SaaS Sessions: Recent Episodes
Sunil Neurgaonkar
I've been unofficially doing it for over five years. It only started with my urge to continually learn new aspects of the SaaS ecosystem, connecting with people to talk about their experiences and learning. It was all happening off the record.
I started recording and publishing these conversations as a podcast in Jan 2019. Since then, I've hosted leaders (C-level/VPs/Directors) from SaaS companies like Github, Segment, G2, Moengage, and more.
Are you working in SaaS? Have a story to share? Let's talk. :)
Disrupting Travel with Spotnana: Sarosh Waghmar on Building the AWS for the Travel Industry
In this episode, we hosted Sarosh Waghmar, Founder and Chief Product Officer at Spotnana.
Sarosh shares his journey of over two decades in the travel tech industry and discusses Spotnana's mission to transform travel by creating an 'AWS for the travel industry.'
The conversation delves into the challenges and innovations of building a platform that emphasizes trust, transparency, and a seamless user experience.
We also discussed the impact of AI and the future of travel tech.
Key insights include the importance of building a platform that allows others to innovate, the role of cloud-native architectures, and the significance of standing on the shoulders of giants to drive industry-wide change.
Connect with Sarosh on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/swaghmar/
00:00 Introduction
00:40 Sarosh Waghmar's Background and Travel Industry Insights
01:33 Challenges and Innovations in Travel Tech
03:04 Spotnana's Vision and Platform Approach
04:00 Building During COVID and Overcoming Obstacles
07:31 Creating a New Category: Travel as a Service
20:18 Future of Travel Tech and AI Integration
29:51 Lightning Round: Personal Insights
Visit our website - https://saassessions.com/
Connect with me on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/sunilneurgaonkar/
In this episode of the SaaS Sessions podcast, we hosted Bill Macaitis who is currently the founder & CEO of SaaS CMO Pro.
SaaS CMO Pro helps you learn B2B SaaS and AI marketing with fun and easy-to-understand videos.
Previously, Bill was the CMO at Slack and Zendesk. Before that, he held the title of SVP of Marketing at Salesforce.
Bill shares his rich career journey from media companies to leading roles in SaaS giants like Salesforce, Zendesk, and Slack.
The discussion covers essential strategies for building a marketing career, navigating career pivots, and capitalizing on emerging opportunities like AI.
Bill emphasizes the importance of continuous learning, staying employable, and managing stakeholder relationships.
This episode concludes with practical advice for aspiring marketing leaders, including managing work-life balance, leveraging career opportunities, and understanding AI in modern marketing.
Connect with Bill on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/bmacaitis/
Subscribe to SaaS CMO Pro Newsletter - https://www.saascmopro.com/
Subscribe to SaaS CMO Pro YouTube Channel - https://www.youtube.com/@SaaSCMOPro/
00:00 Introduction
00:46 Bill Macaitis' Career Journey
05:28 Transitioning to B2B SaaS
11:12 The Importance of Career Pivots
13:59 From Individual Contributor to Director
21:09 Building Relationships with Stakeholders
21:52 The Visibility of Marketing
22:18 Climbing the Marketing Ladder
23:58 The Importance of Continuous Learning
29:00 Navigating Career Choices in B2B Marketing
34:14 Lightning Round: Quick Tips and Recommendations
Visit our website - https://saassessions.com/
Connect with me on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/sunilneurgaonkar/
In this episode of SaaS Sessions, we sit down with Dan Herd, VP of Customer Success at Outreach, one of the most popular sales engagement platforms.
We dive deep into how Outreach leverages a "Desired Business Outcomes" (DBO) framework to align customer success strategies with the business goals of their clients.
Dan also offers invaluable insights into driving adoption, improving customer retention, and maintaining a seamless handoff between sales and customer success teams.
Whether you're a SaaS leader, founder, or working in customer success, this episode provides practical strategies and best practices to help your customers succeed and ensure long-term growth for your company.
All this and more with Dan in this episode.
Connect with Dan on LinkedIn here - https://www.linkedin.com/in/dan-herd1/
Visit our website - https://saassessions.com/
Connect with me on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/sunilneurgaonkar/
In this episode, Thejo Cote, founder and CEO of Airbase, shares his entrepreneurial journey, which spans over 15 years.
From his early days in India to moving to the US in 2009, Thejo discusses how he founded Airbase, a procure-to-pay solution that simplifies corporate purchasing.
He highlights the challenges and successes of growing a business in a new country, the importance of building networks, and how to adapt a product for different markets.
Thejo also provides insights into finding product-market fit, the nuances of selling in the US versus India, and early-stage customer acquisition and validation strategies.
00:00 Introduction and Guest Welcome
00:44 Thejo's Background and Early Career
02:42 Journey to the US and Founding Airbase
04:04 Target Market and Initial Challenges
07:35 Building a Network and Getting Early Customers
18:16 Product Customization and Market Adaptation
23:00 Metrics, Milestones, and Scaling
29:18 Lightning Round: Personal Insights
36:39 Conclusion and Final Thoughts
Connect with Thejo on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/thejo/
Visit our website - https://saassessions.com/
Connect with me on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/sunilneurgaonkar/
In this episode of the SaaS Sessions podcast, we hosted Andy Ramirez, the Senior Vice President of Marketing at Docker to explore the complexities of Account-Based Marketing (ABM) within a Product-Led Growth (PLG) context.
Andy shares his journey from a 'recovering engineer' to a seasoned marketing leader at top companies like AWS, Amazon Prime, Smartsheet, and New Relic.
We discussed the synergies between PLG and ABM, strategies for using first-party and third-party data to target accounts efficiently, and practical advice on tailoring messaging for different buyer personas and stages of the customer journey.
Andy also emphasizes measuring success without overcomplicating analytics and leveraging qualitative feedback from sales teams to refine marketing campaigns.
This episode offers valuable insights for companies looking to integrate ABM within their PLG models.
Connect with Andy on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/andyramirez/
00:00 Intro
00:30 Andy's Career Journey and Passion for Technology
02:42 Docker and Kubernetes: A Historical Insight
04:56 Navigating Enterprise ABM with PLG
11:00 Leveraging Data for ABM Success
17:07 Tailoring Content for ABM Campaigns
29:57 Metrics and Feedback Loops in ABM
36:10 Lightning Round: Personal Insights
39:15 Conclusion and Final Thoughts
All this and more in this episode with Andy.
Visit our website - https://saassessions.com/
Connect with me on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/sunilneurgaonkar/
In this episode of the SaaS Sessions Podcast, we hosted Joe Aurelia, Senior Vice President of Operations at Cyware, who shares his extensive journey in scaling businesses globally.
Joe discusses his transition from heavy applications to SaaS, his role in growing Cyware from two to seven countries, and the challenges and strategies in managing remote teams.
He emphasizes the importance of process standardization, continuous learning, and risk mitigation in business operations.
Joe also sheds light on the balance between speed and perfection, and the importance of allowing team autonomy for growth.
He concludes with insights on leveraging external resources, documenting processes, and maintaining a proactive approach to risk management.
All this and more in this episode with Joe Aurelia.
Connect with Joe on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/josephauriliajr/
00:00 Welcome to the SaaS Sessions Podcast
00:49 Joe Aurelia's Journey into SaaS
03:05 Scaling Cyware: From 2 to 7 Countries
05:55 Navigating Remote Work
13:55 Standardizing Processes Across Regions
17:30 Process Standardization and Scalability
17:53 Documenting and Sharing Processes
20:12 Balancing Speed and Perfection
25:05 Mitigating Risks in Business
30:19 Lightning Round: Quick Insights
35:16 Conclusion and Final Thoughts
Visit our website - https://saassessions.com/
Connect with me on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/sunilneurgaonkar/
In this episode, Anupam Rastogi, General Partner at Emergent Ventures, shares his extensive experience investing in SaaS companies.
Anupam discusses his journey from an engineer to a venture capitalist and provides insights into the challenges and mistakes SaaS founders often face when entering the US market.
Key topics include the importance of spending time in the US, the balance between science and art in building SaaS products, pricing strategies, and why Indian SaaS companies need to find a distinct product-market fit for the US.
Anupam also emphasizes the need for founders to integrate into local ecosystems and learn from various communities to ensure success.
