The Saas Revolution Show

One of our most listened to episodes, we're bringing back Chris Walker, CEO at Passetto (previously Founder and CEO of Refine Labs, a progressive demand generation agency that challenges the status quo in B2B marketing). Before launching Refine Labs, Chris led marketing at two B2B firms where he built the foundation of his unique perspective on demand generation. Now, at Passetto, a Growth Advisory Firm for SaaS CEOs Scaling from $10MM - $100MM+, Chris helps CEOs and CFOs get instant GTM clarity. Chris joined our host Alex on an exclusive founder members only workshop as part of our SaaStock Founder Membership (SFM), to share how you can grow your business and improve your demand generation strategies. Check out the other ways SaaStock is serving SaaS founders

Live from the SaaStock USA 2024 Scale Stage, Ashley Kramer, GitLab’s Chief Strategy and Marketing Officer, sits down with AJ Eckstein, Founder & Creator at Creator Match and Fast Company. Together, they explore the imminent shift in how companies measure AI's impact on efficiency, questioning whether the productivity gains truly justify the risks and costs associated with AI adoption. Ashley argues that forward-thinking companies must move beyond traditional output metrics and focus on those that reflect real business value—such as enhanced software quality, faster time-to-market, consistent delivery, and, most importantly, improved customer satisfaction.Check out the other ways SaaStock is serving SaaS founders

In this episode of the SaaS Revolution Show our host Alex Theuma is joined by Steve Oriola, CEO at Unbounce, who shares the leadership lessons he's learnt from navigating a SaaS M&A and the transformation AI has had on business. "We also survey base of employees and those values are landing pretty well. That's an important part of it, is that people understand how everyone works and how everyone should be working and how we should be making decisions. And we correct ourselves all the time on that." Steve shares: • How he's steering the marketing tech ship through choppy waters - from perfecting landing pages to building an AI-powered platform that actually tells you which customers are worth chasing • The behind-the-scenes of marrying two companies' cultures; complete with leadership team matchmaking and values that actually stuck • Why he's betting big on AI being more than just a buzzword • The secret sauce to staying sane as a CEO, including cold plunges, fitness regimes, and the art of not bringing

In this episode of the SaaS Revolution Show our host Alex Theuma is joined by Kevin Hu, Co-Founder & CEO at Metaplane, who shares how they navigated Metaplane's journey from pivot to Series A and beyond. "Most of us come from tens of thousands of years of subsistence farmers and we're one of the first generations that has the opportunity to build something that can have a large impact with software and capitals leveraged. And when it comes to the CEO job, one can hope that the problems never stop. When the problems stop, I think that's when growth stops. The best case scenario is when the problems are new problems all the time and it doesn't feel like Groundhog Day." Kevin shares: • The reasons that drove Metaplane to pivot (twice!) • The importance of attracting strong leaders and building a repeatable sales process as a company grows • His approach to decision-making and prioritisation; from the way he collects information to committing to decisions • Why being upfront about expectations and offering

In this episode of the SaaS Revolution Show our host Alex Theuma is joined by Abakar Saidov, CEO at Beamery, who shares his success story from Wall Street-er to tech unicorn. "A lot of entrepreneurs actually start businesses out of necessity. And necessity comes from two parts, either you have to do it because you have no other option, or you feel like you have to do it because you want the idea to exist so much. And usually I feel like if those are not your two reasons, one is like you can't imagine a world without this idea or you just have no choice. You're probably not going to make it through the the grind." Abakar shares: • On a mission to create equal access to work opportunities: The founding story of Beamery • Why customer experience is a key differentiator (and one of the reasons they've achieved such high NPS scores for implementations in an industry where low scores are common) • The top two qualities investors look for in founders • How evolving founder perspectives and motivations have shaped

