The Remarkable SaaS Podcast

This podcast interview focuses on do's & don'ts that matter if you want your Service business to become successful in SaaS. My guest is Slava Libman, CEO of FTD Solutions. Slava is a driven innovator with +25 years of international experience and thought leader in the space of environmental sustainability in industrial facilities. He has a PhD in Environmental Engineering, and has spent his entire career focused on water technology and its impact on the industry.  He leads teams in Ultra Pure Water, industrial water treatment, and facilities technology development, thereby challenging conventional thinking to drive progress. In May 2017 he founded FTD Solutions - a Digital Twin platform with embedded expertise to enable new standards of sustainability in industrial facilities Their mission: To redefine the way these industrial facilities approach solving problems and drive sustainability performance. And this triggered me, and hence I invited Slava to my podcast. We explore the seven-year journey of transitioning from a consulting firm to a pioneering B2B SaaS company. Slava shared his big lessons learned on the importance of aligning product development with market needs and the sequencing and focusing of his go-to-market strategy. He elaborates how traction changed when they shifted from a transaction-oriented approach to a value-/outcome based approach. Last but not least he shares how emphasizing mission, principles, and value helped with alignment and keeping the organization lean. Here's one of his quotes When we try to help companies minimize their expenses, they ask the question, 'Okay, so what does your enrollment mean from the expense point of view?'  So, our focus is on value creation. We believe that if we can create significant value for our customers, then the question of monetization and expenses will not be a roadblock. And in reality, that's the case. During this interview, you will learn four things: Why he decided to focus the business on the most complex type of customer segment first and how that paid off. Why it's so beneficial to search for unique dynamics at your customers when seeking ways to differentiate your SaaS product. What approach he's using so that everyone in the company lives the company values - every single day.  Why he does't deal with weaknesses in his business. For more information about the guest from this week: Slava Libman Website: FTD Solutions Subscribe to the Daily SaaS Reflection Get my free, 1 min daily reflection on shaping a B2B SaaS business no one can ignore. Subscribe here Yes, it’s actually daily. And yes, people actually stay subscribed (Just see what peer B2B SaaS CEOs say) My promise: It’s short. To the point. Inspiring. And valuable. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This podcast interview focuses on the entrepreneurial journey to solve the growing issue of knowledge worker unproductivity. My guest is Pete Christothoulou, CEO of Xembly. Pete Christothoulou is a serial entrepreneur. In 2003, he co-founded Marche, a publicly traded conversational analytics business.  In November 2020 he founded Xembly - The first automated chief of staff. Its mission: Ensure your company isn't left behind as we're entering a new era of productivity. This inspired me, so I invited Pete to my podcast. We explore what's broken in the world of increasing knowledge worker productivity. Pete shares his vision for reclaiming 44 billion hours annually in the US alone. He elaborates on how he accelerated his way to product-market fit and, from there, predictable traction. Last but not least, he shares what he'd do again if he ever started another Startup. Here's one of his quotes I agree with everyone that we have a transformative opportunity. So I think that's obvious. Where I don't agree is here: if we're not careful, AI will actually create more distraction for us and more pain as consumers, if we're not mindful. During this interview, you will learn four things: How to gather crucial feedback, even if your product isn't fully developed. Why he chose to focus on enterprise customers instead of a potentially much larger SMB market. What single metric he's staring at all day to see whether they make a difference What's the difference between a co-pilot and an auto-pilot, and why this distinction could also affect your SaaS business? For more information about the guest from this week: Pete Christothoulou Website: Xembly Subscribe to the Daily SaaS Reflection Get my free, 1 min daily reflection on shaping a B2B SaaS business no one can ignore. Subscribe here Yes, it’s actually daily. And yes, people actually stay subscribed (Just see what peer B2B SaaS CEOs say) My promise: It’s short. To the point. Inspiring. And valuable. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This podcast outlines key strategies for SaaS CEOs to explore in 2024 to optimally prepare for 2025. My guest is Vinnie Mirchandani, Founder of Deal Architect.  