The Remarkable SaaS Podcast

This podcast interview focuses on product innovation to democratize possibly the most mature business software category of all: ERP. My guest is Jon Ruby, CEO of Jonar.Jon is a rare person who thrives at the intersection of business challenges, technology and people. As opposed to most, he relishes the opportunities that uncertainty provides. While working successfully in a variety of industries, he has always tried to learn from each and carry those lessons forward.Jon’s philosophy for both technology and business is guided by the belief that just because something has been done a certain way in the past is never a reason to keep doing it that way in the future. As such, he is constantly challenging the status quo to find better and more powerful ways to drive business forward.This is what inspired me, hence I invited Jon to my podcast. We explore what’s broken in the Enterprise Resource Planning category and what could be for innovators if the category was democratized. We also address what’s keeping the industry behind, what could be done to change that, and how this could result in the ability to deliver remarkable impact.Here are some of his quotes:We're looking at a ‘value first’ ‘concept first’, which means: just because something needs to be powerful, doesn't mean it needs to be hard to use. So, it's pretty straightforward to come up with a complicated solution for a complicated problem.To find a simple and elegant solution to a complicated problem is a lot harder to do. And when you try and even succeed a little bit, some exciting things happen.So, we applied this concept to ERP, probably if not the biggest than one of the biggest software packages out there. It's massively powerful. It's very expensive. It has benefits such as reducing costs or increasing market opportunity. But it's terrible as a whole within the market. It's just awful.The big idea was that we, as this little company, would be able to change this multi-hundred-billion dollar market from the ground up, start from scratch, and make a real change in what is possibly the biggest behemoth a software market.During this interview, you will learn three things:That the number one tool in building software is not 3GLs, Databases or Platforms – the number one tools is people, and their perceptionsWhy you should aim high and end up with a situation where your biggest sales obstacle is: people believing that what you offer ‘is too good to be true’How to build a culture of curiosity – a team that constantly renews itself and push the boundaries of what’s possible.

This podcast interview focuses on product innovation around personalization that drives desired engagement and desired conversion. My guest is Stefan Eyram, Chief Revenue Officer at YouneeqSince 2000, Stefan has worked with top brands across a broad cross-section of industries to successfully deliver Cloud and SaaS solutions that achieve KPIs and deliver ROI.From marketing technology, to big data, analytics, AI and personalization, Stefan has helped customers achieve measurable results from their marketing, digital, data and cloud investments.Stefan was the first international employee at ExactTarget (prior to IPO and subsequent acquisition by Salesforce.com) and launched their Canadian presence.He is a regular industry speaker often called upon to speak about online marketing, relationship and lifecycle marketing, email marketing and other topics.I got triggered by Youneeq’s down-to-earth approach to driving revenue through engagement, hence I invited Steven to my podcast. We explore what’s broken in the market with regards to helping SMBs taking advantage of the power of AI to grow fast and now.Here are some of his quotes:We could all agree that we're in the customer experience and the customer engagement economy. Regardless of the age group and demographic you're reaching out to, at least in North America and Europe, the majority of companies that are doing well are the ones that are delivering the better customer experience. And that covers all channels and such but online is growing. If it isn't the most important channel for a company it is going to become the most important channel.What's the opportunity? What's the value? By delivering a more relevant experience, we are driving a lot more desired engagement, because we can use real time analytics to actually optimize the experience. And so, what happens is we can drive the desired engagement automatically. That will drive the desired conversions or micro conversions. And then ultimately, that drives the KPIs that are important.During this interview, you will learn three things:Why tech-vendors should challenge their solution whether it impacts the 1 or 2 most important KPIs of their ideal customers, and then go over and beyond to exceed expectations in terms of how they deliver that impactThat creating highly sophisticated solutions doesn’t mean it has to be complex and time-consuming to implement it and start driving value.That positioning is not a thing for just marketing – it’s possibly the most strategic instrument you have to align every aspect of your business around the growth you aspire and end up having customers saying: I'm glad you sold me this.

