SaaS Interviews with CEOs, Startups, Founders

Benjamin Dell is the founder and CEO at Missinglettr (a social marketing automation company that automatically creates 12 months worth of social content for each blog post you publish). He previously owned a web agency for over 10 years (acquired). During this time he also launched a number of SaaS startups (two of which were acquired). Benjamin is passionate about empowering businesses and brands with tools that help them succeed.

Guru founded Boomerang Commerce with a vision to power intelligent commerce. Formerly a leader at Amazon, Guru worked in the inceptive stages of Amazon's supply chain and merchandising organizations. He co-founded one of Amazon's cloud businesses, established Amazon's first B2B marketing channel and invented Amazon's Selling Coach to help brands and sellers to be successful with Amazon. At eBay, as the GM of Marketplace Experience, he led the global team that launched eBay's fast shipping program. Guru earned his MS in Computer Engineering (a focus on Machine Learning) from the University of Texas at Austin, and his MBA from the Wharton School. Boomerang's CommerceIQ powers Growth Automation on Amazon for Kellogg's, Kimberly Clark, Logitech and numerous other top tier brands.

I started in the Internet Marketing space in 2000, when I co-founded one of the world's first email service providers, CoolerEmail. As a pioneer in responsible email marketing, we grew CoolerEmail into a global software company specializing in marketing communication with over 1,500 clients. In 2010, after spending several years designing and implementing a more comprehensive way to meet the needs of small and mid-sized businesses, I launched GreenRope, a cloud-based platform that simplifies and consolidates a company's sales, marketing, and operations. GreenRope currently provides technology solutions to over 3,000 companies worldwide.

Naeem Zafar is a Professor of the Practice at Brown University and teaches at the University of California, Berkeley. He is a serial entrepreneur and the founder/CEO of TeleSense, an AgTech startup company. His last startup, Bitzer Mobile, was acquired by Oracle. Naeem has authored five books on entrepreneurship www.NaeemZafar.com.

Armand Thiberge, founded SendinBlue in 2012 with the goal of making effective marketing tools available to small and medium-sized businesses at a price they can afford. In September 2017, SendinBlue raised 30 million euros to accelerate product development and continue growing their team of 150 employees spread across 3 global offices located in Paris, Delhi, and Seattle. The company now services +60,000 SMBs in 160 countries.

Yash did his Mechanical Engineering and then worked as an Investment Banker before founding Gridle. He is a CNBC TV 18 Young Turk, Kairos fellow and MITx bootcamper. Currently, he serves as Co-founder & Chief Executive at Gridle where he looks after Finance, Resource Mgmt & Business Strategy.

I build things. Began playing with computers at age 13. At VSH Solutions we've launched many successful software applications and businesses alongside them which has grown our business as well. Throughout my life I've been focused on exploring new technologies and creating meaningful and enjoyable products with them. Now most of my time via VSH Solutions is concentrated on working with companies to continue exploring this passion.

Following my studies at KCL in London and my first experience of scaling a Rocket Internet company all the way to IPO, I initially worked as a Consultant for a boutique consultancy which focusses on procurement and restructuring, where I was also involved in HR and reorganisation projects. Two years later, I moved to help scale an InsureTech organisation from 15 to 160+ employees within 3 years, supporting their internationalisation strategy. It was during this experience that I discovered a gap in the market for a one-stop tool to scale companies and digitise HR (everything from recruitment to off-boarding), whilst really focussing on the needs of the employees. A few colleagues and I decided to start our own company, OrgOS, which is now just over a year old. We are a fast-growing HR software as a service (SaaS) start-up with over 15 employees and a diverse range of clients – from prominent brands to other developing start-ups.

Co-Founder & Managing Director Heiko Schwarz is Founder and Managing Director of riskmethods. Heiko is an expert in both software and strategic purchasing, and has spent 20 years successfully helping supply chain and procurement organizations implement solutions to increase performance, reduce cost and minimize risk. He has been honored with the Pro To Know award from Supply & Demand Chain Executive for his forward-thinking approach to the topic of supply chain risk management.

Amanda Lannert is CEO of Jellyvision, one of Chicago's fastest growing tech companies that serves 1400 customers with ALEX, the most helpful employee decision support platform on the planet. Jellyvision's been recognized as the Best Software Company and Best Culture by the Moxies, the Lighthouse winner by the ITA, and a top place to work in Chicago by The Chicago Tribune and Crain's.

Serial software entrepreneur. I've founded 5 software companies and made 3 exits so far. In 2002 I founded Solinor (Software development company) which was acquired by Gofore in 2018. In 2004 I founded Snoobi (Web analytics SaaS company) which was acquired by Fonecta 2012. In 2011 I founded Payment Highway (Payment gateway SaaS company) and that was acquired by Osuuspankki in 2017. Currently, I'm Founder and CEO at Leadfeeder (Lead generation SaaS company).

