On episode 29 of the How To SaaS podcast, Shiv interviews Dave Gray, the former CEO of Daxko and current CEO of the Biso Collective. Dave and Shiv discuss how Daxko deployed a growth by acquisitions strategy to scale its business and the importance of focus in growing companies. Dave also shares the vision for his new initiative, Biso Collective, and how he plans on deploying a buy-and-hold strategy to give founders of mission-critical software companies a third alternative to a liquidity event outside of a strategic or financial buyer.

How To SaaS

29: How to grow through acquisitions, focus and culture with Dave Gray

On this episode of How To SaaS, we discuss how to hire a rockstar product manager and what aspiring product leaders need to become to be effective. Your Product leader needs to: 1. Understand the intersection of product management encompasses UX, Tech and Business and be able to serve the needs of each 2. Be market focused to help the rest of the company understand the market needs and pains that need to be addressed. 3. Be able to make important tradeoffs with limited resources to serve and please all the different stakeholders involved. 4. Appreciate growth and all the different levers that can be pulled to take the business to the next level. 5. Be incredibly data-driven and make decisions using an ROI, business case based approach.

33: How to hire a rockstar product manager

Are you trying to figure out your content strategy? Here are 6 simple steps that can help you create a massive content backlog: 1) Who are you trying to help / serve? Ideally, use a real life example. 2) What keeps them up at night? What problems are they facing? 3) What are the negative consequences of their problems? What happens if they don't solve this problem? 4) What is their dream scenario? What are their motivations, needs and goals? 5) What are the checkpoints and milestones between where they are now and their dream scenario? Who do they need to become to achieve the transformation they want? 6) Build content for each step. Focus on the pain points, not the mechanical funnel stages.

32: How to build a content strategy for your SaaS company

Has your company ever missed its quarterly or annual sales projections? This is one of the top reasons why C-Level executives are let go from growing companies. It often happens inside companies where forecasting is treated more like a math exercise and the underlying growth model for the business isn't strong enough. That's why on this episode of How To SaaS, Shiv Narayanan talks about how executive teams can forecast sales projections more effectively, while still setting ambitious targets.

31: How to forecast sales projections more effectively

Have you ever been in a meeting where marketing claims that it is generating all these MQLs but sales isn't converting them, while sales claims the MQLs they're receiving are really not that good? On this episode, I talk about how MQLs are completely the wrong metric to use for alignment. Instead Sales Accepted Leads can do a far better job of bringing marketing and sales teams together to work as one unit.

30: How to align sales and marketing

Have you ever tried to get more funding for Content Marketing initiatives or team members, only to have your CEO / CFO / CMO tell you there's not money in the budget for that? On this episode of How To SaaS, Shiv Narayanan talks about how you can go about making sure Content Marketing gets the funding it deserves to help you drive the business forward. Go to the full episode blog post with slides, video and more: https://www.howtosaas.com/blog/how-to-get-more-funding-for-content-marketing

29: How to get more budget for content

On Episode 28, Eric Thurston (CEO of Personify) and Shiv discuss how to build a platform SaaS company, including the strategy, process, challenges, learnings and personal growth that come along with it. Eric is the CEO of the company that eventually acquired Wild Apricot.

28: How to build a platform SaaS company with Eric Thurston, CEO of Personify

On Episode 27, Rand Fishkin (Founder of Moz and SparkToro) and Shiv discuss how to avoid the biggest pitfalls of being a SaaS founder, Rand's journey with Moz, his book "Lost and Founder" and the 5 things he is doing differently as a second time founder.

27: Rand Fishkin on how to avoid the biggest pitfalls of being a SaaS founder

On Episode 26, Shiv and Patrick Campbell (CEO of ProfitWell) discuss how to price your SaaS product, including the hot button topic of pricing increases.

26: How to price your SaaS product with Patrick Campbell, CEO of ProfitWell

On Episode 25, Shiv and Stephen Silberbach (SVP of Global Sales at Clio) discuss how to build a sales machine for your SaaS company, including team structure, roles, responsibilities and KPIs.

25: How to build a sales machine with Stephen Silberbach, SVP of Global Sales at Clio

On Episode 42, Shiv Narayanan interviews Dev Basu, CEO of Powered by Search, on how SaaS companies can build an Intent Engine to attract, engage and convert prospects into paying users.

24: How to build an Intent Engine with Dev Basu, CEO of Powered by Search

On Episode 40, I interview Elle Morgan (VP of Marketing at Woopra) on how to use Product Qualified Leads (PQLs) to close more opportunities. The conversation with Elle is especially relevant for transactional SaaS companies who use a freemium and/or free trial model and do not have access to large sales teams to talk to all prospects 1-on-1.

23: How to use Product Qualified Leads (PQLs) to close more opportunities with Elle Morgan

On Episode 39 of the How To SaaS podcast, Shiv interviews Bryce Youngren, Managing Partner at Polaris Partners, and they discuss how SaaS companies can expand internationally. Bryce shares 5 ways SaaS companies can go about doing this and uses real life examples from his portfolio companies: 1) Channel Partners 2) Telesales 3) Freemium 4) Local Presence 5) Acquisitions

22: How To Expand Internationally with Bryce Youngren, Managing Partner at Polaris Partners

On Episode 38 of the How To SaaS podcast, Shiv Narayanan gives a behind the scenes look of the Wild Apricot acquisition.

21: How SaaS acquisitions work (Wild Apricot's acquisition by Personify)

In Episode 37 of the How To SaaS podcast, Shiv interviews Paul Teshima, CEO of Nudge.ai, on how to build a product-led go-to-market strategy.

20: How to build a product-led go-to-market strategy with Paul Teshima, CEO of Nudge.ai

Have you ever wondered about what other SaaS companies are doing to grow their business? What channels are they experimenting with? Where are they finding traction? Welcome to How To SaaS — the go-to podcast for growing your cloud software company. Hosted by growth strategist Shiv Narayanan, Founder of How To SaaS and the CMO of Wild Apricot — the #1 membership software for small associations and nonprofits. Each week will bring you interviews with founders, CEOs and growth leaders who have successfully implemented a growth strategy to help you take your cloud software company to the next level.

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How To SaaS

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