When I built my company Clarity.fm, I remember staying up until 3AM designing how this software would work. But I’m not a designer. So I used an awesome wireframing tool called Balsamiq. It was a dream to use. In no time at all, I had a working prototype for my SaaS, the same one that was later successfully acquired by Fundable. I love Balsamiq. And I recommend it to all “graphically challenged” software founders. So it’s a huge pleasure to be interviewing Peldi Guilizzoni, the founder of Balsamiq, on this week’s episode of Escape Velocity. Not only has his tool been a launchpad for so many businesses… but Balsamiq is a SaaS of its own, with a fascinating growth journey to tell. The ultimate plot-twist in this interview is that Peldi never wanted to grow!  I’m not kidding. He wanted to stay as a solopreneur with a simple software tool and resisted growth as much as he could. But his software was just too good and he’s now he’s doing over $6M+ in yearly sales. It was going to take off whether he liked it or not… so, he reluctantly learned to ride the wave. In this episode, he talks about: Doing everything alone for 6 months The day he reluctantly hired someone How he still suffers from imposter syndrome (don’t we all?) The year that 5 competitors appeared How Balsamiq remains untouched by Adobe XD This is a humbling, insightful and fascinating story of how one of the most praised UX wireframing tools just took off. It’s a powerful lesson in personal growth. Or as Peldi describes it, “It was like being strapped to a rocket and trying to steer it”. Tune in here for this refreshing interview. And let me know in the comments if you enjoyed the chat as much as I did! -- Dan Martell has advised more startups than his hometown has people and teaches startup founders like you how to scale. He previously created, raised venture funding for and successfully exited two tech startups: Flowtown and Clarity.fm. You should follow him on twitter @danmartell for tweets that are actually awesome. + Instagram (behind the scenes): http://instagram.com/danmartell + Facebook (live trainings + Q&A): http://FB.com/DanMartell + Twitter (what I'm reading): http://twitter.com/danmartell

Investors WANT to spend their money. Yes, they actually want to write big, big cheques. For years, I believed that the stories of successful SaaS businesses that attracted massive investments were just myths. Unicorns. Until 3 things happened: 1. I sold my first company (then did it two more times) 2. I became an investor in over 40 businesses. 3. I met experts who specialize in SaaS selling One thing became crystal clear to me.  Businesses get bought and sold all the time! The secret sauce is knowing what investors/buyers are looking for, and why. So let me introduce you to an expert. Thomas Smale is the founder of FE International… and he has a 94.1% success rate for selling businesses. Want to debunk those myths? Tune in to this week’s episode of Escape Velocity where I interview Thomas and you’ll get the juicy truths about buying and selling a SaaS. Thomas’ company is responsible for literally trillions of dollars worth of sales. In this ep, we discuss: - How FE International approach sales - The truth behind valuation ← You need to hear this! - Two baseline stats for explosive sales - How your pricing model is the Number 1 sign of growth - What buyers look for when acquiring a business This whole interview is a goldmine. But the best gold nugget is at minute 30 when I asked him: “Thomas, imagine that we are starting a new SaaS company – the best SaaS company. What needs to be true? What are the characteristics of this business?” Boom. Those answers are everything you need to correct in your business now! Check it out, and drop me a comment below. -- Dan Martell has advised more startups than his hometown has people and teaches startup founders like you how to scale. He previously created, raised venture funding for and successfully exited two tech startups: Flowtown and Clarity.fm. You should follow him on twitter @danmartell for tweets that are actually awesome. + Instagram (behind the scenes): http://instagram.com/danmartell + Facebook (live trainings + Q&A): http://FB.com/DanMartell + Twitter (what I'm reading): http://twitter.com/danmartell