Having worked in sales and marketing for three software startups for years, Hewitt decided to launch a software company with his college roomate with the decision to bootstrap without any outside capital. With a strong passion for sales and athletic performance, the company has grown to nearly 10 employees and over $1mm in ARR.

Emna is the CEO and co-founder of Veamly. Prior to Veamly, Emna helped launching several companies as a global director of the Founder Institute and built several products as part of her previous company. Emna has a dream to change the way people communicate and kill the world of assumptions.

Product leader on a mission to use technology to understand each other better. Over a decade of nose-to-tail experience in the Silicon Valley has enabled Dmitriy to hone a distinct data-driven vision and cultivate an aptitude for creating dramatic category growth. Prior leadership roles at ADP, Duda, Conduit, Wellsphere and TiraWireless.

Rajeev Gupta has an extensive experience with application architecture and on-demand computing, and over 16 years starting and growing tech companies. In 2002, Rajeev co-founded Avankia which was one of the first companies incubated by Salesforce.com. This enterprise gave raise to DBSync, a Data Management Platform that provides a wide range of functionalities, including integration, backup, archiving, etc.

A 25 year payments veteran, Ralph Dangelmaier brings a wealth of knowledge leading strategy, marketing, sales, and product development as BlueSnap's CEO, thought leader, conference speaker, Top 50 SaaS CEOs (The SaaS Report), Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year finalist, and Inc. 5000's Fastest-Growing Private Companies.

Michael believes that technology can make healthcare more efficient, more personalized, and help provide healthcare to more people. Michael co-founded DrChrono with Daniel Kivatinos in January 2009 and built the first-ever native iPad EHR app. Before DrChrono, Michael worked at Bloomberg LP where he architected components of the Bloomberg Terminal used by customers worldwide. Michael has a B.E. in Computer Engineering & Computer Science from Stony Brook University has been named to Stony Brook University's 40 under 40 outstanding alumni award in 2014, 2015, and 2016.

Chris Hall, the CEO of Bynder has grown his company to over 350 employees with seven international offices in just 4 years. He first conceptualized Bynder in 2010, while working to establish a web development company, Label A (still in business). In 2012, the Bynder was incorporated and by early 2013 had a license for business. Chris is an entrepreneur at heart, has successfully setup and scaled multiple SaaS companies, Bynder being most notable to date. He is a mentor and coach for young professionals interested in tech and entrepreneurship.

Co-Founder & CEO. Bootstrapped the company to $25M in ARR. Now 3 Acquisitions later backed by The Carlyle Group and TA Associates at $165MM ARR.

Founder and CEO of Evvnt, a platform looking to change an industry through creating an affordable service where one simply did not exist before. Love challenging the norm and trying to change the world one event at a time.

CEO @TrueAccord . Risk @Klarna. Co-founder @SIGNIFYD and @Analyzd (acq by @Klarna). @PayPal New Ventures. Analytics at FraudSciences (acq by @PayPal).

Stephen is a business and civic entrepreneur. A former U.S. Navy Reserve Officer, U.S. Peace Corps Volunteer, Stanford-educated attorney, and NCAA Division I fencer, Stephen is also co-founder of PriceWaiter, Delegator, ProDiligence, Smart Furniture, Chattanooga Renaissance Funds I & II, and the non-profit ventures Causeway and CF Smackdown.

Darren Guccione is the CEO and co-founder of Keeper Security, Inc., the creator of Keeper, the world's most popular password manager and secure digital vault and KeeperChat, the world's most secure messaging app for all your devices. Keeper software is used globally by millions of people and thousands of businesses.

Founded digital-agency Vuzum in 2008, after CS graduation. Doing work for US Navy, H&M and Four-Seasons we stumbled upon the pain of code reusability across projects (by anyone, without technical skills). We built an MVP back in 2015, closed the agency a year later and doubled down on Widgetic.

Lev Yakupov is a Chief Marketing Director at TrueConf. Lev witnessed the emergence of the modern video conferencing market and directly participated in the development and launch of a number of new software video collaboration solutions.

I'm the former CEO of a top digital marketing agency in Chicago, and founder of MySiteAuditor, a SaaS startup I grew to over 20 languages around the world. Both were successfully acquired. Currently, I'm the Chief Checklist Maker at Checkli.com, a new and simple way to make and share checklist.

