The Remarkable SaaS Podcast

A story about thinking harder while everyone builds faster.
This episode is for founders wondering why shipping faster with AI hasn't made their product any better.
Building has never been easier. That's exactly the problem.
Alex David spent a decade in pricing — Simon-Kucher, then Segment — before founding unSurvey, an AI company G2 acquired last year. Today, he leads AI Solutions there.
His worry is simple: the tools got cheap, but good judgment didn't. While everyone rushed to build, he kept asking the question most people skip ”Is this even worth building?”
This inspired me, hence I invited Alex to my podcast. We explore why the founders who win aren't the ones building fastest — they're the ones who know what's worth building. Alex shares why he walked away from a company that was working to start another and what a decade in pricing taught him about worth. You'll discover why the price was never yours to set — and what that changes about everything you build.
We also zoom in on two of the 10 traits that define remarkable software companies:
Master the art of curiosity (trait 4)
Create momentum (trait 8)
Alex's journey is an excellent example of the mindset that goes behind how remarkable software companies build something people just keep talking about.
Here's Alex's approach to deciding what to build and what not:
"The price is what the price is to the customer; that's what it's worth to them. You have two options: You build a product that is profitable within that constraint, or you have to spend a lot of marketing dollars to educate the customer on why they're wrong, and why it should be worth more."
By listening to this episode, you'll learn:
Why asking why matters more now that building costs almost nothing
What real momentum is made of — and why founders manufacture it
Why hope is what stops founders from pivoting in time
Why acquisitions live or die on people, not terms
For more information about the guest from this week:
Guest: Alex David, Founder and CEO of unSurvey. Today, GM of AI Solutions at G2
Website: g2.com (and g2.ai)

A story about the market everyone assumed was taken.
This episode is for founders wondering how to find room in a market owned by giants.
The biggest software market in the world looked fully taken.
Mazy Dar, CEO of Here, found room in it anyway. He spent 26 years on one pain the giants' browsers aren't built around — a browser made for work, not the public internet.
The world's biggest banks now run mission-critical work on it.
And this inspired me to invite Mazy to my podcast. We explore how you find room in a category owned by Google and Microsoft — and why the slice they leave open turned out to be sizeable. Mazy shares why he named the company after an idea rather than a product, and what he learned serving the most locked-down desktops in the world.
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
Mazy's journey proves that remarkable companies don't fight the giants head-on. They find the ground where they can become the only logical option.
Here's one of Mazy's quotes that captures how he thinks about a problem hiding in plain sight:
"This is not like a crazy concept. What's crazy is that in this one category of product, the web browser that's the most widely used in the world, it's the one area where the one size fits all seems to be the thing that everyone assumes is the correct answer."
By listening to this episode, you'll learn:
Why holding one problem for years can beat chasing the next trend
What it really costs to let big customers design your product for you
When to stop building only what your founding segment demands
Why selling the idea outlasts selling the product
For more information about the guest from this week:
Guest: Mazy Dar, co-founder & CEO of Here
Website: here.io
Mazy's email: mazy@here.io

A story about what compounds when you don't take the shortcut.
This episode is for sales-led SaaS founders who invested to grow fast but now realize they forgot to grow their differentiation.
Most software companies buy speed — they build on someone else's foundation — and never count the cost. Renaud Charvet, co-founder and US CEO of Ringover, took the opposite path. He started in 2005 selling cheap international calls, watched Skype and WhatsApp kill that business, and built something new from scratch. Bootstrapped for fifteen years, then raised to expand — and moved his family to the US to make it work. He's never once taken the shortcut.
And this inspired me to invite Renaud to my podcast. We explore how choosing ownership over speed creates an edge competitors can't copy. Renaud shares how he thinks about what's worth owning, where to focus, and what actually makes customers stay. You'll discover why the slow, expensive choice compounded into something no shortcut could match.
We also zoom in on two of the 10 traits that define remarkable software companies: – Aim to be different, not just better – Acknowledge you cannot please everyone
Renaud's journey proves remarkable companies don't copy the playbook — they own what others rent and let the advantage compound.
Here's one of Renaud's quotes that captures how he thinks about building an edge:
"Focus — it might feel slower in the short term, but it compounds much faster in the long term."
By listening to this episode, you'll learn:
What you give up the day you build on someone else's stack
What changes when you stop selling features and start selling outcomes
What he did when the US market ignored him
Why the customers easiest to win are the ones who leave
For more information about the guest from this week:
Guest: Renaud Charvet, co-founder and US CEO of Ringover
Website: ringover.com

A story about choosing the one thing no competitor would copy.
This episode is for sales-led SaaS founders stuck in a crowded category, wondering how to escape the price-and-features war
In a crowded category, most founders just try to win it. Stan Markuze, CEO of Balance, did something else. Five companies in, with two auto-tech exits and a decade in real estate, he'd seen what a price war looks like. So when seven companies were selling the same treasury tool, he refused to be the seventh.
And this inspired me to invite Stan to my podcast. We explore how refusing to compete on everyone else's terms creates an edge no rival can copy. Stan shares why he walked away from a feature-and-price war, and what turns a quiet user into a vocal one. You'll discover what happened to his sales cycle once buying his product stopped being a debate.
We also zoom in on two of the 10 traits that define remarkable software companies: – Aim to be different, not just better – Turn customers into fans
Stan's story proves remarkable companies don't fight harder inside the category—they change what they get measured on.
Here's one of Stan's quotes that captures how he thinks about the standard SaaS model:
"We turned the business model upside down. Usually, you pay an annual SaaS fee for a treasury management product. What we do is, if people sweep cash through our platform, for those who sweep a certain threshold, we would actually give them the treasury management system at no cost, because we're able to monetize the automatic sweeps."
By listening to this episode, you'll learn:
Why removing friction you can't see beats chasing growth you can
What makes an ROI concrete enough to close on the first call
Why the metric you stop tracking matters as much as the one you keep
How a tight niche turns happy customers into a referral flywheel
For more information about the guest from this week:
Guest: Stan Markuze, CEO of Balance
Website: balancecash.io

A story about choosing the harder fight on purpose.
This episode is for SaaS founders wondering why adding more features to their niche product isn't creating the edge it used to.
Most niche SaaS races to add features—and wonders why margins shrink.
Martin Gourdeau, CEO of Vacation Tracker, took a different path. After running Workleap as President and GM, he took a year off to study what's actually changing in software—then chose a 22-person bootstrapped company over another large stage.
And he didn't pick Vacation Tracker by accident. He picked it because he believes the next wave of software will be won by a very different kind of company.
And this inspired me to invite Martin to my podcast. We explore what he saw in that year off—and why it shaped a very different bet on what wins next. Martin shares why a small bootstrapped company now has an edge most large companies will never get back, why he changed the one number that decides when his whole team gets a raise, and what kind of SaaS he thinks AI will quietly destroy.
We also zoom in on two of the 10 traits that define remarkable software companies: – Aim to be different, not just better – Create NEW value possibilities
Martin's journey proves that the next wave of remarkable software companies won't look like the last.
Here's something Martin observed that explains where he thinks the real opportunity sits:
"High performers are notoriously bad at managing their energy levels because of this obsession to perform."
By listening to this episode, you'll learn:
Why most SaaS companies are competing in the wrong layer
Why ARR-per-head changes the behavior of every employee
What high performers get wrong about their own energy
Why delegation to agents is the skill most leaders lack
For more information about the guest from this week:
Guest: Martin Gourdeau, CEO of Vacation Tracker
Website: https://vacationtracker.io