Are you competing on business models? You could be. Check out this quote: “Technology or not, every organization has a business model. Some are conscious of it. Some are not. Some try to change it. Some don’t.” “Some just compete on products… whereas they could compete on superior business models.” That’s Alex Osterwalder, founder of Strategyzer and my latest guest on the Escape Velocity podcast. Alex literally has a PHD in Business Models. But he’s transitioned from academia to actually helping businesses. Now he’s most famous for: 1. The Business Model Canvas – a strategy board used by over 5 million people worldwide. 2. Business Model Generation: Handbook – read by 1 million+ people. 3. Helping businesses innovate and compete on business model in their markets. He’s the best in the field. Which is why you just have to tune in to this weeks’ Escape Velocity episode. You’ll get your mind blown! Alex is extremely articulate. Tune in and you’re going to learn: - How simplification = power - Why it’s not good enough to ignore innovation - How to be an ambidextrous organization - The 250 : 1 outlier ratio - Betting smart on success - Why it’s 100% important to fail - The 4 major risk categories ← (you need to know these) I’m telling you… it’s impossible to listen to this episode and think “I didn’t learn anything that applies to my business”. Impossible! Do yourself a favor, and check out the video here or tune in for the audio version below. -- Dan Martell has advised more startups than his hometown has people and teaches startup founders like you how to scale. He previously created, raised venture funding for and successfully exited two tech startups: Flowtown and Clarity.fm. You should follow him on twitter @danmartell for tweets that are actually awesome. + Instagram (behind the scenes): http://instagram.com/danmartell + Facebook (live trainings + Q&A): http://FB.com/DanMartell + Twitter (what I'm reading): http://twitter.com/danmartell

Reality Check: Success isn’t about driving Ferraris and sipping champagne from a private jet… It’s about how you handle problems. No matter how many customers you get, how much profit you make… you will always have problems. Money might buy you a bigger team and more talented employees, but then you’ve got the problem of actually knowing your team!  How do you keep your finger on the pulse in your own company?  That is one of the biggest problems that SaaS founders encounter when they start to scale. Growing pains.  Losing touch. Well, in this week’s episode of Escape Velocity, I sat down to interview someone who has solved this exact problem for lots of businesses: Claire Lew. Claire is the CEO of Know Your Team. They build software that saves a manager from becoming a bad boss. One minor improvement in team communication can have an exponential effect on productivity, output and growth business-wide. It’s such a significant problem that Claire now works with managers from DropBox, Mailchimp, AirBnb, and more…  …working with over 15,000 people in 25 countries …and yet her own business is just 4 people! Claire is infinitely intelligent, full of great stories, and in this episode you’ll learn: - Why her boss made her quit - How she started with one-on-one consulting - Her first customer (Jason from Basecamp!) - Becoming a CEO at 24 years old - Being profitable from month one - The 3 biggest things most CEOs don’t know about their team - Nailing the right pricing - Rebuilding your own product I love Claire’s story because it maps out the time-tested steps to growth. She had a problem (she hated her boss), she wanted to solve this problem (developed a way to provide feedback), she began helping people 1-on-1 (idea validation), then she scaled into a SaaS. Starting a great business is not rocket science.  Sometimes simplicity is the key. Get your headphones in, queue up the episode right here, and don’t forget to leave a comment. I love getting the conversation going! -- Dan Martell has advised more startups than his hometown has people and teaches startup founders like you how to scale. He previously created, raised venture funding for and successfully exited two tech startups: Flowtown and Clarity.fm. You should follow him on twitter @danmartell for tweets that are actually awesome. + Instagram (behind the scenes): http://instagram.com/danmartell + Facebook (live trainings + Q&A): http://FB.com/DanMartell + Twitter (what I'm reading): http://twitter.com/danmartell

If you have a B2B business that negotiates deals directly with your customers, then I’ll bet you’ve got headaches to do with money. Sales call followed by proposals…  Rejected and then renegotiated… All hoping that in the end, you can close a big deal that really moves the needle.  Only to realize that getting the customer is just half of the battle!  Each deal is different to the last, and you’ve got to figure out how to bill them correctly, track their accounts, and report it to investors and accountants. It gives me a headache just thinking about it! But not for Tim McCormick.  Tim is the CEO of SaaSOptics, and they specialize in helping SaaS businesses manage their sales when nearly every deal is unique.  What’s great about Tim is that his company is a SaaS… but so are his customers! That gives him a very unique view of the market. So, I sat down with Tim and chatted about what’s going on with trends in the software companies, and how a B2B SaaS can get ahead today. Check it out: In this week’s episode of Escape Velocity, Tim and I chat about: - How he started as the 8th employee and now leads 80 - Raising capital for a growing SaaS - Why they tie their price to their customer’s revenue - Old school offices vs Remote teams - Being honest about your weaknesses (

