Episode Summary: In this episode of SaaS Origin Stories, Phil speaks with Jon Darbyshire, CEO of SmartSuite, a platform that helps coordinate workflow across all levels of an organization to ensure that team members have the information they need to accomplish their best work. Previously, he was the Executive Chairman at The Archer Foundation. He is also the Founder and the previous CEO of Archer Integrated Risk Management. They dive head first into how long it can take to build a SaaS product, why SmartSuite chose to have no paid marketing, why you need to keep a transparent and trusting relationship with your customers, and the importance of building a community within a SaaS business. Jon also talks about his unique and fortunate journey into building SmartSuite, delving into why it needed to be perfect before even announcing it. Guest at a Glance: Name: Jon Darbyshire About Jon: Jon Darbyshire is the CEO of SmartSuite, a platform that helps coordinate workflow across all levels of an organization to ensure that team members have the information they need to accomplish their best work. Previously, he was the Executive Chairman at The Archer Foundation. He is also the Founder and the previous CEO of Archer Integrated Risk Management. A previous colleague at Archer described him as “Visionary, disciplined, focused, family, mentor. These are terms that come to mind when I reflect on my time working for Jon at Archer.” Jon on LinkedIn SmartSuite on LinkedIn SmartSuite’s Website Topics we cover: How SmartSuite helps businesses run their workload The long, drawn-out time frame of building a SaaS product Why SmartSuite chose to have no paid marketing Building a SaaS community  The importance of transparency with your customers Managing workload The democratic process for SmartSuite features Taking accountability for bad decisions Key Takeaways: Rome Wasn’t Built in a Day  Any sort of product or service, especially in SaaS, will take an incredibly long time to build and polish. Jon acknowledges this, claiming that SmartSuite took about two years to complete, even with the help of a hundred different developers. But don’t let this long, drawn-out time frame discourage you from your craft. Afterall, Rome wasn’t built in a day; in fact, most disruptive and revolutionary creations weren’t. “We did something that was quite unique: we hired about a hundred developers, and we spent the next two years building the core platform before we made any announcements about what the company would do [...] I was in a unique position in that I had the funding personally to be able to build the company without needing to raise any capital.”  The Power of Just a Few LinkedIn Posts When Jon first released SmartSuite into the world, he chose not to do any sort of paid marketing. Instead, he opted to make just a few LinkedIn posts to get people talking. As they gained traction and a few customers came in, they were able to engage with them more and find out what worked for them. Now, much larger companies are coming in, proving that you don’t always need to rely on paid marketing for the success of your platform. That being said, Jon admits that they will indulge in paid marketing and invest in  a marketing team eventually, but right now they have no use for it. “We kinda went into a beta programme, but we didn’t announce that. The only thing we did was we turned on our website. We have no paid marketing—even to this point—we just made some announcements on LinkedIn. And our first customer came in, a single user in the Northeast, and that’s how it all started.” Community: A Core Part of the SaaS DNA A core part of SaaS DNA is community. Jon talks about how, at SmartSuite, this is definitely put into consideration. With so many people working to make a product great, it’s important that there is a sense of community where employees feel as though they can share ideas with each other without being judge