00:00 Introduction and Guest Welcome
01:07 Anupam's Journey in the SaaS World
02:11 Building Emergent Ventures
03:30 Common Mistakes in Setting Up GTM for the US Market
04:56 When to Move to the US as a Founder
16:51 Navigating the US-India Founder Community
21:44 Pricing Strategies for the US Market
28:39 Determining Product-Market Fit in the US
34:16 Lightning Round and Conclusion
All this and more in this episode with Anupam.
In this episode, we hosted Krati Seth, Head of Global Sales Enablement at Whatfix to discuss how companies can build a sales enablement function in their org to support sales teams.
With over a decade of experience across different roles, Krati is Currently the head of global sales enablement at Whatfix.
Before Whatfix, she spent 8 long years at Zycus - starting as a Business Development Associate and leaving as a Senior Sales Enablement Manager.
Krati shares that there are 3 types of companies in India - those who are aware and convinced about enablement, those who are aware but are not convinced, and those who are unaware of enablement.
She shares her insights on helping build enablement functions at Zycus and Whatfix, plus all the other companies she has consulted.
She also talks about the problems that enablement will solve and the impact it drives.
All this and more with Krati in this episode.
Connect with Krati on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/kratiseth/
In this episode, Peter shares the whole playbook behind running the newsletter.
Right from WHY they started, the process of finding insights, how to get executive buy-in, measuring impact, and more.
If you are exploring a similar practice in your industry at your organization, then this playbook will be very helpful.
All this and more in this episode with Peter.
Subscribe to Carta Data Minute - https://carta.com/subscribe/data-newsletter-sign-up/
Connect with Peter on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/peterjameswalker/
In this episode, we hosted Puneet Lamba, CEO and co-founder of Aspiro.
Aspiro helps sales managers prepare reps for selling to technical buyers with interactive situational roleplays & playbooks.
We delved into the specifics of discovery calls, including the average number of calls required to close a deal and the significance of each call in different pipeline stages.
Puneet also shared the challenges faced in discovery calls, the changing dynamics of the market, and the need for sales process optimization in the AI era.
All this and more with Puneet in this episode.
Connect with Puneet on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/puneetlamba17/
In this episode, we hosted Jugal Anchalia, Co-founder & CEO at Cobalt to talk about how to use integrations as a growth lever.
We start with addressing WHY companies should solve the problem of integrations.
Jugal explains the current solutions and the challenges with them.
We then discussed how we can use integrations as a growth lever - like unlocking new revenue streams, enhancing user experience, and expanding overall reach and visibility.
All this and more in this episode with Jugal.
Connect with Jugal on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/jugal-anchalia-0a2ab220/
In this episode, I hosted Luke Diaz, Director of Customer Success at AppZen.
Luke is passionate about building and leading high-performance customer-success orgs.
We explored strategies for achieving best-in-class gross and net retention, emphasizing the importance of customer onboarding, churn post-mortems, and aligning compensation plans.
We also discussed how to use the voice of the customer to prevent churn.
All this and more with Luke in this episode.
Connect with Luke on LinkedIn.
In this episode, I hosted Phil Putnam, VP of Sales Enablement at Notified to talk about Sales Enablement.
Phil has spent over a decade working in SaaS in various roles.
Phil talks about his responsibility as a sales enablement leader at Notified and what exactly he does in his role.
He also shares how you can build a new enablement practice in your org. Phil shares about what you should do, what you shouldn't do, and some must-haves.
We also discussed elevating an existing enablement practice in your org. Especially in cases where it's difficult for you to show the impact.
All this and more with Phil in this episode.
Connect with Phil on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/philputnammusic/
In this episode, I hosted Abby Hehemann, Director of Product Marketing at GetResponse to talk about setting up a customer marketing framework.
With over 14 years of experience, Abby is a specialist in strategic product positioning and value-driven messaging.
Abby shares the customer marketing framework that she and her team use at GetResponse and how you can build on yourself.
She also shares her thoughts on what makes customer marketing different than customer advocacy.
Abby points out the metrics for success while implementing such a framework.
All this and more in this episode with Abby.
Connect with Abby on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/abby-hehemann/https://www.linkedin.com/in/abby-hehemann/
In this episode, I hosted Ankit Chaturvedi, VP & Global Head of Marketing at RateGain.
RateGain is India’s first publicly listed SaaS company. They help Hotels and Travel companies accelerate their revenue through acquisition, retention, and wallet share expansion. If you’ve ever booked travel online, you’ve experienced RateGain.
Ankit has over 15+ years of experience, and he shares his thoughts on marketing teams having Revenue targets.
He also shares how to ensure the alignment between marketing targets and overall company goals.
Ankit also shares his secrets about collaborating with other departments to ensure the marketing initiatives are aligned with revenue targets.
All this and more with Ankit in this episode.
Connect with Ankit on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/ankitchaturvedi85/
In this episode, I hosted Semir Jahic who is a Global Expansion Leader at Clari. He is also an LP at Stage 2 Capital.Semir was the first hire for Clari in Europe and helped them expand into the region. Since then, he's helping Clari expand its operations globally.Expanding your SaaS business globally is a challenge. And Semir points out the traits of the right market for expansion.He also talks about some delaying factors that you should account for while entering a new market - like localization, regulation, competition, etc.There are always surprises, and Semir doesn't like surprises. He talks about how he encountered some unexpected obstacles while leading a market entry and expansion initiative at Clari. And how did their team overcome it?Connect with Semir on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/jahic/
In this episode, I hosted Aditi Sinha, Co-founder of Locale.ai to talk about pivoting at an early stage.
Aditi talks about the story behind building Locale and how over time they decided to pivot their original product.
She also shares how they go the idea for the pivot and why it was necessary for the growth. And how they communicated it to their internal employees, customers, and investors.
Pivots come with new challenges - and Aditi shares how their team overcame the new challenges. And shares the learnings she has got through the entire process.
Connect with Aditi on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/aditisinha1002/
In this episode, we hosted Erik Newton, CMO at Hubilo to talk about the art of lead nurturing.
Erik points out that the average marketing touches required to win a deal in B2B have gone up significantly. And hence lead nurturing has become more important than ever.
We discussed what constitutes a lead nurture program. How to build one? And what role does marketing automation play in these programs?
Erik also shares his successful lead nurture program example. And I've shared one too.
All this and more in this episode with Erik.
Connect with Erik on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/eriknewton/
In this episode, I hosted Vikram Bhaskaran, Fractional CMO (former VP of Marketing, Chargebee). He has over a decade of experience in B2B SaaS Marketing at companies like FusionCharts, Freshworks, and Chargebee.
I spoke to Vikram about marketing funnels and what role they play in a marketing function of a B2B SaaS. Discussed the full-funnel breakdown and different stages involved in a sales-led model and a PLG model.
Vikram also shares how to align goals to different stages of the funnel along with some examples. Also, why it's important for any marketer to be aware of the entire funnel journey.
All this and much more with Vikram in this episode.
Connect with Vikram on LinkedIn here - https://www.linkedin.com/in/markalive/
In this episode, we hosted Kanika Khurana, Chief of Staff - Driving Strategic Priorities at Chargebee.
As a Chief of Staff, Kanika shares the roles and responsibilities that are required for anyone who wants to get into this role.
From her experience, she shared when should a company actually hire for this role? And also how do you measure success for it?
For someone who is trying to get hired as a Chief of Staff, you will learn the pros & cons of the role, about the scope, and be able to determine if you are a perfect fit to take this up. Even if you're not now, Kanika shares the imp skills required to get hired.
All this and more with Kanika in this episode.
Connect with Kanika on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/kanika-khurana-69426844/
Checkout Chargebee - https://www.chargebee.com/
In this episode, we hosted Girish Redekar, Cofounder at Sprinto to talk about the importance of security and compliances for SaaS startups whether you're selling to other startups or SMBs or enterprise companies.
Girish is a second time founder with Sprinto. Previously he was the founder of RecruiterBox which saw an amazing exit. Post the exit, Girish worked on several amazing ideas and Sprinto was the one they picked.
Sprinto helps SaaS companies become info-sec complaint. This is extremely imp to unblock your sales deals and pass security reviews easily.
Girish also explains the consequences of not having the right compliances. And how they're directly tied to the revenue.
All this and more in this episode with Girish.
