Business of Software Podcast

CEO and Founder of Superhuman, Rahul Vohra, shares a five-step plan on product-market fit. He emphasizes the importance of understanding user needs, segmenting users, and using feedback for product development. Strategies for enhancing user satisfaction and monitoring feedback are also discussed.

So you want to start a business? No problem. You want to bootstrap it yourself? Okay. You want to position yourself directly against huge competitors and play them at their own game? You've got guts! Laura Roeder launched MeetEdgar - a social media scheduling tool - in 2014 and was up against giants like Hootsuite (who have raised over $300m in funding). So how can a small bootstrapped company compete? Laura spoke at BoS Europe 2018 with her Four P Points for success.   Recorded live at Business of Software Europe 2018 in Cambridge UK. For more talks from BoS conferences, go to businessofsoftware.org/videos

Marty Cagan has worked with some of the biggest tech product companies in the world. He was involved in the early stages of Netscape and eBay, and has since formed SVPG, who work with tech product teams to help them make the most of their products. With SVPG, Marty has worked with teams at Google, Apple, Netflix, Airbnb, Disney, and Amazon – to name just a few. In this talk, Marty hammers home the point that customers are not the source of innovation – it must come from inside your company. Using examples from some of the biggest product companies in the world, Marty shows how using engineers in Product Discovery can lead to innovation in a way that a customer feedback never could. Recorded at BoS CEO Tales 2018 in London. For more great talks, go to businessofsoftware.org/videos

We’ve all seen movies about artificial intelligence getting smarter than us and overthrowing our stronghold to make us obsolete, but how close are we to total subordination, and is the fear of losing jobs to robots as real as we are led to believe? In this informative and witty talk by Rick Nucci – CEO and co-founder of Guru (a company based on empowering others to do their jobs) – we see that there are many factors to take into consideration before we start throwing in the towel on humanity and that the hype of every innovation gone before was the big thing to fear. Recorded live at Business of Software USA 2018. For more great talks from the BoS conferences, go to businessofsoftware.org/videos

Gail Goodman (CEO of Constant Contact) describes Constant Contact's roadblocks that many face, and gives her actionable advice for overcoming it.  (Listen in particular for the advice to do a roadshow to local Chamber of Commerce events, get an educational-event-qua-micro-salespitch down, and then scale that out by hiring people to replicate the process over other territories.) In addition to the tactical advice Gail delivers an inspiring story that even mega-successes like Constant Contact had, in the not-too-distant past, challenges which every company can relate to.  Recorded Live at Business of Software USA 2012.

Greg Baugues is the Manager of the Developer Community at Twilio. In this talk, Greg shares an honest and brave story of his own struggles with mental health, and offers advice to employers to help them support their team members fighting similar battles. Recorded at Business of Software USA 2018. To listen to more BoSTalks from all conferences go to businessofsoftware.org/videos

Amir Salihefendic is the founder and CEO of Doist, a fully remote company. In this talk, Amir shares ten lessons from his entrepreneurial journey, including why he thinks hiring remotely is a superpower. There's a lengthy Q&A after the talk with some great practical advice on running remote teams and company retreats. If you're interested in remote working, check out our episode from a couple of weeks ago with Wade Foster, Founder/CEO of Zapier, on running a remote company. Recorded at Business of Software Europe 2019. To listen to more BoSTalks from all conferences go to businessofsoftware.org/videos

Tom Adeyoola’s self-confessed list of ‘fails’ at previous jobs is… significant. Technology launched before the market was ready, a funded company run into the grown, struggling to reach the heights of an American counterpart. However his latest venture, Metail, is going from strength to strength.  In this talk, Tom outlines some of the key things he learned during his ‘fails’ that helped propel Metail to the level of success they’re currently experiencing and allowed him to later leave Metail to focus on future endeavours. Recorded at Business of Software Europe 2018. To listen to more BoSTalks from all conferences go to businessofsoftware.org/videos

***Don't forget : Business of Software Europe is on 23-24 March 2020 in Cambridge UK.  Get your tickets at businessofsoftware.eu*** Dame Stephanie is 50 years ahead of her time. While remote work is becoming more popular now, Dame Stephanie’s company was remote only from the outset. Forget Slack, this was a time when there was still a decade before email was invented and almost 30 years before Tim Berners Lee invented the World Wide Web. In this interview, Mark and Dame Stephanie will discuss some of the lessons she’s learned (often the hard way) in starting, building, growing and exiting one of Europe’s most successful companies. You will hear why some of her core values - trust, a belief in strong culture, valuing outputs over inputs, a sense of values and determination - are as critical to building a successful business today as they were in the jet age. Recorded at Business of Software Europe 2019. To listen to more BoS Talks, go to businessofsoftware.org/videos

This week on the BoS Podcast we have Claire Lew - professor of entrepreneurship at Northwestern University and CEO of Know Your Team (a software tool that helps managers become better leaders) - talking about how no one sets out to be a bad boss, but it’s easy to become one.  After years of research from 15,000+ people and 25 countries, Claire, shares the biggest, most counter-intuitive mistakes that leaders unintentionally make – and what to do about them. Recorded at Business of Software Europe 2019 in Cambridge, UK. To listen to more talks go to https://businessofsoftware.org/videos