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Home/The SaaS Podcast/Episode 391
TealBook: Building an Enterprise SaaS Against All Odds
Enterprise Sales·Stephany Lapierre, TealBook

TealBook: Building an Enterprise SaaS Against All Odds

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Stephany Lapierre is the founder and CEO of TealBook, a supplier data platform that helps enterprise customers make better procurement decisions.

In 2014, Stephany launched TealBook, initially as a service where she sold $5,000 memberships to suppliers selling to enterprise customers.

However, she realized this model couldn't scale when a larger customer wanted data on hundreds of thousands of suppliers, rather than just a few hundred.

After years of bootstrapping TealBook from her living room while juggling the responsibilities of raising three children, Stephany faced a pivotal moment.

She realized she needed to transform TealBook into a software platform.

But fundraising was really tough for Stephany, mainly because investors were skeptical about her being a solo founder without a tech background.

One investor bluntly told her, "You'll never raise capital on your own. You've got three kids, a funny accent (she's French Canadian), and you've never built a tech company."

Despite these challenges and harsh feedback, Stephany rose to the occasion.

She knew she needed a strong team to get investors on board, so she found a CTO who shared her vision for TealBook and together they got to work.

By 2017, she successfully raised the funds they needed to grow the company.

Today, TealBook is a 7-figure SaaS business, with over 100 enterprise customers. The company has raised $72M in funding and grown to a team of 60 people.

This episode is part of our Enterprise Sales series.

Watch the Episode

Book Recommendations

The Four Agreements: A Practical Guide to Personal Freedom, A Toltec Wisdom Book

by Don Miguel Ruiz

Links

  • TealBook: Website | LinkedIn | X
  • Stephany Lapierre: Website | LinkedIn | X
  • Omer Khan: LinkedIn | X

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