Connect with Girish on LinkedIn - https://in.linkedin.com/in/girishredekar
Check out Sprinto - https://sprinto.com/
We hosted Abhash Kumar, VP of Marketing at Springworks to talk about building a culture OS in this episode.
Abhash has nearly a decade of experience at high-growth companies like BYJU's, YourStory, and now at Springworks. Springworks is one of the fastest-growing HR tech companies in India known not only for tech but also for their innovative culture OS.
Abhash shares the playbooks and all the secrets behind the amazing culture at Springworks.
We talked about building the right culture from scratch and how to take the top-down approach to implement it. We also discussed how culture overpowers good/bad leadership.
All this and much more with Abhash in this episode.
Connect with Abhash on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/AabhashK/
Checkout SpringWorks - https://www.springworks.in/
We hosted Kausambi Manjita, Founder & CEO at Mason, in this episode. She was a guest on the S4E5 of the show previously.
Mason is the no-code automation engine - made for commerce. In the episode, Kaus talks about tapping on the no-code wave focusing on the eCommerce vertical.
She also shares their exciting experience in pivoting from Kubric to Mason.
Connect with Kaus on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/kmanjita/
Check out Mason - https://getmason.io/
In this episode, we hosted Ruchin Kulkarni, Co-founder of Toplyne.io to talk about product-led growth.
Toplyne helps sales teams at product-led companies convert their freemium users!
Prior to this, Ruchin was with Sequoia overlooking the growth stage investing in SaaS, dev tools, and enterprise software.
While at Sequoia, he worked with a bunch of PLG companies. Ruchin shared about the opportunities he saw in the PLG space in India and later created Toplyne.
He also shares why NOW is the time for PLG companies to shine.
All this and more in this episode with Ruchin.
Connect with Ruchin on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/ruchin-kulkarni-%E3%83%84-b6527395/
Check out Toplyne.io - https://www.toplyne.io/
In this episode, we hosted Praveen Das, Co-founder of Factors.ai, to answer frequent questions about marketing data and analytics.
We start with discussing how B2B marketing has changed over the years, and how the change has affected data capturing. Also, how new types of GTM influence analyzing the data.
Are we in the Data 3.0 world? Data 1.0 was about capturing; Data 2.0 was about stitching it and building relationships. Is Data 3.0 all about delivery? Know more about it in this episode.
Learn more about Factors.ai - https://factors.ai/
Connect with Praveen on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/praveen-das/
In this episode, we hosted Arjun Pillai, former Founder & CEO at Insent.ai and currently SVP Products and Growth at ZoomInfo, to talk about Insent's exit to ZoomInfo.
Insent.ai is Arjun's second exit. He exited his first company, Profoundis, to FullContact back in 2016. Post which, he went on to build Insent.ai, which got acquired within three years.
We talked about the entire journey of the acquisition, right from the initial reach out to finalizing the exit. Arjun shared the deciding factors behind the exit.
He also shares how Insent's product will fit into ZoomInfo's suite of products and what's the future of Insent (now ZoomInfo Chat).
All this and more in this episode with Arjun.
Connect with Arjun on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/rarjunpillai/
Check out SaaS Jobs here - https://pallet.xyz/list/saas-jobs/jobs
In this episode, we invited Sairam Krishnan, Marketer in Residence at Accel, to talk about Storytelling.
Sairam has over a decade of experience in Marketing with companies like Freshworks, Wingify, iMocha, and currently Accel.
We start by talking about what got Sairam interested in storytelling when he joined Freshworks back in 2011.
Sairam talks about how to tell a story for each audience. Whether you're an investor, founder, or executive, you have different needs of listening to stories.
And he also talks about how he's educating people via his newsletter - https://thecmojournal.substack.com/
All this and more with Sairam in this episode.
Connect with Sairam on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/sairamkrishnan/
Check out SaaS jobs here - https://pallet.xyz/list/saas-jobs/jobs
In this episode, we hosted Sreedhar Peddineni, Co-founder at GTM Buddy.
Sreedhar has been in the SaaS industry for over 2 decades now. He started his first company, Host Analytics back in 2001.
In 2011, he cofounded Gainsight (previously JBara Software) along with Jim Eberlin.
After a great exit with Gainsight, Sreedhar is currently building GTM Buddy where they are enabling the sales team achieve their true potential.
With Sreedhar, we discussed how the SaaS industry has shaped over the past two decades.
And his view of how the SaaS ecosystem is growing especially in India.
Additionally we also talked about the story behind Gainsight and the Customer Success function.
All this and more with Sreedhar in this episode.
Connect with Sreedhar on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/sreedharpeddineni/
Check out SaaS jobs here - https://pallet.xyz/list/saas-jobs/jobs
In this episode, we hosted Shilpa Singh, Head of GTM/Commercial Strategy at Amazon to talk about creating a GTM playbook for targeting the enterprise segment.
We discuss how a SaaS company can enter the enterprise segment and what are the best practices companies can follow.
Shilpa also shares the building blocks of a GTM strategy required to target the enterprise segment.
Moving upmarket means a lot of change, we discussed all the changes that a company goes through during the process.
All this and more with Shilpa in this episode.
Connect with Shilpa on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/shilpalsingh/
Check out SaaS jobs here - https://pallet.xyz/list/saas-jobs/jobs
In this episode, we hosted Arundhati Balachandran, Senior Director, Customer Success at Chargebee, to discuss being data-driven in the customer success world.
Arundhati made the shift from Sales to Customer Success at Chargebee and is now leading the team.
She talks about the imp metrics for CS teams and the less popular but critical metrics they track at Chargebee.
She also emphasizes the Net Retention Rate and its importance.
All this and more with Arundhati in this episode.
Connect with Arundhati on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/abalach/?originalSubdomain=in
Check out SaaS jobs here - https://pallet.xyz/list/saas-jobs/jobs
In this episode, we hosted Ashwin Krishna, Marketing Director at Tact.ai. We talked about building a locally relevant and globally scalable GTM strategy.
Ashwin is a B2B marketing and growth leader with strong commercial acumen and a 15-year track record inspiring teams to deliver hyper-growth in SaaS companies across the Middle East, APAC, and the USA.
We discussed getting to know the marketing before entering, picking the right persona, setting up GTM goals, and more.
Ashwin also shares his best practices to follow while creating a GTM strategy while going behind a particular market.
Connect with Ashwin on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/ashwingkrishna/
Check out Tact.ai - https://www.tact.ai/
In this episode, I hosted Smriti Chopra, Product Marketing at Zapier to talk about building the alignment between the PMM team and other teams.
Smriti was previously managing APAC Partner Marketing at Hubspot and has rich experience in B2B marketing plus taking several products to market over the years.
We discussed the goals of the PMM team and what makes it the catalyst for business growth?
Smriti talks about how to make better-informed decisions by building a solid alignment between the PMM team and other teams.
All this and more with Smriti in this episode.
Connect with Smriti on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/smritichopra/
In this episode, we hosted Steffen Hedebrandt, Cofounder of Dreamdata.io to talk about B2B revenue attribution.
Dreamdata.io is a B2B revenue attribution platform.
We discussed how Steffen started Dreamdata and what piqued the idea in his mind.
We also talked about the GTM strategies and playbooks their team is using to conquer this market.
All this and more with Steffen in this episode.
Connect with Steffen on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/steffenhedebrandt/
In this episode, I hosted Sandhya Tomer, Director of Customer Success at Whatfix to talk about her experience in Customer Success.
She explains the proactiveness of Customer Success vs the reactiveness of Customer Support. She also believes that consultants can be good at Customer Success.
All this and more with Sandhya in this episode.
Connect with her on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/sandhya-t-20980b7/
In this episode, we hosted Veekshith Rai, Co-founder, and COO at Finly.io
Finly simplifies accounts payables for businesses.
Veekshith was working on 5 ideas that they directly pitched to the investors. One of them emerged, and it was Finly.
Veekshith talks about this approach and how it helped them build the company.
He also talks about their objectives for 2021 and how they're expanding to middle-east market.
All this and more with Veekshith in this episode.
Connect with Veekshith on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/veekshith-rai/
Follow Veekshith on Twitter - https://twitter.com/VeekshithCRai
Check out Finly - https://finly.io/
In this episode, we hosted Kausambi Manjita, Founder & CEO at Kubric to talk about her journey with Kubric.
