The Official SaaStr Podcast: SaaS | Founders | Investors

Three SaaS leaders from Salesforce, nCino, and Vlocity share tips on building a billion-dollar SaaS company. Topics include recruitment strategies, sales tactics, building the right team, industry transformation, and customization challenges.

Chen Amit is the Founder & CEO @ Tipalti, the only global payable automation platform that scales with you and now remitting $5Bn annually across 3M suppliers. To date, Chen has raised over $146M with Tipalti from the likes of Oren Zeev, Dan Rose, Mike Chalfen and then Greenspring, Truebridge and 01 Advisors to name a few. Previously, Chen was CEO of Atrica, acquired by Nokia-Siemens. He also was co-founder and CEO of Verix. At ECI Telecom, Chen founded its ADSL business unit and led it from inception to $100 million in annual sales. In Today's Episode We Discuss: How Chen made his way into the world of SaaS and came to found the leader in account payables with Tipalti? Why does Chen believe so much of his success is derived from saying no to customers? How does Chen determine which customer feedback to ingest vs to reject? If rejected, how can startups do this in a polite and respectful way? How can startups give the appearance of a large company to enterprises? Given the infinite supply of capital, how does Chen think about unit economics? How does Chen think the right way to calculate LTV is? Where do many go wrong? What can we learn from Amazon when it comes to LTV? How does Chen advise founders to think about annual dollar churn? How does Chen think about optimising pricing models today? How can SaaS companies have variable pricing mechanisms without disincentivizing usage? How does Chen think about aligning revenue scale to your customers? How can this be done? What are the benefits? Chen's 60 Second SaaStr: What is the hardest element of Chen's role today with Tipalti? What would Chen most like to change in the world of SaaS today? What does Chen believe that most around him disbelieve? Read the full transcript on our blog: https://www.saastr.com/saastr-podcast-358-with-tipalti-founder-ceo-chen-amit/ 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 The future of work is here and digital automation is now essential for today's workforce. Tools have improved, but companies are STILL using outdated and manual processes to conduct business. Enter Pipefy. Pipefy is a workflow management software that makes business processes such as purchasing, onboarding, and recruiting—hassle-free, so requesters, processors and managers are more efficient. Pipefy seamlessly integrates with other tools in your toolchain to ensure a completely automated experience with a low to no code implementation. Dispersed or remote team members? NO PROBLEM! Pipefy can automate your requests from anywhere. Scroll over to pipefy.com/saastr to try it out and get 10% off your first 3 months. Empower your teams everywhere with Pipefy.

Therese Tucker breaks through the dogma behind what it takes to build a successful tech company. With stories based on the founding of BlackLine — to the company's successful IPO – you'll learn the most common myths behind success and why they may be holding you back. This episode is an excerpt from Therese's session at SaaStr Annual 2018. Full video: https://youtu.be/fKptGJZcfFk Podcast transcript: https://www.saastr.com/saastr-podcast-357-with-blackline-ceo-founder-therese-tucker-busting-the-myths-about-startup-success/

Pete Kazanjy, Co-Founder of Atrium and author of Founding Sales, discusses when to hire first sales reps, onboarding strategies, leading sales indicators, and common hiring mistakes. He emphasizes founder involvement in early sales and the importance of structuring effective comp plans. Tracking leading indicators for sales rep performance and the evolution of sales practices towards specialization are key topics.

Despite the global pandemic, seed investing remains hyperactive amongst VCs. Satya Patel of Homebrew shares his expert advice on how to raise seed capital in 2020. This episode is an excerpt from Satya's session at SaaStr Summit: The New New in Venture. Full video: https://youtu.be/xXNLUKzcESg Podcast transcript: https://www.saastr.com/saastr-podcast-355-with-homebrew-partner-satya-patel-the-ppp-you-really-need-for-raising-capital-during-a-pandemic/

Whether you've just raised your first round or are in hypergrowth mode, here are the 10 things SaaStr CEO and Founder, Jason Lemkin, wishes his board and investors had told him. Video and blog post: https://www.saastr.com/10-things-wish-board-vcs-told/

Keith Rabois (Paypal, Linkedin, Square) and SaaStr Founder Jason Lemkin talk about the landscape of SaaS & Cloud fundraising and valuation in 2020. This episode is an excerpt from Keith and Jason's session at SaaStr Summit: The New New in Venture. Full video: https://youtu.be/KxTZfx_QpjY Podcast transcript: https://www.saastr.com/saastr-podcasts-for-the-week-with-keith-rabois-and-jason-lemkin/

Decacorns ($10B+ valuation) are everywhere in SaaS, despite the downturn. SaaStr CEO Jason Lemkin discusses what the new landscape of SaaS means for you in 2020. Read the full transcript on our blog: https://www.saastr.com/saastr-podcasts-for-the-week-with-chris-oneill-and-jason-lemkin/

Chris O'Neill (Google, Evernote) shares his lessons from previous downturns and how to chart a new course for growth in today's changing market. This episode is an excerpt from Chris's session at SaaStr Summit: The New New in Venture. Full video: https://youtu.be/ZYdcMpAFQas Podcast transcript: https://www.saastr.com/saastr-podcasts-for-the-week-with-chris-oneill-and-jason-lemkin/

Neha Sampat is the Founder and CEO @ Contentstack, a modern content management system bringing business and tech teams together to deliver personalised, omnichannel experiences. Atypical in our world, but Neha scaled the business to well over $1M in ARR before raising funding. Now Neha has raised over $31M from the likes of Insight Partners and Illuminate. Prior to Contentstack, Neha was the Founder and CEO @ Built.io and before that spent 10 years as the Founder and CEO @ Raw Engineering, building a leading digital transformation consultancy. In Today's Episode We Discuss: How did Neha make her way into the world of SaaS and content management systems having previously built a digital transformation agency? How the heck did Neha scaled Contentstack to over $1M in ARR without raising capital, whilst being based in the Bay? What were the signals that made Neha realise she had a scalable software business? What did Neha look for in her first seed round investors? How did that profile change when she went out to raise the Series A? How has being a sommelier helped Neha break the glass ceiling of business? What are some lessons Neha has learned in terms of build true and genuine relationships with customers beyond the transaction? What are the counter-intuitive strategies Neha has found works when it comes to motivating remote teams? Why did Neha decide to build out so much of the tech team well outside of the Bay in a town outside of Mumbai? Does Neha believe the future of tech is in the valley or decentralised? Neha's 60 Second SaaStr: Neha's biggest strength and biggest weakness as a leader? What does Neha believe that many around her do not? The biggest obstacle to the success Neha has achieved? Read the full transcript on our blog: https://www.saastr.com/saastr-podcast-350-with-contentstack-founder-ceo-neha-sampat/ 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 Neha Sampat