This podcast interview focuses on how competitive advantage is shifting in an age of automation. My guest is Josh Entsminger, Senior Fellow at Ecole des Ponts Business School in Paris.He’s an applied researcher in international affairs and the fourth industrial revolution, working on the global governance of technology.Josh serves as a fellow at the Public Tech Lab at IE's School of Global and Public Affairs, working on next-generation public services. He also recently served as a research contributor to the Future of Production Initiative at the World Economic Forum.His work as a senior fellow at Ecole Des Ponts Business School connects him to the Center for Policy and Competitiveness, a think tank affiliated with the Microeconomics of Competitiveness network of Professor Michael E. Porter at Harvard Business School.His work there focuses on the shifting nature of competitive advantage in a world where AI and other 4th industrial Revolution technologies make their inroads.This triggered me, hence I invited Josh to my podcast. We discuss how these technologies rapidly erode the position of advantage many companies used to have. We also discuss how AI is becoming a platform race, and how having access to the right data rather than the right algorithms is becoming the critical factor to create a position of advantage.Here are some of his quotes:I'm particularly focused on the governance of technology in the politics of technology.My background is heavily on government and policy and moving into the commercialization and understanding of what makes a company successful: what are the trends that are driving the viability of competitive advantageIt's becoming increasingly hard for me to distinguish what's a technology company and what's not a technology company,The biggest issue I see is something that I'm calling competitive democratization.This is a drive from some of the big companies to open up access for AI solutions through AI as a service.The thing that worries me is that the means of accessing these technologies is increasingly being controlled or dominated by a few cloud service providers.During this interview, you will learn three things:That defensible differentiation is growing with your ability to create data dominance around a particular areaWhy the battle of business software will be won by those that will master scale over scopeThat the opportunity is exponential for those software companies that can anticipate how we’ll restructure our understanding of what is a firm, what is a career, and what is a job.

This podcast interview focuses on the fuel that drives today’s product innovation: Data. My guest is Auren Hoffman, CEO of SafeGraph.Auren is an American entrepreneur, angel investor and author. He founded his first company, Kyber Systems, in his junior year at UC Berkeley, as a way to pay for school. He sold that company in 1997. From there, he founded BridgePath (sold in 2002), became the chairman of Stonebrick Group, cofounded Rapleaf in 2006 and left in 2012 to run the Rapleaf spinoff called LifeRamp, which became the largest middleware company that connects marketing applications. In 2014, he sold his company to Acxiom for $310 million.Auren is an angel investor in over 120 technology companies. He holds a B.S.E. in Industrial Engineering and Operations Research from the UC Berkeley.It’s the story behind his next venture SafeGraph that became the trigger for this podcast. Safegraph was founded to democratize access to data – in particular to help unlock innovation. That inspired me, and hence I invited Auren to my podcast. We explore why data – or better the lack of it – is becoming the roadblock for innovation. We also address the biggest challenge around data – it’s accuracy, and what it takes for companies to deliver ‘the perfect data’Here are some of his quotes:One of my big passions is about democratizing access to data.Thus far, data has been a real gate to innovation. And folks who are data rich can innovate. But for most innovators, they don't have access to data and that really hampers innovation.And I'd like to see a world where the data itself is not a gate to innovation, but ingenuity is the core gauge for innovation.If we don't democratize access to data, we're going to have much less innovation in the future. Democratizing access to data will both increase the amount of innovation and also disperse more widely the winners from the innovation.During this interview, you will learn three things:That to become the go-to source for innovation, you have to build your entire company around a core theme – and that becomes your focus to be the best and stay the best.Why it it’s key to understand your role in the value chain – are you a ‘solver’ or an ‘enabler’? This defines your value.Why you should treat every employee as a Warren Buffett – a Capital Alligator – Their goal should be to spend money to get leverage – for themselves, their team, the total business.