Kubric is an AI-driven automation tool for designers and marketers.
How did she start Kubric? How did they hire their first few people? Kaus also talks about how is Kubric scaling up in India.
All this and more with Kaus in this episode.
Connect with Kaus on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/kmanjita/
Check out Kubric - https://kubric.io/
In this episode, we hosted Lavanya Gopinath, Director of Operations at Chargebee, to discuss various ops functions in a SaaS company.
Lavanya introduces the ops functions and their roles & responsibilities. She also explains how you can set up the ops functions at your org.
Connect with Lavanya on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/lavanyagopinath/
In this episode, we hosted Sowmya Moni, Director of Marketing at Incture. Incture is the largest provider of digital applications and tech solutions on various SAP platforms.
Sowmya talks about how she segments their ICP to ensure high conversion rates. She also shares how to personalize the marketing activities for each of these segments.
All this and more with Sowmya in this episode as we take a deep dive into personalization.
Connect with Sowmya on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/sowmyamoni/
In this episode, I hosted Shailesh Ghorpade, Managing Partner & CIO at Exfinity Venture Partners, to discuss his thoughts on the State of SaaS in India.
Shailesh played leadership roles at companies like Birla Global Finance, Tata Finance, Infosys, and more. He’s currently the founding managing partner and CIO at Exfinity Venture Partners.
Exfinity is a tech fund backing enterprise B2B companies in the India and India-US corridor. Their portfolio includes companies like Moengage, Mad Street Den, Locus, and more.
We also discussed the challenges in India's SaaS ecosystem and how Shailesh and his team are helping to overcome these challenges.
All this and more with Shailesh in this episode.
Connect with Shailesh on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/shailesh-ghorpade-4661b26/
In this episode, we hosted Deepesh Agarwal, co-founder & CEO of MoveInSync.
MoveInSync provides a transport management platform that is used to move people or goods efficiently.
We discussed how Deepesh started up 12 years ago in 2009 and scaled the company in India.
Deepesh talked about the challenges that COVID brought for the company and how they turned it into an exciting opportunity.
All this and more with Deepesh in this episode.
Connect with Deepesh on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/deepesh-agarwal-68a32/
Hey everyone, welcome to the latest season of the SaaS Sessions podcast. Firstly, a very happy new year to you! The podcast had a great run in 2020 and we hit 10,000 listeners! I want to thank you for always tuning in, I couldn't have done it without you. We have amazing guests and intriguing topics lined up for 2021.
If you have any guest or topics suggestions, do reach out to me on LinkedIn or Twitter or via Email.
Also, if you've heard of Clubhouse, I'm going to start a few live conversations with our guests on the platform. So keep an eye out. If you're looking for an invite to Clubhouse, let me know.
Lastly, if you have any feedback, negative or positive, although I love negative feedback, please feel free to reach out to me.
Smrithi is a product leader passionate about marrying great user experiences with technology to deliver business value.
With over a decade of experience, Smrithi has spent her past 7 years with Freshworks in their product function, working on products like Freshdesk, Freshchat, and Freshcaller, Freshconnect.
In this episode, we discussed how do you go about deciding what new products to build? What are the building blocks needed to make these a success? How do you measure the success of new products? When is it right for companies to start exploring multiple products?
All this and more with Smrithi on this episode.
Connect with Smrithi on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/smrithiparameswar/
In this episode, we hosted Shubhi Agarwal, Co-founder of Locobuzz to talk about the story of Locobuzz.
Locobuzz is an Enterprise SaaS platform for Digital Customer Care, Engagement, Experience Automation & Analytics for B2C companies and Governments.
She talks about the challenges she faced in building and scaling up Locobuzz as a bootstrapped company. And how they are selling to large enterprises in India.
Connect with Shubhi on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/shubhi/
Check out Locobuzz - https://locobuzz.com/
In this episode, we hosted Saravana Kumar, CEO at Kovai.co
Saravana is an Entrepreneur, Investor, and Technical enthusiast.
Kovai is a premier enterprise software company offering multiple products at scale both in the Enterprise arena and in the B2B SaaS space.
Here’s a story of Kovai's businesses in numbers
- They have raised 0 outside funding
- They have grown 150% YoY in the last 3 years
- They have grown their team from 10 to 130+ people
- They reached $8.5m+ in Q2 2020
Connect with Saravana on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/saravanamv/
In this episode, we hosted Pranjalee Lahri, AVP Marketing at UpsideLMS to talk about neuro-marketing.
Pranjalee has over 13 years of experience and spent the last decade at UpsideLMS.
Pranjalee explains what is neuro-marketing, and why brands are using this technique to capture their audience.
She also talks about her experience and best practices to follow while implementing this strategy.
Connect with Pranjalee - https://www.linkedin.com/in/pranjaleelahri/
In this episode, we hosted Kuppulakshmi Krishnamoorthy (Kuppu), Product Evangelist at Zoho, to discuss how storytelling can make larger impacts in a B2B SaaS.
We discussed building, selling, and scaling up with stories. Kuppu explains how storytelling impacts different stages of the funnel.
Kuppu also runs Zoho for startups program, where storytelling is crucial as Zoho is a leader who has to pave the success path for many startups worldwide.
All this and more with exciting insights on storytelling with Kuppu in this episode.
Connect with Kuppu on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/kuppukrish/
I believe many of us are working remotely now because of Covid. But something interesting about our today’s guest is that she’s working remotely before it was cool. Meera Sapra joined Zoho in 2008 as their first remote employee. And she’s been working remotely for the past 12 years now. In this episode, we discussed how Meera managed to work remotely in 2008. How did she tackle the daily workflow? She also explains the challenges she faced and how did she overcome them. We also discussed, how can you build a good relationship with your team even when you're working remotely. Connect with Meera on LinkedIn - https://in.linkedin.com/in/meerasapra
In this episode, we hosted Vartika Verma, VP of Global Marketing at Yellow Messenger. It's a conversational AI platform that helps enterprises automate their core business functions - Sales, Marketing, ITSM, Customer Support, Procurement, and more.
With over 14 years of experience, she’s previously worked with companies like Payoneer, Hike Messenger, DirectI, and more.
We talked about the current state of customer service in India and how can you supercharge it with AI Chatbots?
She also shares how different brands are using AI chatbots for customer service differently.
Are AI bots replacing humans or aiding humans at their job? Listen to what Vartika has to say in this episode.
Connect with Vartika on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/vartikaverma/
Check our Yellow Messenger - https://yellowmessenger.com/
In this episode, we hosted Sharmila Sundaram, CEO at Corefactors to talk about her journey with Corefactors.
We discussed how they're selling in India and scaling up. We also discussed hiring the first few people for the company.
Connect with Sharmila - https://www.linkedin.com/in/sharmilas16/
Check out Corefactors - https://www.corefactors.in/
In this episode, we hosted Priya Mohan from the leadership team at Venture Highway.
Priya has been an entrepreneur for the last 8 years. In 2012, she co-founded Vidyartha, an edtech platform that she exited successfully to Bujy’s. Prior to that, she spent 9 years in the investment banking space.
Connect with Priya on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/priyamohan246/
Check out Venture Highway - http://venturehighway.vc/
In this episode, we hosted Max Armbuster, CEO of Talkpush.
Connect with Max on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/maxarmbruster/
Check out Talkpush - https://talkpush.com/
In this episode, we hosted Arjun Pillai, Founder & CEO of Insent.ai to talk about his entrepreneurial journey with Profoundis.
Fun fact about Profoundis, it was the first-ever product exit in Kerala's history.
We talked about Arjun's early days of starting up, scaling, and the exit.
We also discussed his newest venture, Insent.ai, and how it's taking on the wave of conversational marketing platforms.
Connect with Arjun on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/rarjunpillai/
Check out Instent.ai - https://insent.ai/
How do you decide to spend your marketing budget? Do you tend to repeat your last year's plan? Or do you experiment?
How can you be sure which part of your marketing strategy has the highest return on sales? How much should I invest in which channel?
Which media gives me the highest ROI? What is the most cost-effective campaign?
If you don’t know what’s working and what’s not, it’s hard to plan for the future.
If you have asked these questions to yourself, and wondering what are the answers to them, then you’re listening to the right podcast. Because in this episode, we hosted Bharath Gaddam, Founder of Data POEM to answer all these questions and more.
