The Official SaaStr Podcast: SaaS | Founders | Investors
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SaaStr 343: Point Nine Capital Managing Partner, Christoph Janz, On Fundraising During a Pandemic
18 juni 2020 · 19 min
On today's episode, Christoph shares his five tips for fundraising during a pandemic. Lees meer
Have a clear COVID-19 assessment
Start with an extra-long "long list"
Disqualify ruthlessly
Have a killer deck
Build trust remotely
Christoph has invested in more than 20 SaaS startups and lives and breathes SaaS, everything from "A as in AI-enhanced B2B software" to "Z as in Zendesk". Christoph co-founded Point Nine Capital in 2011.
Before that, he co-founded two Internet startups (DealPilot.com in 1997 and Pageflakes in 2005). In 2008 he became an angel investor and discovered Zendesk, Clio, FreeAgent – and his love for SaaS.
You can find the podcast transcript on our blog: https://www.saastr.com/saastr-podcast-343-with-point-nine-capital-managing-partner-christoph-janz/
This episode is an excerpt from Christoph's session at SaaStr Summit: The New New in Venture. You can see the full video here: https://youtu.be/2VGglwbl_Gs
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SaaStr 342: Zapier CEO, Wade Foster, and SaaStr CEO, Jason Lemkin, on Distributed Teams and Building a Cloud Product
11 juni 2020 · 25 min
On this episode of the SaaStr podcast, our CEO, Jason Lemkin, chats with Zapier CEO, Wade Foster, on Distributed Teams and Building a Cloud Product. Lees meer
Zapier is a global remote company that allows end-users to integrate the web applications they use. Although Zapier is based in Sunnyvale, California, it employs a workforce of 250 employees located around the United States and in 23 other countries.
This interview was recorded in February 2020.
Read the full transcript on our blog: https://www.saastr.com/saastr-podcast-342-with-zapier-ceo-wade-foster/
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SaaStr 341: Leading Indicators Individuals Can/Can Not Scale with the Company, What Radical Transparency Truly Means and How To Implement It & Enterprise Adoption Of Cloud During COVID Times with David Politis, Founder & CEO @ BetterCloud
9 juni 2020 · 34 min
David Politis is the Founder & CEO @ BetterCloud, the company that helps IT discover, manage and secure the digital workplace. To date, David has raised over $186M in funding with BetterCloud from the likes of Accel, Warburg Pincus, Greycroft, Flybridge and Dropbox to name a few. Before founding BetterCloud, David was an early employee of Cloud Sherpas (acquired by Accenture), where he led the company to become the leading cloud services partner to SMB worldwide. Prior to Cloud Sherpas, David was a founding employee and General Manager of Vocalocity (acquired by Vonage), which he grew into one of the top providers of cloud PBX technology. Lees meer
In Today's Episode We Discuss:
How David made his way into the world of SaaS and came to found BetterCloud? How has David seen the rate of cloud adoption within enterprise over the last 5 years? Has it been faster or slower than he thought?
People often suggest operators are suited to certain stages of a company lifecycle, does David agree with this? What are the leading indicators an individual is struggling to scale? How does one communicate that to them effectively? How does David think about the decision to move an individual to another role vs release them?
What does radical transparency really mean to David? How does the ability to have radical transparency within your org change when the org is 10 people vs 100 people? What are the biggest challenges of scaling transparency? From a meeting structure view, what can leaders do to encourage transparency?
How does David feel about the method of OKR setting? How has his mindset changed towards OKRs? What does the decision-making process look like for deciding which OKRs to focus on? What OKRs do they focus on at BetterCloud? How does one know when they need to change their OKRs?
David's 60 Second SaaStr:
What would David most like to change in the world of SaaS?
How has David seen himself emerge and develop as a leader?
What is the biggest challenge of David's role with…
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SaaStr 340: Mark Suster, Managing Partner at Upfront Ventures, on Funding In the Time of Coronavirus
4 juni 2020 · 29 min
Mark Suster is a managing partner at Upfront Ventures, the largest venture capital firm in Los Angeles, and a prominent blogger in the startup venture capital world. Lees meer
In this episode of the SaaStr podcast, he shares his learnings on the current landscape of funding in the time of Coronavirus, including:
Valuation and compression
Forecasting market trends
The slowdown in VC
His best advice for surviving the downturn and raising a round of funding
You can find the full video and transcript of this talk on our blog: https://www.saastr.com/funding-in-the-time-of-coronavirus-with-mark-suster-video-transcript/
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SaaStr 339: Why SaaS Playbooks Are For Suckers, How To Make Sales Data Truly Actionable & The Right Way To Run Sales Meetings with Michael Katz, Founder & CEO @ mParticle
2 juni 2020 · 30 min
Michael Katz is the Founder & CEO @ mParticle, the customer data platform for brands leading the customer data revolution with clients from Airbnb to Spotify to Postmates. To date Michael has raised over $120m in funding with mParticle from GV, Social Capital, Greylock, Bain Capital Ventures and a friend of the show in Zach Coelius. Prior to founding mParticle, Mike was the Founder & CEO @ Interclick, where he organically grew revenue to over $140m in 5 years. The company went public in 2009 and was acquired by Yahoo in 2012 for $270m, a 50% premium on existing share price. If that was not enough, Michael is also on the board of Brightline and a mentor with Techstars. Lees meer
In Today's Episode We Discuss:
How Michael made his way into the world of SaaS and enterprise SaaS having founded and IPO'd an adtech business previously?
Why did Michael make the move to CRO 8 months ago? How does Mike think about when is the right time to hire your first CRO? How does this hire correlate to your hiring in sales enablement? What are the different CRO profiles Mike has seen? How does Mike advise founders on those that work best for early-stage?
Why does Mike believe that playbooks are for suckers? What is the reasoning for the reductionism towards the power of the playbook? How does Mike think about the relationship between playbooks and predictability?
How does Mike make sales data really actionable within the company? What is the right way for founders to do post-mortems on won and lost deals? What is the right way to structure their sales pipeline? Who should be involved in analysing this data? What can be done to incentivize sales to be accurate in their sales data?
Why does Michael believe that most sales meetings are unproductive? What is the right way to structure your sales meeting? Who should be brought into the meeting other than the sales team? How does Michael advise sales reps to maintain customer relationships post-sale? Where do many go wrong here?
Michael's 60 S…
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SaaStr 338: Slack CEO Stewart Butterfield on Taking Care of Your Team and Your Customers
28 mei 2020 · 25 min
These are unique times. In some ways, we can use our playbooks, make adjustments, and in other ways, things are very different. What isn't likely to be very different is that recurring revenue … recurs. This is the bedrock of SaaS. Lees meer
Hear how Slack CEO, Stewart Butterfield, is adapting to change and his advice on how to take care of your team and customers.
This podcast is an excerpt from Stewart's session at SaaStr Summit. You can see the full video here: https://youtu.be/5kG3WfUyBJc
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SaaStr 337: Scaling A SaaS Business Within A Non-SaaS Business, What CIOs Want To See In Pricing Models and What Great Change Management Looks Like with Head of America's for Facebook's Workplace, Christine Trodella
26 mei 2020 · 25 min
Christine Trodella is Head of Americas for Facebook's Workplace product, the communication tool that connects everyone in your company, through Groups, Chat, Rooms and Live video broadcasting. Prior to Workplace, Christine was Head of America's for Facebook's Audience Network and before that spent 5 years as a Group Director across multiple different sales and account teams within Facebook's mid-market channel. Before Facebook, Christine was an Executive Director @ WebMD and before that spent close to 3 years in media sales at Yahoo. Lees meer
In Today's Episode We Discuss:
How Christine made her way into the world of SaaS as part of a non-SaaS company and how that led to her leading Americas for Workplace by Facebook?
What have been the biggest benefits of scaling a SaaS company within a non-SaaS company? What are the biggest challenges or misalignments of scaling Workplace within Facebook? What have been some of the core and early mistakes the team made in their strategy to build out the Workplace sales and marketing machine?
