The Official SaaStr Podcast: SaaS | Founders | Investors

I am so excited to welcome Johnny Chin, Founder & CEO @ Bannerman to The Official SaaStr Podcast today. Bannerman is the company that provides on demand security staff and bouncers to some of the world’s biggest companies including Spotify, Y Combinator, Weebly, Optimizely and many more incredible firms. Bannerman are also an alum of YC having been in their YC S14 Class.

In Today’s Episode You Will Discover:

• Why did Johnny decide to transition Bannerman from B2C to B2B? WHat metrics suggested to Johnny that product market fit had not been achieved with the B2C model?
• How did the transition affect the product? What does Johnny mean when he discusses ‘Wizard Of Oz’ moments?
• How did Johnny go about developing and establishing a sales process? What were the inherent challenges and how did JOhnny combat them?
• At what stage did Bannerman reach profitability and what does this allow Bannerman to now do and focus on? SHould it be a priority over growth for other SaaS businesses?
• How Johnny approaches brand building at Bannerman? Why brand is so important for B2B companies? What are the must do’s and the must not’s when it comes to B2B branding?

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

1. Most challenging element of the journey?
2. Fave SaaS resources and reading materials?
3. Competitive landscape for on demand security?

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
• Johnny Chin

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

To Commemorate the 3 month anniversary of the best conference ever, SaaStr Annual 2016. We thought we would take a trip back to the conference with one of our favourite discussions featuring Jason Lemkin, Founder @ SaaStr and John Somorjai, Executive Vice President of Corporate Development & Salesforce Ventures. Salesforce Ventures invests in the next generation of enterprise technology. The Salesforce Ventures portfolio includes companies such as Box, DocuSign, Dropbox, Evernote, GainSight, MongoDB, MuleSoft, Stripe, SurveyMonkey, Twilio, and Xactly. Salesforce.com has invested in more than 150 enterprise cloud startups in 11 countries since 2009.

In Today’s Episode You Will Learn:

• What have been the fundamental determinants for the growth and acceleration of Salesforce in the last few years?
• What gave Salesforce the conviction to deploy $500m back into startup investing?
• With the success of Salesforce Ventures, how have John’s investing goals changed since 2009?
• Why should founders raise with Salesforce, what is the value add?
• What is John attitude to the recent pessimism in the valley? How does John approach the dichotomy of growth and reducing burn?

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
• John Somorjai

 

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

Following our meeting at SaaStr Annual 2016, I am thrilled to welcome David Cancel. Now David really is a serial entrepreneur having founded 5 companies, with the last, Performable, being acquired by Hubspot, resulting in his taking up the position as Chief Product Officer at Hubspot. Now David is the CEO @ Drift. Drift allows you to talk to your website visitors and customers in real time. David is a master when it comes to hiring, company culture creation and maintenance and team building and we dig into all that in today’s episode, as well as:

• Why David’s golden rule to recruiting is hiring people not skills?
• Why is cultural fit so important for future employees? How can you test for it in an interview? Can you hire a team of all A team players without having insane competition and friction?
• What does David mean when he says it is important for candidates to be scrappy? What signals are there that the person is an insane hustler?  
• What questions does David pose to get the candidate out of the standard interview style answering? How does david push them out of their comfort zone?
• Why does David believe it is crucial to never hire PMs who have done it before? What is the benefits of this?
• How does David view success? What commonalities does David se in thementiality fo those that have and have not been successful?

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

1. Must read books for startup CEOs?
2. What are the 3 biggest lessons you learnt the hard way?
3. What is David’s approach to learning?

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
• David Cancel

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

Delighted to welcome Jon Miller to The Official SaastrPodcast today. John is the Founder & CEO @ Engagio, the all inone account based marketing platform that allows you to accelerateyour move to account based marketing, streamline account basedreporting and analytics and map salesforce leads to targetaccounts. Prior to Engagio, Jon was the Co-Founder and CMO atrocketship, Marketo.

 

Intoday's show with Jon we discuss:

• Whatreally is account based marketing and how does it differ to otherforms of marketing?
• Whatwere Jon’s biggest takeaways from co-founding Marketo and watch itscale into hyper-growth mode?
• Howcan startups determine whether account based marketing is the rightmarketing solution for them? How can startups accelerate theprocess of moving to account based marketing?
• Howcan startups communicate with their ideal customers in a nongimmicky, personalised fashion? What can be done to show personaland effective touches?
• Towhat extent does account based market intersect with account basedsales development? How much of a role will this integration play inthe future?

 

In a round we call the60 Second Saastr,we also hear:

1. Themost effective ABM channels?
2. Thebiggest mistakes startups make in ABM?
3. Thehardest element of growing Engagio from scratch?

 

If you would like to find outmore about the show and the guests presented you can follow us onTwitter here:

• JasonLemkin
• Harry Stebbings
• Saastr
• Jon Miller

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 Laura
Behrens Wu, Laura is the Founder & CEO @ Shippo, the API and
dashboard for all your shipping needs. They have raised from the likes of SoftTech,
500Startups, SLow Ventures and many more incredible investors. In
today's show with Laura we discuss:

 

• What
  are API’s and what do they allow us to do?


• With
  API’s developer adoption is crucial, what has worked for Laura in
  terms of finding developers, onboarding them and ensuring developer
  retention?


• How
  much of a role does content marketing and education play in a
  complex product and tech stack, like Shippo? What strategies have
  been the most successful in educating potential
  clients?


• Why
  does Laura believe transparent pricing is so fundamental? How does
  Laura harness the freemium model while attempting to onboard large
  corporate clients


• What
  do the next 20 years hold for Shippo? What will it take to reach
  the milestones?