In this episode of the SaaS Revolution Show our host Alex Theuma is joined by Taylor Hersom, Founder & CEO at Eden Data, who shares insights into their global scaling journey during the pandemic. "Your reputation is everything as you're growing fast and trying to make it to your next round. And when you have multiple competitors in a space, you don't want your customer or prospect googling your name and seeing something like a data breach." Taylor shares: • His approach to growing the business; from focusing on partnerships and referrals to differentiating through branding and content marketing • Key security concerns for founders, including reputational damage and the need for certifications like SOC 2 to close deals • How he capitalised on the increased focus on cybersecurity during the pandemic as more businesses moved operations online • How they identified an underserved niche and tailored their offerings and messaging to serve them effectively • The one thing their team does to drive inbound lead

In this episode of the SaaS Revolution Show our host Alex Theuma is joined by Preston "PK" Keller, Founder at Emergent3, who shares how he overcame an industry Goliath trying to kill his SaaS business. "When you've hit rock bottom and you're, like, going through hell, you cannot control all the environmental factors around you, but you can control how you react to it. And I read this book, The Gap in the Game, and it basically says, like, focus on the good things right now. That book got me through the darkest times. We also, you know, my wife was also pregnant with our third child and that third child had some serious health defects. She spent months in the NICU and this was during the lawsuit, during the rewrite, it was like there was so much going on in my life and I was like, I'm still so lucky. It forced you to just focus on like, hey, you can't control this environment and things that happen to you, but you can control how you react. And I focused on just, like, I just wanted to make someone else smil

In this episode of the SaaS Revolution Show our host Alex Theuma is joined by Tony Jamous, Founder & CEO at Oyster HR, who shares how building Oyster HR as a mission driven company helped them scale to SaaS unicorn-dome. "It enabled me to also be detached from the outcome. So no matter what happens, we miss a quarter or somebody quits, then you're not reactive to that. Instead, you remain always centred on your goals, on your values, on your principles and more in an acceptance mode. This journey of building businesses, it's, it's highs and lows. So how can you remain yourself in a mode of clarity, stability, no matter the highs and the lows?" Tony shares: • Hyper growth in the early days during Covid: From achieving product market fit without having a full platform to going from zero to a billion in market cap in two years • Maintaining a mission driven culture: Why instilling meaning and importance to the work employees do you is the backbone of a successful mission driven organisation • Reducing head

In this episode of the SaaS Revolution Show our host Alex Theuma is joined by Raluca Ragab, Head of UK & DACH at Eurazeo, who shares how to succeed as a growth company. "If you think of all the companies that had to raise a seed or series A in 2022, when it was hard, in 2023, when it was super hard, and even in 2024, anybody who's been successful to do that and is now graduating, right? So Maybe they were 1 million company in 2022 and they're 5 million in 2023 and they're now kind of becoming a growth stage company. Those companies, they were so scrutinised, they found it so hard to get funded that actually they have much stronger unit economics, they have great stories and they know how to deliver growth without having a bloated cost structure. So I do think that there's a second wave now of these companies that had to go through this kind of much harder time funding in their earlier stage and they never got to being efficient, that they just kind of got the basics and the fundamentals right and they're

In this episode of the SaaS Revolution Show our host Alex Theuma is joined by Marton Medveczky, Associate Partner at Flashpoint Venture Capital, who shares what exactly makes a founder investable in 2025. "There is always a huge difference between talking to the founder and then doing your own desktop research versus talking to a customer. So if you can do that, that's basically the best way to understand what people value about the product. And it also will help you to draw further conclusions about where to look or, like, what is actually the real paper that it solves. And oftentimes it's actually not what the founders think it is, right? Which is very funny, I think. And that's why customer calls are sort of like a super vital component for us to invest." Marton shares: • The key characteristics he looks for in a founder before investing • Nailing value propositions and pain points: the one thing founders *need* to be doing • What the next 12 months look like and if fewer companies are moving into ventu