What have been Christine's biggest lessons on what it takes to sell really effectively to some of the largest enterprises in the world? What do CIOs most want in pricing? How does Christine think about the pricing problem of having a variable pricing mechanism without disincentivizing usage? How does Christine think about and approach discounting?
Does Christine believe remote is the new normal? What really interesting data have Christine and the Workplace team seen since the world has move to work from home? How has behaviour changed on the platform with the rise of remote work?
Christine's 60 Second SaaStr:
What would Christine most like to change in the world of SaaS?
When I say success, who is the first person that comes to Christine's mind?
What is the biggest challenge of Christine's role within FB today?
Read the full transcript on our blog: https://www.saastr.com/saastr-podcasts-for-the-week-with-facebook-workplace-and-slack-may-29-2…
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SaaStr 336: Salesforce Ventures Managing Partner Matthew Garratt and Salesforce SVP of Commercial Sales, Adnan Chaudhry on Shifting Your Sales & GTM Strategy in Uncertain Times
21 mei 2020 · 24 min
Leveraging survey data from 66+ enterprise SaaS companies, Matt Garratt, Managing Partner of Salesforce Ventures shares the landscape of how businesses are shifting their sales & GTM strategies to react to today's uncertain times. Adnan Chaudhry, SVP of Sales at Salesforce then provides actionable takeaways on how to refocus your sales teams, engage with customers, adjust your sales comp and how you can properly forecast in today's new landscape. Lees meer
This podcast is an excerpt from Matt and Adnan's session at SaaStr Summit. You can see the full video here: https://youtu.be/3Li7tuLQidY
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SaaStr 335: How To Plan, Organise and Execute A World Class Virtual Event in a COVID World with David Spinks, Founder @ CMX Media
19 mei 2020 · 36 min
David Spinks is the Founder @ CMX, the premier network for community professionals. In 2019, CMX was acquired by Bevy, where David now serves as the VP of Community. Bevy is a customer-to-customer community management platform, building products that brands use to build, grow and manage their community event programs, both virtual and IRL for companies like Slack, Twitch, Salesforce, Atlassian, and Duolingo. Prior to CMX, David founded 2 prior startups centred around different forms of community building and before that was Community Manager in the early days of LeWeb the largest tech/startup conference in Europe. Lees meer
In Today's Episode We Discuss:
How David made his way into the world of SaaS and came to found CMX? Why David believes that community is so central for all SaaS companies today?
How does David advise teams on expectation setting around virtual events? How ambitious should they be? What big mistakes does David often see in the early days of the planning? How does this differ if you have an existing cohort of users vs are starting new with no audience?
How dependent is the success of the community on the platform it is hosted on? What is the ideal size for Slack, Telegram and Whatsapp communities? Should the host seed the discussion or allow it to be natural? How important is it to establish a handbook of expected actions and behaviours? Should you cull members who are inactive?
What does David believe separates good from great when it comes to discussion groups? What innovative strategies has David seen work when it comes to bringing a virtual event to life? What is the right amount of people in that discussion group? What is the core role of the moderator for the group?
David's 60 Second SaaStr:
Biggest misconception around virtual events?
Virtual events: Permanent tide change or purely in the COVID world?
What has been David's favourite virtual event? Why?
Read the full transcript on our blog: https://www.saastr.com/saastr-podcasts-for-the-week…
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SaaStr 334: Cloudflare COO Michelle Zatlyn on The Top 10 Lessons Learned Starting Something Big During Tough Times
14 mei 2020 · 22 min
Hear from Michelle Zatlyn, co-founder and COO of Cloudflare. Michelle started the company during an economic downturn in 2009. Now, Cloudflare runs one of the world's largest networks that helps make the Internet more secure, fast, and reliable, with a market cap of more than $6B. Despite the challenges of uncertainty, money not flowing, and a generally dark mood, she was able to do it and learned a lot along the way. In this talk, Michelle will share how she made her business idea come to life and some lessons learned that can help other entrepreneurs—from solving a real, meaningful problem, to communicating in a crisis, prioritizing when there's a true lack of resources, and more. Lees meer
This podcast is an excerpt from Michelle's session at SaaStr Summit. You can see the full video here: https://youtu.be/WplZkOLl-k4
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SaaStr 333: How To Create and Structure Your Customer Success Strategy, How Customer Success Teams Can Build Relationships of Trust with Customers and How Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs Drives Customer Success Roadmaps with Bridget Gleason, Head of Sales & C
11 mei 2020 · 38 min
Bridget Gleason is the Head of Sales and Customer Success @ Tidelift, the company providing managed open source, backed by maintainers. Tidelift has raised over $40M from some of the best in the business including Foundry Group and General Catalyst. As for Bridget, she has the most incredible track record. Before Tidelift, Bridget was VP of Sales @ Logz.io and before that was VP of Corporate Sales @ Sumo Logic where she drove ARR up by a record 237%. Prior to SumoLogic, Bridget was VP of Sales @ YesWare where she increased MRR per rep by 450%. Finally, before YesWare, she was VP of Sales @ Engine Yard, where she tripled monthly recurring revenue, over the course of her 3+ year tenure, in 3 key leadership roles. Lees meer
In Today's Episode We Discuss:
How Bridget made her way into the world of SaaS and Sales and came to be Head of both Sales and Customer Success at Tidelift?
Why does Bridget believe the best starting point for customer success is "company culture and value"? How does company culture impact the quality of customer success? In practice, what can one do to improve it? Who has done this well? How does value drive customer success forward?
How does Bridget think Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs drives the roadmap for customer success? What core elements does it change? Where do most teams go wrong in implementing the role out of their CS strategy? When should one hire their first CS rep? What should that hire look like from an experience perspective?
How does Bridget advise her CS reps the best ways for them to build trust with their clients? What works? What does not work? Does Bridget believe CS teams should be involved in the upsell process? Does that endanger the element of trust?
Bridget's 60 Second SaaStr:
What does Bridget know now that she wishes she had known when she entered the world of SaaS?
What would bridget most like to change about the world of SaaS today?
What is the most challenging element of Bridget's role with Tidelift?
Read the full tra…
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SaaStr 332: Initialized Capital Co-Founder and Managing Partner Garry Tan on The New Normal
7 mei 2020 · 23 min
Prepare for the worst, hope for the best. Hear from Garry Tan, co-founder and managing partner at Initialized Capital, about how to protect your business during a crisis. He'll cover remote work, team management, sales, marketing, product development and more. Lees meer
This podcast is an excerpt from Garry's session at SaaStr Summit. You can watch the full video on our YouTube channel: https://youtu.be/lIZDFQscwQM
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SaaStr 331: The Right Way To Structure Enterprise Pipeline Reviews, How COVID Is Impacting New Enterprise Deals, How SaaS Companies Can Not Only Decrease Churn But Increase Upsell Today with Jessica Lin, Co-Founder @ Work-Bench
6 mei 2020 · 29 min
Jessica Lin is a Co-Founder and General Partner @ Work-Bench, one of New York's leading early-stage enterprise funds with a portfolio including the likes of Cockroach Labs, X.ai, Dialpad, VTS and Catalyst to name a few. Prior to Work-Bench, Jessica was a Learning and Development Manager at Cisco Systems, where she worked with the Engineering organization on Agile transformation, innovation and culture. Jessica is actively involved with the education and workforce development community in New York City and as chair of the Industry Advisory Board at Opportunities for a Better Tomorrow. Lees meer
In Today's Episode We Discuss:
How Jessica made her way from learning Swahili into the world of enterprise and into the world of venture with the founding of Work-Bench?
How should founders expect to see their new business pipe be impacted by COVID? What does Jessica believe is the right way to do proper pipe reviews? What specific elements does Jessica really double click on in reviews? Where does Jessica find managers and founders do pipe reviews wrong?
What does Jessica believe is the right way for sales reps to engage with new customers during this time? What is the right tone to adopt that achieves both empathy and a business objective? How should sales teams and CS respond to requests for discounts? What should be the compromise with discounts?
