SaaS Interviews with CEOs, Startups, Founders

Addicted to mobile products and services after more than 15yrs in different executive roles in media&entertainment, product development for leading publishers and brands with his agency clapp, started tchop as MVP project 3 years ago.

Kermit Kuehn is a Professor of Management at the University of Arkansas – Fort Smith, where he teaches strategy, international business and entrepreneurship. He operates Silvrback.com, a subscription blogging platform for writers seeking a less mainstream alternative in their blogging experience, as well as blogplatformsreview.com.

Anda Gansca is the CEO and Co-Founder of Knotch, the leading, independent provider of real-time intelligence for marketers. Founded in 2013, Knotch has been recognized as one of the most innovative marketing technologies in the world, as it seeks to change the way global brands engage and understand their audiences. Amongst Knotch's clients are GE, JP Morgan Chase, Unilever, Prudential and HPE. A regular thought leadership contributor to the trade media and industry at-large, Anda has been named to both Forbes' and Inc.'s annual 30-Under-30 lists, AdWeek's Young Influential List and AdWeek's Top 100 Creatives, to name a few.

Kyle Sherman is the Founder and CEO of Flowhub and serves on the board of directors as Chairman. A legalization advocate and entrepreneur, Kyle is finding ways to use technology to help drive cannabis legalization forward responsibly in the United States. In 2014, Kyle began lobbying the Colorado Department of Revenue to build an API to Metrc, the State's cannabis tracking system, so that third parties like Flowhub could send data directly to the database instead of manual entry. This Metrc API is now the standard in more than 7 states. Kyle continually defines Flowhub's vision, strategy, and growth as Flowhub innovates the way cannabis businesses manage complex compliance mandates, supply chain data, sales transactions, and reporting. His goal is to simplify business operations, keep companies and government transparent, keep cannabis products off of the black market, and build a robust scalable industry that is approachable for all adults and medical patients. This inherent motivation keeps Kyle and the Flowhub team passionate about providing fanatical customer service, and building delightful products and user experiences.

Darren M. Jer CEO and Co-Founder Darren co-founded MarketFactory in 2008 with a vision of providing clean, fast code to the FX market, and is currently CEO. Prior to founding MarketFactory, Darren led sales and operations in the financial services markets for over a decade. Darren was head of new business sales Americas for EBS / ICAP. Prior to that, he was sales executive for IBM wall street accounts. Darren earned a BA in English and political science from Duke University. Outside of MarketFactory, Darren is an active member of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York and All Souls Langham Place in London. When necessary, Darren can hurt a lot of people's ears at karaoke.

Former consultant to MIcrosoft, GE, GM, American Express and others. Founder of Spokal.

Pierce started his career at Cognos, which went on to be acquired by IBM. Pierce then joined two start-ups that both went on to have successful exits where he led and implemented Marketo. He then founded Revenue Pulse, a Marketo consultancy and Knak, a SaaS application for enterprise email creation.

Girish Mathrubootham is the founder and CEO of Freshworks, one of the world's fastest-growing SaaS product company, winning the Economic Times Startup of the Year in 2016, and the Business Standard Startup of the Year in 2017. Freshworks now has a suite of products for businesses worldwide - Freshdesk, Freshservice, Freshsales, Freshcaller, Freshteam, Freshchat and Freshmarketer. Girish is part of the Product Council for NASSCOM, the trade association of Indian software companies, and actively works to promote and nurture software product companies. He has invested in several early-stage startups and is passionate about building a global product company. Having set the vision and direction for the company since inception, his focus on Freshworks' values and its culture have been instrumental in taking the organization to where it is today.

Michael founded Sniply, a link sharing tool, in 2014 and grew the userbase to over 200K within 3 years. Responding to the decline of links and growth of video, Michael's team launched Lumen5, a video automation platform, in 2017 and passed $1 million in ARR within 10 months of launch.

Nate Bolt is the Founder of Ethnio, a 5-person SaaS. Former research manager at Facebook and Instagram, CEO of Bolt | Peters, and faculty at the SVA iXD program. Co-author of Remote Research and once droned the NYPL. Based in LA with wife, son, and two dogs.

