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SaaS Interviews with CEOs, Startups, Founders

SaaS Interviews with CEOs, Startups, Founders

3,082 episodes — Page 39 of 62

1169 From $40CPA Model to $900/mo SaaS, 100% yoy growth

Will Fraser is CEO and co-founder of SaaSquatch. He studied electrical engineering and business before starting his first company. Since becoming an entrepreneur he has worked with some of the world's largest companies to help them build digital growth channels that have touched many millions of people around the globe.

Oct 6, 201818 min

1168 Social Media For Lawyers Doubles YOY to $1.5m ARR, Raising $1m?

Adrian Dayton is the Founder of ClearView Social and author of two books on social media for lawyers. His software is being used by over 20,000 professionals including 25 of the 100 largest law firms in the United States.

Oct 5, 201819 min

1167 How FloQast Grew 300% YoY to $8m ARR Selling to Accounting Teams

Mike is the co-founder and CEO of FloQast. Prior to that, he was the fifth accountant hired at Cornerstone OnDemand to help prepare for their IPO. Mike began his career in audit at Ernst & Young in Los Angeles. He holds a Bachelor's in Accounting from Syracuse University.

Oct 4, 201821 min

1166 He Invented Mattress in a Box 20 years ago But Casper Out-Marketed Him

Oct 3, 201818 min

1165 Coveo CEO: "We'll pass $100m ARR imminently" on $150m raised for AI powered search

Louis Têtu is Chairman & Chief Executive Officer of Coveo. Prior to Coveo, Louis co-founded Taleo Corporation, the leading international provider of cloud software for talent and human capital management. Prior to Taleo, Louis was President of Baan SCS, the supply-chain management solutions group of Baan, a global enterprise software company.

Oct 2, 201822 min

1164 Want Your Own Alexa, Without Amazon Influence? Mycroft Raises $8m For Opensource Voice Stack

Joshua Montgomery is the Founder and CEO of Mycroft AI - the privacy-focused open source voice assistant. Joshua has more than 15 years of entrepreneurial experience to bring to Mycroft. He previously built one of the few gigabit fiber networks from scratch in the United States.

Oct 1, 201819 min

1163 How Jazz HR Used $6m in New Funds to Add $1m ARR in 3 Months

Pete has 25 years of experience in leadership roles with high growth companies, spending the majority of his career with technology solutions designed for the global small business community. Prior to joining JazzHR, Pete was Senior Vice President of Global Sales at Carbonite where he was responsible for all revenue and led the company's expansion into the SMB market, which grew to exceed 100,000 paid small business customers. Pete was a member of the Carbonite IPO leadership team. Previously, Pete served as SVP & GM for NameMedia’s SMB-focused Domain Marketplace, the largest of its kind in the world, and Chief Operating Officer of Monster Worldwide's consumer relocation division, helping small businesses convert new movers into lifetime customers. Pete is a graduate of Middlebury College and Harvard Business School.

Sep 30, 201820 min

1162 Pittsburg Placed Niche.com Passes 10m Uniques/Mo, $3m in SaaS Revenue

Luke Skurman is the Founder and CEO of Niche.com. Luke holds bachelors and masters degrees from Carnegie Mellon University and is a member of its Board of Trustees; Luke is the Vice Chairman of the Research Innovation and Entrepreneurship committee, he is also a member of both the Finance and the Property & Facilities committees. Luke is a Co-Founder and Chairman of Ascender, a non-profit, 501(c)(3), focusing on bolstering innovation and entrepreneurship in the Pittsburgh region. Luke is the Founding Curator of the Global Shapers Pittsburgh Hub, an initiative of the World Economic Forum. Luke has won national awards related to entrepreneurship from BusinessWeek, Fast Company, and Inc. Magazine and has been featured in numerous media outlets including The New York Times, CNN, and Fortune. Luke was awarded the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year for the Pittsburgh region in 2016.

Sep 29, 201823 min

1161 How 4m Freemium Users Power Enterprise Content Offering at Scoop.it

Co-founder & CEO of Scoop.it, a SaaS platform that helps marketers publish content using data science. Entrepreneur since 2000: Musiwave (first mobile music platform, acquired by Microsoft), Goojet (pre-iPhone mobile widget platform). Startup advisor and investor: Tedemis (email retargeting, acquired by Criteo), The Refiners, Impact (cross-border accelerators in San Francisco).

