Tech Entrepreneur on a Mission Podcast

• #348 - Marco Benitez, CEO of Rook - on transforming health data into enterprise value.

  This podcast interview focuses on the entrepreneurial journey to transform messy wearable data into standardized enterprise gold. My guest is Marco Benitez, CEO of Rook. Marco is a tech entrepreneur on a mission. He's a former Tae Kwon Do champion who transformed his athletic discipline into entrepreneurial success.  At just 22 years old (while still in college), he and his co-founder built a machine learning system for hospitals, which they successfully sold in 2006. This got him involved in clinical research - thereby working for pharmaceutical giants like Roche and Novartis. This is where stumbled across big challenges that were caused by the absence of enough meaningful health data. And this became the founding idea behind ROOK, which he founded in June 2017.  What began as a heart rate monitoring platform in 2018 evolved into a sophisticated B2B platform that now integrates with over 300 wearable devices.  Their vision: to create a healthier world by making health data accessible and meaningful.  And this inspired me, and hence I invited Marco to my podcast. We explore the journey of building a groundbreaking health data platform. Marco tells the story how COVID destroyed their fitness-center business model, and what lessons he learned in the process of pivoting. He shares his insights on enterprise sales cycles, pricing strategy, and team building. Last but not least he explains how he's deliberately portraying the startup's challenges to find the right cultural fit and his mantra of "cut through the noise and keep walking" when it comes to facing tough decisions.  Here's one of his quotes Once you switch your mind, instead of selling a product, you are selling data, and you are really selling a problem, that's when they put your price on you. Because if you are selling a very good solution to their problem, that's when they are will say, ‘This is a no-brainer. I don't care how much you are going to charge to me.’ During this interview, you will learn four things: What insights changed their ability to charge premium prices in enterprise deals? What's he's doubling down on successfully to shorten the typically long sales cycles.  Why he emphasizes radical transparency, sharing financials and challenges with potential hires. His secrets to staying persistent and disciplined, even when facing doubts or lack of motivation For more information about the guest from this week: Marco Benitez Website: Rook  Subscribe to the Daily SaaS Reflection Get my free, 1 min daily reflection on shaping a B2B SaaS business no one can ignore. Subscribe here Yes, it’s actually daily. And yes, people actually stay subscribed (Just see what peer B2B SaaS CEOs say) My promise: It’s short. To the point. Inspiring. And valuable. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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• #347 - Mark Fershteyn, CEO, Recapped - on transforming complex B2B sales

  This podcast interview focuses on the entrepreneurial journey to make buying and selling in B2B remarkably easier.  My guest is Mark Fershteyn, Founder and CEO of Recapped. Mark is a tech entrepreneur on a mission. He has a passion for building things from scratch. He specifically prefers going from "zero to one" rather than maintaining existing systems, describing himself as someone who enjoys "bushwhacking through the jungle" and forging new trails. His entrepreneurial journey includes diverse experiences: He co-founded Tryhard Games LLC. Led sales at App Academy, a coding bootcamp, and has a remarkable history of taking on challenging situations. At Citrix, he volunteered to manage their worst-performing sales team - one where no one was making quota. Within 6-9 months, he transformed it into a top-three revenue-producing vertical. In Jun 2019, Mark founded Recapped, a customer collaboration platform that helps B2B sellers work more effectively with buyers.  Their mission: to solve the "messy middle" of sales and change the way how B2B sales teams collaborate with buyers and close deals.  And this inspired me, and hence I invited Mark to my podcast. We explore how he transformed Recapped from a side project into a game-changing deal collaboration platform, achieving a remarkable 44% win rate for customers - far above the industry standard of 15-18%. He reveals counterintuitive insights from his sales process optimization at Citrix and elaborates on his approach to building a remarkable software company. Last but not least, he shares his unusual incentive approach that helped him and his team to significantly grow a high-quality pipeline. Here's one of his quotes I fundamentally believe 90% of your Salesforce data should be client-facing and should be shared with the prospect... if you're not on the same page, get them out of your pipeline and go focus on deals that are actually going to move the needle. During this interview, you will learn four things: Why he would split the focus 50/50 between product and distribution if he would ever start again? How he's increased close rates by deliberately blending in more professional services How 10% of features but 10x the marketing can outperform having more features but less visibility How the science of selling is 80-90% of success, while art is only 10-20% - making the process repeatable matters more than individual talent For more information about the guest from this week: Mark Fershteyn Website: Recapped Subscribe to the Daily SaaS Reflection Get my free, 1 min daily reflection on shaping a B2B SaaS business no one can ignore. Subscribe here Yes, it’s actually daily. And yes, people actually stay subscribed (Just see what peer B2B SaaS CEOs say) My promise: It’s short. To the point. Inspiring. And valuable. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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• #346 - Randy Wootton, CEO of Maxio - on strategic growth through integration

  This podcast interview focuses on the entrepreneurial journey to successfully merge and integrate two distinct SaaS companies while balancing stakeholder interests, maintaining growth, and navigating complex market dynamics. My guest is Randy Wootton, CEO of Maxio. Randy is a serial CEO. Before becoming CEO, he held senior positions at industry giants like Microsoft and Salesforce, where he led sales, service, and marketing teams. His career has given him a truly global outlook. He has worked internationally, opening up divisions in England and Australia, and has hired teams across multiple countries, including France, the UK, the US, Japan, and Australia. In March 2015 he moved to Rocket Fuel, a first-generation AI company. He started as their CRO, quickly turned CEO, and took the company private 2 years later. He then became the CEO of Percolate, where he led the company's transformation from a mid-market social media product to an industry-leading content marketing platform.  And now, since May 2022, he is the CEO of Maxio, a billing and finance operations platform for B2B SaaS companies. Their mission: to help its customers amplify their recurring revenue and decipher their next stage of growth. And this inspired me, and hence I invited Randy to my podcast. He provides invaluable insights for B2B SaaS CEOs navigating growth and mergers by sharing candid experiences from this process. He discusses his strategic decision-making frameworks and highlights the challenges of brand management post-merger and the complexities of transitioning from sales-led to product-led growth. He also zooms into the complexities of expanding into new markets and how to go about that. He ends with advice on fostering innovation, managing stakeholder expectations, and personal development.  Here's one of his quotes As you think about your expansion strategy and your growth agenda, there's going to be a set of things you're just going to grow within your current segment. But then you're going to think about which category we should explore next. But as you start, you've got to get really clear about what you do better than anyone else. During this interview, you will learn four things: The four key support pillars for B2B SaaS CEOs. How to go about merging distinct company cultures so the business becomes stronger and keeps delivering on growth expectations. What he would have done differently if he could deal with the branding opportunity again. His framework for evaluating expansion opportunities to find the next area of growth for the company. For more information about the guest from this week: Randy Wootton Website: Maxio Subscribe to the Daily SaaS Reflection Get my free, 1 min daily reflection on shaping a B2B SaaS business no one can ignore. Subscribe here Yes, it’s actually daily. And yes, people actually stay subscribed (Just see what peer B2B SaaS CEOs say) My promise: It’s short. To the point. Inspiring. And valuable. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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• #345 - Evan Huck, CEO of UserEvidence - on customer evidence democratization.

  This podcast interview focuses on the entrepreneurial journey to democratize customer evidence and change the way B2B software buying decisions are made.  My guest is Evan Huck, Co-founder and CEO of UserEvidence. Evan's journey in the tech industry is a testament to his entrepreneurial spirit and sales acumen. He started his career as an SDR (Sales Development Representative) in 2010, joining TechValidate as their first sales employee. This early experience laid the foundation for his future success. What's remarkable about Evan's career trajectory is how he rapidly climbed the ranks in sales leadership. At TechValidate, he built and managed the sales organization, growing it to a 50-person team. His success in this role led to TechValidate's acquisition by SurveyMonkey in 2015, where Evan continued to excel in enterprise sales leadership positions. Despite his success in larger companies, Evan's passion for early-stage startups led him to co-found UserEvidence in August 2020. This move was inspired by his firsthand experience of the pain points in B2B sales and marketing, particularly the challenge of creating and leveraging customer stories at scale. Their mission: Helping quality software vendors with satisfied customers stand out in a noisy marketplace. And this inspired me, and hence I invited Evan to my podcast. We explore how the process of collecting quality customer evidence is still broken. Evan explains how they're approaching the problem in a way that was unthinkable before. He shares strategies for cutting through the intense market noise today. Last but not least he elaborates his lessons learned from building successful sales teams from the ground up with junior talent. Here's one of his quotes What we're trying to do is introduce some truth or scientific rigor or data driven approach to helping buyers assess the value that a vendor is delivering.  I'd argue that the stakes are getting a little bit higher today, where there is a big cost if you get something wrong. Without infinite budgets now and infinite VC funding like you kind of got to get it right.  During this interview, you will learn four things: What's working well for UserEvidence's own growth and pipeline generation when it comes to reaching the right buyer via outbound. Why Evan's deliberately choosing to organize his business around sales-led growth, not product-led growth.  What non-obvious opportunity many companies have when they centralize and democratize customer feedback across company functions Why he'd focus on more durable categories like vertical SaaS over crowded go-to-market tools if he'd had the chance next time. For more information about the guest from this week: Evan Huck Website: UserEvidence Subscribe to the Daily SaaS Reflection Get my free, 1 min daily reflection on shaping a B2B SaaS business no one can ignore. Subscribe here Yes, it’s actually daily. And yes, people actually stay subscribed (Just see what peer B2B SaaS CEOs say) My promise: It’s short. To the point. Inspiring. And valuable. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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• #344 - Wes Bush, Founder of Productled.com - on product-led business transformation

  This podcast interview focuses on the challenges and strategies of implementing product-led growth (PLG) effectively (and when to stay out of PLG). My guest is Wes Bush, product-led growth pioneer, founder of Productled.com, and bestselling author. Wes is widely recognized as one of the pioneers of the product-led growth movement, challenging an entire industry to rethink their approach to SaaS growth. In 2016, he introduced a freemium product at Vidyard that gained over 100,000 users in less than 12 months, sparking his passion for PLG. He's a Bestselling Author: His book "Product-Led Growth: How to Build a Product That Sells Itself" has sold over 100,000 copies globally, primarily through word-of-mouth.  Meanwhile, he has partnered with 408+ SaaS companies to generate over $1bn in self-serve revenue. Based on that experience, he recently released his new book, The Product-Led Playbook, to discover a simple system to scale your SaaS to 7, 8, or even 9 figures in self-serve revenue with a small team. His vision:  For every company to have a free product experience that enables them to serve before they sell.  This inspired me, and hence, I invited Wes to my podcast. We explore the critical differences between successful and unsuccessful PLG implementations. He highlights the importance of treating PLG as a comprehensive business strategy, not merely a product or marketing tactic. We discuss the importance of choosing the right go-to-market strategy based on product complexity and value addition. I.e., when to opt for Sales-led Growth, and when for Product-Led growth. Last but not least, he shares his framework for deciding what to offer at no cost.  Here's one of his  quotes What separates the companies that really see success with product-led growth versus the ones that don't? ... They are thinking about product-led growth not just as a product thing; they are treating it as a company thing. They are actually building a product-led business. During this interview, you will learn four things: What key questions to ask to determine which approach fits your SaaS company better  What's required to be crystal clear about before implementing PLG?  Why he believes a hybrid PLG + Sales-led growth approach will become dominant (60%+) for B2B SaaS, with pure PLG and pure sales-led each around 20% What we can learn from PLG when it comes to building better websites? For more information about the guest from this week: Wes Bush Website: Productled.com Subscribe to the Daily SaaS Reflection Get my free, 1 min daily reflection on shaping a B2B SaaS business no one can ignore. Subscribe here Yes, it’s actually daily. And yes, people actually stay subscribed (Just see what peer B2B SaaS CEOs say) My promise: It’s short. To the point. Inspiring. And valuable. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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