FROM CONSULTING TO SaaS - Pivoting From Service To Software with the Founder of Celigo, Jan Arendtsz, Part 1

In this episode, Eric is joined by Jan Arendtsz, Founder & CEO of Celigo - an iPaaS platform that simplifies the integration of business applications and data sources in the enterprise.

iPaaS stands for Integration Platform as a Service, which is a new term for an industry that’s been around since the 90s. Their predecessor was the ETL (Extract, Transform, Load) model which was led by companies like Informatica before the cloud model became standard. 

Jan’s path to entrepreneurship began with him working as a software engineer for a couple of years and quickly realizing that it’s not his true calling. He chose to stick with it for a while to build a solid technical background, after which he joined a consulting firm to learn a bit more about the business side of running a software company. When he got to his late 20’s, he had gathered enough experience to go out on his own and start a company.

Although Jan got the idea for Celigo way back in 2004, it wasn’t the first venture he pursued when he went out on his own. For about 5 years he ran a consultancy that focused on processes and integrations, and he managed to scale that business to 100+ employees before ultimately starting Celigo in January of 2011.

At the beginning Celigo encountered a major roadblock - their platform was built to be operated by technically advanced users, effectively making their platform inaccessible for the average business user. Their first iteration wasn’t up to par, so Jan made the tough decision to scrap the platform and start from scratch. It turned out to be the best decision they made.

Tune into the full episode to learn more on Jan’s journey to founding Celigo!

HIGHLIGHTS:
00:00 What does iPaaS mean?
01:42 Jan’s Journey Into Entrepreneurship
04:48 The Inception of Celigo
12:32 Finding Product-Market FIt
15:47 Becoming a Victim of Your Own Success

Connect with Jan - https://www.linkedin.com/in/janarendtsz/
 

Check out Celigo - https://www.celigo.com/
 

Don't forget to subscribe to the Chaos to Clarity Podcast for more invaluable episodes to help you grow your business and stay ahead of the curve!To reach out to Eric, visit FullCycleProduct.com

Don't forget to subscribe to the Chaos to Clarity Podcast for more invaluable episodes to help you grow your business and stay ahead of the curve!To reach out to Eric, visit https://chaostoclarity.io/