Connect with Bharath on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/bharath-gaddam-3355a821/
Check out Data Poem - https://datapoem.com/
In this episode, we hosted Scindia Balasingh, Head Of Marketing - Global ISV Partnerships at Freshworks to talk about setting up partner marketing for a B2B SaaS company.
Scindia started at Freshworks just a year ago in 2019, and their team was awarded as the best performing team in the org. Prior to Freshworks, She was the Head of Marketing at Redington India.
We talked about why this channel is a great channel to generate revenue and increase the retention of your customers.
Additionally, Scindia shares how to do GTM with your partners.
Lastly, she shares her tips which are useful for any business just starting up with a partner marketing channel.
Connect with Scindia on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/scindia-balasingh-084301144/
In this episode of State of SaaS in India, we hosted Anand Datta, VP at Nexus Venture Partners.
Anand is passionate about helping entrepreneurs build high impact enterprises. He believes in the immense scope that “Bharat” presents for innovative India specific models.
Connect with Anand on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/ananddatta/
Follow Anand on Twitter - https://twitter.com/Anand_datta
In this episode, we hosted Karishma Rajaratnam, Head of Growth at ChartMogul (previously Head of Growth at Chargebee) to talk about the evolution of marketing from $1m ARR to $10m ARR.
We discussed the strategies that you can implement when you're on the 1-10 journey and also when you're at $10m ARR.
We covered persona segmentation, determining product-channel fit, and figuring out new personas when you evolve.
Connect with Karishma on LinkedIn
Follow Karishma on Twitter
In this episode, we hosted Vikas Potta to talk about how he managed the impact of Covid-19.
Vikas is the VP of Sales at FusionCharts. FusionCharts helps you build beautiful charts for your web and mobile apps. Started in 2003, It’s one of India’s very first SaaS company. It now serves more than 28K customers globally. Prior to FusionCharts, Vikas was a founding member at Zepo, an eCommerce platform.
He explains how he and his team were impacted by Covid-19 and how they managed to sustain the growth. They also saw a rise in renewals and expansion, so the did few activities to fuel those deals.
Vikas shares the strategies that worked for him during these uncertain times in this episode. Tune in now!
Connect with Vikas on LinkedIn
Check out FusionCharts
In this episode, we hosted Francois Kulik, Head of Global Pipeline Generation at Algolia to talk about how he manages the global B2B pipeline for Algolia.
He also tells how his teams' collaboration with marketing helped them achieve more during this pandemic.
Pipeline prediction is hard, but Francois tells us how he does it at Algolia.
All this and more in this episode.
Connect with Francois - https://www.linkedin.com/in/francois-kulik-b161735/
Check out Algolia - https://algolia.com/
In this episode, Deepika Vani from Whatfix hosted Anish Thambi, Director of Field Marketing at Automation Anywhere to talk about the status of field marketing in 2020.
Anish talks about how they pivoted their events for the digital world and saw a great rise in demand and brand.
He also shares different activities and campaigns that Automation Anywhere did to drive this demand, which largely impacted their revenue.
How sustainable is this new model for events? Will everyone adapt to it? Find out more in this episode with Anish.
Connect with Anish - https://www.linkedin.com/in/anishthambi/
Connect with Deepika - https://www.linkedin.com/in/deepikavani/
In this episode, we hosted Aadil Bandukwala, Director APAC Field Marketing at HackerRank to talk about evangelizing your product.
Aadil was previously the Chief Evangelist at Belong. He explains what is product evangelism and how it differs from branding.
If you're new to this, he also tells us how can individuals/companies can get started with product evangelism.
All this and more with Aadil in this episode.
Connect with Aadil - https://www.linkedin.com/in/aadil/
Follow on Twitter - https://twitter.com/aadil
In this episode, we hosted Kevin White to talk about overcoming growth plateaus.
Kevin is currently the Head of Marketing at Retool. Retool is a fast way to build internal tools. You can use their Drag-and-drop building blocks and connect them to your databases and APIs to build your own tools, instantly.
Previously, he was heading Growth marketing function at Segment, which is one of the leading customer data platforms.
To start with, Kevin explains what's a growth plateau and his experience with reaching a stagnated growth stage.
He also shares tips on how he overcame those plateaus and shares a tried & tested way of foreseeing the plateau.
We also discussed, "Growth at all costs mindset" - good or bad?
Connect with Kevin - https://www.linkedin.com/in/kevbosaurus/
Check out Retool - http://retool.com/
In this non-saas episode, we hosted the Vaidehi Murthy, Social Media @ Dunzo, aka queen of puns.
We discussed how brands should manage their social accounts. Vaidehi tells us stories about how they do it at Dunzo.
We also talked about using social media for sales and accelerating your funnels too.
All this and much more in this episode with Vaidehi.
Follow her puns - http://twitter.com/butvai
In this episode, we hosted Ketan Pandit, Director of Global Partner Marketing at CleverTap.
We discussed what different roles the partnerships function plat at different stages of the company.
Then we talked about how CleverTap scaled up their partnerships channel.
Connect with Ketan - https://www.linkedin.com/in/ketanpandit/
Checkout CleverTap - https://clevertap.com/
Welcome to the first episode of Season 3 of the podcast!
In this episode, we hosted Yoni Solomon, Director of Product Marketing & Strategy at G2 to talk about building a winning GTM strategy.
Yoni Solomon is Director of Product Marketing & Strategy at G2 (formerly G2 Crowd), the world's largest marketplace for B2B technology. He has spent a decade launching new products, partnerships, and acquisitions for Chicago's top SaaS companies, including Vibes ($45M raised in 2016), and PowerReviews (#49 on Deloitte's Fast 500, #1 in Chicago in 2018).
Check out the GTM Playbook by Yoni - https://learn.g2.com/go-to-market-playbook
Product Marketing Personas - https://festival.productmarketingalliance.com/talks/the-5-key-product-marketing-personas-behind-an-award-winning-go-to-market-team/
Connect with Yoni - https://www.linkedin.com/in/yonisolomon/
In this episode, we're celebrating 50 episodes on the show.
Anuj Adhiya hosted me, Sunil, on the show. We discussed my journey, learnings, and failures with respect to this podcast and my career.
Tune in to this special episode and let me know if you liked it.
Thank you all for supporting the podcast. :)
In this episode, I hosted Abhijeet Vijayvergiya, the former President and Managing Director at Capillary Technologies to talk more on sales productivity and his new startup, Nektar.ai
Abhijeet and his team are building a cutting edge AI-driven SaaS product, that will change the way salespeople sell today and will help more them to sell more!
Connect with Abhijeet - https://www.linkedin.com/in/abhijeet-vijayvergiya-2571056/
Check out Nektar.ai - http://nektar.ai/
In this episode, I hosted Aviral Bhatnagar, Founder of A Junior VC to talk more about the state of SaaS in India.
Aviral is a Senior associate at Guild Capital which focuses on early-stage or venture investments in India and the US.
Along with this, Aviral also runs his blog - ajuniorvc.com where he along with a group of contributors, writes about the Indian startup ecosystem, venture capital, and more.
Connect with Aviral - https://www.linkedin.com/in/aviral-bhatnagar-72391044/
A Junior VC - http://ajuniorvc.com/
In this episode, we hosted Nimesh Mathur who is the Head of Customer Success (India, SEA, and ANZ) at Branch.
Nimesh is a veteran with over 14 years of experience in Customer Success, he has built and lead teams at HackerRank, Pluralsight, and Branch.
In this episode, we learn about Customer Success why it is an integral part of SaaS businesses. How Can Customer Success collaborate better with Sales/Marketing/Product teams?
How can CSM’s help customers achieve their desired outcomes, how do you think about this and act, there are some really good actionable insights here.
This is a really good listen if you are a CSM, collaborate with CS teams, or are just curious about Customer Success.
Connect with Nimesh on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nimeshmathur/
In this episode, we hosted Nikhil Kapur, Partner at Strive VC to talk more about the state of SaaS ecosystem in India.
At Strive, he’s investing in local SME enablers and global SaaS startups being built out of Asia by exceptional founders with a product-led mindset.
We discussed the different challenges faced by Global-focused Indian SaaS companies and India-focused SaaS companies and how to solve these challenges.
Nikhil also talks about building in India, selling in India.
All this and more with Nikhil in this episode.
Connect with Nikhil on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/kapurnikhil/
Check out Strive VC - https://strive.vc/en/
Guillaume Cabane recently spoke to us about omnichannel marketing – right from devising a strategy to budgeting + answer a question that haunts every Saas marketer.
After leading growth teams at big players in Saas like Segment and Drift, Guillaume is now a growth advisor for B2B Saas startups like G2, Gorgias, Metadata, and Madkudu.
Dive into this episode to learn about the need for a multichannel marketing strategy for Saas brands, tips to build omnichannel expertise, essential tools in a multichannel marketer’s toolkit, and much more!
If you want to join the next live AMA, reach out to us on hello[at]saassessions[dot]com
Connect with G on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/cabane/
In this epsidoe, we hosted Eli Schwartz, Growth Advisor & SEO Consultant to talk more on Product Led SEO.
Eli coined the term Product Led SEO and he explains what it is in this episode.
How to go beyond what everyone is already doing in SEO and get better results, faster.
Eli has been into SEO since 2004, that's 16 years! And he shares his best practices with us on the show.
Connect with Eli on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/schwartze/
Subscribe to his newsletter - https://www.elischwartz.co/
In this episode, Deepika Vani, Whatfix hosted Nick Bennett, Head of Field Marketing at Clari to talk more about transitioning to virtual events.
Nick talks about how did Clari pivots from field events to virtual events. He also shares the best practices in building a strategy for virtual events.
What are the different virtual events that you can run for your business?
All this and more with Nick and Deepika in this episode.
Connect with Nick - https://www.linkedin.com/in/nickbennett1/
Check out Clari - https://www.clari.com/
In this episode, we hosted Maneesh Sharma, Country Manager at Github to talk about what are the plans for Github in India.
What is the overall GTM strategy for them and how is Maneesh setting up the operations.
Connect with Maneesh here - https://www.linkedin.com/in/msmaneesh/
Check out Github - https://github.com/
In this episode, we hosted Shay Howe, VP of Design at ActiveCampaign to talk about design data and metrics.
Shay tells us how ActiveCampaign performs their UX research and how they make data-driven decisions.
We also discuss, what is data for design? What are the metrics a design team can track?
Can we associate design to growth as well?
All this and more with Shay in this episode.
Connect with Shay on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/shayhowe/
Visit ActiveCampaign - https://www.activecampaign.com/
Check out free tools here - https://www.activecampaign.com/free-marketing-tools
In this episode, I hosted Akshatha Kamath, Head of Content at Moengage to talk more on building a content marketing stack.
We discussed how she has built a great stack at Moengage which allows their content team to do more in less time with more speed and accuracy.
Connect with Akshatha on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/akshatha-kamath/
Visit Moengage - https://www.moengage.com/
In this episode, we hosted Geoff Atkinson, CEO of Huckabuy.
Huckabuy is changing SEO with software products that are fully aligned with key Google initiatives – now and in the future.
We discussed the importance of technical SEO and why it should matter to SaaS companies.
We also took a deep dive on dynamic rendering, and how it powers the Google Search. And how you can use it to power your SEO.
Why companies like SAP and Salesforce are focusing on technical SEO and dynamic rendering?
All this and more with Geoff in this episode.
Connect with Geoff - https://www.linkedin.com/in/geoff-atkinson-7311872/
Check out Huckabuy - https://huckabuy.com/
In this episode, we hosted Justin Alva, AVP Growth at Smallcase to talk about building a marketing strategy.
Justin walks us through his career and what he’s learned along the way. We talk about the approach to take while building a marketing strategy.
How thinking from the first principles is the framework you can utilize while building your marketing strategy. We also touch upon how marketing has evolved where the fundamentals remain the same but the channels and mediums have evolved.
Justin takes us through examples from his career at his earlier startup and currently in Small case.
Articles you should read :
Series on coaching networks by Emergence Capital: https://www.emcap.com/coaching-networks
Signaling as a Service: https://julian.digital/2020/03/28/signaling-as-a-service/
Blogs/Newsletters you should check out:
Blogs: Brian Balfour, Andrew Chen Aashay Sanghvi, Divinations on Substack
The Ken, The Morning Context
Anmol Maini on WhatsApp
People you should absolutely follow on Twitter
https://twitter.com/lehrjulian
https://twitter.com/jmj
https://twitter.com/manas_saloi
https://twitter.com/sajithpai
You can reach out to Justin on Linkedin and on Twitter
In this episode, we hosted Tanishq Juneja, CEO, and co-founder of Pepipost in an unscripted and informal conversation.
Pepipost has over 50,000 customers and they send around 8 billion emails per month, we deep dive into the history of Pepipost and how it all began.
We also learn the team’s motivation #fortheloveofemails and we also get insights into best practices for email deliverability and talk about the future for emails as a channel and what’s next for Pepipost.
If you want to understand how your emails can get better this is a must-listen for you.
You can reach out to Tanishq on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tanishq-juneja-68988b20/
You can read more about why brands choose Pepipost here: https://pepipost.com/blog/50000-brands-use-pepipost-as-their-smtp-server/
In this episode, I hosted Mayur Gupta for an unscripted an informal conversation about his marketing and growth journey.
He is the CMO at Freshly. Prior to Freshly, Mayur was the Global VP for Growth & Marketing at Spotify.
Connect with Mayur on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/inspiremartech/
In this episode, we hosted Siddharth Sharma to talk about a new perspective towards marketing.
How to think differently when you know your purpose is clear?
How to take the roads less traveled? And how to make your team take the same road as well?
All this and more with Siddharth Sharma.
Connect with Sid - https://www.linkedin.com/in/siddharthsh/
Check out Karix - https://www.karix.com/
In this episode, Kritika hosted Meenakshi, Director of Customer Success at Clevertap, to talk about customer success during a pandemic.
- CS during uncertain times
- Change in customer behavior
- What is Clevertap doing to tackle these situations?
- Getting new use cases from your customers because of the current times
- Managing implementation and delivery delays
- Managing churn
- Showing empathy
All this and more with Meenakshi in this episode.
Connect with Meenakshi on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/meenakshi-ganesh/
Visit Clevertap - https://www.linkedin.com/company/clevertap/
In this episode, I hosted Patrick Thompson, CEO of Iteratively. The platform is helping teams who rely on data to capture high-quality analytics faster.
Previously, Patrick led a team of designers at Atlassian to help shape how teams plan, track, and release software. Listen to Patrick as he talks about leaving his comfortable job and starting on his own.
Why data tracking is important for product managers? And how it fits into the responsibility?
How to identify bad data and clean it? Best practices to keep data quality high.
As a PM, what questions you should answer about data quality? How do you get your stakeholders to worry about data quality?
All this and more with Patrick in this episode.
Connect with Patrick on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/patrickt010/
Check out Iteratively - https://iterative.ly/
In this episode, I hosted Gilad Bornstein & Ronen Rubinfeld, Co-Founders of Flatworld.co, to talk more about building a remote work culture.
Gilad and Ronen both have experience in working in and building a remote workforce.
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How can a company go remote? And stay productive while remote?
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How can companies leverage this situation, and build a stronger remote work culture for the future.
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What are the building blocks of a remote work culture?
All this and more with Gilad and Ronen on this episode.
Connect with Gilad on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/giladbornstein/
Connect with Ronen on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/ronenrubinfeld/
Check out Flatworld.co - http://flatworld.co/
In this episode, I hosted Srinath Srinivasan, Head of Sales at Plivo to talk more about sales for a Tech SaaS company.
We discussed how Sri started his journey from a techno-functional background to heading sales for one of the most successful SaaS startups in India.
Get to know Sri's learnings on how can companies leverage the techno-functional and sales guys combination to generate more revenue for your business.
All this and more with Sri in this episode.
Connect with Sri on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/srinivasansrinath/
I hosted Jeremy on the podcast to talk about outbound growth. Jeremy is the head of growth at Spendesk.
In this episode we discussed,
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big bets Jeremy and his team are taking in the Growth function at Spendesk
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how he has built the growth team
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acquiring first 300 customers with a complete outbound strategy
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some growth strategies that reached to millions (Spoiler - Jeremy ran a job ad in the subtitles of the famous series "Mr. Robot")
All this and more with Jeremy on the podcast.
