The Official SaaStr Podcast: SaaS | Founders

Latest Episodes:

SaaStr 328: SaaStr CEO Jason Lemkin and Gorgias CEO Romain Lapeyre on What They're Seeing with SMB E-commerce Customers Apr 23, 2020

Show notes

Romain Lapeyre is CEO of Gorgias. Gorgias is the leading help center on the Shopify platform, and that gives them a pulse into a large segment of SMBs in particular. They have almost 2,500 customers in segments both struggling (fashion, luxury), and growing (electronics, etc.). They are coming up on $10m ARR but aren't there quite yet, so a lot like a lot of you, or where you'll be soon enough.

You can find the video and notes from this discussion on our blog: https://www.saastr.com/what-are-you-seeing-001-with-romain-lapeyre-ceo-of-gorgias-2500-smb-e-commerce-customers/

SaaStr 327: Domo's Chief Strategy Officer, John Mellor on Why COVID Will Do More For Digital Transformation Than Any Other C-Level Initiative, What Great Change Management Looks Like In Practice & How To Gain True Bottoms Up Adoption When Also Selling Top Apr 21, 2020

Show notes

John Mellor is Chief Strategy Officer @ Domo, the company that allows you to leverage BI at scale to empower your team with data. Prior to their IPO, Domo raised funding from the likes of Benchmark, Founders Fund, a16, Greylock and IVP to name a few. As for John, prior to Domo he served as vice president for strategy and business operations for Adobe's Digital Experience business, driving more than $3 billion in annual revenue. John joined Adobe through the company's acquisition of Omniture in 2009, where he served as executive vice president of marketing, driving all marketing efforts to strategically advance the industry's largest standalone web analytics business.

In Today's Episode We Discuss:

How did John make his way into the world of SaaS over 2 decades ago and how did that lead to his running a $3Bn ARR business line at Adobe and lead to his joining Domo? What were John's biggest takeaways from his decade at Adobe?
Why does John believe that COVID will be a bigger accelerant than any other C-level led initiative? For vendors going through that digital transformation with their customers, what is the right tone to adopt that is both empathetic and achieves business objectives? Is digital transformation a technology challenge or a behavioural challenge?
How will a 100% virtual event environment impact physical events when and if they do come back? What were John's biggest takeaways from running Domo's annual event virtually? What worked? What did not work? On a conversion basis, how did it compare to in-person events? How should we structure content for these virtual events?
How does John think about the role of leadership in a crisis such as this? What is the right tone for the leader to adopt? Where does John believe many leadership teams go wrong in times such as this? How can leadership teams ensure that a crisis is not self-fulfilling and how can one prevent that mindset?

John's 60 Second SaaStr:

What does John know now that he wishes he had known when he entered the world of SaaS?
What is the optimal relationship between the CEO and Chief Strategy Officer?
What would John most like to change about the world of SaaS

Read the full transcript on our blog: https://www.saastr.com/saastr-podcasts-for-the-week-with-domo-and-gorgias-april-24-2020/

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

SaaStr 326: Gusto COO Lexi Reese on The Playbook to Scaling High-Performance Teams Apr 16, 2020

Show notes

Gusto's Lexi Reese walks you through scaling high performance teams. Is trust earned or given? How do you communicate for impact?

This podcast is an excerpt from Lexi's session at SaaStr Scale. You can find the full video and transcript on our blog: https://www.saastr.com/high-performance-teams/

SaaStr 325: How Marketing Teams Can Replace The Leads Lost From Events in A COVID World & The Right Tone To Adopt With Clients That Is Caring and Achieves Business Objectives with Carolyn Guss, VP Corporate Marketing @ PagerDuty Apr 14, 2020

Show notes

Carolyn Guss is VP of Corporate Marketing @ PagerDuty, the company keeping your digital operations running perfectly with their real-time operations platform. Prior to their IPO in April 2019, PagerDuty had raised funding from some of the best in the business including a16, Bessemer, Meritech, Harrison Metal and Elad Gil to name a few. As for Carolyn, prior to joining PagerDuty she spent 5 years as the GM of Method Communications San Francisco Office and before that spent time on the other side of the pond with a close to 7-year stint at Orange as Head of Corporate PR and Head of US Communications.