In this episode of the SaaS Revolution Show our host Alex Theuma is joined by Palash Soni, Co-Founder & CEO at Goldcast, who shares his journey scaling the business to north of $10M in revenue. "We realised that the market is probably in bigger companies because that's where we are getting the pull from, and so our first actual like big customer was this company called Drift in Boston, which very popular Martech company. And that gave us the aha moment that okay, this is where the fit is. And so the moment Drift signed which was in end of Jan. 2021, at that time we were probably like $30, $40k in ARR. And when Drift signed then that started the chain sort of like the messaging and everything came together. Then we got to $1 million in three months." Palash shares: • Having an entrepreneurial itch from a young age; from buying sweets in bulk and selling them at a markup in his school days to renting out a video game console for a cent per hour • Why he believes marketing mediums evolve every 10 years, an

In this episode of the SaaS Revolution Show our host Alex Theuma is joined by Philippe Botteri, partner at Accel, who shares the 2024 Accel Europe: AI Eating Software. "Just look at the past couple of years, there's been $56 billion invested in AI companies and two thirds of that has gone into the top six companies of each region of the US and Europe, and also two thirds of that money has gone into foundation models. So what we're seeing is AI is really driving the growth and very concentrated in a very small number of companies both in the US and Europe." Philippe shares: • Capitalising on AI to drive growth • Increasing investment outside of foundational models • Why 2025 is going to be the year of the agentic revolution • Growth vs profitability: what's driving the momentum for software companies • The Game of AI Thrones - will it be a winner takes all market? and more! Check out the other ways SaaStock is serving SaaS founders

In this episode of the SaaS Revolution Show our host Alex Theuma is joined live from the SaaStock Studio at SaaStock Europe 2024 by Amos Haggiag, Co-Founder & CEO at Optibus, who shares his biggest learnings from building Optibus to a global unicorn. "We sell a mission critical product. When a customer chooses Optibus, if Optibus doesn't work, the public transportation stops working - busses don't arrive on time or don't arrive at all, passengers get the wrong information, like, it's a disaster. So the risk is so high that in order to anyone to choose Optibus, it's not enough to just bring like a really good product, you need to also convince [them] that you're not introducing risk, that you know how to work in complexity, you know how to work in different regions, it's very local. And because of that, at some point, we decided to change the organisation into more focus on the local region kind of management." Amos shares: • Optibus' funding journey to a $100M Series D funding round and a $1.3B valuatio

In this episode of the SaaS Revolution Show our host Alex Theuma is joined live from the SaaStock Studio at SaaStock Europe 2024 by Muhammad Younas, Founder & CEO at vFairs and Winner of the SaaStock Awards "Founder & CEO of the Year: People's Choice", as he shares his key lessons bootstrapping the business to profitability and $30M ARR. "More than half of our business comes from word of mouth from our existing set of customer base. We are a strong believer that the best sales team is your existing customer base. So we go above and beyond. Even though we are in technology business, we typically say internally that we feel that we are in hospitality business. We want to be so close to the customer, give them that seven star experience that they go and spread that around." Muhammad shares: • Achieving profitability from day one • His number one piece of feedback for founders • Their go-to-market model and how they attract customers • Investing in talent above all else • The true definition of business

In this episode of the SaaS Revolution Show our host Alex Theuma is joined by SaaStock Europe 2024 speaker Angeley Mullins, Chief Commercial Officer at Resourcify, who shares Founder versus Company Brand. "A lot of founders don't actually understand what marketing is. You have performance marketers and content marketers and brand marketers. You have channel marketers, partner marketers, etc. So really identifying what your go to market strategy is, identifying who your ICP is, and these are just the fundamentals, and then what resonates to your ICP, and you have to identify that first and then back into the type of marketing that you want or need that will resonate." Angeley shares: • Can a company be founder-led and also do product-led branding • Where pre-Series B companies often struggle most when it comes to storytelling • Why step one for founders is taking an index on the things that A) you're passionate about and B) that you're good at • Where authenticity meets communication and what's most importa

