The Saas Revolution Show

In this episode of the SaaS Revolution Show our host Alex Theuma is joined live from the SaaStock Studio at SaaStock Europe 2024 by Muhammad Younas, Founder & CEO at vFairs and Winner of the SaaStock Awards "Founder & CEO of the Year: People's Choice", as he shares his key lessons bootstrapping the business to profitability and $30M ARR. "More than half of our business comes from word of mouth from our existing set of customer base. We are a strong believer that the best sales team is your existing customer base. So we go above and beyond. Even though we are in technology business, we typically say internally that we feel that we are in hospitality business. We want to be so close to the customer, give them that seven star experience that they go and spread that around." Muhammad shares: • Achieving profitability from day one • His number one piece of feedback for founders • Their go-to-market model and how they attract customers • Investing in talent above all else • The true definition of business

In this episode of the SaaS Revolution Show our host Alex Theuma is joined by SaaStock Europe 2024 speaker Angeley Mullins, Chief Commercial Officer at Resourcify, who shares Founder versus Company Brand. "A lot of founders don't actually understand what marketing is. You have performance marketers and content marketers and brand marketers. You have channel marketers, partner marketers, etc. So really identifying what your go to market strategy is, identifying who your ICP is, and these are just the fundamentals, and then what resonates to your ICP, and you have to identify that first and then back into the type of marketing that you want or need that will resonate." Angeley shares: • Can a company be founder-led and also do product-led branding • Where pre-Series B companies often struggle most when it comes to storytelling • Why step one for founders is taking an index on the things that A) you're passionate about and B) that you're good at • Where authenticity meets communication and what's most importa

In this episode of the SaaS Revolution Show our host Alex Theuma is joined by Tomasz Tunguz, General Partner at Theory Ventures and SaaStock Europe 2024 speaker, who shares how AI is changing the future of SaaS. "AI will be a key part of the product. I would characterise the last two years as adding AI features on top of existing platforms, and I think we're starting to see humans adjust, and when humans adjust, the workflows will change, and when the workflows change, there'll be an opportunity to un-see the big systems of record." Tomasz shares: • What makes a founder investable, from Einstein's compounding interest to selling a market • Where we'll see greater and greater efficiency gains businesses at scale • Why upcoming workflows changes lend to unseating the biggest systems of record • The future of AI and how it'll change SaaS architecture and positioning • The significant pressure that horizontal SaaS is facing, and what companies like Salesforce, Glean and Klarna are doing as a result • How to ens

In this episode of the SaaS Revolution Show our host Alex Theuma is joined by Job van der Voort, Co-Founder & CEO at Remote, who shares their hypergrowth journey and how they scaled Remote to hundreds of millions in ARR. "I would always say this is a great problem to have. If you grow really, really fast and it's a luxury problem, and if you just embrace it like that, then everything becomes much easier. Just embrace it in the most honest possible way, which is that, wow, we get so much interest that we have to solve these really difficult problems right now. It's for sake of, you know, our success, or at least the direction of success. To me, that was never difficult. What is difficult is how it affects the rest of your life." Job shares: • From $0 to $1M ARR in six months, and $1M ARR to hundreds of millions in three years: the operational and human problems Remote faced during rapid growth • His attitude towards increased responsibility and fighting fires - 'it's a great luxury to have problems to so

In this episode of the SaaS Revolution Show our host Alex Theuma is joined by Casber Wang, Partner at Sapphire Ventures, who shares the issues with AI startups and cash burn. "Let's just say we intentionally freeze the progress of technology. There's no ChatGPT five, there's no GPT six. It's only what we have today; GPT four and some of the other, call it 3.5. I believe the next five years we can just build applications on those existing technologies without underlying technological progress. So that's how much progress we made from the starting point. So to me it's less so 'why haven't we seen much progress yet', it's just all the systems take a little bit more time, right? People get used to a new thing and that just takes more time than folks had expected, just given how much attention there is around this topic." Casber shares: - What he's looking for in companies that Sapphire invests in - Why he favours founders who constantly think about talent valuation; from tracking talent to their talent bench