In Today's Episode We Discuss:

How Carolyn made her way across the pond from Head of US Communications at Orange to GM of Method in SF to then playing a key role in the marketing team at PagerDuty?
How does Carolyn think startups and larger companies can replace the leads that are lost from having no events in a COVID world? How are PagerDuty shifting their strategy? How does PagerDuty think about brand marketing? Does it have to be tied to a number directly tied to revenue? What are the challenges with brand marketing?
What does Carolyn believe is the right tone to approach customers within this time? How can one be supportive but also drive towards business objectives? In terms of tone, what is the right tone to approach the broader team with? How does PagerDuty gain a sense of company morale at scale? What tools do they use?
How does Carolyn think about the benefits of transparency both with employees and with customers? Is there an extent to the benefits of transparency? Can one ever been too transparent? How does one think about this in a very corporate perspective with PagerDuty now being a public company?

Carolyn's 60 Second SaaStr:

What does Carolyn know now that she wishes she had known at the beginning of her time in marketing?
Hardest element of her role with PagerDuty today?
Who is killing it in the world of SaaS marketing? Why?

Read the full transcript on our blog: https://www.saastr.com/saastr-podcasts-for-the-week-with-pagerduty-and-gusto-april-17-2020/

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

SaaStr 324: SaaStr CEO Jason Lemkin and Bessemer Venture Partners' Partner Byron Deeter on The Current State of Venture Capital & Cloud Apr 09, 2020

Show notes

Join SaaStr CEO Jason Lemkin and Bessemer Venture Partners Partner Byron Deeter for a deep dive on what's going on in Venture Capital and Cloud.

This podcast is an excerpt from Jason and Byron's webinar "Bridging the Gap: The Current State of Venture Capital and Cloud." You can find the full webinar on our YouTube channel: https://youtu.be/UDfIC5prskA

SaaStr 323: The Core Challenges in Moving To Remote Work Overnight, What Does Great Change Management Look Like & The Optimal Position For Customer Success In The Organisation with Bhavin Shah, Founder & CEO @ Moveworks Apr 06, 2020

Show notes

Bhavin Shah is the Founder & CEO @ Moveworks, the cloud-based AI platform, purpose-built for large enterprises, that resolves employees' IT support issues⁠—instantly and automatically. To date Bhavin has raised over $108M with Moveworks from the likes of Mamoon Hamid @ Kleiner Perkins, Arij Janmohamed @ Lightspeed, Bain Capital, Sapphire Ventures and ICONIQ. Prior to Moveworks, Bhavin was the Founder and CEO @ Refresh which was later acquired by LinkedIn and then before that founded Gazillion Entertainment, a company he scaled to over 200 employees.

In Today's Episode We Discuss:

How Bhavin made his way into the wonderful world of SaaS and came to found Moveworks?
What are the core challenges IT teams are facing as a result of the move to remote work? Where do many make mistakes here? What can one do from a structural perspective to set them up for success when moving to remote?
What does great change management look like in Bhavin's mind today? Where do so many go wrong here? How does this change in the world of remote? Who should be involved in executing on the change management plan?
How does Bhavin think about the role of customer success today? Why does Bhavin believe that customer success and product should be in one org? How does Bhavin think about the interplay of marketing and customer success? Is marketing moving closer and closer to customer success with their content?

Bhavin's 60 Second SaaStr:

What is the hardest element of Bhavin's role with Moveworks today?
Hardest role to hire for today? Why?
If Bhavin could change one thing in the world of SaaS today, what would it be?

Read the full transcript on our blog: https://www.saastr.com/saastr-podcasts-for-the-week-with-moveworks-and-bessemer-venture-partners-april-10-2020/

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

SaaStr 322: ICONIQ Capital General Partner Doug Pepper on Key Lessons from a $5B SaaS Category Leader Apr 02, 2020

Show notes

Many people make the false assumption that the path for a highly successful SaaS company is straight "up and to the right". Of course, for those involved, the reality of the journey is characterized by a series of obstacles that must be navigated. Fmr. Shasta Ventures Doug Pepper will share the key challenges that were overcome to allow Marketo to become a $5B SaaS Category Leader in Marketing Automation.

This podcast is an excerpt from Doug's session at SaaStr Europa. You can find the full video and transcript on our blog.