David Hassell is a serial entrepreneur and the co-founder and CEO of 15Five. David's foray into entrepreneurship begun nearly 20 years ago, co-founding three companies in ad tech, kite surfing adventure travel, and leadership coaching before starting 15Five, where he sees the opportunity to help organizations and everyone in them reach their highest potential. David formerly served as the President of the San Francisco chapter of the Entrepreneurs' Organization and was later named by Forbes "The Most Connected Man You Don't Know in Silicon Valley." He's been featured in The New York Times, Entrepreneur, Fast Company, and Inc.

Chief Executive Officer of ClickDimensions, the leading marketing automation solution for Microsoft Dynamics 365. Mike joined ClickDimensions from PGi, a global provider of web conferencing software and collaboration technology, where he served as Executive Vice President of Strategy and Business Development. In that role, he developed partnerships with some of the biggest players in the technology industry, including Microsoft. Prior to that, he started PGi's Global Collaboration Services division, growing it from $86 million to $240 million in revenue and serving as a trusted advisor to some of the most recognized brands around the globe.

John is the founder of GetCredo.com. They take a high touch approach to matching businesses with the right SEO and marketing agencies. John has a decade in SEO, primarily on the largest sites on the internet. He lives in Denver with his wife and their black labrador Butterbean.

Dennis Kelly is CEO of Postalytics, the leading direct mail marketing automation tool. is a 6 time entrepreneur, primarily focused on software & technology. He's been involved in founding, investing and senior management roles in startups such as Genesis Business System, AnyDay.com, Palm Inc., Adjoin Solutions, Computer Associates and others.

Kim is the founder and President of Genoo. Genoo's products and services over deliver what entrepreneurs, Small, and midsize businesses need to attract leads and grow new customers. Through a comprehensive software-as-a-service offering and "right-sized" professional service offerings, our customers compete and win.

Andy MacMillan is CEO of UserTesting, the leading Human Insights company. Prior to UserTesting he was CEO of Act-On Software and COO, Products at Salesforce. Andy is from the Detroit area and has a B.A. from Michigan State University and an MBA from the University of Edinburgh (Scotland).

Tim's background in software has spanned technical, sales, marketing, and general management in the US, UK, and Japan. Tim started at IBM and went on to a number of successful startups including Illustra ($400M acq), Interwoven ($1B IPO) and BoardVantage ($250M acq). Other experience includes Sybase, Sakkam and Genesys Telecommunications.

I am an Israeli entrepreneur with a specialty in data science; after building several e-commerce sites, I recognized the tremendous need for personalization and the opportunity to fill a niche in the market, and so eventually I arrived at a venture that serves one of my chief passions, utilizing AI and digital automation to create an internet that is more personal and efficient. Since 2008, we at Personyze have been honing and perfecting the tools we use to accomplish that goal, and today I am happy to say we have created one of the most versatile and powerful personalization solutions on the market.

Recognizing the early trend for insurtech innovation in 2013, Jason co-founded Limelight Health to deliver better data integration and sales efficiency for insurance carriers, PEO's, brokers and others in the employee benefits ecosystem. Limelight's award-winning technology, QuotePad™, aims to transform the way health insurance and employee benefits are quoted, sold and renewed. Jason is a serial entrepreneur advising numerous Silicon Valley startups, also volunteering in the industry/community.

Neil Napier is a charismatic leader of people. He empowers people to spread their wings and develop their super-powers. Neil cares about his customers like nobody else and is available for them more than his wife would prefer. He loves to teach and goes the extra mile to enable success.

Randy Wootton is the CEO of Percolate. Randy has been a leader and strategic innovator in the marketing technology industry for over 20 years. Prior to Percolate, he served as CEO of leading predictive marketing platform Rocket Fuel, where he re-positioned the company and led its sale to Sizmek. During his career, Randy has held senior positions at Microsoft and Salesforce. He serves on the Board of Directors at Guidant Financial and Rally Point Networks and is a graduate of Harvard Business School, St. John's College and the U.S. Naval Academy.

