SaaShimi

Chris discusses account-based marketing and shares stories about building Supplybase, Demandbase, and Channel99.

BIO

Christopher Golec is a seasoned entrepreneur with a record of fostering innovation and leading successful start-ups. Golec’s journey spans from his early days as a chemical engineer to becoming a key figure in the world of MarTech, with his co-founding of Demandbase, a pioneering B2B marketing platform, serving as a remarkable testament to his visionary leadership. His current venture, Channel99, has attracted funding from top-tier investors like GTMfund, Norwest Venture Partners, Jackson Square Ventures, and Bloomberg Beta.

TIMESTAMPS

01:10 Account-based marketing

03:10 Path to Software

04:25 Supplybase

06:30 Demandbase 

12:20 Demandbase’s GTM 

17:30 Channel99 at work

24:00 First Hires

27:20 Lessons from building companies 

30:10 Company culture

32:25 Favorite stage in a company’s lifecycle 

34:15 The future of Channel99

34545 Tech Stack

Gary shares his experience turning around distressed software companies.

BIO

Gary has over thirty years of technology experience and has served in various senior executive capacities across the industry. He was most recently the CEO of Sectigo where he helped to turn the company around. Over his career, Gary had run six companies and served no more than 20 boards.

TIMESTAMPS

01:10 Gary

01:50 Main causes for distress in Software companies

05:10 Why can’t CEOs apply the simple strategy

06:35 Selecting turnaround targets

09:00 Step-by-Step turnaround

13:10 Picking right people

16:15 Dealing with a cash burn 

20:45 KPIs Gary tracks

24:00 Selling software of a struggling company

27:55 Changing cultures

29:30 Case study

Andrew discusses all things Marketing.

BIO

Andrew Davies is the CMO of Paddle, a payments infrastructure platform for high-growth SaaS companies serving over 3000 customers. He has more than 20 years of experience in start-ups ranging from leading global demand, advisory and consultancy.

TIMESTAMPS

01:55 The role of CMO

03:30 What’s Paddle?

08:05 Paddle’s GTM

11:05 Structure of the Marketing Team

13:40 Marketing’s Contribution to Pipeline

16:10 Budgeting process for volume-based pricing

19:20 Marketing over the past several years

23:00 KPI of the Marketing Team

24:25 Building a Marketing team for startups

30:30 Learning from Companies he advises to

32:00 Accidental Marketer

33:55 Andrew's Tech stack

Nick discusses early days of Gainsight and how they were able to build a new product category - Customer Success - that since has become inseparable from SaaS.

BIO

Nick Mehta has been Chief Executive Officer of Gainsight, a leading customer success SaaS platform provider since February 2013. Prior to Gainsight, he served as Chief Executive Officer of LiveOffice, which was acquired by Symantec in January 2012. Before joining LiveOffice, Mr. Mehta served in several product management and engineering leadership roles at Symantec.

TIMESTAMPS

01:10 The Song

01:45 Jbarra

04:00 The Rise of Customer Success

08:20 CSM Role: Then and Now

11:00 The Book as Marketing

13:50 The 10 Laws of Customer Success 

15:25 Gainsight’s Customer Success Structure

20:00 How has Reduction in Force affected CS

21:00 Expansion of CS beyond Software

24:20 AI vs CSM jobs 

26:35 Hiring your First CS Person

30:55 Types of Software that Doesn’t Need Customer Success

33:30 Future of Customer Success

Rob discusses the benefits and typical terms of Venture debt.

BIO

Rob is the managing director SaaS Capital, a financial institute that offers debt-based growth financing as alternative, non-dilutive capital for SaaS companies.

Prior to SaaS Capital Rob held senior executive roles at Lighter Capital, an alternative lender to small technology companies.

TIMESTAMPS

01:00 Rob and SaaS Capital

05:30 Recurring Revenue Lending Model

13:55 Retention as part of covenants

16:20 Borrowers’ Diligence items 

22:30 Benefits of the Venture Debt

26:55 Venture Debt market over time

29:55 Challenges to grow SaaS companies

32:35 SaaS Capital’s GTM

Tracy discusses changes in marketing over the past several years and the first things she did after joining OpenSesame as CMO.

BIO

Tracy Eiler has driven marketing strategy for companies with a variety of revenue models including freemium, high velocity/small business, mid-market, enterprise, and OEM. She has start-up, public company, and M&A experience, and has marketed to line-of-business executives, end users, IT, and C-suite.

Over her career, Tracy also held CMO positions at Alation, InsideView, MarkLogic, and senior marketing roles at Ingres (now Actian), Postini (acq. by Google), and Business Objects (SAP company).