This podcast interview focuses on product innovation that has the power to democratize the skills of great leaders and make every one of us more productive. My guest is Omar Tawakol.Omar Tawakol is Chief Executive Officer of Voicea, which was recently acquired by Cisco.Prior to Voicea, Omar Tawakol was the founder and CEO of BlueKai which was the leading Data Exchange and Data Management Platform company in the marketing industry. Oracle acquired BlueKai in 2014. At Oracle, Omar was the SVP & GM of the Oracle Data Cloud (ODC). The ODC pioneered the Data-as-a-Service category and was used by 97 of the top 100 US brands to create a 360o view of their customers across all channels.Omar earned an MS in CS from Stanford (BS, MIT), where he researched and published work on AI agents.Their promise: “Voicea transforms your meetings into time well spent”. This inspired me, hence I invited Omar to my podcast. We explore what’s broken in our busy business life that is increasingly loaded with meetings, and what can be if technology and people blend in the right way.Here are some of his quotes:I was running the Oracle Data Cloud after Oracle acquired my company BlueKai.I'd meet with some great leaders like Satya at Microsoft, of course, Larry Ellison, sir Martin Sorrell, just great business leaders.What struck me when I'd meet them is that they'd be in a meeting with me completely focused on our conversation. They didn't have their laptop open so that they could take notes and then get distracted. They weren't looking at their phone, they were looking at me.And when they left the meeting, there was an email with a follow up, and you realize, of course, they have a staff around them. That's helping them, but they also had some excellent skills themselves. And so, given how much time we spend in meetings, it's one of the largest time sinks of all knowledge workers, I saw that there was an opportunity really to help democratize the skills of these great executives.During this interview, you will learn four things:That a new generation of applications is arising around the concept of a Voice First UI – and that this could open up a wealth of innovation opportunities for youWhy the best way to solve a problem is often to do the very opposite of peoples’ natural reaction. Voicea, for example, transforms habits such as the fear of missing out to the joy of missing out.How big impact is created by looking for areas where you can have a position of data advantage or ideally data dominance.Why you should aim to embed elements of virality in your solution – elements that people talk about, and create desire amongst others.

This podcast interview focuses on what’s real and not real in the world of AI, and my guest is Daniel Faggella, founder and CEO of Emerj AI ResearchCalled upon by organizations like the World Bank, the United Nations, INTERPOL, and global pharmaceutical and banking companies, Emerj CEO Daniel Faggella helps business and government leaders navigate the competitive landscape of AI capabilities, and build strategies that win.His company, Emerj, helps governments and enterprises reduce risk and maximize the bottom-line impact of artificial intelligence capabilities. They map the capability-space of AI across major sectors (banking, pharma, retail, etcetera), helping leaders see what's possible, what's working, i.e., where’s real ROI and traction, and what to do about it.Being an active reader of his weekly update on the world of AI, I got inspired by Daniel's down-to-earth and challenger view on the topic. This is why I invited him to my podcast. We explore the challenges in adoption of AI in the market and what’s the deeper causes behind that. We also address the approach business leaders need to follow, and the VC mindset they need to embrace, in order to avoid the challenges.Here are some of his quotes:I was getting out of grad school at U-Pen, it became pretty obvious that a lot of these corollaries with neuroscience with cognitive science around how we learn, we're being experimented with and explored in machines.By the time I got out, I sort of realized that, should this trend continue, this is going to be some really wacky wild future we're headed into in 20 years, if AI continues to be able to do what it could do in vision. So, I decided I should get dedicated to this stuff and understand its impact for humanity in the long term.Everybody, I think, usually expects me to be the hype, man of AI, you know, talk about how awesome and transformative things are. And certainly in the long haul, I think that we're in for a pretty wild ride. I think that probably in the next 40 years, we'll see post-human intelligence potentially.Right now, it's a lot of struggle to be honest with you. So, most AI, you know, quote, unquote, kind of AI innovation efforts within the enterprise, are really at a pilot level at a proof of concept level. And if we look at a space like banking or insurance, is it safe to say that most of these pOcT fail rather than win.There are very serious major challengesDuring this interview, you will learn three things:Why, in order to create sustainable competitive advantage, data-dominance is the foundation to strive forThat succeeding in AI requires you to step out of the sand-box, and stress test your application with your feed in the mud, and overcome the real-world data challengesWhy solving a big problem with your solution is not enough. Getting a deep understanding of the objectives and objections that move the needle in the hearts of the people who need to buy from you is what’s required as well.

