The SaaS Revolution Show

On this week’s episode, we take you back to the SaaStock18 Scale stage for a panel discussion of what is arguably one of our favorite topics - European SaaS companies succeeding on a global stage. The panel brings together two SaaStock regulars - Martin Henk, Co-founder of Pipedrive and Christian Owens, Founder and CEO of Paddle who chat about their experiences starting up in Europe and then taking their businesses global. Interviewing them is Teddie Wardi, Managing Director, Insight Venture Partners. As you will hear, the two companies had a very different approach - Pipedrive opened international offices early on while Paddle kept a single base in Europe for quite a while. Supporting entrepreneurs like them and seeing them grow successfully is one of the chief reasons we started SaaStock over 3 years ago. Every story of success makes everything we do that much more meaningful. Martin and Christian get into detail about many aspects of going global including: Advice on the timing of when to go global Strategies for deciding where to expand What are the strengths of being a European company Listen to another episode we recorded with Christian, as well as Martin To find your own path to success the way Pipedrive and Paddle have, join us at SaaStock19 this October in Dublin. Super early bird tickets are now on sale.    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, we host Jakob Marovt, a serial SaaS product builder and Growth consultant. In the last 10, years he has worked for and with around 15 SaaS companies, co-founding one of them - Pipetop. A computer science graduate by education, Jakob never actually practiced it professionally. Instead his fascination early on was with product and growth and Jakob naturally evolved into a technical growth expert. This isn't the first time we host Jakob. Back in 2015, Alex spoke with him when he was about a year into his Pipetop experience. At the time things were going great. As we find in the conversation for this episode, making the lead generation SaaS database work as a business model was already showing as tough at the time. He and his co-founder persisted for another six months but as Jakob admits in retrospect, they let it linger on for too long. Eventually they folded the company. On this episode, Jakob tells us in detail about the Pipetop story and what he has learned from the experience about SaaS in general and what it takes to succeed.    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 regular episode of the show, Alex chats with Aaron Krall, Founder of the SaaS Accelerator and the SaaS Growth Hacks Facebook Group. Aaron spends his time helping SaaS companies operating a trial to paid model get more traffic, increase conversions and reduce churn. In the last over 2 years, Aaron has managed to help 80+ SaaS companies with their onboarding initiatives, bringing as much as 300% improvement in conversions. To get that good at onboarding and emails, Aaron has had to learn a lot about the art of emails, onboarding or else. When he started, his emails were according to him, flops. To learn better Aaron wrote onboarding emails for companies, asking founders and marketers for feedback in exchange. With time he got better and came up with frameworks that he now uses extensively. He still steadfastly believes in treating every person who receives an email as a VIP. Listen on to hear What are the most common mistakes companies do with onboarding emails and how to fix them What ground work needs to be in place before a single email is written How to create email sequences Aaron is one of our excellent speakers at SaaStock East Coast, taking place in New York on June 4 and 5. During the two days of the conference you will gain much more insight to help your SaaS get traction, grow and scale with talks such as how to make your customer onboarding awesome, how to develop a remarkable product launch strategy, how to leverage a framework for customer driven growth and strategies for successfully moving upmarket. Make sure you grab a ticket before Friday, March 29th to grab those early bird tickets and save yourself $100 per ticket.    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)

Tune in for an extra bonus episode hosting SaaStock LatAm speaker André Baldini, CEO of Superlógica. Superlogica was started back in 2001 as an ERP software for condominiums. André Baldini started out as VP of Sales In 2017 he was promoted to CEO. Previously his career path had traversed a variety of industries including banking, health and EdTech. The common denominator between each was the use of technology and making an impact on people’s lives. He has certainly had a massive impact on Superlógica. In the last three years, it has grown from 60 to 225 in headcount, 10x in revenue and now serves 4 different verticals. The biggest reason behind that growth is a switch to a full blown SaaS model starting in 2016. In my conversation with Andre we get deep into the story behind that switch, how pricing plans were created and the pitch adjusted. André is one of the speakers we will host in São Paulo for SaaStock LatAm on April 23-24th. There, he will be joined by speakers such as Aaron Ross, Co-CEO of Predictable Revenue, Lauren Vaccarello, VP Marketing Box, Eric Santos, CEO of Resultados Digitais and many others. As Andre told me on the podcast, conferences like SaaStock coming over to Latam are key to helping the SaaS industry mature from its Early stages. I certainly hope we can contribute to the strengthening of the community. Join us SaaStock LatAm and grab your ticket before we sell out. Also, be sure to sign up for our Insider Sale to get access to one of the 500, 2 for 1, tickets for SaaStock19 in Dublin this October.    