Welcome to another exciting episode of The SaaS CFO Podcast! In this episode, we are thrilled to have Roee Barak, founder, and CEO of Upward AI, as our guest. Roee, based in Tel Aviv, shares his fascinating career journey that took him from law school to the tech industry. With nearly a decade of experience in various business roles, including business development, sales, and marketing, Roee decided to launch his dream venture, Upward, to revolutionize AI-powered research and productivity tools. 

Join us as we dive deep into Roee’s story, exploring the genesis of Upward and the innovative solutions it offers for high-stakes research in various industries. Roee provides a detailed walkthrough of how Upward helps users perform significant research, from defining objectives to gathering and synthesizing data, all the way to creating comprehensive reports and presentations. We also discuss Upward’s go-to-market strategy, initial success on Product Hunt, and its impressive growth to over 1,000 paying subscribers in its first year. 

Lastly, Roee shares valuable insights on fundraising, team building, and the challenges of staying ahead in the fast-evolving AI landscape. Hear firsthand how Upward plans to transition from a single-user focus to a collaborative platform, aiming to bring substantial productivity gains to teams and enterprises. This episode is packed with lessons and inspiration for aspiring founders and SaaS enthusiasts. Don’t miss it! 

Show Notes:  

00:00 Need for a knowledge tool and productivity. 

05:24 Content sourcing, research hub, notepad for outcomes. 

06:56 Focused on end-user research tool before organizations. 

11:33 Co-founders' AI journey: from skepticism to mainstream. 

15:10 Key metric: New research projects from customers' usage. 

16:46 Upward transitioning to collaborative research platform development. 

Links: 

SaaS Fundraising Stories: https://www.thesaasnews.com/news/upword-raises-3-million-in-pre-seed-round 

Roee Barak’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/roee-barak-20882887/ 

Upword AI’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/upwordai/ 

Upword AI’s Website: https://www.upword.ai/ 

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