SaaS Boss

This episode of SaaS Boss show is Part 2 of my interview with Carole Mahoney and we switch from talking about about how SaaS founders can get first 10 sales to what happens after first sales. And that's hiring and managing your first sales reps. Hiring process, what characteristics should we look for How to write ad for SaaS sales role Why you should make it a tough interview process Real costs of making a bad hire (opportunity costs) How to predict the success for SaaS sales person How to maximize changes of the new hire being successful in this role What can you as the founder do to help set them up for success (hint, you play bigger role than you think) When do you know it's not working Issues due to poor hire (low close rates, longer sales cycle, high churn).

In this episode of SaaS Boss show I interview Carole Mahoney about how SaaS founders can get first 10 sales. Things we discuss: At early stage SaaS companies that are trying to get traction, get their first sales, the founders need to do outreach to their ideal potential customers to get first few sales. We shouldn’t rely on inbound or seo to get first sales if we dont have any case studies yet. What steps founders need to take in order to get their first 10 paying customers Why so many founders struggle with sales Basic steps to help make progress Mindset (its not about you) Productivity Goals Actionable step by step for outreach process Most common problems and how to fix them

In this episode of SaaS Boss show I interview Lee Colan about team accountability, why we need our teams to be accountable, how to encourage accountability, and what to do to fix existing problems with lack of accountability. Accountability is like rain – everyone knows they need it, but no one wants to get wet. Things we discussed: What is team accountability and why is it accountability important? How is it conected with productivity? Why does accountability seem top be a challenge with SaaS founders? What actions should we take to improve team accountability and things that can be fixed with improved new employee onboarding process? What are they key elements of team accountability and when should you communicate it? What are some tools a start-up leaders can use to improve it?

In this episode of SaaS Boss I interview The SaaS CFO Ben Murray about Coronavirus and how it will affect your SaaS. Ben Murray is known as the SaaS CFO and he helps software companies achieve financial improvement and transparency by partnering with stakeholders to link operations and finance. Things we discussed: Our take on Coronavirus and current economy situation How Coronavirus and volatility affect your financial strategy Why you should take it seriously How to up your accounting game and why consider tightening your budget Look at your major expenses, consider switching annual renewals you have to monthly to have more cash What founders can do now to mitigate risks of what's to come How to start with forecasting SaaS metrics

In this episode of SaaS Boss show I interview Jennifer Musselman about existing teams issues and how to make system-level improvements in your team when you already have a team and things aren't going that well. Two moving bodies in contact with each other create friction, so expect that you as a founder will need to put in work into developing your team. Reason for teams being ineffective. Mission, vision, company goals. Social Styles & Communications needs. Why poor communication of vision creates problems. What Workflows and Processes need to have in place. Deliver feedback early, don't wait for it to pile up before sharing it with the team. What steps can founders take today to improve their communication? Steps when we have existing team issues and trying to make improvements: 1. Create environment where we communicate values. why are we all working togetehr and what are we trying to achieve. Vision need to be communicated often. 2. Employee performance review once a year isn't enough, need give immediate feedback 3. Encourage dialogue amongst employees and create safe environment to hold each other accountable. 4. Self management for executives to handle their stress level...

In this episode of SaaS Boss show I interview Tyler Barron about steps that founders should take to build and scale SaaS revenue. The 3 steps are: Successful Architecture of Revenue Model Product/Market Fit Strategies to Accelerate Revenue Tyler will be a panel speaker at the SaaStock Dallas local event I'm hosting on March 26th 2020, for more info check out https://local.saastock.com/dallas/. Connect with Tyler on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/tylerbarronmba/

In this episode Natalie interviews Sid Mohasseb about measuring and improving performance of a founder, their teams and their startup as the result. Things we discuss: What is a high performing founder and the difference between? What mental/personality characteristics successful founders have in common? What are the measurements of success? Processes you need to put in place to be a high performing leader and team. How much time do you spend managing people vs. working on the product? Spending hours on things that don’t add value to your bottom line. Learn more about Sid here: mohasseb.com

In this episode Natalie asks leadership coach Tracy Washington question from the audience about being the youngest person on the team who is also CEO. Learn more about Tracy here: getrelationshipcurrency.com