What specific and deliberate things can startups do not just to prevent churn but also to increase usage and upsell? Does Jessica agree with the rule of thumb that in enterprise, on an annual basis, 95% of your customers should retain? What other strategies has Jessica seen work really well for retention?
Jessica's 60 Second SaaStr:
What would Jessica most like to change about the world of SaaS?
What is the hardest element of Jessica's role today with Work-Bench?
The NYC ecosystem, pros and cons?
Read the full transcript on our blog: https://www.saastr.com/saastr-podcasts-for-the-week-with-work-bench-and-initialized-capital-may-8…
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SaaStr 330: TripActions CMO Meagen Eisenberg on Making Trade-Offs In Marketing
30 april 2020 · 33 min
The true test of marketers. Are you a revenue driver or a cost center? You cannot afford to be the latter. Marketing leaders must focus their teams on the areas that will drive revenue while they cut costs - the biggest impact for the business. Join TripActions CMO Meagen Eisenberg at SaaStr Summit as she highlights her approach to ensuring Marketing delivers on its mission-critical role even in times of uncertainty or crisis. Lees meer
This podcast is an excerpt from Megan's session at SaaStr Summit. You can find the full video and transcript on our blog: https://www.saastr.com/making-trade-offs-in-marketing-with-meagen-eisenberg-video-transcript/
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SaaStr 329: How Renewals and Discounting Will Be Impacted by COVID & How Enterprise Founders Should Approach Capital Allocation & Efficiency Today with Navin Chaddha, Managing Director @ Mayfield
29 april 2020 · 24 min
Navin Chaddha is the Managing Director @ Mayfield who just last month announced $750M in new funds split across their core and select funds. As for Navin, under his leadership Mayfield has raised over $2.2Bn in new funds and he has backed some of the best of the last decade including Poshmark, Lyft, Hashicorp, CloudGenix and more. During his career Navin has invested in 50 companies, 17 have gone public, 20 have been acquired. Prior to VC, Navin was an entrepreneur where he co-founded or led 3 startups, all of which had successful exits with one being acquired by Microsoft. Lees meer
In Today's Episode We Discuss:
How did Navin make his way into the world of venture from successfully founding and exiting 3 businesses? What made him take the jump into investing full-time from being an EiR?
How does Navin expect the B2B landscape to be impacted by COVID-19? How does Navin advise B2B founders to think about how renewals will be impacted? How does Navin advise founders to think through how to approach the topic of discounting with their customers? In what situations does Navin agree to provide discounts to customers?
How does Navin foresee the B2C landscape to be impacted? How does Navin advise founders to think through the level of aggression with which they pursue traditional marketing channels, now with much lower CACs? Will these CACs remain low priced? How does Navin expect company pricing to change over the next few months?
How has Navin seen himself evolve and change as a board member over the last decade? What have been his major moments of learning? What advice would he give to new board members joining their first boards? What can board members do to build a relationship of trust and intimacy with their founders? What works? What does not?
Navin's 60 Second SaaStr:
What does Navin know now that he wishes he had known when he entered the world of venture with Mayfield in 2004?
What is the hardest element of Navin's role with Mayfield today?
What would Navin mos…
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SaaStr 328: SaaStr CEO Jason Lemkin and Gorgias CEO Romain Lapeyre on What They're Seeing with SMB E-commerce Customers
23 april 2020 · 23 min
Romain Lapeyre is CEO of Gorgias. Gorgias is the leading help center on the Shopify platform, and that gives them a pulse into a large segment of SMBs in particular. They have almost 2,500 customers in segments both struggling (fashion, luxury), and growing (electronics, etc.). They are coming up on $10m ARR but aren't there quite yet, so a lot like a lot of you, or where you'll be soon enough. Lees meer
You can find the video and notes from this discussion on our blog: https://www.saastr.com/what-are-you-seeing-001-with-romain-lapeyre-ceo-of-gorgias-2500-smb-e-commerce-customers/
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SaaStr 327: Domo's Chief Strategy Officer, John Mellor on Why COVID Will Do More For Digital Transformation Than Any Other C-Level Initiative, What Great Change Management Looks Like In Practice & How To Gain True Bottoms Up Adoption When Also Selling Top
21 april 2020 · 32 min
John Mellor is Chief Strategy Officer @ Domo, the company that allows you to leverage BI at scale to empower your team with data. Prior to their IPO, Domo raised funding from the likes of Benchmark, Founders Fund, a16, Greylock and IVP to name a few. As for John, prior to Domo he served as vice president for strategy and business operations for Adobe's Digital Experience business, driving more than $3 billion in annual revenue. John joined Adobe through the company's acquisition of Omniture in 2009, where he served as executive vice president of marketing, driving all marketing efforts to strategically advance the industry's largest standalone web analytics business. Lees meer
In Today's Episode We Discuss:
How did John make his way into the world of SaaS over 2 decades ago and how did that lead to his running a $3Bn ARR business line at Adobe and lead to his joining Domo? What were John's biggest takeaways from his decade at Adobe?
Why does John believe that COVID will be a bigger accelerant than any other C-level led initiative? For vendors going through that digital transformation with their customers, what is the right tone to adopt that is both empathetic and achieves business objectives? Is digital transformation a technology challenge or a behavioural challenge?
How will a 100% virtual event environment impact physical events when and if they do come back? What were John's biggest takeaways from running Domo's annual event virtually? What worked? What did not work? On a conversion basis, how did it compare to in-person events? How should we structure content for these virtual events?
How does John think about the role of leadership in a crisis such as this? What is the right tone for the leader to adopt? Where does John believe many leadership teams go wrong in times such as this? How can leadership teams ensure that a crisis is not self-fulfilling and how can one prevent that mindset?
John's 60 Second SaaStr:
What does John know now that he wishes he had known…
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SaaStr 326: Gusto COO Lexi Reese on The Playbook to Scaling High-Performance Teams
16 april 2020 · 24 min
Gusto's Lexi Reese walks you through scaling high performance teams. Is trust earned or given? How do you communicate for impact? Lees meer
This podcast is an excerpt from Lexi's session at SaaStr Scale. You can find the full video and transcript on our blog: https://www.saastr.com/high-performance-teams/
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SaaStr 325: How Marketing Teams Can Replace The Leads Lost From Events in A COVID World & The Right Tone To Adopt With Clients That Is Caring and Achieves Business Objectives with Carolyn Guss, VP Corporate Marketing @ PagerDuty
14 april 2020 · 29 min
Carolyn Guss is VP of Corporate Marketing @ PagerDuty, the company keeping your digital operations running perfectly with their real-time operations platform. Prior to their IPO in April 2019, PagerDuty had raised funding from some of the best in the business including a16, Bessemer, Meritech, Harrison Metal and Elad Gil to name a few. As for Carolyn, prior to joining PagerDuty she spent 5 years as the GM of Method Communications San Francisco Office and before that spent time on the other side of the pond with a close to 7-year stint at Orange as Head of Corporate PR and Head of US Communications. Lees meer
In Today's Episode We Discuss:
How Carolyn made her way across the pond from Head of US Communications at Orange to GM of Method in SF to then playing a key role in the marketing team at PagerDuty?
How does Carolyn think startups and larger companies can replace the leads that are lost from having no events in a COVID world? How are PagerDuty shifting their strategy? How does PagerDuty think about brand marketing? Does it have to be tied to a number directly tied to revenue? What are the challenges with brand marketing?
What does Carolyn believe is the right tone to approach customers within this time? How can one be supportive but also drive towards business objectives? In terms of tone, what is the right tone to approach the broader team with? How does PagerDuty gain a sense of company morale at scale? What tools do they use?
How does Carolyn think about the benefits of transparency both with employees and with customers? Is there an extent to the benefits of transparency? Can one ever been too transparent? How does one think about this in a very corporate perspective with PagerDuty now being a public company?
Carolyn's 60 Second SaaStr:
What does Carolyn know now that she wishes she had known at the beginning of her time in marketing?
