Omer (00:09.440)
Welcome to another episode of the SaaS Podcast.
I'm your host, Omer Khan and this is the show where I interview proven founders and industry experts who share their stories, strategies and insights to help you build, launch and grow your SaaS business.
Episode 300.
You know I never expected to be here.
When I started in 2014, I wasn't even sure if anyone was going to listen to the podcast, but I figured that if I created episodes that I was interested in listening to myself, then there might be other people out there who would also find the content valuable.
And it turns out that there are a lot of people like you and me out there.
For this episode, I decided to do something different.
Instead of bringing on and interviewing another guest, I decided to make this episode about you, the people who listen to the show.
I asked people in the SaaS club community to share their stories.
What type of SaaS business are they building, why do they listen to the podcast and how has it been helpful for them?
So today I'm going to share eight listener stories with you.
These are founders in the early stages of building their their SaaS business and I hope that some of them will become future guests that I interview on the show.
These are entrepreneurs from all over the world building very different types of SaaS businesses, but they're all connected together through this show.
Without further ado, let me introduce you to them.
First, let's go to Krefeld, a city in western Germany where Alexander Watson and his co founders at Open Forest are building a map based platform called explorerland to help people better manage forest projects.
Even after all these years, I'm continually amazed to hear about markets where SaaS products are being used to make a difference and Explorerland is a great example of that.
Guest (02:05.950)
Hi, I'm Alexander Watson.
I'm a forester from Germany and founder of open forests.
Our SaaS product is called Explore Land.
It is a search engine for sustainable forest landscape projects and a map based project presentation tool.
Reforestation projects can use it to tell their story transparently and demonstrate their reforestation success with high resolution maps.
When we started out three years ago, raising money for tree planting has been easy projects did not need additional transparency.
We thought we had a good product, but only very few users use that.
With my two co founders we have been regularly listening and learning from your podcast just to know that we are not alone with our idea and business.
That struggling as normal has been a tremendous mental support over the years.
Today as the market of Climate Forest Project is maturing, corporate funders who for example, compensating their carbon footprint start requiring more transparency.
This year our turnover has increased by almost 400%.
So thanks Omar for constantly delivering valuable information.
Congratulations on your 300th episode.
Omer (03:29.670)
Thank you Alexander, and congratulations to you and the team as well on your recent success.
As Alexandra pointed out, many SaaS founders often feel alone and sometimes doubt themselves.
Hearing stories of other founders and entrepreneurs can be so helpful in reminding you that you're not alone.
And lots of other founders are also struggling with or have struggled with the same challenges as you.
And that's a similar experience for Nick and Hannah Ippolito, a husband and wife team based in Nelson, a city on the south island of New Zealand who are building a SaaS product called SquareKicker.
Guest (04:11.890)
Hi, we're Nick and Hannah Ippolito and together we run a company called squarekicker based out of New Zealand.
We're a small founding team with developers Rowan and Nat.
Squarekicker is an intuitive no code design and animation extension for customizing Squarespace websites.
It gives the users the ability to unlock their creativity with a fully integrated visual builder, allowing them to push beyond the limits of template designs.
Anyone from DIY builders to professional web designers can now create fast custom designs and animations without ever having to touch a single line of code.
I had the idea of squarekicker for a while and when the 2020 COVID lockdown hit New Zealand, it allowed us a spare time to get started.
When as first time founders were three young kids, we had a lot to learn in a very short time.
Podcasts became an invaluable way for us to learn.
We listened on our commute, mowing the lawns and walking the dog.
Oma's SaaS podcast became one of the most helpful resources as we grew in our roles as founders.
Sometimes it felt risky and a little lonely, but hearing the honest stories of other founders who'd faced the same challenges and doubts encouraged and inspired us.
Since launching our MVP a year ago, SquareKicker has been installed on 3,000 websites, fully bootstrapped.
We reached our first six figures and a break even MRR, allowing us to continue to push the boundaries of what's possible with no co web design so that anyone can bring their ideas to reality without complex technical barriers.
Ngamehi Nui thank you OMA and your inspiring guests.
We look forward to learning more with you as we continue this journey.
Omer (05:43.560)
Thank you Nick and Hannah and congratulations on a strong start to your SaaS business.
For many first time and early stage founders learning everything they need to know about a SaaS business can be overwhelming.
I've often heard from founders who tell me that the podcast has helped them get a world class education, which is humbling.
But more importantly, they've been able to learn what didn't work for others, so they avoided making the same mistakes.
And that's what I've heard several times from our next founder, Jared Breaux from Mandeville, Louisiana, who's building Situation Hub, a SaaS product to help companies with their crisis management.
Jared and I met through the podcast several years ago and we've become friends.
So let's hear from him.
Guest (06:29.250)
This is Jarrett Breaux and I am the founder of situationhub.com and the problem that we try to solve is when there's a crisis, companies take too long before they get information out to their stakeholders, whether it's the media, their employees, their customers, their community.
So I've invented a way to gather information quickly, confirm information quickly, and then the application automatically writes a news release and an employee statement.
And I honestly don't remember how I stumbled across the SaaS Podcast.
I am a non technical founder, but I discovered it after I found out I was a SaaS company.
I didn't even know what the acronym meant.
And it's been like getting a Master's degree or a PhD, listening to people tell us what works and what doesn't work.
I think one of the great things that omer that you do in this podcast is you don't let people get on and brag about how wonderful they are.
We all learn from the mistakes they make.
If they do something right, we learn from that also.
But that ability for us to learn from the struggles of someone else who has walked in our path is just brilliant.
So I appreciate it every day.
I've listened to almost every episode.
It's a great show and I am just so grateful that you continue to produce it.
Omer (07:53.310)
Thank you.
Jared.
My friend, when you realize that you're not alone in your struggles and that you can avoid a lot of mistakes by learning from others, it gives you more confidence to make decisions and to take action.
So let me introduce you to Maria Bovee, the co founder of TeachFloor, a cohort based courses platform that lets you create and sell online live courses under your own brand.
Originally from Europe, Maria's company is now based in San Francisco.
Guest (08:26.340)
My name is Maria Bobby and I'm from Europe.
I'm the co founder of teachlore, a platform for learning institute institutions to move their teaching online, creating code based courses to democratize education.
I Worked for years for big corporations, so this world is pretty new to me.
And listening to your podcasts made me feel normal.
I was hearing others struggling with the same issues.
A couple of podcasts in particular.
One on pricing gave me the confidence to change our pricing structure that was not working for us without feeling.
And the MAM test made me feel like I wasn't bothered selling my own product just because I didn't have all these cunning tricks to converting the needs.
But I was guided by common sense and listening to so many stories made me realize that of course there are some best practices that are super useful not to make mistakes and save money, but we can also find our way and have our own style of doing things in our companies.
We don't have to conform at all costs, which I think makes the world of startups so fascinating.
Omer (09:40.590)
Thank you, Maria.
Being able to follow your own path is so important.
We shouldn't have to change ourselves or compromise what we want to do.
So it's really encouraging to hear stories like Maria's where she's following her own path rather than conforming with what's expected of her.
We often think that there's a right and wrong way to go about building a SaaS business, and that's just not true.
I've interviewed founders who overcame a big challenge by doing things one way.
And then I have interviewed other founders who overcame exactly the same challenges by doing something completely opposite.
And that's also a lesson I heard from Simon Berry from Johannesburg in South Africa.
He's the founder of Fresh Projects, a financial management SaaS product for architects and engineering firms.
Guest (10:32.000)
Hi Omar, this is Simon berry, founder of FreshProjects.
We're based in Johannesburg, South Africa, but we do now have an office in London and customers all over the world.
We provide a project financial management tool for architects and engineers.
Architects and engineers are not very good at running businesses.
They love solving other people's problems, but they're not good at financials.
So our tool allows them to do things like project budgeting, fee calculations, track your expenses, and build your client podcast.
That's been amazing help for, for me as a solo founder outside of Silicon Valley, just to be able to learn from other people's experiences, going through exactly the same problems that we're facing and many times listen to the podcast and and have a nugget of experience in one of the from the speakers and that's exactly the same problem we were facing.
And I think what's also interesting is to see different people solve that problem or different ideas have different ideas of how that problem gets solved.
So one week at the World, one guest would say this is the way they did it and then the next guest would do something completely opposite.
And I think the other big thing that's been useful for me, and I don't know if this is intentional on your behalf, is that a lot of the guys you've interviewed are not the traditional Silicon Valley Valley idea.
Get funded, grow massively faster.
I know there were a few of those, but for me it was a lot of ex Silicon Valley bootstraps, different ways of doing things.
Omer (11:56.500)
Thank you Simon.
It's great to keep learning how to build a SaaS business, but sometimes as an early stage founder you just need a little help to overcome a specific issue that you're struggling with and it's helpful to be able to get those answers quickly.
Many people have suggested that I turn the contents of the podcast into a searchable knowledge base or maybe write a book and maybe I'll get around to doing that one day.
In the meantime, it's been great to see listeners coming together and connecting with each other in the SaaS Club community to find solutions faster.
Cal Tiger from Clearwater, Florida is one of those people.
He's the founder of a mobile product called Shake and Send and the podcast was able to help him get unblocked, solve a specific problem, and keep moving forward with his business.
Guest (12:44.570)
Hi, my name is Cal Tiger, I'm based in Clearwater, Florida.
My product is called Shake and Send.
It is an IoT mobile app that uses the Accelerometer.
It is intended for job seekers, sales reps, field techs, entrepreneurs, and anyone who wants to send a PDF, a link or a URL to a client, hiring manager or angel investor or just shaking the phone.
It literally changes what we mean by an elevator pitch.
The challenge I've been dealing with is that my product is intended to be embedded in other SaaS products like HubSpot, Zoom or Microsoft Teams or Salesforce that use a PWA link.
However, being a tiny, tiny company, marketing is very challenging.
Getting in front of decision makers at big companies is also very complicated.
SaaS podcast has been very valuable in helping me to understand how SaaS products like CRMs are developed and marketed to early stage customers.
I developed a POC and got a local reporter to do an article
Omer (13:54.570)
for other founders.
The podcast has helped them both with strategy and tactics.
You want to make sure that you're pursuing the right strategy for your business as well as identifying specific tactics that can help you with execution and that's what I heard from Vignesh Ganeshan, a SaaS founder from Bangalore in India.
He's the co founder of Press9, a field service management platform that helps enterprises deliver superior customer experiences.
Guest (14:24.920)
Hi everyone, this is Vignesh from Bangalore, India.
I'm the co founder of Press9.
We are a next generation operations platform for maintenance and inspection operations.
We're a young startup in a crowded market working with customers who have traditionally been hard to reach and slow to adopt digital solutions.
Listening to the SaaS Podcast gives me two things, strategic confidence and tactical clarity.
Listening to other founders work through their ups and downs, their pivots, gives me insight into how to keep thinking about the larger picture, while at the same time the tactical nature of the podcast and its ability to drive immediate, actionable points helps me keep practically grounded.
We're not anywhere close to seven figures yet, but when we do, I'll be sure to sign up for that interview.
Omer, thanks.
Omer (15:12.160)
Thank you Vignesh.
I look forward to doing that interview one day.
And finally, the podcast is a great reminder for everyone, especially me, that we're making connections whether we realize it or not.
I've talked to a lot of founders who have listened to the podcast for a long time, and when we talk, they tell me they feel like they already know me.
One of those people is Anise Delport from Paris in France.
He's the founder of Think Tanks, an app that helps public policy leaders to develop their thought leadership.
Here's a quick note that he sent.
I don't know what I've learned in particular, but I know I've learned a lot.
It's like asking how a family member or a close friend has helped you.
I think it's difficult to answer because they're not a tool or a product or a service.
You help me to feel accompanied and you help me to be in the know about SaaS ventures in general.
Thank you very much.
Thank you Anisek.
And thank you to all the people who share their stories, Alexander, Nick and Hannah, Jared, Maria, Simon, Cal and Vignesh.
And thank you to you for listening to this podcast.
Some of you may be listening to this show for the first time, and some of you have listened to every single episode.
And to all of you, I'm grateful that you take the time to listen to this podcast.
Time is the most precious thing that we all have, and I'm truly humbled that you choose to spend some of your valuable time listening to this show.
Whatever stage you're at with your SaaS business.
I hope this podcast has helped you in some way and that it continues to help you on your journey to building a successful and profitable SaaS company.
Thank you again for your support.