TIMESTAMPS

01:15 Making changes after joining a new company as a CMO

04:35 Evaluating Marketing strategies from the outside

09:35 Measuring contents’ ROI 

12:15 What is OpenSesame?

19:35 Go-to-Market Strategy, and Role of Partnerships

24:25 Building a Pipeline

29:25 KPIs to measure Product Marketing 

38:50 Changes in SaaS marketing over the years

42:40 ChatGPT and AI in Marketing

Pablo discusses the role of operating partners, sales orgs, and his book What a Unicorn Knows.

BIO

Pablo Dominguez focuses on partnering with Insight’ Partners' portfolio companies to build and scale effective commercial teams through the application of proven and repeatable go-to-market and operational best practices. He brings over 20 years of experience working on Salesforce effectiveness engagements across startups and various global 2000 companies.

Prior to joining Insight, Pablo was the Vice President of Global Business Operations and Customer Experience at NYC-based startup AppNexus. AppNexus is a leading independent ad tech company which was acquired by Xandr (division of AT&T) in 2018 for approximately $2B. Pablo joined AppNexus in 2014 and was responsible for building a Business Operations organization which provided support for Sales, Services, Marketing, and Product Line teams as well as driving annual strategic planning and key initiatives across AppNexus.

TIMESTAMPS

01:15 Intro

06:05 Main issues Pablo sees post-acquisition

07:55 Dynamics between Operating Partners and Management

09:45 Go-to-Market Fit

12:15 KPIs based on the company stage

13:15 Coming up with a quota

18:35 Failures: Leadership or Talent fault?

22:55 Industry Changes over the past 5 years

25:15 Sales Teams Going Through Layoffs

28:00 Product disruption

29:15 What a Unicorn Knows

31:15 Strategic Speed

33:55 Pablo’s tech stack

Craig discusses the stages SaaS companies go through on their way to $150M in revenue.

BIO

Craig Powell serves as the CEO of Autura, the leading SaaS solution focused on vehicle management, traffic flow, and law enforcement productivity. He is the former CEO of Motus, a PE-backed SaaS company focused on mobile workforce solutions. At Motus, Craig drove revenue from $7 million to $150 million and executed several acquisitions, including the nine-month integration of $62 million of revenue into the Motus platform. 

Additionally, Craig was the Founder and CEO of ConnectEDU, market leader in providing technology solutions for students seeking educational and career-oriented opportunities. 

TIMESTAMPS

01:20 Craig Powell

03:30 Growing Motus from $7M to $150M

06:30 Why do founders get stuck?

10:00 Founders thinking 

16:40 Phases of Growth: 10-25MM Revenue

21:40 $25MM+  20:50 Selling software is not a mystery

27:30 Autura

31:40 Metrics

34:20 Team structure

37:20 KPIs

38:10 Joining as CEO 

Matt discusses M&A the environment, SaaS valuation and its drivers, and what buyers and sellers of software companies need to know.

BIO

Matt Lynch is a Managing Director of District Capital Partners and Sundance Partners. Prior to founding DCP, Matt led Corporate Development at Blackboard, where he managed the successful completion and integration of 9 acquisitions, as well as Blackboard's sale process and $1.7 billion take-private transaction in 2011.

Matt began his career at Salomon Smith Barney (now Citi), advising on M&A transactions in the technology sector, with a specific focus on software. Over the course of his 11 years at Citi, Matt advised on over $300 billion of M&A transactions.

TIMESTAMPS

01:30 Matt Lynch

05:50 Market Environment 

08:20 Valuations in 2021 

11:40 Main Drivers of Valuation

14:10 Rule Of X

16:50 Customer Success and Gross Margin

20:20 Shift to Platforms

22:20 Consolidating verticals 

26:20 Preferred verticals

29:35 Working with Sellers

31:20 Size of Companies that hire Investment banks 

34:50 Most common issues with Bootstrapped companies

36:00 Strategic vs Sponsor

Dave discusses Squire’s product, the history of the company, how Squire successfully navigated through the early days of COVID, and the role institutional and celebrity angel investors play in the Company. 

BIO

Dave Salvant is a Co-Founder and President of Squire Technologies, a provider of an all-in-one barbershop management platform. Prior to Suire, Dave was a sales associate at AXA and private banking at JP Morgan. He received his Bachelor's degree from the University at Albany (SUNY) and MBA from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

TIMESTAMPS

00:50 Dave and Squire

03:40 Go-To-Market

07:32 Marketing in Squire

08:16 Company size / Global Remote-first company

08:57 Quick product release help barbers navigate COVID (incredible response to COVID)

11:00 Creating new products

12:15 First Investors

14:45 Celebrity Investors

16:11 Involvement of investors

16:44 Vision for Squire Technologies

Season B is Sponsored by CELIGO, IPaaS for Mid-Market companies.

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