In this episode of the SaaS Revolution Show our host Alex Theuma is joined by Kevin Hu, Co-Founder & CEO at Metaplane, who shares how they navigated Metaplane's journey from pivot to Series A and beyond.

"Most of us come from tens of thousands of years of subsistence farmers and we're one of the first generations that has the opportunity to build something that can have a large impact with software and capitals leveraged. And when it comes to the CEO job, one can hope that the problems never stop. When the problems stop, I think that's when growth stops. The best case scenario is when the problems are new problems all the time and it doesn't feel like Groundhog Day."

Kevin shares:

• The reasons that drove Metaplane to pivot (twice!)

• The importance of attracting strong leaders and building a repeatable sales process as a company grows

• His approach to decision-making and prioritisation; from the way he collects information to committing to decisions

• Why being upfront about expectations and offering upside potential is crucial to recruiting top talent

• Metaplane's unique onboarding process where new hires "ship something" on day one

• Overcoming market headwinds through a product-led approach and land-and-expand strategy

and more! Check out the other ways SaaStock is serving SaaS founders

🇺🇸 SaaStock USA 2025: 13-15 May 2025 | Austin, Texas. Connect, learn and

thrive at the leading conference for B2B SaaS Founders, Operators and

Investors from Pre-Seed to Series C.

(https://ti.to/saastock/saastock-usa-2025)

🇮🇪 SaaStock Europe 2025: 12-14 October 2025 | Dublin, Ireland. "The best

SaaS conference for founders, execs & investors in Europe, period." -

Christoph Janz, Partner, Point Nine.

(https://share.hsforms.com/1FbUpCXpJT8um3MehUUYcAg3upof)

🤝 SaaStock Founder Membership: A private members group of B2B SaaS

founders between $100K - $10M ARR who are committed to growth and

helping others (https://www.saastock.com/founder-membership/)

🌎 SaaStock Local: Monthly meet-ups in cities all around the world,

bringing together SaaS enthusiasts and experts to discuss the most

pressing topics in SaaS (https://local.saastock.com/home)

In this episode of the SaaS Revolution Show our host Alex Theuma is joined by Abakar Saidov, CEO at Beamery, who shares his success story from Wall Street-er to tech unicorn.

"A lot of entrepreneurs actually start businesses out of necessity. And necessity comes from two parts, either you have to do it because you have no other option, or you feel like you have to do it because you want the idea to exist so much. And usually I feel like if those are not your two reasons, one is like you can't imagine a world without this idea or you just have no choice. You're probably not going to make it through the the grind."

Abakar shares:

• On a mission to create equal access to work opportunities: The founding story of Beamery

• Why customer experience is a key differentiator (and one of the reasons they've achieved such high NPS scores for implementations in an industry where low scores are common)

• The top two qualities investors look for in founders

• How evolving founder perspectives and motivations have shaped the company's growth

• What he does to maintain energy after 10+ years as CEO

• Why his ongoing process of growth and development is centred around Andy Grove's concept of the Competence Frontier

and more! Check out the other ways SaaStock is serving SaaS founders

🇺🇸 SaaStock USA 2025: 13-15 May 2025 | Austin, Texas. Connect, learn and

thrive at the leading conference for B2B SaaS Founders, Operators and

Investors from Pre-Seed to Series C.

(https://ti.to/saastock/saastock-usa-2025)

🇮🇪 SaaStock Europe 2025: 12-14 October 2025 | Dublin, Ireland. "The best

SaaS conference for founders, execs & investors in Europe, period." -

Christoph Janz, Partner, Point Nine.

(https://share.hsforms.com/1FbUpCXpJT8um3MehUUYcAg3upof)

🤝 SaaStock Founder Membership: A private members group of B2B SaaS

founders between $100K - $10M ARR who are committed to growth and

helping others (https://www.saastock.com/founder-membership/)

🌎 SaaStock Local: Monthly meet-ups in cities all around the world,

bringing together SaaS enthusiasts and experts to discuss the most

pressing topics in SaaS (https://local.saastock.com/home)

In this episode of the SaaS Revolution Show our host Alex Theuma is joined by Taylor Hersom, Founder & CEO at Eden Data, who shares insights into their global scaling journey during the pandemic.

