The Saas Revolution Show

In this episode of the SaaS Revolution Show our host Alex Theuma is joined by Wes Bush, founder & CEO of ProductLed, who shares his thoughts on product led scale. "PLG is going to become the de facto go to market motion that powers SaaS companies of the future, whether you like it or not, it's just everything's going that way. And so with that said, what I want to kind of emphasize is product led growth isn't the be all end all when it comes to actually building a product led business - it's actually just half of the story." Wes shares: - How they've helped their customers generate over a billion dollars of product led revenue - AI's impact on PLG - His most controversial PLG opinion  - How to turn what you do best into generating new business - Ying & Yang: Why product led growth and being a product led organisation need to go hand in hand - Why challenging your boss can be key to team alignment - A sneak peek into his #SaaStockUSA session, including the nine core components that every founder nee

In this episode of the SaaS Revolution Show our host Alex Theuma is joined by Martha Bitar, CEO at Flodesk, who shares the top 5 things that helped her bootstrap to $25M ARR. "Someone somewhere told us not to build code for our solution until we had a customer interview that made someone cry because - cry in a good way! - because they were so excited that their problem was finally getting a solution... And we did. At first when I heard it, I was like, of course no one is going to cry because this is not the type of problem that makes people cry. But we eventually did get someone who cried in a demo, and that's when we knew they were ready to build the code." Martha shares:

In this episode of the SaaS Revolution Show our host Alex Theuma is joined by SC Moatti, Managing Partner at Mighty Capital and SaaStock USA 2024 speaker extraordinaire, as she shares how to fix a broken GTM. "When you talk to product folks, what they love is they love good products. I mean, that's their nature. It's that idea that the best product wins is actually becoming a reality. Because when you sell to product people, they want to make sure you have a good product that's going to nicely integrate in their stack and we can talk about what makes a good product, but that's what wins right now." SC shares:

In this episode of the SaaS Revolution Show our host Alex Theuma is joined by Denis Mosolov, Managing Partner Venture Debt at Flashpoint, as he discusses what's out there (from a founder's perspective) if you don't want to dilute. "It's a big challenge for us, because you know if your company's really going to take-off and show growth levels that are exciting for the VC community, you do need to invest and you do need to know how to raise capital. That's a skill that the founders need to have and so it is a red flag for me if something is like 100% bootstrapped, because there's a big question mark - 'are you guys actually able to raise capital?'" Denis shares:

In this episode of the SaaS Revolution Show our host Alex Theuma is joined by Matthijs Welle, CEO at Mews, who shares his lessons building Mews to unicorn status and $100M ARR. "Recognise when we've got a challenge and address it. And I surround myself with phenomenal people, I'm not afraid of hiring people that are smarter than me around me, because I'm not always the smartest person. I have more context than anyone else, but these people lift me, and I think the best managers do that - they just find phenomenal talent and then trust that they are not going to be fighting, but showing up for the job and lifting you for the manager that you are." Matthijs shares: - Mews' founding story - from frustrations with a big marble block to building the next generation infrastructure system for hotels - The company's growth path (including 40 new hires MoM!) - From eight acquisitions to receiving $110M on top of raising a round - the pivotal moments speed and drive overlapped with opportunity - The ONE role that h

From the SaaStock USA 2023 Stage, Des Traynor (Co-founder & CSO at Intercom) discusses the 'Great AI Revolution', exploring just how epic the disruption could be. After many decades of over-promising and under-delivering, the AI revolution has finally arrived. Like every disruptive wave in software before it, it brings a whole host of opportunities for new market entrants, and threats for market incumbents. This talk is all about how to understand the new capabilities that have landed, think through product opportunities they imply, and ultimately capitalise on them, whether you’re a scrappy startup in its embryonic stage, or an established incumbent paranoid about the future. 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 Todd Olson, founder & CEO of Pendo, who shares his lessons in building Pendo well past $100M ARR. "I would say we're more aggressive than the average company. First off, there's rules. We are not a custom software shop, I do not build things for one customer. However, if there's something on our roadmap anyway and it's, I don't know, let's say, 12 months from now, and this prospect needs it now or sooner, I am willing to rearrange things. As I tell my prod teams "don't get married to your roadmap", married means you have emotional attachment to it and that you can't move things around, because what better proxy for prioritisation than speaking with the customer and them saying "I will buy now if you have it now"." Todd shares: - Pendo's founding story - The greatest signal of prioritisation a business can have - His philosophy of 'hiring for pain' - The impact active coaching had on his team - Their two year journey from $1M-

