377 – How Joao Marques became Portugal's home services market leader in 2 years
A story about turning impatience into competitive advantage.This episode is for SaaS founders tired of building "professional" products nobody remembers—and anyone wondering if controversy beats convention.Most SaaS companies fail because they try to please everyone.They play it safe with every decision.Joao Marques, CEO of Oscar, took a different path.He quit his job, built the app in four months, then raised 70K euros to start acquiring customers. Created an on-demand home services marketplace that sends marketing messages designed to provoke action. Became Portugal's market leader in two years—by deliberately risking cancellation with every campaign.And this inspired me to invite Joao to my podcast. We explore how strategic controversy creates memorable brands faster than perfect products. Joao shares hard truths about focus, growth over features, and why being hated by some customers beats being ignored by all. You'll discover why having your entire company obsess over one metric beats any complex strategy.We also zoom in on two of the 10 traits that define remarkable software companies: – Focus on the essence – Master the art of creating momentumJoao's story is proof that market leadership often starts by doing what makes others uncomfortable.Here's one of Joao's quotes that captures his philosophy:"Just having one goal. My focus, for example, right now, is acquisition and then GMV, so volume in my app. I'm refreshing the dashboard every 10 minutes. Every decision that we make is based on that. Every goal is based on that. Everyone in my team, and we are, like, 50 people, from customer support to senior management, everyone knows GMV on a daily basis.”By listening to this episode, you'll learn:Why building features before growth is startup suicideWhat happens when you do the unscalable things competitors avoidWhen being annoying drives better retention than being niceWhy one metric beats ten strategiesFor more information about the guest from this week: Guest: Joao Marques, CEO OscarWebsite: oscarapp.com
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Episode #376 – How Dinakara Nagalla turned aircraft mechanics into his biggest fans and built a successful exit
A story about building a cult following in the unglamorous world of aviation maintenanceThis episode is for SaaS founders exhausted from building "nice-to-have" solutions.Most SaaS companies don't fail because of bad tech. They fail because they prefer to solve sexy problems instead of expensive ones.Dinakara Nagalla, CEO of EmpowerMX (acquired by IFS), took a different path. He spent 14 years in aviation watching mechanics waste 50% of their day on paperwork. Instead of building another dashboard for executives, he built tools for the technicians themselves—and turned a cost center into a profit driver with 78% gross margins.And this inspired me to invite Dinakara to my podcast. We explore how solving unglamorous problems creates fanatical customers. Dinakara shares hard truths about why productivity software beats regulatory software, how guaranteeing 10% efficiency shrinks sales cycles by 67%, and why hiring from the industry you serve changes everything. You'll discover why his customers became his sales force—without being asked.We also zoom in on two of the 10 traits that define remarkable software companies:They create fans, not customersThey sell the idea, not the productDinakara's 14-year journey proves that the most loyal customers come from solving their daily frustrations, not their strategic initiatives.Here's one of Dinakara's quotes that captures his contrarian philosophy:"Being remarkable shouldn't just be a slogan. You should make it as a responsibility. It's what you do when no one is watching. It's a system you build after the pitch is done, and it should be built with the highest level of accountability, with the most trust you can possibly put in. To me, the most remarkable companies don't scale high; they scale trust."By listening to this episode, you'll learn:How his customers became his sales forceWhat happens when you guarantee 10% productivity gainsWhen hiring only from aviation changed everythingWhy reducing organizational stress beats adding featuresFor more information about the guest from this week: Guest: Dinakara Nagalla, CEO & Founder of EmpowerMX (now part of IFS) Website: https://dinakaranagalla.com/
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#378 - How Samy Dindane achieved total business freedom by choosing who NOT to serve
A story about finding freedom by solving problems others ignored—on purpose.For SaaS founders tired of feature bloat—and wondering if serving fewer people better might be the smarter path to freedom.Most SaaS companies fail because they try to please everyone.They fail because they spread themselves across every platform, every feature request, every shiny opportunity.Samy Dindane, CEO of Hypefury, took a different path.He spotted a gap nobody else cared about—Twitter thread scheduling—and built a prototype in three days. Instead of raising money or hiring fast, he chose freedom through focus.And this inspired me to invite Samy to my podcast. We explore how deliberate constraints create stronger businesses. Samy shares hard-won insights about platform dependence, community-driven development, and knowing when to say no. You'll discover why his users became product owners and how charging more actually made customers happier.We also zoom in on two of the 10 traits that define remarkable software companies: – They acknowledge they can't please everyone – They master the art of curiositySamy's story is proof that sustainable freedom comes from saying no to good opportunities—not just bad ones.Here's one of Samy's quotes that captures his philosophy:"Whatever time you spend on something, you don't spend on something else. So whatever time you're going to try to build something crazy for another platform, it's the time you're not spending improving."By listening to this episode, you'll learn: Why power users matter more than market sizeWhat happens when the platform you depend on demands $500K yearly When adding features becomes a liability Why your best product managers pay you monthlyFor more information about the guest from this week: Guest: Samy Dindane, CEO HypefuryWebsite: hypefury.comWant to dig deeper into the 10 traits of remarkable SaaS companies? Get my book The Remarkable Effect at valueinspiration.com/book Or sign up for Espresso with Ton at valueinspiration.com/daily - a 2-minute daily email to sharpen your thinking and strategy.
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#374 - How Chad Rubin helps Amazon brands escape the pricing race to the bottom
#374 - How Chad Rubin helps Amazon brands escape the pricing race to the bottomA story about moving from being a cost center to becoming the profit engine—by challenging assumptions no one else dared to question.This Episode is for SaaS founders who are tired of customers seeing their solution as just another expense—and those questioning whether there's a smarter way to build something customers actually want to pay more for.Most SaaS companies position themselves as efficiency tools. They help you do things faster, cheaper, better.Chad Rubin, CEO of Profasee, took a different path. After selling his previous inventory management company in 2021, he had a realization: he was always building solutions that lived on the expense side of his customers' businesses. He wanted to be on the revenue side.So he started questioning assumptions in his own struggling Amazon business. Why doesn't anyone change price dynamically? Why do sellers copy pricing from competitors who might be broke?This led him to build Profasee—dynamic pricing software that uses AI to help Amazon brands optimize pricing and ad spend together, creating a flywheel that drives profit growth.And this inspired me to invite Chad to my podcast. We explore how questioning fundamental assumptions creates breakthrough opportunities. Chad shares insights about turning your founder story into sales leverage, the shift from efficiency to effectiveness in SaaS, and why data-driven pricing decisions compound over time. You'll discover how he's building a lean organization while investing heavily in AI and quant teams to create competitive moats.We also zoom in on two of the 10 traits that define remarkable software companies: – They acknowledge they can't please everyone – They sell the idea, not the productChad's story proves that the biggest levers are hiding in plain sight.Here's one of Chad's quotes that captures his contrarian philosophy:"You have to always be a dot, a dot collector. Constantly collecting dots. Most brands are not looking at their whole system. They're not zooming out to understand the process, understand with clear thinking, how you can have some self-awareness and look at, okay, price and PPC, how do these things interconnect?"By listening to this episode, you'll learn:Why questioning belief systems creates challenger advantages What happens when you connect isolated business leversWhat happens when you refuse to compete on other people's terms • Why founder stories become leverage in sales conversationsFor more information about the guest from this week: Guest: Chad Rubin, CEO of ProfaseeWebsite: profasee.com
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#373 – How Davit Baghdasaryan built the world's best voice AI by solving problems others ignored
A story about turning personal frustration into breakthrough technology—and why great products come from pain you actually feel.This Episode is for SaaS founders struggling to identify their real target audience—and wondering how to separate urgent problems from nice-to-have features.Most SaaS companies don't fail because of bad tech. They fail because they try to solve problems they don't actually feel.Davit Baghdasaryan, CEO of Krisp AI, took a different path. Former head of product security at Twilio, he spent evenings in Armenia taking morning calls from San Francisco—dealing with background noise that existing solutions couldn't touch. One personal frustration became the foundation for technology that now processes over a billion minutes monthly and powers 80% of human-to-AI voice interactions.And this inspired me to invite Davit to my podcast. We explore how building from real pain creates unbeatable product-market fit. Davit shares insights about choosing problems with no alternatives, why great demos feel like magic, and how focusing on essence over speed built technology that companies like Discord and Twilio now license. You'll discover why their "marketing experiment" desktop app became Product of the Year—and how they accidentally created infrastructure that now processes over a billion minutes monthly.We also zoom in on two of the 10 traits that define remarkable software companies: – They focus on the essence – They offer something valuable and desirableDavit's story proves that breakthrough technology starts with problems that personally bother you.Here's one of Davit's quotes that captures his philosophy on problem selection:"In order to understand the pain, you need to understand the alternative. If you are in an office, the alternative is to go find a quiet room—probably not that painful. But if you're in an airport or call center with people speaking next to you, there is no alternative."By listening to this episode, you'll learn:Why understanding alternatives reveals true market urgency What separating horizontal from vertical markets actually meansWhen building hard technology first pays off long-termWhy great demos feel magical instead of technicalFor more information about the guest from this week: Guest: Davit Baghdasaryan, CEO of Krisp AI Website: krisp.ai Weekly Voice AI newsletter
For B2B SaaS founders who are done blending in. The Remarkable SaaS Podcast features unfiltered conversations with SaaS founders navigating the real challenges of building software that matters. Hosted by Ton Dobbe, author of The Remarkable Effect, each episode zooms in on one of the 10 traits that define remarkable software companies—like offering something truly valuable and desirable, and aiming to be different, not just better. Some guests are scaling fast. Others are still in the trenches—but all share hard-won lessons about what it really takes to create pull, shorten sales cycles, and become the only logical choice in their market. Expect: Honest conversations—no hype, no theory Tactical insights from sales-led SaaS founders Practical ideas you can apply to sharpen your product and your positioning If you're building a SaaS business that deserves attention—not just more noise—this podcast is for you.
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