The Saas Revolution Show

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

In this episode of the SaaS Revolution Show our host Alex Theuma is joined by Mikita Mikado, Co-Founder & CEO at Unicorn SaaS PandaDoc, who shares his lessons in scaling past $100M ARR. "It takes a lot of patience to run a business at scale. I'm not sure I have it, I feel like I need to build a lot of it. And this tendency of, like, getting something done instead of having conversations around the topic so that people get an insight or bring their perspective on, like, how something needs to be done. It's a really tough transition and I still struggle with it." Mikita shares: - Getting to $1M ARR and the tedious work that went into building a functioning customer flywheel - From hiring generalists to specialising teammates - How PandaDoc's tenure-defying CROs helped make the company what it is today - The important transition to optionality (and why he struggles with it) - A sneak peek into his SaaStock Europe 2024 speaking session 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 by Dan Uyemura, gym turned SaaS enthusiast and Founder & CEO at PushPress, who shares his story building PushPress to $13M ARR. "Everybody has tried being the CEO, I think it just stuck with me. And probably I'm the most natural fit to be the CEO that we need at PushPress, because even though I consider myself mostly an introvert and somebody who wants to just sit in my room by myself and do what I have to do, being a CEO - the CEO that PushPress needed was an outfacing, stand on a soapbox and talk to the world CEO - and of the three founders, I'm actually the probably the most equipped to do that." Dan shares: - His lifelong entrepreneurial journey from paper routes and lemonade stands to founder & CEO - The one thing that landed them their first investor - Loans, free money, and speakeasy fitness during Covid - Building a high trust quotient with clients - Creating leverage in a company and more.Check out the other ways Sa

In this episode of the SaaS Revolution Show our host Alex Theuma is joined by serial founder Patrick Barnes, co-founder & CEO at AMP, who shares his lessons from the first time to make the second time easier. "One of the things we did when we first started the company was actually acquire a small SaaS company, or really more of a product, just with our own money. The reason we acquired it is it had 2,000 customers and having angry customers is a beautiful thing. Anybody listening to this who has customers that wouldn't get angry if the product went down, like should just shut the company down and work on something else. Like you want people calling you up, telling you it needs to do more things, saying, "hey, this bad thing happened, this is terrible". It was a great way for us to get this injection of the customer voice, of the urgency into the company and sort of skip those first, say, six or nine months." Patrick shares: - How (and why) to adapt leadership style when managing a larger team - Getting

In this episode of the SaaS Revolution Show our host Alex Theuma is joined by Justas Malinauskas, Co-Founder & CEO Whatagraph, who shares his three key growth lessons in getting Whatagraph past $5M ARR. "I get it. There's a lot of trend about bootstrapping in VC, and my point of view is if you can bootstrap and still maintain high growth and your business is feasible for that, that's great, do that. And I think if you can deploy more money and grow the business in a year instead of three years, so you should do that. So that's why these funds are there, just to speed up the growth. If the money doesn't speed up your growth, then for sure, why get it?" Justas shares: - His generational advantage towards tech - Whatagraph's founding story, including their north-star focus on the end user - Why retesting marketing channels is crucial to company growth - How to combine strengths and weaknesses of your product to make the customer successful - The benefits of joining founder peer groups; from unbiased advice

In this episode of the SaaS Revolution Show, we're back at the SaaStock Growth Stage for an insightful panel discussion between David Appel (Head of SaaS & Software Vertical at Sage Intacct), Kathrin Koedderitz (Sr Sales Director at Globalization Partners), Ferran Puig (Director of Partnerships & Business Development at Capchase), and Zack Lipton (Sr Revenue Enablement Manager - EMEA at Salesloft). "When we started Salesloft in EMEA, we had one sales rep that was stellar. Everyone would just watch his calls. They all knew – watch his calls. And he got really good by watching one of the reps in the US. And it's just, you know, very informal, institutional knowledge but the point I'm trying to make here is, if you can identify that then you can coach that behaviour into people. You can tell people who the top performers are, you can make your top performers more vocal so that other people know where to find that content," Zack Lipton, Senior Revenue Enablement Manager at Salesloft The session was pac