This podcast interview focuses on product innovation that enables the blended power of humans and AI to get clear answers to how their business or even the world might evolve years ahead of us. My guest is Bulent Ozel, Co-founder and CEO of LucidMinds.Bulent is a data science consultant, researcher and lecturer. He likes building bridges between business, technology, science, and policy making. He is a hands-on software architect and enjoys coding. He has provided data-driven business consultancy and services for over 10 years, and these experiences have led to the foundation of Lucidminds.ai.Bulent has published more than 50 peer-reviewed and citation-indexed articles.The thing that triggered me to invite Bulent for my podcast is their creation of an agent-based simulation engine - presumably the most advanced and complex simulation model for macroeconomic systems. It enables researchers and policymakers to collaborate on creating insights and clear answers on complex policy questions like green finance, housing market regulations, and exit or entry policies for economic unions similar to Eurozone. We explore the challenges around creating solutions that are required to look 10, 20, or even 30 years into the future and the ways to overcome such challengesHere are some of his quotes:There's a possibility to solve or approach the way we use emerging technology, which means we can have control over AI. It's just a technology, nothing different than a wheel. How we are going to use the wheel depends on the choices we make.If we don't look into how things are suggested, how AI has been developed, that can go out of control.We want to be able to work on limited incomplete data sets. More importantly: if you don't have complete information […] you need the input of humans, and usually human domain experts are the best decision makers.The problem is how can get humans in involved in the process.Humans can always have be better choice maker, they have more insights, the algorithm can have certain bias that the human can overcome, or for other practical reasons, there might not be enough data set that is using to train the algorithm.During this interview, you will learn three things:Why having a lack of information doesn’t have to be a problem to support complex business decision makingHow creating combos of humans and AI can give businesses of all sizes insights that can be turned into clear competitive advantageThat using gamification frameworks inside your solution can help users solve complex problems together

This podcast interview focuses on product innovation in HR that has the power to inspire growth and ignite culture. My guest is Ronni Zehavi, CEO of HibobRonni has over 25 years of experience in multinational, hi-tech companies. Prior to setting up hibob, he was an Entrepreneur in Residence at the Silicon Valley-based Bessemer Venture Partners. He's the strategic advisor and co-founder of Team8 Cyber Security, a powerhouse developing disruptive tech in the cybersecurity space. Ronni was also the co-founder and CEO of Cotendo, a content delivery network, which in 2012, just four years after it was founded, was acquired by Akamai in a $300m.Ronni has a BA in History and Educational Management from Tel Aviv University, and a MA in Organisational Sociology from Bar-Ilan University.I’ve gotten intrigued by the big idea behind Hibob and, in particular, its fresh approach to HR to manage the typical employee of today, and hence I invited Ronni to my podcast.We explore what’s broken around the approach of the HR systems we have become used to over the past decades and why that approach won’t work any longer if you want to grow your business and the impact of today’s workforce.Here are some of his quotes:‘The shift that we are tracking right now, this is the opportunity: There's a new type of employee and a new type of relationship between employers and employee. This will drive this market going forward.They are bringing a new mindset, new values, and new behavior that did not exist before. It will change completely the way people work.So, we think the future, it requires a new approach, a new architecture that will be in line with those ongoing changes.We believe the future is all about system of relationship. So, the focus is the employee. The focus is the tribe - the employee and the team, the small groups within the company.The notion of ‘We Are One Big Family of 800 employees’ is fake newsIt's all about the small teams and the tribe.’During this interview, you will learn three things:Why creating a clear vision about the change you want to make to the world is essential to making the right product decisions.That to leverage your success, it’s essential to get very clear ‘who’s it for’, and ‘who’s it not for’.And that maximum value is created if you home in on the unique DNA of your customer with your solution, i.e., strengthen their core strengths.