“If only we had money, we could…” It’s a story I’ve heard a thousand times. Startups heaving a sigh, wishing they had investors to fund the awkward early stages. Scraping to get your software in shape… Working 60+ hour weeks… Can’t afford to hire people so you’re wearing every hat for every department… But the dark side of receiving VC funding is that you lose a massive slice of your company. It can be VERY expensive. The equity you give away just for some upfront money could be worth millions in a few years time, but you’re too desperate to know that now. BJ Lackland has a different approach. He’s the CEO of Lighter Capital, a funding company that supports tech entrepreneurs without them giving up equity, board seats or personal guarantees. In the 7 years BJ spent at the helm, they funded 365 companies… with 630 rounds of financing… deploying a total of $168 million. So, if this guy is a master at spotting a startup worth investing in, don’t you want to hear what he has to say? You can.  For this week’s episode of Escape Velocity, I sat down with BJ and we talked all about funding, financing, and loans for startups. In our interview, BJ opens up about: - What revenue-based financing actually is - How Lighter Capital does the math on a loan - What’s changed in SaaS financing  - Why equity funding could be your biggest mistake - Light Capital’s software for processing deals - What red flags BJ always looks out for (

Back when SaaS was still a new word (circa 2006), Jon Miller started Marketo, a software product that gave businesses an end-to-end view of their customer’s journey. The technology was revolutionary. No longer was a marketing team just collecting leads to give to the sales team…  …but businesses were able to track and optimize every touchpoint. From ads, to website visitor, to sale, to upsell, to retention and residual profits. Marketo’s goal was to offer enterprise power at an affordable price to smaller marketing teams and unify a company’s view of their customers. In 2013 they had their first IPO. In 2016, they sold to Vista for $1.8 Billion. In 2018, Vista sold Marketo to Adobe for $4.75 Billion. And in this week’s episode of Escape Velocity, I got to sit down with Jon Miller and talk all about his revolutionary view on Marketing that grew his SaaS to a billion-dollar company in just 12 years… … and he’s doing it again with Engagio.com This interview is just loaded with “Aha!” moments. Jon is a fountain of marketing wisdom, and he shares: - The story of Marketo’s first failure - Lead scoring and the bigger picture of customer behavior - Why growth is about adding new revenue engines - The necessity of innovation for scale - How marketers can lose sight of real revenue - Where most SaaS profits really come from - Why the best marketing happens after a sale (

Want to learn what it’s like to compete against Amazon and win? I first met Tobi the Co-founder & CEO of Shopify.com 10 years ago in San Francisco while they were fundraising for their series A… … most investors said “No”. (We dig into this during my interview… specifically, what those investors missed!) Fast forward to today and they have more than 1M businesses paying them every month, from over 175 countries with total gross merchandise volume exceeding $50 BILLION. Many consider them the ONLY company actually competing against Amazon and winning. But how did they do it? How did they build their team, manage their product development or grow as a team to be the company they are today and making Tobi a Billionaire?  That was actually my first question to him “What’s changed now that you’re a Billionaire?” 🙂 As a technical founder growing up I actually used a framework called ActiveMerchant (that Tobi built) to accept credit cards within my Ruby on Rails application… … so our connection goes way back even before we ever met in person. Our technical background and systems thinking approach is what makes this interview completely different from anything you’ve heard before. Watch to learn how Tobi used this unique approach to scale a HUGE company in a non-traditional tech city like Ottawa, Canada (and those benefits). During this conversation, you’ll learn: - The dramatically different way Tobi looks at exponential growth - How to get your culture fit right for growth - The advantages of starting off as a programmer - The power of neurodiversity - The single question loop that drives their strategic growth - How to increase developer throughput - Why you need to disagree with the general consensus to build innovation - And sooo much more. One of my favourite conversations was deconstructing Tobi’s view on talent acceleration. It’s something I discovered in the early days when I was visiting their office and found out they had an internal executive coach who worked with several of their exec leadership team. This was years before having a coach was “cool” (it still may not be :). Today that coaching team is 50+ people. The core belief Tobi has that drove that decision is that if your business is growing by % – call it 50% – then you need to develop your team’s abilities by 50% on an annual basis!?! Are you growing your team at the same rate you’re growing? Probably not. He also believes that everyone needs to requalify for their role every year – including him. Watch or listen to this interview and leave a comment letting me know what your biggest insight from our conversation was. Can’t wait to hear your feedback! Enjoy. -- Dan Martell has advised more startups than his hometown has people and teaches startup founders like you how to scale. He previously created, raised venture funding for and successfully exited two tech startups: Flowtown and Clarity.fm. You should follow him on twitter @danmartell for tweets that are actually awesome. + Instagram (behind the scenes): http://instagram.com/danmartell + Facebook (live trainings + Q&A): http://FB.com/DanMartell + Twitter (what I'm reading): http://twitter.com/danmartell