In this episode of the SaaS Revolution Show our host Alex Theuma is joined by SaaStock Europe 2024 speaker Eoin Hinchy, Co-Founder & CEO at Tines, who shares how he went from AI skeptic to advocate and how it informed Tines' roadmap. "I can't tell you how many times over the years I've made a better decision as it relates to a certain part of the business because I've had to do it firsthand myself. At some stage I knew what the problem was and I knew how hard it was or I was able to appreciate the challenges that these kind of new hires were experiencing because I had done it firsthand. So I think founders should almost do like every job for like a little bit just to get that experience." Eoin shares: - How they got tier one investors for Tines' Series A and Series B rounds, totalling ~$115 million - Why, at one point or another, all founders *should* wear every hat - AI meets snake oil: why the early days put him off - The two biggest things stopping AI from being transformative - How as CEO he main

In this episode of the SaaS Revolution Show our host Alex Theuma is joined by SaaStock Founder Member Dee Coakley, Co-Founder & CEO at Boundless, who shares her journey achieving growth through challenging times. "There's a founder called Ian Nolan, CEO of a company called Bright Flag. And I remember going for a coffee with him and I remember it so clearly. We were at about 400k or I was focused on getting to a million. And then he said, slow down, slow down. Where are you at today? What's happening today? He was asking me how frequently we were closing a new logo and he said, look, you're closing. Maybe it was one customer a week at the time. He said, your problem isn't getting to 2 million ARR. The problem you have to solve now is how do you close two customers a week? Just focus on that. And I love the simplicity of that and I apply it to so many things right now. Don't run before you can walk. Just figure out that next little step." Dee shares: - Building fanbases: from artist management in the mus

In this episode of the SaaS Revolution Show our host Alex Theuma is joined by Mikita Mikado, Co-Founder & CEO at Unicorn SaaS PandaDoc, who shares his lessons in scaling past $100M ARR. "It takes a lot of patience to run a business at scale. I'm not sure I have it, I feel like I need to build a lot of it. And this tendency of, like, getting something done instead of having conversations around the topic so that people get an insight or bring their perspective on, like, how something needs to be done. It's a really tough transition and I still struggle with it." Mikita shares: - Getting to $1M ARR and the tedious work that went into building a functioning customer flywheel - From hiring generalists to specialising teammates - How PandaDoc's tenure-defying CROs helped make the company what it is today - The important transition to optionality (and why he struggles with it) - A sneak peek into his SaaStock Europe 2024 speaking session and more.Check out the other ways SaaStock is serving SaaS founders

In this episode of the SaaS Revolution Show our host Alex Theuma is joined by Dan Uyemura, gym turned SaaS enthusiast and Founder & CEO at PushPress, who shares his story building PushPress to $13M ARR. "Everybody has tried being the CEO, I think it just stuck with me. And probably I'm the most natural fit to be the CEO that we need at PushPress, because even though I consider myself mostly an introvert and somebody who wants to just sit in my room by myself and do what I have to do, being a CEO - the CEO that PushPress needed was an outfacing, stand on a soapbox and talk to the world CEO - and of the three founders, I'm actually the probably the most equipped to do that." Dan shares: - His lifelong entrepreneurial journey from paper routes and lemonade stands to founder & CEO - The one thing that landed them their first investor - Loans, free money, and speakeasy fitness during Covid - Building a high trust quotient with clients - Creating leverage in a company and more.Check out the other ways Sa

In this episode of the SaaS Revolution Show our host Alex Theuma is joined by serial founder Patrick Barnes, co-founder & CEO at AMP, who shares his lessons from the first time to make the second time easier. "One of the things we did when we first started the company was actually acquire a small SaaS company, or really more of a product, just with our own money. The reason we acquired it is it had 2,000 customers and having angry customers is a beautiful thing. Anybody listening to this who has customers that wouldn't get angry if the product went down, like should just shut the company down and work on something else. Like you want people calling you up, telling you it needs to do more things, saying, "hey, this bad thing happened, this is terrible". It was a great way for us to get this injection of the customer voice, of the urgency into the company and sort of skip those first, say, six or nine months." Patrick shares: - How (and why) to adapt leadership style when managing a larger team - Getting