In this episode Natalie shares her Supercharged Month technique that will help increase our productivity. It's something that Greg McKeown mentions in his book Essentialism, and there's another book The 12 Week Year that you can also find useful for this topic. So, the exact steps that I recommend you to have your supercharged and highly productive 4 weeks: 1. Set your goals for the next 4 weeks 2. Dump all tactics and tasks that are sitting in your head and prioritize those tactics for every day of the week 3. Execution. Setup 5 minutes at the beginning of each day to review yesterday's progress and plan that day's activities. Time block your calendar and prioritize what really needs to be done. Do not end the day until the tasks you set out to do for each day are accomplished. 4. Process control. Make sure nothing derails you from this single most important activity. 5. Measurements of Results. Accountability - focus more on action than on the results.

This episode is part of a webinar recording that Natalie Luneva and Tracy Washington did early 2020, where we talked about the following things: How to gain more clarity How to setup SMART goals How to become a more effective leader How to get your team to buy into your 2020 vision How to motivate yourself and your team to achieve these goals (and why financial incentives may not be the best way to do it)

In this episode Natalie Luneva shares why we need to embrace the 10x mentality. While incremental change is still very important, I'd to encourage everyone to welcome the 10x mentality and see how it can help drastically rethink the problem instead of making small improvements.

My name is Natalie Luneva, the host of SaaS Boss show and in this first episode I wanted to share with you a little bit information about who I am, the reason I decided to launch this podcast, who it is for and what you can expect from these episodes. 6 years ago I was helping an early stage SaaS solution for medical practices with their go to market strategy, primarily I was in marketing and growth, but soon started doing demos and walk throughs, this was my very first exposure to working in a SaaS. I have built marketing and support teams from scratch where I started being the only person department and ended up with a full team of more than a dozen full time employees and a few dozens of contractors and freelancers. Fast forward few years and I've worked with more than a hundred of companies helping them grow. My husband is a SaaS founder as well and I'm helping him with marketing and operations. Drawing from this experience, I see first hand the struggles of founders. This podcast will be best suited for SaaS founders who already generate some revenue and are past MVP stage. You likely have a small team of or are planning to start hiring people to put your project on a growth trajectory. The 3 main reasons I thought that there's a need for this podcast is because: 1. I see founders who get discouraged when they listen to podcasts where other founders share their successes because they are not there yet, and instead of focusing on what they can and should do to fix the situation, they get discouraged. 2. Because the interviews are a mix of founders in different stages, industries, different setup and so the advice may not be applicable to everyone. The stage where you generated some traction and getting some revenue, but you have a long way to go is crucial. You either stay small and grow very slowly, or you think strategically about what needs to be done in order to push this forward and grow at a much faster rate. 3. In order for a SaaS to grow, the team usually needs to grow and so founder's role within it will need to change as well, and without previous experience leading a team and organizing processes, you may become bottle neck to your own success without even knowing it and blaming other problems, not realizing that it's right in front of your nose. The format will be a mix of interviews with SaaS coaches and consultants and solo episodes with just me where I'll be sharing some actionable advice, or just give a good old kick int he but. The reason why I interview SaaS coaches and not founders is because I find that the advice from founders may not necessarily applicable to everyone and is very situational, so that advice for another SaaS in a different industry, different stage and different setting may not work. Coaches on the other hand worked with dozens and dozens of founders and saw how the same advice can work or backfire in various situations and so can provide some additional insight or word of caution. Lastly, I would really appreciate your feedback. This is my first podcast and while I'm still finding my voice, I'd love to hear things you found helpful or some results that you got from implementing some ideas you got from the podcast, or if something is complete BS I would really want to know that as well. If you know someone who you think may be a good fit for me to interview, please reach out as well.

In this episode of SaaS Boss, I interview Jes Osrow about designing and implementing strategies to build high performing teams and what is a high performing team. As Co-Founder of The Rise Journey, Jes works with growth stage companies designing and implementing strategies to build cohesive teams while developing a sustainable organizational culture. 1:15 Why team culture is important 4:00 Why you can not do everything yourself and the reason to hire. 9:30 Why you should consider hiring and not look for a co-founder 10:50 What is a high performing team? 15:00 Why do people leave companies? 18:40 Why and how to create a job description for your new hires 21:00 How to make your first hire and things to have in place before even making the hire 24:00 How to motivate employees 27:00 Onboarding, how to create instructions and SOPs