This episode was recorded live at SaaStock Europe 2025. Alex Theuma sits down with Mariam Hakobyan, CEO and Co-founder of Softr, to explore the evolution of app building in the AI era.

Mariam explains why Softr is focusing on AI-powered no-code and why the companies that focus on solving real, hard problems will define the next generation of SaaS.

Alex and Mariam discuss how Softr’s journey to over 1 million non-technical builders, the debate around vibe-coded apps, how AI is transforming no-code, and what it really takes to build a product that lasts.

- The difference between vibe code and no-code platforms

- How AI and no-code together are changing how teams build software

- Softr’s organic growth story: 1M builders, zero sales team

- Why solving fundamental problems still wins

- The hardest challenge for SaaS founders today: distribution

Guest links:

LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/mariamhakobyan/

Website - https://www.softr.io/  

 

 

Check out the other ways SaaStock is helping SaaS founders move their

business forward: 

🇮🇪 SaaStock Europe: 14-15 October 2025 | Dublin, Ireland

Book tickets: https://saastock-europe.com/tickets/

🇺🇸 SaaStock USA 2025: April 2026 | Austin, Texas

Book tickets: https://saastock-usa.com/

🤝 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)

Live from SaaStock Europe 2025, Alex Theuma speaks with Hakob Astabatsyan, Co-founder and CEO of Synthflow AI.

Hakob shares how Synthflow grew 15x revenue in its first year and how it now powers millions of business calls every month. He explains what it takes to move beyond AI hype and solve the “last-mile problem”, delivering real, measurable value through end-to-end automation and RPA 2.0 (voice + task completion).

They also discuss Synthflow’s US-first GTM strategy and the rise of forward deployed engineers.

Listen to learn:

- How Synthflow AI scaled from 0→15x in a year.

- What the “last mile” really means in AI.

- The role of forward deployed engineers in customer success.

- How RPA 2.0 makes AI agents truly useful.

- Hakob’s AI stack.

- Why voice AI has crossed the cusp, and what comes next.

 

 

 

Check out the other ways SaaStock is helping SaaS founders move their

business forward: 

🇮🇪 SaaStock Europe: 14-15 October 2025 | Dublin, Ireland

Book tickets: https://saastock-europe.com/tickets/

🇺🇸 SaaStock USA 2025: April 2026 | Austin, Texas

Book tickets: https://saastock-usa.com/

🤝 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)

SaaStock Founder and CEO Alex Theuma speaks with Manny Medina, Co-founder and CEO of Paid (and former Founder and CEO of Outreach), about how AI is reshaping SaaS monetisation and the future of work.

Manny shares his journey from scaling Outreach to $250M ARR to launching Paid, an AI-native platform built to help SaaS businesses move beyond seat-based pricing models. He explains why legacy systems are holding founders back, how to stay truly customer-obsessed, and why over half of every org chart could soon be filled by AI agents.

Tune in to hear more about::

- Building a new monetisation stack for the AI era.

- Why “seat-based pricing” is becoming obsolete.

- The importance of in-person customer relationships.

- Avoiding operational debt as you scale from startup to $100M+ ARR.

Guest links:

LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/medinism/

Website - https://paid.ai/  

 

 

Check out the other ways SaaStock is helping SaaS founders move their

business forward: 

🇮🇪 SaaStock Europe: 14-15 October 2025 | Dublin, Ireland

Book tickets: https://saastock-europe.com/tickets/

🇺🇸 SaaStock USA 2025: April 2026 | Austin, Texas

Book tickets: https://saastock-usa.com/

🤝 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)

Nikola Mrkšić, Co-founder and CEO of PolyAI, joins Alex Theuma on the SaaS Revolution Show to reveal how voice AI agents are driving millions in revenue for its enterprise customers.

Nikola shares his journey from competing in math olympiads to building a leading global AI company. They discuss the evolution of AI, its role in social mobility, the impact on customer service, effective enterprise sales and AI pricing strategies, and more.

This episode covers:

- Nikola's background and how it shaped his approach to AI.

- Why AI has the potential to transform customer service even further.

- Why building a successful company requires delighting customers and improving products.

- The challenges and opportunities that come from rapid AI development.

- Sales strategies that align with enterprise customers.

- The challenges of outcome-based pricing and why it’s powerful.

- How AI voice agents can deliver significant ROI for businesses.

- The future of PolyAI focuses on scaling impact and improving customer experience.

- A look ahead to Nikola’s upcoming keynote at SaaStock Europe.

Guest links:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nikola-mrksic/

Website: https://poly.ai/  

 

 

Check out the other ways SaaStock is helping SaaS founders move their

business forward: 

🇮🇪 SaaStock Europe: 14-15 October 2025 | Dublin, Ireland

Book tickets: https://saastock-europe.com/tickets/

🇺🇸 SaaStock USA 2025: April 2026 | Austin, Texas

Book tickets: https://saastock-usa.com/

🤝 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)

Most AI companies launched after ChatGPT went viral in 2022. Fireflies.ai started in 2016 - years before the AI revolution began.

This week, Co-founder and CEO Krish Ramineni shares how he built a unicorn AI company with 80% organic growth.

Krish and Alex discuss:

- How being "too early" to AI became their biggest competitive advantage.

- Why they chose a PLG motion when sales-led was still the norm.

- Building AI products before LLMs existed and the products they can return to now the technology has caught up.

- Scaling to unicorn status with 80% organic growth and creating viral loops.

- The future beyond note-taking: AI teammates that attend meetings for you.

- How Krish manages his time while working seven days a week.

- Advice for founders navigating the AI bubble.

Guest links:

LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/krishramineni/

Website - https://fireflies.ai/

References:

SaaStock YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/@SaaStock

 

 

 

Check out the other ways SaaStock is helping SaaS founders move their

business forward: 

🇮🇪 SaaStock Europe: 14-15 October 2025 | Dublin, Ireland

Book tickets: https://saastock-europe.com/tickets/

🇺🇸 SaaStock USA 2025: April 2026 | Austin, Texas

Book tickets: https://saastock-usa.com/

🤝 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)

This week, we revisit one of our most popular episodes from 2023.

Alex Theuma is joined by Jonny White, founder & CEO at Ticket Tailor, who discusses their move from a lifestyle business to a growth business.

Jonny shares:

- Why he chose to bootstrap Ticket Tailor

- The anti-climatic reality of getting acquired (and why he bought Ticket Tailor back!)

- How they got from $2K MRR to over $5M in revenue

- Why they moved from a lifestyle business to a growth business

- How working with a coach helped propel the business

- How they deliver on being a "business for good"

- The importance of keeping a lean mindset and strategically building out the team

Guest links:

LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonnywhite1/

Website - https://www.tickettailor.com/

 

 

 

Check out the other ways SaaStock is helping SaaS founders move their

business forward: 

🇮🇪 SaaStock Europe: 14-15 October 2025 | Dublin, Ireland

Book tickets: https://saastock-europe.com/tickets/

🇺🇸 SaaStock USA 2025: April 2026 | Austin, Texas

Book tickets: https://saastock-usa.com/

🤝 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)

Alex Theuma speaks with Colin Nederkoorn, CEO & Co-Founder of Customer.io, about the 12 year journey to (almost) $100M ARR, running a fully distributed team across 30+ countries, and how AI is reshaping the future of SaaS.

Colin shares:

- How Customer.io scaled to 7,800+ customers worldwide.

- Why AI is no longer optional for SaaS companies, and how Customer.io has adapted.

- The challenges and opportunities of building SaaS in the AI era.

- Why growth, resilience, and adaptability are key for long-term success.

- His personal experience with AI tools and how they use AI internally at Customer.io

Guest links:

LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/colinnederkoorn/

Website - https://customer.io/  

 

 

Check out the other ways SaaStock is helping SaaS founders move their

business forward: 

🇮🇪 SaaStock Europe: 14-15 October 2025 | Dublin, Ireland

Book tickets: https://saastock-europe.com/tickets/

🇺🇸 SaaStock USA 2025: April 2026 | Austin, Texas

Book tickets: https://saastock-usa.com/

🤝 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)

Alex Theuma speaks with Kieran Flanagan about his learnings from leading AI and GTM at HubSpot.

Kieran shares his journey from leading HubSpot’s inbound and PLG transformations to spearheading its AI-powered GTM initiatives, including:

- Why integrating AI into your workflow is now essential for top performers.

- The rise of new AI-driven roles like AI trainers.

- The AI experiments at HubSpot driving 300–500% increases in booked meetings.

- How startups can apply AI to GTM without breaking the budget.

- A sneak peek at his upcoming SaaStock Europe keynote presentation.

Guest links:

LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/kieranjflanagan/

Marketing Against the Grain podcast - https://blog.hubspot.com/podcasts/marketing-against-the-grain

Website - https://www.kieranflanagan.io/

HubSpot website - http://hubspot.com/  

 

 

Check out the other ways SaaStock is helping SaaS founders move their

business forward: 

🇮🇪 SaaStock Europe: 14-15 October 2025 | Dublin, Ireland

Book tickets: https://saastock-europe.com/tickets/

🇺🇸 SaaStock USA 2025: April 2026 | Austin, Texas

Book tickets: https://saastock-usa.com/

🤝 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)

This week’s episode comes live from SaaStock USA 2025. Join special guests Greg Head (Practical Founders) and Josh Turley (CEO, RTA) as they discuss the story of transforming RTA from a 1970s COBOL-based business into a thriving SaaS company with a $100M valuation.

Josh shares:

- Why a fanatical focus on culture and clarity fueled RTA’s growth.

- The challenges of replatforming legacy software (and migrating customers.)

- How narrowing their niche to government fleets led to 95% retention & 120% NRR.

- Lessons from bootstrapping, using debt strategically, and closing a growth equity round.

Guest links:

LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/josh-turley/

Website: https://rtafleet.com/  

 

 

Check out the other ways SaaStock is helping SaaS founders move their

business forward: 

🇮🇪 SaaStock Europe: 14-15 October 2025 | Dublin, Ireland

Book tickets: https://saastock-europe.com/tickets/

🇺🇸 SaaStock USA 2025: April 2026 | Austin, Texas

Book tickets: https://saastock-usa.com/

🤝 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)

Alex is joined by Guy Podjarny, serial entrepreneur and Founder and CEO at Tessl (and Founder of Snyk).

In the episode, they discuss Guy’s incredible journey from founding Snyk (valued at $8.5B at its peak) to leaving the unicorn he built to tackle the next frontier: reimagining software development for the AI era.

Guy reveals why he believes software development will evolve from code-centric to spec-centric, how Tessl raised $125M to build this vision, and the lessons he’s learned about scaling AI-native companies in this ‘gold rush’ environment.

He discusses the challenges of building for an unknown future, managing high-caliber teams, and why he's already rebuilt his product three times.

Guest links:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/guypo/

Website: https://tessl.io/

Hear more from Guy on stage at SaaStock Europe.

https://saastock-europe.com/tickets/  

 

 

Check out the other ways SaaStock is helping SaaS founders move their

business forward: 

🇮🇪 SaaStock Europe: 14-15 October 2025 | Dublin, Ireland

Book tickets: https://saastock-europe.com/tickets/

🇺🇸 SaaStock USA 2025: April 2026 | Austin, Texas

Book tickets: https://saastock-usa.com/

🤝 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)