"Your reputation is everything as you're growing fast and trying to make it to your next round. And when you have multiple competitors in a space, you don't want your customer or prospect googling your name and seeing something like a data breach."

Taylor shares:

• His approach to growing the business; from focusing on partnerships and referrals to differentiating through branding and content marketing

• Key security concerns for founders, including reputational damage and the need for certifications like SOC 2 to close deals

• How he capitalised on the increased focus on cybersecurity during the pandemic as more businesses moved operations online

• How they identified an underserved niche and tailored their offerings and messaging to serve them effectively

• The one thing their team does to drive inbound leads

and more!Check out the other ways SaaStock is serving SaaS founders

🇺🇸 SaaStock USA 2025: 13-15 May 2025 | Austin, Texas. Connect, learn and

thrive at the leading conference for B2B SaaS Founders, Operators and

Investors from Pre-Seed to Series C.

(https://ti.to/saastock/saastock-usa-2025)

🇮🇪 SaaStock Europe 2025: 12-14 October 2025 | Dublin, Ireland. "The best

SaaS conference for founders, execs & investors in Europe, period." -

Christoph Janz, Partner, Point Nine.

(https://share.hsforms.com/1FbUpCXpJT8um3MehUUYcAg3upof)

🤝 SaaStock Founder Membership: A private members group of B2B SaaS

founders between $100K - $10M ARR who are committed to growth and

helping others (https://www.saastock.com/founder-membership/)

🌎 SaaStock Local: Monthly meet-ups in cities all around the world,

bringing together SaaS enthusiasts and experts to discuss the most

pressing topics in SaaS (https://local.saastock.com/home)

In this episode of the SaaS Revolution Show our host Alex Theuma is joined by Preston "PK" Keller, Founder at Emergent3, who shares how he overcame an industry Goliath trying to kill his SaaS business.

"When you've hit rock bottom and you're, like, going through hell, you cannot control all the environmental factors around you, but you can control how you react to it. And I read this book, The Gap in the Game, and it basically says, like, focus on the good things right now. That book got me through the darkest times. We also, you know, my wife was also pregnant with our third child and that third child had some serious health defects. She spent months in the NICU and this was during the lawsuit, during the rewrite, it was like there was so much going on in my life and I was like, I'm still so lucky. It forced you to just focus on like, hey, you can't control this environment and things that happen to you, but you can control how you react. And I focused on just, like, I just wanted to make someone else smile that day. "

PK shares:

• Overworked and under-appreciated: the decision PK took that started it all..

• The first six months of E3: incredible sales, disbelief in the success they were experiencing, and then..

• The moment the sheriff knocked on his door serving him a summons - his previous employer, the 'Big Bad Wolf', was suing PK personally and his new company, E3, all for starting a business that was competing in the same market

• Hitting a grand slam: The moment the judge called an instant ruling in their patent infringement case

• Reflecting on the toll it took when he got to the point where everything he had, he could've lost in an instant

• How this situation taught him that the relationships in his life are the most important thing

and more. Check out the other ways SaaStock is serving SaaS founders

🇺🇸 SaaStock USA 2025: 13-15 May 2025 | Austin, Texas. Connect, learn and

thrive at the leading conference for B2B SaaS Founders, Operators and

Investors from Pre-Seed to Series C.

(https://ti.to/saastock/saastock-usa-2025)

🇮🇪 SaaStock Europe 2025: 12-14 October 2025 | Dublin, Ireland. "The best

SaaS conference for founders, execs & investors in Europe, period." -

Christoph Janz, Partner, Point Nine.

(https://share.hsforms.com/1FbUpCXpJT8um3MehUUYcAg3upof)

🤝 SaaStock Founder Membership: A private members group of B2B SaaS

founders between $100K - $10M ARR who are committed to growth and

helping others (https://www.saastock.com/founder-membership/)

🌎 SaaStock Local: Monthly meet-ups in cities all around the world,

bringing together SaaS enthusiasts and experts to discuss the most

pressing topics in SaaS (https://local.saastock.com/home)

In this episode of the SaaS Revolution Show our host Alex Theuma is joined by Tony Jamous, Founder & CEO at Oyster HR, who shares how building Oyster HR as a mission driven company helped them scale to SaaS unicorn-dome.

"It enabled me to also be detached from the outcome. So no matter what happens, we miss a quarter or somebody quits, then you're not reactive to that. Instead, you remain always centred on your goals, on your values, on your principles and more in an acceptance mode. This journey of building businesses, it's, it's highs and lows. So how can you remain yourself in a mode of clarity, stability, no matter the highs and the lows?"

Tony shares:

• Hyper growth in the early days during Covid: From achieving product market fit without having a full platform to going from zero to a billion in market cap in two years

• Maintaining a mission driven culture: Why instilling meaning and importance to the work employees do you is the backbone of a successful mission driven organisation

• Reducing headcount costs doesn't necessarily mean laying people off - it should be a strategic shift rather than a financial exercise

• How he reprogrammed his nervous system to become a better leader and be less reactive

• Behaviour is an equation that has two variables: who the people are and the environment they're in ( ...and the influence leaders have on them)

and more! Check out the other ways SaaStock is serving SaaS founders

🇺🇸 SaaStock USA 2025: 13-15 May 2025 | Austin, Texas. Connect, learn and

thrive at the leading conference for B2B SaaS Founders, Operators and

Investors from Pre-Seed to Series C.

(https://ti.to/saastock/saastock-usa-2025)

🇮🇪 SaaStock Europe 2025: 12-14 October 2025 | Dublin, Ireland. "The best

SaaS conference for founders, execs & investors in Europe, period." -

Christoph Janz, Partner, Point Nine.

(https://share.hsforms.com/1FbUpCXpJT8um3MehUUYcAg3upof)

🤝 SaaStock Founder Membership: A private members group of B2B SaaS

founders between $100K - $10M ARR who are committed to growth and

helping others (https://www.saastock.com/founder-membership/)

🌎 SaaStock Local: Monthly meet-ups in cities all around the world,

bringing together SaaS enthusiasts and experts to discuss the most

pressing topics in SaaS (https://local.saastock.com/home)

In this episode of the SaaS Revolution Show our host Alex Theuma is joined by Raluca Ragab, Head of UK & DACH at Eurazeo, who shares how to succeed as a growth company.

"If you think of all the companies that had to raise a seed or series A in 2022, when it was hard, in 2023, when it was super hard, and even in 2024, anybody who's been successful to do that and is now graduating, right? So Maybe they were 1 million company in 2022 and they're 5 million in 2023 and they're now kind of becoming a growth stage company. Those companies, they were so scrutinised, they found it so hard to get funded that actually they have much stronger unit economics, they have great stories and they know how to deliver growth without having a bloated cost structure. So I do think that there's a second wave now of these companies that had to go through this kind of much harder time funding in their earlier stage and they never got to being efficient, that they just kind of got the basics and the fundamentals right and they're going to scale off a much more reasonable set of unit economics and cost structure."

Raluca shares:

• Being a visionary founder versus a 'good process' person

• What it takes to build a successful growth stage company and get the right investment

• Track records and unit economics: The metrics Raluca and her team prioritise

• Europe's lack of global winners and business champions compared to in the US

• How AI is lowering barriers to entry for software development to quasi zero

and more! Check out the other ways SaaStock is serving SaaS founders

🇺🇸 SaaStock USA 2025: 13-15 May 2025 | Austin, Texas. Connect, learn and

thrive at the leading conference for B2B SaaS Founders, Operators and

Investors from Pre-Seed to Series C.

(https://ti.to/saastock/saastock-usa-2025)

🇮🇪 SaaStock Europe 2025: 12-14 October 2025 | Dublin, Ireland. "The best

SaaS conference for founders, execs & investors in Europe, period." -

Christoph Janz, Partner, Point Nine.