In this episode of the SaaS Revolution Show our host Alex Theuma is joined by Tomasz Tunguz, General Partner at Theory Ventures and SaaStock Europe 2024 speaker, who shares how AI is changing the future of SaaS. "AI will be a key part of the product. I would characterise the last two years as adding AI features on top of existing platforms, and I think we're starting to see humans adjust, and when humans adjust, the workflows will change, and when the workflows change, there'll be an opportunity to un-see the big systems of record." Tomasz shares: • What makes a founder investable, from Einstein's compounding interest to selling a market • Where we'll see greater and greater efficiency gains businesses at scale • Why upcoming workflows changes lend to unseating the biggest systems of record • The future of AI and how it'll change SaaS architecture and positioning • The significant pressure that horizontal SaaS is facing, and what companies like Salesforce, Glean and Klarna are doing as a result • How to ens

In this episode of the SaaS Revolution Show our host Alex Theuma is joined by Job van der Voort, Co-Founder & CEO at Remote, who shares their hypergrowth journey and how they scaled Remote to hundreds of millions in ARR. "I would always say this is a great problem to have. If you grow really, really fast and it's a luxury problem, and if you just embrace it like that, then everything becomes much easier. Just embrace it in the most honest possible way, which is that, wow, we get so much interest that we have to solve these really difficult problems right now. It's for sake of, you know, our success, or at least the direction of success. To me, that was never difficult. What is difficult is how it affects the rest of your life." Job shares: • From $0 to $1M ARR in six months, and $1M ARR to hundreds of millions in three years: the operational and human problems Remote faced during rapid growth • His attitude towards increased responsibility and fighting fires - 'it's a great luxury to have problems to so

In this episode of the SaaS Revolution Show our host Alex Theuma is joined by Casber Wang, Partner at Sapphire Ventures, who shares the issues with AI startups and cash burn. "Let's just say we intentionally freeze the progress of technology. There's no ChatGPT five, there's no GPT six. It's only what we have today; GPT four and some of the other, call it 3.5. I believe the next five years we can just build applications on those existing technologies without underlying technological progress. So that's how much progress we made from the starting point. So to me it's less so 'why haven't we seen much progress yet', it's just all the systems take a little bit more time, right? People get used to a new thing and that just takes more time than folks had expected, just given how much attention there is around this topic." Casber shares: - What he's looking for in companies that Sapphire invests in - Why he favours founders who constantly think about talent valuation; from tracking talent to their talent bench

In this episode of the SaaS Revolution Show our host Alex Theuma is joined by SaaStock Europe 2024 speaker Eoin Hinchy, Co-Founder & CEO at Tines, who shares how he went from AI skeptic to advocate and how it informed Tines' roadmap. "I can't tell you how many times over the years I've made a better decision as it relates to a certain part of the business because I've had to do it firsthand myself. At some stage I knew what the problem was and I knew how hard it was or I was able to appreciate the challenges that these kind of new hires were experiencing because I had done it firsthand. So I think founders should almost do like every job for like a little bit just to get that experience." Eoin shares: - How they got tier one investors for Tines' Series A and Series B rounds, totalling ~$115 million - Why, at one point or another, all founders *should* wear every hat - AI meets snake oil: why the early days put him off - The two biggest things stopping AI from being transformative - How as CEO he main

In this episode of the SaaS Revolution Show our host Alex Theuma is joined by SaaStock Founder Member Dee Coakley, Co-Founder & CEO at Boundless, who shares her journey achieving growth through challenging times. "There's a founder called Ian Nolan, CEO of a company called Bright Flag. And I remember going for a coffee with him and I remember it so clearly. We were at about 400k or I was focused on getting to a million. And then he said, slow down, slow down. Where are you at today? What's happening today? He was asking me how frequently we were closing a new logo and he said, look, you're closing. Maybe it was one customer a week at the time. He said, your problem isn't getting to 2 million ARR. The problem you have to solve now is how do you close two customers a week? Just focus on that. And I love the simplicity of that and I apply it to so many things right now. Don't run before you can walk. Just figure out that next little step." Dee shares: - Building fanbases: from artist management in the mus