This podcast interview focuses on the entrepreneurial journey to build deep vertical business solutions that deliver 10x value for every 1x in price charged. My guest is Dan Uyemura, CEO of Pushpress.Dan has had an entrepreneurial spirit from a young age. He was a Dot-com era pioneer: During college, he founded Mixture.com, a platform that was ahead of its time and preceded social media giants like Myspace. After working in tech, including a stint at Myspace, he made a dramatic career pivot by opening his own CrossFit gym. He quickly got frustrated with the poor software options available for gym management.So in January 2012, he leveraged his tech background to create PushPress and rebel against manual paperwork and complicated, overpriced software.Their mission: to make gym management  the easiest part of starting a fitness business.  And this inspired me, and hence I invited Dan to my podcast. We explore his journey from MySpace coder to gym owner to software entrepreneur. Dan shares his insights on what it takes to create a competitive advantage that's hard to beat. He elaborates on empathy-driven support, value-based pricing, and the "layer cake" approach that makes his SaaS products invaluable. He emphasizes the importance of focusing on customer value over traditional SaaS metrics and shares innovative strategies to outmaneuver competitors. Last but not least, he shares his data-driven decision-making framework and lessons on team building.  Here's one of his quotes"Money is an output. It's the result of energy spent somewhere else. So the problem is, a lot of people build those businesses around money. How do I make more money? How do I generate more money? How do I increase my top line? Or bottom line? The reality is that's an output, and you can never affect an output. You can only affect the input. And the input is the order of magnitude and the sheer volume of value you provide to customers. That's what you got to focus on." During this interview, you will learn four things:<ol>
<li>How he's tuning his product strategy to grow a highly defensible position against competitors.</li>
<li>His framework for building conviction and speeding up decision-making in feature development</li>
<li>How he overcame the balancing act of horizontal feature breadth with vertical depth improvements</li>
<li>His approach to innovating pricing models to outmaneuver competitors and accelerate growth.</li>
</ol> For more information about the guest from this week:<ul>
<li><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/danuyemura/">Dan Uyemura</a></li>
<li>Website: <a href="https://www.pushpress.com/">Pushpress</a>
</li>
</ul> Subscribe to the Daily SaaS ReflectionGet my free, 1 min daily reflection on shaping a B2B SaaS business no one can ignore. <a href="https://valueinspiration.com/daily">Subscribe here</a>Yes, it’s actually daily. And yes, people actually stay subscribed(Just see what peer B2B SaaS CEOs <a href="https://valueinspiration.com/daily">say</a>)My promise: It’s short. To the point. Inspiring. And valuable. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit <a href="https://megaphone.fm/adchoices">megaphone.fm/adchoices</a>

<description>This podcast interview focuses on the entrepreneurial journey to build deep vertical business solutions that deliver 10x value for every 1x in price charged. My guest is Dan Uyemura, CEO of Pushpress.
Dan has had an entrepreneurial spirit from a young age. He was a Dot-com era pioneer: During college, he founded Mixture.com, a platform that was ahead of its time and preceded social media giants like Myspace. 
After working in tech, including a stint at Myspace, he made a dramatic career pivot by opening his own CrossFit gym. 
He quickly got frustrated with the poor software options available for gym management.
So in January 2012, he leveraged his tech background to create PushPress and rebel against manual paperwork and complicated, overpriced software.
Their mission: to make gym management  the easiest part of starting a fitness business. 

And this inspired me, and hence I invited Dan to my podcast. We explore his journey from MySpace coder to gym owner to software entrepreneur. Dan shares his insights on what it takes to create a competitive advantage that's hard to beat. He elaborates on empathy-driven support, value-based pricing, and the "layer cake" approach that makes his SaaS products invaluable. He emphasizes the importance of focusing on customer value over traditional SaaS metrics and shares innovative strategies to outmaneuver competitors. Last but not least, he shares his data-driven decision-making framework and lessons on team building. 

Here's one of his quotes
"Money is an output. It's the result of energy spent somewhere else. So the problem is, a lot of people build those businesses around money. How do I make more money? How do I generate more money? How do I increase my top line? Or bottom line? The reality is that's an output, and you can never affect an output. You can only affect the input. And the input is the order of magnitude and the sheer volume of value you provide to customers. That's what you got to focus on."

During this interview, you will learn four things:

How he's tuning his product strategy to grow a highly defensible position against competitors.

His framework for building conviction and speeding up decision-making in feature development

How he overcame the balancing act of horizontal feature breadth with vertical depth improvements

His approach to innovating pricing models to outmaneuver competitors and accelerate growth.


For more information about the guest from this week:

Dan Uyemura

Website: Pushpress




Subscribe to the Daily SaaS Reflection
Get my free, 1 min daily reflection on shaping a B2B SaaS business no one can ignore. Subscribe here
Yes, it’s actually daily. And yes, people actually stay subscribed
(Just see what peer B2B SaaS CEOs say)
My promise: It’s short. To the point. Inspiring. And valuable.


Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices</description>

A story about leveraging deep industry knowledge to build unbeatable competitive advantage.

This podcast interview focuses on the entrepreneurial journey to build deep vertical business solutions that deliver 10x value for every 1x in price charged. My guest is Dan Uyemura, CEO of Pushpress.
Dan has had an entrepreneurial spirit from a young age. He was a Dot-com era pioneer: During college, he founded Mixture.com, a platform that was ahead of its time and preceded social media giants like Myspace. 
After working in tech, including a stint at Myspace, he made a dramatic career pivot by opening his own CrossFit gym. 
He quickly got frustrated with the poor software options available for gym management.
So in January 2012, he leveraged his tech background to create PushPress and rebel against manual paperwork and complicated, overpriced software.
Their mission: to make gym management  the easiest part of starting a fitness business. 

And this inspired me, and hence I invited Dan to my podcast. We explore his journey from MySpace coder to gym owner to software entrepreneur. Dan shares his insights on what it takes to create a competitive advantage that's hard to beat. He elaborates on empathy-driven support, value-based pricing, and the "layer cake" approach that makes his SaaS products invaluable. He emphasizes the importance of focusing on customer value over traditional SaaS metrics and shares innovative strategies to outmaneuver competitors. Last but not least, he shares his data-driven decision-making framework and lessons on team building. 

Here's one of his quotes
"Money is an output. It's the result of energy spent somewhere else. So the problem is, a lot of people build those businesses around money. How do I make more money? How do I generate more money? How do I increase my top line? Or bottom line? The reality is that's an output, and you can never affect an output. You can only affect the input. And the input is the order of magnitude and the sheer volume of value you provide to customers. That's what you got to focus on."

During this interview, you will learn four things:

How he's tuning his product strategy to grow a highly defensible position against competitors.

His framework for building conviction and speeding up decision-making in feature development

How he overcame the balancing act of horizontal feature breadth with vertical depth improvements

His approach to innovating pricing models to outmaneuver competitors and accelerate growth.


For more information about the guest from this week:

Dan Uyemura

Website: Pushpress




Subscribe to the Daily SaaS Reflection
Get my free, 1 min daily reflection on shaping a B2B SaaS business no one can ignore. Subscribe here
Yes, it’s actually daily. And yes, people actually stay subscribed
(Just see what peer B2B SaaS CEOs say)
My promise: It’s short. To the point. Inspiring. And valuable.


Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

#337 - Dan Uyemura, CEO of Pushpress - on Vertical SaaS differentiation

This podcast interview focuses on the entrepreneurial journey to democratize political data and anticipate regulatory changes. My guest is Victor Kristof, Co-founder and CEO of DemoSquare. Victor is a fascinating individual with a unique blend of academic excellence, entrepreneurial spirit, and a passion for leveraging technology to enhance democratic processes.He holds a Ph.D. in Machine Learning from Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne, where he developed algorithms and statistical models to study human behavior within social and political systems.That research became the foundational idea behind DemoSquare, a SaaS startup he co-founded in November 2022. Their mission: to "democratize democracy" by making political and regulatory data more transparent and accessible with artificial intelligence.It will change how companies and their public affairs teams navigate the complex world of politics and regulation and, potentially, how citizens engage with democracy.And this inspired me, and hence I invited Victor to my podcast. We explore the journey of transforming academic research into a change-making political data platform. Kristof shares his lessons learned by doing customer interviews and pivoting in the right direction. He highlights the value of sharing ideas openly, adapting to constant change, and maintaining resilience in the face of rejection. Last but not least, he offers practical advice on investor relationships, sales strategies, and personal stress management.  Here's one of his quotesI've heard several times people saying, "I have this super cool idea. I don't want to share it with anyone until I do it. I had the complete opposite experience. Even when it wasn't completely ready, we were not selling it, just talking about it to people, not even in a professional or formal context. You go to a party, you go to a family gathering, and you meet with some friends. You just share your ideas and see what's happening. The most important feedback I got came from these informal discussions. I cannot count how many introductions to potential customers I've gotten through these informal discussions. During this interview, you will learn four things:<ol>
<li>How to gather feedback and validate your idea - and use both positive and negative feedback to refine (or even pivot) your product.</li>
<li>How finding the right co-founder can have a multiplicative effect on your business.</li>
<li>How to stay resilient in the Face of Rejection from both customers and investors.</li>
<li>What to look for to select investors who will make a difference for your business. </li>
</ol> For more information about the guest from this week:<ul>
<li><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/victorkristof/">Victor Kristof</a></li>
<li>Website: <a href="https://demosquare.ch/en/landing/">DemoSquare</a>
</li>
</ul> Subscribe to the Daily SaaS ReflectionGet my free, 1 min daily reflection on shaping a B2B SaaS business no one can ignore. <a href="https://valueinspiration.com/daily">Subscribe here</a>Yes, it’s actually daily. And yes, people actually stay subscribed(Just see what peer B2B SaaS CEOs <a href="https://valueinspiration.com/daily">say</a>)My promise: It’s short. To the point. Inspiring. And valuable. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit <a href="https://megaphone.fm/adchoices">megaphone.fm/adchoices</a>