Hardest element of her role with PagerDuty today?
Who is killing it in the world of SaaS marketing? Why?
Read the full transc…
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SaaStr 324: SaaStr CEO Jason Lemkin and Bessemer Venture Partners' Partner Byron Deeter on The Current State of Venture Capital & Cloud
9 april 2020 · 40 min
Join SaaStr CEO Jason Lemkin and Bessemer Venture Partners Partner Byron Deeter for a deep dive on what's going on in Venture Capital and Cloud. Lees meer
This podcast is an excerpt from Jason and Byron's webinar "Bridging the Gap: The Current State of Venture Capital and Cloud." You can find the full webinar on our YouTube channel: https://youtu.be/UDfIC5prskA
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SaaStr 323: The Core Challenges in Moving To Remote Work Overnight, What Does Great Change Management Look Like & The Optimal Position For Customer Success In The Organisation with Bhavin Shah, Founder & CEO @ Moveworks
6 april 2020 · 31 min
Bhavin Shah is the Founder & CEO @ Moveworks, the cloud-based AI platform, purpose-built for large enterprises, that resolves employees' IT support issues—instantly and automatically. To date Bhavin has raised over $108M with Moveworks from the likes of Mamoon Hamid @ Kleiner Perkins, Arij Janmohamed @ Lightspeed, Bain Capital, Sapphire Ventures and ICONIQ. Prior to Moveworks, Bhavin was the Founder and CEO @ Refresh which was later acquired by LinkedIn and then before that founded Gazillion Entertainment, a company he scaled to over 200 employees. Lees meer
In Today's Episode We Discuss:
How Bhavin made his way into the wonderful world of SaaS and came to found Moveworks?
What are the core challenges IT teams are facing as a result of the move to remote work? Where do many make mistakes here? What can one do from a structural perspective to set them up for success when moving to remote?
What does great change management look like in Bhavin's mind today? Where do so many go wrong here? How does this change in the world of remote? Who should be involved in executing on the change management plan?
How does Bhavin think about the role of customer success today? Why does Bhavin believe that customer success and product should be in one org? How does Bhavin think about the interplay of marketing and customer success? Is marketing moving closer and closer to customer success with their content?
Bhavin's 60 Second SaaStr:
What is the hardest element of Bhavin's role with Moveworks today?
Hardest role to hire for today? Why?
If Bhavin could change one thing in the world of SaaS today, what would it be?
Read the full transcript on our blog: https://www.saastr.com/saastr-podcasts-for-the-week-with-moveworks-and-bessemer-venture-partners-april-10-2020/
If you would like to find out more about the show and the guests presented, you can follow us on Twitter here:
Jason Lemkin
Harry Stebbings
SaaStr
Bhavin Shah
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SaaStr 322: ICONIQ Capital General Partner Doug Pepper on Key Lessons from a $5B SaaS Category Leader
2 april 2020 · 22 min
Many people make the false assumption that the path for a highly successful SaaS company is straight "up and to the right". Of course, for those involved, the reality of the journey is characterized by a series of obstacles that must be navigated. Fmr. Shasta Ventures Doug Pepper will share the key challenges that were overcome to allow Marketo to become a $5B SaaS Category Leader in Marketing Automation. Lees meer
This podcast is an excerpt from Doug's session at SaaStr Europa. You can find the full video and transcript on our blog.
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SaaStr 321: Front CMO Anthony Kennada on Adapting Marketing Playbooks To Changing ACV's and Sales Cycles, The Right Way To Think About Brand Marketing and How To Fundamentally Build a Challenger Brand
30 maart 2020 · 31 min
Anthony Kennada is the CMO @ Front, the startup that provides your team with better email so they can treat every customer like your only customer. To date, Front have raised over $138M from some leading names including Sequoia, Eric Yuan @ Zoom, Ryan and Jared Smith @ Qualtrics, Michael Cannon-Brookes and Jay Simmons @ Atlassian and Frederic Kerrest @ Okta to name a few. As for Anthony, prior to Front Anthony was the founding CMO at Gainsight where he and his team are credited with creating the Customer Success category. At Gainsight Anthony and the team developed a new playbook for B2B marketing that fueled the company's growth from $0 to over $100M of ARR. If that was not enough, Anthony is also the author of Category Creation: How to Build a Brand that Customers, Employees, and Investors Will Love. The book debuted as a number one new release on Amazon. Lees meer
In Today's Episode We Discuss:
How Anthony made his way into the world of SaaS starting in the sales team at Box and how that led to his entering the world of marketing and creating the customer success category?
How does Anthony marketing playbook change when making the move from Gainsight with higher ACV's and longer sales cycles to Front with lowers ACV's and much higher volume? How does Anthony think about ABM today with Front given the lower ACVs? At what ticket size does ABM make sense?
How does Anthony feel about brand marketing? Why did Anthony and Front decide now was the right time to engage with billboards? How does Anthony think about data and tracking for brand marketing? Does Anthony believe that all marketing has to be tied to a number directly related to revenue?
How does Anthony seeing a changing relationship between customer success and marketing? How is marketing being pushed further into the realms of CS? What is the optimal relationship between CS and marketing? How does this compare to the relationship of sales and marketing more traditionally?
Anthony's 60 Second SaaStr:
What does A…
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SaaStr 320: SaaStr CEO Jason Lemkin and Gainsight CEO Nick Mehta on What It Was Like in 2008-2009 and What We Can Expect for 2020
26 maart 2020 · 33 min
We're obviously in a very unique situation today. The pace at which Corona is impacting us all right now is so fast, it's hard to keep up. Lees meer
Today is different from other times but in SaaS. It will probably be like '08-'09 downturn — just faster.
Join Jason Lemkin, CEO and Founder of SaaStr, and Nick Mehta, CEO of Gainsight, as they take a look back at what happened to them as a SaaS vendor in '08-'09, and what learnings you can leverage.
This podcast is an excerpt from Jason and Nick's webinar "What We're Doing Now. And How We Got Through '08-'09." You can find the full replay here.
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SaaStr 319: How To Think About And Make Pre-Emptive Burn Cuts, Operational Survival In Times Of Uncertainty & Managing Your Psychology As Founder & CEO with May Habib, Founder & CEO @ Qordoba
23 maart 2020 · 31 min
May Habib is the Founder & CEO @ Qordoba, the platform that helps everyone at your company write with the same style, terminology and voice. To date, May has raised over $21M in funding with Qordoba from the likes of Upfront Ventures, Aspect Ventures, Bonfire Ventures and Michael Stoppelman to name a few. Before entering the world of SaaS, May was a vice president at one of the world's largest sovereign wealth funds, where she was the first employee on the technology investment team, building a portfolio now worth over $20B. Before that, May started her career in the New York Office of Lehman Brothers raising capital for software companies. Lees meer
In Today's Episode We Discuss:
How May made her way into the world of startups and SaaS from being a VP at one of the world's largest sovereign wealth funds in the Middle East?
How does May think about and assess operational survival in times of such uncertainty? Why does this downturn feel so different to prior downturns? Operationally, what needs to fundamentally change about your processes?
How does May think about when is the right time to engage with pre-emptive burn cuts? Where does one look first in the organisation when making these cuts? How does one structure those discussions? What is the right way to do it? What is the right way to communicate the cuts to the team, customers and investors?
How does one keep the existing teams spirits high when they have just seen many of their friends be released? What is the right way to manage those discussions? What can founders do to build unity in their team now everyone is WFH? What has worked well for the Qordoba team? Where do many go wrong here?
May's 60 Second SaaStr:
What is the most challenging element of May's role with Qordoba today?
What does May know now that she wishes she had known at the beginning?
If May could change one thing about the world of SaaS, what would it be and why?
Read the full transcript on our blog.
If you would like to find out more abou…
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SaaStr 318: Doctolib CDO Agnes Bazin on The Secrets to SMB Sales
19 maart 2020 · 21 min
The first step in success with SMB clients is to recognize that it's not a one size fits all scenario. Companies need a specialized approach for SMB accounts, different than the tactics used for Enterprise. Andrei Brasoveanu will sit down for a conversation with Agnes Bazin, CDO of Doctolib, on how to create a targeted and effective sales process tailor-made for SMB. Lees meer
This podcast is an excerpt from a session at SaaStr Europa 2019. You can find the full video and transcript on our blog.
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SaaStr 317: How To Encourage, Grow and Track Word of Mouth Marketing, How The Rise of Product-Led Growth Changes The Structure of Sales and Marketing & The Biggest Takeaways on Paid vs Organic Marketing From Seeing The Hyper-Growth @ Slack with Rachel Hep
16 maart 2020 · 34 min
Rachel Hepworth is VP of Marketing @ Pilot, the startup that offers the best bookkeeping, tax and CFO services for growing businesses. To date they have raised over $58M from some of the best in the business including Index Ventures, John Collison, Paul English, Drew Houston, Frederic Kerrest, Diane Greene and more incredible names. As for Rachel, prior to joining Pilot, she saw the hyper-growth of Slack firsthand enjoying a couple of different roles including Head of Growth Marketing and then also Head of Self Service and Platform Marketing. Before Slack, Rachel spent 4 years at LinkedIn where she led the product marketing team for content experiences. Finally, before LinkedIn, Rachel spent close to 3 years at Climate Corporation, prior to their $1Bn exit to Monsanto. Lees meer
In Today's Episode We Discuss:
How Rachel made her way from marketing manager at Climate Corporation to VP of marketing at Pilot today? What were Rachel's biggest takeaways from her time seeing the hyper-growth at Slack?
How does Rachel think about organic growth and inciting word of mouth today? How does Rachel think they can be more accurately tracked and measured? How does Rachel think about the optimal ratio of paid to organic in growth? Would Rachel agree in paid, your payback period doubles every $5M you spend?
With the rise of product-led growth, are we seeing a fundamental shift in the structure of sales and marketing? How does Rachel see marketing move ever close to the function of customer success today? What is the optimal way for customer success and marketing to work together?
How does Rachel think about the importance of getting in front of your customers? Why does Rachel believe that data tells you the what and customer conversations tell you the why? What is the right way to structure your customer conversations? Where do so many people go wrong here?
Rachel's 60 Second SaaStr:
Hardest element of your role with Pilot today?
If Rachel could change one thing about SaaS today, wh…
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SaaStr 316: MessageBird CEO Robert Vis on Early Gains, Early Pains: 5 Lessons for Surviving Hypergrowth
12 maart 2020 · 22 min
The startup journey moves in waves—whether you're ready or not. After finding funding and product/market fit, your next steps as a founder in the hypergrowth phase can determine the future of your company. Harry Stebbings of Stride.VC and Robert Vis of MessageBird will walk through lessons learned to survive hypergrowth and what will make a difference when it comes to scaling. Hear how to navigate fast growth and how to look ahead as you travel forward. Lees meer
This podcast is from Harry and Robert's SaaStr Europa 2019 session. You can find the full video and transcript on our blog.
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SaaStr 315: Pipe Co-Founder, Harry Hurst on Creating A New Asset Class Securitising Software Contracts, Why Customer Success Is More Important Than Customer Acquisition & How To Think Strategically About Brand Building in SaaS Today
9 maart 2020 · 23 min
Harry Hurst is the Co-Founder & Co-CEO @ Pipe, the startup that gives you control of your cash flow by giving you access to the full annual value of your monthly subscriptions, upfront. This month they announced their $6M seed round led by David Saks @ Craft and joined by Fika, Weekend Fund, Naval Ravikant and WorkLife Ventures to name a few. Prior to Pipe, Harry co-founded Skurt raising over $11M in the process before being acquired by Fair.com. Harry has also angel invested in the likes of BreathePod and Try.com. Lees meer
In Today's Episode We Discuss:
How Harry made his way from the UK to founding one of Silicon Valley's hottest SaaS startups with the founding of Pipe?
How does Harry think about when is the right time for a startup to raise VC funding? How does Harry stress test the alignment between the founder and the VC/ Opposingly, when is the right time for a founder to take non-dilutive capital from Pipe instead?
Pipe's lending model is so centred around churn prediction, what does their churn analysis look like at Pipe? How does Harry think about the right way to structure churn post mortems? Why does Harry believe investing in customer success is far more important than customer acquisition?
How does Harry think about the importance of brand for enterprise startups today? Do you have to invest in it from Day 1? What mistakes does Harry see many founders make when it comes to investing in their early brand?
Harry's 60 Second SaaStr:
What does Harry know that he wishes he had known at the beginning?
What does Harry believe is the hardest role to hire for today? Why?
What does Harry believe that most around his disbelieve?
Read the full transcript on our blog.
If you would like to find out more about the show and the guests presented, you can follow us on Twitter here:
Jason Lemkin
Harry Stebbings
SaaStr
Harry Hurst
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SaaStr 314: Showpad CMO Theresa O'Neil on Aligning Sales, Marketing, and CS to Scale Revenue and Retention
5 maart 2020 · 25 min
According to a study from SiriusDecisions, the majority of buyers (81%) today make purchase decisions based on buying experience, over product or price. To meet buyers' high expectations and manage the challenging sales landscape, companies must involve their entire organization in maturing the sales process- including after prospects sign on the dotted line. This session will outline a practical approach to growing revenue and retention by aligning sales, marketing, and customer success. Lees meer
This podcast is an excerpt from Theresa's session at SaaStr Europa 2019. You can see the full video on our YouTube channel.
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SaaStr 313: What The World's Largest SaaS Incumbents Taught Me About Founding & Scaling SaaS Businesses
2 maart 2020 · 22 min
Today we deep dive into what startups can learn from the large SaaS incumbents of today. Lees meer
Sara Varni: CMO @ Twilio on her biggest takeaways from her time at Salesforce.
Erica Schultz: President of Field Operations @ Confluent on her biggest takeaways from her time at Oracle.
Whitney Bouck: COO @ Hellosign on her biggest takeaways from her time at Box.
Leyla Seka: Partner @ Operator Collective on her biggest takeaways from her time at Salesforce.
Ryan Bonnici: CMO @ G2 on his biggest takeaways from his time at Salesforce.
Ryan Barretto: SVP @ Sprout Social on his biggest takeaways from his time at Salesforce
Tien Tzuo: Founder & CEO @ Zuora on his biggest takeaways from his time at Salesforce.
Paul Albright: Board member @ Clarizen on his biggest takeaways from his time at SuccessFactors.
Jaleh Rezaei: Founder & CEO @ Mutiny on her biggest takeaways from her time at Gusto.
Eugenio Pace: Founder & CEO @ Auth0 on his biggest takeaways from his time at Microsoft.
Liat Bycel: VP @ Airtable on her biggest takeaways from her time at Twitter.
Mark Goldberg: Partner @ Index on his biggest takeaways from his time at Dropbox.
Read the full transcript on our blog.
If you would like to find out more about the show and the guests presented, you can follow us on Twitter here:
Jason Lemkin
Harry Stebbings
SaaStr
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SaaStr 312: Wrike CEO Andrew Filev on 5 Do's and Don'ts From My Bootstrapping Days
27 februari 2020 · 28 min
Starting a company can be daunting, exhausting, and expensive, but with the right focus and idea - extremely rewarding; take it from Andrew Filev, Founder and CEO of Wrike. In this session, he will outline the do's and don'ts that he learned bootstrapping Wrike. Where it makes sense to invest your precious resources when to outsource, and how to save yourself money without cutting corners. Lees meer
This podcast is an excerpt from Andrew's session at SaaStr Europa 2019. You can find the full video and transcript on our blog.
This episode is sponsored by Owl Labs.
