SaaS Boss: Recent Episodes
Natalie Luneva
Actionable advice for bootstrapped SaaS founders from coaches and consultants about startup scaling challenges, building remote teams, leadership, getting unstuck, founder personal growth and more.
Connect with me at natalieluneva.com
I interview Arthur Nobel and we discuss scaling SaaS companies.
Arthur is a Principal at Knight Capital - an investment firm that specialises in B2B software businesses. He is the author of the best-selling book Leaders of Growth and host of the Leaders of Growth Podcast. He is passionate about enabling entrepreneurs to realize their vision.
We discuss:
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The inspiration behind his book
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The levers of scaling a SaaS company
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Triggers founders should be aware of
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How to enhance growth between the seed stage and the Series A stage
Connect with Natalie here:
https://www.facebook.com/natalialunevaspeaks
https://www.linkedin.com/in/natalialuneva/
Join SaaS Boss group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/saasboss
I interview Michael Cardamone and we will discuss fundraising tips for founders.
Michael Cardamone is the CEO/Managing Partner at Forum Ventures (formerly Accleprise) which is a B2B SaaS focused seed fund & pre-seed accelerator with locations in SF, NYC & Toronto
We discuss:
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The types of companies that will benefit from raising rounds
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How to come up with the amount to raise
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How to raise funds at a faster rate
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Fundraising mistakes most founders make and how to avoid them
Connect with Natalie here:
https://www.facebook.com/natalialunevaspeaks
https://www.linkedin.com/in/natalialuneva/
Join SaaS Boss group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/saasboss
Manuel helps committed B2B Entrepreneurs hit product-market-fit and scale sales quickly with flexible, affordable, no bullshit Sales Acceleration Enablement.
We discuss:
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The major problems founders under $1m ARR have and how to solve them
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How founders can identify their ICP and clearly define the industry they are serving
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How to identify a predictable sales funnel
Connect with Natalie here:
https://www.facebook.com/natalialunevaspeaks
https://www.linkedin.com/in/natalialuneva/
Join SaaS Boss group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/saasboss
I am back! In this episode I'll share more info about my new company Outranking, what my co-founder and I been working on lately and how to find a co-founder these days (while never actually meeting each other face to face).
We talk about the state of AI writing tools and how Outranking can help SaaS companies produce 10x more content. Tune in and check out www.outranking.io. If you like what you see and want a special bonus on the tool, reach out to me at natalie@outranking.io and I'll get you all set!
Connect with Natalie here:
https://www.facebook.com/natalialunevaspeaks
https://www.linkedin.com/in/natalialuneva/
Join SaaS Boss group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/saasboss
Check out the book pre-launch campaign that I launch on March 15th here: https://publishizer.com/community-led-growth/
In this recording from a session I hosted on Clubhouse I'm joined by Preston Clark, Red Russak, Johanna-Mai Riismaa, Christina Kehoe, Luke Tucker and we talk about Building a Community for Your Startup/SaaS.
Connect with Natalie here:
https://www.facebook.com/natalialunevaspeaks
https://www.linkedin.com/in/natalialuneva/
Join SaaS Boss group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/saasboss
Join Natalie Luneva for a weekly session on Clubhouse where members of SaaS Boss club introduce and share what they are working on in under 60 seconds, connect with other founders and build meaning relationships.
Join weekly sessions on Wednesdays at 9am CST on SaaS Boss club on Clubhouse.
This week's founders:
Yuriy Sorochev
Driss Jabar Cloudfret Optimizing empty truck returns in Europe and africa
Ankit Rihal usetada.com
Saad sharif remote property management crm, remote door lock, exploring us market therecrm.com
Alicia Druk online course platform and integrate clubhouse
Jana Filipovic Storifyme
Zoran Nasteski Qpick malls
Grace Kadzere
Saeed Ezzati wfh.team
Marco Zocca unfoldml for complex enterprise data problems
Varun Varma wobo.ai
Sam Tucker commonsurface.com
Neil Emmack app for cancer patients - financial risk analysis tool for cost cancer care
Edmond Maurin VR experience minsar
Christian Cox dev team help
Curtis Boyd Objection.co
Dennis Berg ukrain logistics & pricing sovt.es
Bradley de wet tastingclub.app
Gregor Abt Germany amazon PPC services
Tanner Muller Sales automation CRM for home service
Connect with Natalie here:
https://www.facebook.com/natalialunevaspeaks
https://www.linkedin.com/in/natalialuneva/
Join SaaS Boss group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/saasboss
Join Natalie Luneva for a weekly session on Clubhouse where members of SaaS Boss clubintroduce and share what they are working on in under 60 seconds, connect with other founders and build meaning relationships.
Join weekly sessions on Wednesdays at 9am CST on SaaS Boss club on Clubhouse.
