BusinessEntrepreneurship

The SaaSiest Podcast

Daniel Nackovski & Thomas Sjöberg

Do you want to know what the secret sauce is of the most successful SaaS companies? This show follows founders and leaders of the most prominent European SaaS companies on their way to global success. Learn from their GoTo-Market strategies, how they scale, build winning teams and great products. If you are a SaaS founder or leader looking for tips and tricks from the best in class founders and companies then this is a show for you. Direct, informal and to-the-point discussions with a great level of hands-on advice for the listeners. The show is brought to you by two experienced SaaS professionals, Daniel Nackovski, and Thomas Sjöberg, founders of SaaSiest !

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#215
June 9 · 59 min
214. Daniel Thulfaut, Head of Product at saas.group - Why AI Is Killing Traditional Product Management
In this episode, we sit down with Daniel Thulfaut, Head of Product at saas.group, one of Europe's most active SaaS acquirers. With 24 companies in the portfolio and more than €100M in ARR, Daniel has a unique perspective on how product organizations are evolving in the age of AI. We discuss why many product managers have spent the last decade acting as backlog managers rather than true product leaders, and why AI is now forcing a return to the fundamentals of product management: customer understanding, strategic thinking, prioritization, and decision-making. We also explore why "good enough" products are becoming easier than ever to build, why that raises the bar for SaaS companies, and what legacy SaaS businesses must do to stay competitive against a new generation of AI-native startups. Topics we cover include: • Why the traditional product manager role is changing rapidly • The difference between backlog management and real product leadership • Why AI makes customer discovery more important, not less • Why legacy SaaS companies struggle to realize the promised 10x AI productivity gains • The rise of the "product engineer" and what it means for teams • How feature flags, experimentation, and faster feedback loops change product development • Why shipping more features is not the same as creating more value • What CEOs and CPOs should do right now to prepare their product organizations for the future • Why understanding customer problems remains the most valuable skill in product management One of the most interesting takeaways from the conversation is that AI is not replacing product thinking. If anything, it's making it more valuable. When building becomes easier, deciding what to build becomes the real competitive advantage. If you're a founder, CEO, CPO, product leader, or anyone trying to navigate the future of SaaS, this episode is packed with practical insights and plenty of food for thought.
#214
June 4 · 47 min
213. Artti Aurasmaa, CEO of Staria - Why the CFO Is Becoming the Most Strategic Role in SaaS
In this episode we sit down with Artti Aurasmaa, CEO of Staria, to discuss how the CFO role is evolving from financial reporting to strategic leadership. Artti has spent more than 25 years helping companies scale internationally and today leads Staria, a €60M+ business serving growth companies across 50 countries. In this conversation, he shares why the future CFO must become a business partner, data steward, and forecasting expert rather than simply the person closing the books. We discuss why forecasting accuracy may be the most important KPI for a modern CFO, how AI is changing finance teams, why strong data foundations matter more than the latest AI tools, and what separates companies that scale successfully from those that struggle. You will also hear Artti's perspective on international expansion, the increasing complexity of global business, and why the best CFOs are moving from the back office to the front row. Topics covered: Why the CFO role is becoming increasingly strategic The shift from historical reporting to future forecasting Why forecasting accuracy is a critical KPI How AI is changing the finance function Building the data foundation before deploying AI The future structure of finance teams International expansion and global compliance Why CFOs need stronger technical and data capabilities The rise of the "rockstar CFO" What growth companies need to scale successfully Whether you're a CFO, founder, CEO, finance leader, or SaaS operator, this episode offers a practical look at how the finance function is changing and what it takes to stay ahead.
#213
May 28 · 58 min
212. George Storm, CRO at N.rich - Why your SaaS Forecasting Is Broken & Inaccurate
In this episode, we’re joined by George Storm, CRO at N.rich, for a conversation about why traditional B2B SaaS forecasting is no longer good enough in today’s market. George shares how N.rich, the European ABM platform, helps sales-led companies influence complex buying committees, warm up priority accounts, and progress accounts before sales ever reaches out. We spoke with George about why forecasting can’t be treated as a static quarterly exercise anymore, why revenue leaders need to account for macro signals like layoffs, budget freezes, acquisitions, interest rates, and market turbulence, and how to move from fixed-number forecasting to ranges, probabilities, and continuous forecast loops. He explains why CROs should think in “regimes” like calm, turbulent, and stormy markets, and how that changes the way you model win rates, sales cycles, ACV, and pipeline coverage. Here are some of the key questions we address: Why is traditional SaaS forecasting broken? Why should forecasts be modeled as ranges instead of fixed numbers? How do macro signals like layoffs, acquisitions, and budget freezes impact pipeline confidence? Why can historical win rates be misleading in today’s market? What does it mean to forecast in calm, turbulent, or stormy weather? How can CROs build a continuous forecasting loop instead of relying on quarterly updates? What should revenue leaders monitor weekly to avoid surprise misses? 🎧 Tune in to hear how George thinks CROs can build more realistic, adaptive forecasting models in a market where hope is definitely not a strategy.
#212
April 17 · 56 min
211. Massimo Arrigoni, CEO of Beefree - The SaaS Apocalypse? Massimo Arrigoni Says No
In this episode, we’re joined by Massimo Arrigoni, CEO of Beefree, the content creation platform behind thousands of SaaS products and one of the companies with a uniquely broad view of what’s actually happening across the software landscape. With customers embedding Beefree into products across industries, Massimo sees the SaaS market from the inside out. And his take is clear: SaaS is not dead. But parts of the model are being challenged, valuations are being reset, and AI is forcing every company to rethink where real value lives. This is a conversation about what is actually changing, what is not, and why the future likely belongs to companies that understand the difference. We spoke with Massimo about why people often mix up SaaS valuations, SaaS delivery, and SaaS business models when they talk about “the death of SaaS.” He explains why software sold to non-technical businesses is far less vulnerable than some people think, why “just build it yourself” is often a misleading argument, and why the real opportunity with AI is not replacing humans, but giving them back a better version of their jobs. Here are some of the key questions we address: Is SaaS actually dying, or are we just seeing a market correction? Why are people confusing valuation resets with a broken business model? What parts of SaaS are most exposed to change, and which parts remain highly defensible? Why is “companies will just build it themselves” often the wrong assumption? What do you learn about the future of software when your product is embedded in thousands of SaaS applications? How are SaaS companies actually approaching AI right now: innovating, reacting, or just sprinkling it on? What kinds of products and use cases are most likely to stay sticky in an AI-first world? Why should leaders think of AI as something that may take your job and give you back a better one? What happens to entry-level jobs, and what should the next generation prepare for? 🎧 Tune in to hear Massimo’s thoughtful and grounded take on the future of software: SaaS isn’t disappearing, but the rules are changing fast. The winners will be the companies that understand where the real headaches still are, where humans still matter, and where AI can genuinely create leverage instead of just noise.
#211
April 1 · 50 min
210. Jens Levin, Founder & CEO of Sitoo - No Overnight Success: 22 Years of Focus, Teamwork, and Playing the Long Game
In this episode, we’re joined by Jens Levin, Founder & CEO of Sitoo, the retail SaaS platform powering in-store experiences for leading brands across the world. Today, Sitoo has 20M Euro in ARR, 40%+ growth, 300+ retailers, and deployments across 40+ countries. But this is not a story about overnight success. Jens shares the reality behind building a company over 22 years, including 10 years of work before finding the real breakthrough. It’s a conversation about longevity, resilience, and why SaaS is not a sprint, but a long-distance team sport where focus and trust increase your chances of success. We spoke with Jens about what changed when Sitoo found its “Holy Grail,” why saying no became more important than saying yes, and how the company evolved from founder-led hustle into a scalable global SaaS business. Here are some of the key questions we address: Why did it take 10 years for Sitoo to find true product-market fit? What changed when the company went all-in on one product and one focus area? Why does saying yes to everything keep you local, while focus helps you scale globally? How do you build a strong partner ecosystem without becoming a competitor? What happens when you scale from 3 people to 135+ employees? Why do so many SaaS companies hit a major shift around 80–100 employees? How do you move from founder-driven heroics to a scalable operating model? How do you keep motivation, culture, and momentum alive over two decades of building? 🎧 Tune in to hear Jens’ honest take on what it really takes to build something lasting: there is no overnight success, only years of iteration, the right people around you, and the discipline to stay focused long enough for the flywheel to start turning.
#210
March 26 · 1 hr 2 min
209. Elena Verna, Growth at Lovable - How to Grow When Everyone Can Copy Your Product
In this episode, we’re joined by Elena Verna, growth expert and currently leading growth at Lovable, one of the fastest-growing companies in tech. Elena shares why the old growth playbooks are breaking down, what growth means in an AI-native world, and why companies can no longer rely on features alone as their competitive advantage. We talk about how growth has shifted from pure funnel optimization to trust, speed, and human connection. Elena breaks down the difference between growth loops and funnels, why Lovable products need to feel alive and constantly evolving, and what companies in crowded categories must do if they want to stay relevant when software is easier than ever to copy or rebuild. Here are some of the key questions we address: What does growth actually mean in an AI-native company like Lovable? Why are traditional growth playbooks becoming less effective in today’s market? Why can features no longer be your only competitive advantage? How should companies think about retention, expansion, and resurrecting users in this new environment? What can B2B SaaS companies in crowded categories do to become more lovable and trusted? Why does speed to market matter more than perfection right now? How do you build teams that can operate in a world where AI changes customer expectations every month? What does Elena look for when hiring people into a fast-moving AI company? 🎧 Tune in to hear Elena’s take on modern growth, why trust and humanity matter more than ever, and how companies can rethink distribution, retention, and defensibility in a world where software is no longer hard to build.
#209
March 19 · 50 min
208. Lisen Zethraeus, CMO at Stratsys - How to Make Your Experts the Face of Your Brand
In this episode, we’re joined by Lisen Zethraeus, CMO at Stratsys, to talk about how B2B SaaS companies can turn internal expertise into thought leadership that builds trust and creates demand. Stratsys has grown to 30M+ Euro in ARR, serves 600+ customers across and has built a strong position in areas like compliance, risk management, ESG, and governance. We discuss how Stratsys puts real subject-matter experts at the center of its go-to-market strategy instead of relying on generic brand messaging. Lisen shares how they use expert-led webinars and studio events, how marketing works closely with sales and product, and why thought leadership only works when the whole company is committed to it. Here are some of the key questions we address: What does thought leadership actually mean, beyond just publishing content? How do you identify the right internal experts to become trusted external voices? Why do people follow people more than brands, and how do you use that without “building personal brands” at the expense of the company? How does Stratsys use studio-style webinars and events to create authority and reach the right audience? How should marketing, sales, and product collaborate to create thought leadership that actually resonates? What metrics matter most when you want to know whether thought leadership is working? How do you keep subject-matter experts visible and relevant between the big event moments? How can AI help accelerate thought leadership production without losing authenticity? 🎧 Tune in to hear how Lisen and the Stratsys team have built a repeatable thought leadership engine, one that combines expertise, consistency, and strong collaboration to become a trusted voice in a complex B2B market.
#208
March 5 · 52 min
207. Adam Dorrell, CEO & Co-Founder of CustomerGaige - Founder-Led Sales vs Scaling: The Hard Transition Nobody Talks About
In this episode, we’re joined by Adam Dorrell, CEO & Co-Founder of CustomerGaige, for a candid conversation about one of the hardest founder transitions: when, and how, to step out of the sales seat without losing the magic that makes founder-led selling so effective. Adam shares the real story behind building CustomerGaige over 16 years, growing it into a recognized international player with a lean global team. We dig into: Why founders often try to hire a sales leader too early, and what confidence has to do with it The painful lessons of cycling through sales leaders who took over the process too aggressively, and what it cost The unsexy truth: you can’t scale sales before you’ve truly nailed ICP + story + value prop How Adam and his co-founder ultimately found the right model: Where a Co-founder adds the most value to the salesprocess at this phase of the business If you’re a founder trying to scale sales, or a sales leader working with founders, this is a practical and honest take on where founders should stay involved, and where they absolutely shouldn’t.
#207
February 26 · 50 min
206. Rahul Yadav, CEO of Paligo - The CEO Blueprint for High-Impact Executive Offsites
In this episode, we sit down with Rahul Yadav, CEO of Paligo, for a practical conversation on leadership alignment - and how to run executive offsites that drive real clarity, trust, and follow-through. Rahul is only a few months into the role, but he’s already implemented a strong leadership rhythm: quarterly leadership offsites, annual full-company gatherings, and a surprisingly effective habit, daily 15-minute C-suite standups to keep priorities aligned and momentum high. If you’ve ever left an offsite feeling energized, just to watch that energy fade in two weeks, this episode is for you. We cover: Why most offsites fail: turning them into a “backlog dump” of unresolved operational issues Rahul’s simple offsite structure: Champagne goals → Risks → Commitments How to keep the agenda light to guarantee openness The “parking lot” technique to prevent rat-holing while still honoring important topics The rule-of-thumb cadence: Quarterly = strategic, Monthly = operational, Weekly = tactical How to create real candor with a new leadership team Why psychological safety is built through daily reps, not big speeches Rahul’s approach to transparency: sharing offsite outcomes immediately in all-hands + weekly CEO reflections A smart meeting role: introducing a Yoda who calls out time, airtime, and when the team is drifting off track Rahul also shares how he thinks about leadership environments: fewer laptops, more reflection, more walking time, and more room to breathe because offsites aren’t just about decisions, they’re about building the trust that makes decisions stick. 🎧 Tune in for a tactical blueprint on how to run executive offsites that create alignment and action that will move your business forward.
#206
January 28 · 55 min
205. Roeland Delrue, Co-Founder of Aikido Security - Why joining the buyer’s journey beats forcing MEDDICC-style sales processes
In this episode, we’re joined by Roeland Delrue, Co-founder of Aikido Security, the fast-growing application security platform that just became a unicorn in under 4 years. Roeland shares what it really takes to scale a company at breakneck speed, from going 5× year-over-year, to balancing startups and enterprise in one GTM motion, to raising a Series B with a single goal: becoming “unignorable.” We unpack how Aikido uses product-led growth, brutal revenue focus, and buyer-first sales mentality to win in one of the most competitive markets in SaaS. We spoke with Roeland about building for continuous wins, why revenue clarity beats buzzwords, and how Aikido joins the buyer’s journey instead of forcing rigid sales methodologies. Here are some of the key questions we address: How did Aikido grow from $5M to $20M+ ARR in one year? What does it mean to build an unignorable company? Why brutal focus on revenue simplifies product, hiring, and prioritization decisions Why joining the buyer’s journey beats forcing MEDDICC-style sales processes How product-led trials reduce churn and increase win rates What it takes to scale from unicorn to decacorn (and why $100M ARR is the next real milestone) 🎧 Tune in to hear how Roeland is building one of Europe’s fastest-scaling security companies and why speed, product, and revenue discipline beat category buzzwords every time.
#205
January 23 · 56 min
204. Madhav Bhandari - VP Marketing, Storylane - How to Win in a World of 150,000 SaaS Tools: Pattern Interruption is your real mote
In this episode, we’re joined by Madhav Bhandari, VP Marketing at Storylane, the demo automation platform helping B2B teams show their product before prospects ever talk to sales. Storylane is a profitable, fully remote SaaS with 50 employees, and a clear path toward $20M+. Madhav shares how Storylane broke out of the “race to average” in an insanely crowded martech and sales tech market, not by spending more, but by building a repeatable system for pattern interruption. We unpack how they used unconventional SEO, brand plays, and GTM experiments to grow brand searches from 1,500 to 12,000 per month, drive massive inbound, and turn marketing into a true growth engine. We spoke with Madhav about why great products aren’t enough anymore, how to become the first vendor prospects discover, and how to build a marketing portfolio that consistently produces breakout ideas instead of chasing one-hit wonders. Here are some of the key questions we address: Why visibility, not budget, is the real advantage in crowded SaaS markets What pattern interruption actually means and how to systematize it How Storylane grew brand searches 8x and created an unfair inbound advantage Why traditional SEO and blog strategies are too slow, and what replaced them How to build a marketing portfolio instead of chasing viral one-offs Where pattern interruption should live and why leadership must own it 🎧 Tune in to hear how Madhav turned differentiation into a repeatable muscle and why, in a world where products are easy to copy, GTM creativity is the real moat.
#204
January 9 · 49 min
203. Kate Sygrove, Director of CS & Support, Mouseflow - Speak CFO: How CS Leaders Earn an Equal Seat at the Table
In this episode, we’re joined by Kate Sygrove, Director of Customer Success at Mouseflow, the SaaS platform for website behavioral analytics. Mouseflow is a $10M+ ARR business with 3,500 customers, 51 employees, and a CS org balancing enterprise white-glove with digital CS at scale. Kate shares a practical playbook for one of the biggest CS challenges in SaaS right now: getting heard at the exec table. We unpack what it actually means to “speak the language of the CFO,” how to turn CS insight into predictive numbers the business can plan around, and why CS leaders need to pair hard data + soft data to drive decisions on churn, retention, and roadmap priorities. Here are some of the key questions we address: What does it mean to “speak CFO” as a CS leader and, why does prediction matter so much? How do you convert customer sentiment into a forecast model that the exec team can use? Why is hard data + soft data the only reliable way to judge account health? How do you reframe CS initiatives into business outcomes like revenue protected, time-to-value, and scalability? What should CS leaders demand from Sales/Marketing/Product to make collaboration actually work? What changes when you transition from CSM → CS leader, and how do you prepare for the jump? 🎧 Tune in to hear Kate’s concrete frameworks for making CS visible, measurable, and influential and how to show up in leadership meetings with a clearer business case than ever.
#203
Dec 18, 2025 · 49 min
202. Youssef Hounat, Head of Product, ComplianceWise - From Search Tool to Teammate: How Product Teams Should Really Use AI
In this episode, we’re joined by Youssef Hounat, product leader, ex-auditor, and (unexpectedly) freestyle-rap-ready builder of tools for accountants. He went from training at Ernst & Young to helping scale DataSnipper into one of the Netherlands’ unicorns, and now he’s building again as Head of Product at ComplianceWise. We unpack what’s actually changing inside product teams: AI stops being a rewrite/search tool and becomes a teammate that takes real work off your plate. Youssef shares how the best teams reduce context switching, turn customer research into a habit, and use agentic workflows + MCPs to connect tools like email, Jira, Figma, and docs without becoming a “fleshy meat puppet” copy-pasting between 10 tabs. Here are some of the key questions we address: Why do 99% of teams still use AI wrong, and what mindset shift fixes it? How do you turn customer research into a continuous habit using transcripts + automated pipelines? What’s a real example of AI helping product push back on “build this to close the deal” and finding the true request underneath? How do top teams use MCP + coding agents to move from idea → PRD → Jira tickets without leaving the terminal? What’s the difference between a prototype you build to learn vs a product you build to earn — and why vibe-coded output can’t go straight to production? How do you avoid reinventing the wheel and start with small weekly automations that compound? What’s the real risk behind shadow AI usage and how do you get IT onside instead of blocked? 🎧 Tune in to hear Youssef’s practical playbook for building an AI-enabled product org—where humans do the high-leverage thinking, and the machines handle the busywork. Plus: a freestyle rap that might be the strongest case for accounting tech you’ve ever heard.
#202
Nov 18, 2025 · 54 min
201. Jeppe Schytte-Hansen, CEO, Omnidocs - Why 1+1 = 1.8 in M&A (Until It Suddenly Becomes 3)
In this episode, we’re joined by Jeppe Schytte-Hansen, CEO and Co-founder of Omnidocs, a SaaS company that’s moving fast: €22M+ in revenue, 1,500 customers, 155 employees, and four acquisitions in the last 18 months after bringing in private equity for the first time. Jeppe breaks down what it really takes to turn a steady, profitable SaaS into a buy-and-build platform, from product alignment and enablement to the emotional reality of killing someone’s “version 2.0” and managing the slowdown that almost everyone underestimates. We spoke with Jeppe about choosing PE over VC, building a 14-point M&A framework, and why one plus one rarely equals two in the first year. He explains the “integration foxtrot” (quick–slow–quick–slow), how to preserve culture across six offices and four countries, and why Omnidocs is betting big on the shift from traditional documents to “fluid formats” in the coming years. Here are some of the key questions we address: What is the 14-criteria M&A evaluation framework, and what are the two instant disqualifiers? Why does every buy-and-build strategy start with a slowdown, and how do you shorten it? What makes product alignment the hardest part of M&A, and how do you decide when to kill a nearly-finished product? How do you structure integration squads and seven integration tracks across acquired companies? What does it take to enable sales teams to manage multiple products without slowing down new logo acquisition? How do you avoid overestimating cross-sell potential, especially in the first 12–18 months? Which are key roles and people to drive a successful pre, during and post-acquisition process? 🎧 Tune in to hear how Jeppe is transforming Omnidocs from a steady SaaS into a multi-product, pan-European platform proving that buy-and-build is far more than a financial strategy; it’s an operational discipline.
#201
Nov 11, 2025 · 58 min
200. Fabian Q. Veit, CEO, Make - 15× Revenue, 7× Team, 100K+ Paying Users: Inside Make.com’s Hypergrowth!
In this episode, we sit down with Fabian Veit, CEO of Make.com, to talk about what it really takes to scale not just one but two hyperscale SaaS companies - first in a classic enterprise sales-led motion, and now in a PLG + AI/automation world. Fabian shares how Make has 15x’d revenue and grown from ~50 to nearly 400 people, while racing past 100k+ paying customers and aiming for €100M+ ARR, and why that requires a fundamentally different mindset than selling multi-million euro deals into the Fortune 2000. He contrasts the “one deal can make your quarter” reality of enterprise sales with the high-volume, product-first, self-serve motion of Make, where thousands of users sign up every month and the product has to carry the weight. We also dig into what it means to build in the middle of the AI & agentic wave when your platform is literally how people wire AI into their business processes. Fabian explains why most AI projects are actually 80–90% integrations & automation, where AI is the smart layer inside the flow, not the whole show, and how Make is evolving from classic “if-this-then-that” workflows into visual AI agents that power real operations. You’ll hear Fabian talk about: PLG vs Sales-Led: What changed when he went from 9–12 month, high-touch enterprise cycles at Celonis to Make’s “sign up free, upgrade yourself” engine. Rebuilding While Scaling: Why everything is always breaking in hypergrowth, and how he decides what to fix for 5× future scale, not just today. Brand & Positioning Pivots: The risky shift from Integromat to Make.com, losing SEO in the short term to win a much bigger global brand in the long term. Culture at Hyperspeed: How they keep their values intact with hundreds of new hires through explicit values & operating principles, and a brutal honesty policy inspired by Radical Candor. The AMA Channel: An internal Ask Me Anything Slack channel where anyone can ask leadership anything (even anonymously), and why Fabian believes answering every question publicly is non-negotiable for trust. We wrap up with Fabian’s view on where we are in the AI hype cycle, why he compares this moment more to the industrial revolution than just another tech fad, and what kinds of human skills will matter even more in an AI-driven world.
#200
Nov 4, 2025 · 41 min
199. Pieter Boon, Co-founder, ImpactPilot - From “Check-Ins” to Impact: How Google’s Playbook Is Transforming CS in B2B SaaS!
In this episode, we’re joined by Pieter Boon, Co-founder at ImpactPilot, the customer success intelligence platform built for HubSpot. Pieter shares how he’s helping SaaS companies turn their CS orgs into true growth engines, measuring impact instead of activity through a framework called the Impact Driver Methodology. Built on lessons from Google’s 10,000-person post-sales organization, this approach gives CS teams concrete ways to track success before renewal, using impact points tied to real customer outcomes like ROI proof, API adoption, or multi-year deals. It’s about replacing vague check-ins with measurable wins that move both customer and company forward. We dive deep into how teams implement and operationalize the system, from designing the right impact drivers to setting incentives, avoiding false positives, and keeping customer value at the center. Pieter also reveals data from Impact Pilot users showing that customers with high impact scores are 7× more likely to renew or expand, and how that changes how you coach, measure, and reward CS teams. Here are some of the key questions we address: What is the Impact Driver Methodology, and how does it solve the lagging-indicator problem in CS? How do you define and prioritize impact drivers that actually move the needle for customers? How can CS leaders design incentive models that balance company outcomes with customer value? What KPIs matter between onboarding and renewal, and how do you quantify “impact”? How can you use impact scoring to predict churn and expansion before it happens? What pitfalls to avoid, like rewarding “touches” instead of outcomes or overemphasizing feature use? How can early-stage SaaS teams implement this framework (and even start with a simple spreadsheet)? What’s next for CS as a function, and why Pieter believes it’s becoming the new growth engine for SaaS. 🎧 Tune in to hear how Pieter is redefining Customer Success for the revenue era where impact, not activity, drives retention, expansion, and long-term customer health.
#199
Oct 28, 2025 · 49 min
198. Jakob Lilholm, Co-founder & CEO, Formalize - The S-Curve Bet: How to time product #2 before product #1 peaks?
In this episode, we’re joined by Jakob Lilholm, Co-founder & CEO at Formalize, the Danish-based compliance SaaS that went from a single-point whistleblowing tool to a multi-product GRC platform used by 8,000+ customers across ~80 countries. Jakob shares how his team timed EU regulatory tailwinds, built whistleblowing software, and then layered products on top, shifting from high-volume transactional sales to a focused, consultative motion for regulated industries. Fresh off announcing a €30M Series B, Jakob walks through the internal rewiring it took: carving out an innovation pod with its own OKRs, resisting flattering false positives from the existing base, and proving platform demand with new-logo sales first, going from ~€100k ARR on the platform to >50% of company revenue in a year. Here are some of the key questions we address: When do you expand from a point solution to a platform? We discuss the timing model Formalize used (EU roadmap + S-curve “next wave” before the first peaks). What’s the right ICP for a platform? Why did they end up narrowing their ICP and say “not yet” to others? How do you avoid false positives when you already have thousands of customers? Jakob explains why he decided to validate platform fit with new logos first. What org design supports a second act like this? How do you shift GTM, pricing, and messaging? What is the process moving from low ACV sales to higher-ACV, consultative deals without breaking the engine? Which metrics matter in the first year of a platform bet? How do you prove value creation, track conversion quality, and know when to re-inject the core team? 🎧 Tune in to hear how Jakob and team rewired a fast-growing SaaS from a single product to a multi-product platform play, aligning product, GTM, and finance while keeping the culture hungry enough to chase unicorn status by 2028.
#198
Oct 21, 2025 · 46 min
197. Rav Dhaliwal, Investor and Limited Partner, Crane - CS Meets Revenue: AI, Agents, and the New Customer Success
In this episode, we’re joined by Rav Dhaliwal, recovering software exec turned early-stage VC at Crane. A longtime CS leader and board-level advisor, Rav breaks down how AI is reshaping Customer Success, from onboarding and telemetry-driven predictions to agentic workflows, while pushing CS to converge with account management and get far more revenue-centric. We spoke with Rav about what AI should (and shouldn’t) automate, how to keep relationships authentic, and how leaders actually drive adoption, treating AI not as a tool drop but a behavioral change program. Here are some of the key questions we address: Will AI compress or redefine CS, and where does it create leverage vs. require human expertise? What does the CS–Account Management convergence look like in practice (discovery, multi-threading, commercial acumen)? Which AI use cases move the needle now: telemetry-based churn/upsell prediction, voice sentiment, and agentic next-best-action? How do you avoid the “AI for efficiency only” trap and tie it to revenue, cost, and risk outcomes that customers actually buy? What’s the playbook for AI adoption in GTM/CS? How do leaders run a change program (not a tool rollout) and measure progress? Where are the authenticity risks and how do you keep the customer relationship human? How far can we push AI-led onboarding and what’s the 90% automated vs. 10% bespoke split likely to be? 🎧 Tune in to hear Rav’s pragmatic take on CS in the age of AI: more signal, smarter workflows, tighter revenue alignment and leadership that treats AI as an operating change, not a shiny tool. Also, watch out for his new book coming out shortly on Founder-Led Sales!
#197
Oct 15, 2025 · 49 min
196. Ines Lourenço, VP of Product Growth, Usercentrics. Growth = Product Distribution: How Usercentrics Hit €100M ARR with Activation-First Pods
In this episode, we’re joined by Inês Lourenco, VP of Growth at Usercentrics, the privacy-led MarTech company that is powering consent on 2M+ websites & apps across 200 countries for 600k customers. Inês unpacks how she built a 50-person growth org of cross-functional pods (Monetization & Pricing, Acquisition & Virality, Activation, Partner Experience, CMS Integrations, and Retention) around a simple thesis: growth = product distribution. She details the early, scrappy phase with manual signal detection, nightly queries, and “product specialist” outreach - through to a scalable system that routes users to self-serve, low-touch, or high-touch paths based on predicted AOV, with a hard-earned lesson to start with activation before everything else. We spoke with Inês about turning signals into revenue, structuring pods, and creating an operating cadence where every pod owns its metric such as ARPA growth, NRR/GRR, activation time, and virality share, while collaborating tightly with Product, Marketing, Sales, and CS. Here are some of the key questions we address: How do you define growth as product distribution and design pods that actually move revenue, not vanity metrics? What signals predict AOV early, and how do you route users to self-serve vs. low/high-touch experiences accordingly? Why did “product specialist” outreach outperform SDR-style messaging, and how do you structure those “baby-step” nudges? If you’re starting from scratch, why begin with an Activation pod and what are the first experiments to run? How do you set pod-level metrics (ARPA growth, activation time, virality share, NRR/GRR) and avoid cross-metric collateral damage? What collaboration model keeps Growth aligned with Product, Marketing, Sales, and CS, and who should Growth report to? When shouldn’t you build a growth team (and what to do instead if your top of funnel is small)? How do you evolve from consent management to a privacy-led marketing platform, while staying profitable and fast? 🎧 Tune in to learn how Inês turned signals into a system, building a growth engine that’s rigorous, cross-functional, and activation-first, proving that modern growth isn’t a channel, it’s product distribution by design.
#196
Oct 9, 2025 · 52 min
195. Peter Sunna, CPO, Kognic – How We Win: Why Kognic’s CPO Ditched their Roadmap for a Strategy That Actually Aligns Teams
In this episode, we’re joined by Peter Sunna (ex-Contentful, Commercetools), now leading product at Kognic, an annotation platform that helps cars “see” via camera & LiDAR for ADAS and autonomous driving. Peter shares why he downplays traditional roadmaps in favor of a company-wide “How We Win” operating system, aligning teams on target segment, differentiation, and the strategic power to compound. We dive into the automotive software shift, safety-critical AI, and how to build defensibility when AI keeps redefining what’s feasible, sometimes in months. Peter explains how to keep Sales, Product, Marketing, and CS selling and building the same thing so strategy drives the plan, not a feature laundry list. Here are some of the key questions we address: How do you replace feature roadmaps with a "How We Win" system that aligns every team and still tells customers what matters next? What does differentiation look like in practice and which power are you compounding (process, network effects, brand, switching costs, etc.)? When you’re early and have no moat, how do you use counter-positioning and when do you evolve to a more durable power? Depth vs. breadth: should you go deeper on a few use cases or widen to adjacent ones, and how do you decide? How do you sell a new workflow into enterprises (crossing the chasm) when existing org structures resist change? With AI rapidly changing what’s feasible, how do you plan, defend your margins, and avoid being automated away? 🎧 Tune in to hear how Peter turns strategy into an everyday operating cadence proving that in B2B, roadmaps don’t win markets; clarity on how you win does.

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