How do you sell your SaaS? I mean… how does that process actually look, end to end, from meeting a buyer to pocketing a 7+ figure paycheck? Buying and selling a business isn’t like walking into a store, picking an item off the shelf and approaching the counter. There are valuations, due diligence, escrow accounts, handover processes, and more… before the massive paychecks can get cashed. It’s quite a process. I’ve sold 3 of my own companies, I’m an investor in 40+ other companies, and as a business coach, I’ve helped clients through many sales and handovers. So I know how it works. But I’ve still got nothing on Kevin McArdle. Kevin is the CEO and co-founder of SureSwift Capital and in the past 4 years… …he bought 34 companies. No, not invested. Bought. Outright. Kevin mostly buys bootstrapped B2B SaaS companies, small teams of a founder/ developer with about 3 – 5 contractors whose business makes $25 – $100k MRR. In other words, he’s the perfect buyer for a small software founder that wants to cash out. I sat down with Kevin in the latest episode of the Escape Velocity Podcast and quizzed him on everything about buying and selling businesses. If you’ve ever wanted to ask a SaaS buyer exactly how they think about buying, then this is THE interview you need to hear.  You’ll get answers to: - How much a SaaS will sell for - What’s an attractive profit margin for a seller - Why SaaS founders sell (it’s not always for the cash)- What an end-to-end sales process looks like - What a buyer is looking for - What terms you can expect in a sales agreement - The different stages of a handover - How SureSwift capital grow their businesses after purchase - How Kevin and his team started their company from scratch I’m so lucky to interview people like Kevin.  This guy has a wealth of knowledge and was incredibly generous with his answers, sharing revenue figures, percentages, business names, and more. I’ve met a lot of business people who like to hold their cards close to their chest. Not Kevin.  If anything, I think this interview will show you that there ARE buyers looking for small SaaS companies of only 5 people and they are willing to pay millions for it. You might be closer to selling than you thought. Check out the episode here and leave a comment thanking Kevin for his time – I’ll make sure he reads them. -- Dan Martell has advised more startups than his hometown has people and teaches startup founders like you how to scale. He previously created, raised venture funding for and successfully exited two tech startups: Flowtown and Clarity.fm. You should follow him on twitter @danmartell for tweets that are actually awesome. + Instagram (behind the scenes): http://instagram.com/danmartell + Facebook (live trainings + Q&A): http://FB.com/DanMartell + Twitter (what I'm reading): http://twitter.com/danmartell

Being a venture funded SaaS founder is like walking into a casino to bet all of your employees’ salaries… every single day. Your decision to make one choice over another – bet on red or black – can cost your company millions. A few wrong bets can dry up your finances and run your company into the ground. But a few consecutive right bets can leave your competition for dead and give you the lion’s share of the market. I’m not a gambling man. I never bet on chance. I bet on proven strategies. Only. If you could make repeated strategic bets without losing, you could turn a small business into a massive company in barely a few years. But how do you do that? How do you evaluate priorities and make the right decisions… Every. Single. Time? Let’s ask Des Traynor. Des is the co-founder of Intercom.com, a customer chat, and support application.  Hailing from Dublin Ireland (a city not exactly known for its tech industry), Intercom has supported multi-million-dollar businesses in Silicon Valley from the other side of the planet. Des puts the success of his company down to their ability to choose the right things to say “No” to. He knows how to bet big and win. I sat down to interview Des on the latest episode of the Escape Velocity Podcast, and… just wait until you hear this guy’s incredible strategic mind. If you want to know how to win big with your company then you HAVE to tune in. Once Des got up to speed, that Irish accent just took off and we got talking about: - How to divide and conquer (the 70 / 30 split) - How Intercom’s key product wasn’t intended to be sold - Why you shouldn’t fear your competition - Relationships between PMs, Design, and Engineering - RICE scores: Intercom’s framework to win big repeatedly - The Cocktail Recipe for