Vinnie has become a regular guest on my podcast. This is the fourth time over the past 7 seasons. He’s the founder of Deal Architect – a Technology strategy and negotiation firm, a former Gartner analyst, and the author of Silicon Collar, SAP Nation, The New Polymath, and The New Technology Elite - which emphasize technology-enabled innovation using lots of case studies and use cases across industries and countries  He's also the prime interviewer/curator of thought leadership books for C-level executives at technology vendors SAP, Software AG, and IFS  In this podcast, we explore the evolving landscape of SaaS businesses together. We delve into the future of SaaS for 2024, discussing optimistic and rational viewpoints on market trends, highlighting the most important metrics to give extra focus, and discussing the shift towards customer-centric revenue models over traditional funding avenues.  We also address the untapped potential of generative AI and operational automation to enhance productivity and innovation in the B2B SaaS space. Furthermore, we explore what muscles to build to stay relevant in this rapidly changing and evolving market of Software as a Service.  Here's one of Vinnie's quotes Investors are sometimes fashion-driven. They follow what their colleagues tell them is predictable. So you don't often get the best advice by listening to investors. You have to go to the edge of the enterprise, to the remote parts of the world, sometimes to find opportunities. During this interview, you will learn four things: Why creating Funding freedom is essential for long-term SaaS success. Which metrics to embrace to keep your SaaS business healthy as customer expectations evolve. What routes to consider to access new technologies and markets with more speed. Where to focus to seize growth opportunities beyond traditional markets For more information about the guest from this week: Vinnie Mirchandani His blog: New Florence. New Renaissance Website: Deal Architect  Subscribe to the Daily SaaS Reflection Get my free, 1 min daily reflection on shaping a B2B SaaS business no one can ignore. Subscribe here Yes, it’s actually daily. And yes, people actually stay subscribed (Just see what peer B2B SaaS CEOs say) My promise: It’s short. To the point. Inspiring. And valuable. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This podcast interview focuses on the resilience lessons learned from running a successful business software company for +34 years. My guest is Dean Guida, CEO of Infragistics. Dean has over 34 years of experience as a CEO and founder of Infragistics, a user interface development tools platform, and an expert in User-Centered Design.  He scaled the business globally across 6 countries with a client roster that includes 100% of the S&P 500.  What is special is that he guided Infragistics to withstand a series of tumultuous moments in the Internet’s ongoing evolution (think: the dot-com tech bubble of the late 90s, the explosion of the Internet, and the 2008 recession).  Not that he got lucky– or happened to be in the right place at the right time, or worked harder than the next guy. He did it by crystallizing the insights at each key moment along the way–from common growing pains to completely unpredictable challenges–into a hard-won philosophy. All his lessons are now bundled in his new book, “When Grit is Not Enough.” And this inspired me, and hence I invited Dean to my podcast. We explore an inspiring journey of resilience of running a successful software business for +34 years. Dean talks about his near failures and shares the big lessons he learned to come out stronger, again and again. He digs into the fundamentals to build a resilient software business and how he's incorporating that into the day-to-day work, so it's lived to the fullest. Here's one of his quotes There's nothing like the fear of going out of business to sit in your brain, "how can you do this better next time?" And, what it comes down to is really early investment is making bets on the future where you think the future is, and spending your money there. Even though if you report to others who want to have better financial performance, you have to always keep investing in the future and refreshing your technology. And like there's this great analogy that software's like lettuce it, as soon as you have it, it's already wilting. During this interview, you will learn four things: How to achieve the Financial resilience to be able to don't fall behind. What to prioritize to ensure culture stays healthy and everyone stays on track with the direction? What two simple instruments Dean uses to navigate tough times. How to build trust in periods where you have to lay off people. For more information about the guest from this week: Dean Guida Website: Infragistics Deans' book: When Grit is Not Enough Subscribe to the Daily SaaS Reflection Get my free, 1 min daily reflection on shaping a B2B SaaS business no one can ignore. Subscribe here Yes, it’s actually daily. And yes, people actually stay subscribed (Just see what peer B2B SaaS CEOs say) My promise: It’s short. To the point. Inspiring. And valuable. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This podcast interview focuses on the journey to take a SaaS business to $1M+ . My guest is Justin Chen, Co-founder and CEO of PickFu. When Justin and his co-founder John Li were working on another business they disagreed and wanted a fast, informed way to break the tie.  