Derek Steer, Co-founder and CEO of Mode Analytics.Mode helps entrepreneurs grow their businesses faster through data-driven decision making.  The Mode platform combines the best elements of Business Intelligence (ABI), Data Science (DS) and Machine Learning (ML) to empower data teams to answer impactful questions and collaborate on analysis across a range of business functions.In 2019, Mode added a number of premiere enterprise companies to its customer base, which now includes Anheuser Busch, Zillow, Lyft, Bloomberg, Capital One, VMWare, and Conde Nast, among others.In 2020, Mode was the recipient of four G2 Awards, including Best Estimated ROI, Fastest Implementation, Highest Performer, and Overall Leader. At this point, 52% of the Forbes 500 have signed up for Mode.Mode is currently being used by marquee companies such as Lyft, Zillow, Unbounce, Doordash, Everlane and Meredith publishing for product, financial and marketing analytics.  Mode goes beyond traditional business intelligence by speeding up answers to complex business problems and making the process more collaborative, so that everyone can build on the work of data analysts. Mode recently closed a successful Series D round for Mode, bringing the total funding raised to $83M.

Founder Views - A bootstrapped CEO’s views on business & SaaS

Derek Steer, CEO of Mode - Disrupting the Crowded Analytics Space

Sagi Eliyahu is the CEO & Co-Founder of Tonkean, the no-code, automation platform that helps companies like Salesforce, Microsoft, and TripActions to solve their operational inefficiencies and business problems.Tonkean recently raised their $24M Series A led by Lightspeed Venture Partners, bringing the company’s total fundraising to $33M.Prior to Tonkean, Sagi held executive engineering roles at Jive Software. He also served for four years in Unit 8200, the Israeli Defense Force’s elite intelligence agency, and applies much of what he learned from developing data and information systems for the agency to his work at Tonkean.Sagi believes operations is a vastly underappreciated function within companies, and that we must empower operations teams to help design a better future of work — a future that’s more adaptive, efficient, and appreciative of the importance of people, as opposed to technology or data.

Sagi Eliyahu, CEO of Tonkean - How No-Code Automation can put People First

Nicolas started selling newspapers in the streets of Paris in high school, studied Math at Ecole Polytechnique then Business at Stanford GSB, and started and sold 3 tech companies with up to 65 employees and $11M in revenues.He is now the co-founder and CEO of Chili Piper - the System of Action for revenue teams - and of KosmoTime - the first Focused Productivity Assistant.

Nicolas Vandenberghe, CEO of Chili Piper - Boostrapping multiple SaaS companies, 8-figure exits, and still hustling

Ondrej Sedlacek is the CEO and founder of SatisMeter. SatisMeter helps companies measure and improve customer satisfaction through NPS (Net Promoter Score) surveys.If you're in SaaS, then you've heard about the importance of NPS. If this is a topic you've been interested in learning more about, there's no one better to learn about it than Ondrej.We talk about how SatisMeter got started, and how they've  grown to help over 400 companies, why everyone should use NPS, and how it reduces churn.Enjoy the conversation!

Ondrej Sedlacek, CEO of SatisMeter - Can you reduce churn with NPS?

Rytis Lauris is the CEO of Omnisend, a marketing automation SaaS that helps e-commerce companies.Omnisend is bootstrapped, employees +70 people, and has grown past +$11M ARR in only 6 years!Rytis talks about his founding story, specific marketing strategies that helped Omnisend gain traction early, understanding monetization strategies, leveraging integration partnerships, how he manages a growing team all over the world, and much much more.Learn how this bootstrapped SaaS is on route to Unicorn status!

Rytis Lauris - Marketing automation SaaS for e-commerce blowing past +$11M ARR in 6 years

Tom Wright is the CEO and co-founder of Cascade, a software that helps teams stay focused on their goals.Very impressively, Cascade serves +25,000 users, have 40+ employees, offices in 3 countries, and are closing in on $10M annual recurring revenue -all while bootstrapped!

Tom Wright - Bootstrapped strategy software closing in on $10M annual revenue

This is one of those episodes you might have to listen to more than once. Eugene Levin is the Chief Strategy Officer of SEMrush, an SEO management platform with over 800 employees around the world.Eugene has a very unique mind when it comes to marketing and how to think about growth in business, and it's clear how much he's contributed to the great success of SEMrush.This episode is jam-packed with actionable takeaways and advice from a high-level executive. We touch on several topics, including how to have a "winner take all mentality", the best ways to utilize marketing spend, the channels driving SEMrush's incredible growth, actionable tips on how any company can think about SEO, important metrics, and much much more.Truly one of those episodes you want to listen to in full, and soak it all up. Enjoy!

Eugene Levin - Chief Strategy Officer of SEMrush, Marketing with a "winner take all" mentality

I’m speaking with Josh Pigford, CEO and founder of Baremetrics. If you’re in SaaS, you’ve definitely heard of Josh and Baremetrics. Hundreds of SaaS and subscription businesses use Baremetrics to properly display dashboards and metrics to give a real time breakdown of how their company is performing. This is fundamental for every SaaS company, and Baremetrics has been the staple in that department for quite some time.Recently, Josh caused some waves in the SaaS world when he revealed that he almost sold Baremetrics for $5 million, which was a big shock to a lot of people in SaaS, given how transparent and open Josh is with his business. So we’re talking about that, why he went through with the sales process, how the deal fell through, and what impact that had with his team when the news went public.We also talk about how Josh grew his remote company to well over $100k in monthly recurring revenue and what he’s planning for the future.I’m really glad I had Josh on the podcast, this was a very insightful episode, and I have no doubt you’ll get a tonne of value from it. Enjoy!

Josh Pigford - CEO of Baremetrics, Almost selling the company for $5 million, and what the plans are for the future

I'm speaking with automation and efficiency guru (or automation geek, as he calls himself), Will Christensen, co-founder of Data Automation.Almost all companies of any size struggle with efficiency and waste countless hours with redundant and manual work. Will specializes in helping SaaS companies save time through automating workflows.We talk about ways Data Automation helps SaaS companies save time through automation, how he's grown his company to +$1M in revenue, specific marketing channels to attract more business, and much much more.Will also shares some of his favourite automation and efficiency hacks which are absolute gems!This was a really great episode with key actionable insights that will really help you see the importance of efficiency in your business. Enjoy!

Will Christensen - Co-founder of Data Automation, Saving time through automation and efficiency

In this episode, I’m speaking with Spencer Fry, the CEO and founder of Podia. Podia helps creators sell anything online from courses, downloads, and memberships, without worrying about any tech.Podia is about 5 years old, they’re a fully remote team of 19 people at the time we recorded this (possibly even more now), and they just seem to be picking up a ton of traction in this space. Spencer has a bold vision for the company, in the next 5 years, he wants Podia to be the ONLY platform that a creator uses to monetize. We talk about what he’s doing and what they plan on doing to execute on that big vision.Spencer has been serial entrepreneur since day one. He has actually never received a pay check from someone other than himself, which is pretty unique. He’s founded 4 companies including Podia, has had 3 successful exits, and is now focused on growing Podia to the the leader in their space.If you’re in SaaS, a CEO, a founder, or anyone in business, definitely listen to this chat with one of the best executors I’ve ever spoken to. Enjoy!

Spencer Fry - CEO of Podia, How to become the authority figure in your industry

I’m speaking with serial entrepreneur, Josh MacDonald in this episode. Josh is a fellow software entrepreneur from the greater Toronto area (as am I), so it was really great to connect with him and hear his story - and what a story it is!Josh is only 24 years old (at the time of recording this of course), and he has a tremendous wealth of knowledge and insights that are very impressive.Josh got into the internet game at a very young age, he was making tens of thousands of dollars when he was only 15 years old. He recently wrote a book called the The Non-Technical Founder, where he talks about his journey and experiences as a non-technical founder, building, growing and eventually selling companies.He’s done all of this bootstrapped, which I love of course. Currently, Josh passively runs a SaaS company called getshout.io, and an apparel brand called Abella, which is making 5-figures a day in revenue.This is an episode I’m really excited for people to listen to. Enjoy our chat!

Josh MacDonald - Building, growing and selling companies as a non-technical founder

I’m speaking with Amar Ghose in this episode. Amar is the CEO of ZenMaid, a scheduling management software that helps cleaning and maid services be more efficient and organized.Amar has done an amazing job of building himself a very nice, high margin company. ZenMaid is fully remote, bootstrapped, and are set to cross over $1.5M in annual recurring revenue this year. I’m pretty envious of Amar’s lifestyle, as he’s pretty much a full-time traveler, along with his wife.We dive into how Amar grew the company to what it is today. I love his story, because it’s all about persistence, consistency and staying hungry. Amar reminds us how business is a marathon, not a sprint. He shares how the spent the first several years cold calling to get his first handful of clients, and recounts the very slow grind. They were only growing at about $300 in MRR per month for the first 3 years before things started to take off.But that persistence and dedication have certainly paid off, Zenmaid is growing significantly, revenue is climbing the team is expanding. Learn how ZenMaid has become the market leader for maid services in the world.Enjoy our chat!Thank you to my friends at Customerly and Data Automation for sponsoring this episode!

Amar Ghose - CEO of ZenMaid, growing to +$1.5M in revenue while traveling the world

I’m speaking with Colin Nederkoorn, CEO and co-founder of customer.io. Colin was an absolute pleasure to speak with. He built customer.io in 2012 with his co-founder John, and have been exploding ever since.For those who don’t know, customer.io is a SaaS company that gives companies one place to manage all of their their emails, push notifications, SMS’s and other messages that come from their product  to their customers.Customer.io is now doing over $10M in annual recurring revenue, they’re fully remote, and have a team of over 50 employees worldwide.We’re talking about how customer.io maintains a positive company culture while being remote and distributed, how they’re maintaining their steady and consistent growth, how their product team has evolved over the years, and much much more.I had a great time speaking with Colin, so much that we lost track of time so had to cut it a little but short at the end. But nonetheless, a ton of great value in this episode, I hope you enjoy!PS. Thank you to my friends at Humi for sponsoring this episode. For everything Payroll, Benefits & HR, Humi has you covered. I got my listeners 30% off their subscription. Sign up here to claim the promo, you won't regret it!

Colin Nederkoorn - CEO of customer.io, Reaching $10M ARR through hard work, building a great team and consistency

I'm speaking with Luca Micheli, CEO and founder of Customerly.io. Customerly helps companies create better relationships with their customers with effective communication. He launched Customerly about 4 years ago, they have over 17,000 customers around the world.This is a fascinating story, Luca is competing in a very hot market, where it was once pretty much a monopoly with Intercom as the main provider in the space. The communication marketing space has now opened up which is evident through Customerly's success.Luca is from Italy and currently lives in Ireland. Customerly is fully bootstrapped, which is amazing. We're digging into a lot of great topics in this episode, that a lot of you will definitely find useful. We break down exactly what Luca did to gain such a large user base in a short time, with lifetime deal offers and other marketing techniques. We talk about what they're doing today to drive up their user base, as well as some of their mistakes and learnings along the way.Whether you're a bootstrapped founder or not, this is an episode you're sure to get a ton of value from. Enough of the intro, here's my chat with Luca. Enjoy!Thank you to my friends at Chargify for sponsoring this episode. If you want to manage your SaaS revenue better, make sure you check out Chargify. I was able to get my listeners the first month of Chargify completely free, plus free premium onboarding. They have to know that I sent you, so make sure you sign up here and tell them Founder Views sent you. I promise, you won't regret it!Another big thank you to my friends at Customer.io. If you want to step up your communication with your clients and prospects, of if you want to improve the level of engagement and value you provide, I highly recommend Customer.io. Go to customer.io/founderviews to sign up. You won't regret it!

Luca Micheli - CEO of Customerly, Taking market share from Intercom in the communication marketing space

I’m speaking with Braden Urquhart, a fellow Canadian and CEO of RecTimes, a scheduling software that helps ice rinks manage their bookings.This was such a valuable episode to listen to if you’re focused on building a profitable, lean and high-margin business. RecTimes is a small remote team of three people. But because they’re playing in such a tightly defined niche market, they’re able to find customers and penetrate their market a lot easier than most companies, which is such an advantage. They're growing steadily, and looking to double their revenue in the next 12 months.But more importantly, they’re able to live a very nice and comfortable lifestyle, and be around their family and kids, which is a massive benefit in playing in a remote and tightly defined market.We’re diving into that and a whole lot more in this episode. There's a lot of great takeaways, and I have no doubt you'll find valuable. Enjoy!Thank you to Nuclino for also sponsoring the episode. if you’re a company that’s serious about growing, being organized and being efficient, I highly suggest Nuclino for your internal wiki. I was able to get my listeners a pretty sweet deal. I got you 30% for 1 year of service. Go to nuclino.com, and use FOUNDERVIEWS during checkout.

Braden Urquhart - CEO of RecTimes, growing a highly profitable & remote micro-niche SaaS

A raw and honest listen from a true bootstrapped SaaS founder. You’ll get unique insights from the host, Kosta Panagoulias, who bootstrapped a SaaS out of his parent’s basement with $0 and no tech experience, into a company doing 7-figures in ARR. Kosta takes you through his SaaS journey in real-time, talking about specific business situations he’s going through, thinking about, or just finds interesting. From time to time, Kosta brings on other successful founders to talk shop. Respecting the audience’s time and hustle, most thoughts are squeezed into 5 to 12 minute episodes. The purpose is not to give you the answers, but to spark something in your mind that could help improve your business.

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Founder Views - A bootstrapped CEO’s views on business & Saa...

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