In this episode of the SaaS Revolution Show, we're live from the SaaStock USA Scale Stage with Klaviyo President Steve Rowland. "No matter where you live, there's this nice radius that you travel and you run all your errands in. I like to go into the local coffee shop or maybe you've got a favourite wine store or maybe a clothing store or a technology store. It's always such a cool feeling when they go, hey, Steve, it's great to see you. We want to be known and we want to be understood, and we want to feel connected to the places we visit physically. That's really hard to do in a digital world because our radius is not 10 miles or 10 kilometres. It's infinite. I buy my deodorant from an Australian company. Is that weird? But they know me. So we have that connection that we want to have as individuals and humans. And so how do you create that in a digital world? That's what we enable," Steve Rowland, President at Klaviyo In discussion with Creator Match Founder AJ Eckstein, Steve shares practical tips drawn

In this episode of the SaaS Revolution Show, we're live from the SaaStock USA Scale stage where CEO Coach Mark MacLeod shares strategic insights and practical habits for sustainable success. "In January 2021, I attended a retreat on the theme of self mastery with my guru and yoga teacher. As part of that, she had us write our eulogy. So I had to write about my life as if it was in the past and write about how people would describe me. What impact did I have? What values did I live by? How did I touch their lives? What did I stand for? I don't really believe in legacy because there's 8 billion people. I don't actually matter. But you know, how did people remember me until they forget me? There's nothing like looking in your life through the rear view mirror from the point of view of your death to clarify how you should live and the choices you should make today." In the episode, Mark shares: - His journey as a leader and how that experience led him to become a coach. - The aspects of CEO life and hustle cul

In this episode of the SaaS Revolution Show our host Alex Theuma is joined by Eoin Bara, CEO of Tipple, who shares how Tipple won five billion dollar customers in its first year of operation. "There's a lot of SaaS companies that do one thing, and I think there is a trend in the market towards consolidation. So if you look at, like, employer records and HRIS systems benefits tools, right, I think there's going to be consolidation of those into one tool. You know, we look at Revolut now doing expenses, you know, you look at offering other products, that's going to be the thing. It's 1. finding the thing that's going to be the killer feature that brings the customers in the cutting through the noise of marketing and like getting to your target customer, then it's going to market getting scale." Eoin shares: - His journey from being a UX designer working with the likes of Goldman Sachs, Vodafone, like Aer Lingus, to 'starting a side hustle' now known as Tipple - How fond memories of his childhood in Tullamore

In this episode of the SaaS Revolution Show, we're live from the SaaStock USA scale stage where Jake Dunlap (CEO, Skaled) and Kevin "KD" Dorsey (Sales Leadership Accelerator & Consultant) go head to head in their session on 'The Great Debate: What You Need to Know about AI in Sales'. Ready for a debate? KD and Jake share what you NEED to know when it comes to AI and sales. The future of sales is human powered by AI, and these two renowned sales experts will arm and argue the knowledge and skills you need to thrive in this ever-evolving era. Through the lens of friendship, leadership and sales enablement, these two will debate it out together. Listen to the full episode, watch the video below and subscribe to the SaaS Revolution Show podcast today.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 David Politis, Founder and Executive Chairman at BetterCloud. "If you think about the journey of a company in the various stages of a business, we were getting to a scale where it made sense to find a partner who has a track record of taking companies to that next level, organically and inorganically, just to be really transparent. They have multiple ways of getting businesses to that next level, and we wanted to find a partner who could do that with us." In the episode, David shares: - How entrepreneurial spirit runs in the family - His journey to founding BetterCloud - BetterCloud's journey to $100M ARR - The decision to acquire G2's G2 Track product - How the role of a CEO changes as you scale - The top three things from the Startup Founder Survival Guide - 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 by Tim Schumacher, co-founder of saas.group, as he shares his insights on exiting your SaaS business. "The one thing that's moved the needle every time is being open about certain problems which appear in one business and solving them myself, in a way, and that usually made a good business. And those were always been than the ones where I was just looking at some general trend I didn't really understand, those were my failures." Tim shares: - Growing his first business: from three friends in a garage to 300 people (before then selling to United Internet!) - His beginnings in angel investing and what constitutes a fundable founder - A saas.group snapshot: 20 companies acquired ranging between $1-$10M ARR - The key steps involved with acquisitions (and why soul searching is #1) - His advice to founders considering an acquisition... and why it's important to remember valuation is just one factor! and more.Check out the other ways Sa