00:30 – How Kahuna focuses on customer engagement 03:05 – Why they price based on volume and usage 03:50 – How he made the decision to join Kahuna after they approached him 04:50 – Why both of Kahuna's founders are still involved in the company 05:10 – Their team of 40 full-time employees is based in Redwood City 05:40 – Why they've scaled to serve 100 total customers internationally 06:40 – How they have more than doubled revenue year over year 07:00 – Why they've raised close to $50M in outside capital 07:40 – How they are managing churn across 08:30 – Why Kahuna's net revenue retention is well north of 100% 10:30 – How they aim for payback on customer acquisition within 12 months 12:00 – Why computing power is their main expense 13:00 – How their margins are still well within the average SaaS range 13:30 – Why they did an inside round in Q4 2017 and not looking to raise at present 14:00 – How they are still burning cash today 14:15 – Why they are north of $3M in ARR and targeting 100% growth YoY again this year 15:15 – The Famous Five

0:55 – How SaaS PayKickstart launched inside agency 1:25 – Why their average customer pays $99 per month 2:10 – How they've hit $50k in MRR today 2:40 – How $0 to $10k/mo in under 12 months 3:40 – Why they've bootstrapped to this point 4:15 – Tactic used to hit 20% gross revenue churn 9:40 – How they are landing customers through affiliates and cold outreach 10:50 – Why 10-15% of their revenue is coming from affiliate deals

Time Stamped Show Notes: 0:55 – Why he spun the company out of his agency one year ago 3:45 – Average customer pays them $3,500 annually 4:15 – How they've scaled to 250 paying customers 4:35 – Did $9k in MRR last month 5:20 – Less than 1% gross revenue churn monthly 6:05 – They are raising $1m right now on $2.5m pre money value 7:10 – How they've scaled with just two full-time employees 8:00 – Why they are paying under $100 to acquire a new customer

Time Stamped Show Notes: 00:00 – Nathan's introduction to today's show 00:25 – Why Kellogg was named top CEO by Glassdoor 00:45 – How Madwire has grown to 600 employees 01:25 – Why they operate on a hybrid SaaS and professional service model 02:30 – How they view revenue per employee and prioritize it 03:15 – Why they are doing $175k in revenue per employee today 03:30 – How Madwire is doing $105M in ARR right now 04:00 – Why they help small businesses with marketing at scale 04:50 – How they are serving 10k active customers at this point in time 05:05 – Why their average new account is paying around $1,500 each month 05:45 – How Madwire has scaled with $7.5M in outside funding 06:15 – Why they are cash flow positive 06:35 – How they are still growing 40% year over year 07:45 – Why they track churn in two unique ways 10:00 – How they receive payback within 3 months on a $3k CAC 11:10 – Why they are landing customers entirely through digital channels 12:10 – How he started the company with his father in 2009 13:45 – Why they've set aside stock and equity for top performing employees 14:40 – How they are targeting an IPO in the next few years 15:30 – Why they would look to IPO in two years 16:30 – The Famous Five JB Kellogg is the co-founder of SMB marketing platform, Madwire and Marketing 360. JB was named the Top CEO in the country by Glassdoor in 2016. Company website: https://www.madwire.com/ SaaS Metrics: Founded: 2009 Customers: 10,000 ARPU: $875 (monthly) Annual recurring revenue: $104 million Founded: 2009 Funding: $7.5m Team: 600

French, 24yo. I have lived in the US, Cambodia, South Korea, and Switzerland. I launched my first company 4 years ago doing smartphone repairs for students in campuses. And 18 months ago, I started Ease.space with 3 other people.

Christopher Reid is the founder and CEO of Sortable, a Waterloo Region startup on a mission to Empower Publishers. With an engineering background from the University of Waterloo, he is a serial entrepreneur on his fifth venture and has led tech ventures in industries ranging from educational technology to the consumer web and B2B SaaS. He is the driving force behind Sortable (formerly Snapsort Media), which uses machine learning to help online publishers automate ad operations. Previously a web publishing company, Snapsort Media was acquired in 2011 and bought back in 2014 to relaunch to Sortable's current day business.