This podcast interview focuses on product innovation that has the power to accelerate sales cycles and reduce the costs of customer acquisition. My guest is Olin Hyde, CEO of Leadcrunch.He wrote his first line of code at age 12 on a home-built computer. Since then, he has started eight companies. Today, he’s the CEO at LeadCrunch, a B2B lookalike marketing platform that uses artificial intelligence to find your ideal customer targets audience, and then engage them with your content to accelerate the sales process. Olin is one of the principal architects of the company's DeepFind™ machine learning platform, the secret behind its success.Olin is also an investor and advisor at Bruvida, advisor and shareholder at UpCycle and Company, and Investor at Ginger Shots.Prior to this, he was a business advisor at Connect and was VP, Business Development at Ai One, Inc.He holds a Bachelor of Philosophy in Interdisciplinary Studies in Mathematics, Economics, and Marketing from Miami University (Ohio) and a Masters of Advanced Studies in Architecture-based Enterprise Systems Engineering from UC San Diego.The promise of Leadcrunch is compelling: Get artificial intelligence. Just pay for leads. Get higher Conversions, more pipeline and happier salespeople.This triggered me, hence I invited Olin to my podcast. We explore how the process of targeting leads is broken in most businesses and why this can’t be solved by people alone. Beyond that, we discuss the power of building defensible differentiation – and how this results into a sustainable win-win for both your customers and you as a technology providerHere are some of his quotes:‘I'd like to leave this earth better than I found it. So, I really like to find big problems that really help people live better lives. A very idealistic way to look at it is technology that enables the human spirit.The problem we solve is that targeting, in other words, how to pick your next target for your marketing or your sales is actually very broken. The symptom of that is that sales, people usually hate the leads that are given to them by marketing.I know personally how incredibly difficult it is to find the right audience to market to. And then how do we engage that audience on the path for them to become a customer.So that's the problem we're solving.Our customers consider our technology to be their unfair advantage.Our revenues have grown 20% per month, for two and a half years.That's an indication that technology works.’During this interview, you will learn three things:That by focusing your business on a valuable outcome will help to unlock markets you possibly didn’t even consider.Why focusing your efforts on business model innovation will give you the fastest route to defensible differentiation.How giving your customers something they can’t live without is your secret to unlock double-digit monthly growth.

This podcast interview focuses on product innovation with Audio Intelligence that has the power to impact human well-being on a global scale. My guest is Dagmar Schuller, Co-founder and CEO of AudEERING.Dagmar has conducted applied research in the field of AI, machine learning and big data for more than a decade. Her passion is to bring trendsetting ideas into real-life concepts, thus enabling businesses to intelligently enhance their products and processes and – ultimately – personal lifestyles.At audEERING, she shapes the strategy, business development and operations. With a lot of passion and dedication, she led audEERING from a startup to a multi-million dollar company.Prior to her work as CEO of audEERING, Dagmar was working as Management Consultant for Ernst & Young in Vienna and New York, as CFO of a New Media company, and as Senior Vice President for an international investment of Hubert Burda Media.She studied Economics and Business Administration at the Wirtschaftsuniversität in Vienna, International Management & Marketing, Finance and Information Technology at the University of New York, as well as Law at Ludwig-Maximilians-University in München.I got triggered by the big idea behind audEERING, and hence I invited Dagmar to my podcast. We explore the opportunity that’s created when AI and Audio are blended into common solutions and introduced to everyday situations. We also discuss what it takes to turn ideas into remarkable solutions and what this requires in terms of mindset and leadership approach.Here are some of her quotes:“In the 80s and early 90s, when we were teenagers, there was one series that we really found quite fascinating, which was Knight Rider starring David Hasselhoff.It wasn't actually David Hasselhoff, I have to admit, but the car, KITT, which was so intelligent, that we always thought: ‘That would be really, really great, it would be so great to talk to a machine and the machine really understanding what you want, and really recognizing what you want, it would help so much, and it could be used in so many things.’So, we got inspired and thought ‘Is there a possibility to make this type of fiction reality?”“So, that is actually what's driving us - making the fiction reality, but in a very positive way; How can we utilize those fictions, those ideas? How can we innovate ourselves, move forward, improve what we have, and avoid negativity?”During this interview, you will learn four things:How a user with a critical or even negative attitude can be turned into an advocate when technology becomes a true companion.Why in order to be successful in the mass market, you have to put the money where your mouth is and convince your most critical audience: yourself.How you can create exponential scale by betting on an ‘embed’ strategy – but for that, you have to be very clear what you stand for.That true value is created when you take a holistic view of the problem: not only finding the needle in the haystack – but also figuring out how it arrived there in the first place.