In this episode of the SaaS Revolution Show our host Alex Theuma is joined by founder & CEO lempire and SaaStock 2024 speaker, Guillaume Moubeche, as he shares how Lempire scaled from $10M to $23M ARR in two years (bootstrapped!). "I was not ambitious enough, for me my ambition was to get a salary so I could help my girlfriend at the time paying the rent. Eventually, having someone, you know, who sees things 10 to 20x bigger for yourself than you, is actually amazing and I think that was the biggest helper that basically forced me to think of things at a way bigger and larger scale." He shares: - Why achieving PMF doesn't mean everlasting success - Understanding the 'S curve' and its implications on a business - How his upbringing encouraged the bootstrapped mindset - If de-risking and ambition go hand in hand - The ultimate founder hack (bank loans up to 7x of your EBITDA) - Fostering motivation within the team 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 Peter Berg, Managing Partner at M12, who shares how AI will be used in the software industry. "It's definitely changing, I think, the dynamic of the way software gets built, the speed at which it can get built. There are a lot of amazing tools. I mean, GitHub, obviously is one in the Microsoft ecosystem. GitHub copilot has been transformative, I think for developers, we've heard that from them directly, and I think that's only going to continue in the way software both gets built and as also the notion of what software is might potentially change as well." Peter shares: - His journey scaling Visa Ventures into a global program - How M12 source deal flow opportunities - The net new experiences and possibilities that are going to be created as a result of AI - Modernising legacy infrastructure with AI - The unintended consequences that may be on the horizon and more! ---   Check out the other ways SaaStock is serving SaaS founder

From the SaaStock USA 2023 Stage, Thomas Smale (Founder and CEO of global M&A advisory firm FE International) shares what he’s learned from more than $1 billion in closed deals. Thomas shares: - Behind-the-scenes insights into which business models lead to the biggest exit prices - The business types that are most popular with buyers - How you can build a high-value business poised for a smooth exit 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 Barb Hyman, founder & CEO at Sapia.ai, who shares how she overcame three big challenges to build an enterprise AI SaaS and raise $25M. "So we tried and we didn't succeed in building a new category. We had this concept a couple of years ago when we rebranded to Sapia that we were going to build this category around smart interviewer. And reality is it takes a lot of money, it takes a lot of commitment, consistency, and focus. And we realised that we were too insular, we were too leading with our product rather than really leading with your problems. And so we've really pivoted now to focus less on the category and much more on "here's the value that you get". Barb shares: - The pervasive bias in tech companies and tackling mirror hiring - Why she believes the resume should've died a long time ago - How Sapia have scaled the science of a structured interview - Raising their $25M series A (incl having their largest customer inves

From the SaaStock 2023 Bootstrap Stage, Jonathan Klahr (Managing Director at Susquehanna Growth Equity) is joined by Gregory Galant (Co-founder & CEO at Muck Rack) as he shares his journey of bootstrapping to $50M ARR and then raising a $180M Series A. Gregory shares: - Top lessons learned - Key moments and changing challenges on his way to bootstrapping to $50M ARR - When the turning point was when deciding to become VC backed 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 Brendan Noud, co-founder & CEO at LearnUpon, who shares LearnUpon's journey scaling to $30M ARR and beyond. "We're now rolling out proper territories, which we really haven't had, loosely up to now. But now we properly have that for our team, it's obviously a much bigger sales team, just the importance of functions like revops, starting to get into that level of data, and how you scale your go-to-market becomes much more important." Brendan shares: - His entrepreneurial journey; from tax returns at 11 years old to strategy consulting at KPMG - Why LearnUpon chose to bootstrap for their first 8 years - The ONE thing LearnUpon does to ensure team members are truly bought-in to the company's journey - The biggest accelerator that founders can control and how it leads to great growth - How they went from $10M to $30M ARR in four years (and their plan to get to $100M by 2030!) - How they navigated expanding into new markets and m

In this episode of the SaaS Revolution Show, our host Alex Theuma is joined by Harrison Rose, co-founder & CEO at GoodFit.io, who shares why founders get outgrown and what to do about it. "So the obsessive, like, need to get ahead of the company growth in yourself I think is important, but I think it's probably really important you focus on the right areas. I think generally we could all be more reflective just as people, so I encourage people to work with coaches and mentors to be honest with you, and recognising where you're both enjoying where you're spending your time, recognising where you're weak, recognising where you're willing and able to let others do work that maybe out of your week out are not enjoying, regardless of title as well sometimes." Harrison shares: - His journey in tech from the age of 17 (including co-founding Paddle with Christian Owens) - When (and how) he realised he wanted to take a step back from his role at Paddle - His GoodFit journey (including how they're growing 100% ye