Distinguished track record in technology, with a 20-plus year career spanning the development, marketing, and sale of technology. Spent the past 10 years on the cutting edge of social media, helping media companies and marketers more effectively use technologies such as artificial intelligence and blockchain to power their social media efforts.

Valentin Radu is a serial entrepreneur from Bucharest, Romania. He has founded four companies and had one important exit and one useful failure. Currently, he is the Founder & CEO of Omniconvert, a growth marketing platform for websites looking to become customer-centric.

Byron White is one of the original content marketing revolutionaries, and founder of WriterAccess. He's started several other businesses including Freelance Access, LifeTips, ideaLaunch and more. Byron is the Chair and Founder of Content Marketing Conference, an event featuring 65 speakers and 20 keynotes in 2018. He has authored four books on content marketing topics, is a popular speaker at dozens of conferences, and hosts a Webinar and Podcast series.

Frost Prioleau is the Co-Founder and CEO of Simpli.fi. An experienced online advertising executive specializing in targeting, optimization, and technology, Prioleau focuses on corporate strategy, driving Simpli.fi's growth, and ensuring customer satisfaction. Prior to Simpli.fi, Prioleau was the CEO and Founder of Personifi, a contextual and behavioral targeting company. The firm was acquired by Collective Media in 2008. While at Collective, Prioleau served as General Manager of the Technology Solutions Group. A thought leader in online advertising, Prioleau often speaks on the topic at industry trade shows and in the press. Prioleau is a graduate of Princeton University, where he earned a Bachelor's of Science in Engineering Management Systems.

Jay is responsible for all revenue-generating activities of Atlassian, including customer success and retention, operations and marketing. Jay joined Atlassian in 2008 as vice president of sales and marketing to lead Atlassian's pioneering efforts to develop a high-velocity, low-touch sales model. He's overseen the company's global expansion, introduction of its Starter License program (a disruptive approach to "freemium" where the company donates all proceeds to a charitable cause), and its growing worldwide customer community and programs. In 2011 Atlassian introduced its cloud-based offering Atlassian On-Demand, an evolution of its fast-growing SaaS platform. Jay has more than 18 years of experience in the software industry. He began his career at Plumtree Software where he held a variety of senior marketing and sales roles. Significantly, Jay oversaw the company's expansion throughout Europe and Asia Pacific. When Plumtree was acquired by BEA Systems in 2005, Jay became vice president of marketing for BEA Systems, which was later acquired by Oracle in 2008. Jay holds a bachelor's degree in political and environmental science from the University of Washington.

Carbon Black solutions enable customers to defend against the most advanced cyber threats, including malware, ransomware, and non-malware attacks.

Ryan Carson is the CEO & Founder of Treehouse, an online technology school with more than 80,000 enrolled students and 850,000 students taught in the past 8 years. Treehouse takes people from zero experience to job-ready in as little as six months. He also founded Carsonified and DropSend.

Kevin is the founder and CEO of TribeBoost, the first company to offer Twitter audience growth as a service. He is a serial entrepreneur and has also founded ThoughtFlame, MoSquatch, and others. Early in his career Kevin one of the first employees of USinternetworking – maybe the first SaaS business ever.

Jon Wuebben is the CEO and Founder of Content Launch. He's also the author of 3 marketing books, including "Future Marketing: Winning in the Prosumer Age"

Entrepreneur, journalist, developer and passionate about innovation. More than 8 years building software in Brazil and deep learning how to deliver value to customers through IT. Today I advocate a safer, faster and more scalable internet through entrepreneurship. Have you met Netzei yet?

Internet strategist and entrepreneur Fritz Brumder is the founder and COO of Brandlive, a SaaS live video platform used by brands and retailers to create highly engaging live content for marketing, training and commerce events. Fritz has been developing digital media solutions for the world's best brands for over 10 years.

Ricky is CEO at Shorthand, maker of the visual storytelling platform trusted by the BBC, Business Insider, Refinery29, Honda UK, Save The Children, Cambridge University and hundreds of other publishers, brands, non-profits and universities. We make it simple for storytelling teams to create memorable stories that audiences want to share.