Being software engineers, they built it - and that is what sparked the big idea behind PickFu. Although it stayed on the back burner for years, like all the best treasures on the internet, people discovered it. Customers used the polling platform and shared it with their friends. Then, in 2018 they started to see increased attention from e-commerce conferences and podcasts, which is where they realized they had built something truly useful. And this inspired me, and hence I invited Justin to my podcast. We explore what's broken in consumer research. Justin takes us through his journey to the moment they decided to go all in. He explains why he decided to niche down - and what criteria appeared to be really important to get traction. He elaborates on how they're creating defensible differentiation. Last but not least he explains how they're designing for stickiness across product, customer success, and marketing.  Here's one of his quotes The focus on industries is super important. Because it's really hard to market a general-purpose tool. But when you're able to speak directly to people about their problems, and their use cases, it resonates so much more quickly. So for E-commerce and gaming, doing the marketing and starting to tailor the product much more specifically to those industries has been really important to getting our traction During this interview, you will learn four things: How often the best solutions are not the ones that help you do the task correctly, but giving confidence to even consider doing the task at all.   That even if companies have sorted your problem higher in the organization, it doesn't mean everyone has access to that. How focusing on habit building helped to make the product mission critical for some verticals - and reduce churn. What adjustments he's making to make NRR calculation more reliable and relevant.  For more information about the guest from this week: Justin Chen Website: PickFu Subscribe to the Daily SaaS Reflection Get my free, 1 min daily reflection on shaping a B2B SaaS business no one can ignore. Subscribe here Yes, it’s actually daily. And yes, people actually stay subscribed (Just see what peer B2B SaaS CEOs say) My promise: It’s short. To the point. Inspiring. And valuable. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This podcast interview focuses on the entrepreneurial journey to become a trusted brand in a heavily competitive and unsexy market. My guest is Rory Codrington, Founder of Trust Keith.  Rory is a Serial entrepreneur. He cofounded Flixtremein in 2013. Founded Slyce Tech in 2015 and WeDelight in 2018.  In October 2019 he founded Trust Keith, a company that's dedicated to helping companies effortlessly manage their data protection and data compliance. Their mission: to change the "boring" and "unsexy" stereotypes of data compliance to make data protection simple, easy to understand, and an enabler for businesses. And this inspired me, and hence I invited Rory to my podcast. We explore what it takes to build a B2B SaaS business that stands the test of time. Rory elaborates on his big lessons from founding 3 other companies - and in particular what must be true. He shares the reasoning to shift focus from a product strategy perspective and how that strengthened their position. Last but not least he shares how to turn even the most boring domain into something you can stand out and proudly own. Here's one of his quotes By being high touch right now, we're just pulling so much better insights from our customers. I don't want to go and rush this, like 'Let's sprint to get arm's length away from our customers so that we can talk having a plg motion. We're not solving for investment. We're solving for customer retention, customer value, and revenue growth. During this interview, you will learn four things: What questions to ask to build a business that has the foundation to last. What product strategy battles you should have internally to become mission critical to the right segment of the market? How to optimize your company for benchmark gross margin - without cutting corners. How to align every aspect of your business to become 'the one' in your segment of the market. For more information about the guest from this week: Rory Codrington Website: Trust Keith Subscribe to the Daily SaaS Reflection Get my free, 1 min daily reflection on shaping a B2B SaaS business no one can ignore. Subscribe here Yes, it’s actually daily. And yes, people actually stay subscribed (Just see what peer B2B SaaS CEOs say) My promise: It’s short. To the point. Inspiring. And valuable. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This podcast interview focuses on the entrepreneurial journey to create a serious business by daring to focus on some fundamental flaws of one enterprise platform. My guest is Ron Gidron, Founder and CEO of Xtype. Ron's a tech entrepreneur on a mission. He's got close to 3 decades of experience in sales, product management, and marketing of highly technical software products. He's worked for Mercury Interactive, Symantec, and Automic Sofware (acquired by CA) The technical scaling challenges he experienced on his journey inspired him to start xtype in April 2021. Their mission: to help ServiceNow development teams to deliver at speed the business demands without compromising quality or compliance. And this inspired me, and hence I invited Ron to my podcast. We explore what's broken when it comes to scaling and building large enterprise systems. Ron explains why he decided to bet on ServiceNow (instead of staying platform agnostic). He elaborates on why he decided to target the largest organizations in the world first. He shares some big lessons on becoming a platform player that gets noticed and what he had to do differently to gain the traction he aspired to. Here's one of his quotes Coming from that space, you think, 'Hey, I can retrofit the toolchain and just build some integrations from Salesforce from ServiceNow. And I'll just run the tools that already exist. That is a huge mistake. Not because it doesn't work technically, technically you could probably do it, but because that overlooks the power of the ecosystem itself. There is a reason why Salesforce folks love Salesforce. There is a huge reason why ServiceNow folks love ServiceNow. During this interview, you will learn four things: What it takes to build traction momentum in a platform-centric eco-system. How to get attention from the largest companies in the world when you're building a new product. What to never do when you're building a product that's dedicated to one specific platform. Ron's first principles when it comes to funding or no funding. For more information about the guest from this week: Ron Gidron Website: Xtype Subscribe to the Daily SaaS Reflection Get my free, 1 min daily reflection on shaping a B2B SaaS business no one can ignore. Subscribe here Yes, it’s actually daily. And yes, people actually stay subscribed (Just see what peer B2B SaaS CEOs say) My promise: It’s short. To the point. Inspiring. And valuable. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This podcast interview focuses on the entrepreneurial journey to build a business that lasts and creates funding freedom. My guest is Jason Cohen, Founder of WPEngine. Jason built four technology startups, both bootstrapped and funded, both alone and with co-founders. He grew all of them to more than $1M in annual revenue and has sold two.  Beyond that, he's been an angel investor and a founding member of Capital Factory, an Austin-based incubator and co-working space since 2009. Since 2007 he's been documenting his experiences and thoughts about early-stage startups on his blog: A Smart Bear.  Based on his experiences and the challenges he faced as the blog grew, he founded WPEngine in 2010. It's a platform that provides brands with the solutions they need to create remarkable sites and apps on WordPress that drive their business forward faster.  Their mission: To help customers win online. And this inspired me, and hence I invited Jason to my podcast. We explore his lessons in building successful companies. He elaborates on the importance of getting the problem definition right and understanding what moves potential customers to buy. He shares his views on how to select your market and betting a super-specific niche. He talks in detail about his rules for attracting funding (or not) - and what WPEngine did during COVID-19 to keep growing.  Here's one of his quotes The question is, what can you learn from customer interviews? I don't think you can use customer reviews to know, 'Can I build this? Would you buy this feature?'  But I do think you can use customer interviews for stuff like: What is their life like? What do they care about already, or not? What do they do? What are their workflows? Do they see this problem? Or don't they? Are these compelling?  These are things where if you build the product, you don't learn those things. Ask the customer, they actually can tell you because they're not solving the problem for you. They're not building the product for you. They're just telling you about themselves. That they can do. During this interview, you will learn four things: What questions to ask to start your business with a solid foundation for long-term success What makes hyper-specific SaaS companies grow faster His first principle for thinking about raising funds that helps you to stay in control. What he's looking for when making big bets when it comes to profitability. For more information about the guest from this week: Jason Cohen Website: WPEngine Blog: A Smart Bear Subscribe to the Daily SaaS Reflection Get my free, 1 min daily reflection on shaping a B2B SaaS business no one can ignore. Subscribe here Yes, it’s actually daily. And yes, people actually stay subscribed (Just see what peer B2B SaaS CEOs say) My promise: It’s short. To the point. Inspiring. And valuable. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Welcome to episode 300 of the Tech-entrepreneur on a mission podcast.  Because this is a big milestone on the journey I didn’t want to devote this podcast to one guest – instead, I got 23 B2B SaaS CEOs on the mic. A big element of every single episode of the podcast is my question at the end of each episode.  What would be a Do or a Don't that you'd like to share with other SaaS entrepreneurs? And so, I’ve made a hand-picked selection of these Do's & Don'ts from the last 100 podcast episodes Let's start with the Don'ts Neta Meidav, CEO Vault Platform: Don't take other entrepreneurs advice on face value. Melissa Kwan, CEO eWebinar: Don't start a business that you hate even if it has success. Emil Jimenez, CEO Mindbank AI: Don't think about the money Aleks Gollu, CEO 11Sight: Don't bother people will steal your idea Toni Hohlbein, CEO Growblocks: Don't forget where you are in the process Sunny Han, CEO Fulcrum: Don't allow comfort to take over Jon Ricketts, CEO Writerly: Don't limit yourself in your thinking Patrick Woods, CEO Orbit: Don't ignore yourself Charlotte Melkert, CEO Equalture: Don't think you need to in control of everything Antony Thomson, former CEO Loopin: Don't bring new people on unless you're 100% oversubscribed. Barrett King, Sr. Manager Global GTM Strategy, Partner Ecosystem Hubspot: Don't use the sentence: I'm gonna build a partner program Christian Owens, CEO Paddle: Don't malign yourself with having 2 different interpretations of what a good outcome looks like And now over to the Do's Melissa Kwan, CEO eWebinar: Do create your own definition of success Amir Konigsberg, CEO Pragma: Do something that can be genuinely valuable for someone else Lars van Wieren, CEO Starred: Do walk the walk and talk the talk Patrick Woods, CEO Orbit: Do aggressively comunicate - keep everyone on the same page Christine Tao, CEO Sounding Board: Do ask for what you need Ahmed Elsamadisi, CEO Narrator AI: Do bring your entire team for decision making James Malley, CEO Paccurate: Do learn to fight fair Mads Wedderkopp, CEO Dreaminfluence: Do write the rules before you start Neta Meidav, CEO Vault Platform: Be human - Be a mensch Josh Haynam, CEO Interact: Do highlight positives Guillaume Moubeche, CEO Lempire: Do document as early as possible Rami Darwish, CEO Arrow Labs: Do plant some small flags ahead of time Erdem Gelal, CEO Flowla: Do build a true fan base Ryan Falkenberg, CEO CLEVVA: Do own the outcome Subscribe to the Daily SaaS Reflection Get my free, 1 min daily reflection on shaping a B2B SaaS business no one can ignore. Subscribe here Yes, it’s actually daily. And yes, people actually stay subscribed (Just see what peer B2B SaaS CEOs say) My promise: It’s short. To the point. Inspiring. And valuable. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This podcast interview focuses on the entrepreneurial journey to deliver on the promise of offering the best cybersecurity service in the world. My guest is Matt Holland, CEO of Field Effect. Matt Holland is an authority in the cybersecurity industry. He started his career at the Communications Security Establishment in 1999 as a leading security researcher for top-secret projects in the Five Eyes community. In 2007, he co-founded Linchpin Labs because he saw the opportunity to provide better solutions to democratic governments and corporate clients globally. The company was sold to L3 in 2018. In January 2020, he co-founded Field Effect, which he leads as the CEO. Their mission: To turn the global cyber security landscape on its head by creating the technology and tradecraft to protect underserved small & medium-sized businesses from modern cyber security threats. And this inspired me, and hence I invited Matt to my podcast. We explore what's broken in the cyber security industry, in particular for small and medium-sized businesses. Matt elaborates on the strategic choices he made early on to differentiate the business - being able to offer his solution at a fraction of the price of traditional players. He also shares his formula to build a sustainable business that can successfully compete with very large competitors.  Here's one of his quotes The mission of the company to protect small and medium businesses around the world is a really neat thing to see in action. We have stopped some incredibly challenging ransomware attacks. And when you think about it, if we weren't there, it would potentially be a business-ending event for the customer. It could potentially shut down a medical facility.  When it comes to job satisfaction, […] It's like a passion flywheel that feeds right back into it to make the entire product and service even better. During this interview, you will learn four things: How Matt found the underserved markets he could serve like no one else. How he's able to offer game-changing pricing in a very competitive market. What he's steering for to increase the effectiveness of product development What ingredients he's looking for to keep growing in challenging times. For more information about the guest from this week: Matt Holland Website Field Effect Subscribe to the Daily SaaS Reflection Get my free, 1 min daily reflection on shaping a B2B SaaS business no one can ignore. Subscribe here Yes, it’s actually daily. And yes, people actually stay subscribed (Just see what peer B2B SaaS CEOs say) My promise: It’s short. To the point. Inspiring. And valuable. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices