On the latest episode of the SaaS Revolution Show we chat with SalesLoft CMO, Sydney Sloan. She shares lessons from her vast experience in customer-focused marketing and the metrics she has learned to swear by and report. 

Sydney has always been customer focused. Even back in the 90s when there were no CRM systems and no one spoke about the importance of myopically focusing on the customer. At the time she was doing what would end up a 15 year stint at Adobe - the place Sydney says she grew up in a way. At trade shows she would stand beside her sales colleague and have long conversations with people who visited their booth about their problems and challenges. Towards the end of her time in Adobe, she finally had a more customer experience role, leading the Customer Marketing. From then on, there was no going back.

Her career would see her work for companies such as Jive Software and Alfresco. A little over a year ago, she joined Salesloft where she has been building a strong relationship between Marketing and Sales and has influenced how the work of marketing is reported to the board.

Listen on to hear:

Sydney Sloan is one of many excellent speakers we will host at SaaStock19 in Dublin this October alongside Claire Hughes Johnson, COO, Stripe, Leela Srinivasan, CMO, Survey Monkey, Kathryn Petralia, Co-Founder and President, Kabbage, and Girish Mathrubootham, CEO, Freshworks. Grab a ticket now at the best possible price.

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

🇮🇪 SaaStock Europe: 14-15 October 2025 | Dublin, Ireland
Book you tickets: https://saastock-europe.com/tickets/

🇺🇸 SaaStock USA 2025: April 2026 | Austin, Texas
Join the waitlist: 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 guest on the SaaS Revolution Show is Sophia Eng, VP of Growth Marketing at Trade the Fifth and Founder of Women in Growth, a support group for female executives. In August 2017 an article she wrote in response to an internal memo that a Google engineer had written to discredit the ability of women to be in STEM careers, became viral overnight. Quoting outdated facts, the internal memo was leaked to the public and as soon as Sophia read it, she wrote a manifesto to urge women and other minorities to speak up and tell their stories so the facts can be straightened. 

On the episode, Sophia shares more about the experience and what has happened since. She talks in detail about the continued importance that people of diverse backgrounds tell their story, how vital it is not too give up on efforts to bring more diversity and inclusion in tech as we are only at the tip of the speer and one characteristic that women and other minorities possess that is essential for innovation.

A child of Vietnamese immigrants, Sophia experienced a tremendous amount of pressure to succeed from a young age. She developed a strong sense of dedication, resilience, and grit. Her upbringing helped to foster her growth-hacking mindset from a very young age, which she has applied at every job she has had. She worked harder than any of her peers but the negative part of growing up like this was that Sophia didn’t know how to speak up for herself. Consequently, she has learned to do that very well, as you will hear on the podcast.

Sophia is one of many excellent speakers we will host at SaaStock West Cost the most actionable conference for growth stage SaaS Founders & Execs, taking place in San Francisco on September 10th and 11th. There she will be joined by speakers such as Sonja Gittens Ottley, Head of Diversity and Inclusion at Asana, Leela Srinivasan, CMO, Survey Monkey, Dan Adika, CEO and Co-founder of WalkMe and many others. Grab a ticket now at the best possible price.

Find out more about the initiatives we have in regards to fostering Diversity and Inclusion through the Taking Stock Program. If you have experienced any form of discrimination, which prevents you from attending SaaStock West Coast or any other of our conferences, please apply for our Taking Stock Scholarship. 

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

🇮🇪 SaaStock Europe: 14-15 October 2025 | Dublin, Ireland
Book you tickets: https://saastock-europe.com/tickets/

🇺🇸 SaaStock USA 2025: April 2026 | Austin, Texas
Join the waitlist: 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)

The start of Dan Martell entrepreneurial path has all the markings of a Hollywood film - driving a stolen car, chased by police, with a gun beside him. The latest guest on the Struggle, the Canadian 5-time founder has quite the story of trials, tribulations on the way to success.

Beyond being a dad, a husband and a Canadian, Dan would tell you that his defining characteristics are someone who is driven, someone who constantly asks what is possible and what does he need to do to fulfill his dreams and goals. We know where, when and how his entrepreneurial story begins but what has followed since is as interesting, tough and educational.

A lot of it was, in his words, soul crushing. It took him nearly 10 years and 2 failed companies to get a better idea of how to do business right. That coupled with coming across the book “Love is the killer app” gave him the knowledge to be successful.

15 years and three more companies after, Dan has managed to achieve successful exits all the while learning a massive amount of lessons when it comes to running SaaS companies. This total of 25 years from that night when he was 17 and the honesty with which he is able to speak about them, makes him a true treasure trove and we are grateful for the time he gave us on this extended conversation.

Hope you enjoy the interview and pick up some of the many lessons about building companies the right way.

If you can be as honest and open as Dan or any of the other guests we have hosted on the Struggle, get in touch and send us your story on [email protected].

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

🇮🇪 SaaStock Europe: 14-15 October 2025 | Dublin, Ireland
Book you tickets: https://saastock-europe.com/tickets/

🇺🇸 SaaStock USA 2025: April 2026 | Austin, Texas
Join the waitlist: 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)

On the latest episode of the SaaS Revolution Show, we host Rory O’Driscoll, Partner of Scale Venture Partners and talk about the things he believes SaaS entrepreneurs should be mindful of even as the SaaS industry seems to be thriving.

Originally from Ireland, Rory moved to California 28 years ago. For 25 of those, he has been investing in enterprise software with Scale Venture Partners and its predecessor. In that time he has learned a lot of things about the world of venture funding, starting with the fact of just how deceivingly easy all of it seems, yet how difficult it is to make the right decisions about entrepreneurs and their companies and have the conviction to see them through the tough times.  

Rory has also learned to count his blessings and remember that a lot of the successful bets he has made have a lot to do with luck. That humbleness is what keeps him cautious even in the best of times for SaaS and in this interview he shares some of his reservations about valuations, market saturation, the increasing competition, making the economics work and others.

Listen on to hear:

Rory O’Driscoll is one of many excellent speakers we will host at SaaStock19 in Dublin this October alongside Claire Hughes Johnson, COO, Stripe, Leela Srinivasan, CMO, Survey Monkey, Kathryn Petralia, COO, Kabbage, and Girish Mathrubootham, CEO, Freshworks. Grab a ticket now at the best possible price.

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

🇮🇪 SaaStock Europe: 14-15 October 2025 | Dublin, Ireland
Book you tickets: https://saastock-europe.com/tickets/

🇺🇸 SaaStock USA 2025: April 2026 | Austin, Texas
Join the waitlist: 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)

One of the last sessions at SaaStock18 was a bonus chat that brought a double dose of Canadian accents - April Dunford, the world’s foremost expert on positioning sat for a conversation with Mark Organ, CEO and founder of Influitive. Even though they spoke at 4;20 on the day weed was legalised in Toronto, the topic they covered on the day was slightly different - category creation. On this week’s episode we are bringing you their entire chat.

Category creation had been coming up again and again during the two days of the conference. It’s something that Mark, who has started 7 companies in his career, two of which category creators, is all too familiar with. His first one was Eloqua, which he founded 20 years ago and the second is his current company, Influitive, which he started 8 years ago. In their conversation, April and Mark talk about the origin story of each, to what extend Mark realized he was creating categories at the time, how he sold the idea to funders and customers, and many other. Both agree just how difficult category creation is and why you need to be built for the ordeal it would take.

Mark and April also touch on the subject of the future of marketing and where the industry as a whole is going.

Both Mark and April will be returning to Dublin, for SaaStock19. There, they will be joined by SaaS thought leaders such as Claire Hughes Johnson, COO, Stripe, Leela Srinivasan, CMO, Survey Monkey, Kathryn Petralia, COO, Kabbage, and Girish Mathrubootham, CEO, Freshworks. Grab a ticket now at the best possible price.

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

🇮🇪 SaaStock Europe: 14-15 October 2025 | Dublin, Ireland
Book you tickets: https://saastock-europe.com/tickets/

🇺🇸 SaaStock USA 2025: April 2026 | Austin, Texas
Join the waitlist: 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)

On the latest episode of the SaaS Revolution Show, we speak with Alison Murdock, CMO of SocialChorus, a platform for planning, creating, publishing, and measuring employee communications.

Alison has spent the last 25 years in Silicon Valley working in a variety of media and SaaS companies. She started her career wanting to be a writer and her very first job was writing for a magazine in Paris. As she transitioned more into marketing, writing remained a fundamental skill for her and to this day, Alison believes that what companies choose to write or speak about matters most. Everywhere she has worked, she has always aimed to find the crux of the issue that companies are trying to nail with content and the story they are trying to tell.

When it comes to Social Chorus that is a particularly important thing to focus on as they sell to a plethora of companies, that are often undergoing digital transformation. In this interview Alison shares many nuggets from her experience including:

Alison Murdock is one of many excellent marketing executives that we will host at SaaStock19 in Dublin this October including Leela Srinivasan, CMO, Survey Monkey, Sydney Sloan, CMO, Salesloft, Dave Gerhardt VP Marketing Drift and Kieran Flanagan, VP Marketing HubSpot. Grab a ticket to see them and many other fabulous marketers who will be in Dublin.

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

🇮🇪 SaaStock Europe: 14-15 October 2025 | Dublin, Ireland
Book you tickets: https://saastock-europe.com/tickets/

🇺🇸 SaaStock USA 2025: April 2026 | Austin, Texas
Join the waitlist: 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)

On this month’s episode of the Struggle, Alex Theuma speaks with Liam Boogar-Azoulay, Head of Marketing at MadKudu, a predictive lead scoring solution for SaaS companies.

Liam has had somewhat of an unusual path professionally and personally. When everyone was moving to Silicon Valley, he moved away from it, landing in Paris. While most people would hone their skills in a particular area first and then dare to start their own company, Liam’s first job was starting Rude Baguette, a blog devoted to startups.  

He had started it almost as soon as he moved to Paris. Rude Baguette would end up being one of the biggest startup publications in France, which employed 10 people. That is until Liam brought it to bankruptcy, a slow one as you will hear him describe in this interview, but a bankruptcy nevertheless. In retrospect, he knows exactly what went wrong but at the time some of his flaws were hidden. One thing he realized from the experience is that he had enjoyed building the brand far more than being a CEO. With that in mind, he joined Algolia as their first ever Brand Director, 11 weeks after he had filed for bankruptcy. They caused mistakes, which he would repeat at Algolia, a company he joined 11 weeks after filing for bankruptcy.

He would spend a total of a year and a half at Algolia, leaving it in almost as dramatic a fashion as folding Rude Baguette. His time there was marked by some incredible feats like a full rebrand but also some pretty big mistakes, deriving from often not knowing what to do but never admitting to it or asking for help, his innate need to always portray he knew the answer getting in the way. By the time he started with Madkudu, Liam knew there were major gaps he needed help with or he would fail again. Admitting to his vulnerabilities openly Liam asked for an executive coach. MadKudu’s founders said yes.

As with all the other guests on The Struggle, we have the utmost respect for Liam for his openness, honesty, and willingness to learn from his shortcomings so others can learn from them too.

As you will hear in the interview, Liam met Madkudu’s founder Frances at SaaStock. In fact, for a long time, Liam used to think SaaStock was called SaaStalk because of all of the invaluable conversations that take place during our conference for founders, executives and investors. If you want to partake in the networking, the life-changing conversations and lasting relationships, join us in Dublin this October for SaaStock19.

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

🇮🇪 SaaStock Europe: 14-15 October 2025 | Dublin, Ireland
Book you tickets: https://saastock-europe.com/tickets/

🇺🇸 SaaStock USA 2025: April 2026 | Austin, Texas
Join the waitlist: 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)

On this week’s episode of the SaaS Revolution Show, we talk with SaaStock East Coast speaker Eran Ben Shushan. He is Co-Founder and CEO of Bizzabo, a holistic event management platform, and shares how to make better hiring decisions​ as a company grows.

Originally from Tel Aviv, Israel, Eran moved to New York, three and a half years ago, as soon as the company found product-market fit. A former air force officer and a system’s engineer, Eran had his first experience with the magic and challenge of events over 12 years ago. His fascination with events was so intense that he decided to dip his toe in building a platform for them. He started Bizzabo with two other co-founders 7 years ago. Initially it was improving networking at events and aiming to engineer serendipity for attendees. However, early on, Eran and his two co-founders saw a far bigger opportunity.

Nowadays Bizzabo boast two offices, an employee count of 120 and has to date raised $57 million in VC funding. The growth has been tremendous but what Eran has made sure all along is that hiring the right people to support that growth has never been compromised.

Listen on to hear:

Eran Ben Shushan is part of an absolutely stellar lineup SaaStock East Coast in New York next week on June 4-5, which includes Ragy Thomas, CEO of Sprinklr, Patrick Campbell CEO of ProfitWell, Meghan Keany Anderson, VP marketing Hubspot, David Thompson, CMO of Freshworks. If you are interested in learning about implementing Product led strategies & Product led growth, scaling your sales team, moving your SaaS upmarket, convert users better and many other topics, join us there.

Grab a 50% discounted ticket.

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

🇮🇪 SaaStock Europe: 14-15 October 2025 | Dublin, Ireland
Book you tickets: https://saastock-europe.com/tickets/

🇺🇸 SaaStock USA 2025: April 2026 | Austin, Texas
Join the waitlist: 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)

On this week’s episode of the SaaS Revolution Show we speak with Diane Adams, Chief Culture and Talent Officer at Sprinklr and author of the book It Takes More than Casual Fridays and Free Coffee.

Diane has devoted her career to building and studying the role of culture in a company’s success. As the Chief Culture and Talent Officer at Sprinklr, Diane and her team are charting the course for building a high-performing and inclusive culture. No wonder then that the word her colleagues would use to describe her is obsessive in relation to figuring the puzzle that is company culture.

When asked what company culture is, Diane says it’s the consistent set of behaviours displayed inside an organization, rather than the words, the culture decks or the free coffees. Actual culture starts by understanding what people truly care about.

When she first joined Sprinklr over a year ago, she found a situation often observed in high-growth companies. The company culture had been great until it wasn’t anymore. Diane rolled her sleeves and began fixing that. One of the first things that was born out of that was the Employee delight Assurance Program

After they implemented that seemingly simple program, the results were incredible both in terms of engagement and attrition. Diane attributes that to the feedback mechanisms that showcases clearly what works and what doesn’t. As a result the company is showing a great deal of self-awareness.

Diane will sit down for a panel with Ragy Thomas to talk about how to empower leaders to motivate their teams to ensure they are disciplined in executing their strategy at SaaStock East Coast on June 4 and 5 in New York. The two are part of an absolute stellar line up that includes Nathan Latka, Aaron Krall, Patrick Campbell, Meghan Keaney Anderson, VP Marketing HubSpot, David Thompson, CMO of Freshworks. The list goes on and on. If you are curious you can read all about them and how they will help you scale your company. The important point is that we love our SaaS Revolution Show listeners so much that we want to give you a special 50% discount off tickets. Just use code REVOLUTION50 or just click here

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

🇮🇪 SaaStock Europe: 14-15 October 2025 | Dublin, Ireland
Book you tickets: https://saastock-europe.com/tickets/

🇺🇸 SaaStock USA 2025: April 2026 | Austin, Texas
Join the waitlist: 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)

On this month’s episode of The Struggle, we speak with Janna Bastow, Co-Founder and CEO of ProdPad, a SaaS platform for product management that helps product managers develop product strategy.

It took Janna about a week on the job as a product manager to realize that she didn’t have the tools necessary to do her job. Creating roadmaps, managing a backlog of features and writing specs was all done in Powerpoint and Excel, tools never created for such purposes. Yet for two years that is exactly what Janna used. Until one day she decided she had had enough of waiting for better tools and together with what would become her co-founder, Simon Cast, began building the tool she never had. Initially, Janna and Simon used it just for themselves but it didn’t take long until they realized that many other product managers just like them would find it useful.

In 2012 they quit their jobs and in February 2013 ProdPad was officially launched. They signed their first customer within the month, a customer that is still with them to this day.

However, it hasn’t been all breezy for ProdPad. On the contrary. In the six years since launching, Prodpad has been through the Plateau of Doom and has entertained the idea of VC funding back and forth, ultimately deciding to bootstrap and accepting the challenges that path comes with. The experience comes with many lessons, some regrets, and some mistakes. One thing that has been there from the beginning is the fundamental agreement between Janna and Simon that they were building a business, not a startup. Every decision has stemmed from that.

Like all the other guests on The Struggle, we have the utmost respect for Janna and the fact she never gave in to the struggle but instead always remained aware of why she was doing all this.

You can see Janna and many other incredible founders like her at SaaStock19 in October or if you cannot wait until then, at SaaStock East Coast this June 4-5. They too will share the struggles and the lessons they have picked up from the experience of growing and scaling their SaaS companies. Some of the speakers at SaaStock East Coast include Ragy Thomas, CEO and Co-Founder of Sprinklr, Jonathan Cherki, CEO and Co-Founder, ContentSquare and Julie Weill Persofsky, Partner at Winning By Design. As listeners to the show, you can avail of our 2-for-1 ticket deal. Grab yours now.

Listen to our previous episode with Janna.

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

🇮🇪 SaaStock Europe: 14-15 October 2025 | Dublin, Ireland
Book you tickets: https://saastock-europe.com/tickets/

🇺🇸 SaaStock USA 2025: April 2026 | Austin, Texas
Join the waitlist: 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)