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SaaStr 311: When To Hire Generalists vs Specialists, How To Retain Agility With Scale and Process and How To Always Keep Your Hiring Funnel Full with Karl Sun, Founder & CEO @ Lucidchart
24 februari 2020 · 32 min
Karl Sun is the Founder & CEO @ Lucidchart, a visual workspace that combines diagramming, data visualization, and collaboration to accelerate understanding and drive innovation. To date, Karl has raised $114M with Lucidchart from some of the best in the business including K9 Ventures, Meritech, Iconiq, GV and Kickstart in Utah. As for Karl, prior to founding the company he spent 6 years at Google in some fascinating roles including Head of Patents, Head of Business Development in China and running Google's energy investments. As a result of his success, Karl was recently announced as EY's Entrepreneur of the Year. Lees meer
In Today's Episode We Discuss:
How Karl made his way into the world of SaaS with the founding of Lucidchart having been Head of Business Development for Google in China and Head of Patents?
How does one know when we need to hire generalists vs specialists? How does this requirement change as the company scales? How does Karl fundamentally think about finding great talent and keeping top of funnel full? How does Karl think about working with recruiters? What works? What does not work?
Karl has been in every interview for every new hire for the first 6 years of the business, why? How does Karl think about doing this at scale? How does Karl structure the hiring process today? Why do they have a hiring committee? What does the process look like? How do they assess and test for culture?
How does Karl think about retaining agility and flexibility with scale? How does Karl maintain employee empowerment with the implementation of process? How does Karl think about the balance between creating accountability without a fear of failure? What are the challenges of this?
Karl's 60 Second SaaStr:
What is the hardest role to hire for today? Why?
Hardest element of karl's role as CEO today? Why?
What does Karl know now that he wishes he had known at the founding of the company?
Read the full transcript on our blog.
If you would like to find out more about the …
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SaaStr 310: EZPR Founder Ed Zitron on the Secrets of PR
20 februari 2020 · 22 min
SaaStr CEO Jason Lemkin and EZPR Founder Ed Zitron sit down to talk about all things PR. Who actually gets into these outlets? Is PR just pitching and getting articles? Take a listen for more. Lees meer
Read the full transcript on our blog.
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SaaStr 309: David Skok on The 9 Stage Model To Get A B2B Company To Get Repeatable, Scalable & Profitable Growth
17 februari 2020 · 51 min
David Skok is a General Partner @ Matrix Partners, the firm with a portfolio including the likes of Hubspot, ZenDesk, Quora, CloudBees and more incredible companies. As for David, he started his first company in 1977 aged just 22. Since then David has founded a total of four separate companies and performed one turn-around. Three of these companies went public. David then joined Matrix from SilverStream Software, which he founded in June 1996. Prior to its July 2002 acquisition by Novell, SilverStream was a public company that had reached a revenue run rate in excess of $100M, with approximately 800 employees and offices in more than 20 countries around the world. David is also the author of foreentrepreneurs.com the must read blog in the world of SaaS metrics. Lees meer
In Today's Episode We Discuss:
How David made his way into the world of SaaS at the age of 22? How David went from founding 3 public companies to entering the world of venture with Matrix? Does David agree, "entrepreneurship does not get easier with time, it just gets different"?
What does David believe is the crucial step missing in B@B when it comes to finding product market fit? What is the most common mistake B2B companies make in the hunt for PMF? How should founders think about budget and resource allocation in this search for PMF? When is to early to measure unit economics and CAC?
How does David think about scaling sales teams? How does one know when is the right time to hire your first sales reps? What content and learnings should you have in place when you make the hire? How does David think about payback period on a per rep basis? What have been his lessons on optimising payback period for sales reps?
What numbers is David looking for when it comes to payback period? Why is 12 months so crucial? How should founders think about sales rep compensation? What have been David's learnings on how to integrate sales and marketing so tightly? How does marketing and customer success intertwine to be su…
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SaaStr 308: RevenueCat CEO Jacob Eiting on Managing Millions in Mobile Subscriptions While Growing 20% a Month
13 februari 2020 · 25 min
RevenueCat is managing tens of millions of dollars in mobile subscriptions and growing 20% a month. Most of us think a lot about standard b2b and Cloud subscriptions, but we're still new to the issues, challenges and opportunities in mobile subscriptions. Lees meer
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SaaStr 307: What Gusto Taught Me About How To Build and Maintain Great Culture, The Biggest Problem in B2B Marketing & How To Truly Determine The Effective of Marketing Today with Jaleh Rezaei, Founder & CEO @ Mutiny
11 februari 2020 · 33 min
Jaleh Rezaei is the Founder & CEO @ Mutiny, the startup that allows you to personalise your website for each and every visitor. Jaleh has raised from some of the best in the early stage business with Mutiny including the likes of Y Combinator, Uncork Capital and Cowboy Ventures on the fund side and then Mathilde @ Front, Henrique @ Brex and Shan-Lyn Ma @ Zola on the operator side. Prior to founding Mutiny, Jaleh spent an incredible 4 years at Gusto seeing their hypergrowth first hand as one of the first 10 employees. If that was not enough, Jaleh has also enjoyed advisory roles at both Google and Y Combinator. Lees meer
In Today's Episode We Discuss:
How Jaleh made her way into the world of SaaS as one of the first team members at Gusto and how that led to her founding Mutiny most recently?
What were Jaleh's biggest takeaways from her time at Gusto? How did that time impact her operating mentality with Mutiny today? How did her time at Gusto teach her about the right way to build company culture? Where do so many go wrong with this?
What does Jaleh believe is the biggest problem in SaaS marketing today? How does Jaleh specifically use ABM to acquire customers and leads effectively? What price points is required for an ABM strategy to be viable?
How does Jaleh approach the issue of determining the success of marketing? Should marketing be held accountable to a number tied directly to revenue? How does brand marketing play into this? Where are the nuances here?
Jaleh's 60 Second SaaStr:
What is the hardest role to hire for today?
Hardest element for Jaleh of her role with Mutiny today?
What does Jaleh know now that she wishes she had known when she entered the world of SaaS?
Read the transcript on our blog.
If you would like to find out more about the show and the guests presented, you can follow us on Twitter here:
Jason Lemkin
Harry Stebbings
SaaStr
Jaleh Rezaei
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SaaStr 306: Bessemer Ventures Partner Alex Ferrara on State of the Cloud 2019: Europa Edition
6 februari 2020 · 23 min
Join Bessemer Venture Partners' Alex Ferrara as he takes a look at trends and predictions for the cloud industry in 2019. One of the most popular sessions from SaaStr Annual, this presentation will provide an in-depth look at the cloud computing industry across Europe and globally. Lees meer
Find the video and full transcript on our blog.
Sponsor message: Remote and hybrid teams aren't the future of work-- they're the present. Owl Labs is embracing this revolution and is here to provide remote workers with a virtual seat at the table with the Meeting Owl. Their 360° smart video conferencing camera can recognize and highlight any speaker at the table using an array of 8 microphones. Check it out for yourself at owllabs.com!
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SaaStr 305: Lessons From Scaling Box From 5 Employees To IPO & The Right Way For Startups To Approach Partnerships with Karen Page, General Partner @ B Capital Group
3 februari 2020 · 36 min
Karen Page is a General Partner @ B Capital Group with a portfolio including the likes of Bird, Branch, Icertis, Evidation Health and Ninja Van to name a few. Prior to joining the world of venture, Karen was a Senior Director at Apple and before Apple, Karen spent an incredible 9 years at Box as a founding member of the executive team, where she was responsible for defining and leading Box's Industry GTM strategy. Plus, from 2007 until 2013, Karen ran all of Box's business development, partnership, and strategic alliance activities. If that was not enough, Karen is also on the board of some incredible companies including Deputy and Plastiq. Lees meer
In Today's Episode We Discuss:
How Karen made her way into the world of SaaS as one of the first employees at Box and then how that led to her transition to the world of investing with B Capital?
What were Karen's biggest takeaways from seeing the hyper-scaling at Box? How did helping Aaron raise the Series B and onwards inform her view of what it takes to raise funding from the best SaaS investors? How does Karen think her mindset will shift when making the move from angel to now institutionally investing with B Capital?
