The SaaS Revolution Show

This week on the SaaS Revolution Show, we talk with Sarika Garg, Chief Strategy Officer at Tradeshift about walking the tightrope between tactics and strategy. Sarika was raised in Africa and India and moved to Silicon Valley about 20 years ago. Fifteen of them she spent working between SAP and Ariba, moving up the ranks of product management. When she felt she had gotten too used to the comfy life that big organisations can create, Sarika jumped into the deep end joining Tradeshift, first as VP of product marketing and then raising up to Chief Strategy officer two years ago. At the time, the company employed 100 people and she was the first CSO. Nowadays the company employs 1000 people and at its last Series E funding round led by Goldman Sachs, it was valued at $1.1 billion. No wonder then, that Tradeshift is one of the fastest growing Fintech companies in Silicon Valley. That has been achieved by navigating the complex network that Tradeshift offers to businesses and having both a disciplined long term view as well as timely day to day operational excellence. Both of those have fallen within the remit of Sarika and she has learned to walk the tightrope between tactics and strategy. Listen on to hear: What should the role of a CSO be in a small company and how to know you need it How should companies navigate between long term strategy and short term execution How she makes the decision to pivot from her original strategy Sarika will be joining us at SaaStock West Coast on September 11th in San Francisco moderating a panel which will aim to tackle another common tightrope SaaS companies need to walk and navigate: how to split their focus between attracting new customers and retaining the existing ones. Joining her on that panel will be Shane Murphy-Reuter, SVP Marketing at Intercom, Omar Nawaz, Chief Product Officer at Chargebee and Jason Reichl, CEO of GoNimbly. We have a few tickets left for SaaStock West Coast so be sure to grab one before August 30th when prices increase.    Check out the other ways SaaStock is helping SaaS founders move their business forward: 🇮🇪 SaaStock Europe | Dublin, IrelandBook tickets: https://saastock-europe.com/🇺🇸 SaaStock USA | Austin, TexasBook tickets: https://saastock-usa.com/🤝 SaaStock Founder Membership: A private members group of B2B SaaS founders between $100K - $10M ARR who are committed to growth and helping others (https://www.saastock.com/founder-membership/)🌎 SaaStock Local: Monthly meet-ups in cities all around the world, bringing together SaaS enthusiasts and experts to discuss the most pressing topics in SaaS (https://local.saastock.com/home)

On this week’s episode of the SaaS Revolution Show, we talk with Natalie Nagele, Co-founder and CEO of Wildbit about how she and her co-founder and husband, Chris Nagele have run the company for the past nearly 19 years and have created both an effective and calm environment. During those 19 years, Natalie and Chris have built a lot of products and have shut down many of them. The ones that have stood the test of time have often been SaaS. Currently the company maintains Postmark, Beanstalk and Conveyor. Wildbit currently employs 30 people who are spread between 6 countries. Natalie’s main goal throughout all this time has been to keep the company a sane place to work. She has never taken VC funding and has never imposed high growth, or unsustainable goals for the company. At the start of the year, however, Natalie and Chris introduced The Entrepreneurial Operating System (EOS) to help the company become more effective and productive. So far the experience has been great and they are already seeing great results. It has made them far more effective and aligned, especially as they operate a four day work week. At SaaStock we also implemented EOS at the start of the year, so this is as much a rundown of how it works as it is an exchange of notes and advice on how to make it better. Listen on to hear: How Natalie has assured the company has been around for nearly 19 years How they rolled out EOS One area in which EOS has already had a massive impact in Wildbit Natalie is one of many diverse voices we will hear from at SaaStock in Dublin this October. While we will have plenty of stories of high growth and stellar metrics, we will also feature the other, equally as effective ways do SaaS - by growing slowly and sustainably. Joining her on 5 separate tracks will be 150 speakers representing a variety of company stages and verticals. Grab a ticket now at the best possible price.    Check out the other ways SaaStock is helping SaaS founders move their business forward: 🇮🇪 SaaStock Europe | Dublin, IrelandBook tickets: https://saastock-europe.com/🇺🇸 SaaStock USA | Austin, TexasBook tickets: https://saastock-usa.com/🤝 SaaStock Founder Membership: A private members group of B2B SaaS founders between $100K - $10M ARR who are committed to growth and helping others (https://www.saastock.com/founder-membership/)🌎 SaaStock Local: Monthly meet-ups in cities all around the world, bringing together SaaS enthusiasts and experts to discuss the most pressing topics in SaaS (https://local.saastock.com/home)

On this week’s episode of the SaaS Revolution Show, we take you back to the SaaStock18 stage for a special Ask Me Anything session with William McQuillan, Partner at Frontline. Without any preselected questions, William answers everything on the spot at the Traction stage. After leaving university, William was one of the founding employees of Ondra Partners, a startup investment-banking boutique. William’s work at Ondra led him to discover his passion for rethinking an industry, and he shortly thereafter co-founded Osmoda, a fashion e-commerce company creating a new way for young and up-and-coming designers to sell online. During the same time, William was also the Global Ambassador for the Sandbox Network, a community of over 1000 innovators under 30. It was through his work at all those places that William experienced firsthand the difficulty that European founders have when fundraising. This inspired him to join the other two partners, Will Prendergast and Shay Garvey to set up Frontline, a fund that would usher in a new generation of early-stage venture capital in Europe. Frontline is based in London and Dublin, but backs companies throughout Europe. Their portfolio includes companies such as Boxever, Roomex and AQMetrics among others. In the AMA, Will answers a host of questions such as: Does he invest in failed entrepreneurs, advice for “unsexy” companies with a slow start, what is the first company Frontline invested in and where are they now as a result and many others. Having hundreds of investors around such as William is one of the best features of SaaStock. With targeted matchmaking, a dedicated investor zone and plenty of serendipitious opportunities, you will be sure to have many chances to speak with potential future funders. We just ran a list of 20 investors that will be joining us so be sure to check it out on the SaaStock blog and start prepping. We will link to it in the show notes. Grab a ticket at the best possible price now    Check out the other ways SaaStock is helping SaaS founders move their business forward: 🇮🇪 SaaStock Europe | Dublin, IrelandBook tickets: https://saastock-europe.com/🇺🇸 SaaStock USA | Austin, TexasBook tickets: https://saastock-usa.com/🤝 SaaStock Founder Membership: A private members group of B2B SaaS founders between $100K - $10M ARR who are committed to growth and helping others (https://www.saastock.com/founder-membership/)🌎 SaaStock Local: Monthly meet-ups in cities all around the world, bringing together SaaS enthusiasts and experts to discuss the most pressing topics in SaaS (https://local.saastock.com/home)

On this week’s episode of the SaaS Revolution Show, we talk with Nazma Qurban, Chief Revenue Officer of Cognism about how she has managed to build a predictable outbound sales machine in the past 2.5 years. When Nazma joined Cognism she was the first sales employee. The company had one paying customer so the world was hers to conquer and bring in the revenue. Nazma knew the way to go was outbound so she started building a predictable outbound strategy. Driven and ambitious, Nazma would go to every networking event she could and knock on many doors to get a ton of advice and spur as much interest about Cognism as possible. Two and a half years later she has built a team of 25, mostly comprised of graduates that she carefully upskills. The learning mentality is still present among them and you would be hard-pressed to go to a meetup in London and not run into someone from Cognism. The efforts have paid off. The retention of employees is incredibly high and nowadays Cognism earns $5M in ARR. Cognism’s is a truly remarkable story, with outstanding salespeople in the heart of it. Listen on to hear: How Nazma makes sure the graduates she hires stay in the company  The secret to upskilling graduates One key tenet to building a predictable revenue machine Nazma Qurban is one of many excellent speakers we will host at SaaStock19 in Dublin this October who will help you improve your sales efforts. During the three days, you will learn much more from the likes of Jacco vanderKooj, CEO of winning by design, Steli Efti, CEO of Close.io, Patricia Duchene, VP Sales, and GM Europe, Wrike and many others. Grab a ticket now at saastock.com for the best possible price.    Check out the other ways SaaStock is helping SaaS founders move their business forward: 🇮🇪 SaaStock Europe | Dublin, IrelandBook tickets: https://saastock-europe.com/🇺🇸 SaaStock USA | Austin, TexasBook tickets: https://saastock-usa.com/🤝 SaaStock Founder Membership: A private members group of B2B SaaS founders between $100K - $10M ARR who are committed to growth and helping others (https://www.saastock.com/founder-membership/)🌎 SaaStock Local: Monthly meet-ups in cities all around the world, bringing together SaaS enthusiasts and experts to discuss the most pressing topics in SaaS (https://local.saastock.com/home)

On this month’s episode of the Struggle, with talk with Joachim Klein, President of ThreeKit. Originally from Germany, Joachim has been living in San Francisco for the past three years.  ThreeKit is Joachim’s fourth foray into Enterprise SaaS, a field he is fully subscribed to at this point. He started off his path in a company called BigMachines, the subject of the conversation on this episode.   Joachim joined it in September 2000 as EMEA MD, nine months after BigMachines had been started. The startup helped manufacturing companies provide the best possible quotes for their big machines. Joachim remembers the first year as particularly exhilarating. They were receiving a lot of interest from prospects, had many great conversations with them and all in all got a lot of praise for the problem they were tackling. On top of that, they had raised $30 million in funding so there was plenty of money in the bank. Bullish about the future of the company, BigMachines hired a lot of people that year, preparing for the demand they would get once these prospects became customers.  Sounds great, doesn’t it? This wouldn’t be an episode of the Struggle if BigMachines lived happily ever after, would it? They ran out of money before they had sold anything. On the verge of bankruptcy, BigMachines was forced to lay off 70% of its workforce. Joachim lost his entire team. One night during this rocky period, Joachim's wife asked him, "Would you invest in BigMachines right now?" and Joachim admitted, "No, I wouldn't put even $100 in. The company is dead."  The company didn’t die and instead eventually got acquired by Oracle but not before a major turnaround, achieved thanks to a lot of self-reflection, change, and learning how to sell. That’s the story of this episode of the Struggle.   If you can be as honest and open as Joachim or any of the other guests we have hosted on the Struggle, get in touch and send us your story on podcast@saastock.com. Thanks for listening, see you next time.    Check out the other ways SaaStock is helping SaaS founders move their business forward: 🇮🇪 SaaStock Europe | Dublin, IrelandBook tickets: https://saastock-europe.com/🇺🇸 SaaStock USA | Austin, TexasBook tickets: https://saastock-usa.com/🤝 SaaStock Founder Membership: A private members group of B2B SaaS founders between $100K - $10M ARR who are committed to growth and helping others (https://www.saastock.com/founder-membership/)🌎 SaaStock Local: Monthly meet-ups in cities all around the world, bringing together SaaS enthusiasts and experts to discuss the most pressing topics in SaaS (https://local.saastock.com/home)

This week’s guest on the SaaS Revolution Show is John Doran, Director of Engineering at Phorest Salon Software, a cloud-based management solution and marketing suite for salons and spas.  Born and bred in Dublin, John has always loved building product and iteratively improving it. Phorest is the first SaaS product he was involved with, jumping in from professional services. which he found far more unsatisfactory. When John joined Phorest four years ago, there were only 5-6 engineers who all reported to Ronan Perceval, CEO and Founder of Phorest.  Two years into his tenure, John became the Director of Engineering. For a while, he continued operating under the flat structure he inherited but quickly that began to cause problems. Individually siloed and not in sync, the engineering development suffered. John and his team began to experiment with changes and are on a journey of continuous improvement. Listen on to learn: The warning signs that the engineering team will need to be restructured One change John and the Phorest team implemented How John keeps the engineering team aligned John Doran will be one of many speakers we are bringing to SaaStock 19 to talk about engineering and product. He will be joined by Des Traynor co-founder of Intercom, Janna Bastow, Co-founder Mind the product, Dan Martell, 5-time founder and chief instigator at the SaaS Academy and many others. Use code IRINA20 to get a ticket at the best possible price.    Check out the other ways SaaStock is helping SaaS founders move their business forward: 🇮🇪 SaaStock Europe | Dublin, IrelandBook tickets: https://saastock-europe.com/🇺🇸 SaaStock USA | Austin, TexasBook tickets: https://saastock-usa.com/🤝 SaaStock Founder Membership: A private members group of B2B SaaS founders between $100K - $10M ARR who are committed to growth and helping others (https://www.saastock.com/founder-membership/)🌎 SaaStock Local: Monthly meet-ups in cities all around the world, bringing together SaaS enthusiasts and experts to discuss the most pressing topics in SaaS (https://local.saastock.com/home)

On the latest episode of the SaaS Revolution Show we chat with SalesLoft CMO, Sydney Sloan. She shares lessons from her vast experience in customer-focused marketing and the metrics she has learned to swear by and report.  Sydney has always been customer focused. Even back in the 90s when there were no CRM systems and no one spoke about the importance of myopically focusing on the customer. At the time she was doing what would end up a 15 year stint at Adobe - the place Sydney says she grew up in a way. At trade shows she would stand beside her sales colleague and have long conversations with people who visited their booth about their problems and challenges. Towards the end of her time in Adobe, she finally had a more customer experience role, leading the Customer Marketing. From then on, there was no going back. Her career would see her work for companies such as Jive Software and Alfresco. A little over a year ago, she joined Salesloft where she has been building a strong relationship between Marketing and Sales and has influenced how the work of marketing is reported to the board. Listen on to hear: What are the most important metrics in B2B marketing  Which are the ones that Sydney focuses as CMO specifically Why marketing should own the pipeline Sydney Sloan is one of many excellent speakers we will host at SaaStock19 in Dublin this October alongside Claire Hughes Johnson, COO, Stripe, Leela Srinivasan, CMO, Survey Monkey, Kathryn Petralia, Co-Founder and President, Kabbage, and Girish Mathrubootham, CEO, Freshworks. Grab a ticket now at the best possible price.    Check out the other ways SaaStock is helping SaaS founders move their business forward: 🇮🇪 SaaStock Europe | Dublin, IrelandBook tickets: https://saastock-europe.com/🇺🇸 SaaStock USA | Austin, TexasBook tickets: https://saastock-usa.com/🤝 SaaStock Founder Membership: A private members group of B2B SaaS founders between $100K - $10M ARR who are committed to growth and helping others (https://www.saastock.com/founder-membership/)🌎 SaaStock Local: Monthly meet-ups in cities all around the world, bringing together SaaS enthusiasts and experts to discuss the most pressing topics in SaaS (https://local.saastock.com/home)

This week’s guest on the SaaS Revolution Show is Sophia Eng, VP of Growth Marketing at Trade the Fifth and Founder of Women in Growth, a support group for female executives. In August 2017 an article she wrote in response to an internal memo that a Google engineer had written to discredit the ability of women to be in STEM careers, became viral overnight. Quoting outdated facts, the internal memo was leaked to the public and as soon as Sophia read it, she wrote a manifesto to urge women and other minorities to speak up and tell their stories so the facts can be straightened.  On the episode, Sophia shares more about the experience and what has happened since. She talks in detail about the continued importance that people of diverse backgrounds tell their story, how vital it is not too give up on efforts to bring more diversity and inclusion in tech as we are only at the tip of the speer and one characteristic that women and other minorities possess that is essential for innovation. A child of Vietnamese immigrants, Sophia experienced a tremendous amount of pressure to succeed from a young age. She developed a strong sense of dedication, resilience, and grit. Her upbringing helped to foster her growth-hacking mindset from a very young age, which she has applied at every job she has had. She worked harder than any of her peers but the negative part of growing up like this was that Sophia didn’t know how to speak up for herself. Consequently, she has learned to do that very well, as you will hear on the podcast. Sophia is one of many excellent speakers we will host at SaaStock West Cost the most actionable conference for growth stage SaaS Founders & Execs, taking place in San Francisco on September 10th and 11th. There she will be joined by speakers such as Sonja Gittens Ottley, Head of Diversity and Inclusion at Asana, Leela Srinivasan, CMO, Survey Monkey, Dan Adika, CEO and Co-founder of WalkMe and many others. Grab a ticket now at the best possible price. Find out more about the initiatives we have in regards to fostering Diversity and Inclusion through the Taking Stock Program. If you have experienced any form of discrimination, which prevents you from attending SaaStock West Coast or any other of our conferences, please apply for our Taking Stock Scholarship.     Check out the other ways SaaStock is helping SaaS founders move their business forward: 🇮🇪 SaaStock Europe | Dublin, IrelandBook tickets: https://saastock-europe.com/🇺🇸 SaaStock USA | Austin, TexasBook tickets: https://saastock-usa.com/🤝 SaaStock Founder Membership: A private members group of B2B SaaS founders between $100K - $10M ARR who are committed to growth and helping others (https://www.saastock.com/founder-membership/)🌎 SaaStock Local: Monthly meet-ups in cities all around the world, bringing together SaaS enthusiasts and experts to discuss the most pressing topics in SaaS (https://local.saastock.com/home)

The start of Dan Martell entrepreneurial path has all the markings of a Hollywood film - driving a stolen car, chased by police, with a gun beside him. The latest guest on the Struggle, the Canadian 5-time founder has quite the story of trials, tribulations on the way to success. Beyond being a dad, a husband and a Canadian, Dan would tell you that his defining characteristics are someone who is driven, someone who constantly asks what is possible and what does he need to do to fulfill his dreams and goals. We know where, when and how his entrepreneurial story begins but what has followed since is as interesting, tough and educational. A lot of it was, in his words, soul crushing. It took him nearly 10 years and 2 failed companies to get a better idea of how to do business right. That coupled with coming across the book “Love is the killer app” gave him the knowledge to be successful. 15 years and three more companies after, Dan has managed to achieve successful exits all the while learning a massive amount of lessons when it comes to running SaaS companies. This total of 25 years from that night when he was 17 and the honesty with which he is able to speak about them, makes him a true treasure trove and we are grateful for the time he gave us on this extended conversation. Hope you enjoy the interview and pick up some of the many lessons about building companies the right way. If you can be as honest and open as Dan or any of the other guests we have hosted on the Struggle, get in touch and send us your story on podcast@saastock.com.    Check out the other ways SaaStock is helping SaaS founders move their business forward: 🇮🇪 SaaStock Europe | Dublin, IrelandBook tickets: https://saastock-europe.com/🇺🇸 SaaStock USA | Austin, TexasBook tickets: https://saastock-usa.com/🤝 SaaStock Founder Membership: A private members group of B2B SaaS founders between $100K - $10M ARR who are committed to growth and helping others (https://www.saastock.com/founder-membership/)🌎 SaaStock Local: Monthly meet-ups in cities all around the world, bringing together SaaS enthusiasts and experts to discuss the most pressing topics in SaaS (https://local.saastock.com/home)

On the latest episode of the SaaS Revolution Show, we host Rory O’Driscoll, Partner of Scale Venture Partners and talk about the things he believes SaaS entrepreneurs should be mindful of even as the SaaS industry seems to be thriving. Originally from Ireland, Rory moved to California 28 years ago. For 25 of those, he has been investing in enterprise software with Scale Venture Partners and its predecessor. In that time he has learned a lot of things about the world of venture funding, starting with the fact of just how deceivingly easy all of it seems, yet how difficult it is to make the right decisions about entrepreneurs and their companies and have the conviction to see them through the tough times.   Rory has also learned to count his blessings and remember that a lot of the successful bets he has made have a lot to do with luck. That humbleness is what keeps him cautious even in the best of times for SaaS and in this interview he shares some of his reservations about valuations, market saturation, the increasing competition, making the economics work and others. Listen on to hear: How worrisome is the market saturation in SaaS How other companies are dealing with that issue How to become recession proof Rory O’Driscoll is one of many excellent speakers we will host at SaaStock19 in Dublin this October alongside Claire Hughes Johnson, COO, Stripe, Leela Srinivasan, CMO, Survey Monkey, Kathryn Petralia, COO, Kabbage, and Girish Mathrubootham, CEO, Freshworks. Grab a ticket now at the best possible price.    Check out the other ways SaaStock is helping SaaS founders move their business forward: 🇮🇪 SaaStock Europe | Dublin, IrelandBook tickets: https://saastock-europe.com/🇺🇸 SaaStock USA | Austin, TexasBook tickets: https://saastock-usa.com/🤝 SaaStock Founder Membership: A private members group of B2B SaaS founders between $100K - $10M ARR who are committed to growth and helping others (https://www.saastock.com/founder-membership/)🌎 SaaStock Local: Monthly meet-ups in cities all around the world, bringing together SaaS enthusiasts and experts to discuss the most pressing topics in SaaS (https://local.saastock.com/home)