Santos, CEO and Co-Founder of Resultados Digitais, the leading marketing automation tool in Brazil and Latin America joins Alex for a conversation about the steps to convincing a market of the value of a product that it doesn’t understand, how to build an audience and develop customer discovery before a single line of code is written, how to create a “Disneyland-like" user conferences. Eric has been a tech entrepreneur for the past 15 years and founded Resultados Digitais in 2011. The idea behind the company dates back to 10 years ago when he first discovered online marketing and its power. What he found frustrating was that to make the most of it, he had to use a number of disconnected tools. By 2011 he decided to build a product a unified product. He ran into a problem, though. Very few marketers in Brazil were familiar with online marketing or its benefits. No one was doing digital. So in order to launch his marketing automation product he first had to educate the entire market about the benefits of online marketing. In the following 18 months, he went on to kickstart a movement and create demand for his offering without writing a single line of code. A lot of content marketing, many speaking gigs and a host of "Mechanical Turk Experiments" followed. Six years later, Resultados Digitais boasts over 10,000 customers, 1500 channel partners, and 8000 attendees at its yearly user conference, RD Summit, which Sujan Patel rightfully says has a Disneyland effect. Listen on to learn: What were the precise steps he took to prepare the market for his offering? How he built a movement? What are the core tenets of a successful user conference and why it’s worth the effort and expense? How they grew RD Summit from 250 to 8000 attendees in 4 years? Why building a channel program before reaching $10 million ARR is fine and how to do it? Please let us know how we are doing by leaving a rating and a review on iTunes.    Check out the other ways SaaStock is helping SaaS founders move their business forward: 🇮🇪 SaaStock Europe: 14-15 October 2025 | Dublin, IrelandBook tickets: https://saastock-europe.com/tickets/🇺🇸 SaaStock USA 2025: April 2026 | Austin, TexasBook tickets: https://saastock-usa.com/🤝 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)

On the latest episode of the SaaS Revolution Show Alex Theuma takes you to sunny Lisbon and Web Summit where he caught up with Ashley Carroll, Partner at Social Capital. Their conversation is about metrics and why user engagement is the most important one in her book. Chatting amidst the Web Summit crowds, they cover lessons she has learned working at SurveyMonkey, Optimizely and DocuSign, what is a big mistake every company should avoid when it comes to product management and what is the one product she has a serious crush on that has transformed how Social Capital works. A business and data-driven person, Ashley narrowed on B2B SaaS early on in her career. She was an early employee at SurveyMonkey where she went through the tumultuous journey from MVP to product/market fit. She then joined Optimizely to lead product management. From then on she jumped to growth at DocuSign where she worked to open the self-service acquisition channel. She is currently a partner in Social Capital. Listen on to hear what metrics on the engagement side you should look at, what to look at when there is no daily use case for your product and why engineers should never sell and more. You can subscribe to the podcast on iTunes and help us spread the word for it by dropping a review or rating. It helps us stand out in the rising sea of podcasts. The SaaS Revolution Show is brought to you by SaaStock, the conference to bring your SaaS to 11. Learn more on https://www.saastock.com    Check out the other ways SaaStock is helping SaaS founders move their business forward: 🇮🇪 SaaStock Europe: 14-15 October 2025 | Dublin, IrelandBook tickets: https://saastock-europe.com/tickets/🇺🇸 SaaStock USA 2025: April 2026 | Austin, TexasBook tickets: https://saastock-usa.com/🤝 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)

On this week’s episode of the SaaS Revolution Show, Alex takes you to the SaaStock17 Scale stage where Christoph Janz, Managing Partner of Point Nine Capital sat down with Des Traynor, Co-Founder, Chief Strategy Officer and VP of Marketing of Intercom. They talk building and managing product and the importance of saying "No", as well as marketing and the channels that have been most beneficial to Intercom. You can read a short write up of the episode - https://www.saastock.com/blog/view/high-and-lows-in-product-and-marketing-with-des-traynor    Check out the other ways SaaStock is helping SaaS founders move their business forward: 🇮🇪 SaaStock Europe: 14-15 October 2025 | Dublin, IrelandBook tickets: https://saastock-europe.com/tickets/🇺🇸 SaaStock USA 2025: April 2026 | Austin, TexasBook tickets: https://saastock-usa.com/🤝 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)

Patrick Barnes, CEO and co-founder of Advocately, an advocate marketing platform for B2B companies, shares with Alex the GTM strategy that got him to $7K MRR. He answers key questions such as how he figured out who his perfect customers are, what MarTech tools he uses throughout the buying journey and why he isn't too hung up on pricing at this stage. You can read a short post from the episode - https://www.saastock.com/blog/view/inside-a-7k-mrr-saas-business-getting-traction-in-a-new-category    Check out the other ways SaaStock is helping SaaS founders move their business forward: 🇮🇪 SaaStock Europe: 14-15 October 2025 | Dublin, IrelandBook tickets: https://saastock-europe.com/tickets/🇺🇸 SaaStock USA 2025: April 2026 | Austin, TexasBook tickets: https://saastock-usa.com/🤝 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)