The Official SaaStr Podcast: SaaS | Founders

Latest Episodes:

SaaStr 308: RevenueCat CEO Jacob Eiting on Managing Millions in Mobile Subscriptions While Growing 20% a Month Feb 13, 2020

Show notes

RevenueCat is managing tens of millions of dollars in mobile subscriptions and growing 20% a month. Most of us think a lot about standard b2b and Cloud subscriptions, but we're still new to the issues, challenges and opportunities in mobile subscriptions.

SaaStr 307: What Gusto Taught Me About How To Build and Maintain Great Culture, The Biggest Problem in B2B Marketing & How To Truly Determine The Effective of Marketing Today with Jaleh Rezaei, Founder & CEO @ Mutiny Feb 11, 2020

Show notes

Jaleh Rezaei is the Founder & CEO @ Mutiny, the startup that allows you to personalise your website for each and every visitor. Jaleh has raised from some of the best in the early stage business with Mutiny including the likes of Y Combinator, Uncork Capital and Cowboy Ventures on the fund side and then Mathilde @ Front, Henrique @ Brex and Shan-Lyn Ma @ Zola on the operator side. Prior to founding Mutiny, Jaleh spent an incredible 4 years at Gusto seeing their hypergrowth first hand as one of the first 10 employees. If that was not enough, Jaleh has also enjoyed advisory roles at both Google and Y Combinator.

In Today's Episode We Discuss:

How Jaleh made her way into the world of SaaS as one of the first team members at Gusto and how that led to her founding Mutiny most recently?
What were Jaleh's biggest takeaways from her time at Gusto? How did that time impact her operating mentality with Mutiny today? How did her time at Gusto teach her about the right way to build company culture? Where do so many go wrong with this?
What does Jaleh believe is the biggest problem in SaaS marketing today? How does Jaleh specifically use ABM to acquire customers and leads effectively? What price points is required for an ABM strategy to be viable?
How does Jaleh approach the issue of determining the success of marketing? Should marketing be held accountable to a number tied directly to revenue? How does brand marketing play into this? Where are the nuances here?

Jaleh's 60 Second SaaStr:

What is the hardest role to hire for today?
Hardest element for Jaleh of her role with Mutiny today?
What does Jaleh know now that she wishes she had known when she entered the world of SaaS?

Read the 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 306: Bessemer Ventures Partner Alex Ferrara on State of the Cloud 2019: Europa Edition Feb 06, 2020

Show notes

Join Bessemer Venture Partners' Alex Ferrara as he takes a look at trends and predictions for the cloud industry in 2019. One of the most popular sessions from SaaStr Annual, this presentation will provide an in-depth look at the cloud computing industry across Europe and globally.

Find the video and full transcript on our blog.

Sponsor message: Remote and hybrid teams aren't the future of work-- they're the present. Owl Labs is embracing this revolution and is here to provide remote workers with a virtual seat at the table with the Meeting Owl. Their 360° smart video conferencing camera can recognize and highlight any speaker at the table using an array of 8 microphones. Check it out for yourself at owllabs.com!

SaaStr 305: Lessons From Scaling Box From 5 Employees To IPO & The Right Way For Startups To Approach Partnerships with Karen Page, General Partner @ B Capital Group Feb 03, 2020

Show notes

Karen Page is a General Partner @ B Capital Group with a portfolio including the likes of Bird, Branch, Icertis, Evidation Health and Ninja Van to name a few. Prior to joining the world of venture, Karen was a Senior Director at Apple and before Apple, Karen spent an incredible 9 years at Box as a founding member of the executive team, where she was responsible for defining and leading Box's Industry GTM strategy. Plus, from 2007 until 2013, Karen ran all of Box's business development, partnership, and strategic alliance activities. If that was not enough, Karen is also on the board of some incredible companies including Deputy and Plastiq.

In Today's Episode We Discuss:

How Karen made her way into the world of SaaS as one of the first employees at Box and then how that led to her transition to the world of investing with B Capital?
What were Karen's biggest takeaways from seeing the hyper-scaling at Box? How did helping Aaron raise the Series B and onwards inform her view of what it takes to raise funding from the best SaaS investors? How does Karen think her mindset will shift when making the move from angel to now institutionally investing with B Capital?
When does Karen think is the right time for startups to think about partnerships? What questions should they ask in the "dating" phase of a potential partnership? What are the red flags? Does Karen agree that signing a massive partner too early can be dangerous? What does Karen recommend in terms of getting in front of the best CIOs?
Is Karen concerned by the compression of fundraising timelines? How does Karen meet entrepreneurs before they go out to raise? How does Karen advise founders when it comes to the question of whether they should always be raising or not?