Innovation - Drawing a line and nailing your niche - Why it pays to stop caring what people think of you I’m an angel investor in Intercom. I met Eoghan (pronounced ‘Owen’), the other Irish co-founder of Intercom at a conference years ago. Eoghan showed me an early prototype of Intercom. I can tell you… I immediately got it. I’ve worked the support tickets at my own companies for years and built lots of customer-management tech in the past. When I first saw what they wanted to do with Intercom, I knew it was a winner and I invested. It looks like I made a good bet…  In 2018, Intercom was valued at $1.275 BILLION. Companies don’t soar that high without great leadership from a team that knows when to make the right bets. You’re going to learn a TON from this interview with Des. Don’t miss this one. Get your headphones in and fire it up right here, right now. -- Dan Martell has advised more startups than his hometown has people and teaches startup founders like you how to scale. He previously created, raised venture funding for and successfully exited two tech startups: Flowtown and Clarity.fm. You should follow him on twitter @danmartell for tweets that are actually awesome. + Instagram (behind the scenes): http://instagram.com/danmartell + Facebook (live trainings + Q&A): http://FB.com/DanMartell + Twitter (what I'm reading): http://twitter.com/danmartell

Years ago the so-called “secret” to B2B company growth was getting leads.  If you got enough email addresses or phone numbers that you could give to your sales team, you were going to make BANK. Not any more. Everyone is on LinkedIn, social media accounts are 1-click away, and business emails get scraped and sold daily. It sucks… but it’s true. The question isn’t how to get leads, it’s “How do I make them stop and listen?” My latest guest on the Escape Velocity Podcast has built a multi-million dollar business solving that problem. Greg Segall is the CEO and founder of Alyce.com, a corporate gifting platform that uses artificial intelligence to help sales teams buy the perfect gift for prospective clients. Instead of leading a business relationship with “ME, ME, ME”… …corporate gifting allows businesses to invite the attention of a prospective client with a well-timed, valuable, and appreciated gift. It works. It works so damn well that it’s grown into a $120 billion industry in the United States alone. Now Alyce.com has taken a bite from that pie, growing from 15 people to over 110 in less than a year-and-a-half, and closing nearly $17M in funding. That kind of explosive growth is fascinating… so I just had to sit down with Greg and pick his brain for how it all went down. By his own admission, Greg believes in being open, honest and vulnerable… meaning he’s happy to share everything about his business. In this ep, we chat about: - How Alyce had to pivot radically from a referral service - The ‘Oxygen, Aspirin, Vitamins’ framework - Why defining your core vision creates growth - Attracting talent in a remote workforce - How to expand a company internationally - Managing down (getting more from your staff) - Why he insists on having a coach - Leadership, management and execution One thing I love about Greg is that he believes in making a difference. This becomes important to founders when the days are long, the work is tough and profits lose their shine. When Greg’s company sends a gift, the recipient has the option to accept it, exchange it or to donate the money to charity instead. Considering the size of this industry, even with a small percentage of recipients choosing the charity option, Alyce.com could become the single most charitable business… in the entire world. Just let that sink in. Tune in to Greg’s podcast episode right here. -- Dan Martell has advised more startups than his hometown has people and teaches startup founders like you how to scale. He previously created, raised venture funding for and successfully exited two tech startups: Flowtown and Clarity.fm. You should follow him on twitter @danmartell for tweets that are actually awesome. + Instagram (behind the scenes): http://instagram.com/danmartell + Facebook (live trainings + Q&A): http://FB.com/DanMartell + Twitter (what I'm reading): http://twitter.com/danmartell