“How do you maximize your revenue?”  It’s the question that everyone wishes there was an easy answer too. No, I don’t mean that as a thought-provoking chin-stroking question to ponder from the armchair.  I mean how do you actually do it? How do big businesses know the right steps – backed with data – that are going to blast them to their revenue goals and beyond? Answer: By focusing on RevOps. RevOps, or ‘Revenue Optimization’, is a new field of expertise where consultants reference multiple data-points from big businesses to map out where your company should focus their time and attention. It’s about scaling your earnings based on a strategy custom-made for your business. And in this week’s episode of Escape Velocity, I interview Jason Reichl, the co-founder of Go Nimbly, a revops consultancy firm. Hearing how a revops consultant thinks is going to blow your mind wide open. Check it out. This interview is chunky. It’s an hour-long, and we get stuck into challenging topics including: - Vital metrics that you need to measure - Using industry benchmarks to rate your growth - Predicting the mind of a customer reaching out (

I can’t believe this… One of the guys on my marketing team told me he Googled my name and you know what came up as a suggested search term? “Dan Martell Wife”. Google only suggests popular searches, so… Does that mean people are Googling who my wife is?! Oh man that makes me laugh. I’ve got a better idea — How about you meet her? In this episode of Escape Velocity, I’m chatting with my beautiful wife and partner in crime, Renee Warren. Not only is Renee an unlimited source of inspiration in my life, but she runs her own business, FamilyAcademy.co She works with female entrepreneurs to help them gain more freedom in their lives by teaching them how to have a better relationship with their partner and their kids. I’ve worked with so many stressed-out SaaS founders who struggle to balance a relationship with the demands of their business. So in my eyes, Renee’s work is serving a huge mission that’s needed in todays overworked entrepreneurial culture. Check out this latest episode where you’ll learn more about what I’m like to live with, and about balancing a relationship with your entrepreneurial drive. It’s unfair to call this an interview since I gave Renee free reign to speak her mind. But in this episode, you’ll hear us chat about: - Work Life Balance (here’s a micro-doc we did on the topic) - Relentlessly pursuing ambition when you’re in a relationship - Creating 5-year plans individually from your partner - How to balance priorities by doing Quarterly Retreats - Our weekly Martell Clan meetings - How to help your partner when they don’t want your help - Relationship resistance - Making sure your kids aren’t entitled when they grow up - Why we’re sending our kids to public school Oh and just because I’m married to a woman that helps entrepreneurs have great relationships, that doesn’t mean we’re perfect by any means. I’ll be the first to admit that living with an entrepreneur is demanding. We fight. We have our struggles. But what we have is a support group and structure that keeps us on track and investing in our relationship. In fact, in this episode, she jokes that she should write a book about what it’s like to live with me. Her title? “Living with Chaos”. This was a fun episode, but I think as a SaaS founder, you’ll really find it valuable too. If you’re in a relationship, then giving it the love and care it deserves will impact the energy you can bring to your business too. Tune in here to watch the latest episode or get it on iTunes here. -- Dan Martell has advised more startups than his hometown has people and teaches startup founders like you how to scale. He previously created, raised venture funding for and successfully exited two tech startups: Flowtown and Clarity.fm. You should follow him on twitter @danmartell for tweets that are actually awesome. + Instagram (behind the scenes): http://instagram.com/danmartell + Facebook (live trainings + Q&A): http://FB.com/DanMartell + Twitter (what I'm reading): http://twitter.com/danmartell