In this episode of the SaaS Revolution Show, our host Alex Theuma is joined by Alex Mifsud, co-founder & CEO at Weavr, who shares his lessons in scaling Weavr to 100+ people in 3 years. "Try to imagine what the ideal, sort of, embedded finance equation of skills and capabilities would be for B2B SaaS businesses not to have to worry about all the complexities of financial services. We work backwards from that. We specifically identified skills that we need - it's like building a football team, you can't just have a great goalie, you've got to have the scorer, you've got to have the midfield players, and you're curating a lot of that. And yet, you also have to make them work as a team." Alex shares: - His role setting up the Malta Internet foundation in the early days of the internet - How Ixaris used the €80B grant from EU Horizon Program to build what is now called Embedded Finance - Why Weavr is being frugal with how they deploy their $50 million worth of capital (majority of which is still in the busi

In this episode of the SaaS Revolution Show our host Alex Theuma is joined by Jean-Laurent Pelissier, Managing Director; Head of Enterprise Software EMEA at HSBC Innovation Banking, who shares the different sources of financing in the current fundraising environment. "But the whole team basically stayed together. I think if we look at the SVB UK company that was acquired by HSBC, we've had very little employee churn overall, which is fantastic. And I do think that's a testament to the leadership, the ability to retain the employees and also the customer base. I think HSBC was able to bring stability to our customers in a very short order, which was fantastic. And that was kind of the number one priority there." Jean-Laurent shares:

In this episode of the SaaS Revolution Show, our host Alex Theuma is joined by SaaStock Founder Member Jamie Akhtar, co-founder & CEO at CyberSmart, who shares how to build your team and performance as you scale to $5M ARR. "Your challenges just shift - in many ways they become more difficult because you're doing stuff that you've never done before. For me, it's been about being passionate. I literally have a mouse map that says 'I love Mondays, My Favourite Day of the Week.' I'm super passionate about what we do and the people we work with, and I think that's allowed me to move the needle the most." Jamie shares: - His entrepreneurial journey (including never having been employed by another company!) - Going from startup to scaleup - Establishing a communication hierarchy as a company grows - How they cracked a certain part of the market - Sharing regular, consistent updates means building discipline - Raising ~ £20M and having 60 investors on their cap table and more! --- Check out the other ways

In this episode of the SaaS Revolution Show, our host Alex Theuma is joined live from the #SaaStock2023 Podcast Stage by Amir Orad, ex-CEO and now Executive Chairman at Sisense, who shares his lessons in scaling over $150M ARR - twice! "Someone very smart once told me "the last hundred days are as important as the first hundred days". We all talk about the first hundred days when you're joining a company, but the last hundred days - how to manage transition, an exit, when to do it, do it gracefully, professionally - is as important." Amir shares:

In this episode of the SaaS Revolution Show our host Alex Theuma is joined live from the #SaaStock2023 Podcast Stage by April Dunford, founder & CEO at Ambient Strategy, who shares how to craft a story to stand out and win.  "Part of it is opening up the eyes of the customer, looking at the problem in maybe a different perspective or maybe a different way - introducing some concepts that maybe they never thought about. So most sales pitches do not have a section of that pitch that specifically covers discovery. So if you look at when marketing builds a sales pitch, they literally will have this pitch, and if you look at it, you'd be like "well, where does the discovery happen?" and marketing is like "I don't know, that's some weird sales thing, maybe they do that before". And that's a crazy way to think about discovery - discovery should be something that's woven into the actual narrative of the pitch itself." April shares:

In this episode of the SaaS Revolution Show our host Alex Theuma is joined by Thibaut De Lataillade, Global Vice President of Product at Gartner Digital Markets, who shares what software buyer regret is and how to avoid it. "Work on the right things and great results will follow. It sounds very simple, but it means a lot. I mean, it means every day focusing on what matters and being able to say no to low leverage activities." Thibaut shares: ⭐️ The pros and cons of having four brands under the Gartner Digital Markets umbrella ⭐️ Why 60% of software buyers experience regret (and how no industry is exempt from that!) ⭐️ How a misalignment between sales and implementation can lead to over-promising and under-delivering ⭐️ Why validated, credible user reviews are crucial ⭐️ Understanding the regret warning signs ⭐️ Why he recommends The Culture Map by Erin Meyer and more!