Live from the SaaStock USA 2024 Scale Stage, Kyle Lacy (CMO, Jellyfish) tells marketing leaders the five ways to not get fired. "I believe marketing should have a seat at the table for all four of these to force alignment, because you are the hub and spoke of the go to market model - in my opinion. So that's why it's important that you at least help own, or at least help report, on these things." The average tenure of a marketing and sales leader at a high-growth startup is short, and it’s short for a reason. How do you build staying power at any company as a marketing leader? It’s important to build specific strategies to gain a seat at the proverbial table. Join Kyle as he walks you through the five ways to position yourself as a marketing leader, from revenue alignment to owning a pipeline/revenue number.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 at SaaStock USA 2024 by Ashley Grech, CRO at Xero, as she shares the five key moments to drive revenue growth & customer retention. While we're all familiar with sales cycles and customer life cycles, when you take a deeply customer-centric view, there are a few moments that really matter in revenue and retention, and it behooves you as a leader to think through how you handle each of them in order to turn them into force multipliers for your funnel and customer relationship. These moments include: First impressions, Conversion, Establishment, Growth (cross-sell and upsell), and When something goes wrong. Tune in to hear GTM expert Ashley Grech, CRO at Xero, discuss.Check out the other ways SaaStock is serving SaaS founders

A company is essentially two things: a group of people and a collection of decisions. How those people make these decisions is the art of running a business (37signals). We make decisions every single day, it’s what often dictates the direction of a business. Some decisions work out and some don’t. Some are quick to make and some tough to call. You’ll never be able to consider every single piece of data, analysis or consequence when making a decision - sometimes a decision has to be made from the gut. Legendary founder, Jason Fried is joined by SaaStock’s CEO, Alex Theuma, to share his decision making philosophy and answer some of the biggest questions founders face today.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 Aytekin Tank, CEO of Jotform, as he shares how he bootstrapped a unicorn SaaS with teams of no more than six people. "One interesting number I can give is, like, we always had this 50% revenue growth rate and we still have that. That's very interesting. Actually, if we didn't develop the enterprise version, we would actually lose that - we would probably drop down to like 30%. But then the enterprise came to help, and we still have that 50% growth rate today." Aytekin shares: - The one thing he did pre-Jotform that meant he had a much smoother ride in becoming an entrepreneur - Why he's a big believer of free products, and how that goodwill leads to paying customers - How being a company of small cross functional teams has kept a positive company culture - The makeup of each team and how they cultivate innovation, productivity, and creativity - The building blocks of success, where technical skills meet business skills and more!

In this episode of the SaaS Revolution Show our host Alex Theuma is joined live at SaaStock USA 2024 by Kyle Hanslovan, co-founder & CEO at Huntress. "That nuance of finding the green field, the niche, is probably the single biggest differentiator that will help you escape and go, you know, you can sell to finds at one million or make five million in revenue, but to escape ten you have to have a process and you have to have a real market that is differentiated and that niche will get you there if you can just really ask yourself 'am I differentiated' and again, I didn't respect that." Kyle shares: - The journey to $1M and then $10M ARR - His process of finding and engaging channel partners - His biggest challenge over the next year, and how he plans to solve it - The reality of 'hire slow, fire fast', incl. open communication and employee churn - When work life balance meets sacrifice - is it one you're truly willing to make? 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 by Jake Dunlap, CEO of Skaled, who shares the innovations in sales required to hit your goals. "Relevancy cuts through the noise. That is the only way to be successful - that is it, it is singular. If your team and your organisation cannot send relevant messages, whether it's via video, whether it's via LinkedIn, voice-note, whether it's email or call, you will not generate meetings. So that's where the human comes in." Jake shares: - The most important thing that CEOs should be doing *right now* - The core component of hitting outbound targets - Modern sales processes and the vecs concept: vetted, educated, cold and self service - Relevancy vs personalisation, and the *only* way to win - Meeting the modern customer where they stand- 40% of buyers would like the option to self service buy at 2030, where do sales reps fit in? 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 by Adam Robinson, founder & CEO of Retention.com, who shares his lessons from when a bootstrapper tries to grow like a venture backed company. "The word bootstrap mostly describes 'okay, I got it to 3 million, it's making a million and a half bucks. I don't have a lot of employees, I don't have a lot of problems, this is great'. The problem is like, most of those companies are actually just slowly dying. But what creating companies like that can allow you to do is you get it to that; you get somebody else running it, and then you try to tinker around and like, make another one. By the time you're like, 'oh, this is working, I'm actually going to focus on it', It ends up being bigger than the last one." Adam shares: - His 10 year stint working "The Big Short" - Equating entrepreneurship with being able to be present - Hustle meets reality: why five years went by before he paid himself a dollar - Churn dynamic and financial discip