 

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

1. Most
   challenging element of building Shippo?


2. Biggest advice to SMB’s on shipping
   options?


3. The
   fundraising process: What was it like?

 

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


• Laura Behrens Wu

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

Welcome to Episode 15 of The Official Saastr Podcast. Joining me today, I am delighted to welcome, Nicolas Dessaigne. Nicolas is the CEO and Co-Founder of Algolia, Algolia are a brilliant case study for the successful pivot, having started off life as an offline search engine for mobiles but really took off by helping companies deliver an intuitive search-as-you-type experience on their websites and mobile apps. They participated in Y Combinator's Winter 2014 batch and raised $18.3M in May 2015 from the likes of Accel Partners, Point Nine Capital, Storm Ventures and many more incredible investors. and in today's show with Nicolas we discuss:

• Why is company culture so important and was it fundamental for Nicolas and Julien to have this outlined from the beginning?


• How did Nicolas implement the vision for the company future when founding the Algolia?


• How does Nicolas look to balance the scaling of the business with maintenance of company culture?


• What were Nicolas' biggest takeaways from his time at YC? 


• How can SaaS startups optimise the fundraising process to also be a source of business development?

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

1. Hiring Your First VP of Sales: When and What Questions To Ask?


2. Nicolas' favourite SaaS resource?


3. What would Nicolas do differently if he were to start the journey again?

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


• Nicolas Dessaigne

 

 

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

On the show today I am thrilled to welcome Russell Glass, Head of Products For LinkedIn Marketing Solutions. Formerly founder, president and CEO of Bizo, a B2B audience marketing and data platform which he, from founding in 2008 to $50mm+ revenue run-rate and over 150 employees before being acquired by LinkedIn for $175mm in August of 2014 he really is a Serial technology entrepreneur, having founded or held senior positions at four venture-backed technology companies. If that wasn’t enough he is also the Co-author of The Big Data-Driven Business: How to Use Big Data to Win Customers, Beat Competitors, and Boost Profits 

In today's show with Russell we discuss:

• What did Russ and the Bizo team do effectively that allowed them to scale, leading to their acquisition by Linkedin?


• Is customer focus a constraint on long term growth and how can you communicate this long term vision to your investors?


• How important a role will data play in the future of content marketing?


• How can SMB marketers determine which platforms will be most effective for them?


• To what extent can content marketing reduce customer acquisition? What are the other benefits?

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

1. Who Is Doing SMB Marketing Most Impressively At The Moment?


2. The Biggest Leanring Curve From Being Acquired By LinkedIn?


3. What SaaS resource or blog is a must for Russell?

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


• Russell Glass

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, I am delighted to welcome Mark Woodward CEO @ Invoca - software that helps marketers drive revenue with call intelligence. Invoca has built a platform that addresses the top concern for enterprise CMOs today — delivering personalized customer experiences across devices and channels. They have backing from the likes of Upfront Ventures who wrote this on Invoca's recent $30m raise (http://www.bothsidesofthetable.com/2016/03/30/inside-scoop-funding-environment-might-mean/)  and in today's show with Mark we discuss:

• Question from Mark Suster: How does Mark feel taking the contrarian approach that phone calls are alive and growing?


• How was Invoice's journey to raising $30m in funding? What were the challenges? What was unexpected?


• What all new CEOs must know coming into a new role?


• How can a new CEO implement a new company culture and management style without disrupting the existing one?


• What does IPO ready look like in a company? What are the requirements before you consider that newt step?

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

1. The most crucial characteristic of all good CEOs?


2. Biggest lesson from being a 3 time CEO?


3. If Mark could start the process again, what would he do differently?

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 Woodward

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, I am delighted to have Daniel Chait, Founder & CEO @ Greenhouse - software that gives people the power to build great companies. Greenhouse automates and simplifies the best practices for recruiting top talent, continuously monitors your recruiting activity, and automatically suggests improvements. They have backing from the likes of Social Capital, Benchmark and Felicis Ventures and in today's show with Daniel we discuss:

• How Daniel views the hiring funnel and how you can get a consistent stream of high quality incoming candidates?


• How can individuals breach the knowledge gap of not knowing what to look for in a iOS developer, for example?


• How important is a strong company culture when interviewing candidates?


• How can recruiters test candidates to ensure that their culture and skills align with the company?


• When did Daniel hire his first Head of Sales and what was the catalyst for causing this hire?

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

1. The Candidate Experience: How Can We Optimise It?


2. Who Does Daniel Most Respect & Admire With Regards To Their Recruitment?


3. What Is Daniel's Fave Hiring Blog Resource or Newsletter?

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


• Daniel Chait

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 thrilled to welcome, Ajay Agarwal, Managing Director @ Bain Capital Ventures, where he focuses on early stage application software and SaaS investing. Included in his immense portfolio are the likes of Optimizely, SendGrid and GainSight, just to name a few and prior to crushing the world of investments, Ajay was an early employee at Trilogy, where as Head of Sales and Marketing he was instrumental in growing their annual revenue to $300m. 

Discussed In Today's Show:

• What is the difference between SaaS and Enterprise Software? (there is one!)


• How does the introduction of cloud software affect the sales cycle for startups?


• How can startups know when is the right time to release their MVP without having significant issues with churn?


• What does product market fit really look like for SaaS startups?


• Once product market fit is achieved, is it merely a case off during money into the machine? 


• Why has customer success become such an integral part of SaaS and what can startups do to optimise customer success?

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

• Why is the system of record the easiest way to build a $bn company?


• The $10bn opportunity in marketing? 


• The future of zenefits?

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


• Ajay Agarwal

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