Episodes
A company is essentially two things: a group of people and a collection of decisions. How those people make these decisions is the art of running a business (37signals). We make decisions every single day, it’s what often dictates the direction of a business. Some decisions work out and some don’t. Some are quick to make and some tough to call. You’ll never be able to consider every single piece of data, analysis or consequence when making a decision - sometimes a decision has to be made from...
Published 05/30/24
In this episode of the SaaS Revolution Show our host Alex Theuma is joined by Aytekin Tank, CEO of Jotform, as he shares how he bootstrapped a unicorn SaaS with teams of no more than six people.
"One interesting number I can give is, like, we always had this 50% revenue growth rate and we still have that. That's very interesting. Actually, if we didn't develop the enterprise version, we would actually lose that - we would probably drop down to like 30%. But then the enterprise came to help,...
Published 05/23/24
In this episode of the SaaS Revolution Show our host Alex Theuma is joined live at SaaStock USA 2024 by Kyle Hanslovan, co-founder & CEO at Huntress.
"That nuance of finding the green field, the niche, is probably the single biggest differentiator that will help you escape and go, you know, you can sell to finds at one million or make five million in revenue, but to escape ten you have to have a process and you have to have a real market that is differentiated and that niche will get...
Published 05/16/24
In this episode of the SaaS Revolution Show our host Alex Theuma is joined by Jake Dunlap, CEO of Skaled, who shares the innovations in sales required to hit your goals.
"Relevancy cuts through the noise. That is the only way to be successful - that is it, it is singular. If your team and your organisation cannot send relevant messages, whether it's via video, whether it's via LinkedIn, voice-note, whether it's email or call, you will not generate meetings. So that's where the human comes...
Published 05/09/24
In this episode of the SaaS Revolution Show our host Alex Theuma is joined by Adam Robinson, founder & CEO of Retention.com, who shares his lessons from when a bootstrapper tries to grow like a venture backed company.
"The word bootstrap mostly describes 'okay, I got it to 3 million, it's making a million and a half bucks. I don't have a lot of employees, I don't have a lot of problems, this is great'. The problem is like, most of those companies are actually just slowly dying. But what...
Published 05/02/24
In this episode of the SaaS Revolution Show our host Alex Theuma is joined by David Klein, Co-founder and Managing Partner at One Peak, who shares his insights on how the SaaS and investing market is changing.
"1% increase in growth, the impact on valuation is the same as a 3% increase in profitability- even today. So growth is just valued at three times profitability, even today. And that number was about 12x in November 2021, so at the height of the bull market. So growth is, in our mind,...
Published 04/25/24
In this episode of the SaaS Revolution Show our host Alex Theuma is joined by Ev Kontsevoy, CEO of Teleport, as he shares how to decide which baby to kill...
"We never make obviously bad decisions. Every single decision seems rational in the moment. But there is like a certain trend - and the one thing that keeps biting me is ignoring complexity for too long. Eventually I self correct, and I just realised 'hey, the business is getting more complicated, the product is getting more...
Published 04/18/24
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 -...
Published 04/04/24
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...
Published 03/28/24
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...
Published 03/21/24
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...
Published 03/14/24
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 -...
Published 03/07/24
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,...
Published 02/29/24
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...
Published 02/22/24
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...
Published 02/15/24
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...
Published 02/08/24
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!
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Published 02/01/24
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,...
Published 01/25/24
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!
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Check out the other ways SaaStock is...
Published 01/18/24
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...
Published 01/11/24
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...
Published 01/04/24
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...
Published 12/28/23
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...
Published 12/21/23
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...
Published 12/14/23
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...
Published 12/07/23