If I could take all of the BS about “success” and cram it into the single most actionable statement ever, it would be this: The key to success is consistency. I don’t care how cheesy it is… It’s the truth. Print it on a T-shirt. Crochet it on a wall hanging. Hashtag it on Instagram. Just don’t forget it. If you want to be successful at anything BE CONSISTENT. No-one encapsulates consistency more than my latest guest on Escape Velocity, Steli Efti. Steli is the co-creator of The Startup Chat, a podcast now with over 450 episodes. Did you know that the average podcast dies out after just 7 episodes? Yeah, 7. He’s ahead by 443. Steli’s co-host is Hiten Shah, the co-founder of Kissmetrics, CrazyEgg and FYI… and for the last 4 and a half years, Steli and Hiten have recorded two episodes every single week. Steli has an amazing story of how he went from nothing to starting and skyrocketing his SaaS, Close.com He sold everything he had, bought a one-way ticket from his home in Europe to Silicon Valley, wasn’t great at speaking English, didn’t have a Visa, but he planned to start a software company… …without knowing anything about software. It sounds like a disaster, but through hard work and consistency, he’s now crazy successful. Close.com is a sales and communication tool that pioneered many of the trends we now see in CRMs today. You’ve just got to hear the story straight from the horse’s mouth. Get your headphones ready and tune in. Steli is the coolest guy (leather jacket and all) and just ridiculously easy to chat with. In this episode, we talked about: - How he got started as a SaaS entrepreneur - Moving to a new country for business - His interview on day 2 in Silicon Valley (it’ll make you cringe) - The website that he made… and that died - ElasticSales, his Sales-as-a-service company that led to Close.com - How Steli evaluates the value of a conference - How Close.com managed to innovate ahead of the curve - The business war over their domain name - Steli’s failed funding experience - How to sell more from your product demos This is an epic interview, not only because you’ll learn about how he got started in business, but because you’ll hear from someone that made a lot of mistakes and pushed onwards until he figured it out. It’s encouraging, to say the least. And in these times, I think we all need a bit of encouragement. -- Dan Martell has advised more startups than his hometown has people and teaches startup founders like you how to scale. He previously created, raised venture funding for and successfully exited two tech startups: Flowtown and Clarity.fm. You should follow him on twitter @danmartell for tweets that are actually awesome. + Instagram (behind the scenes): http://instagram.com/danmartell + Facebook (live trainings + Q&A): http://FB.com/DanMartell + Twitter (what I'm reading): http://twitter.com/danmartell

My latest guest is controversial. If you google ‘Nathan Latka’, you’ll see headlines that call him inspirational… and others that call him a con-man (or use more colorful language). Most CEOs or software founders would fear that kind of negative press. But not Nathan.  In fact… he encourages it. He wants people to either love him or hate him as long as they aren’t somewhere in between. He wants polarizing opinions because it leads to attention. It’s a bold play, but… it’s paid off. Originally Nathan founded Heyo.com, a social media marketing SaaS that leverages viral giveaways.  After successfully exiting, he then founded GetLatka.com, a SaaS info database.  Now he’s the writer of a book called How To Be a Capitalist Without Any Capital that has sold over 25,000 copies and he is the host of a popular business podcast called The Top with 10 million episode downloads. He’s a master of marketing and has no shortage of opinions on SaaS businesses.  So I sat him down to pick his brain and understand how and why he thinks the way he does, exploring SaaS financing options in the meantime. This is your behind-the-scenes exposé. Check it out. I can’t say I agree with Nathan’s methods… but they are interesting. In our chat, we get talking about: - His airport magazine funnel that converts at 49% - How he convinced top CEOs to get on his podcast from day one - Why it’s cheaper to get people to hate you - How he knew he could sell a book… but could he write one? - Latka’s Million Dollar Roadtrip (his CNBC TV show) - How SaaS financing has been rapidly changing - The 6 types of funding options for founders There is a bit of everything in this episode. From book publishing deals to TV show productions, to SaaS financing options, to funnels… Nathan and I are old friends and I’ve always wanted to ask him these controversial questions… he gave me permission so the gloves came off.  If you’re wondering what his crazy life has to do with your business though, it’s worth listening just to hear his answer to the question: “How would you find the perfect SaaS to invest in?” Get your headphones ready, queue it up right here, and enjoy. -- Dan Martell has advised more startups than his hometown has people and teaches startup founders like you how to scale. He previously created, raised venture funding for and successfully exited two tech startups: Flowtown and Clarity.fm. You should follow him on twitter @danmartell for tweets that are actually awesome. + Instagram (behind the scenes): http://instagram.com/danmartell + Facebook (live trainings + Q&A): http://FB.com/DanMartell + Twitter (what I'm reading): http://twitter.com/danmartell