<description>This podcast interview focuses on the entrepreneurial journey to democratize political data and anticipate regulatory changes. My guest is Victor Kristof, Co-founder and CEO of DemoSquare. 
Victor is a fascinating individual with a unique blend of academic excellence, entrepreneurial spirit, and a passion for leveraging technology to enhance democratic processes.
He holds a Ph.D. in Machine Learning from Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne, where he developed algorithms and statistical models to study human behavior within social and political systems.
That research became the foundational idea behind DemoSquare, a SaaS startup he co-founded in November 2022. 
Their mission: to "democratize democracy" by making political and regulatory data more transparent and accessible with artificial intelligence.
It will change how companies and their public affairs teams navigate the complex world of politics and regulation and, potentially, how citizens engage with democracy.
And this inspired me, and hence I invited Victor to my podcast. We explore the journey of transforming academic research into a change-making political data platform. Kristof shares his lessons learned by doing customer interviews and pivoting in the right direction. He highlights the value of sharing ideas openly, adapting to constant change, and maintaining resilience in the face of rejection. Last but not least, he offers practical advice on investor relationships, sales strategies, and personal stress management. 

Here's one of his quotes
I've heard several times people saying, "I have this super cool idea. I don't want to share it with anyone until I do it. I had the complete opposite experience. Even when it wasn't completely ready, we were not selling it, just talking about it to people, not even in a professional or formal context. You go to a party, you go to a family gathering, and you meet with some friends. You just share your ideas and see what's happening. The most important feedback I got came from these informal discussions. I cannot count how many introductions to potential customers I've gotten through these informal discussions.

During this interview, you will learn four things:

How to gather feedback and validate your idea - and use both positive and negative feedback to refine (or even pivot) your product.

How finding the right co-founder can have a multiplicative effect on your business.

How to stay resilient in the Face of Rejection from both customers and investors.

What to look for to select investors who will make a difference for your business. 


For more information about the guest from this week:

Victor Kristof

Website: DemoSquare




Subscribe to the Daily SaaS Reflection
Get my free, 1 min daily reflection on shaping a B2B SaaS business no one can ignore. Subscribe here
Yes, it’s actually daily. And yes, people actually stay subscribed
(Just see what peer B2B SaaS CEOs say)
My promise: It’s short. To the point. Inspiring. And valuable.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices</description>

A story about navigating challenges, pivoting ideas, and building resilience in the B2B SaaS world.

This podcast interview focuses on the entrepreneurial journey to democratize political data and anticipate regulatory changes. My guest is Victor Kristof, Co-founder and CEO of DemoSquare. 
Victor is a fascinating individual with a unique blend of academic excellence, entrepreneurial spirit, and a passion for leveraging technology to enhance democratic processes.
He holds a Ph.D. in Machine Learning from Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne, where he developed algorithms and statistical models to study human behavior within social and political systems.
That research became the foundational idea behind DemoSquare, a SaaS startup he co-founded in November 2022. 
Their mission: to "democratize democracy" by making political and regulatory data more transparent and accessible with artificial intelligence.
It will change how companies and their public affairs teams navigate the complex world of politics and regulation and, potentially, how citizens engage with democracy.
And this inspired me, and hence I invited Victor to my podcast. We explore the journey of transforming academic research into a change-making political data platform. Kristof shares his lessons learned by doing customer interviews and pivoting in the right direction. He highlights the value of sharing ideas openly, adapting to constant change, and maintaining resilience in the face of rejection. Last but not least, he offers practical advice on investor relationships, sales strategies, and personal stress management. 

Here's one of his quotes
I've heard several times people saying, "I have this super cool idea. I don't want to share it with anyone until I do it. I had the complete opposite experience. Even when it wasn't completely ready, we were not selling it, just talking about it to people, not even in a professional or formal context. You go to a party, you go to a family gathering, and you meet with some friends. You just share your ideas and see what's happening. The most important feedback I got came from these informal discussions. I cannot count how many introductions to potential customers I've gotten through these informal discussions.

During this interview, you will learn four things:

How to gather feedback and validate your idea - and use both positive and negative feedback to refine (or even pivot) your product.

How finding the right co-founder can have a multiplicative effect on your business.

How to stay resilient in the Face of Rejection from both customers and investors.

What to look for to select investors who will make a difference for your business. 


For more information about the guest from this week:

Victor Kristof

Website: DemoSquare




Subscribe to the Daily SaaS Reflection
Get my free, 1 min daily reflection on shaping a B2B SaaS business no one can ignore. Subscribe here
Yes, it’s actually daily. And yes, people actually stay subscribed
(Just see what peer B2B SaaS CEOs say)
My promise: It’s short. To the point. Inspiring. And valuable.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

#336 - Victor Kristof, CEO of DemoSquare - on resilient customer-driven innovation.

This podcast interview focuses on the entrepreneurial journey to help all of us to have conversations that drive action and meaningful connections. My guest is Joaquim Lecha, CEO of Typeform. Joaquim (Kim) is a tech entrepreneur on a big mission, bringing over 20 years of experience in high-growth companies. He started his career in M&amp;A, strategy, and financial advisory. In 2012 he joined the tech world as the CFO of Socialpoint, a world-renowned mobile game developer, later taking on the role of Chief Operating Officer. In 2018 he joined Typeform as Chief Operating Officer and quickly rose to become the CEO. Their mission: to create a world where conversations drive action and meaningful connections.  Under his leadership, Typeform has grown impressively (+$1B valuation), now serving well over 150,000 paying customers worldwide and achieving profitability. He recently got recognized as one of the Top 50 SaaS CEOs of 2023 by The Software Report. This inspired me, so I invited Joachim to my podcast. We explore what it takes to profitably scale a SaaS business as it experiences rapid growth. He discusses what fueled their initial growth and what strategic changes he had to make to ensure growth won't stall. Last but not least he offers practical wisdom on product development, customer-centric innovation, and maintaining resilience in the face of challenges. Here's one of his quotes I was coming from games. I had not heard from those types of products so many times the word 'Love'. People love Typeform. So my most immediate reaction to all of that is, how can we make more people aware of this great product?  And I even thought, since I come from a financial type of background; 'if we can find that scalable with quick feedback loop type of motion, and in addition to that, it's got a less than 12 month payback period. Then we can fund it.' So with that in mind, we got to work. We grew our customer base by 2.5x and our revenue by almost 4x. During this interview, you will learn four things:<ol>
<li>How to ensure your pricing reflects the true value your product provides to customers - so you don't undervalue your offering.</li>
<li>How to choose marketing and sales approaches that can bring in thousands of new customers and provide quick feedback loops.</li>
<li>How he found a segment in the market where Typeform provided the most value - and what that meant to their growth trajectory..</li>
<li>What to focus operations and hiring strategy on - if you aim to create a sustainable, resilient, and easily scalable business over time.</li>
</ol> For more information about the guest from this week:<ul>
<li><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/joaquim-lecha-040136/">Joaquim Lecha</a></li>
<li>Website: <a href="https://www.typeform.com/">Typeform</a>
</li>
</ul> Subscribe to the Daily SaaS ReflectionGet my free, 1 min daily reflection on shaping a B2B SaaS business no one can ignore. <a href="https://valueinspiration.com/daily">Subscribe here</a>Yes, it’s actually daily. And yes, people actually stay subscribed(Just see what peer B2B SaaS CEOs <a href="https://valueinspiration.com/daily">say</a>) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit <a href="https://megaphone.fm/adchoices">megaphone.fm/adchoices</a>

<description>This podcast interview focuses on the entrepreneurial journey to help all of us to have conversations that drive action and meaningful connections. 
My guest is Joaquim Lecha, CEO of Typeform.
 
Joaquim (Kim) is a tech entrepreneur on a big mission, bringing over 20 years of experience in high-growth companies. He started his career in M&amp;A, strategy, and financial advisory. In 2012 he joined the tech world as the CFO of Socialpoint, a world-renowned mobile game developer, later taking on the role of Chief Operating Officer.

In 2018 he joined Typeform as Chief Operating Officer and quickly rose to become the CEO. Their mission: to create a world where conversations drive action and meaningful connections. 

Under his leadership, Typeform has grown impressively (+$1B valuation), now serving well over 150,000 paying customers worldwide and achieving profitability. He recently got recognized as one of the Top 50 SaaS CEOs of 2023 by The Software Report.

This inspired me, so I invited Joachim to my podcast. We explore what it takes to profitably scale a SaaS business as it experiences rapid growth. He discusses what fueled their initial growth and what strategic changes he had to make to ensure growth won't stall. Last but not least he offers practical wisdom on product development, customer-centric innovation, and maintaining resilience in the face of challenges.

Here's one of his quotes

I was coming from games. I had not heard from those types of products so many times the word 'Love'. People love Typeform. So my most immediate reaction to all of that is, how can we make more people aware of this great product? 

And I even thought, since I come from a financial type of background; 'if we can find that scalable with quick feedback loop type of motion, and in addition to that, it's got a less than 12 month payback period. Then we can fund it.' 
So with that in mind, we got to work. We grew our customer base by 2.5x and our revenue by almost 4x.


During this interview, you will learn four things:

How to ensure your pricing reflects the true value your product provides to customers - so you don't undervalue your offering.

How to choose marketing and sales approaches that can bring in thousands of new customers and provide quick feedback loops.

How he found a segment in the market where Typeform provided the most value - and what that meant to their growth trajectory..

What to focus operations and hiring strategy on - if you aim to create a sustainable, resilient, and easily scalable business over time.


For more information about the guest from this week:

Joaquim Lecha

Website: Typeform




Subscribe to the Daily SaaS Reflection
Get my free, 1 min daily reflection on shaping a B2B SaaS business no one can ignore. Subscribe here
Yes, it’s actually daily. And yes, people actually stay subscribed
(Just see what peer B2B SaaS CEOs say)

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices</description>

A story about growing exponentially by creating solutions that give customers a competitive difference.

This podcast interview focuses on the entrepreneurial journey to help all of us to have conversations that drive action and meaningful connections. 
My guest is Joaquim Lecha, CEO of Typeform.
 
Joaquim (Kim) is a tech entrepreneur on a big mission, bringing over 20 years of experience in high-growth companies. He started his career in M&A, strategy, and financial advisory. In 2012 he joined the tech world as the CFO of Socialpoint, a world-renowned mobile game developer, later taking on the role of Chief Operating Officer.

In 2018 he joined Typeform as Chief Operating Officer and quickly rose to become the CEO. Their mission: to create a world where conversations drive action and meaningful connections. 

Under his leadership, Typeform has grown impressively (+$1B valuation), now serving well over 150,000 paying customers worldwide and achieving profitability. He recently got recognized as one of the Top 50 SaaS CEOs of 2023 by The Software Report.

This inspired me, so I invited Joachim to my podcast. We explore what it takes to profitably scale a SaaS business as it experiences rapid growth. He discusses what fueled their initial growth and what strategic changes he had to make to ensure growth won't stall. Last but not least he offers practical wisdom on product development, customer-centric innovation, and maintaining resilience in the face of challenges.

Here's one of his quotes

I was coming from games. I had not heard from those types of products so many times the word 'Love'. People love Typeform. So my most immediate reaction to all of that is, how can we make more people aware of this great product? 

And I even thought, since I come from a financial type of background; 'if we can find that scalable with quick feedback loop type of motion, and in addition to that, it's got a less than 12 month payback period. Then we can fund it.' 
So with that in mind, we got to work. We grew our customer base by 2.5x and our revenue by almost 4x.


During this interview, you will learn four things:

How to ensure your pricing reflects the true value your product provides to customers - so you don't undervalue your offering.

How to choose marketing and sales approaches that can bring in thousands of new customers and provide quick feedback loops.

How he found a segment in the market where Typeform provided the most value - and what that meant to their growth trajectory..

What to focus operations and hiring strategy on - if you aim to create a sustainable, resilient, and easily scalable business over time.


For more information about the guest from this week:

Joaquim Lecha

Website: Typeform




Subscribe to the Daily SaaS Reflection
Get my free, 1 min daily reflection on shaping a B2B SaaS business no one can ignore. Subscribe here
Yes, it’s actually daily. And yes, people actually stay subscribed
(Just see what peer B2B SaaS CEOs say)

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

#335 - Joaquim Lecha, CEO of Typeform - on creating SaaS products customers love.

This podcast interview focuses on the entrepreneurial journey to build a successful bootstrapped SaaS company in the highly competitive scheduling software market.My guest is Bridget Harris, Co-founder and CEO of You Can Book Me.Bridget has had three distinct careers, showcasing her versatility and adaptability:She started in the television and film industry. Then, transitioned to politics, serving as a political advisor focusing on constitutional reform and the House of Lords. Her political career culminated in a role as an advisor to the UK Deputy Prime Minister.Finally, she co-founded YouCanBook.Me, where she now serves as CEO.Their mission: To provide the best booking experience for businesses' clients and customers. Under Bridget's leadership, YouCanBook.Me has achieved impressive growth:The company has reached $5 million in Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR) without external funding.That route was a deliberate one. She decided from day one to avoid external funding that might have distorted business priorities, saying "I'd rather make a million dollars slowly than lose a million dollars fast",And this inspired me, and hence I invited Bridget to my podcast. We explore her bootstrapping journey over the past 12 years. She shares how she's successfully competing in a saturated market against well-funded competitors and tech giants like Google and Calendly. She elaborates on how she's maintaining a customer-centric approach while managing limited resources. Last but not least, she shares insights on how she overcame the challenges of pricing, overcoming feature bloat, refactoring legacy code, and adapting to market change. Here's one of her quotesFeature bloat is real. You can say, 'Let's be really generous about our free tool and have loads of features in the free tool.' All you're doing is confusing free users who need a really simple tool and don't want to think because they're not paying for the software. So they just literally want it to work. So if you have a problem that your free users can't contact support, it means that your free tool is more complicated than it needs to be.  During this interview, you will learn four things:<ol>
<li>How she's aligning her entire team so they deliver on time and grow an eagerness to go above and beyond. </li>
<li>What she learned from refactoring their pricing approach and the lessons nobody talks about is that </li>
<li>How to avoid feature bloat in your development process.</li>
<li>What she's doing differently to create the best customer experience. </li>
</ol> For more information about the guest from this week:<ul>
<li><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/bridgetharris/">Bridget Harris</a></li>
<li>Website: <a href="https://youcanbook.me/">You Can Book Me</a>
</li>
<li>Bootstrappers <a href="https://youcanbook.me/manual">Manual</a>
</li>
</ul> Subscribe to the Daily SaaS ReflectionGet my free, 1 min daily reflection on shaping a B2B SaaS business no one can ignore. <a href="https://valueinspiration.com/daily">Subscribe here</a>Yes, it’s actually daily. And yes, people actually stay subscribed(Just see what peer B2B SaaS CEOs <a href="https://valueinspiration.com/daily">say</a>)My promise: It’s short. To the point. Inspiring. And valuable. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit <a href="https://megaphone.fm/adchoices">megaphone.fm/adchoices</a>

<description>This podcast interview focuses on the entrepreneurial journey to build a successful bootstrapped SaaS company in the highly competitive scheduling software market.
My guest is Bridget Harris, Co-founder and CEO of You Can Book Me.
Bridget has had three distinct careers, showcasing her versatility and adaptability:
She started in the television and film industry. Then, transitioned to politics, serving as a political advisor focusing on constitutional reform and the House of Lords. Her political career culminated in a role as an advisor to the UK Deputy Prime Minister.
Finally, she co-founded YouCanBook.Me, where she now serves as CEO.
Their mission: To provide the best booking experience for businesses' clients and customers. 
Under Bridget's leadership, YouCanBook.Me has achieved impressive growth:
The company has reached $5 million in Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR) without external funding.
That route was a deliberate one. She decided from day one to avoid external funding that might have distorted business priorities, saying "I'd rather make a million dollars slowly than lose a million dollars fast",
And this inspired me, and hence I invited Bridget to my podcast. We explore her bootstrapping journey over the past 12 years. She shares how she's successfully competing in a saturated market against well-funded competitors and tech giants like Google and Calendly. She elaborates on how she's maintaining a customer-centric approach while managing limited resources. Last but not least, she shares insights on how she overcame the challenges of pricing, overcoming feature bloat, refactoring legacy code, and adapting to market change.

Here's one of her quotes
Feature bloat is real. You can say, 'Let's be really generous about our free tool and have loads of features in the free tool.' All you're doing is confusing free users who need a really simple tool and don't want to think because they're not paying for the software. So they just literally want it to work. 
So if you have a problem that your free users can't contact support, it means that your free tool is more complicated than it needs to be. 

During this interview, you will learn four things:

How she's aligning her entire team so they deliver on time and grow an eagerness to go above and beyond. 

What she learned from refactoring their pricing approach and the lessons nobody talks about is that 

How to avoid feature bloat in your development process.

What she's doing differently to create the best customer experience. 


For more information about the guest from this week:

Bridget Harris

Website: You Can Book Me


Bootstrappers Manual




Subscribe to the Daily SaaS Reflection
Get my free, 1 min daily reflection on shaping a B2B SaaS business no one can ignore. Subscribe here
Yes, it’s actually daily. And yes, people actually stay subscribed
(Just see what peer B2B SaaS CEOs say)
My promise: It’s short. To the point. Inspiring. And valuable.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices</description>

A story about what it takes to build a successful software business without being reliant on external funding. 

This podcast interview focuses on the entrepreneurial journey to build a successful bootstrapped SaaS company in the highly competitive scheduling software market.
My guest is Bridget Harris, Co-founder and CEO of You Can Book Me.
Bridget has had three distinct careers, showcasing her versatility and adaptability:
She started in the television and film industry. Then, transitioned to politics, serving as a political advisor focusing on constitutional reform and the House of Lords. Her political career culminated in a role as an advisor to the UK Deputy Prime Minister.
Finally, she co-founded YouCanBook.Me, where she now serves as CEO.
Their mission: To provide the best booking experience for businesses' clients and customers. 
Under Bridget's leadership, YouCanBook.Me has achieved impressive growth:
The company has reached $5 million in Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR) without external funding.
That route was a deliberate one. She decided from day one to avoid external funding that might have distorted business priorities, saying "I'd rather make a million dollars slowly than lose a million dollars fast",
And this inspired me, and hence I invited Bridget to my podcast. We explore her bootstrapping journey over the past 12 years. She shares how she's successfully competing in a saturated market against well-funded competitors and tech giants like Google and Calendly. She elaborates on how she's maintaining a customer-centric approach while managing limited resources. Last but not least, she shares insights on how she overcame the challenges of pricing, overcoming feature bloat, refactoring legacy code, and adapting to market change.

Here's one of her quotes
Feature bloat is real. You can say, 'Let's be really generous about our free tool and have loads of features in the free tool.' All you're doing is confusing free users who need a really simple tool and don't want to think because they're not paying for the software. So they just literally want it to work. 
So if you have a problem that your free users can't contact support, it means that your free tool is more complicated than it needs to be. 

During this interview, you will learn four things:

How she's aligning her entire team so they deliver on time and grow an eagerness to go above and beyond. 

What she learned from refactoring their pricing approach and the lessons nobody talks about is that 

How to avoid feature bloat in your development process.

What she's doing differently to create the best customer experience. 


For more information about the guest from this week:

Bridget Harris

Website: You Can Book Me


Bootstrappers Manual




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#334 - Bridget Harris, CEO of You Can Book Me - on the art of Bootstrapping.

This podcast interview focuses on the entrepreneurial journey from the last 5 years to turn Plum into the best Talent Intelligence solution on the market. My guest is Caitlin MacGregor, Co-Founder and CEO of PlumCaitlin MacGregor co-founded Plum in 2012 and has been an earlier guest on my podcast (#54 in February 2019). She was voted "most likely to save the world" in her high school yearbook, foreshadowing her future as an innovative entrepreneur.Before founding Plum, Caitlin built two other businesses, which gave her insights into the need for change around talent processes in the age of automation.Fast forward, she was recently selected for the EY Entrepreneurial Winning Women™ North America Class of 2024, a program that supports high-potential women entrepreneurs.Caitlin's drive to democratize access to psychometric data so that no one would have to rely on luck for someone to realize their superpower still underpins the core of the company - although how this is brought to market has evolved a lot.And it's noticed - HR Tech voted Plum the best Talent Intelligence solution in the market in 2023This inspired me, and hence I invited Caitlin back to my podcast. We explore the journey over the past 5 years. How did the market change in general - in particular in relation to how we attract and manage talent? She also shares what this means to all of us in the coming years. She then drills into how this has changed their priorities around product strategy and Go To Market. As we discuss this, she reveals some valuable lessons learned in product development, positioning, and segmentation, and how her role as CEO changed in this period of rapid change.   Here's one of her quotes12 months ago, we were working on how we best resonate. It was really just about how you get to that Aha moment, and it really has nothing to do with the product and the solution. It was really like the Why. Why should you care about Plum? How do we align to a top three boardroom problem? And how do we connect to that strategic problem [....] so we were able to get into a strategic conversation with the right people that had the power to decide to do things differently.  During this interview, you will learn four things:<ol>
<li>How Plum expanded from talent acquisition to full employee lifecycle management </li>
<li>What made them decide to bet on Enterprise instead of SMBs</li>
<li>What internal capabilities organizations need to develop and prioritize to gain competitive advantage and become the winners of the future? </li>
<li>How her role as a CEO had to change to effectively lead the rapidly growing organization that Plum is today.</li>
</ol> For more information about the guest from this week:<ul>
<li><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/caitlinmacgregor/">Caitlin MacGregor</a></li>
<li>Website: <a href="https://www.plum.io/">Plum</a>
</li>
<li>Plum Flourish <a href="https://www.plum.io/plumflourish">Assessment</a>
</li>
</ul> Subscribe to the Daily SaaS ReflectionGet my free, 1 min daily reflection on shaping a B2B SaaS business no one can ignore. <a href="https://valueinspiration.com/daily">Subscribe here</a>Yes, it’s actually daily. And yes, people actually stay subscribed(Just see what peer B2B SaaS CEOs <a href="https://valueinspiration.com/daily">say</a>)My promise: It’s short. To the point. Inspiring. And valuable. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit <a href="https://megaphone.fm/adchoices">megaphone.fm/adchoices</a>

<description>This podcast interview focuses on the entrepreneurial journey from the last 5 years to turn Plum into the best Talent Intelligence solution on the market. My guest is Caitlin MacGregor, Co-Founder and CEO of Plum
Caitlin MacGregor co-founded Plum in 2012 and has been an earlier guest on my podcast (#54 in February 2019). 
She was voted "most likely to save the world" in her high school yearbook, foreshadowing her future as an innovative entrepreneur.
Before founding Plum, Caitlin built two other businesses, which gave her insights into the need for change around talent processes in the age of automation.
Fast forward, she was recently selected for the EY Entrepreneurial Winning Women™ North America Class of 2024, a program that supports high-potential women entrepreneurs.
Caitlin's drive to democratize access to psychometric data so that no one would have to rely on luck for someone to realize their superpower still underpins the core of the company - although how this is brought to market has evolved a lot.
And it's noticed - HR Tech voted Plum the best Talent Intelligence solution in the market in 2023
This inspired me, and hence I invited Caitlin back to my podcast. We explore the journey over the past 5 years. How did the market change in general - in particular in relation to how we attract and manage talent? She also shares what this means to all of us in the coming years. She then drills into how this has changed their priorities around product strategy and Go To Market. As we discuss this, she reveals some valuable lessons learned in product development, positioning, and segmentation, and how her role as CEO changed in this period of rapid change.  

Here's one of her quotes
12 months ago, we were working on how we best resonate. It was really just about how you get to that Aha moment, and it really has nothing to do with the product and the solution. It was really like the Why. Why should you care about Plum? How do we align to a top three boardroom problem? And how do we connect to that strategic problem [....] so we were able to get into a strategic conversation with the right people that had the power to decide to do things differently. 

During this interview, you will learn four things:

How Plum expanded from talent acquisition to full employee lifecycle management 

What made them decide to bet on Enterprise instead of SMBs

What internal capabilities organizations need to develop and prioritize to gain competitive advantage and become the winners of the future? 

How her role as a CEO had to change to effectively lead the rapidly growing organization that Plum is today.


For more information about the guest from this week:

Caitlin MacGregor

Website: Plum


Plum Flourish Assessment




Subscribe to the Daily SaaS Reflection
Get my free, 1 min daily reflection on shaping a B2B SaaS business no one can ignore. Subscribe here
Yes, it’s actually daily. And yes, people actually stay subscribed
(Just see what peer B2B SaaS CEOs say)
My promise: It’s short. To the point. Inspiring. And valuable.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices</description>

A story about redefining the rules to win in the decades-old Talent Management category.

This podcast interview focuses on the entrepreneurial journey from the last 5 years to turn Plum into the best Talent Intelligence solution on the market. My guest is Caitlin MacGregor, Co-Founder and CEO of Plum
Caitlin MacGregor co-founded Plum in 2012 and has been an earlier guest on my podcast (#54 in February 2019). 
She was voted "most likely to save the world" in her high school yearbook, foreshadowing her future as an innovative entrepreneur.
Before founding Plum, Caitlin built two other businesses, which gave her insights into the need for change around talent processes in the age of automation.
Fast forward, she was recently selected for the EY Entrepreneurial Winning Women™ North America Class of 2024, a program that supports high-potential women entrepreneurs.
Caitlin's drive to democratize access to psychometric data so that no one would have to rely on luck for someone to realize their superpower still underpins the core of the company - although how this is brought to market has evolved a lot.
And it's noticed - HR Tech voted Plum the best Talent Intelligence solution in the market in 2023
This inspired me, and hence I invited Caitlin back to my podcast. We explore the journey over the past 5 years. How did the market change in general - in particular in relation to how we attract and manage talent? She also shares what this means to all of us in the coming years. She then drills into how this has changed their priorities around product strategy and Go To Market. As we discuss this, she reveals some valuable lessons learned in product development, positioning, and segmentation, and how her role as CEO changed in this period of rapid change.  

Here's one of her quotes
12 months ago, we were working on how we best resonate. It was really just about how you get to that Aha moment, and it really has nothing to do with the product and the solution. It was really like the Why. Why should you care about Plum? How do we align to a top three boardroom problem? And how do we connect to that strategic problem [....] so we were able to get into a strategic conversation with the right people that had the power to decide to do things differently. 

During this interview, you will learn four things:

How Plum expanded from talent acquisition to full employee lifecycle management 

What made them decide to bet on Enterprise instead of SMBs

What internal capabilities organizations need to develop and prioritize to gain competitive advantage and become the winners of the future? 

How her role as a CEO had to change to effectively lead the rapidly growing organization that Plum is today.


For more information about the guest from this week:

Caitlin MacGregor

Website: Plum


Plum Flourish Assessment




Subscribe to the Daily SaaS Reflection
Get my free, 1 min daily reflection on shaping a B2B SaaS business no one can ignore. Subscribe here
Yes, it’s actually daily. And yes, people actually stay subscribed
(Just see what peer B2B SaaS CEOs say)
My promise: It’s short. To the point. Inspiring. And valuable.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

#333 - Caitlin MacGregor, CEO of Plum- on successfully navigating market change

Welcome to the Tech Entrepreneur on a Mission podcast.

My name is Ton Dobbe. I am the founder of Value Inspiration and the author of ‘The Remarkable Effect’.
I envision a world where every B2B SaaS business succeeds because they're creating software their customers would miss if were gone

𝗛𝗲𝗿𝗲'𝘀 𝘄𝗵𝘆: 
Research consistently shows 90% of all startups fail. That's bad. 
What's worse however is that +75% of SaaS Scaleups fail - companies that are supposed to have product-market-fit.

Far too few Scaleups create the traction they aspire for and fail for the wrong reasons

I believe this should stop - and hence I started my business and this podcast

The goal I have with this podcast is two-fold:

to inspire new forms of value creation by sharing compelling ideas and stories about the potential we can unlock when technology and people blend in the right way.

Share experiences from tech entrepreneurs like you about what it requires to create a remarkable software business and how to overcome the roadblocks to do so.

Tech Entrepreneur on a Mission Podcast

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