This week's founders:
Christian Cox
Omar Masad Testapp.io
Ksenia Stark
Andrea Orlando Startupwiseguys
Rupali Thakur webkriya.co
Arsyi Rizzqun Fatah Obatibu
Pankil Shah Outranking.io
Aviv Baron
Sarup Banskota usetayfa.com
Romona Guan
Arif Amirani metrleads.com Looking for advisors and entry to south asia markets
Amina El Shazly pet adoption in Egypt
Dinesh Agarwal Recurpost.com SMM for coaches authors
Falit Jain content recommendation engine OTT
Curtis Boyd Objection.co
Connect with Natalie here:
https://www.facebook.com/natalialunevaspeaks
https://www.linkedin.com/in/natalialuneva/
Join SaaS Boss group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/saasboss
Étienne Garbugli is a three-time startup founder (Flagback, HireVoice, and Highlights) and the author of Lean B2B: Build Products Businesses Want. The Lean B2B methodology helps thousands of entrepreneurs and innovators around the world build successful businesses.
We discuss:
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Why SaaS onboarding is difficult
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How the Train Track Approach can help
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How to go about finding the right onboarding strategy for your product
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How to keep levelling it up
Connect with Natalie here:
https://www.facebook.com/natalialunevaspeaks
https://www.linkedin.com/in/natalialuneva/
Join SaaS Boss group:https://www.facebook.com/groups/saasboss
Today it is my pleasure to introduce Jason Reichl, the co-founder of Go Nimbly, whose mission is to eliminate operational silos within go-to-market SaaS teams and how the sales communication process greatly impacts revenue.
We discuss:
-The three stages of maturity of a RevOps or operations team.
-The biggest challenges for an organization transitioning to RevOps structure.
-Why a generalist, Swiss Army operator is more efficient within a RevOps organization.
Connect with Natalie here:
https://www.facebook.com/natalialunevaspeaks
https://www.linkedin.com/in/natalialuneva/
Join SaaS Boss group:https://www.facebook.com/groups/saasboss
Doist has been fully distributed for over 10 years and their production has always been high, despite doubters telling them that development teams have to be co-located to be productive. Gonçalo discusses why building the right culture is key and the changes that any company can make to go remote.
The Essential Ingredient Your Culture Recipe is Missing – Doist is completely egalitarian, according to Gonçalo. In everything they do. He explains how they developed that culture with their DO system, which empowers employees to work together on projects that excite them.
The Stack That Helped Doist Scale to 25+ Million Users
- @goncalosilva on Twitter: https://twitter.com/goncalossilva
- Ambition & Balance by Doist: https://blog.doist.com/
Connect with Natalie here:
https://www.facebook.com/natalialunevaspeaks
https://www.linkedin.com/in/natalialuneva/
Join SaaS Boss group:https://www.facebook.com/groups/saasboss
This is a recording of the live training that was live streamed to SaaS Boss community. To access video version of this session and get notified about future training sessions like these, request access here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/saasboss
Helen Peatfield helps SaaS B2B companies by improving their conversion copy and customer flow so they win more customers and keep them too.
We discuss:
Poor positioning
Awareness evels and marketing maturity
Understanding your customer's mindset - logic vs emotion
Sucky CTAs
Connect with Natalie here:
https://www.facebook.com/natalialunevaspeaks
https://www.linkedin.com/in/natalialuneva/
Join SaaS Boss group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/saasboss
This is a recording of the live training that was live streamed to SaaS Boss community. To access video version of this session and get notified about future training sessions like these, request access here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/saasboss
Matt Wolach is the creator of The Perfect D.E.A.L. Process - an innovative system that makes it easy to close deals without having decades of sales experience and knowledge.
We discuss:
3 tactics to close more deals in the first ten minutes
Self-assessment of your discovery process
The perfect D.E.A.L. process
Connect with Natalie here:
https://www.facebook.com/natalialunevaspeaks
https://www.linkedin.com/in/natalialuneva/
Join SaaS Boss group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/saasboss
This is a recording of the live training that was live streamed to SaaS Boss community. To access video version of this session and get notified about future training sessions like these, request access here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/saasboss
Scott Sambucci is the Founder & CEO at SalesQualia, a sales coaching company that helps B2B Startups to grow sales faster.
We discuss:
The 3 distinct phases that every SaaS company goes through
Growth pains in every phase
9sales accelerators are core systems that if you build and implement upon will accelerate your sales process and growth.
Connect with Natalie here:
https://www.facebook.com/natalialunevaspeaks
https://www.linkedin.com/in/natalialuneva/
Join SaaS Boss group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/saasboss
This is a recording of the live training that was live streamed to SaaS Boss community. To access video version of this session and get notified about future training sessions like these, request access here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/saasboss
Patrick Campbell is the CEO of ProfitWell (formerly Price Intelligently), the software for helping subscription companies with their monetization and retention strategies.
"Your SaaS pricing is the exchange rate on the value you’re creating in the world."
Connect with me:
https://www.facebook.com/natalialunevaspeaks
https://www.linkedin.com/in/natalialuneva/
Join SaaS Boss group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/saasboss
This is an episode where Morgan Williams the host of Outbound Sales podcast interviewed me about organizing online summits for SaaS companies for his podcast Outbound Sales.
Ever thought about organizing an online summit for your SaaS?
Listen to this episode where I'll share why hosting an online summit is one of the smartest growth strategies for SaaS companies to:
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increase connections with INDUSTRY LEADERS
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build profitable PARTNERSHIPS with other companies
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generate a year’s worth of CONTENT
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jump start your THOUGHT LEADERSHIP
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get invited to be a SPEAKER at other events
Imagine that just 90 days from now...your SaaS makes the move from an obscure SaaS company, to a well-known and sought-after industry thought leader?