Michael Katz is a Co-founder and CEO of mParticle. He is responsible for creating and overseeing the execution of mParticle's vision of becoming the premier multi-screen data solution. Mr. Katz previously served as Vice President of Optimization & Analytics at Yahoo where he came via the acquisition of interclick, the company he also founded.

Dhruvil Sanghvi has played a pivotal role in revolutionizing logistics with the use of data sciences and machine learning. He has been felicitated by Forbes as one of the top 30 under 30 achievers, 2017. He was also recognized as Achiever of the Year 2017 by Business World in its 40 under 40 List. After graduating from Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, USA and actively advising some of the Fortune 500 companies on technology and data analytics, Dhruvil, along with Manisha Raisinghani, started LogiNext in 2014. Within 3 years, LogiNext has gained authority in the space of Logistics and field service optimization, has on-boarded prominent investors like Paytm and Alibaba. He has been a regular and sought-after speaker at industry conferences and panel discussion across the globe. Dhruvil is keen on contributing as a thought leader and mentor to the booming ecosystem of startups. With his immense experience and insights in business growth and product success, Dhruvil has helped multiple entrepreneurs realize their dream, guiding them over hurdles and directing to early product-market fit. Dhruvil also serves as an early stage investor and has initiated incubation for some ambitious startups.

Amiad Soto is the co-founder and CEO of Guesty, a cloud-based SaaS platform established in 2013 designed to simplify the short-term property management process. With Guesty's all-in-one solution, property managers can operate listings across multiple accounts, including Airbnb, Booking.com and others, from one centralized dashboard.

Nick Mehta is CEO of Gainsight, the Customer Success Company. He's a big believer in the Golden Rule and tries to apply it as much as he can to bring more compassion to his interactions with others. Under Nick's leadership, Gainsight was named the second fastest growing private software company in 2015 by Inc. Magazine. On top of that, Forbes ranked Gainsight as the Best Enterprise Software Company to Work For based on Glassdoor ratings. As Nick likes to say (a little too fast and a little too often), that's awesome. Previously, Nick worked as an Entrepreneur in Residence with Accel Partners developing opportunities in the enterprise applications and infrastructure markets. He was also CEO of LiveOffice, where he led the company's profitable growth to $25 million in revenue and through its successful sale to Symantec in 2012 for $115 million. LiveOffice was recognized as a Visionary by Gartner, as an Inc. 5000 company, and as an Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year finalist. Before joining LiveOffice, Nick was a Vice President at VERITAS Software (acquired by Symantec). Don't get him started on theoretical physics or Steelers football—he'll talk your ear off!

Clint Tasset is the founder and CEO of Adswerve, a premier Google Partner that empowers data-driven marketers to achieve more success by using media and analytics technology – together.

Manny Medina is CEO of Outreach, the leading sales engagement platform. Medina joined Amazon's AWS team as an early employee, and helped Microsoft drive the mobile division from launch to $50 million in annual revenue. He has an MBA from Harvard Business School and a computer science masters from University of Pennsylvania.

Chris Cabrera founded Xactly in 2005 and has since led Xactly from startup to IPO and private equity. Previously, Cabrera was SVP of operations for Callidus, acquiring 100+ customers and leading a successful IPO. He holds a B.S. and M.A. from USC and Santa Clara University.

Mada leads marketing as a co-founder of Branch, the industry-leading mobile measurement and deep linking platform, trusted by the most top ranking apps to increase efficiency and revenue. Born and raised in Romania, Mada came to the US to study Electrical and Computer Engineering at Cornell University, and then earned her Masters of Engineering and MBA from Stanford. Mada enjoys playing the latest viral mobile game, binge-watching the hottest sci-fi show, and photographing Branch events. She regularly speaks about mobile growth at top tech events like Web Summit and Saastr, and she was included in Linkedin's Next Wave, 150 top professionals in 15 industries all under 35.

P.V. Kannan is the co-founder and chief executive officer of [24]7.ai, a global leader in intent-driven customer engagement. He holds more than 30 patents (issued and pending), and has been featured in several books as CX thought leader. His new book "The Age of Intent:," is now available on Amazon.

Art Papas is the Founder and CEO of Bullhorn, Inc, the global leader in software for the staffing & recruitment industry. Art was the original architect of Bullhorn's flagship Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system, which now helps more than 10,000 companies around the world run their businesses. Art is the Chairman of the Board at Career Collaborative, an organization that teaches unemployed and underemployed adults how to build careers that change lives and strengthen families. In 2014, Ernst & Young named Art an EY Entrepreneur of the Year Award Winner in New England.

Eva is an investor at Vertex Ventures, an early-stage venture fund focused on enterprise technology. She has over a decade of experience in helping to build, scale and advise growing technology companies. Most recently, Eva led operations for Luxe Valet, a venture-backed on-demand startup. Prior to Luxe, Eva was an investment banker at Goldman Sachs.