In this episode of the SaaS Revolution Show our host Alex Theuma is joined by Justas Malinauskas, Co-Founder & CEO Whatagraph, who shares his three key growth lessons in getting Whatagraph past $5M ARR. "I get it. There's a lot of trend about bootstrapping in VC, and my point of view is if you can bootstrap and still maintain high growth and your business is feasible for that, that's great, do that. And I think if you can deploy more money and grow the business in a year instead of three years, so you should do that. So that's why these funds are there, just to speed up the growth. If the money doesn't speed up your growth, then for sure, why get it?" Justas shares: - His generational advantage towards tech - Whatagraph's founding story, including their north-star focus on the end user - Why retesting marketing channels is crucial to company growth - How to combine strengths and weaknesses of your product to make the customer successful - The benefits of joining founder peer groups; from unbiased advice

In this episode of the SaaS Revolution Show, we're back at the SaaStock Growth Stage for an insightful panel discussion between David Appel (Head of SaaS & Software Vertical at Sage Intacct), Kathrin Koedderitz (Sr Sales Director at Globalization Partners), Ferran Puig (Director of Partnerships & Business Development at Capchase), and Zack Lipton (Sr Revenue Enablement Manager - EMEA at Salesloft). "When we started Salesloft in EMEA, we had one sales rep that was stellar. Everyone would just watch his calls. They all knew – watch his calls. And he got really good by watching one of the reps in the US. And it's just, you know, very informal, institutional knowledge but the point I'm trying to make here is, if you can identify that then you can coach that behaviour into people. You can tell people who the top performers are, you can make your top performers more vocal so that other people know where to find that content," Zack Lipton, Senior Revenue Enablement Manager at Salesloft The session was pac

In this episode of the SaaS Revolution Show, we're live from the SaaStock USA Scale Stage with Klaviyo President Steve Rowland. "No matter where you live, there's this nice radius that you travel and you run all your errands in. I like to go into the local coffee shop or maybe you've got a favourite wine store or maybe a clothing store or a technology store. It's always such a cool feeling when they go, hey, Steve, it's great to see you. We want to be known and we want to be understood, and we want to feel connected to the places we visit physically. That's really hard to do in a digital world because our radius is not 10 miles or 10 kilometres. It's infinite. I buy my deodorant from an Australian company. Is that weird? But they know me. So we have that connection that we want to have as individuals and humans. And so how do you create that in a digital world? That's what we enable," Steve Rowland, President at Klaviyo In discussion with Creator Match Founder AJ Eckstein, Steve shares practical tips drawn

In this episode of the SaaS Revolution Show, we're live from the SaaStock USA Scale stage where CEO Coach Mark MacLeod shares strategic insights and practical habits for sustainable success. "In January 2021, I attended a retreat on the theme of self mastery with my guru and yoga teacher. As part of that, she had us write our eulogy. So I had to write about my life as if it was in the past and write about how people would describe me. What impact did I have? What values did I live by? How did I touch their lives? What did I stand for? I don't really believe in legacy because there's 8 billion people. I don't actually matter. But you know, how did people remember me until they forget me? There's nothing like looking in your life through the rear view mirror from the point of view of your death to clarify how you should live and the choices you should make today." In the episode, Mark shares: - His journey as a leader and how that experience led him to become a coach. - The aspects of CEO life and hustle cul

In this episode of the SaaS Revolution Show our host Alex Theuma is joined by Eoin Bara, CEO of Tipple, who shares how Tipple won five billion dollar customers in its first year of operation. "There's a lot of SaaS companies that do one thing, and I think there is a trend in the market towards consolidation. So if you look at, like, employer records and HRIS systems benefits tools, right, I think there's going to be consolidation of those into one tool. You know, we look at Revolut now doing expenses, you know, you look at offering other products, that's going to be the thing. It's 1. finding the thing that's going to be the killer feature that brings the customers in the cutting through the noise of marketing and like getting to your target customer, then it's going to market getting scale." Eoin shares: - His journey from being a UX designer working with the likes of Goldman Sachs, Vodafone, like Aer Lingus, to 'starting a side hustle' now known as Tipple - How fond memories of his childhood in Tullamore