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 guest on the latest episode of the SaaS Revolution Show is Ashley Murphy, Director of Growth at OpenView Ventures. She shares insights about the benefits of product-led growth and how to go about implementing it in your company. Ashley has spent the last two and a half years helping the OpenView portfolio companies with their go to market strategy including product led growth. The unique model that the Boston-based VC firm has is to provide strong support to companies post their investment to help them refine business models, pricing, marketing so they can ultimately scale. Prior to joining OpenView, Ashley cut her teeth in Wayfair.com where she executed their expansion into B2B. As the company grew, Ashley found herself craving the early days of figuring GTM from scratch. OpenView and their great portfolio of companies such as Expensify, Calendly, Datadog and many others was the perfect ground for that. In the last year or so, OpenView have been on the forefront of product led growth and its benefits to SaaS companies and Ashley has been one of the most active proponents. In the podcast, she digs deep into topics such as:: What is Product-Led growth What needs to change first in an organisation before it can start implementing PLG How to flip the switch for areas like marketing and customer success Ashley will be covering the topic even more extensively at SaaStock East Coast where she will be taking the stage alongside Michael Litt, CEO of Vidyard, Meghan Keany Anderson, VP Marketing at HubSpot and Aaron Krall, a mastermind in SaaS onboarding who you will hear from in next week’s episode. To see them and a ton of other amazing speakers, make sure you grab a ticket before March 29th to save a $100. And while you are on the saving side, be sure to sign up for our Insider Sale to be in for early access to our 2 for 1 tickets for SaaStock19 taking place in Dublin in October.     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 take you back to the SaaStock18 stage for a panel discussion on what growth investors look for. Jos White, General Partner at Notion Capital, moderates the panel featuring Nicola McClafferty, Investment Director at Draper Esprit, Michael Brown, General Partner at Battery Ventures, and Tom Mendoza, Venture Investor at EQT Ventures. Growth investors like Jos, Nicola, Michael, and Tom look through a different lens for Series B/C rounds as compared to earlier stage venture investors. How they make decisions and what they see as the key drivers of a high-quality growth round tends to be different at this stage where they expect millions in ARR, a solid product-market fit and an international outlook. They share views on: Growth round readiness and what needs to be in place to even start thinking about Series B Their own key considerations, including metrics and parameters How investors make sure Series B funds will be spend the right way Bringing investors like Jos, Nicola, Michael and Tom and hundreds more to share their insights as well as meet excellent SaaS companies at SaaStock is one of our favorite things. To make sure you can soak up their actionable advice during conference sessions as well as sit down for many potential funding chats with the myriad of investors from around the world, you really want to bring a co-founder or exec along. If you sign up for our Insider Sale , you will get early access to our 2 for 1 tickets for SaaStock19 and bring them along for free. You will double the learning, the networking, and the fun.    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, Alex speaks with Hannah Chaplin, Co-Founder, and CEO of Receptive, a SaaS company that helps other SaaS companies make the most of the product feedback they get and turn it into insights that can help them grow. Receptive is Hannah’s fourth company, the second which is SaaS. She has been an entrepreneur since the age of 21 and knows all too well the struggles of starting a company. But also the exhilaration. Her first Saas company, Order Harmony, was her learning ground about all things SaaS - from the basic metrics to the marketing, pricing, running a product and gathering feedback. The experience was priceless but the company never really took off. Four years ago, it morphed into Receptive. Her greatest challenge has been the nagging question whether “a product feedback platform is a sustainable business.” Even as customers signed up for Receptive, Hannah still struggled with the doubts if this was a viable idea. What helped her was the numbness to negative feelings she had developed through years of taking many risks. As we mark International Women’s Day on March 8th, at SaaStock we celebrate all the remarkable women of SaaS like Hannah who push through the challenges of starting and running businesses, all the while growing families and dealing with a myriad of other responsibilities, and making SaaS a better place. You can see Hannah and many other incredible women like her at SaaStock19 as well as our global series of events in São Paulo, Hong Kong, New York, San Francisco, and Sydney. If you have your heart set on Dublin for SaaStock19, be sure to sign up for our Insider Sale to get early access to our 2 for 1 tickets.    