This recording is from Outbound Sales podcast by Morgan Williams, episode #92.
Resources:
– Connect with Natalie on Facebook
– Join SaaS Boss Facebook Community
Today I interview Sarah Hatter and we talk about creating an excellent customer support experience for your SaaS.
Sarah is the founder and CEO of CoSupport, a business that has helped over 200 companies create excellent customer support experiences since 2011.
She’s also the organizer of the ElevateCX conference AND the best-selling author of The Customer Support Handbook.
We discuss:
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The importance of customer support in the SaaS industry
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How to get customers to use your knowledgebase
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How to hire a support person
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Key customer support metrics SaaS companies need to track
Resources:
– Connect with Natalie on Facebook
– Join SaaS Boss Facebook Community
In this episode I interview Val Geisler and we talk about the impact of customer churn on your SaaS business.
Val Geisler is the founder and CEO (that's Chief Email Officer for the rest of you nerds out there) of Fix My Churn. With an obsession for customer communication, Val spent over a decade inside companies from non-profits to 7-figure businesses to tech startups. She brings her background in content creation, CX, and digital strategy to her clients every day.
We discuss:
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How to start analyzing SaaS customer churn metrics
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The generally acceptable annual churn rate for SaaS companies
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How the dinner party strategy can help you onboard customers
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How to use successfully use videos in your welcome email
Resources:
– Connect with Natalie on Facebook
– Join SaaS Boss Facebook Community
Today I interview Cynthia Del'Aria and we talk about leadership in the SaaS world. Cynthia helps business owners turn their idea for an app, custom software, subscription product, or website into higher profit with higher margins. Her career spans nearly 25 years, and includes development skills in the full web stack, as well as the business side of the house.
We discuss:
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What first time SaaS founders need to understand about leadership
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How to successfully lead a remote SaaS team
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The harsh realities of entrepreneurship
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Why more female founders and leaders are needed in technology
Resources:
– Connect with Natalie on Facebook
– Join SaaS Boss Facebook Community
Today I interview Dekker Fraser and we talk about Go-to-Market strategies for SaaS companies. Dekker is a veteran Silicon Valley marketer who worked for many tech companies including Sony PlayStation, Google-backed Rocket Lawyer, and venture-backed Webgility. He holds an MBA in marketing from the Kellogg School of Management. He is also the author of several product marketing books, one of them is Product Launch: how to go to market.
We discuss:
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The key pillars of a successful Go-to-Market strategy
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The major mistakes SaaS Founders make in the early stages
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How small startups can compete with large companies
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How to successfully connect with potential partners and influencers
Resources
– Connect with Natalie on Facebook
– Join SaaS Boss Facebook Community
Check out Dekker's 1-page product marketing plan template here https://bit.ly/3iR8U0z
Today I interview Anna Talerico about the business of SaaS and the 10 systems that every SaaS company needs to have in place to accelerate growth.
Anna helps to build and scale technology companies. She is focused on go-to-market, people, culture, and creating significant enterprise value.
We discuss:
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The importance of the 4Ps process in solving business problems
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Why you need to intentionally create an operating system for your business
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How to use OKRs effectively in your company
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The basic metrics you need to know for your SaaS company
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The biggest financial pitfalls SaaS founders need to avoid
Resources
– Connect with Natalie on Facebook
– Join SaaS Boss Facebook Community
Today I interview Adriana Tica about content marketing for SaaS companies.
Adriana Tica is an expert marketer and copywriter, with 10 years in the field, most of which were spent marketing tech companies.
We discuss:
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Why startup founders need to know their audience
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How SaaS founders can discover the industry to work in
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How to distribute your content effectively
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How to evaluate your content marketing strategy
Resources
– Connect with Natalie on Facebook
– Join SaaS Boss Facebook Community
On this episode of the podcast I interview Lolita Carrico about marketing growth strategies for SaaS companies. Lolita is a marketing strategy and business development consultant to leading SaaS, Fintech, Biotech and Digital Media brands.
We discuss:
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The two sides to effective marketing for SaaS businesses
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Pre-sale marketing and growth strategies to attract customers
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How to improve customer retention
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How to inject brand personality and remain top of mind with your clients
Resources
– Connect with Natalie on Facebook
– Join SaaS Boss Facebook Community
Today I interview Mark McDougall. Marc helps B2B SaaS companies book more demos & trials by optimizing their site for conversions.
We discuss:
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How to use customer churn to learn more about your customers and ultimately learn how to sell to them better
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Two vital things every SaaS company needs to do right now
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How to communicate with your SaaS customers and offer solutions to their problems
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How the pandemic has affected SaaS companies
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What you can learn from immediate cancellations
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The benefits of using video in your outreach
Resources
– Connect with Natalie on Facebook
– Join SaaS Boss Facebook Community
On this episode of the podcast I interview Alex Theuma, the founder of SaaS stock, the first and leading conference dedicated to SaaS companies in Europe.
We discuss:
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The impact of COVID-19 on SaaS companies, remote work revolution
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The massive rise of Online Events Tech Platforms
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Success stories of SaaS companies pivoted as a result of the pandemic
Resources
– Connect with Natalie on Facebook
– Join SaaS Boss Facebook Community
On this episode of the podcast I interview Anita Toth. We discuss everything you need to do to reduce your churn rate.
Anita works with growing B2B SaaS companies that want to stop losing their hard-won customers to churn.
We discuss:
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The acceptable level of churn for a SaaS product
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How to properly segment your customer base
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How I recovered over a $1000 from users who involuntary churned
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Easy fixes you can make to reduce churn
Resources
– Connect with Natalie on Facebook
– Join SaaS Boss Facebook Community
On this episode of the podcast I interview Gv Freeman about the importance of self-care for founders. Gv is a tech startup coach, fractional CMO, founder, internationally recognized speaker and author. He frequently consults with software and professional service companies to better align their marketing, sales, and product development processes
We discuss:
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Dangers of hustle culture
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The biggest issue with "broken" founders
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The importance of mindfulness
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How founders can overcome doubt and negative thoughts
Resources
– Connect with Natalie on Facebook
– Join SaaS Boss Facebook Community
On this episode of the podcast I interview Katie Bronnenkant. We discuss the major accounting and financing issues SaaS founders need to know about.
Katie helps early stage (Seed/Series A) SaaS companies leverage their own financial data to grow their business and raise from VCs.
We discuss:
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How to get started with accounting and financing for your SaaS company
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Quick and easy ways to calculate your MRR, CAC and Gross margin
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How to avoid losing money due to unpaid invoices
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The various ways you can create projections and track your expenses
Resources
– Connect with Natalie on Facebook
– Join SaaS Boss Facebook Community
On this episode of the podcast I interview Kristie Jones about hiring your first sales rep. Kristie has more than 15 years of sales management experience in the SaaS industry. She is the principal at Sales Acceleration Group where she helps founders build, grow and scale their sales team by improving process strategy and people to accelerate revenue.
We discuss:
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How to make your first hire
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Hiring remotely for early stage startups
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How to onboard a successful candidate
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Why you need to avoid micro-managing sales reps?
Download sheet of competencies & sample interview questions that Kristie mentioned here: https://salesaccelerationgroup.com/saasboss
Resources
– Connect with Natalie on Facebook
– Join SaaS Boss Facebook Community
On this episode of the podcast I speak with Tom Hunt about growing a SaaS business via podcasting. Tom builds and grows software businesses. He is the co-founder of a podcast host called bCast and he is the creator of the Confessions of a B2B marketer podcast.
He also writes amazing SaaS growth case studies at saasmarketer.io
We discuss:
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How SaaS businesses can benefit from podcasting
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How to produce and promote your podcast efficiently
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How SaaS founders can improve their interviewing skills
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The benefits of properly positioning your podcast in your industry
Resources
– Connect with Natalie on Facebook
– Join SaaS Boss Facebook Community
On this episode of the SaaS Boss podcast I interview Mark Thompson about affiliate marketing. Mark Thompson is the co-founder of PayKickstart.com – a SaaS that is reinventing the modern-day shopping cart and affiliate management, helping thousands of businesses and Entrepreneurs sell more, maximize customer lifetime value and automate subscription commerce.
We discuss:
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How to structure affiliate commissions for your affiliates
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The industries that are crushing it with affiliate marketing
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How Mark won a car from ClickFunnels
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The important reasons you need to hold on to your existing affiliate customers
Resources:
– Connect with Natalie on Facebook
– Join SaaS Boss Facebook Community
On this episode of the podcast I spoke with Garrett Mehrguth about the six data validated tactics to increase qualified lead volume to your SaaS. Garrett is the CEO and co-founder of Directive, a performance marketing agency for SaaS companies. He is also thought leader and a speaker.
He shares six battle tested tactics across 60 plus accounts over the last 12 months that have been statistically proven to increase his SaaS clients qualified lead volume.
We discuss:
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Why your website needs to look better than your product?
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How to market your SaaS product effectively
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The magic question that improved his activation rate from 2% to 18% in two months
Resources
Garrett on Twitter
Garrett on LinkedIn
– Connect with Natalie on Facebook
– Join SaaS Boss Facebook Community
On this episode of the podcast I interview Shawn Flynn about SaaS funding. Shawn regularly works with incubators, accelerators, angel groups, VC, local governments, and institutions to promote economic growth. He has helped several companies land and set-up operations in Silicon Valley as well as Silicon Valley companies set up offices, partnerships, and funding relationships overseas.
He is also the founder of Silicon Valley Successes a television show that features entrepreneurs and people that work with them and is the host of The Silicon Valley Podcast where he has interviewed some of the biggest names in tech industry.
We discuss:
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The funding options available for founders
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The kind of funding option you should adopt
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How to pick the right incubator and accelerator programs
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The differences between angel and VC funding
Resources
Shawn on LinkedIn
The Silicon Valley Podcast with Shawn Flynn
– Connect with Natalie on Facebook
– Join SaaS Boss Facebook Community
On this episode of SaaS Boss show I interview Geoff Atkinson, the Founder-CEO of Huckabuy, a software company disrupting the SEO industry.
Things we discuss:
-Website is your most important piece of technology, so treat it as such.
-Architecture of the website & navigation.
-Importance of structured data.
-Page speed and why you should care.
-Rich results, how are search results pages changing and how should you strategize accordingly?
- Connect with Natalieon Facebook
- Join SaaS BossFacebook Community
On this episode of SaaS Boss show I interview Nicole Tibaldi, Engineering Manager at Gatsby. She cares deeply about improving tech hiring, agile processes, and bridging the gaps between product, design, and engineering.
She is also an accomplished conference speaker who has given multiple presentation about hiring processes in the tech industry.
Things we discuss:
- What makes a good candidate.
- How to conduct early screens (non-technical).
- How to conduct coding interviews.
- What personal characteristics to look for in a software engineer?
- Connect with Natalieon Facebook
- Join SaaS BossFacebook Community
On this episode of SaaS Boss show I interview James Rose, a Zapier & Automation Trainer. He is also the co-founder of ContentSnare a SaaS tool for digital agencies to get content from their clients.
In this episode of the show we discuss new awesome ways to get more done in less time and how to automate your business processes effectively, as well as:
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some of Jimmy's favourite automations (did you know you could speed up video playback on Facebook? I didn't!)
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how to keep automation personal
Links:
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Content Snare
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Jimmy Rose
-Connect with Natalie on Facebook
-Join SaaS Boss Facebook Community
On this episode of SaaS Boss show I interview Benjamin Dell, a founder of a number of SaaS startups like Missinglettr, HeySummit, HelpShelf & OnboardFlow (two of which were acquired).
We talk about how to build a profitable SaaS business and discovering the type of founder you are. Today we talk less about the business and more about you, the creator of that business, and how you as the founder think of and approach your role.
Things we discuss:
Work out where you add the most value / what you’re ‘excellent’ at.
Developing the confidence to articulate the above both internally and externally.
Building a plan based on the above, defining the ideal structure of your future business and then work backwards from there.
Be careful about the advice you listen to - including this! Care deeply about forming your own conclusions about how you work most effectively.
Rinse and repeat - this should be a lifelong obsession.
-Connect with Natalie on Facebook
-Join SaaS Boss Facebook Community
Want to get free tickets to SaaStock Remote Conference happening June 10-11 ($129 value)? I'm writing a book about how other successful founders got their first few paying, please consider helping other founders by taking part in the creation of this book and fill out this 5-minute survey here: https://s.surveyanyplace.com/grow_your_saas
On this episode of SaaS Boss show I interview Joel Klettke of Case Study Buddy about how SaaS can capture, share, and cash in on customer success stories.
Joel is the founder of Case Study Buddy, a team of case studies specialists who help companies capture, share and cash in on customer success stories
He is a sought after conversion copywriter for SaaS and B2B companies where he has helped clients like Hubspot and WP engine turn more visitors into customers.
On this episode we discuss:
- Laying the foundation to creating case studies
- Creating the study/success story and conducting an interview
- Promoting the customer success story
In this episode of SaaS Boss show I interview Victor Purolnik, a developer and entrepreneur who’s been in remote product development for almost a decade.
Victor Purolnik is a developer and entrepreneur who’s been in remote product development for almost a decade. Since 2015, he’s using his vast knowledge about working with Eastern European developers to help founders launch and scale successful software products.
In this episode we discuss:
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Signs that show when to stop coding yourself
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What to hand out first
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Hiring Options – What’s the best for Whom?
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Mindset Shift
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How to prepare documentation
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How to manage remote developers
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Remote culture
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Finding remote developers
To join the mastermind community I mentioned in the intro, fill out your info here: https://forms.gle/MybVDU8tje1vpSEP6
Find your tech team within 72h with Trustshoring: https://www.trustshoring.com
Reach out to Victor to get advice on hiring and outsourcing tech and marketing for your SaaS. Connect on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/victorpurolnik/
In this episode of SaaS Boss show I interview Austin Ford about How to Stop Churn and Get Forever Customers using challenge funnels.
In this episode we discuss:
-How to get customers to pay for your "Free" Trial
-How to create a powerful "Aha" experience for new customers to understand the full benefit of your software
-How to outspend your competitors to acquire new customers without using your own funds
Book mentioned:
Retention Point by Robert Skrob
In this episode of SaaS Boss show I interview Emilia Korczynska about how your onboarding affects retention and how you can improve your retention.
In this episode we discuss:
The median annual churn rate for SaaS businesses under $10 million in revenue is 20%. Good churn rate is 5-7% annually. This means 0.5% churn on a monthly basis. In other words, this means losing approximately 1 in 200 customers, or losing $1 out of $200.
Majority of founders aren't there yet.
Personalize - only 40% use a welcome screen, treat different personas differently to maximize retention and key feature activation.
Use video - under 20% use video
Use interactive walkthoughs on the welcome screens - only 24% of SaaS tools use interactive walk through
Retaining customers during the crisis: use in-app communication, monitor client behavior like not logging in, offer extra help and get your customer success to step in and help users keep achieving their goals, invite users to jump on the call.
In this episode of SaaS Boss show I interview Morgan Williams where he shares with us his process to doing cold email outreach effectively that gets people to respond and increase SaaS sales.
The things we discuss:
-A 3-step process for building a winning cold outreach campaign
-Two things you can do to immediately improve your response rate
-How to use AIDA to turn cold emails into sales meetings - copywriting formula - copywriting framework, sales letter framework
-Tools for email finding software and email sending software and followup
-Biggest problems founders make is not send enough emails and not following up more often
-What to do when someone responds?
Setting up email authentification
Warming up the domain - start with 10-20/day and ramp up to 160/day.
Crafting emails
Books mentioned in this episode:
Ca$hvertising by Drew Eric Whitman
My Life in Advertising and Scientific Advertising by Claude Hopkins
Breakthrough Advertising by Eugene M. Schwartz
In this episode of SaaS Boss show I interview David Katic about secrets to designing best converting SaaS website. The 10 secreats we discuss are:
-Articulate your perfect customer
-Gathering customer data
-Segment and filter
-Authority and expertise
-Social proof
-Scarcity (not the cheesy one)
-Story
-Processes
-Great offer
-Follow key design principles
Get free downloadable guide that summarises the 10 secrets we discussed:
https://www.digitalgrowthgenius.com/free-guides/
David's tool to diagnose the key problems on a website:
https://www.digitalgrowthgenius.com/diagnose/
David's YouTube channel:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC0txIps02TkeSLij0gFV2jQ
In this episode of SaaS Boss show I share a quick idea how you can keep customers who are affected by Coronavirus and want to cancel their subscription and instead keep them as your customers.
In this episode of SaaS Boss show I interview Lloyd Yip. Lloyd is a sales and marketing advisor to SaaS companies. In Episode #16 Lloyd and I discussed getting your first sales with cold outreach. In this episode we talk about scaling past $5k MRR with cold outreach and other organic (read NOT SEO) strategies.
In this episode we discuss:
Scaling past 100 sales
Free channels you can use (partnerships, communities)
Building cost effective client acquisition engine
Channel selection based on ticket size.
Formula for effective demos
Connect with Lloyd here:
lwyconsulting.com
https://m.me/lwyconsulting?ref=r10kwebinar
In this episode of SaaS Boss show I interview Tory Smith and we talk about pros and cons of demo vs trial
Things we discuss:
When choosing between trial or demo, lots of things to consider: price, complexity, stage. What should we consider when deciding whether offer a trial or a demo?
70% of SaaS companies offer free trial. Why is trial so popular?
What goes through prospects mind when they only see demo?
If given an option, prospects will go with self service
When is offering a demo better than trial?
When is offering trial better than demo?
Intercept the trial with a demo - a great way for more complicated SaaS companies to still benefit from higher conversions when offering trial but also help guide and get an opportunity to "up-sell" the leads to doing a demo.
Seth Godin is an entrepreneur, best-selling author and speaker. He has written 19 best-selling books including classics such as The Dip, Linchpin and Tribes. He has also inspired numerous people around the world via his talks on marketing and effective leadership.
A few weeks ago, I attended a workshop by Seth Godin in which he talked about management and leadership. I got a chance to ask him a question about that during the workshop.
I share my thoughts on why learning management skills is important for SaaS founders, and why you still need to learn how to be an effective manager, even if you hate delegating and would much rather do everything yourself to avoid the energy draining activities of assigning tasks and managing your employees.
And Seth Godin answers my question about how can we find employees who we don’t need to manage.
Show Notes
[1.09] - Seth Godin differentiates between management and leadership.
Managers work to get their employees to do what they did yesterday a little bit faster and cheaper.
Leaders know where they would like to go, they understand that they cannot get there without their team to make something happen.
[2.07] – I share my thoughts on why you can’t do everything alone.
You cannot grow past a certain stage by yourself. There are so many strategic things you need to work and it won’t be wise for you to spend your time on things you can get someone to do for $10 an hour if you learn how to delegate properly.
When you are on a bootstrap budget in most cases you can’t afford to hire people who you don’t need to manage because those people are really expensive.
So I think you need to learn how to become a good manager and with time you will learn how to be a leader.
[4.16] – Seth answers my question on how to find people you don’t need to manage?
He says that when he talks about people managing themselves, he is not saying he wants people to do what he wants them to do without saying anything.
He is talking about giving people around you the authority, the leverage and the space to do something you wouldn’t have done.
It’s not that they need to read your mind, but that they are actually in charge and when they have a question, they should ask. When they don’t have a question, they should do something.
Resources
Seth Godin’s website
In this episode of SaaS Boss show I interview Lloyd Yip. Lloyd is a sales and marketing advisor to SaaS companies. In this episode we discuss actionable steps to getting your first sales. Many founders are reluctunt doing cold outreach, and so you wait until you build your product to start getting feedback from potential customers.
In this episode we discuss:
Attaining product market fit for SaaS companies and getting early traction
Ways to get first few salates using LinkedIn outreach
Scaling to your first 100 sales and free channels you can use
Building cost effective client acquisition engine
Connect with Lloyd here:
lwyconsulting.com
https://m.me/lwyconsulting?ref=r10kwebinar
In this episode of SaaS Boss show I interview Thomas Smale of FE International.
There is plenty of advice on what it takes to have a successful exit when you want to leave your business. However, before going down that road, much thought and planning should go into getting an accurate valuation so that you can have a profitable exit as well.
At FE International, Thomas Smale has consulted or worked on over 800 transactions. He's pulled together some of the best practices from most experienced investors and snippets of knowledge from their acquisitions to provide some guidance for new and seasoned buyers alike to answer: how do you value a SaaS business?
Things we discussed:
Outlook on the market due to COVID-19
SaaS valuations
What founders should know to get the best offer for their SaaS company
The process of selling a SaaS
Will the founder or the team need to stay after the sale?
What can we do now if we consider selling a company in a year?
What do buyers look for in a company they are purchasing?
and much more.
https://feinternational.com
In this episode of SaaS Boss I interview The SaaS CFO Ben Murray about SaaS metrics, what metrics you should track, how you should track them, what pitfalls to watch out for and much more.
Ben Murray is known as the SaaS CFO and he helps software companies achieve financial improvement and transparency by partnering with stakeholders to link operations and finance.
Things we discussed:
What basic SaaS metrics you should be tracking
How your accounting process can help or break your metrics
How to account for annual subscriptions and calculate accurate MRR
How to start with forecasting SaaS metrics
In this episode of SaaS Boss show I interview Rod Sloane about cold outreach on LinkedIn.
Things we discussed:
Hidden value of prospecting is testing your message
Benchmarks and metrics of cold prospecting
How to make your LinkedIn profile prospecting-ready
Developing your message (hint: ask your clients why did they buy your product and what would they miss if you take it away from them)
This episode of SaaS Boss show is Part 2 of my interview with Carole Mahoney and we switch from talking about about how SaaS founders can get first 10 sales to what happens after first sales. And that's hiring and managing your first sales reps.
Hiring process, what characteristics should we look for
How to write ad for SaaS sales role
Why you should make it a tough interview process
Real costs of making a bad hire (opportunity costs)
How to predict the success for SaaS sales person
How to maximize changes of the new hire being successful in this role
What can you as the founder do to help set them up for success (hint, you play bigger role than you think)
When do you know it's not working
Issues due to poor hire (low close rates, longer sales cycle, high churn).
In this episode of SaaS Boss show I interview Carole Mahoney about how SaaS founders can get first 10 sales.
Things we discuss:
At early stage SaaS companies that are trying to get traction, get their first sales, the founders need to do outreach to their ideal potential customers to get first few sales. We shouldn’t rely on inbound or seo to get first sales if we dont have any case studies yet.
What steps founders need to take in order to get their first 10 paying customers
Why so many founders struggle with sales
Basic steps to help make progress
Mindset (its not about you)
Productivity
Goals
Actionable step by step for outreach process
Most common problems and how to fix them
In this episode of SaaS Boss show I interview Lee Colan about team accountability, why we need our teams to be accountable, how to encourage accountability, and what to do to fix existing problems with lack of accountability.
Accountability is like rain – everyone knows they need it, but no one wants to get wet.
Things we discussed:
What is team accountability and why is it accountability important?
How is it conected with productivity?
Why does accountability seem top be a challenge with SaaS founders?
What actions should we take to improve team accountability and things that can be fixed with improved new employee onboarding process?
What are they key elements of team accountability and when should you communicate it?
What are some tools a start-up leaders can use to improve it?
In this episode of SaaS Boss I interview The SaaS CFO Ben Murray about Coronavirus and how it will affect your SaaS.
Ben Murray is known as the SaaS CFO and he helps software companies achieve financial improvement and transparency by partnering with stakeholders to link operations and finance.
Things we discussed:
Our take on Coronavirus and current economy situation
How Coronavirus and volatility affect your financial strategy
Why you should take it seriously
How to up your accounting game and why consider tightening your budget
Look at your major expenses, consider switching annual renewals you have to monthly to have more cash
What founders can do now to mitigate risks of what's to come
How to start with forecasting SaaS metrics
In this episode of SaaS Boss show I interview Jennifer Musselman about existing teams issues and how to make system-level improvements in your team when you already have a team and things aren't going that well.
Two moving bodies in contact with each other create friction, so expect that you as a founder will need to put in work into developing your team.
Reason for teams being ineffective.
Mission, vision, company goals.
Social Styles & Communications needs.
Why poor communication of vision creates problems.
What Workflows and Processes need to have in place.
Deliver feedback early, don't wait for it to pile up before sharing it with the team.
What steps can founders take today to improve their communication?
Steps when we have existing team issues and trying to make improvements:
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Create environment where we communicate values. why are we all working togetehr and what are we trying to achieve. Vision need to be communicated often.
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Employee performance review once a year isn't enough, need give immediate feedback
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Encourage dialogue amongst employees and create safe environment to hold each other accountable.
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Self management for executives to handle their stress level...
In this episode of SaaS Boss show I interview Tyler Barron about steps that founders should take to build and scale SaaS revenue.
The 3 steps are:
Successful Architecture of Revenue Model
Product/Market Fit
Strategies to Accelerate Revenue
Tyler will be a panel speaker at the SaaStock Dallas local event I'm hosting on March 26th 2020, for more info check out https://local.saastock.com/dallas/.
Connect with Tyler on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/tylerbarronmba/
In this episode Natalie interviews Sid Mohasseb about measuring and improving performance of a founder, their teams and their startup as the result.
Things we discuss:
What is a high performing founder and the difference between?
What mental/personality characteristics successful founders have in common?
What are the measurements of success?
Processes you need to put in place to be a high performing leader and team.
How much time do you spend managing people vs. working on the product?
Spending hours on things that don’t add value to your bottom line.
Learn more about Sid here: mohasseb.com
In this episode Natalie asks leadership coach Tracy Washington question from the audience about being the youngest person on the team who is also CEO.
Learn more about Tracy here: getrelationshipcurrency.com
In this episode Natalie shares her Supercharged Month technique that will help increase our productivity. It's something that Greg McKeown mentions in his book Essentialism, and there's another book The 12 Week Year that you can also find useful for this topic.
So, the exact steps that I recommend you to have your supercharged and highly productive 4 weeks:
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Set your goals for the next 4 weeks
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Dump all tactics and tasks that are sitting in your head and prioritize those tactics for every day of the week
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Execution. Setup 5 minutes at the beginning of each day to review yesterday's progress and plan that day's activities. Time block your calendar and prioritize what really needs to be done. Do not end the day until the tasks you set out to do for each day are accomplished.
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Process control. Make sure nothing derails you from this single most important activity.
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Measurements of Results. Accountability - focus more on action than on the results.
This episode is part of a webinar recording that Natalie Luneva and Tracy Washington did early 2020, where we talked about the following things:
How to gain more clarity
How to setup SMART goals
How to become a more effective leader
How to get your team to buy into your 2020 vision
How to motivate yourself and your team to achieve these goals (and why financial incentives may not be the best way to do it)
In this episode Natalie Luneva shares why we need to embrace the 10x mentality. While incremental change is still very important, I'd to encourage everyone to welcome the 10x mentality and see how it can help drastically rethink the problem instead of making small improvements.
My name is Natalie Luneva, the host of SaaS Boss show and in this first episode I wanted to share with you a little bit information about who I am, the reason I decided to launch this podcast, who it is for and what you can expect from these episodes.
6 years ago I was helping an early stage SaaS solution for medical practices with their go to market strategy, primarily I was in marketing and growth, but soon started doing demos and walk throughs, this was my very first exposure to working in a SaaS. I have built marketing and support teams from scratch where I started being the only person department and ended up with a full team of more than a dozen full time employees and a few dozens of contractors and freelancers.
Fast forward few years and I've worked with more than a hundred of companies helping them grow.
My husband is a SaaS founder as well and I'm helping him with marketing and operations. Drawing from this experience, I see first hand the struggles of founders.
This podcast will be best suited for SaaS founders who already generate some revenue and are past MVP stage. You likely have a small team of or are planning to start hiring people to put your project on a growth trajectory.
The 3 main reasons I thought that there's a need for this podcast is because:
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I see founders who get discouraged when they listen to podcasts where other founders share their successes because they are not there yet, and instead of focusing on what they can and should do to fix the situation, they get discouraged.
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Because the interviews are a mix of founders in different stages, industries, different setup and so the advice may not be applicable to everyone. The stage where you generated some traction and getting some revenue, but you have a long way to go is crucial. You either stay small and grow very slowly, or you think strategically about what needs to be done in order to push this forward and grow at a much faster rate.
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In order for a SaaS to grow, the team usually needs to grow and so founder's role within it will need to change as well, and without previous experience leading a team and organizing processes, you may become bottle neck to your own success without even knowing it and blaming other problems, not realizing that it's right in front of your nose.
The format will be a mix of interviews with SaaS coaches and consultants and solo episodes with just me where I'll be sharing some actionable advice, or just give a good old kick int he but. The reason why I interview SaaS coaches and not founders is because I find that the advice from founders may not necessarily applicable to everyone and is very situational, so that advice for another SaaS in a different industry, different stage and different setting may not work. Coaches on the other hand worked with dozens and dozens of founders and saw how the same advice can work or backfire in various situations and so can provide some additional insight or word of caution.
Lastly, I would really appreciate your feedback. This is my first podcast and while I'm still finding my voice, I'd love to hear things you found helpful or some results that you got from implementing some ideas you got from the podcast, or if something is complete BS I would really want to know that as well. If you know someone who you think may be a good fit for me to interview, please reach out as well.
In this episode of SaaS Boss, I interview Jes Osrow about designing and implementing strategies to build high performing teams and what is a high performing team. As Co-Founder of The Rise Journey, Jes works with growth stage companies designing and implementing strategies to build cohesive teams while developing a sustainable organizational culture.
1:15 Why team culture is important
4:00 Why you can not do everything yourself and the reason to hire.
9:30 Why you should consider hiring and not look for a co-founder
10:50 What is a high performing team?
15:00 Why do people leave companies?
18:40 Why and how to create a job description for your new hires
21:00 How to make your first hire and things to have in place before even making the hire
24:00 How to motivate employees
27:00 Onboarding, how to create instructions and SOPs