(https://share.hsforms.com/1FbUpCXpJT8um3MehUUYcAg3upof)

🤝 SaaStock Founder Membership: A private members group of B2B SaaS

founders between $100K - $10M ARR who are committed to growth and

helping others (https://www.saastock.com/founder-membership/)

🌎 SaaStock Local: Monthly meet-ups in cities all around the world,

bringing together SaaS enthusiasts and experts to discuss the most

pressing topics in SaaS (https://local.saastock.com/home)

In this episode of the SaaS Revolution Show our host Alex Theuma is joined by Marton Medveczky, Associate Partner at Flashpoint Venture Capital, who shares what exactly makes a founder investable in 2025.

"There is always a huge difference between talking to the founder and then doing your own desktop research versus talking to a customer. So if you can do that, that's basically the best way to understand what people value about the product. And it also will help you to draw further conclusions about where to look or, like, what is actually the real paper that it solves. And oftentimes it's actually not what the founders think it is, right? Which is very funny, I think. And that's why customer calls are sort of like a super vital component for us to invest."

Marton shares:

• The key characteristics he looks for in a founder before investing

• Nailing value propositions and pain points: the one thing founders *need* to be doing

• What the next 12 months look like and if fewer companies are moving into venture

• How his initial VC journey started versus what it looks like now

• Winning the market and becoming a category leader: what can SaaS companies do to succeed?

• Why net revenue retention is the most important metric

and more! Check out the other ways SaaStock is serving SaaS founders

🇺🇸 SaaStock USA 2025: 13-15 May 2025 | Austin, Texas. Connect, learn and

thrive at the leading conference for B2B SaaS Founders, Operators and

Investors from Pre-Seed to Series C.

(https://ti.to/saastock/saastock-usa-2025)

🇮🇪 SaaStock Europe 2025: 12-14 October 2025 | Dublin, Ireland. "The best

SaaS conference for founders, execs & investors in Europe, period." -

Christoph Janz, Partner, Point Nine.

(https://share.hsforms.com/1FbUpCXpJT8um3MehUUYcAg3upof)

🤝 SaaStock Founder Membership: A private members group of B2B SaaS

founders between $100K - $10M ARR who are committed to growth and

helping others (https://www.saastock.com/founder-membership/)

🌎 SaaStock Local: Monthly meet-ups in cities all around the world,

bringing together SaaS enthusiasts and experts to discuss the most

pressing topics in SaaS (https://local.saastock.com/home)

In this episode of the SaaS Revolution Show our host Alex Theuma is joined by Palash Soni, Co-Founder & CEO at Goldcast, who shares his journey scaling the business to north of $10M in revenue.

"We realised that the market is probably in bigger companies because that's where we are getting the pull from, and so our first actual like big customer was this company called Drift in Boston, which very popular Martech company. And that gave us the aha moment that okay, this is where the fit is. And so the moment Drift signed which was in end of Jan. 2021, at that time we were probably like $30, $40k in ARR. And when Drift signed then that started the chain sort of like the messaging and everything came together. Then we got to $1 million in three months."

Palash shares:

• Having an entrepreneurial itch from a young age; from buying sweets in bulk and selling them at a markup in his school days to renting out a video game console for a cent per hour

• Why he believes marketing mediums evolve every 10 years, and how that was an asset to Goldcast

• The risk they faced becoming a multi-product company and how he managed internal pushback

• Entering the zeitgeist of B2B Marketers

• The three key levers getting to $10M in revenue; including investing heavily in post-sales customer success

• Why classic outbound doesn't work

and more! Check out the other ways SaaStock is serving SaaS founders

🇺🇸 SaaStock USA 2025: 13-15 May 2025 | Austin, Texas. Connect, learn and

thrive at the leading conference for B2B SaaS Founders, Operators and

Investors from Pre-Seed to Series C.

(https://ti.to/saastock/saastock-usa-2025)

🇮🇪 SaaStock Europe 2025: 12-14 October 2025 | Dublin, Ireland. "The best

SaaS conference for founders, execs & investors in Europe, period." -

Christoph Janz, Partner, Point Nine.