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 episode of the show, we host with Dave Gerhardt, VP Marketing at Drift, and talk about the importance of brand in B2B and how to go about creating an awesome one. Dave joined Drift at the very start as the first marketer. When I asked him whether it had been his impressive resume, featuring names such as HubSpot and Constant Contact that got him the job, Dave admitted it was actually his side project, the Tech in Boston podcast, slack channel and email list that had caught the attention of David Cancel. Dave’s experience is particularly interesting because he has always marketed to other marketers. He says he has learned the most in the past 3 and a half years, where the heart of the marketing operations has been the unique Drift brand. That has helped Dave and the company to create a new category of conversational marketing, sign up over 150K customers and become incredibly distinct in their marketing. Listen on to hear: How to win the hearts of customers How Drift approached building its brand How to determine the way to approach your brand Dave will be joining us once again at this year’s SaaStock flagship conference this October in Dublin. Don’t forget to sign up for the Insider Sale and be the first one to find out when we release our 2 for 1 tickets in April. There are only 500 tickets up for grabs, and once they're gone that is it!    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)

Today we bring you the first of our extended podcast episodes, where Alex gets to ask the nitty-gritty details he usually doesn’t have time for. These hour-long episodes offer a well-rounded insight into the workings of some of the most successful SaaS founders and their companies. The guest this week is John Thompson, a Co-Founder and a CEO who has taken 2 businesses from zero ARR through seed and A rounds. His first company Commerce Decisions was an early SaaS exit back in 2008. Today he is the Chairman of Wax and ProspectSoft - two later stage PE-backed SaaS companies. He also works closely with Forward Partners, a London-based seed stage VC fund advising their B2B SaaS portfolio companies on sales and growth. As he told me in the interview - he has 8-9 SaaS CEOs in his life every week. Listen on to learn: The fundamentals of building a strong SaaS company, and the most important elements for success, What has made John a successful CEO What was the wake-up call for him to start taking care of his mental and physical health and how he goes about it. Some of his beliefs may be seen as controversial but he steadfastly believes in them because they all stem from his own experience, in which with each good year, 3 or 4 bad ones came. John has been at every SaaStock flagship conference to date and will be joining us a fourth time this October in Dublin. Sign up for the Insider Sale and be the first one to find out when we release our 2-for-1 tickets in April. SaaStock is always better with a Co-Founder or a colleague, so you can cover more ground and learn at multiple tracks and bootcamps. Let us know if you like this longer format by leaving a review and a rating on Apple iTunes or wherever you get your podcast, or by reaching out on twitter @SaaStock. If you want to get in touch with John, you can email him john@briggsassociates.co.uk    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 Max Armbruster,  Founder of Talkpush, about being truly global from day 1. It’s a topic that fits Max all too well as he would easily qualify as a global citizen of the world. Having lived pretty much everywhere around the globe, his current home is Hong Kong. Talkpush is his fourth company, which he started in 2014. While the HQ of the company is technically Hong Kong where Max sits with two other people, the reality is that the conversational Candidate Relationship Management system has been global from day 1 and has 5 homes. That wasn’t the advice Max had received at the beginning. Instead of focusing on one market alone and growing slowly, Max decided to approach growth differently - working with enterprise customers he would follow existing customers around the world and expand in each market where they were present rather than seek to find new customers in one place. The plan has worked out well and Talkpush currently employs 45 people and after an initial seed round is a 100% customer-funded. Listen on to hear: How Max de-risked expanding into new markets How to approach each market individually from a technological perspective One way to make sure your positioning is right in each market Max is one of the excellent speakers we will host at SaaStock Asia, which will take place in Hong Kong, May 14th - 16th. He will be joined by other successful founders from Hong Kong such as François Chabaudie, Co-Founder & CEO, Neoma and Paul Lugagne Delpon, Co-Founder Easyship as well as international founders who have already ventured onto the Asian market successfully such as Eric Siu, CEO at Single Grain, Bjoern Zinssmeister, CEO and co-founder, Templarbit and Peter Coppinger, CEO and co-founder Teamwork. Find out more information about SaaStock Asia and get tickets.  If you are curious to learn what other companies are succeeding from the region, have a look at our list of 38 bright Asian SaaS stars from 11 countries.     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)