Sep 28, 201823 min

1160 Convoy, The Uber for Trucking, Charges Avg $4/mile on 100 mile trip, Takes Less Than 20% Per Unit Shipped

Dan Lewis is the co-founder and CEO of Convoy. Convoy is building the largest connected network of trucking companies in the country, helping businesses ship freight more efficiently, improving drivers' livelihood and reducing the 7% of all greenhouse gases that come from trucking. Before Convoy, Dan served as General Manager of New Shopping Experiences at Amazon, as well as Vice President of Product and Operations at Wavii (acquired by Google), and Group Product Manager at Microsoft. Dan started his career in technology and supply-chain consulting for Oliver Wyman, after studying cognitive science at Yale University.

Sep 27, 201819 min

1159 SF Company w/ $50m Raised "Of course we're burning cash!"

Zack pioneered the first large-scale Drupal website for the Howard Dean campaign in 2003, co-founded the world's first Drupal development shop, CivicSpace, co-founded a successful Drupal development shop, Chapter Three, and also co-founded Mission Bicycle. What started as a professional website development epiphany "We're doing it wrong!" evolved into an all-in-one platform after he and a few trusted colleagues got together and started solving problems.

Sep 26, 201822 min

1158 School teacher developers software, other teachers buy it, $3k MRR

Highschool Teacher for over 8 years, entrepreneur in web design for over 15 and gamification expert for 8 years (3 as international expert).

Sep 25, 201813 min

1157 From Artist to $200k MRR SaaS Company for Content Publishing

Taj Forer is an experienced publisher, digital media executive, entrepreneur and artist. He currently serves as CEO of Fabl, the cloud-based publishing platform for content marketing, serving a global client base including CBS, Cond Nast, GE and Ducati, among others. Forer is Cofounder of Daylight, the celebrated international publisher of art books and is the author of two books of his own critically acclaimed art photography.

Sep 24, 201820 min

1156 YC Alum Burning $110k/mo in Cash To Scope Projects and Place Dev Talent Using Machine Learning

Iba Masood is the co-founder and CEO of TARA.ai. Iba is a YC Alum, and was part of YCombinator's Winter 2015 class. She was recently awarded Forbes 30 under 30, for the 2018 list, under the field of Enterprise Technology. In August 2017, Iba became a permanent resident of the United States, through the EB-1A award, which presents individuals of outstanding ability with the green card.

Sep 23, 201826 min

1155 How He's Used Stories to Build a $20m+ SaaS Platform for Scaling Content

Tom Gerace is the founder and CEO of Skyword, the leading content marketing technology and services company. Skyword liberates brands from ineffective marketing practices and inspires them to create deeper connections with their audiences through storytelling. With Robert McKee, award-winning story authority and best-selling author, Gerace leads Storynomics Seminars, which instruct senior executives and marketing professionals on how to apply storytelling structure to their business in order to drive revenue, margins, and brand loyalty. Prior to Skyword, Gerace founded Be Free, a publicly traded affiliate marketing platform and services company, which transformed online advertising from pay-per-view to pay-for-performance advertising. Early in his career, Gerace served as a senior business analyst at the Harvard Business School, where he wrote the first case studies on the emergence of the Internet in 1998.

Sep 22, 201821 min

1154 How we hit net churn of -5% in Loyalty Program space

Successful serial entrepreneur and investor, advisor, mentor to several startups. Currently the CEO of Zinrelo, a loyalty rewards and referral marketing platform. Has over 25 years of experience in technology industry and holds 19 patents. Loves trekking, running and biking. Currently training for SF-LA, unsupported bike ride.

Sep 21, 201819 min

1153 We just passed $4m in ARR, considering a raise for CPG CRM tool

Allen Bonde is VP of marketing at Repsly, and an advisor to several start-ups. He also held executive roles at Placester, OpenText, and KANA, and was co-founder at Offerpop (now Wyng). He has been a consultant at McKinsey and Yankee Group, and started his career as a data scientist. An avid speaker (on 4 continents) and writer, he blogs at Small Data Group.

Sep 20, 201817 min

1152 How Screenful monopolized Trello marketplace to drive $15k in MRR

Technologist & entrepreneur with a passion to product design, founder of Screenful (https://screenful.com). Before founding Screenful, I spent a decade building machine learning models for user analytics, content recommendation, and ad targeting. I co-organise Helsinki Business Analytics meetup and Atlassian User Group Helsinki. In my free time, I enjoy snowboarding and juggling.

Sep 19, 201817 min

1151 Weebly CEO: 50m Users, North of .5% Conversion to $8/mo

David Rusenko is CEO and co-founder of Weebly. Created in his Penn State dorm room in 2006, Weebly now hosts 50 million entrepreneurs in 225 countries around the world. He's helped scale the company to 300+ employees in 5 global offices. He's dad to a 1.5 year old and his hobbies range from stunt car driving to roaring game of bridge with his mother-in-law.

Sep 18, 201828 min

1150 Detroit Based Referral Program software passes $600k in MRR

Jeff Epstein is the founder and CEO of Ambassador (getambassador.com) a 40 person, venture-backed startup headquartered in metro Detroit. Ambassador provides relationship marketing software to some of the world's most recognizable brands. A lifelong entrepreneur, Jeff's first internet startup was in 2000 and provided online food ordering for college students. Jeff ran this startup while earning his BA from Michigan State University. While earning his J.D from Chicago-Kent School of Law, Jeff started an affiliate marketing company which he later sold before graduating to allow himself to pay off his law school loans.

Sep 17, 201820 min

1149 My investors kicked me out of my company, now personality tool at $1m+ ARR

Founder of Crystal for the past 3 1/2 years. Started multiple businesses before then, including an event software company (Attend.com), a pizza box advertising agency, and a bed bug extermination company. Private pilot, songwriter, runner, and local diner regular.

Sep 16, 201825 min

1148 We've passed $10m in ARR helping companies make sure their analytics are working

Rob Seolas co-founded ObservePoint in 2007, helping grow the company from a lean startup to the global leader in digital data quality, that today serves enterprise clients worldwide. Thought-leader, life-enthusiast and successful entrepreneur, Rob has more than 15 years of experience leading innovation in the digital marketing space. Quick to point out he was fired from every job where he didn't work for himself, Rob previously co-founded and built iLeadMedia, which was acquired by Think Partnership. Today, Rob is an authority in mobile and web analytics and business who approaches digital marketing challenges with the passion and energy of a visionary leader. With extensive experience in startups and private sales investments, Rob leads ObservePoint in redefining the role of digital data quality in business strategy across all verticals.

Sep 15, 201825 min

1147 We make $200k/mo helping people find financial products

Miron Lulic is founder and CEO at SuperMoney, a leading financial services comparison platform. Millions of people trust SuperMoney to shop for financial products and transparently compare their options in real time. Prior to SuperMoney, Miron was a co-founder at LoanNow, a direct online lender. Miron also helped to launch Optima Tax Relief where he lead digital marketing and product development efforts as VP of Digital. In 2015, Optima was named the #3 fastest growing company in America (#1 in financial services).

Sep 14, 201821 min

1146 How Joomla Pays Bills With $0 Revenue, Opensourced

Robert is President of Joomla and has been an expert in content management systems since 1996. Effective deployment and management of content using internet technologies has been a cornerstone of Robert's philosophy and has helped clients achieve measurable results. He believes Joomla is a huge and growing part of the future of content management.

Sep 13, 201816 min

1145 How Eero is Locking Down Distribution Channel for "Home Automation Wars" With $100m

Nick is the CEO and co-founder of eero. Prior to eero, Nick worked at McKinsey & Company and then Menlo Ventures, where he sourced investments in startups such as Betterment, Periscope, and Ansible and worked with portfolio companies like Uber, Dropcam, and Roku. Frustrated by the WiFi solutions on the market and unable to find a better solution, he set out to build eero with his co-founders Amos Schallich and Nate Hardison. Nick is originally from Chicago, graduated from Stanford with a BS in Management Science & Engineering, and currently lives in San Francisco with his wife.

Sep 12, 201822 min

1144 Why I sold my profitable, bootstrapped $5.5m ARR company

Elastic Grid enhances the partner experience by delivering a scalable, easy-to-use channel marketing platform backed by personal support. The result is programs that meet the individual needs of each partner, increased campaign adoption rates, and measurable ROI that channel teams depend on

Sep 11, 201815 min

1143 Eloqua Founders Launch New Relationship Tool, $600k ARR first 5 Months, $7m Raised

Paul is the CEO and Co-founder of Nudge.ai, a relationship intelligence platform that helps businesses find and grow the right relationships to drive revenue. He is a successful technology executive who has run Services, Customer Success, Account Management, Support and Product Management teams. As part of Eloqua's executive team, Paul helped lead the company from $0 to over $100 million in revenue, then through IPO and a successful acquisition for $957 million by Oracle. He's a firm believer that company culture trumps strategy every time, and that storytelling is an essential part of creating a business. He has a successful track record as a leader with a strong focus on sales and customer engagement.

Sep 10, 201819 min

1142 Why went public, then sold to Vista for $564m on $100m in ARR

CEO of Xactly Corporation. Seasoned executive with more than two decades of successful senior management experience at both early-stage and public companies. Noted industry expert in issues relating to sales performance management, sales compensation, commission, employee engagement, incentive compensation, benchmarking, big data and software-as-a-service (SaaS) delivery models.

Sep 9, 201823 min

1141 Not shopify, not stripe, $2b+ in transaction volume processed

Full-time traveler and co-founder/product manager at Foxy.io. Back in 2005, Brett needed a way to add custom ecommerce to existing systems.Foxy.io was launched 2 years later, with the hunch that others needed the same. 10+ years later, Foxy has handled billions of dollars in transactions for merchants around the world. When Brett isn't busy with that, you can find him playing bluegrass

Sep 8, 201821 min

1140 I only work 17 hours per week, don't trust Google, and make $1.7m+

John has helped thousands of entrepreneurs succeed in their business by doing outsourcing differently. He created and runs OnlineJobs.ph, the largest website for finding Filipino virtual workers, with over 500,000 Filipino resumes and over 100,000 employers from around the world using it. He works about 17 hours per week, choosing to spend his time with his family rather than working.

Sep 7, 201821 min

1139 We're about to close $5m round for our sales document tool

CTO & co-founder at TILKEE, Timothée has an engineering background. As the original founder of oXfoZ, he managed complex web-based projects. He was also a project manager at Traveldoo and carried out several missions for "Doctors Without Borders" as a volunteer. His last challenge was launching TILKEE with Sylvain Tillon in 2012 as the technical director.

Sep 6, 201818 min

1138 Goldman almost sold us for $12m, thankfully it failed

I'm a life-long entrepreneur, and have been building software for over 20 years. I co-founded Shopper Approved In 2010. In 2016 we made the Inc. 500. In 2017 we made the Inc. 500 again, and we were also #7 on the Utah 100 list - all with no outside funding or investors.

Sep 5, 201817 min

1137 David Skok Matrix Partners on Hubspot Pricing Axis, Category Leaders, $100b Softbank Fund

Sep 4, 201829 min

1136 Outreach.io CEO: "We'll hit $10m/quarter in 2018" with focus on ARPU expansion

CEO of Outreach, the #1 Sales Engagement Platform. Previously led GroupTalent, Microsoft's Windows phone Business Development team in Latin America and Canada. Prior to that, engineered Amazon's compensation system for Amazon Associates (the web's largest and most successful affiliates business) and Web-Services which accounts for 15% of A's traffic. MBA from Harvard Business School, MS in Computer Science from University of Pennsylvania.

Sep 3, 201827 min

1135 This app lets you use real money to compete with your friends in crypto, stocks

I describe myself as a recovering investment banker. I run a startup that is helping people invest together with those they know and trust. While I have devoted time across several sectors, the common threads are financial services and capital markets. I have extensive experience in the formation, structuring and financing of public and private companies. Transactions across international capital markets have provided me with considerable insight into valuation, positioning and strategy. I leverage this to contribute to the development and growth of successful businesses.

Sep 2, 201817 min

1134 Ad Network Pivots to On Demand Video Generation

Loren has spent the last 18 years involved in building consumer-facing applications, monetizing page views and working with publishers. He brings extensive start-up experience and leadership to his role as CEO of Answer Media. Previously, Loren was part of the management team at iModules Software, a start-up technology provider that sold to private equity and later with Litmus Media, an online search advertising start-up that was acquired by Inuvo (AMEX:INUV).

Sep 1, 201815 min

1133 How to slowly quit corporate, code your platform and land your first customer

I am an entrepreneur at heart. I love creating things and finding new and innovative ways to improve the quality of our lives, the way we run our businesses, and to make our world a more efficient place. My background is in Genetic Biology clearly I have take a few twists and turn in life, but I love meet new people, learning about what they are working on and discussing new ideas.

Aug 31, 201813 min

1132 How He Plans to Take on Moz, SEMRush, with 1500 customers, $180k MRR

Vaibhav Kakkar Co-Founded RankWatch, with an idea of making internet marketing an intelligent process. Apart from helping businesses succeed online and writing about Internet Marketing, he's usually found digging deep into the beautiful world of search engine algorithms.

Aug 30, 201818 min

1131 We do $70m Annually in Buyer Data Space, 50% Gross Margin

Jay Habegger is the co-founder and CEO of ownerIQ. Jay is a pioneer in digital media and advertising having over 20 years experience. He has built The Q from it's humble beginnings to leading the industry in second party data and as the leading programmatic solution for digital advertisers, retailers and brands. Previously, Jay was the CEO and president of Bitpipe, leading the company through to its sale to TechTarget in 2004 in a $40 million transaction.

Aug 29, 201818 min

1130 "We're way cheaper than Mailchimp", is that enough?

Brick and mortar engineer living in the body of a tech company CEO. Banking technology in the past (Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan), Marketing technology in the present. A Londoner at heart. Using technology to cook beautiful dishes.

Aug 28, 201818 min

1129 He Bought $70m Of ARR w/ Other Peoples Money, Kept 60%+ Equity for Common

H. John Oechsle joined small business CRM software provider Swiftpage in July 2012 and currently serves as chief executive officer. John came to Swiftpage (www.act.com) with a 30 year track record of building highly profitable and sustainable revenue growth for emerging companies and established global leaders. John is an advocate for entrepreneurship and small business growth.

Aug 27, 201828 min

1128 New CEO with New Funding Grows SalesScout from $35k to $260k MRR

After co-founding a large retail chain in Chicago in the late 70's, Chris was persuaded by one of his mentors to get into the data, predictive analytics and marketing technology space. 35 years later, Chris has developed a reputation as a thought leader and pioneer in his industry. He's launched a number of successful startups, and he's run large corporate divisions at public companies including Equifax, Experian, MDC-Partners, and EDS/Neodata.

Aug 26, 201818 min

1127 Why don't you sell SaaS Biz to Double Down on Agency?

Andy Beal is The Original Online Reputation Expert. The CEO of Reputation Refinery and Trackur, Beal is an online reputation management consultant, award-winning blogger, professional speaker, and coauthor of the critically acclaimed book Radically Transparent: Monitoring & Managing Reputations Online. His latest book, Repped: 30 Days to a Better Online Reputation is an Amazon bestseller!

Aug 25, 201821 min

1126 How Gong Hit $1m+ in ARR in 1st Year

Amit Bendov is the co-founder and CEO of Gong.io, the # 1 conversation intelligence platform for sales. He brings more than 20 years of leadership experience in hyper-growth enterprise software startups managing product, marketing, and sales for global corporations. Prior to founding Gong.io, Amit was CEO of SiSense and CMO of Panaya.

Aug 24, 201827 min

1125 He's Sold $5m+ Of Magical Pad w/ 1,014 Needles Athletes Use to Kill Pain

Founder and President of BioWave, Brad Siff invented the signal technology behind BioWave's non-opioid, FDA-cleared, pain relief medical devices, which are now in use by 90 pro sports teams and 32 VA Hospitals. Brad holds undergraduate and master's degrees in engineering, as well as an MBA, all from Cornell.

Aug 23, 201820 min

1124 Why BrandWatch Acquired BuzzSumo, Past $50m ARR

Giles Palmer is the founder and CEO of Brandwatch, a leading social intelligence company. Formerly of BSkyB, Giles started Brandwatch and since its launch in August 2007, it has grown to become one of the world’s leading social media analytics and listening companies.

Aug 22, 201825 min

1123 Ecommerce Brands Pay Him $3m To Increase Average Cart Value 12%+

Robin is the CEO and co-founder of award-winning and quickly expanding startup Loop54. He holds a Master degree in Industrial engineering and management and has been into sales his whole career prior to Loop45. He currently lives in Stockholm, Sweden, together with the girlfriend and a judgmental dog.

Aug 21, 201820 min

1122 Sales Tech CEO "We've Passed $30m in ARR", 70% yoy growth

Showpad is the second company Pieterjan has founded. In 2010 he co-founded the mobile development agency, In The Pocket and still serves on its board. Prior to In The Pocket, Pieterjan held senior roles at Netlog and Accenture and holds masters degrees in both Communication Sciences and International Business.

Aug 20, 201821 min

1121 Webinar King? "We grew 180% yoy Bootstrapped to $7.1m in ARR"

Omar Zenhom is the Co-founder and CEO of WebinarNinja, an all-inclusive, easy-to-use webinar platform that allows you to create a webinar in 10 seconds flat. He's also the the host of an iTunes Best of 2014 podcast, The $100 MBA Show. The $100 MBA Show has delivered 900+ lessons and counting to over 50,000 daily listeners.

Aug 19, 201824 min

1120 He Helped TED Community Connect, Now at $12m in ARR

introNetworks deployed the first social network for the 2003 TED Conference. Mark has successfully created hundreds of introNetwork Communities for global organizations to make a cultural change in how they connect with their audiences. As the co-founder of Wavefront in 1984, Mark helped develop Maya, the first commercial 3D animation system.

Aug 18, 201810 min