(https://share.hsforms.com/1FbUpCXpJT8um3MehUUYcAg3upof)

🤝 SaaStock Founder Membership: A private members group of B2B SaaS

founders between $100K - $10M ARR who are committed to growth and

helping others (https://www.saastock.com/founder-membership/)

🌎 SaaStock Local: Monthly meet-ups in cities all around the world,

bringing together SaaS enthusiasts and experts to discuss the most

pressing topics in SaaS (https://local.saastock.com/home)

In this episode of the SaaS Revolution Show our host Alex Theuma is joined by Philippe Botteri, partner at Accel, who shares the 2024 Accel Europe: AI Eating Software.

"Just look at the past couple of years, there's been $56 billion invested in AI companies and two thirds of that has gone into the top six companies of each region of the US and Europe, and also two thirds of that money has gone into foundation models. So what we're seeing is AI is really driving the growth and very concentrated in a very small number of companies both in the US and Europe."

Philippe shares:

• Capitalising on AI to drive growth

• Increasing investment outside of foundational models

• Why 2025 is going to be the year of the agentic revolution

• Growth vs profitability: what's driving the momentum for software companies

• The Game of AI Thrones - will it be a winner takes all market?

and more! Check out the other ways SaaStock is serving SaaS founders

🇺🇸 SaaStock USA 2025: 13-15 May 2025 | Austin, Texas. Connect, learn and

thrive at the leading conference for B2B SaaS Founders, Operators and

Investors from Pre-Seed to Series C.

(https://ti.to/saastock/saastock-usa-2025)

🇮🇪 SaaStock Europe 2025: 12-14 October 2025 | Dublin, Ireland. "The best

SaaS conference for founders, execs & investors in Europe, period." -

Christoph Janz, Partner, Point Nine.

(https://share.hsforms.com/1FbUpCXpJT8um3MehUUYcAg3upof)

🤝 SaaStock Founder Membership: A private members group of B2B SaaS

founders between $100K - $10M ARR who are committed to growth and

helping others (https://www.saastock.com/founder-membership/)

🌎 SaaStock Local: Monthly meet-ups in cities all around the world,

bringing together SaaS enthusiasts and experts to discuss the most

pressing topics in SaaS (https://local.saastock.com/home)

In this episode of the SaaS Revolution Show our host Alex Theuma is joined live from the SaaStock Studio at SaaStock Europe 2024 by Amos Haggiag, Co-Founder & CEO at Optibus, who shares his biggest learnings from building Optibus to a global unicorn.

"We sell a mission critical product. When a customer chooses Optibus, if Optibus doesn't work, the public transportation stops working - busses don't arrive on time or don't arrive at all, passengers get the wrong information, like, it's a disaster. So the risk is so high that in order to anyone to choose Optibus, it's not enough to just bring like a really good product, you need to also convince [them] that you're not introducing risk, that you know how to work in complexity, you know how to work in different regions, it's very local. And because of that, at some point, we decided to change the organisation into more focus on the local region kind of management."

Amos shares:

• Optibus' funding journey to a $100M Series D funding round and a $1.3B valuation

• The moment they realised they had surpassed $1M ARR (and why he didn't think they had product market fit at the time!)

• Scaling their sales team to accommodate for their global customer base

• From localised to centralised- the painful process of restructuring

• Challenges with delegating tough decisions as CEO

• The importance of having a long term focus

and more!Check out the other ways SaaStock is serving SaaS founders

🇺🇸 SaaStock USA 2025: 13-15 May 2025 | Austin, Texas. Connect, learn and

thrive at the leading conference for B2B SaaS Founders, Operators and

Investors from Pre-Seed to Series C.

(https://ti.to/saastock/saastock-usa-2025)

🇮🇪 SaaStock Europe 2025: 12-14 October 2025 | Dublin, Ireland. "The best

SaaS conference for founders, execs & investors in Europe, period." -

Christoph Janz, Partner, Point Nine.

(https://share.hsforms.com/1FbUpCXpJT8um3MehUUYcAg3upof)

🤝 SaaStock Founder Membership: A private members group of B2B SaaS

founders between $100K - $10M ARR who are committed to growth and

helping others (https://www.saastock.com/founder-membership/)

🌎 SaaStock Local: Monthly meet-ups in cities all around the world,

bringing together SaaS enthusiasts and experts to discuss the most

pressing topics in SaaS (https://local.saastock.com/home)