

The Official SaaStr Podcast: SaaS | Founders | Investors
SaaStr
The Official SaaStr Podcast is the latest and greatest from the world of SaaStr, interviewing the most prominent operators and investors to discover their tips, tactics and strategies to attain success in the fiercely competitive world of SaaS. On the side of the operators, we center around getting from $0 to $100m ARR faster, what it takes to scale successfully and what are the core elements of hiring. As for the investors, we learn what metrics they hone in on when examining SaaS business, what type of metrics excites them and what they look for in SaaS founders.
Episodes
Mentioned books

Dec 18, 2020 • 26min
SaaStr 409: Lessons in Scaling a Low Code Platform with Howie Liu, Co-Founder, and CEO @ Airtable
As one of the early champions of "low-code", Howie Liu shares the lessons he's learned building and scaling a company in an entirely new category. He'll discuss how Airtable focuses on solving customers' increasingly complex needs, all with products that are easily adoptable. Video and blog post: https://www.saastr.com/lessons-in-scaling-a-low-code-platform-with-airtable/

Dec 11, 2020 • 42min
SaaStr 408: Going Long and the 20-year Journey of Being a CEO + Founder with Therese Tucker, CEO and Founder @ BlackLine and Jason Lemkin, CEO and Founder @ SaaStr
SaaStr CEO and Founder Jason Lemkin catches up with Therese Tucker, Founder, and CEO at BlackLine about her SaaS journey, going long and surviving black swan events. Video and blog post: https://www.saastr.com/going-long-the-20-year-journey-of-being-a-ceo-founder-with-blackline/

Dec 10, 2020 • 22min
SaaStr 407: The Secrets of Market Timing and How to Develop the Right Idea, at the Right Time with Allen Gannett, Author of the Creative Curve
Trends are fleeting and hard to pin down. Or are they? Learn how you can leverage the science of trends and better understand market behavior. This episode is an excerpt of Allen's session at SaaStr @ Home 2020. You can view the full video here: https://youtu.be/v1c08Ztdrss Podcast transcript: https://www.saastr.com/saastr-podcast-407-with-the-creative-curve-author-allen-gannett-the-secrets-of-market-timing-and-how-to-develop-the-right-idea-at-the-right-time/ Visit dell.com/saastr for exclusive savings on Dell products and more information about the Dell for entrepreneurs program. Everything from Dell financial services to Dell rewards, Dell for Entrepreneurs wants to help your business run smarter through technology. Bandwidth makes it easy to add enterprise-grade voice calling, text messaging and emergency calling to your platform, all backed by the power of a fully owned and operated, tier-one carrier network that gives you direct to carrier pricing with better quality, control, and insights that other API providers can't. See why the biggest brands in the world rely on Bandwidth and sign up for a free trial at bandwidth.com/saastr.

Dec 8, 2020 • 30min
SaaStr 406: Notion's Head of Customer Experience, Kate Taylor on How To Approach Delegation at Scale, How Leaders Can Truly Empower Their Team Members & The Role of Sales in a World of Product-Led Growth
Kate Taylor is Head of Customer Experience at Notion, one of the fastest-growing startups of the last 5 years with over $68M in funding from some of the best in the business including Index, Daniel Gross, Elad Gil, Lachy Groom, Josh Kopelman and Aydin Senkut to name a few. As for Kate, prior to making the move to Notion just last month, she spent an incredible 8 years at Dropbox including holding roles such as Head of Sales Development, North America and Director of Global SMB Revenue and Operations. Before Notion, Kate spent 2 years at Salesforce in the corporate sales and enterprise business units. In Today's Episode We Discuss: How Kate made her way into the world of SaaS with Salesforce, how that led to her 8 year tenure at Dropbox before joining the breakout, Notion? Why does Kate not believe that in startups you can "do it all"? How to discover the problems people care about? How to think through prioritisation of problems at the early stage? Where do many people make mistakes here? How does Kate approach delegation at scale? When is the right time to start? How can founders let go and entrust others to do the role they have been doing? How can leaders build trust with the people they work with? How can leaders empower employees with act with conviction and invest in them? What is the role of sales in a product-led growth organisation? How can sales and product work effectively well together? Where do many mistakes happen in sales and product? How can product and marketing also collaborate productively? What can one do to shorten the feedback cycles as much as possible? Kate's 60 Second SaaStr: Most challenging element of Kate's role with Notion? What would Kate like to change about the world of SaaS? What does Kate know now that she wishes she had known from the beginning? Read the full transcript on our blog: https://www.saastr.com/saastr-podcast-406-with-notion-head-of-customer-experience-kate-taylor/ If you would like to find out more about the show and the guests presented, you can follow us on Twitter here: Jason Lemkin Harry Stebbings SaaStr

