The Remarkable SaaS Podcast

A story about saying no to the volume everyone wants.
This episode is for SaaS founders who assume a big market means there's enough room in it for them to take a share.
Most software companies chase the biggest pile of volume.
Tony Migliore has a different view. He's the founder and CEO of Moova, a last-mile delivery company in Latin America. Thirty years in logistics taught him where he has no right to win.
So for Moova, he consistently turns down high-volume work priced at cents. He'd rather serve fewer retailers who need something the cheap operators cannot give them.
This inspired me to invite Tony to my podcast. We explore why the biggest pool of volume is the worst place to compete. Tony shares how he decides where he can compete in a commodity market, and why some of his clients pay more than they have to.
We zoom in on two of the ten traits of remarkable software companies:
Offer something valuable and desirable
Acknowledge you cannot please everyone
Both are chapters in The Remarkable Effect.
Here's one of Tony's quotes that captures how he decides where to compete:
"Keep your eye much more sophisticated on who are your clients, who will be paying for your service, where you have the right to win, why they will be purchasing your technology instead of others. You need to keep a focus. Optimism is not a strategy"
By listening to this episode, you'll learn:
Why a big market says nothing about your right to win
What your customer is really buying when your service looks like a commodity
When volume starts costing you more than it pays
How domain knowledge outlives the technology you build on
For more information about the guest from this week:
Guest: Tony Migliore, founder and CEO, Moova
Website: moova.io and moovatech.ai

A story about saying no to good, paying work.
This episode is for founders whose deals keep stalling, no matter how hard the team works.
A typical mantra in business software is that you build products that technically everyone can use - simply because that creates the biggest market opportunity.
Amarjot Singh, founder and CEO of Skylark Labs, doesn't. He grew up watching his father serve in the Indian Army infantry, in combat. His first project after his PhD was software that helped rescue children from brothels.
This has turned into a mindset where he only builds products for situations where someone's life is on the line. Everything else he says no to - even if there's good money associated with it.
And this inspired me to invite Amarjot to my podcast. We explore how choosing problems by risk to human life changes who does the selling. He shares who and what he walked away from, and how that helped him to build something the right customers cannot live without.
We also zoom in on two of the 10 traits that define remarkable software companies:
Acknowledge you cannot please everyone
Sell the idea, not the product
Both are chapters in The Remarkable Effect.
Here's one of Amarjot's quotes that captures how he thinks about demand:
"The beauty of this kind of technology is that you don't actually have to sell. The user will sell you … Once you are able to get to that point, then the sky is the limit.”
By listening to this episode, you'll learn:
Why the size of the problem matters less than what it costs the buyer to leave it unsolved
What changes in a deal when the buyer has no fallback
When to tell a customer "this is the maximum we will do"
How to tell whether a pilot will lead anywhere before you commit the team
For more information about the guest from this week:
Guest: Amarjot Singh, founder and CEO, Skylark Labs
Website: skylarklabs.ai

A story about saying no until you're the only option.
This episode is for founders who believe a horizontal product means a horizontal go-to-market.
A product for everyone still needs a market of one.
Dima Gutzeit, founder and CEO of LeapXpert, watched bankers in Hong Kong do their real work on WhatsApp in 2017, then spent two years building before selling anything. He wrote a large part of that first product himself.
He built something that fits any industry. Then he turned down almost every industry that asked. Today he sets the terms, not only the price.
And this inspired me to invite Dima to my podcast. We explore why he said no to marketing applications, CPaaS, and the contact centre business, and how that gave him the upper hand in the one category he kept in focus. You'll discover what he can ask of a customer today that he couldn't ask for in the early years.
We also zoom in on two of the 10 traits that define remarkable software companies:
Acknowledge you cannot please everyone
Aim to be different, not just better
Both are chapters in The Remarkable Effect.
Remarkable companies decide who they are not for before the market decides for them.
Here's one of Dima's quotes that captures how he thinks about what focus buys you:
"In today's market, the only way to win is not the product. Anybody can create a product; it's velocity"
By listening to this episode, you'll learn:
Why a horizontal product and a horizontal go-to-market are separate decisions
What saying no protects when the market starts pulling you sideways
When the bigger customer gives you more room instead of less
How years of focus turn into the speed you need later
For more information about the guest from this week:
Guest: Dima Gutzeit, founder and CEO, LeapXpert
Website: leapxpert.com

A story about picking a fight your biggest competitor cannot win.
This episode is for founders who believe the only answer to a bigger player copying them is to build faster.
Most founders fear the day the giant copies them.
It happened to Cyril Golub, CEO of Jinnify — Amazon shipped what they'd built within months. He'd spent twenty years inside e-commerce, long enough to know how marketplaces actually make their money.
So, his answer wasn't to beat them by building faster.
This inspired me to invite Cyril to my podcast. We explore why the strongest position isn't the one you defend, but the one your competitor cannot afford to take. Cyril shares what twenty years inside e-commerce taught him about reading a competitor. You'll discover what he saw in Amazon's business model that decided how he competes.
We also zoom in on two of the 10 traits that define remarkable software companies:
Master the art of curiosity
Aim to be different, not just better
Both are chapters in The Remarkable Effect.
Cyril's story proves that remarkable companies don't out-build the giant. They choose ground the giant cannot take without damaging itself.
Here's one of Cyril's quotes that captures how he thinks about growth:
"The company should be ready to change, probably completely change level by level, and the main limiter here is the mindset of the founder and CEO."
By listening to this episode, you'll learn:
Why the real limit on scaling sits in the founder's head, not the market
Why two founders make better decisions than three
Why the safest position is one your competitor can't copy without hurting itself
What to study when a platform starts building what you built
For more information about the guest from this week:
Guest: Cyril Golub, Founder and CEO of Jinnify
Website: jinnify.ai

A story about what he kept, and what he cut.
For SaaS founders whose growth has stalled and who can't tell whether the problem is the company or the plan.
Most new CEOs tear down what they inherit.
Martin Payne, CEO of TextUs, took a different path. He replaced the founder CEO in April 2020. Growth had flatlined, cash was burning, and he laid off a third of the company in his first year.
The business is now at $20M. He'll tell you most of what got it there was already in the building.
And this inspired me to invite Martin to my podcast. We explore why a stalled company has more going for it than anyone inside can see. Martin shares what he found in his first months, the hardest call he had to make, and a culture his employees wrote. You'll discover the one thing he did twice, six years apart, for the same reason.
We also zoom in on two of the 10 traits that define remarkable software companies:
Master the art of curiosity
Offer something valuable AND desirable
Martin's story proves that remarkable companies read the signs others stopped noticing.
Here's one of Martin's quotes that captures how he sized up what he inherited:
"I came into the company thinking this is not a turnaround situation. This is a fine-tune, refine situation. And so I just went in with the mindset of there's goodness here. Now let me understand more specifically where the goodness is. Let me understand where specifically things need to be removed or changed."
By listening to this episode, you'll learn:
Why a stalled company rarely needs the rebuild everyone assumes
What intellectual honesty looks like when you inherit someone else's company
When retention tells you more about growth than new revenue does
How to make culture stick
For more information about the guest from this week:
Guest: Martin Payne, CEO of TextUs
Website: textus.com

Nice surprise this week: Feedspot ranked The Remarkable SaaS Podcast 17th in their Top 70 Tech Startup Podcasts. Thanks for listening — that's the only reason it's there.