When does Karen think is the right time for startups to think about partnerships? What questions should they ask in the "dating" phase of a potential partnership? What are the red flags? Does Karen agree that signing a massive partner too early can be dangerous? What does Karen recommend in terms of getting in front of the best CIOs?
Is Karen concerned by the compression of fundraising timelines? How does Karen meet entrepreneurs before they go out to raise? How does Karen advise founders when it comes to the question of whether they should always be raising or not?
Karen's 60 Second SaaStr:
What does Karen know now that she wishes she had known entering the SaaS industry?
What is Karen's favourite book? Why?
Can a partnership be too big too early for a startup?
Read the transcript on our blog.
If yo…
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SaaStr 304: CircleCI CRO Jane Kim on Scaling up Your Sales Managers: 5 Mistakes New Leaders Make
30 januari 2020 · 28 min
If your SaaS business has a sales team, there's no way to grow 100% year-over-year without also growing your sales leadership. In this talk, CircleCI VP of Revenue Jane Kim will talk about the 5 mistakes all new sales leaders make. Knowing the common pitfalls won't stop you or your team from making them, but it will help build the most important skill any manager can have: resiliency. Come and learn how to build great leaders so you can grow your team, and ultimately, your business. Lees meer
Find the video and full transcript on our blog.
Sponsor message: With up to 20 times higher limits, up to 5 million dollars, and huge rewards like 2x back on recurring SaaS spend and 4x back on Brex Travel. The Brex corporate credit card is designed for startups, all with no personal guarantee. Sign up at brex.com and get card fees waived for life with code SaaStr19.
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SaaStr 303: What It Takes To Build Dev Communities and Early Developer Adoption, How To Structure Trials and Freemium For Optimum Success and The 4 Different Pricing Variables To Consider with Eugenio Pace, Founder & CEO @ Auth0
27 januari 2020 · 34 min
Eugenio Pace is the Founder & CEO @ Auth0, the startup that allows you to rapidly integrate authentication and authorization for web, mobile, and legacy applications so you can focus on your core business. To date, Eugenio has raised over $213m with Auth0 from some of the best in the business including Meritech, Sapphire, Manu Kumar @ K9, Bessemer and Trinity. Prior to founding Auth0, Eugenio spent an incredible 12 years at Microsoft leading the Program Management team in the patterns & practices group at Microsoft. Lees meer
In Today's Episode We Discuss:
How Eugenio made his way into the world of startups with the founding of Auth0? What were his biggest takeaways from 12 years watching the hyper-growth of Microsoft first hand?
How does being a developer-first product fundamentally change the go-to-market? Who has done this best over the last few years? What have they done that has allowed them to scale faster than others? What has been Eugenio's takeaways in what works when building developer communities and early developer adoption?
How does Eugenio respond to the common thinking that "devs don't have the budget"? Does this limit your ability to expand into large ACVs once in an organisation? How does Eugenio approach the issue of agency when selling to CIOs but having devs use the product?
What have been Eugenio's biggest lessons in what it takes to make a freemium product successful? How does one know how much of the secret sauce to giveaway? How does Eugenio approach pricing today through 4 different variables? How does Eugenio adopt a variable pricing mechanism that does not discourage usage?
Eugenio's 60 Second SaaStr:
Quality or quantity of logos in the early days?
What does Eugenio know now that he wishes he had known at the beginning of his time at Auth0?
What is the hardest element of his role today as CEO? What is he doing to really upscale there?
Read the transcript on our blog.
If you would like to find out more about the show and the guests presen…
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SaaStr 302: New Relic CCO Roger Scott on 7 Tips and Tricks to Having Happy Customers at Scale
23 januari 2020 · 26 min
Customer expectations are at an all-time high, making it more and more difficult for companies to please them. Companies who understand their customers well are the ones who rise to the top over their competitors. New Relic, provider of real-time insights for software-driven businesses has this formula figured out. Hear from Roger Scott, New Relic's EVP and Chief Customer Officer as he shares his 7 tips and tricks for keeping your customers happy— and how to do so at a large scale. Lees meer
Find the video and full transcript on our blog.
Sponsor message: With up to 20 times higher limits, up to 5 million dollars, and huge rewards like 2x back on recurring SaaS spend and 4x back on Brex Travel. The Brex corporate credit card is designed for startups, all with no personal guarantee. Sign up at brex.com and get card fees waived for life with code SaaStr19
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SaaStr 301: BigID's Founder Dimitri Sirota on Raising $105M In The Last 5 Months of 2019, How To Know When To Pour Fuel On The Fire & How Founders Should Think About Runway and If There Is Cash On The Table, Whether You Take It?
20 januari 2020 · 27 min
Dimitri Sirota is the Founder & CEO @ BigID, the startup that provides advanced data discovery and intelligence for the data centre and cloud. To date Dimitri has raised over $145M for BigID from some of the best in the world of enterprise including Boldstart, Scale Venture Partners, Bessemer, Salesforce Ventures and Tiger Global who just a couple of weeks ago, led their latest $50M Series C. Before to BigID, Dimitri founded 2 prior businesses, the first in 1999 being a VPN security company called eTunnels and then the second being Layer Technologies where Dimitri enjoyed an incredible 10 year journey leading to their acquisition by CA Technologies in 2013. Dimitri is also an angel investor with a portfolio including Zume Pizza, Modalyst and TalentClick. Lees meer
In Today's Episode We Discuss:
How Dimitri made his way into the world of enterprise software and came to found BigID as his third company?
What specifically would Dimitri advise founders when the interests of their investor are not aligned to theirs? What is the right way to manage that situation? Does Dimitri believe that founders should always be raising? Does Dimitri believe when the money is on the table, you should take it? What is the right way for founders to think about valuation?
What did the fundraising journey look like for BigID? What situation does every founder want to put themselves in? How does Dimitri think about runway and using fundraising for optionality? What does Dimitri make of the rise of pre-emptive rounds? How does Dimitri determine when is the right time to pour fuel on the fire?
Dimitri's 60 Second SaaStr:
What is his biggest strength and biggest weakness as a CEO?
Who was the first check in BigID? How did the check come about?
What does Dimitri believe that most around him disbelieve?
Read the transcript on our blog.
If you would like to find out more about the show and the guests presented, you can follow us on Twitter here:
Jason Lemkin
Harry Stebbings
SaaStr
Dimitri Si…
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SaaStr 300: Algolia CTO Julien Lemoine on a Founder's Guide to Scaling Applications: When to Build, When to Buy and What Breaks
16 januari 2020 · 25 min
When it comes to seamlessly scaling your applications, a top-notch engineering team will be your foundation. Next comes the decisions to build or buy your infrastructure, DNS, monitoring, and analytics tools. Julian Lemoine, Co-Founder, and CTO of Algolia will share his lessons learned on how to stay focused and innovative as you scale while also avoiding the innovation for innovation's sake pitfalls. Lees meer
Find the video and full transcript on our blog.
With up to 20 times higher limits, up to 5 million dollars, and huge rewards like 2x back on recurring SaaS spend and 4x back on Brex Travel. The Brex corporate credit card is designed for startups, all with no personal guarantee. Sign up at brex.com and get card fees waived for life with code SaaStr19
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SaaStr 299: Automation Anywhere CIO, Yousuf Khan on The Big Green and Red Flags When Pitching CIOs Today, How To Approach Pricing Discussions with CIOs & How to Make Procurement Processes Successful
13 januari 2020 · 34 min
Yousuf Khan is the Chief Information Officer @ Automation Anywhere, the only web-based and cloud-native RPA platform. To date, Automation Anywhere has raised over $840m in financing from Salesforce Ventures, Workday, General Atlantic and NEA to name a few. Prior to Automation Anywhere, Yousuf was the CIO & VP of Customer Success @ Moveworks. During his time at the company, they raised over $108m from Lightspeed, ICONIQ, Kleiner, Sapphire and Bain Capital. Before Moveworks, Yousuf was CIO @ Pure Storage during their period of hypergrowth both as a private and public company. Finally, before Pure, Yousuf's first role in the valley was with Qualys again as CIO where he owned the entire global IT budget. Lees meer
In Today's Episode We Discuss:
How Yousuf made his way from the UK to the valley and how that led to his becoming one of the leading CIOs today in the rising prominence of CIOs in enterprise?