Dec 4, 2020 • 39min
SaaStr 405: 6 Learnings on Scaling to $100M ARR with Bernadette Nixon, CEO @ Algolia and Jason Lemkin, CEO @ SaaStr
In today's SaaStr insider episode SaaStr CEO and Founder Jason Lemkin catches up with Bernadette Nixon CEO at Algolia and together they share 6 learnings on scaling to $100M ARR and what it really takes selling to customers small, medium and large. Video and blog post: https://www.saastr.com/6-learnings-from-algolia-on-the-way-to-100000000-arr/

Dec 3, 2020 • 28min
SaaStr 404: The Secrets To Managing in All Directions with Arquay Harris, Sr. Director Engineering @ Slack
The benefits of managing upwards and downwards are frequent management topics. However, managing sideways and inward are also important skills for a successful leader. Learn new ways to build strong teams by managing in all directions from Arquay Harris at Slack. This episode is an excerpt of Arquay's session at SaaStr @ Home 2020. You can view the full video here: https://youtu.be/q40RWMgZgIo Podcast transcript: https://www.saastr.com/saastr-podcast-404-with-slack-sr-director-engineering-arquay-harris-the-secrets-to-managing-in-all-directions/ Visit dell.com/saastr for exclusive savings on Dell products and more information about the Dell for Entrepreneurs program. Everything from Dell financial services to Dell rewards, Dell for Entrepreneurs wants to help your business run smarter through technology. Bandwidth makes it easy to add enterprise-grade voice calling, text messaging and emergency calling to your platform, all backed by the power of a fully owned and operated Tier 1 carrier network that gives you direct-to-carrier pricing with better quality, control, and insights that other API providers can't. See why the biggest brands in the world rely on Bandwidth and sign up for a free trial at bandwidth.com/saastr.

Dec 1, 2020 • 34min
SaaStr 403: Loom's VP Sales, Sam Taylor on Sales' Role in a Product-Led-Growth Organisation, How Sales Can Most Effectively Work With Marketing & When To Hire Your First Reps When Selling Bottoms Up
Sam Taylor is the VP of Sales and Success @ Loom, the startup that helps you get your message across by making it easy to record instantly shareable videos. To date, they have raised over $73M from some of the best in the business including Sequoia, Kleiner Perkins, General Catalyst and Point Nine to name a few. As for Sam, prior to Loom, Sam spent over 4 years at Salesforce following their acquisition of Quip, a startup Salesforce acquired for $750M where Sam was also the 1st sales leader. Before Quip, Sam spent an incredible 3 years at Dropbox where he was the first enterprise sales rep in the entire company. In Today's Episode We Discuss: How Sam made his way into the world of SaaS with Dropbox and how that led to his leading the sales and success team today @ Loom? What was Sam's biggest lesson from scaling the sales team at Dropbox? How did his 4 years at Salesforce change his operating mentality? Thinking of Dropbox, how does Sam justify the role of sales in a world of product-led growth? How do product and sales work together most efficiently? What can one do to structure that relationship? Does Sam agree that the founder is the one who has to create the sales playbook? When is the right time to hire the first sales rep? Should you hire 2 at a time? What does one look for in their first sales hire? What measurements should be used to determine their success? How does this change when selling to SMBs vs enterprise? How does Sam think about the relationship between sales and marketing? Are marketing becoming the new sales team with their content being used more and more in the sales funnel? How should the success of marketing be measured? Does it have to be tied to a number related to revenue? Sam's 60 Second SaaStr: Biggest challenge of Sam's role with Loom today? What would Sam most like to change in the world of SaaS? What is Sam's biggest weakness as a sales leader? Read the full transcript on our blog: https://www.saastr.com/saastr-podcast-403-with-loom-vp-of-sales-sam-taylor/ If you would like to find out more about the show and the guests presented, you can follow us on Twitter here: Jason Lemkin Harry Stebbings SaaStr