Pop quiz: Does a Freemium business model really convert to a growing SaaS? Sure, you get widespread access to potential customers…  But are they just there because it’s free? Or do they end up paying? In the latest episode of the Escape Velocity Podcast, I sat down with Matthew Bellows, the founder of Yesware and BodesWell to talk about this. Yesware is a sales and CRM tool that works inside of your email account. It began as a free Google Chrome extension. They were there at the start of the Chrome app explosion which skyrocketed their growth up to 10,000 free users per month… …entirely from word-of-mouth. It sounds like a dream come true until Matthew had to turn it into a viable, ROI positive business. 100% free wasn’t going to cut it. That meant transitioning from free… to freemium. Some users got angry. Others understood. But with over 100,000 free users who weren’t converting to paid, Matthew quickly realized they were a distraction from the needs of the paying customers. What would you do? What did he do? This a million-dollar decision, where a SaaS founder has to make a choice that could make or break a business. This is what I live for!  Tune in to the latest episode to hear us explore this business dilemma. In this episode, you’ll learn: - Why you need your users to get “that glint in their eye” - How letting people down might be the right choice - Lessons from turning free into paid - How Yesware received $50 million in funding - The growth tipping point to pursue investors - Meditation - The importance of visualization Chatting with Matthew was like hanging out with an old friend and sharing war stories. As SaaS founders, I think it’s super important to spend time with other founders in a similar position to you, people outside of your team who have a fresh take on your challenges. That’s why I enjoyed this interview so much. If you’ve ever been considering a freemium model, definitely check out this episode first. If you find these conversations valuable, remember that’s a huge component of SaaS Academy. You’ll meet and work with other like-minded SaaS founders. Jump on a call with my scale specialists and we’ll figure out if SaaS Academy is a fit for you. -- Dan Martell has advised more startups than his hometown has people and teaches startup founders like you how to scale. He previously created, raised venture funding for and successfully exited two tech startups: Flowtown and Clarity.fm. You should follow him on twitter @danmartell for tweets that are actually awesome. + Instagram (behind the scenes): http://instagram.com/danmartell + Facebook (live trainings + Q&A): http://FB.com/DanMartell + Twitter (what I'm reading): http://twitter.com/danmartell

I nearly screamed at my lawyer…  “You’ve got to be kidding me!” Years ago, I was finishing up a real estate deal when my lawyer told me that I had to notarize a document. No signature, no deal.  But that signature had to be from a notary, someone that’s earned the authority of the state to approve that I actually was who I said I was. It’s an archaic process but it’s necessary to fight off fraud. The problem was that I travel. A lot. I was on the move and it couldn’t wait until I was back home.  So I had to hunt down an approved notary in a city I barely knew, figure out when he was free, and meet him at a convenience store. Just to prove that my ID was actually mine. I remember thinking, “Surely someone can streamline this process…” Well, someone has. Patrick Kinsel is the founder and CEO of Notarize, the first approved digital notary service.  