The SaaSiest Podcast

129. Niclas Lilja, Founder & CEO, Younium - Going to the promised land for SaaS - the ups and downs!

In this episode, we speak with Niclas Lilja, Founder & CEO, Younium, the subscription management tool that integrates into your existing systems to streamline subscription management, invoicing/billing, financial reporting, and data insights.

We talked with Niclas about how it is to take your SaaS to the US! In particular, we are looking into the good, bad, and the ugly that the first year of business in the US brings:

- When is your SaaS business ready to establish a local presence in the US?

- What have been the main challenges in the first year in business in the US?

- What adjustments and potential compromises must you make to make it fly in the US?

- From a personal perspective, what do you need to consider when moving your entire family over?

These are some of the many questions we address with Niclas. Please tune in to hear what Niclas has to say about the first year in the US with his European HQ SaaS, the lessons learned and the advice to other leaders planning do the same. 

128. Michael Versluis, CEO & Founder, Expansify - How to land your first customer in the US?

In this episode, we speak with Michael Versluis, CEO & Founder, Expansify, the GTM agency helping European SaaS companies to a successful market entry in the US.

We talked with Michael about landing your first customer in the US when your home market is the EU! In particular, we are looking into some of the proven steps and actions required to be successful from his learnings taking his previous business to the US:

- How did you identify the specific needs of the U.S. market for your SaaS product, and what steps did you take to tailor your solution to meet these needs?

- Could you share the story of how you acquired your first customer?

- What were the key challenges and how did you overcome them?

- What sales strategies were most effective in the early stages of your business, especially in a competitive market like the U.S.?

These are some of the many questions we address with Michael. Please tune in to learn from Michael's experience and his top three pieces of advice to follow when trying to acquire your first customers in the U.S.

127. Mats Nyberg, CEO, Trippus Event Solutions - How to become an Event champion?

In this episode, we speak with Mats Nyberg, CEO, Trippus Event Solutions, the event platform that enables organizers of events, conferences, trade fairs, and training courses to create websites and mobile applications for their events.

We talked with Mats about what it takes for a SaaS company to build a successful events program! In particular, we are looking into the processes needed, and the resources required to be successful:

- What are the key ingredients to be successful with your events?

- How should you measure success?

- How do you calculate ROI short-term vs long-term?

- What internal resources vs external resources are often required to pull off successful events?

- What are the most common mistakes people make with their event planning, and how to overcome them?

These are some of the many questions we address with Mats. Please tune in to learn Mats' main tips on how you also can become an event champion, host your audience, and be in control of the narrative.

126. Jesper Larsen, Partner Director, Voyado - How to build Partnership Programs that drive real business value!

In this episode, we speak with Jesper Larsen, Partner Director, Voyado, the loyalty platform, Voyado unifies data and insights so marketers can understand their customers throughout the entire customer lifecycle. 

We talked with Jesper about what it takes to build Partnerships & Alliances that drive real business value! In particular, we are looking into the dynamics of defining a partner program that is fundamentally aligned with the business's overall objective:

- Which are the 3 main business cases to build a partner program around?

- Where do you need to allocate resources to get your partnership program off the ground?

- How does a partner organization need to be structured, based on what kind of partnership programs you run?

- What are some key KPIs that you can use to track the success of the 3 different partner models?

These are some of the many questions we address with Jesper. Please tune in to learn how Jesper and the team are leveraging partnerships to accelerate their business growth. 

125. Andrei Zinkevich, Co-Founder, FullFunnel - The SDR model as you know it is dead!

In this episode, we speak with Andrei Zinkevich, Co-Founder, FullFunnel, the famous ABM and full-funnel marketing consulting agency that helps B2B tech companies with high ACV and long sales cycles elevate their Marketing and Sales efforts.

We talked with Andrei about why the SDR model as we know it is dead, and what the future of prospecting must look like to be successful. Some of the questions covered are:

- What is the old SDR Model, and why is it a thing of the past?

- What is ABSR- Account-based sales rep?

- How do you make this transition from traditional SDR to ABSR?

- What changes are required from the organization to be successful with this approach?

- How do companies measure success rate with this approach?

These are some of the many questions we address with Andrei. Please tune in to learn how Andrei and the companies he works with are transforming and benefiting by moving over to an ABSR practice and ditching the traditional SDR setup.

124. Cedric Notz, CEO & Founder, Float - What is Revenue Based Funding and why its a good alternative to traditional funding?

