The Scale Up Show - podcast cover

The Scale Up Show

Ryan Staleyryanstaley.io

How do you grow like a VC-backed SAAS company without taking on investors? What are the secrets that SAAS CEOs have that the rest of us don't? Do you want to create a lifestyle business, a performance business, or an empire?  How do you scale to an exit without losing your freedom?


Join the host Ryan Staley every Monday and Wednesday for conversations with the brightest and best SAAS Founders, CEOs, and Entrepreneurs to crack the code on repeatable revenue growth, leadership, lifestyle freedom and mindset.

This show has featured Startup and Billion Dollar Founders, Best Selling Authors, and the World’s Top Sales and Marketing Experts like Terry Jones (Founder of Travelocity and Chairman of Kayak), Gina Bianchini (Founder of Mighty Networks and prior Co-Founder with Marc Andreessen) and Harpaul Sambhi (Founder of Magical with a previous exit to Linkedin). This is where Scaling and Sales are made simple in 25 minutes or less.

Saas, Saas growth, Scale, Business Growth, B2b Saas, Saas Sales, Enterprise Saas, Sales, Business growth strategy, Founder, VP of Sales, CRO, Chief Revenue Officer, Technology, Leadership, CEO, Management, Hyper-Growth.

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Episodes

Utilizing Diversification to go from $10m to $100m with Subbu Viswanathan co-founder and CEO of Disprz

Ryan is joined in this episode by Subbu Viswanathan, co-founder and CEO of Disprz, a learning, upskilling and talent mobility platform. Subbu shares how Disprz helps enterprises get their workforce ready for current and future roles through their suite of products tailored to different levels of digital maturity. He provides insights into Disprz's unique go-to-market strategy of early international expansion across 4 continents, as well as the frameworks and AI they leverage to quantify skills d...

Oct 11, 202335 min

How to 3x Your Top Performers with AI (with Rob Jeppsen)

Ryan talks with sales expert Rob Jeppsen about how AI can help sales leaders and their teams boost productivity and performance. They share how AI tools like ChatGPT can take care of time-consuming tasks and free up salespeople to focus on their strengths, providing examples of how to leverage AI for research, prospecting, presentations, and more. Ryan emphasizes that AI is here now and adopting it early creates a huge advantage. Join 2,500+ readers getting weekly practical guidance to scale the...

Oct 09, 202344 min

Algorithms to Outcomes: How does AI Enable Business Results

Get on the List Today: https://www.aiforrevenue.com/sale-ai-accelerator-hom e Ryan talks to you in this episode about why you can no longer afford to ignore the power of AI for business, including how you can increase your volume of work by 20% alongside increasing quality by 40%! Join 2,500+ readers getting weekly practical guidance to scale themselves and their companies using Artificial Intelligence and Revenue Cheat Codes. Explore becoming Superhuman here: https://superhumanrevenue.beehiiv.c...

Oct 04, 202317 min

Can You Save 40-80 Hours a Month Using AI?

Get on the List Today: https://www.aiforrevenue.com/salesai We’re all being told to switch to AI, but what could this mean in real terms for your business? Join Ryan as he outlines the ways AI could save you up to 80 hours a month and give you time back to focus on sales and other high-value tasks. Join 2,500+ readers getting weekly practical guidance to scale themselves and their companies using Artificial Intelligence and Revenue Cheat Codes. Explore becoming Superhuman here: https://superhuma...

Oct 02, 202314 min

How to be Better Than 99% of Your Peers at Using AI

Get on the List Today: https://www.aiforrevenue.com/salesai Ryan talks about how to leverage AI to skyrocket productivity and get an edge over the competition. He shares the reasons why many sales leaders are lagging behind and explains how to implement an “anti-fragile” sales process through AI for quick wins. Ryan also provides a step-by-step guide for prompts, frameworks, goal setting, and continuous learning. Ryan stresses that ignoring AI means volunteering for extinction, as it is evolving...

Sep 26, 202318 min

Will 30% of Sales Jobs Get Automated in The Next 12 Months?

Get on the List Today: https://www.aiforrevenue.com/salesai This episode discusses how sales roles could be impacted by AI automation in the next 12 months. Ryan explains how tools like Google Duplex demonstrate the rapid advancement of AI in mimicking human conversations. He warns that 30% of sales jobs could get eliminated due to AI's ability to automate communication and data analysis. However, Ryan offers solutions - take a personal audit of automatable tasks, understand the AI landscape, ta...