Karen's 60 Second SaaStr:

What does Karen know now that she wishes she had known entering the SaaS industry?
What is Karen's favourite book? Why?
Can a partnership be too big too early for a startup?

Read the 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:

You need to try Zoho CRM, catering to businesses of all sizes, guaranteeing shorter sales cycles and higher customer retention rates. Who does not love that? Plus, the software gives you complete visibility and control over your customer's life cycle and equips you to connect with your customers across every channel. It also offers integrations with over 300 of the most popular apps on the market. While change is inevitable, it can be comfortable with Zoho CRM. Sign up with Zoho CRM in 2 easy steps! First, visit zohocrm.com/saastr, and then hit the "get started" button. It's as simple as it sounds! Start your FREE trial button by clicking the button on the same page. You'll also be happy to know that Zoho CRM offers a version that's completely FREE! Sign up with Zoho - The worlds favourite CRM!

SaaStr 304: CircleCI CRO Jane Kim on Scaling up Your Sales Managers: 5 Mistakes New Leaders Make Jan 30, 2020

Show notes

If your SaaS business has a sales team, there's no way to grow 100% year-over-year without also growing your sales leadership. In this talk, CircleCI VP of Revenue Jane Kim will talk about the 5 mistakes all new sales leaders make. Knowing the common pitfalls won't stop you or your team from making them, but it will help build the most important skill any manager can have: resiliency. Come and learn how to build great leaders so you can grow your team, and ultimately, your business.

Find the video and full transcript on our blog.

Sponsor message: With up to 20 times higher limits, up to 5 million dollars, and huge rewards like 2x back on recurring SaaS spend and 4x back on Brex Travel. The Brex corporate credit card is designed for startups, all with no personal guarantee. Sign up at brex.com and get card fees waived for life with code SaaStr19.

SaaStr 303: What It Takes To Build Dev Communities and Early Developer Adoption, How To Structure Trials and Freemium For Optimum Success and The 4 Different Pricing Variables To Consider with Eugenio Pace, Founder & CEO @ Auth0 Jan 27, 2020

Show notes

Eugenio Pace is the Founder & CEO @ Auth0, the startup that allows you to rapidly integrate authentication and authorization for web, mobile, and legacy applications so you can focus on your core business. To date, Eugenio has raised over $213m with Auth0 from some of the best in the business including Meritech, Sapphire, Manu Kumar @ K9, Bessemer and Trinity. Prior to founding Auth0, Eugenio spent an incredible 12 years at Microsoft leading the Program Management team in the patterns & practices group at Microsoft.

In Today's Episode We Discuss:

How Eugenio made his way into the world of startups with the founding of Auth0? What were his biggest takeaways from 12 years watching the hyper-growth of Microsoft first hand?
How does being a developer-first product fundamentally change the go-to-market? Who has done this best over the last few years? What have they done that has allowed them to scale faster than others? What has been Eugenio's takeaways in what works when building developer communities and early developer adoption?
How does Eugenio respond to the common thinking that "devs don't have the budget"? Does this limit your ability to expand into large ACVs once in an organisation? How does Eugenio approach the issue of agency when selling to CIOs but having devs use the product?
What have been Eugenio's biggest lessons in what it takes to make a freemium product successful? How does one know how much of the secret sauce to giveaway? How does Eugenio approach pricing today through 4 different variables? How does Eugenio adopt a variable pricing mechanism that does not discourage usage?

Eugenio's 60 Second SaaStr:

Quality or quantity of logos in the early days?
What does Eugenio know now that he wishes he had known at the beginning of his time at Auth0?
What is the hardest element of his role today as CEO? What is he doing to really upscale there?

Read the 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 302: New Relic CCO Roger Scott on 7 Tips and Tricks to Having Happy Customers at Scale Jan 23, 2020

Show notes

Customer expectations are at an all-time high, making it more and more difficult for companies to please them. Companies who understand their customers well are the ones who rise to the top over their competitors. New Relic, provider of real-time insights for software-driven businesses has this formula figured out. Hear from Roger Scott, New Relic's EVP and Chief Customer Officer as he shares his 7 tips and tricks for keeping your customers happy— and how to do so at a large scale.

Find the video and full transcript on our blog.