Marc Aubin is CEO of AppBuddy, creators of GridBuddy and AppBuddy Cloud. We've helped thousands of companies do what is not natively possible in Salesforce and SAP -- easily take data from hard to reach places and put it into consolidated, actionable workspaces. So now instead of having to create business processes from the ground up, admins, developers and even end users can leverage what they already have and quickly evolve their operational processes in response to changing customer needs.

Peter Caputa is the CEO of Databox. He helps companies grow by implementing sales and marketing excellence. He's worked with 100s of businesses directly as well as helped 100s of agencies and media companies grow by helping their clients achieve predictable, measurable and improvable ROI from the marketing and advertising services they provide.

Alessandro Garcia, CEO from Solides, a startup that provide a HR Behavioral Management Software to improve performance and reduce turn-over costs. A SaaS company with 100 employees and more than 1,000 cutomers in Brazil. Statistician from UFMG, courses at Stanford and Berkeley.

Adi is co-founder & CEO of IMpower Solutions, which provides businesses with tools to text with their customers. Adi started IMpower in 2011, after realizing how much consumers hate calling businesses and businesses have low response rates when they call customers. Texting is a win-win solution for both sides.

"Started in finance in 98, switched to internet and mobile in 2000 and launched Bidmanagement in 2010 by using AI-based trading software for stocks to automate and optimize media buying on Google Ads. We are now active on all relevant ecommerce marketing platforms such as Amazon, Google Ads, Bing Ads, Yandex as well as >50 programmatic platforms. Our USP: outperform everyone to maximize profits for our customers."

Tom Rossi is one of the cofounders of the product development company Higher Pixels. He has been leading the company since 1996 and has seen it shift from a client-services company to a product company. Higher Pixels currently has four products: Buzzsprout, StreamCare, Tick, and Donor Tools. Each product has been built with Ruby on Rails and continue to be actively developed.

Vinay is CEO and co-founder of Altizon Systems. He has 15+ years of varied experience across sales, marketing, engineering and product management. Prior to Altizon he was VP Sales at Persistent Systems. He led Persistent Systems sales activities in the U.S. North East and also set up the APAC sales team. Vinay began his career in engineering and rose up the engineering ladder to be a center head for a US based captive. He holds 4 US patents on work related USB, wireless and code security. Vinay holds a Masters degree in Computer Science from University of Southern California, LA and a Bachelors degree in Computer Engineering from University of Pune. He is a Charter Member of TiE Pune.

After 20 years working in restaurants, Cory started ShedWool to solve the pain point of scheduling making every day working in restaurants suck.

Product-driven entrepreneur. Continuously improving products and services through hustling and data analysis. First built and sold Quel, an online marketplace for buyers and suppliers of custom-made parts. Currently building a SaaS portfolio company. First stop: Preppr, an Instagram scheduling and publishing solution powered by AI. Next stop: Informed.plus, building the world's largest library of medical animations to empower patients.

Entrepreneur, CEO, M&A lawyer and twin-girl-dad. Graduated law school with highest point grade avg., tried out "traditional" law for 7 years, quit to disrupt legal business processes and now co-founder and CEO of a 27-person company of lawyers, data scientists and developers on a quest to remove manual document handling.

Suchit Bachalli is the CEO of Unilog, a global technology company which specializes in eCommerce solutions and enriched product data for the B2B marketplace. Under his leadership, the company is now a multi-million dollar business with 800 global employees and hundreds of customers across diverse industries

Abhi is CEO at Zylotech, a technology entrepreneur and customer analytics expert. He has experience of many stages of the lifecycle: startup/boot-strap, venture funding, M&A experience. As an early Customer 360 category pioneer, he's worked with numerous enterprise brands across the retail, technology and financial industries over the last decade. He is an engineer who holds an MBA from MIT Sloan School of Management.

I have been an entrepreneur my entire working life. Upon leaving school in 1987 I focused on creating information management systems that lead to the development of financial trading applications and a health record management product. In 1992 we entered into a partnership with Reuters to create digital signage for trading floors which was globally distributed by them. In the following years brokerages and banks began to turn their attention to retail and what was our inwardly facing displays were now being turned outwards to face the public. From there, we went on to be the first in our industry to embrace software as a service, the first to adopt HTML over proprietary formats, and open source many of our applications. We were also the first to adopt a freemium model. Today we are the largest provider of LED Ticker systems in North America and our digital signage software as a service is used in over 128 countries. Our displays are used in almost every setting imaginable but our content focuses primarily on Secondary and Postsecondary Education environments and financial trading labs.