Sep 24, 202315 min

The Future of Marketing in an AI World with Shay Howe of ActiveCampaign

Join Ryan as he interviews Shay Howe, CMO of ActiveCampaign to talk about all things AI in growth and marketing. Shay shares what he would focus on if creating a start-up now: identifying market demand, building owned channels, and leveraging AI for content generation and research. With uncertainty around algorithms and paid media, he emphasizes product-led growth and referrals as key strategies. Shay provides examples of how ActiveCampaign uses AI for attribution insights and highlights the imp...

Sep 19, 202335 min

From $0 to $8M ARR: Stefan Smulders of Expandi on Growth Marketing

Ryan interviews Stefan Smulders, founder and chief strategy officer of Expandi, a LinkedIn automation SaaS company. Stefan shares how he bootstrapped Expandi to $8 million in ARR in just 4 years through relentless hustling, including doing over 700 product demos in the first 3 months. He emphasizes the power of inbound marketing through valuable content creation, building a personal brand with his face on it, and capturing leads into a tight community. Stefan also stresses the importance of focu...

Sep 17, 202337 min

Scaling a Remote Company to Nearly Unicorn Status with Ori Keren of Linear B

Ryan is joined in this episode by Ori Keren, founder and CEO of LinearB, a software delivery management company nearing unicorn status. Ori shares how he and his co-founder built the company remotely, him in Tel Aviv and his partner in California. He outlines LinearB's growth strategy of focusing on the mid-market before expanding to enterprise. Ori stresses the importance of constantly evolving based on customer feedback. He also discusses key challenges around scaling the company efficiently a...

Sep 13, 202331 min

From Family Business to Bootstrapping $5million SaaS Titan with Greg Rich of Vivantio

Ryan interviews Greg Rich, CEO of Vivantio, a SaaS company providing service management solutions. Greg started working in customer service at age 13 in his family's business and co-founded Vivantio in the early 2000s to fill a gap in the market for cloud-based service management software. Greg talks about keeping up with rapid advancements in AI and using it to improve customer experiences. He shares how Vivantio scaled from nothing to $5 million in ARR through channel partnerships, expanding t...

Sep 10, 202325 min

How to Make Your Company Investable with Harpinder Singh - Innovation Partners

Two-time founder and current VC investor Harpinder (Harpi) Singh joins Ryan in this episode. His firm, Innovation Endeavors was co-founded by the CEO of Google Eric Schmidt and they have invested in many companies including Uber. Harpi gives the interesting insights he has gained at a macro level of the start-up scene and talks about what you can do to make yourself more attractive for funding in the current climate. If you are looking at funding or just want to know what’s happening in the star...

Sep 05, 202332 min

Bootstrapping to $10 Million with Customer-Centric Processes with Dmitri Adler of Data Society

Dmitri Adler is the cofounder of Data Society which is an award-winning AI software and engineering firm serving the enterprise and service sectors. Data Society is one of Ink 5000 fastest growing companies and also one of the top ten ed-tech companies identified by Forbes! They bootstrapped themselves to $10 million using process-driven customer service and AI. Dmitri joins Ryan to discuss how they have achieved all of this and specifically highlights how to collect relevant data and the import...

Sep 03, 202333 min

Using AI to Power Your Processes with Three-Time Founder Vinay Patankar of Process Street

Vinay Patankar is a three-time founder, including Process Street, an AI-powered process management platform that started with a workflow product. Vinay shares his experience of being a digital nomad for 10 years and how it inspired him to create Process Street. Ryan and Vinay also talk about the democratization of AI and the biggest value they think it will add to businesses. Join 2,500+ readers getting weekly practical guidance to scale themselves and their companies using Artificial Intelligen...

Aug 30, 202333 min

What’s the Best Way to Bootstrap a Company To $10 Million ARR with Lloyed Lobo Boast AI

Lloyed Lobo is the founder of Boast AI. He scaled from zero to $10mil+ and all with no investment! Lloyed created an entire community, utilizing this community for growth and now has written a book about it. He talks to Ryan about how you can grow and lead a movement from scratch and then leverage it for your next opportunity and gives an amazing breakdown of how to bootstrap your way through building a business, avoiding giving up your freedom and equity to investors. Grab LLoyed's entire GTM c...

