The Official SaaStr Podcast: SaaS | Founders | Investors

Blake Bartlett is a Partner @ Openview Ventures where he helps identify value and lead investments in product-led businesses driving market dislocation. Prior to joining OpenView, he was a Vice President at Battery Ventures, where he focused on growth-stage software and Internet businesses. Blake joined Battery in 2009 and helped lead 10 investments including  the likes of Wayfair, Optimizely, Sprinklr, and Glassdoor.

In Today’s Show We Discuss:

• Why Blake decided to invest in SaaS over other sectors?
• Whether the rise of the bottoms up SaaS sales model means customer fickleness for SaaS products will increase?
• Does product led growth contradict tradition SaaS sales beliefs? How can they work in unison?
• Is product market fit and customer value a binary result? Are there varying degrees of customer value? How important is time to customer value?
• How can startups look to pull product-led growth off? What were Blake’s biggest takeaways from watching the likes of Optimizely and Expensify?

If you would like to find out more about the show and the guests presented you can follow us on Twitter here:

• Jason Lemkin
• Harry Stebbings
• Saastr
• Blake Bartlett

 

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit cloud.substack.com

I am delighted to welcome my first ever Harry to the show today in the form of Harry Glaser, Co-Founder & CEO @ Periscope Data, the worlds fast analysis suite providing data analysts with the tools they need to improve their analysis by over 150X and an astonishing fact here they have doubled their revenue every 3 months ever since launch. Periscope’s investors include Ellen Pao, Matt Ocko @ Data Collective, Chad Byers @ Susa Ventures, Wes Chan @ Felicis, Benjamin Ling at Khosla and many more. Also in the show today we mention Jason Lemkin and Aaron Ross new book From Impossible to Inevitable: How Hypergrowth Companies Create Predictable Revenue and if you have not read that, that is a must and can be found here!

In Today’s Episode with Harry We Discuss

• How Harry came to be the founder of Persicope Data and what the a-ha moment was for him?
• How did Harry look to establish a pricing model with Periscope Data as a first time SaaS founder?
• What are Harry’s learnings of hiring and building out the initial sales team?
• How did Harry build out the institutonal training program to allow non technical people to sell a very non technical product?
• What are the inherent pros of having an inbound heavy model and what are the fundamental problems?
• Why are companies suddenly seeing the need for data analysts and what are the opportunites that data analysts present?

If you would like to find out more about the show and the guests presented you can follow us on Twitter here:

• Jason Lemkin
• Harry Stebbings
• Saastr
• Harry Glaser

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit cloud.substack.com

Andy Wilson is the Co-Founder and CEO @ Logikcull, where he really is the visionary behind Logikcull’s product and marketing strategy focusing on simplifying and democratizing the discovery process into three simple steps: upload > search > download. Andy leads the company it its mission to put an end to eDiscovery with the use of Discovery Automation.

In Today’s Episode with Andy We Discuss:

• The origin story of Logikcull for Andy and what a-ha moment was for him?
• How did Andy approach the transition from service based business to SaaS business?
• Does the increase of customer success not transition the customer into the client?
• What was the effect of having Jason as a investor and what are the biggest value adds that Jason provides?
• On outbound vs inbound, how did Andy increase outbound in such an established space? Where did he find the major breakthroughs?

If you would like to find out more about the show and the guests presented you can follow us on Twitter here:

• Jason Lemkin
• Harry Stebbings
• Saastr
• Andy Wilson

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit cloud.substack.com

Super excited to welcome a heavy weight of the SaaS industry today as we have Mark Organ, Founder & CEO at Influitive. Influitive helps B2B companies mobilize their army of advocates for more rapid and profitable revenue growth. Prior to Influitive, Mark was the founding CEO of Eloqua, growing the business to over 150 people, hundreds of clients and a major presence around the world in 7 years. Eloqua was eventually bought by Oracle in 2012 for a reported $810m.

In Today’s Episode with Mark We Discuss:

• The founding story behind Influitive? What was the a-ha moment behind the concept?
• What were Mark’s biggest takeaways from watching Eloqua scale into the global force that it became?
• Influitive are creating a category, so how is that for Mark? What are the inherent challenges?  What are the commonalities of successful category creators?
• What is the difference between good and bad competition? Why does Mark try and encourage good competition?
• Why are brand advocates crucial to the success of a business? Is it a really scalable solution? How did you figure out the model for making customers successful?  

In a round we call the 60 Second Saastr, we also hear:

• Mark’s fave SaaS resource and reading material?
• Thought leadership: Fundamental or unnecessary?
• Target Markets; Go large or be specific and niche?

If you would like to find out more about the show and the guests presented you can follow us on Twitter here:

• Jason Lemkin
• Harry Stebbings
• Saastr
• Mark Organ

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit cloud.substack.com

Laura Roeder is the Founder & CEO @ Edgar, the social media automation tool that essentially allows your social media queue to fill itself up. Now Edgar is not the usual startup story we are all familiar with as Edgar has taken some unusual steps, they have not raised VC funding, they do not have a sales team, their founder, Laura, was pregnant on launch and after all this, Edgar is a startup that actually makes money at 2.9m ARR.

In Today’s Episode with Laura We Reveal:

• How did Laura come to found Edgar? What was the a-ha moment for Laura?
• How did Laura assemble and build the team, with te restraint of being pregnant during launch? How did this hiring mindset benefit the process?
• Why does Laura deliberately not have a sales team?
• How does the SaaS math differ for bootstrapped vs venture funded SaaS startups? HOw does the exit strategy change when bootstrapped?
• Why should SMs approach social media platforms one at a time? How can startups measure their social media performance and engagement?

In a round we call the 60 Second Saastr, we also hear:

• Fave SaaS resource and reading material?
• Hardest hire in the Edgar process?
• Going up the enterprise funnel: Potential or not going to happen?

If you would like to find out more about the show and the guests presented you can follow us on Twitter here:

• Jason Lemkin
• Harry Stebbings
• Saastr

 

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit cloud.substack.com

Bill Binch is a leader and expert in the SaaS sales industry. Bill was the senior vice president of worldwide sales at marketo for 8 years and he joined when it was a small venture backed startup with a mission to reinvent marketing automation, it was his sales leadership and expertise that formed a critical component in building Marketo into one of the fastest growing enterprise software companies in the world. Recognized through his being awarded worldwide VP of sales in 2011.

In today's show with Bill we discuss:

• What were Bill’s biggest takeaways from his time scaling the sales organisation at Marketo??
• Why did Bill find it enticing selling to sales and marketers with Marketo?
• How can startups go about approaching the topic of the sales cycle? What does the right cadence look like?
• How can sales leaders look to establish a quota that is achievable and confident? Why is it about deal frequency not dollar size?
• How can we optimise the hiring process for sales professionals? What are the benefits to over hiring? Is this sustainable in a downturn?
• Does Bill agree that customer success will be the new sales, as Nick Mehta stated?

In a round we call the 60 Second Saastr, we also hear:

• SaaS tools that Bill could not live without?
• Creating your own scorecard?
• What does Bill know now that he wished he had known at the beggining

If you would like to find out more about the show and the guests presented you can follow us on Twitter here:

• Jason Lemkin
• Harry Stebbings
• Saastr
• Bill Binch

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit cloud.substack.com

I am delighted to present Part 2 of our feature of Gainsight. Joining me today I have Anthony Kennada, the founding VP Marketing at Gainsight where he is responsible for managing the company’s global marketing strategy, from demand generation to brand marketing, and is credited with creating the “Pulse” community of Customer Success leaders. Anthony began his career as an early employee at Box. He later joined LiveOffice and managed their OEM partnership with Symantec from contract signature to acquisition for $115M. Prior to joining Gainsight, Anthony led the Emerging Cloud Products division at Symantec, and was responsible for the first organic product development effort that spanned both consumer and enterprise market segments.

In today's show with Anthony we discuss:

• How Anthony came to be VP of Marketing at one of the hottest startups in the valley?
• Being the founding VP of Marketing, how did Anthony look to grow the team? What were the actual steps Anthony used to scale the marketing at Gainsight?
• How has B2B marketing changed, from Box to today? With this evolution, what are Anthony’s marketing learnings in creating new categories vs. new players in existing categories?
• How should we be thinking about marketing, both Demand Gen and Corporate, differently in crowded spaces? ?
• How can marketing help support going up market and driving ACVs up?  Both Box and Gainsight did this.
• How should CEOs and VPMs think about, and budget events?  What if they don't have all the capital Gainsight does?

In a round we call the 60 Second Saastr, we also hear:

1. Billboards: Stupid or effective?
2. Fave SaaS resource and why?
3. 3 Biggest Tips For Running a Successful Event?

If you would like to find out more about the show and the guests presented you can follow us on Twitter here:

• Jason Lemkin
• Harry Stebbings
• Saastr
• Anthony Kennada

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit cloud.substack.com

This week on SaaStr we are celebrating the rise of GainSight with a special feature week dedicated to Gainsight and joining me today we have Gainsight CEO, Nick Mehta. Since Nick has been at the helm of Gainsight, it has experienced a meteoric rise to the top of the world of SaaS having practically created the category of customer success and revolutionising business work processes in doing so. Due to this, Gainsight has raised funding from the likes of Battery Ventures, Lightspeed Venture Partners and Bessemer Venture Partners.

In today's show with Nick we discuss:

• What were the solutions before Gainsight? Why were these inefficient and what the market opportunity for Gainsight?
• Why has the power shifted from the hands of the vendor to the hands of the customer? What can vendors to do optimise this shift?
• Is the proliferation of available tools and the resulting competition not dangerous as there is only so low prices can go?
• To what extent does Gainsight have a monopoly over the customer success market?
• How much should startups spend on customer success in the early days? How can one measure that success and return on investment?
• What does the hiring of a customer success officer look like for Nick? How can we optimise this process?

In a round we call the 60 Second Saastr, we also hear:

• ACV is everything: Explain?
• Being a specialised CEO: Right or wrong?
• On again, off again hiring in sales?

If you would like to find out more about the show and the guests presented you can follow us on Twitter here:

• Jason Lemkin
• Harry Stebbings
• Saastr
• Nick Mehta

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit cloud.substack.com

Joining us today on The Official Saastr Podcast is Nakul Mandan, Partner @ Lightspeed Venture Partners, where he focuses on early stage SaaS investments. At Lightspeed, Nakul led the firm’s investments in Gainsight and Reflektive. Previously, Nakul worked at Battery Ventures, where he helped lead the firm’s investments in category defining companies such as Marketo, BlueJeans Networks, Gainsight, Intacct, 6Sense and Yesware. Prior to Battery, Nakul worked at Blue River Capital, a growth stage investor focused on India.

In today's show with Nakul we discuss:

• How Nakul came to be one of the leading SaaS investors in the US?
• What will the 2nd phase of the consumerization of the enterprise entail? What innovation will we see in business model?
• How important is predictable revenue for early stage startups? Hoe can they mitigate the circumstances of losing it?
• What more needs to be done to ensure the continuation of consumerising traditional enterprise software?
• What does Nakul hone in on when considering investing in a SaaS startup for Series A? What are the metrics and requirements that matter? At this stage are there large data sets and metrics to rely on?

In a round we call the 60 Second Saastr, we also hear:

• Fave SaaS reading material?
• Greenfield Opportunities in SaaS?
• SaaS Founder Nakul most respects and admires?

If you would like to find out more about the show and the guests presented you can follow us on Twitter here:

• Jason Lemkin
• Harry Stebbings
• Saastr
• Nakul Mandan

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit cloud.substack.com

I am so excited to welcome Russ Hearl, Head of Sales @ Datahug. Datahug is a pipeline management and forecasting solution within Salesforce and backed by the likes of DFJ and Salesforce Ventures. Prior to Datahug, Russ was the VP of Sales at DoubleDutch where he built a sales machine that delivered over 1,500 new customer wins and took the business from $0 to over $20 million ARR in less than three years.  A true thought leader in sales optimization and selling velocity.

In Today’s Episode You Will Discover:

• What makes a great SaaS sales leader? How can you spot the BS and the façade of someone who does not have what it takes?
• How do the best leaders run 1 on 1’s with their reps? How can leaders optimise this time and interaction? Is there anything they should avoid in the process? ?
• How can sales leaders go about introducing elements of competition into sales without disincentivising the loser? What is the buddy system and how does that work?
• Why do SaaS founders need to make pipeline velocity optimization a priority today? What are the biggest opportunities in improving pipeline velocity?

In a round we call the 60 Second Saastr, we also hear:

1. Biggest opportunities in improving pipeline velocity?
2. Fave SaaS resources and reading materials?
3. What are the biggest mistakes people make in pipeline velocity?

If you would like to find out more about the show and the guests presented you can follow us on Twitter here:

• Jason Lemkin
• Harry Stebbings
• Saastr

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit cloud.substack.com