Connect with Jeremy on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeremygoillot/
Visit Spendesk - https://www.spendesk.com/
In this episode, I hosted Anuj Adhiya, VP of Growth at Jamber and former Director of Engagement at GrowthHackers.com to talk about growth marketing in uncertain times.
We discussed how to identify the change in user behavior and create an essential product use case for them.
How to ace value-based selling? Figuring out the current value your product gives to the customer and making a great use case out of it.
Choosing between short term wins vs long term rewards. Creating habits and hooks to build a relationship now and sell later.
All this and more insightful discussion with Anuj in this episode.
Connect with Anuj on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/anujadhiya/
Check out Growth Marketing for Dummies on Amazon - https://amzn.to/2VgMr32
In this episode, I hosted Joana Inch, Founder of Hat Media which is a Growth-Driven marketing agency with clients including Canon, Lenovo, Pepsi Co, Dell EMC and more.
We discussed a trending channel of marketing - Webinars. Why it's an imp channel now? And has been a vital one for many companies for long?
How can companies get started with webinars? Some of the best practices to run successful webinar campaigns.
All this and more with Jo in this episode.
Connect with Joana on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/joanainch/
Visit Hat Media - https://hatmedia.com.au/
We recently hosted Surendar Natarajan on our podcast, where we talked about some fascinating facts about B2B SaaS marketing. How is Adapt.io handling the situation currently? How industries are affected economically and how you can keep hiring the right people or remote workforce with perfection.
Also, get to know Surendar's thoughts on
- How the SaaS industry will be in the next 1 year?
- Which is Surendar's all-time favorite book?
- Can India become the next SaaS capital in the world?
- Rapid-fire round with Surendar!
Connect with Surendar on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/surendar-natarajan-a28b24180/
Check out Adapt.io - https://www.adapt.io/
Drew Neisser is an award-winning marketer, author, and entrepreneur. He is the founder and CEO of Renegade, a New York-based marketing agency, as well as the author of "The CMO's Periodic Table: A Renegade's Guide to Marketing."
In this episode, we discussed how can marketers react during such crisis situations?
How can they take advantage of this pandemic without exploiting the situation?
What can marketing leaders learn about new customer behavior?
How do you go about ensuring BCP for marketing teams?
All this and more with Drew.
Connect with Drew on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/drewneisser/
Renegade - Marketing Agency - https://renegade.com/
Bonus - Renegade's special report on B2B Brand Strategy: https://renegade.com/b2b-brand-strategy-report
In this episode, Kritika Kishor, hosted Matthew Barnet, Founder of Bonjoro - an app for sending personalized videos to welcome and onboard your new customers.
1:19 - What is Bonjoro?
3:16 - What motivated Matt to create Bonjoro?
6:21 - How did you define an ICP for Bonjoro?
8:44 - What metrics will improve after implementing Bonjoro?
12:8 - How does Bonjoro help their customer's customer success team succeed?
16:18 - Use cases for CSMs
19:31 - Matt's journey and his other two businesses
23:14 - Matt's take on managing your time effectively
Rapid-fire questions
26:00 - What's the one quality of Bonjoro you like the most?
26:26 - What are you curious about right now?
26:54 - What's your favorite app right now?
27:16 - Who's your inspiration? What keeps you motivated?
27:46 - What's something you hate about Bonjoro?
28:47 - What's the advice you would give to a 25-year old self?
Here's a fantastic conversation about Conversational Marketing with Eliav Cohen from Ultra Cool.
Eliav runs a hot air ballooning company in Seattle, and he also runs Ultra Cool, which builds natural language chatbots using Drift.
In this episode, we discussed the conversational marketing industry and then need for such platforms for businesses.
Eliav showed us all the fantastic chatbots that he has built for himself and his clients.
We did record a video in which he showed how these chatbots work and some more exciting content.
Stay tuned for the video.
Also, if you're in Seattle, ping Eliav and do take a ride in his hot air balloon.
Connect with Eliav Cohen on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/eliav-cohen-5643795/
In this episode, we talk to Antoine Goret, CMO of Crisp IM.
Get to know how to pick the best marketing channel that drives ROI for your business. Antoine also shares how to keep up with the latest trends and how to deal with plateaus.
Visit Crisp IM's website - https://crisp.chat/en/
Connect with Antoine on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/antoine-goret/
In this episode with Liam, who is the co-founder of Staff.com and Time Doctor, we discussed his strategy behind scaling up his organic traffic from 12K to 120K in under 2 years.
Liam is a remote working enthusiast and also hosts the Running Remote conference. Get to know why he set up a staff for his companies which is completely remote and how he manages scale with remote employees.
He also talks about the challenges involved in remote work and how to overcome them.
Connect with Liam on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/liammcivormartin/
Check out Staff.com - https://staff.com/
Check out Time Doctor - https://www.timedoctor.com/
Check out Running Remote conference - https://runningremote.com/
Grow fast or die slow.
Puneet is the Founder of CustomerSuccessBox which, you guessed it right, is a customer success platform for B2B SaaS. He has been in the industry for more than 19 years now throughout which he has worked with companies like IBM, Thoughtworks, Kayako.
Why Customer Success is becoming an important role in the SaaS industry?
Is Customer Success a vital function for a SaaS to determine it's product-market fit?
How to stop your customer success role turning into a customer support role?
Puneet answered all these questions in this exhilarating episode.
Visit Customer Success Box - https://customersuccessbox.com/
Connect with Puneet on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/katariapuneet/
In this episode, we invited Baptiste Jamin, CEO of Crisp IM, to talk more about his entrepreneurial journey and journey of Crisp IM.
Get to know hacks used by Baptiste and his team used to get initial users and the strategy behind launching features rapidly, which enabled them to scale up very quickly.
Baptiste explains how Crisp IM is a unique and useful IM tool for your business.
Visit Crisp IM's website - https://crisp.chat/en/
Connect with Baptiste on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/baptistejamin/
Sreenivas Kanumuru is the CEO of VTiger CRM, which is named in the 2019 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Sales Force Automation.
He pinpointed the driving factors behind acquiring large enterprise customers in the early stage of the company and also on how they acquired 300K users.
Listen to this episode if you are figuring out selecting a CRM for your business and what factors to look for in a CRM.
Check out VTiger CRM - https://vtiger.com
Connect with Sreenivas on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/sreenivas-kanumuru-7708742/
In this episode, I hosted Sphoorti Bhandare, my friend and a PR and content marketing pro who helps B2B Tech companies, grow brand relevance and trust through targeted and engaged messaging.
We talked about -
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What is PR? Why it’s needed?
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When should a SaaS do PR activities?
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What are some examples of PR activities?
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What are the three inexpensive PR strategies?
Connect with Sphoorti on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/sphoortibhandare/
Visit Sphoorti's website - https://sphoortific.com/
Jeff Davis, international speaker and founder of JD2 Consulting Group, specializes in B2B sales and marketing alignment, pulling from more than 15 years of experience in sales, marketing, and business development.
In this episode, we talked about aligning your Sales and Marketing for maximum ROI.
We also discussed about the reasons B2B companies are finding it difficult and costly to achieve sustainable revenue growth. What could be the missing piece of the puzzle?
All this and much more along with Jeff.
Connect with Jeff on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeffreydavisii/
Connect with Jeff on Twitter - https://twitter.com/jeff_davis2
The Alignment Podcast - https://www.jeffdavis2.com/thealignmentpodcast
We discussed about Product Led Growth in a couple of episodes in the past. Now in this episode, we're discussing about Product Led Onboarding with Despina Exadaktylou. Despina is a Product-Led Champion and a SaaS consultant at ReinventGrowth.
In this episode, we talked about:
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what is product led on-boarding?
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what’s the difference between normal on-boarding vs PLO?
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does it help in optimising other metrics such as activation, churn, etc?
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why should SaaS companies care about it?
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how does it affect the end user/customer?
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has any SaaS implemented it? If yes, what are the results?
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does it have a direct impact on growth?
Connect with Despina on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/despinaexadaktylou/
Get in-depth research about Product Led Onboarding by Despina - http://bit.ly/32m3gek
Visit ReinventGrowth's website - http://bit.ly/2JAptwM
Are you a SaaS who is wondering what type of sales is better for growing your business? Is it inside sales, or is it outside sales?
I invited Morgan J Ingram, who is empowering sales teams to become prospecting rockstars at JBarrows Sales Training and Prakhar Jain, who is the associate director of Sales at Whatfix, to address this topic.
In this episode, get to know more about Morgan and Prakhar. How they started their career in sales and reached where they are now.
Firstly, they both point out the difference between inside and outside sales. (For anyone who doesn't know)
Are you a SaaS who's just starting out, or you're Product Market Fit? Or you have crossed the Go To Market Fit? And are you wondering which type of sales to use in your stage?
In this episode, Morgan and Prakhar also addressed which type you should focus on based on what stage your SaaS is in. Get to know the problems faced in each of these types and also how to solve them.
Connect with Morgan on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/morganjingram/
Connect with Prakhar on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/learningprakhar/
In this episode, I invited Shruti Kapoor, Founder and CEO of Strings.ai, to talk on how SaaS companies can leverage AI to close more deals.
Shruti talks about how AI can help increase conversion in each step of the buyer's journey. Also, how does providing contextual help during sales conversation help in increasing conversions?
Strings.ai is an AI powered On-screen, real-time and contextual battle cards tool for your Account Executives. It allows you to manage call reviews and analytics for every prospect conversation.
Visit Strings.ai website - https://strings.ai
Shruti's LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/shrutikapoor/
In this episode Anupam Bhatt (Architect and Technical Program Management at IBM) takes us behind the scenes and explains how the engineering team plans for growth and scale. Anupam talked about how systems are designed and how planning for scale starts from day 1.
How engineering teams adapt to sudden spikes and how they deal with situations that get out of control. Anupam also went through challenges engineering teams face and shares his learnings based on his experiences.
If you've wondered what happens behind the scenes when a flash sale goes on or when there is sudden traffic for a product, this is a much listen for you as Anupam explains exactly what happens in the background.
You can find Anupam on LinkedIn here : https://www.linkedin.com/in/anupambhatt/ and on Twitter here https://twitter.com/Mr_Bhatt
I invited Ravi to talk about his entrepreneurial journey and the journey of Moengage in this episode. Today, Moengage is probably one of the hottest startups in India.
Ravi talked about how he along with Yashwant and their entrepreneurial spirit, started Moengage and made it a global brand which now serves Fortune 500 companies.
He talked about how SaaS companies can tap international markets and expand globally. We also discussed how Moengage achieved a stage where they decided to raise funds, and how you can achieve that stage as well.
All this and more in an insightful discussion with Ravi. Listen to it and do share your feedback.
Ravi on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/rteja
Visit Moengage's website - https://www.moengage.com/
In this episode, Kishan Gupta, CEO of UXCam talks about user on-boarding funnel and how does a typical funnel for a SaaS look like.
He also talks about the best practices that SaaS businesses should follow while crafting the on-boarding funnel.
Connect with Kishan on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/kishangupta/
UXCam website - https://uxcam.com
Deliver the perfect app experience by capturing and visualising user interaction data with UXCam.
Aniket is the Founder/CEO of Product Bricks Ventures, a product & technology consulting firm with HQ in Dallas. He has been Integral part of product teams that have led to successful acquisition combining over 150 million. He has over 15 years of product development experience with AGILE teams in Internet of Things & Wireless space. He has a PhD in Wireless communication and learnt Entrepreneurship at Stanford.
He loves to teach and mentor through various platforms like Everwise, Product School, LinkedIn etc., and serves on Advisory board for Startups in India.
In this episode, he talks about, why does a product need a product leader and what are the qualities of a product leader? We also discussed about how a good product leader can make the product successful and a bad product leader can break it. Also, take a dive in to a typical day of a product leader with Aniket.
Connect with Aniket on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/aniketmalvankar/
Product Bricks Ventures - https://www.productbricksventures.com/
In this episode Kieran gives his perspective on Product Led Growth and why should companies care about this new approach.
He talks about the downsides of implementing PLG framework and what can go wrong while implementing it.
Product qualified lead is a very important factor to be considered while implementing this framework. True or False? Kieran will tell you.
Are you wondering what kind of team you require to implement the product led growth framework? Listen to this episode to find out.
Connect with Kieran on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/kieranjflanagan/
Visit his website - https://www.kieranflanagan.io/
Santosh talked about the early days of Explara and how he with his team overcame various growth challenges to make Explara a leading SaaS platform for Events.
He pinpointed the driving factors behind their 600% hypergrowth in 2012. He also shared his views on how early stage CEOs should decide what things to focus on to achieve a growth trajectory and many more valuable insights.
If you're an early stage startup CEO, then you should listen to this episode.
If you want to get connected with Santosh, reach out to me or connect with him on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/santoshpanda/
In this episode, I invited Phil Strazzulla who is the founder of NextWave Hire, which allows employers to hire the right talent through some effective unconventional ways.
Listen to Phil's opinion on using marketing to land the job of your choice. Then Phil talks about some unconventional methods which you can use to get that job you always wanted.
To close, he reveals a few ways you can use to market yourself to land your dream job.
Connect with Phil on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/philstrazzulla/
Liz Boer helps brands create purposeful impact with relevant content.
Many people are confused about posting on social media. In this episode, we address a few problems people face while executing social media strategies for their brand.
Liz tells about choosing the perfect post scheduling tool and the one she recommends using.
She also talks about the best time to post on different channels, the content ratio and posting frequency for each platform, and some extra tips.
Liz's website - http://lizboer.com/
Liz on IG - http://instagram.com/lizboer_com
Liz on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/liz-boer-576ab827/
This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit saas.substack.com
Wes Bush, a product-led growth expert for B2B SaaS, gives super crisp information about product-led growth.
He explains in brief about product qualified leads (PQL) and how to determine one for your SaaS.
After listening to this podcast, you'll understand if your product is right for product-led growth and how to implement the product-led growth strategy.
Intercom study - https://www.intercom.com/blog/designing-first-run-experiences-to-delight-users/
Wes on LinkedIn - http://linkedin.com/in/wesbush/ Traffic is Currency - https://trafficiscurrency.com/
In this episode, I invited Rytis Lauris, CEO of Omnisend, to talk about omnichannel eCommerce marketing automation.
We discussed about - * What is ecommerce marketing automation? * What are the different stages in the eCommerce funnel? * How does automation help increase conversion in each stage? * What metrics to track in each stage?
Ryan on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/rytisl/ Omnisend website - http://omnisend.com/
In this episode, Guillaume, CEO of Lemlist, talks about the 10 mistakes that people usually make while running cold email campaigns.
We discussed about - 1. Do cold emails still work? (Busting some myth) 2. 10 mistakes and 10 solutions or ways to avoid these mistakes.
Guillaume on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/guillaumemoubeche/ Lemlist - http://lemlist.com/
In this episode, Vivek Jaiswal, CEO and Co founder of Customer Guru, talks about:
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What's a customer focused strategy? Why it's important?
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What do you think of the Hubspot's flywheel? Do you think it will kill the traditional funnel?
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How to create a customer focused marketing strategy?
CustomerGuru - https://www.customerguru.in/ Vivek on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/vivekj/
It's 2019 and videos are everywhere. Marketers are including video as a part of their content strategy and it is slowly becoming a vital part of the overall marketing plan.
To have an expert's advice on Video Marketing I invited the Digital Strategist, Brand & Influencer Consultant, Shane Barker.
In this episode, Shane talks about - * how video helps marketers in lead generation * the best platforms for B2B marketing videos * tips for creating and launching B2B marketing videos * personalizing video marketing + one awesome tool * best platform for building a personal brand through videos [bonus]
Shane on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/shanebarker/ Shane's website - https://shanebarker.com/
Customer success is one of the most trending vertical. It's a whole new strategy when it comes to delivering maximum value to your customers.
In this episode, Sue Duris, customer-obsessed strategist, talks about what is customer success and customer experience.
We discussed the "Holy Trinity of Growth", which says, Culture + Customer Experience + Employee Experience = Growth! Read more about it here - m4comm.com/holy-trinity-of-growth/
Sue gave some tips on personalizing customer success and the role of AI in customer success.
From this episode, you can get a good understanding of building a customer success strategy and identify trends in 2019?
You can connect with Sue on LinkedIn here - www.linkedin.com/in/sueduris/