Aug 27, 202350 min

Building an Effective AI Moat with 4x Founder Gaurav Oberoi CEO of Lexion.ai

Gaurav Oberoi is the CEO and co-founder of Lexion.ai, a generative AI in the legal space. He is a 4x founder and was also a former VP of Product and survey monkey. Gaurav joins Ryan to talk about how to tactically create a mode with AI, how to get the best product market fit and the importance of time to value and demonstrating high-value ROI early on. Join 2,500+ readers getting weekly practical guidance to scale themselves and their companies using Artificial Intelligence and Revenue Cheat Cod...

Aug 23, 202329 min

Generating 38x ROI via AI with Matthew Tillman CEO of OpenEnvoy

Matthew Tillman is the CEO of OpenEnvoy and has worked in the machine-learning space for over 20 years. Matthew talks to Ryan about how he built his solution to generate 38x ROI for his customers, where to spend your time in your start-up as well as machine learning and the role of AI in reimagining what is possible. Join 2,500+ readers getting weekly practical guidance to scale themselves and their companies using Artificial Intelligence and Revenue Cheat Codes. Explore becoming Superhuman here...

Aug 20, 202338 min

Solving the Pipeline Gap Problem with Jason Smith CEO of Klue

Jason Smith is the CEO and co-founder of Klue, a five-time entrepreneur, Jason took a year off to travel with his family, recognising the importance of dedicated time and renewed focus. Jason talks to Ryan about his unique approach to handling and solving the pipeline gap problem as well as the things he has learnt in his entrepreneurship journey and what he will be focusing on in the future. Join 2,500+ readers getting weekly practical guidance to scale themselves and their companies using Arti...

Aug 16, 202333 min

How to Hit $70 Million by Measuring Culture & Performance with Ryan Wedig CEO of Vasion

Ryan Wedig is the CEO and founder of Vasion who went from $0 to $70 million in just 7 years! Ryan opens up and works through his execution strategy, including the mistakes he made and what he would do differently if he had his time again as well as the key indicators he uses to measure performance. Join 2,500+ readers getting weekly practical guidance to scale themselves and their companies using Artificial Intelligence and Revenue Cheat Codes. Explore becoming Superhuman here: https://superhuma...

Aug 13, 202336 min

Are You Making This Go-To-Market Mistake in Your Business? with Laurent De Grauwe - Microsoft

Laurent De Grauwe, a sales and marketing executive for over 20 years, joins Ryan in this episode to give interesting perspectives on the world of AI, tools and go-to-market strategies and teams. Laurent's unique perspectives are based on his breadth of knowledge gained from working at Microsoft as well as with start-ups. Laurent talks about how go-to-market is a team sport and the importance of remaining customer-centric and authentic in your approach. He also defines concepts from his point of ...

Aug 08, 202327 min

Creating Outcome Based Product Development with Amrit Robbins of Axiom Cloud Inc

Amrit Robbins is the CEO of Axiom Cloud Inc, his newest start-up which he transformed from a previously failing start-up, whilst retaining its investors customers and employees! Amrit talks through his framework for creating a product based on the outcome, why and how technology and product development can create a high impact as well as the value businesses can deliver without AI. KEY TAKEAWAYS Ask questions is core to Axiom Cloud's client strategy, gaining an understanding of who the key stake...

Aug 06, 202332 min

Webex CEO to Serial Start-Up Founder with Doug Dennerline of Betterworks

In this episode, Ryan is joined by an individual with possibly the deepest and richest background of anyone he has ever interviewed! Doug Dennerline originally started out in Silicon Valley back in 1982 at HP, he then worked his way to becoming the CEO of Cisco and took it from 400 sales reps to 6000 with a 9.8 billion dollar budget. After this, Dough was the CEO of Webex before founding and selling his first start-up and now is onto his newest start-up called Betterworks which is reinventing th...

Aug 01, 202332 min

Managing the Disruptive Nature of AI to Your Advantage with Tania Zapata of Bunny Studios

Tania is the CEO and founder of Bunny Studios, her second start-up after successfully exiting her first company. Tania has been doing some really amazing things in her niche, including creating a marketplace through Bunny Studios and the way she is managing AI disrupting her space. Tania and Ryan talk in-depth about the creation of Tania’s companies as well as how AI is disrupting the business world, Tania’s approach to it and how you can handle the related challenges and barriers in your busine...