Instead of shady convenience store appointments, Notarize can connect you with an official notary straight from your laptop in an average of 30 seconds. The story of Notarize is an amazing journey, and Patrick shared it all with me on the latest episode of Escape Velocity right here. Want a lesson is perseverance? Notarize’s biggest problem… was that their technology wasn’t legal to begin with. So Patrick’s company raised $42 million in capital, and spent over $10 million of that just to lobby for laws to change so that digital notarization could exist. Imagine starting a SaaS that literally needed new laws before it was legal… It’s a great interview, and you’ll hear from Patrick about: - How they managed to change 22 state laws - Buying domain names for $42k - Building a product roadmap in reverse - How Notarize solved the new problems they were creating - Rewriting history books In Patrick’s own words, they wanted to be the first company that made it possible for you to buy a house on the internet. And that’s exactly what they’ve done. Stop by the episode, hear the story for yourself, and drop me a comment to let me know what amazed you the most. -- Dan Martell has advised more startups than his hometown has people and teaches startup founders like you how to scale. He previously created, raised venture funding for and successfully exited two tech startups: Flowtown and Clarity.fm. You should follow him on twitter @danmartell for tweets that are actually awesome. + Instagram (behind the scenes): http://instagram.com/danmartell + Facebook (live trainings + Q&A): http://FB.com/DanMartell + Twitter (what I'm reading): http://twitter.com/danmartell

I want you to meet someone who I have huge respect for: Natalie Nagele. Not only has Natalie been working in the SaaS and software space since her late teens, but she’s been courageous enough to experiment with optimizing her team. …even if it means asking them to work less. She is the CEO of WildBit, a tech company with 3 big products: Beanstalk: Code revision and deployment software Postmark: Transactional email service Conveyor: Task management for software teams I had the pleasure of interviewing Natalie on the latest episode of the Escape Velocity Show, and you can tell that she truly loves her team. In fact, she loves them so much that she’s willing to try anything to make their lives better. She saw a boost in productivity by moving them to a 4-day work week, she onboards all her staff by giving them 2 books she swears by, and she’s experimented with many different productivity apps. Her team is largely remote but she’s managed to make that their strength, not a weakness. Listening to her experiences is like spying on a test lab training the perfect SaaS team. If you’ve ever wanted to build a deeply loyal remote team, then you’ll get a lot out of this interview, so check it out. I’m grateful for Natalie’s willingness to share her biggest lessons from 16 years in the tech industry. In this interview, she talks about: - Why “If you build it they will come” is a bad strategy - Learning how to pay yourself <- HUGE - How to avoid getting screwed in an acquisition - The 2 books she gives to every WildBit employee - How hiring a business coach was like marriage counseling - The company value: “Don’t be an @sshole”. - Whether Slack helps or hinders your team Natalie’s journey to success doesn’t follow the conventional bravado that many businesses try to project. Even on WildBit’s website, they list their company timeline, including shutting down products that just didn’t work. It’s not embarrassing… it’s history. The company that is willing to innovate even if it’s risky is the company that will find diamonds. And WildBit is living proof that not all innovations work on the first try. Plug in your headphones, and get your dose of SaaS wisdom right here. Digging what you hear? I’d love it if you left a review in your favorite podcasting app. -- Dan Martell has advised more startups than his hometown has people and teaches startup founders like you how to scale. He previously created, raised venture funding for and successfully exited two tech startups: Flowtown and Clarity.fm. You should follow him on twitter @danmartell for tweets that are actually awesome. + Instagram (behind the scenes): http://instagram.com/danmartell + Facebook (live trainings + Q&A): http://FB.com/DanMartell + Twitter (what I'm reading): http://twitter.com/danmartell