SaaStr 301: BigID's Founder Dimitri Sirota on Raising $105M In The Last 5 Months of 2019, How To Know When To Pour Fuel On The Fire & How Founders Should Think About Runway and If There Is Cash On The Table, Whether You Take It? Jan 20, 2020

Show notes

Dimitri Sirota is the Founder & CEO @ BigID, the startup that provides advanced data discovery and intelligence for the data centre and cloud. To date Dimitri has raised over $145M for BigID from some of the best in the world of enterprise including Boldstart, Scale Venture Partners, Bessemer, Salesforce Ventures and Tiger Global who just a couple of weeks ago, led their latest $50M Series C. Before to BigID, Dimitri founded 2 prior businesses, the first in 1999 being a VPN security company called eTunnels and then the second being Layer Technologies where Dimitri enjoyed an incredible 10 year journey leading to their acquisition by CA Technologies in 2013. Dimitri is also an angel investor with a portfolio including Zume Pizza, Modalyst and TalentClick.

In Today's Episode We Discuss:

How Dimitri made his way into the world of enterprise software and came to found BigID as his third company?
What specifically would Dimitri advise founders when the interests of their investor are not aligned to theirs? What is the right way to manage that situation? Does Dimitri believe that founders should always be raising? Does Dimitri believe when the money is on the table, you should take it? What is the right way for founders to think about valuation?
What did the fundraising journey look like for BigID? What situation does every founder want to put themselves in? How does Dimitri think about runway and using fundraising for optionality? What does Dimitri make of the rise of pre-emptive rounds? How does Dimitri determine when is the right time to pour fuel on the fire?

Dimitri's 60 Second SaaStr:

What is his biggest strength and biggest weakness as a CEO?
Who was the first check in BigID? How did the check come about?
What does Dimitri believe that most around him disbelieve?

Read the 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 300: Algolia CTO Julien Lemoine on a Founder's Guide to Scaling Applications: When to Build, When to Buy and What Breaks Jan 16, 2020

Show notes

When it comes to seamlessly scaling your applications, a top-notch engineering team will be your foundation. Next comes the decisions to build or buy your infrastructure, DNS, monitoring, and analytics tools. Julian Lemoine, Co-Founder, and CTO of Algolia will share his lessons learned on how to stay focused and innovative as you scale while also avoiding the innovation for innovation's sake pitfalls.

Find the video and full transcript on our blog.

With up to 20 times higher limits, up to 5 million dollars, and huge rewards like 2x back on recurring SaaS spend and 4x back on Brex Travel. The Brex corporate credit card is designed for startups, all with no personal guarantee. Sign up at brex.com and get card fees waived for life with code SaaStr19

SaaStr 299: Automation Anywhere CIO, Yousuf Khan on The Big Green and Red Flags When Pitching CIOs Today, How To Approach Pricing Discussions with CIOs & How to Make Procurement Processes Successful Jan 13, 2020

Show notes

Yousuf Khan is the Chief Information Officer @ Automation Anywhere, the only web-based and cloud-native RPA platform. To date, Automation Anywhere has raised over $840m in financing from Salesforce Ventures, Workday, General Atlantic and NEA to name a few. Prior to Automation Anywhere, Yousuf was the CIO & VP of Customer Success @ Moveworks. During his time at the company, they raised over $108m from Lightspeed, ICONIQ, Kleiner, Sapphire and Bain Capital. Before Moveworks, Yousuf was CIO @ Pure Storage during their period of hypergrowth both as a private and public company. Finally, before Pure, Yousuf's first role in the valley was with Qualys again as CIO where he owned the entire global IT budget.

In Today's Episode We Discuss:

How Yousuf made his way from the UK to the valley and how that led to his becoming one of the leading CIOs today in the rising prominence of CIOs in enterprise?
What are the biggest green lights for CIOs when startups are pitching them? Why does Yousuf believe now more than ever, the buyer experience is more important than the price? What makes for the best buyer experience for the CIO? What are the biggest red flags CIOs see when startups are pitching them? What must startups always remember when pitching CIOs?
How does Yousuf advise CIOs to approach pricing strategy when pitching CIOs? What must startups remember about how CIOs think about price? What other elements of the contract should startups really spend a lot of time focusing on? Where do founders make mistakes in negotiation? What can they do to enforce a sense of urgency when signing new clients?
What can startups do to actively work with procurement teams and make the process as fast as possible? How does Yousuf advise founders to think about customised procurement requests to fit certain buyers? What do CIOs really want to see in the form of security and compliance? How can startups clearly and articulately present their plans for security, compliance and change management?

Yousuf's 60 Second SaaStr: