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SaaS Interviews with CEOs, Startups, Founders

SaaS Interviews with CEOs, Startups, Founders

3,101 episodes — Page 40 of 63

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

1119 "Channel partners gave us 200,000 customers, $40m ARR"

I'm an entrepreneur and co-founder of SoloSEO, the leading provider of DIY Website Marketing and SEO Tools. I live in Washington state and enjoy racing (triathlon, ironman, marathon, and spartan) and being adventurous with my 4 kids (hiking, backpacking, and camping).

Aug 17, 201821 min

1118 CEO: How I Bootstrapped to $3m in ARR

Tradable Bits helps music and sports brands know their fans and market smarter. Their fan data platform is built one purpose: to create the best possible fan experiences. Music festivals and sports teams trust them to collect, analyze and activate their fan data at scale - increasing ROI with automated personalization.

Aug 16, 201816 min

1117 $3m Agency to $20k MRR SaaS, Here's How

I'm the founder and CEO at FunnelEnvy a startup solving B2B website and marketing optimization challenges with a SaaS platform. Arun and his team have optimized websites for some of the largest brands in the world. An engineer and serial entrepreneur, Arun wants to transform the way marketers experiment.

Aug 15, 201813 min

1116 CEO: "We're definitely too cheap"

Mike Donnelly is the CEO & Founder of Seventh Sense, which is a system that optimizes the timing and frequency of email for sales and marketing professionals. The idea was conceived during Mike's 13 year career as an individual contributor and sales leader for emerging enterprise technology companies.

Aug 14, 201819 min

1115 How Pendo CEO Uses War Chest to Acquire Companies, Integrate

Todd Olson is CEO and Co-Founder of Pendo, a product experience platform that helps product managers deliver successful products. Before Pendo, Todd served as VP of Products at Rally Software Development which he led through its public offering. Todd joined Rally via its acquisition of 6th Sense, a company he founded and served as President and CTO.

Aug 13, 201818 min

1114 Personalized Video Adtech Company Hits $60m TTM Revenues

Founder, CEO of Eyeview. Pioneer in video creative and advertising technology. Recognized leader, published in WSJ, Forbes more. Eyeview ranked 9th growing company in America. Oren hold degrees in Computer Science and Film, played professional basketball, runs Triathlons, performs stand-up in NYC served Israeli’s special forces

Aug 12, 201819 min

1113 His Vegas Raceway Grossed $10m in Y1, Here's How

Aaron is successful entrepreneur who has founded, built and sold multiple successful organizations. In 2012, Aaron was awarded the "Entrepreneur Startup Award of the Year"​ by the Entrepreneur's Organization. Fessler is the founder and CEO of SPEEDVEGAS, a 100 acre exotic car driving experience in Las Vegas. Prior to founding SPEEDVEGAS, Aaron created MediaSentry, which became the largest provider of anti-piracy services for the motion picture and recording industries. Major clients were Sony Pictures, Warner Brothers, Fox, Disney, and MGM. The company was acquired by Safenet (NASDAQ: SFNT) in 2005 in a $20 million cash and stock transaction. Previously, Aaron founded The Allegro Group, which grew to become the largest provider of email services in the United States. The platform managed corporate messaging for Ford Motor Company, Mercedes Benz, Continental Airlines, and eight of the ten largest law firms in the United States. Allegro was acquired by Mail.com (NASDAQ: MAIL) in 1999 in a $40 million cash and stock transaction.

Aug 11, 201818 min

1112 150 Pay Him $3m For Content Marketing at Scale

Joe Griffin is the CEO of ClearVoice, a content marketing platform and talent network that he co-founded in 2013. He has served in executive roles at Web.com and iCrossing, and has founded multiple companies. Joe has employed more than 500 SEO, social media, and content marketing experts over his career, and actively speaks and writes for major media outlets.

Aug 10, 201822 min

1111 How She Cut Customer Base in Half, But Still Grew 100% YoY

Stacy Chapman is the CEO and co-founder of SwoopTalent. Stacy has been in the talent systems industry for decades, as a vendor, practitioner and implementer. In all those situations, talent data has been a huge challenge, and every year data gets more important â€" so, her current company solves that.

Aug 9, 201813 min

1110 Why His $1.2m ARR SaaS Company Shut Down

Hank is an internet marketer who has built both B2B and B2C companies. He grew his marketing service Vytmn to $105k/mo in revenue in a little over a year's time, only to be killed by changes to Twitter's platform. His next company â€" growth agency Execute.LA - was acquired by Hawke Media January 2018. Hank is now VP Business Development at CoinCircle, a SaaS platform for ICOs and token sales.

Aug 8, 201821 min

1109 Latin America Content Marketing SaaS Company Breaks $12m in ARR

Diego Gomes is the co founder of Rock Content, the leading content marketing platform in latin america. On my spare time I like to blog about SaaS at http://saasholic.com, support founders and do some small angel investments in SaaS I also co authored the Brazil SaaS Landscape Research and the Brazil Startup report.

Aug 7, 201813 min

1108 Minneapolis Sales Tech: "We're past $30m in ARR, will raise this year"

Orrin is a serial entrepreneur passionate about applying technology to helping salespeople be more successful and engaged with their customers. His current role leading Modus, a B2B sales enablement company, builds on his professional history in sales leadership, learning, and recruiting software. He describes himself as collaborative, focused, and driven.

Aug 6, 201820 min

1107 Activision Blizzard CEO: ICO's are Just Like Selling Digital Swords in Mortal Combat!

Howard Marks is the co-founder and CEO at StartEngine Crowdfunding/Capital, the leader in Initial Coin Offerings and Online Public Offerings. Marks founded StartEngine with the mission to help entrepreneurs achieve their dreams. Marks was the founder and CEO of Acclaim Games, a publisher of online games now part of The Walt Disney Company. Before Acclaim, Marks was the co-founder of Activision Blizzard and Chairman of Activision Studios from 1991 until 1997. As co-founder, former Board Member, and Executive Vice-President of video game giant Activision, he and a partner took control in 1991 and turned the ailing company into the $50B market cap video game industry leader. As a games industry expert, Marks built one of the largest and most successful games studios in the industry selling millions of games. Marks is also named one of the 500 most influential people in Los Angeles by the Los Angeles Business Journal. Marks is a member of Mayor Eric Garcetti's technology council. Marks has a Bachelor of Science in Computer Engineering from the University of Michigan. He is bilingual and is a triple national of the U.S., United Kingdom, and France.

Aug 5, 201820 min

1106 Fotoware CEO: We've moved 20% of our revenue from on prem to cloud

Before joining FotoWare, Anne Gretland held the position as COO in Compello group. Gretland spent 17 years in Microsoft, and held several leadership positions in Microsoft Norway and Western Europe HQ. She is one of the founders of ODA, the largest network for women in tech in the Nordics (8000 members). She is educated in USA and Norway, in communications, marketing and leadership. In 2017 she was named one of Norway's 50 leading IT women. Blog: www.annegretland.com

Aug 4, 201821 min

1105 Should you develop every customer request?

Amit Kothari (CEO) spent a decade in London, at the cutting edge of collaboration technologies for the enterprise. His clients were the worlds' largest companies, law firms and government entities. After seeing the problems with emerging chat tools, he realised that the disruption of this industry depended on combining unstructured chat with structured processe. Processes help every business scale their operations and chatting on Slack or project management is not the same as process management. The result of all this was Tallyfy, which has raised $1.3m to date from top investors in Silicon Valley and elsewhere â€" including 500 Startups and Alchemist Accelerator.

Aug 3, 201821 min

1104 $3m+ Adtech CEO on Threats from Cypto, Ad Management going in House

Before joining plista, Gagnon worked for PwC both in Canada and Germany. In his last role he served as Manager Strategy Consulting in Berlin advising tech companies on their international expansion. He also acted as a Member of the Executive Committee of the Canada China Business Council and brings many years of experience in various strategy and international business development roles at Bombardier Inc.

Aug 2, 201817 min

1103 When should he quit his agency and go all in on software?

Stefan is co-founder of Userbrain and Simplease, and he started working with his other three co-founders, Andreas, Markus and Mathias, back in 2009 when they were still studying information design in Graz, Austria. Stefan teaches user experience, usability and design to students and clients and gives talks on these topics.

Aug 1, 201822 min

1102 WebHose CEO on understanding unstructured data, passes $2.3m in ARR

Ran Geva is a serial entrepreneur with over two decades of hands-on experience in software development and leadership positions. After founding Omgili, a search engine for online discussions, and co-founding Buzzilla, one of the top web monitoring and analysis companies in Israel, he went on to co-found Webhose.io - a leading global provider of structured web data, where he serves as CEO and lead technologist.

Jul 31, 201818 min

1101 Bloomreach CEO: We've turned down acquisition offers in $400m range

Raj brought 10 years of enterprise and entrepreneurial experience with him when he co-founded BloomReach. Before launching the company, he was entrepreneur-in-residence at Mohr-Davidow Ventures. Prior to that, Raj served as Cisco's director of product marketing and was on the founding team of telecom company FirstMark/LambdaNet, which grew to $80 million in run-rate revenue. Raj also worked in technology investment banking at Lazard Freres. He holds a bachelor of science in electrical engineering from Princeton University and an MBA from Harvard Business School. His thoughts on navigating the challenges of high-growth startups can be found on his blog at DeDatta.com.

Jul 30, 201817 min

1100 Why aren't more private equity firms paying him $12k/seat?

Greg Silverman, is CEO of Concentric, a software company that licenses Concentric Market, a simulator that improves your planning processes and forecasting capabilities. Previously, he was Global Managing Director, Analytics and Valuation, for Interbrand. He is author of Turning Complexity into Strategic Advantage and the Interbrand Top 100 Brands Report.

Jul 29, 201818 min

1099 Salt Lake Event Management Company Breaks $4m in ARR, 30,000 Paid Events

Kreg is committed to creating extraordinary experiences. He is best known for founding SpinGo, a robust event platform powering 5,500 entertainment apps and delivering live event content for more than 7 million events nationwide. SpinGo is dedicated to providing integrated solutions for its 350,000+ registered event makers, enabling them to efficiently list, promote, and optimize their events. SpinGo was named Internet Company of the Year, Tech Startup of the Year, and Fastest Growing Tech Company of the Year. In April 2017, he founded Aktify, a customer acquisition engine that qualifies and reactivates prospects through goodwill experience marketing.

Jul 28, 201816 min

1098 Website Redirect Service Launches, Hits $15k MRR Thanks to "Great Partners" Like Hubspot

William Richards is a serial entrepreneur with extensive experience in large enterprise systems design and development. A software architect by trade, William has been building web based technology since the late 90s and has held senior technology positions in companies ranging from startups to agencies to global enterprises.

Jul 27, 201814 min

1097 CMS CEO: How to Move 1 Time License Model doing $1.5m Annually to SaaS

Brandon is the head honcho at Craft CMS, the word's least worst content management system. He lives in outdoorsy Bend, Oregon despite his preference to be hunched over a computer, and he'd rather not learn the definition of of a millennial out of fear that he is one.

Jul 26, 201819 min

1096 How TapClicks is Managaing 60% yoy Growth in Marketing Dashboard Space

With over 20 years as a senior executive at Fortune 500, Silicon Valley tech companies specializing in software, hardware, internet and mobile apps, Babak has grown businesses from millions to billions in revenue. He is an alumnus of Harvard Business School, Stanford Management and Entrepreneurship program, and holds a BSEE/CS from SJSU.

Jul 25, 201823 min

1095 His First Move at Zenefits? 450 Laid Off. Now Eyeing Profitability and $100m in ARR

Jay is Chairman & CEO at Zenefits. He brings more than 20 years of experience in leading both public and private technology companies. Previously, Jay served as CEO of Ooyala, and Agile Software. Before that, Jay was a senior executive at both PeopleSoft and SAP. Jay is a member of the Global Leadership Council at the Lucas Graduate School and College of Business at San Jose State University.

Jul 24, 201824 min

1094 How he bought 15 people off cap table, hit $9m in ARR in workflow space

Brian Reale is a serial entrepreneur. Prior to founding ProcessMaker Brian founded and later sold Unete Telecom, a long distance voice and data carrier in South America. Brian graduated from Duke University in 1993 and was a Fulbright scholar in linguistics in Ecuador 1994.

Jul 23, 201819 min

1093 If you're under 30, is agency/coaching a good way to make money?

Being one of Forbes' & Influencive.com's Top 30 Entrepreneurs Under 30, Jeremy C. Adams is not timid to climb the ladder of ultimate success. Armed with an impressive background in sales & digital marketing, at 22 years old, Jeremy went on to become the founder of Prestige Food Trucks, along with launching many other successful businesses including one with Kevin Harrington, a past investor from Shark Tank. Today Jeremy is focused on an exciting new venture with his close friend, Maxwell Finn, called Unicorn IQ.

Jul 22, 201820 min

1092 Why Chef Creator Raised $30m to Replace Walkie Talkies

Jul 21, 201832 min

1091 Founded in 1999, How He's Managed a 20+ Year "Overnight Success"

A serial entrepreneur, CEO and public company senior executive with 20 years of experience inInternet technology, VoIP, online marketing, eCommerce and mobile applications.

Jul 20, 201818 min

1090 CEO Eating Own Dog Food for $25m Revenue, $5.5m Gross Profit, $3m Net

Chris Ingham Brooke is the founder and CEO of Pub Ocean, a venture-backed technology company that helps digital publishing become profitable. Our mission is to provide publishers with the toolkit to automate and simplify audience development and ad operations, ultimately creating better content and building more sustainable companies.

Jul 19, 201823 min

1089 Workato CEO: "We're Enterprise Version" of Zapier, Segment, Elastoic

Vijay has led the creation of market leading integration technologies for over 25 years. Prior to Workato, he was the CEO of Qik, a consumer video communications company acquired by Skype. Before Qik, he helped create two multi-billion dollar integration products. He was part of the team that created world's first middleware platform, TIB (The Information Bus) at Teknekron Software Systems, which was acquired by Reuters Plc, in 1994. He was also on the founding team and SVP, Engineering of TIBCO through its IPO. As Chief Strategy Officer, he then helped launch Oracle's Fusion Middleware platform in 2005.

Jul 18, 201826 min