Nov 30, 2020 • 49min
SaaStr 402: Customers Want Value + Simplicity: The Must Haves to Deliver with Marten Mickos, CEO @ HackerOne
Marten Mickos, CEO of HackerOne, explains their innovative approach of packaging customer value derived from a variety of activities into an annually recurring subscription offering that delivers outstanding value to customers while simplifying the buying process and the customer journey. This episode is an excerpt of Mårten's session at SaaStr @ Home 2020. You can view the full video here: https://youtu.be/GAw4vKbMevk Full transcript: https://www.saastr.com/saastr-podcast-402-with-hackerone-ceo-marten-mickos-customers-want-value-simplicity-the-must-haves-to-deliver/ Want to see why Adobe, Salesforce, and Marketo use Outgrow? Try building quizzes, ROI calculators, and assessments on Outgrow. Find out how you can build these tools with Outgrow's powerful builder, learn more at outgrow.co/saas. If you don't have a SOC 2 report, you aren't going to be able to sell to major customers. Secureframe helps startups get and maintain software compliance in as little as two weeks. Join companies like Stream, Hasura, Benepass, and unlock more sales with Secureframe. SaaStr listeners get 10% off at secureframe.com/saastr.

Nov 26, 2020 • 18min
SaaStr 401: The Secrets To Doing Freemium and Sales-Driven Sales at the Same Time with MixMax CEO, Olof Mathe
In this session, you will learn how to make the Freemium model work while also incorporating the traditional sales-driven strategy. Olof Mathe will share how the two strategies can blend together and specific lessons he has learned from his experience. Full video: https://youtu.be/9dIaJpuBCU4 Transcript: https://www.saastr.com/saastr-podcast-401-with-mixmax-ceo-olof-mathe-the-secrets-to-doing-freemium-and-sales-driven-sales-at-the-same-time/ Bandwidth makes it easy to add enterprise-grade voice calling, text messaging, and emergency calling to your platform, all backed by the power of a fully owned and operated tier-one carrier network that gives you direct-to-carrier pricing with better quality control and insights that other API providers can't. See why the biggest brands in the world rely on Bandwidth, and sign up for a free trial at bandwidth.com/SaaStr. Dell for Entrepreneurs is here to help your business scale faster through technology. Reach out to startups@dell.com for a free IT consultation. From laptops, desktops to servers and cloud, Dell Technologies is there for you.

Nov 21, 2020 • 12min
SaaStr 400: The Future of Digital Events with Ben Hindman, Co-Founder & CEO @ Splash and Jason Lemkin, CEO @ SaaStr
In today's SaaStr insider episode SaaStr CEO and Founder Jason Lemkin catches up with Ben Hindman, Co-Founder & CEO at Splash to talk about the future of digital events. This interview was part of Splash's Boom, a video series about the innovation explosion in events and the tech stack. Podcast transcript: https://www.saastr.com/saastr-podcast-400-with-splash-ceo-ben-hindman-and-saastr-ceo-jason-lemkin-the-future-of-digital-events/