Jul 30, 202328 min

Democratizing the World of Investment with Bob Elliott CEO of Unlimited

Bob Elliott previously worked with Ray Dalio for 14 years, and was the head of his investment committee and was also involved in creating the largest hedge fund in the world with over 100 Billion Dollars! Bob recently co-founded the charity GiveWell and is now the co-founder and CEO of Unlimited, an investment start-up that uses propriety tech for alternative investments to give access to all. He joins Ryan to talk about what drove him to create such a company, the things he has learnt from his ...

Jul 25, 202332 min

How I Sold My Company to Twitter for $65million with Pete Hunt of Elementl

Ryan is joined by Pete Hunt, who has worked at two of the biggest tech giants in the world, both Facebook and Twitter. Pete talks about everything from meetings with Mark Zuckerburg, to how he created a high valuation to sell his previous company, to how he has built a company to revolutionize the way we harness the power of data. Pete also talks through his thoughts on threads as a product, the differences between working at Facebook and Twitter, the reliability of AI and his number one piece o...

Jul 23, 202338 min

Prove Your Monetization Strategy First with Joe Baffone of Annexus Health

Joe Baffone is the founder and CEO of Annexus Health, who provide tech enabled services to manage health and life science services. Joe talks to Ryan about his unique business model and why taking two years to identify their monetization strategy before product building was one of the best decisions they made. Joe also talks about the rest of his business journey including unique insights on networking and systematic ways to build your business. KEY TAKEAWAYS Like many of us, people Joe loves we...

Jul 18, 202327 min

3 Opportunities with AI

The world is going through yet another major change in humanity as AI starts to infiltrate every aspect and area of our lives. Ryan wants to begin to share what he is up to around the progression of AI and share the knowledge and expertise he is gaining with his audience so you can benefit from everything he has learnt, and is still learning, about AI. KEY TAKEAWAYS Ryan has had an MVP created for an AI product, he decided now is the time for him to serve the market in this way You’re able to co...

Jul 16, 20237 min

AI and Machine Learning to Transform Your Workforce with Kian Katanforoosh CEO and Founder of Workera

Kian is the CEO and founder of a groundbreaking platform with AI skills assessment, Workera. Kian is also a lecturer and has created some of the most popular courses on AI and machine learning with over 3k views per video! Kian joins Ryan to talk about how AI intersects with learning and development and its role in helping workforce transformation; from employee skillset management to mentorship. KEY TAKEAWAYS Workera’s key method for customer acquisition has mostly been via outbound sales Worke...

Jul 11, 202332 min

Creating Half a Billion Valuation in Less than Three Years with Akash Magoon Adonis

Akash is the co-founder and CEO of Adonis, he has also helped multiple companies create over 100 million dollars in valuations! Akash joins Ryan to go in-depth on how to build a company from the ground up and create a great product market fit in record time. Akash comes from a software engineering and machine learning background and has spent a lot of time building software in healthcare, he talks about his journey to building Adonis, how they have achieved a 5% market share in a year and his st...

Jul 09, 202334 min

Choosing Happiness over Being a CEO with Aviv Grafi founder of Votiro

Aviv Grafi is the founder of Votiro. Aviv bootstrapped the company for four years, becoming it’s CEO. He joins Ryan to talk about his journey and why he decided to make the difficult decision to step down as CEO. He also talks about how to make yourself happy in business, his emotional journey to stepping down to a CTO role and the importance of prioritising yourself as well as the implication for AI in the enterprise and cyber security space. KEY TAKEAWAYS Votiro are now looking at how they can...

Jul 04, 202334 min

How to Transform a Sales Training Company into SaaS Company in 12 Months with Mario Martinez, CEO of Vengreso

Mario Martinez is the CEO of Vengreso and joins Ryan in this episode to talk through how he transitioned a 7-way merger sales company into a SaaS company, which he is now also taking global! Mario also talks about the evolution and future in business, SaaS and AI for the knowledge worker and the unique ways you can utilise Podcasting and LinkedIn to market and create organic leads. KEY TAKEAWAYS Vengreso focuses on a product-led growth strategy with a sales-led motion Social media influence is a...

Jul 02, 202340 min
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