In 2009 I pulled a life 180, quit my sales job, taught myself how to code and launched a profitable SaaS in exactly one year. Seattle native, Texas Hill Country transplant. Working with an entirely remote team across three countries.

Ricardo Lasa – Co-Founder, Chief Executive Officer Ricardo and Don Berndt co-founded SiteWit to bring the power of digital marketing to small business owners. Ricardo is product owner for SiteWit and has a deep understanding of website builder platforms, ecommerce platforms, predictive analytics, digital marketing, and SMB SaasS solutions.

Matt is the Founder & CEO of Stackify. He has been a developer/hacker for over 15 years and loves solving hard problems with code. While working in IT management he realized how much of his time was wasted trying to put out production fires without the right tools.

Stacey has extensive experience in generating demand, fueling growth, and building brand name global recognition for technology companies. She brings two decades of cloud, social, and mobile enterprise technology experience to her role as CEO of Zinc. Prior to Zinc, Stacey was Chief Marketing Officer at ServiceMax where she helped fuel 5 consecutive years of triple-digit growth leading to a $1b acquisition by GE in 2017. Before ServiceMax, Stacey was the Vice President of Global Marketing Communications at SuccessFactors. Stacey pioneered the marketing function at SuccessFactors in 2005, and was instrumental in the company's successful IPO in 2007, which led to a $3.4B acquisition by SAP in 2010. Prior to SuccessFactors, Stacey held leadership roles at Oracle, Clarify, and ServiceSource. Stacey holds a BA in English from Emory University, where she was a four time first team all-conference soccer player. She loves deep steep powder, chasing around her two young daughters, and cheering loudly as her husband coaches basketball. She frequently writes on leadership, innovation, and women in business for Inc, Fast Company, and BizJournals, which can be found at staceyepstein.com.

Jeremy Bodenhamer is the Co-founder and CEO of ShipHawk, a Smart Transportation Management System. He is a leading expert at the intersection of shipping and commerce, and has been featured in TechCrunch, AOL, WSJ, Fortune, Internet Retailer, Inc. and Entrepreneur, and is a frequent speaker on innovation and technology.

I started Hiver in late 2011, and over the last 7 years, have virtually bootstrapped it to $1.5 million in ARR. Our MRR grew 60% in the last 5 months, and we're now growing 10% mom. Announcing Series A soon.

I founded Wyzowl, one of the world's leading explainer video production agencies & publi.sh, a marketing content creation agency. We create exceptional marketing content for our customers through both brands. I share my knowledge online with regular marketing strategy videos and through a weekly podcast called the "Marketing Strategies Podcast".

I started an exotic car rental company out of my dorm room at Georgia Tech. I was Director of Sales at Lamborghini Atlanta for 6 years. In 2016, I founded VINwiki with a team of developer friends as a way to crowd source vehicle history & empower stakeholders. I also hold the Cannonball Run World Record.

An entrepreneurial executive, Gilad enjoys visioning and creating innovative solutions for cloud, mobile and web technologies. Gilad to co-founded eClincher, a platform to manage and analyze social media and online presence. Previously, Gilad held senior management positions at Ultratech, Bloom Energy, Verigy, KLA-Tencor, and Applied Materials. Gilad has proven track record in Business Management, Product Management, Engineering Management, New Product Introduction (NPI), and Manufacturing and Support.

Adam Harris is the Co-founder and CEO of Cloudbeds. Together with Co-founder Richard Castle, Adam has led Cloudbeds from a small startup to an award-winning company that powers tens of thousands of hospitality properties in over 135 countries. Adam started his career as an investment banker until his love of entrepreneurship and travel pulled him from Wall Street to some of the most remote corners of the planet. He has many years of experience in consulting, has built and sold multiple companies, and has traveled to more than 51 countries over the course of his career. Adam believes that travel and food are the keys to understanding the world and that, in particular, unique properties give travelers the best opportunity to explore and experience local culture.