In this episode of the SaaS Revolution Show, we're live from the SaaStock USA scale stage where Jake Dunlap (CEO, Skaled) and Kevin "KD" Dorsey (Sales Leadership Accelerator & Consultant) go head to head in their session on 'The Great Debate: What You Need to Know about AI in Sales'. Ready for a debate? KD and Jake share what you NEED to know when it comes to AI and sales. The future of sales is human powered by AI, and these two renowned sales experts will arm and argue the knowledge and skills you need to thrive in this ever-evolving era. Through the lens of friendship, leadership and sales enablement, these two will debate it out together. Listen to the full episode, watch the video below and subscribe to the SaaS Revolution Show podcast today.Check out the other ways SaaStock is serving SaaS founders

In this episode of the SaaS Revolution Show our host Alex Theuma is joined by David Politis, Founder and Executive Chairman at BetterCloud. "If you think about the journey of a company in the various stages of a business, we were getting to a scale where it made sense to find a partner who has a track record of taking companies to that next level, organically and inorganically, just to be really transparent. They have multiple ways of getting businesses to that next level, and we wanted to find a partner who could do that with us." In the episode, David shares: - How entrepreneurial spirit runs in the family - His journey to founding BetterCloud - BetterCloud's journey to $100M ARR - The decision to acquire G2's G2 Track product - How the role of a CEO changes as you scale - The top three things from the Startup Founder Survival Guide - And more! Check out the other ways SaaStock is serving SaaS founders

In this episode of the SaaS Revolution Show our host Alex Theuma is joined by Tim Schumacher, co-founder of saas.group, as he shares his insights on exiting your SaaS business. "The one thing that's moved the needle every time is being open about certain problems which appear in one business and solving them myself, in a way, and that usually made a good business. And those were always been than the ones where I was just looking at some general trend I didn't really understand, those were my failures." Tim shares: - Growing his first business: from three friends in a garage to 300 people (before then selling to United Internet!) - His beginnings in angel investing and what constitutes a fundable founder - A saas.group snapshot: 20 companies acquired ranging between $1-$10M ARR - The key steps involved with acquisitions (and why soul searching is #1) - His advice to founders considering an acquisition... and why it's important to remember valuation is just one factor! and more.Check out the other ways Sa

Live from the SaaStock USA 2024 Scale Stage, Kyle Lacy (CMO, Jellyfish) tells marketing leaders the five ways to not get fired. "I believe marketing should have a seat at the table for all four of these to force alignment, because you are the hub and spoke of the go to market model - in my opinion. So that's why it's important that you at least help own, or at least help report, on these things." The average tenure of a marketing and sales leader at a high-growth startup is short, and it’s short for a reason. How do you build staying power at any company as a marketing leader? It’s important to build specific strategies to gain a seat at the proverbial table. Join Kyle as he walks you through the five ways to position yourself as a marketing leader, from revenue alignment to owning a pipeline/revenue number.Check out the other ways SaaStock is serving SaaS founders

In this episode of the SaaS Revolution Show our host Alex Theuma is joined live at SaaStock USA 2024 by Ashley Grech, CRO at Xero, as she shares the five key moments to drive revenue growth & customer retention. While we're all familiar with sales cycles and customer life cycles, when you take a deeply customer-centric view, there are a few moments that really matter in revenue and retention, and it behooves you as a leader to think through how you handle each of them in order to turn them into force multipliers for your funnel and customer relationship. These moments include: First impressions, Conversion, Establishment, Growth (cross-sell and upsell), and When something goes wrong. Tune in to hear GTM expert Ashley Grech, CRO at Xero, discuss.Check out the other ways SaaStock is serving SaaS founders