What are the biggest green lights for CIOs when startups are pitching them? Why does Yousuf believe now more than ever, the buyer experience is more important than the price? What makes for the best buyer experience for the CIO? What are the biggest red flags CIOs see when startups are pitching them? What must startups always remember when pitching CIOs?
How does Yousuf advise CIOs to approach pricing strategy when pitching CIOs? What must startups remember about how CIOs think about price? What other elements of the contract should startups really spend a lot of time focusing on? Where do founders make mistakes in negotiation? What can they do to enforce a sense of urgency when signing new clients?
What can startups do to actively work with procurement teams and make the process as fast as possible? How does Yousuf advise founders to think about customised procurement requests to fit certain buyers? What do CIOs really want to see in the form of security and compliance? How can startups clearly and articulately present their plans for security, compliance and change manageme…
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SaaStr 298: Podium CEO Eric Rea on Scaling Outside Silicon Valley: Going from $0 to $60M ARR in 4 Years
9 januari 2020 · 24 min
Startup success is not exclusive to Silicon Valley. With more companies launching and thriving outside of Silicon Valley, regions such as 'Silicon Slopes' in Utah and 'Silicon Alley' in New York City are gaining traction within the startup scene. Podium, an interaction management platform for local businesses, was founded in Utah and grew from five employees in 2015 to more than 300 in 2019 to become one of the fastest-growing SaaS companies in the United States. In just four years, Podium has raised almost $100 million, with annual recurring revenue increasing to almost $60 million. Eric Rea, CEO of Podium, will share how he grew the company he launched from his spare bedroom into one of the fastest-growing SaaS companies in the country. Lees meer
Find the video and full transcript on our blog.
Sponsor message: With up to 20 times higher limits, up to 5 million dollars, and huge rewards like 2x back on recurring SaaS spend and 4x back on Brex Travel. The Brex corporate credit card is designed for startups, all with no personal guarantee. Sign up at brex.com and get card fees waived for life with code SaaStr19
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SaaStr 297: Why Channel Partnerships Can Be The Biggest Accelerant To Your Business, How To Hire for Channel Partnerships and The Biggest Mistakes SaaS Founders Make In The Early Days with Bob Moore, Founder & CEO @ Crossbeam
6 januari 2020 · 36 min
Bob Moore is the Founder & CEO @ Crossbeam, the startup that helps companies find overlapping prospects and customers while keeping the rest of their data private and secure. To date Bob has raised over $15m with Crossbeam from friends of the show including Andy @ Uncork, Matt @ Firstmark, Bill @ First Round and Matt @ Salesforce Ventures, to name a few. Prior to Crossbeam, Bob founded Stitched, a powerful ETL service built for developers that was acquired by Talend in 2018. Before that Bob co-founded RJ Metrics, where he built a global base of online retailers leading to their acquisition by Magento Commerce in 2016. Lees meer
In Today's Episode We Discuss:
How Bob made his way into the world of SaaS and came to found Crossbeam?
As an entrepreneur, Bob has previously said, "no one is coming to save you". What did he mean by this? What were the core mistakes that he made with RJ Metrics? Is it the responsibility of the board to course correct at this early stage? How does Bob determine whether to be visionary and determined vs realising when something is not working?
Does Bob agree with the notion that channel sales have completely died in the world of SaaS? Why is this? What are the drivers of it's death? How important is it to own the entire customer journey? At what scale does that become impossible? In terms of replacement, what does Bob believe will be the emerging trends in SaaS Go To Market that will replace it?
How does Bob think about when is the right time to hire a Head of Partnerships? In the early days, partnerships can be a distraction, how does Bob determine between right and wrong when determining whether to engage in a partnership? Where do most startups go wrong both in hiring for partnerships and in the engagements themselves?
Bob's 60 Second SaaStr:
What is the hardest element of Bob's role with Crossbeam today?
What does Bob believe that most around him disbelieve?
What does Bob know now that he wishes he had known at the beginning?
Read the tr…
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SaaStr 296: Cloudflare Head of Products Jen Taylor on 5 Steps to Launching a Product
2 januari 2020 · 16 min
The vision of exceeding sales, establishing credibility and successfully launching a product is no small task, especially when striving for that perfect introduction into the world of consumers. With so many articles, investors, and outside opinions, the true, simple tasks of launching can get lost in the noise. In this session, Jen Taylor, Head of Products at Cloudflare, will share her expertise and teach you to forget the noise, stick to the basics, and use 5 easy steps to turn that idea into a reality. Lees meer
Find the video and full transcript on our blog.
Sponsor message: With up to 20 times higher limits, up to 5 million dollars, and huge rewards like 2x back on recurring SaaS spend and 4x back on Brex Travel. The Brex corporate credit card is designed for startups, all with no personal guarantee. Sign up at brex.com and get card fees waived for life with code SaaStr19
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SaaStr 295: Most Downloaded VC Episode of 2019 with Tom Tunguz, General Partner @ Redpoint Ventures
30 december 2019 · 35 min
This interview originally aired as Episode 213 on February 26, 2019. Lees meer
Tom Tunguz is General Partner @ Redpoint Ventures, the venture fund with a portfolio including the likes of Stripe, Netflix, Zuora, Hashicorp and Juniper Networks just to name a few. As for Tom, he joined Redpoint in 2008 and has since led investments in Kustomer, Looker, Expensify and Gremlin all prior guests on the show I hasten to add. He is also the co-author of Winning with Data: exploring the cultural changes big data brings to business. Tom has also been named on the Forbes Midas Brink list. Before joining Redpoint, Tomasz was the product manager for Google's AdSense social-media products and AdSense internationalization.
In Today's Episode We Discuss:
How Tom made his way from creating software with his father in Brazil to being GP and forefront figure in the SaaS investment community as a GP at Redpoint today?
Annual contracts: To what extent do annual contracts dominate today? How does this differ when comparing enterprise to SMB? Why does Tom think in the early days one should be wary of signing too many multi-year contracts? What are the dangers there? How does Tom think about calculating churn when it comes to multi-year contracts?
What were the findings on what good looks like when it comes to logo retention? How does this differ when comparing SMB to enterprise? What were the commonalities of leading indicators of churn? Is it fair to always surmise that when serving SMB one will always have a higher rate of churn? What is the right way to conduct a churn analysis?
Assisted vs unassisted: What does Tom believe are the leading benchmarks for both? How does this differ when comparing SMB to enterprise? How does the impact of a salesperson change the conversion rate? What time frame from SAL to closed lead suggests product market fit? What one question must all founders be asking in the sales process?
How does Tom think about constructing comp plans the right way today? How shou…
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SaaStr 294: Egnyte CCO Rajesh Ram on Land, Expand, Explode: How to Win the Long-Game in SaaS
26 december 2019 · 24 min
The SaaS business model has risen to popularity for many reasons - it's fast-paced, creates residual revenue streams, and well, the multiples are strong. However, while many are flocking to reap the benefits of the SaaS model, truly understanding how it works sustaining success over time is not as easy as some make it look. Rajesh is going to walk you through the key elements of winning the long game in SaaS - how to win customers, how to create long-term relationships, and how to avoid churn. He will also provide insights on the differences between commercial and enterprise customers and the key metrics to keep an eye on as you grow your business. Lees meer
Find the video and full transcript on our blog.
Sponsor message: With up to 20 times higher limits, up to 5 million dollars, and huge rewards like 2x back on recurring SaaS spend and 4x back on Brex Travel. The Brex corporate credit card is designed for startups, all with no personal guarantee. Sign up at brex.com and get card fees waived for life with code SaaStr19