In this episode, we speak with Cedric Notz, CEO & Founder of Float, a Capital-as-a-Service, that offers non-dilutive growth funding to European SaaS and other subscription businesses. They have 100m Euro to deploy in the coming years and you can get loans up to 70% of your ARR.

We talked with Cedric about what Revenue Based Funding is and why it's become so popular at late. Some of the questions covered are:

- What is Revenue-Based Funding?

- How does this differ from other funding alternatives?

- What is the process of lifting a Revenue Based loan?

- Which are the key value-driven SaaS metrics in this process?

These are some of the many questions we address with Cedric. Please tune in to learn how Float and its non-dilutive growth capital can complement traditional capital while boosting the growth of your SaaS company.

123. Martin Geier, VP Sales EMEA, Miro - PLG + Sales motion for the win!

In this episode, we speak with Martin Geier, VP EMEA Sales, Miro, the visual workspace for innovation that enables distributed teams to create the next big thing. Over 60 million people and 99% of the Fortune 100 rely on Miro throughout the innovation lifecycle to clarify complex ideas, center customer needs, and deliver products and services faster

We talked with Martin about Miro's choice to move from a pure PLG motion to also add a Sales motion on top. In particular, we are looking into the dynamics of adjusting a GTM market motion and what it takes to make the transition to the new way of doing business. Some of the questions covered are:

- What are the reasons to add a Sales motion to an already functioning PLG motion?

- How does the Sales motion complement and integrate with the PLG process in practice?

- What changes did you have to do to customer segmentation?

- Which organizational setup is necessary to fully support a PLG+Sales motion?

- What are the key challenges, and how to overcome them, when combining a PLG motion with Sales

These are some of the many questions we address with Martin. Please tune in to learn how Miro successfully combined a PLG motion with Sales to further accelerate growth and increase ticket sizes.

122. Rick van Esch, Managing Director, Sinch Engage - The Rollercoaster of SaaS Acquisitions!

In this episode, we speak with Rick van Esch, Managing Director, Sinch Engage, the Customer Communications Cloud that helps businesses deliver unified, personalized experiences no matter the channels they use. Over 150,000 businesses, including 8 of the 10 largest tech companies in the world, rely on Sinch for their customer communication needs.

We talked with Rick about how his company was acquired by Sinch back in the day and how he as a member of the Sinch team has gone on to do several other acquisitions. In particular, we are looking into the dynamics and the role of the acquirer vs the acquired in this process. Some of the questions covered were:

- Why it is important to know if you are a mercenary or a missionary acquisition?

- What are the key metrics to measure the success of an acquisition?

- Why does the bulk of the workload to integrate sit with the acquired company?

- Which are the most common pitfalls to avoid after the papers have been signed?

These are some of the many questions we address with Rick. Please tune in to learn about his 3 commandments when it comes to successful acquisition - both from the acquirer's and the acquired side.

121. Gustav Westman, CEO, Brightbid - Selling 3rd party products to efficiently validate a market need!

In this episode, we speak with Gustav Westman, CEO, Brightbid, an AdTech company creating results on Paid Search Ads with AI and automation

We talked with Gustav about how he started his SaaS by first selling 3rd party SaaS solutions, to collect marketing intelligence and validate the need before building his platform. Some of the questions covered were:

- How do you bring in 3rd party tools to resell?

- What data points are you looking to collect feedback on?

- When do you know it is better to build it yourself?

- What does it require from an organization to go through the process of being a reseller to sell its own software? 

These are some of the many topics we address with Gustav. Please tune in to learn how you can leverage their growth tactic when launching new products.

120. Ramli John, Author of ”Product-Led Onboarding” - Why does it matter for B2B SaaS companies?

In this episode, we speak with Ramli John, Author of "Product-Led Onboarding”

We talked with Ramli about why Product-Led Onboarding is important for many B2B SaaS Companies. Some of the questions covered were:

- What is Product-Led Onboarding?

- When does it start (outside / inside product)?

- What are typical components?

- How do you measure success? 

- How does Product-Led Onboarding evolve when companies evolve

- What are some areas where you see a lot of SaaS companies fail with their Product-Led Onboarding

- Who owns the Product-Led Onboarding process internally? 

These are some of the many topics we address with Ramli. Please tune in to learn about how you can make your Product-Led Onboarding strategy successful!