SaaStr 321: Front CMO Anthony Kennada on Adapting Marketing Playbooks To Changing ACV's and Sales Cycles, The Right Way To Think About Brand Marketing and How To Fundamentally Build a Challenger Brand Mar 30, 2020

Show notes

Anthony Kennada is the CMO @ Front, the startup that provides your team with better email so they can treat every customer like your only customer. To date, Front have raised over $138M from some leading names including Sequoia, Eric Yuan @ Zoom, Ryan and Jared Smith @ Qualtrics, Michael Cannon-Brookes and Jay Simmons @ Atlassian and Frederic Kerrest @ Okta to name a few. As for Anthony, prior to Front Anthony was the founding CMO at Gainsight where he and his team are credited with creating the Customer Success category. At Gainsight Anthony and the team developed a new playbook for B2B marketing that fueled the company's growth from $0 to over $100M of ARR. If that was not enough, Anthony is also the author of Category Creation: How to Build a Brand that Customers, Employees, and Investors Will Love. The book debuted as a number one new release on Amazon.

In Today's Episode We Discuss:

How Anthony made his way into the world of SaaS starting in the sales team at Box and how that led to his entering the world of marketing and creating the customer success category?
How does Anthony marketing playbook change when making the move from Gainsight with higher ACV's and longer sales cycles to Front with lowers ACV's and much higher volume? How does Anthony think about ABM today with Front given the lower ACVs? At what ticket size does ABM make sense?
How does Anthony feel about brand marketing? Why did Anthony and Front decide now was the right time to engage with billboards? How does Anthony think about data and tracking for brand marketing? Does Anthony believe that all marketing has to be tied to a number directly related to revenue?
How does Anthony seeing a changing relationship between customer success and marketing? How is marketing being pushed further into the realms of CS? What is the optimal relationship between CS and marketing? How does this compare to the relationship of sales and marketing more traditionally?

Anthony's 60 Second SaaStr:

What does Anthony know now that he wishes he had known at the beginning of his time in marketing?
What is the hardest element of Anthony's role with Front today?
Who does Anthony think is killing it in the world of marketing today?

Read the full transcript on our blog.

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

SaaStr 320: SaaStr CEO Jason Lemkin and Gainsight CEO Nick Mehta on What It Was Like in 2008-2009 and What We Can Expect for 2020 Mar 26, 2020

Show notes

We're obviously in a very unique situation today. The pace at which Corona is impacting us all right now is so fast, it's hard to keep up. Today is different from other times but in SaaS. It will probably be like '08-'09 downturn — just faster. Join Jason Lemkin, CEO and Founder of SaaStr, and Nick Mehta, CEO of Gainsight, as they take a look back at what happened to them as a SaaS vendor in '08-'09, and what learnings you can leverage.

This podcast is an excerpt from Jason and Nick's webinar "What We're Doing Now. And How We Got Through '08-'09." You can find the full replay here.

SaaStr 319: How To Think About And Make Pre-Emptive Burn Cuts, Operational Survival In Times Of Uncertainty & Managing Your Psychology As Founder & CEO with May Habib, Founder & CEO @ Qordoba Mar 23, 2020

Show notes

May Habib is the Founder & CEO @ Qordoba, the platform that helps everyone at your company write with the same style, terminology and voice. To date, May has raised over $21M in funding with Qordoba from the likes of Upfront Ventures, Aspect Ventures, Bonfire Ventures and Michael Stoppelman to name a few. Before entering the world of SaaS, May was a vice president at one of the world's largest sovereign wealth funds, where she was the first employee on the technology investment team, building a portfolio now worth over $20B. Before that, May started her career in the New York Office of Lehman Brothers raising capital for software companies.

In Today's Episode We Discuss:

How May made her way into the world of startups and SaaS from being a VP at one of the world's largest sovereign wealth funds in the Middle East?
How does May think about and assess operational survival in times of such uncertainty? Why does this downturn feel so different to prior downturns? Operationally, what needs to fundamentally change about your processes?
How does May think about when is the right time to engage with pre-emptive burn cuts? Where does one look first in the organisation when making these cuts? How does one structure those discussions? What is the right way to do it? What is the right way to communicate the cuts to the team, customers and investors?
How does one keep the existing teams spirits high when they have just seen many of their friends be released? What is the right way to manage those discussions? What can founders do to build unity in their team now everyone is WFH? What has worked well for the Qordoba team? Where do many go wrong here?

May's 60 Second SaaStr:

What is the most challenging element of May's role with Qordoba today?
What does May know now that she wishes she had known at the beginning?
If May could change one thing about the world of SaaS, what would it be and why?

Read the full transcript on our blog.

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