In this episode, I’m speaking with the main man himself, Dan Martell. Dan has been one of my inspirations in the SaaS game, bar-none. I haven’t met too many people in SaaS who haven’t got at least some value from Dan. Dan has built 5 companies, and successfully exited three of those, most notably Flowtown and Clarity.fm. He’s an investor in over 40 startups, including Intercom, Hootsuite, and Udemy, to name a few. For the last several years, Dan has been coaching some of the world’s top SaaS fou...
Feb 26, 2019•35 min•Ep. 37
In this episode, I'm speaking with Max Kolysh, one of the founders of zinc.io. Zinc is an e-commerce lab that builds products that helps tens of thousands of Amazon and eBay sellers with listing creation, inventory management, pricing and order fulfillment. Max co-founded Zinc back in 2014. They went through Y-Combinator, and raised a seed round of $400k, and are now doing $6M in ARR. It was a great pleasure speaking with Max, I have no doubt you'll get a ton of value and insights in this episod...
Feb 07, 2019•29 min•Ep. 36
It’s very common for companies to get comfortable and settle in a “coasting state”. A “coasting state” is when a company is making money, growing (albeit slowly), and trekking along steadily in their market. Not to say this is a bad thing (far from it, actually). After all, most companies will fail before they even get close to that “coasting state”. The fact is, most founders are satisfied coasting along comfortably, and collecting their stable pay check. This is also the reason why there are o...
Jan 28, 2019•6 min•Ep. 35
In this episode, I'm speaking with Tom Libelt, the founder of Smart Brand Marketing and We Market Online Courses. Tom is a straight up hustler. His family moved to the US from Poland with to escape communism, with only $500 in their pocket. He was a serial entrepreneur from a young age. He owned a coffee shop, a record label, was a top hip-hop Polish recording artist, created a documentary, sold over 5000 Kindle books, and now runs Smart Brand Marketing, where he primarily helps companies market...
Jan 15, 2019•41 min•Ep. 34
Think of absolutely ANY business problem a company might face. The one thing that can absolutely solve just about any business problem is… SALES! That’s right – in one way or another, more generating more sales can solve those plaguing business problems that are in your way. Need to make a few key hires in your business? Increase sales so you can afford to make them. Need to launch those products that have been in the back burner for a while? Increase sales so you can afford to hire another deve...
Jan 06, 2019•4 min•Ep. 33
One of the biggest opportunities I didn’t take more advantage of while growing a company, is not gathering enough feedback from employees more often. Being the co-founder of the company that started from scratch, I personally did every single role in every department on my own. I was a salesperson, support rep, marketer, graphic designer, onboarding specialist, retention specialist, and billing person- all at the same time. Needless to say, I know every facet of my company very well. However, as...
Dec 18, 2018•5 min•Ep. 32
We all know that team building and culture are very important for the success of any organization. In order to push projects forward, achieve company objectives, and live out a company vision, your team must be coordinated with each other, in-sync, and integrated. Team building is not something that comes naturally in an organization. It has to be deliberate and purposeful. In most cases, team members are focused on their particular tasks and department objectives, and don’t really have the time...
Nov 26, 2018•5 min•Ep. 31
This was a very exciting episode. I’m speaking with Thomas Smale, founder of FE International, the hands-down market leader for M&A and advisory services for SaaS and other online businesses. They’ve completed hundreds of millions in acquisitions over the years. If you own a SaaS or any small business, this is an episode you’re going to want to listen to in full. We talk about what potential buyers look for in companies, how companies can increase their valuation, the acquisition process in ...
Nov 19, 2018•48 min•Ep. 30
In today’s episode, I'm speaking with Laura Roeder, the founder and CEO of MeetEdgar. MeetEdgar helps professionals and small businesses manage their content and promote it on social media. Laura founded MeetEdgar in 2014. In less than 4 years, they’ve grown to over $4 million in annual recurring revenue, all while being fully remote, and bootstrapped, which is absolutely incredible. We dive into a lot of different topics, including how she grew to $100k MRR in less than 12 months, her bootstrap...
Nov 12, 2018•34 min•Ep. 29
You marketed your product, your sales team pitched the product to a prospective client, had a few follow up meetings, and finally closed the sale! Congratulations, the client is in the door! Now the hard work begins… NOT to take anything away from those in sales – in fact, sales is the most important department in business, in my opinion. Without sales, companies slow down, flatten out and eventually die. No matter what turmoil a company is going through, in almost all cases, sales will help sol...
Nov 06, 2018•6 min•Ep. 28
I'm chatting with Foti Panagio, the founder of growthmentor.io, a platform where you can get advice and mentorship from vetted experts. We're talking about the challenges of a double-sided marketplace, how he plans on growing his startup, marketing opportunities, and much more. This was a very fun and insightful chat, with a lot of great takeaways. Enjoy! Visit growthmentor.io to learn more. Music by sifer2424...
Oct 29, 2018•35 min•Ep. 27
One of the most important topics in SaaS that isn’t too often covered, is the dunning process. For those who might not be familiar with dunning, it’s the process of communicating with customers that are past due, to collect payments before their accounts get cancelled or closed. Dunning is usually a structured automated process whose form of communication is email or sms. For SaaS companies with a large number of customers, dunning is a crucial process with several benefits, including revenue re...
Oct 12, 2018•7 min•Ep. 26
For the first six years, we ran our company out of offices. We’ve experienced everything you could out of an office, from expanding into bigger spaces, growing the team, launching products, hitting milestones, etc. For the past two years, we decided to make the drastic switch and ditch the office to become a fully remote company. After comparing the two experiences, I can confidently say that there are clear overall company benefits of working remote. Although everything about working remotely i...
Oct 03, 2018•6 min•Ep. 25
Since I started being more active on social media, many people have been asking me “why do you blog and podcast?”. My answer is an important lesson that I think several people can get value from. First, one of my jobs in running a SaaS company, is developing strategy. A lot of my own strategy and thought-process is done through writing. I’ve been writing for several years now. It helps me absorb my thoughts and understand topics and situations I’m thinking about, a lot better. Personally, I need...
Sep 19, 2018•4 min•Ep. 24
I recently attended a live podcast panel discussion in Toronto, hosted by Drift. The main focus on the discussion was on marketing, specifically branding. The topics really resonated with me in my current journey and stage with Web4Realty. In most cases, startups don’t think about branding in the early days. The early days are all about the grind- selling, gaining traction, building out your team, looking for efficiencies in your processes, and more selling. Assuming you execute on those above i...
Sep 11, 2018•5 min•Ep. 23
There are very few things that can make me lose sleep at night. One of those things are negative reviews. Although negative reviews in our company are very rare, they always sting- really, really bad. Each negative review is even worse than the last. Reading a bad review feels like getting punched in the gut. Negative reviews suck, and they always will. However, negative reviews are inevitable. As much as you strive to be the best at what you do, and consistently improve the level of service to ...
Sep 04, 2018•6 min•Ep. 22
A common question I get asked is “what do you do at work every day?”. What is a very simple response for most people, is actually one of the most difficult questions for me to answer. I get asked that question often because we’re a remote company and I work from home, which is a new concept to most people. From an outside perspective, it probably appears like I do nothing all day, and that I’m living the life, which couldn’t be further from the truth. I try and answer the question by processing ...
Aug 27, 2018•7 min•Ep. 21
When you’re several years deep into your startup and becoming more mature as a company, it’s very easy to lose sight of what got you to where you are – your early clients. The clients you acquire in the first two years of business, are all taking a chance on you. They know you’re a startup and anticipating issues, yet for some reason, they’re giving you their business. They’re investing their time and resources into your service, and hoping you succeed to see a return on their investment. Those ...
Aug 21, 2018•5 min•Ep. 20
2018 has definitely been our most active year in terms of hiring, by far. An important metric to look at as your company scales, is revenue per employee (how much money you make per employee). This is a great indicator to show how efficiently your company is growing. Total Revenue / # of Employees = Revenue per Employee A good employee should be an asset to your company. Just like any asset, they should be making you money (or saving you time, which is also money). If your team is growing, and y...
Aug 14, 2018•3 min•Ep. 19
Throughout the years of managing a growing team, there are a number of observations you start to make and situations that arise that get you thinking about people, in general. When your company‘s headcount starts growing, you naturally start observing character traits, mindset, and psychology of people, among many other things. One of those thoughts is the question of work ethic versus skill. When you’re in a dynamic startup-type environment, there are several ups and downs which can expose the ...
Aug 07, 2018•4 min•Ep. 18
A topic that has gathered my attention a lot lately, is marketing. Marketing is a much more diverse and complex subject than people realize, and all ties back to understanding human behaviour. One can argue that humans have changed more in the last 10-15 years than in any other time in history. The simple reason for this change is the invention of the smartphone. Mobile devices have changed the way people communicate, connect with each other, create relationships, and consume information. A rece...
Jul 30, 2018•4 min•Ep. 17
Remote companies and company culture usually don’t go hand in hand. When you think company culture, the thoughts usually consist of an open office environment, daily huddles, a nice lunch area to hang with your co-workers, cool boardrooms, and of course the company ping-pong table. When we took our company remote, we didn’t really know what to expect. As with most of our business decisions, we usually use our instinct and do what feels right. This decision was no different. Going remote definite...
Jul 25, 2018•5 min•Ep. 16
Some people are born with certain skills and intuitions that come naturally. There are no guides, rules, or courses for managing cash flows in a small business. Although there are certain things anyone can do to help with cash flow, the majority of it is through intuition and deep understanding of the business. I also believe it would be very difficult to train someone to manage cash flow successfully. Below are 10 tips on how to better manage cash flow, in no particular order. Keep in mind, tha...
Jul 17, 2018•5 min•Ep. 15
Since day one, we’ve always preached that our company’s bread-and-butter was our customer support. That sentiment holds true, nearly eight years later. The evolution of our company’s support department has been one of the most challenging to execute, and the most rewarding. In a very competitive industry, one of the differentiating factors you can provide your clients is amazing customer service. If it’s relatively easy for clients to move to another provider, going above and beyond and providin...
Jul 09, 2018•6 min•Ep. 14
I’m sure everyone knows about the classic 3:1 LTV CAC ratio that all SaaS folks should strive for. Just a reminder, LTV is the lifetime value of a client (the amount of money a client will pay you in their lifetime). CAC is the customer acquisition cost (the amount of money you spend to acquire a new customer). You can read more about these SaaS metrics and more, here . Let’s use a very simple example to put this ratio into perspective. Take the data below: —– Current LTV: $1000, New customers i...
Jul 02, 2018•3 min•Ep. 13
The lifeline of nearly any business starts and ends with those who pay your bills – your clients. Unfortunately, most people view client support as an entry-level and basic part of a company process. That sentiment couldn’t be further from the truth. As a startup founder, having your nose to the ground and listening to your clients, will tell you how your business is doing, foresee where it’s heading, learn what your clients want, and understand how you’re perceived as a company. Client support ...
Jun 25, 2018•3 min•Ep. 12
Think about the effort and thought you put into your sales and marketing process. From refining your sales pitch, creating sales material, content marketing, social media, etc. As important as it is to be able to effectively market and sell your product/service to potential clients, it’s equally as important to be able to sell your company to potential new team members. It’s very tough for a new company to attract and retain quality talent. Unless you’re a big name like Facebook, Google or Amazo...
Jun 18, 2018•4 min•Ep. 11
If you were looking for some secret sauce to starting a SaaS with no money, I hate to break it to you, but that doesn’t exist. If you aren’t ready to hustle, put in the time and work, make sacrifices, and be fully dedicated, than you should probably take the conventional route and seek funding right away. We started and grew our SaaS with $0. No angel money, no seed rounds, no money from parents/family, no bank loans. Nothing. Just a few bucks in savings, and good old fashioned revenue financing...
Jun 11, 2018•5 min•Ep. 10
We started our SaaS near the beginning of a tech-craze in 2008-09, where a lot of big companies and apps were popping up that were starting to kill it. These companies included Airbnb, Tumblr, Spotify and Groupon, to name a few. During these years, I noticed a peculiar trend that was happening. There were several companies who weren’t focusing on making money and being profitable. Instead, their focus was on pitching to investors and securing that seed or venture round. At that time, it was almo...
Jun 05, 2018•4 min•Ep. 9
It’s very easy to get complacent in any business, especially when things are going smoothly. When you’re getting a nice stable paycheck, business is growing steadily and you’re living a good lifestyle, it’s very easy to take a back seat and get comfortable. If you’re ever feeling too much of this, you should be very worried. This is when you should snap out of it, and get in serious grind mode. These are the moments when you have to start thinking about escalating your business, breaking into th...
May 28, 2018•2 min•Ep. 8