You know what gives me an instant explosive headache? Telemarketers. It takes me about 2 seconds before I can tell they’re reading from a script.  “Are you happy with your… BLAH BLAH”.  I’ve worked closely with many sales teams so I empathize with the job they have to do, but I simply cannot tolerate inauthentic selling.  There’s no excuse. Just train your sales team properly! What really grinds my gears is that telemarketers tarnish the reputation of all salespeople. I call it scorched earth selling.  But if you’ve ever met an AMAZING salesperson, then all is immediately forgiven. The whole sales interaction is seamless, comfortable and above all… authentic.  Today I’d like you to meet a sales genius: David Priemer. David is sometimes referred to as the “Sales Professor”.  He was the VP of sales at Rypple, then the Principal of the Sales Training Academy at Salesforce… and then the VP of Commercial Sales there too. Now he is the founder & Chief Sales Scientist at Cerebral Selling. All of that adds up to a guy that understands the SCIENCE of authentic selling and how to train sales teams to perform better. In the latest episode of Escape Velocity, David and I chat all about selling. Tune in and you’ll learn it from the best in the business. In this interview, David and I get chatting about: Circumventing customer objections David’s “The Reason I Ask…” sales hack ← You can start using this todayThe right way to manage a sales team The 3 areas that all top sales reps excel The number 1 thing you can do to improve your sales team Scripts vs Talk Tracks vs authentic selling How Aziz Ansari laughed in the face of Salesforce This isn’t just an interesting topic… It’s essential to growing your business. If you took two rival SaaS companies with similar products, it’s the one with the well-trained and authentic sales team that will overtake the market. I’d encourage you to invest time in learning about sales strategies and nurturing your team, no matter how big or small. Your sales team is a weapon. Sharpen it. If you like what you’ve heard in this interview and you want more, David has taken his years of experience and written a book called Sell The Way You Buy.  And if your conversion rate isn’t where you want it to be, hop on a call with my scale specialists and we’ll help you out. -- Dan Martell has advised more startups than his hometown has people and teaches startup founders like you how to scale. He previously created, raised venture funding for and successfully exited two tech startups: Flowtown and Clarity.fm. You should follow him on twitter @danmartell for tweets that are actually awesome. + Instagram (behind the scenes): http://instagram.com/danmartell + Facebook (live trainings + Q&A): http://FB.com/DanMartell + Twitter (what I'm reading): http://twitter.com/danmartell Learn how to install elegance and efficiency in your sales process with David’s new book, Sell The Way You Buy: https://cerebralselling.com/book/

If everything in your business fell apart, and you had to rebuild from scratch… what would you do differently? This is usually a hypothetical question. But not necessarily nowadays… and definitely not for Ben Jabbawy a few years back. Ben is the founder and CEO of Privy, marketing automation software for e-commerce stores. In 2013, they raised a seed round $2 MIL from investors. 2 years later, in 2015… all they had left was $1000 in the bank. They had no choice but to pivot, or quit. (A decision a lot of founders are faced with these days.) Fast forward to today, and they’re fast approaching $8 MIL in ARR (annual recurring revenue). Their software is being added to about 10,000 new stores every month. That’s like returning a SaaS from the brink of extinction! So HOW on earth do you do that?! Ben was kind enough to talk through the entire business journey in this week’s episode of the Escape Velocity show. I liken this episode to sharing war stories. In the interview, Ben chats about: 1. Paying attention to the impact you have on people (not metrics) 2. How their customer focus won the war 3. What it takes to grow from a startup founder into a CEO 4. Swallowing your pride 5. What that last $1000 taught him about successful thinking What impresses me most about Ben is how he managed to keep a level head throughout everything. The right mindset is integral to surviving the setbacks in business and life. A lesser leader would have fallen apart. But not Ben. We could use more leaders like Ben. So when you fire up the episode, keep this question in mind: What would you do if your business was down to it’s last $1000? Check out the interview and take a moment to leave me a comment letting me know what you would do. -- Dan Martell has advised more startups than his hometown has people and teaches startup founders like you how to scale. He previously created, raised venture funding for and successfully exited two tech startups: Flowtown and Clarity.fm. You should follow him on twitter @danmartell for tweets that are actually awesome. + Instagram (behind the scenes): http://instagram.com/danmartell + Facebook (live trainings + Q&A): http://FB.com/DanMartell + Twitter (what I'm reading): http://twitter.com/danmartell