Tech Entrepreneur on a Mission Podcast Evergreen Podcasts

This podcast interview focuses on the entrepreneurial journey to turn a Defense Contractor product spin-off into a scalable SaaS business. My guest is Masha Petrova Ph.D., Co-founder and CEO of Nullspace
After receiving her PhD in aerospace engineering, Dr. Petrova spent 15+ years in the engineering simulation and design software industry, including holding global marketing executive roles at Ansys, Altium LLC, and  IncMSC Software. She also worked at three simulation software start-ups, all of which were acquired by Ansys Inc. in the last 10 years.
In January 2023 she co-founded Nullspace - a spin-off from a Defense contractor business. Their mission: To solve the fast-worsening shortage of electromagnetic engineers needed to meet today’s radiofrequency technology demands.
And this inspired me, and hence I invited Masha to my podcast. We explore the lessons learned from spinning off a software product from a Defense Contractor business and to build a SaaS business. Masha emphasizes the importance of co-founder chemistry, and shares the unexpected lessons learned from her fund-raising process. She shares her insights on how to adapt sales and marketing strategies for the conservative engineering fields. Last but not least she elaborates why solving a highly valuable problem through product innovation alone is not enough to succeed. 

Here's one of her quotes
Sure we could have grown by sales only, or by raising angel funding. But what we really want is, because we know that our solution is viable and Product Market Fit has already been tested, we really want to push the button on sales and marketing. 
And right now this space is very hot. There's been a whole bunch of unprecedented acquisitions and engineering software that happened recently. There is a company that just announced coming out of stealth with 115 million in VC funding. Not series A or Series B, out of stealth …. in this engineering software space that no one usually talks about unless you're an engineer.

During this interview, you will learn four things:

How to navigate Fundraising successfully by embracing some valuable lessons in communication and resilience.

How to win over conservative, facts-oriented engineers when marketing your SaaS product and optimally enable your team.

How to use pricing as a key element of differentiation for your SaaS offering.

How to avoid having to pivot at the moment of launching your SaaS product because of missing some technical details.


For more information about the guest from this week:

Masha Petrova Ph.D.

Website: Nullspace





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This podcast interview focuses on do's & don'ts that matter if you want your Service business to become successful in SaaS. My guest is Slava Libman, CEO of FTD Solutions.
Slava is a driven innovator with +25 years of international experience and thought leader in the space of environmental sustainability in industrial facilities. He has a PhD in Environmental Engineering, and has spent his entire career focused on water technology and its impact on the industry. 
He leads teams in Ultra Pure Water, industrial water treatment, and facilities technology development, thereby challenging conventional thinking to drive progress.
In May 2017 he founded FTD Solutions - a Digital Twin platform with embedded expertise to enable new standards of sustainability in industrial facilities
Their mission: To redefine the way these industrial facilities approach solving problems and drive sustainability performance.
And this triggered me, and hence I invited Slava to my podcast. We explore the seven-year journey of transitioning from a consulting firm to a pioneering B2B SaaS company. Slava shared his big lessons learned on the importance of aligning product development with market needs and the sequencing and focusing of his go-to-market strategy. He elaborates how traction changed when they shifted from a transaction-oriented approach to a value-/outcome based approach. Last but not least he shares how emphasizing mission, principles, and value helped with alignment and keeping the organization lean.

Here's one of his quotes
When we try to help companies minimize their expenses, they ask the question, 'Okay, so what does your enrollment mean from the expense point of view?' 
So, our focus is on value creation. We believe that if we can create significant value for our customers, then the question of monetization and expenses will not be a roadblock. And in reality, that's the case.

During this interview, you will learn four things:

Why he decided to focus the business on the most complex type of customer segment first and how that paid off.

Why it's so beneficial to search for unique dynamics at your customers when seeking ways to differentiate your SaaS product.

What approach he's using so that everyone in the company lives the company values - every single day. 

Why he does't deal with weaknesses in his business.


For more information about the guest from this week:

Slava Libman

Website: FTD Solutions




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(Just see what peer B2B SaaS CEOs say)
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This podcast interview focuses on the entrepreneurial journey to solve the growing issue of knowledge worker unproductivity. My guest is Pete Christothoulou, CEO of Xembly.
Pete Christothoulou is a serial entrepreneur. In 2003, he co-founded Marche, a publicly traded conversational analytics business. 
In November 2020 he founded Xembly - The first automated chief of staff.
Its mission: Ensure your company isn't left behind as we're entering a new era of productivity.
This inspired me, so I invited Pete to my podcast. We explore what's broken in the world of increasing knowledge worker productivity. Pete shares his vision for reclaiming 44 billion hours annually in the US alone. He elaborates on how he accelerated his way to product-market fit and, from there, predictable traction. Last but not least, he shares what he'd do again if he ever started another Startup.

Here's one of his quotes
I agree with everyone that we have a transformative opportunity. So I think that's obvious. Where I don't agree is here: if we're not careful, AI will actually create more distraction for us and more pain as consumers, if we're not mindful.

During this interview, you will learn four things:

How to gather crucial feedback, even if your product isn't fully developed.

Why he chose to focus on enterprise customers instead of a potentially much larger SMB market.

What single metric he's staring at all day to see whether they make a difference

What's the difference between a co-pilot and an auto-pilot, and why this distinction could also affect your SaaS business?


For more information about the guest from this week:

Pete Christothoulou

Website: Xembly




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This podcast outlines key strategies for SaaS CEOs to explore in 2024 to optimally prepare for 2025. My guest is Vinnie Mirchandani, Founder of Deal Architect. 
Vinnie has become a regular guest on my podcast. This is the fourth time over the past 7 seasons. He’s the founder of Deal Architect – a Technology strategy and negotiation firm, a former Gartner analyst, and the author of Silicon Collar, SAP Nation, The New Polymath, and The New Technology Elite - which emphasize technology-enabled innovation using lots of case studies and use cases across industries and countries 
He's also the prime interviewer/curator of thought leadership books for C-level executives at technology vendors SAP, Software AG, and IFS 
In this podcast, we explore the evolving landscape of SaaS businesses together. We delve into the future of SaaS for 2024, discussing optimistic and rational viewpoints on market trends, highlighting the most important metrics to give extra focus, and discussing the shift towards customer-centric revenue models over traditional funding avenues. 
We also address the untapped potential of generative AI and operational automation to enhance productivity and innovation in the B2B SaaS space. Furthermore, we explore what muscles to build to stay relevant in this rapidly changing and evolving market of Software as a Service. 

Here's one of Vinnie's quotes
Investors are sometimes fashion-driven. They follow what their colleagues tell them is predictable. So you don't often get the best advice by listening to investors. You have to go to the edge of the enterprise, to the remote parts of the world, sometimes to find opportunities.

During this interview, you will learn four things:

Why creating Funding freedom is essential for long-term SaaS success.

Which metrics to embrace to keep your SaaS business healthy as customer expectations evolve.

What routes to consider to access new technologies and markets with more speed.

Where to focus to seize growth opportunities beyond traditional markets



For more information about the guest from this week:

Vinnie Mirchandani

His blog: New Florence. New Renaissance


Website: Deal Architect 




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(Just see what peer B2B SaaS CEOs say)
My promise: It’s short. To the point. Inspiring. And valuable.

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This podcast interview focuses on the resilience lessons learned from running a successful business software company for +34 years. My guest is Dean Guida, CEO of Infragistics.
Dean has over 34 years of experience as a CEO and founder of Infragistics, a user interface development tools platform, and an expert in User-Centered Design. 
He scaled the business globally across 6 countries with a client roster that includes 100% of the S&P 500. 
What is special is that he guided Infragistics to withstand a series of tumultuous moments in the Internet’s ongoing evolution (think: the dot-com tech bubble of the late 90s, the explosion of the Internet, and the 2008 recession). 
Not that he got lucky– or happened to be in the right place at the right time, or worked harder than the next guy. He did it by crystallizing the insights at each key moment along the way–from common growing pains to completely unpredictable challenges–into a hard-won philosophy.
All his lessons are now bundled in his new book, “When Grit is Not Enough.”
And this inspired me, and hence I invited Dean to my podcast. We explore an inspiring journey of resilience of running a successful software business for +34 years. Dean talks about his near failures and shares the big lessons he learned to come out stronger, again and again. He digs into the fundamentals to build a resilient software business and how he's incorporating that into the day-to-day work, so it's lived to the fullest.

Here's one of his quotes
There's nothing like the fear of going out of business to sit in your brain, "how can you do this better next time?" And, what it comes down to is really early investment is making bets on the future where you think the future is, and spending your money there. Even though if you report to others who want to have better financial performance, you have to always keep investing in the future and refreshing your technology. And like there's this great analogy that software's like lettuce it, as soon as you have it, it's already wilting.

During this interview, you will learn four things:

How to achieve the Financial resilience to be able to don't fall behind.

What to prioritize to ensure culture stays healthy and everyone stays on track with the direction?

What two simple instruments Dean uses to navigate tough times.

How to build trust in periods where you have to lay off people.


For more information about the guest from this week:

Dean Guida

Website: Infragistics


Deans' book: When Grit is Not Enough




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Yes, it’s actually daily. And yes, people actually stay subscribed
(Just see what peer B2B SaaS CEOs say)
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This podcast interview focuses on the journey to take a SaaS business to $1M+ . My guest is Justin Chen, Co-founder and CEO of PickFu.
When Justin and his co-founder John Li were working on another business they disagreed and wanted a fast, informed way to break the tie. 
Being software engineers, they built it - and that is what sparked the big idea behind PickFu.
Although it stayed on the back burner for years, like all the best treasures on the internet, people discovered it. Customers used the polling platform and shared it with their friends. Then, in 2018 they started to see increased attention from e-commerce conferences and podcasts, which is where they realized they had built something truly useful.
And this inspired me, and hence I invited Justin to my podcast. We explore what's broken in consumer research. Justin takes us through his journey to the moment they decided to go all in. He explains why he decided to niche down - and what criteria appeared to be really important to get traction. He elaborates on how they're creating defensible differentiation. Last but not least he explains how they're designing for stickiness across product, customer success, and marketing. 

Here's one of his quotes
The focus on industries is super important. Because it's really hard to market a general-purpose tool. But when you're able to speak directly to people about their problems, and their use cases, it resonates so much more quickly. So for E-commerce and gaming, doing the marketing and starting to tailor the product much more specifically to those industries has been really important to getting our traction


During this interview, you will learn four things:

How often the best solutions are not the ones that help you do the task correctly, but giving confidence to even consider doing the task at all.  

That even if companies have sorted your problem higher in the organization, it doesn't mean everyone has access to that.

How focusing on habit building helped to make the product mission critical for some verticals - and reduce churn.

What adjustments he's making to make NRR calculation more reliable and relevant. 


For more information about the guest from this week:

Justin Chen

Website: PickFu




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.

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