SAAS Operators

SAAS Operators

3 CEOs from some of the fastest growing software brands and Jack trying to get as much information out of them as possible.

  1. 5 DAYS AGO

    E41: How to build for Shopify in 2026 with Daniel Patricio

    In this episode of the SaaS Operators, we talked to Daniel Patricio, the founder of ABRA Promotions. Daniel told us his story, from building startups in university, to working at a fast growing design agency, to spending eight years at Shopify through the IPO, and then leaving in 2021 to go full time on his own ecommerce business, selling South African Biltong.We talked about what broke for him after iOS 14, how discounts and offers are still way more complicated than they should be, and the moment he realized merchants needed storefront pricing that actually changes for the customer who is eligible.Daniel explains how ABRA started as a prototype in 2022, why the first year hard because nobody understood the product, and how Shopify’s shift from Scripts to Functions helped ABRA become the answer for more advanced discount use cases. He also shares what it looked like to grow 14x in a year, then another 3x the year after, and why staying bootstrapped gave them more optionality.We talked about Shopify’s direction, what “enterprise” really means in ecommerce, why the best merchants move fast and the enterprise moves slowly, and whether Shopify could ever build around ABRA or if the discount problem becomes big enough, just acquire a discounts app.We also get into ABRA’s partnership driven go to market, why positioning is less important than finding specific cracks partners care about, and how an eight person team ships quickly by keeping engineers close to the problem and avoiding heavy specialization.

    51 min

  2. 26 JAN

    E40: Making Money with Memes with Jason Levin

    In this episode of the SAAS Operators Podcast, we talked to Jason Levin, the founder of Memelord. Jason explained how memes are the most useful tool for growth on the internet, and how “posting” is quickly becoming a necessity skill. We talked about government accounts memeing like creators, why shareability is more important than polish and professionalism and how Jason thinks about “memetic warfare” as distribution for ideas. Jason explains why he chose SAAS over media, how Memelord grew out of a simple problem he had himself and built in Bubble, and how improvements in AI agentic coding have made commercializing what you build the challenge, not building. We talked about how great ads might actually be memes, the decision between hard work and leverage work, and why most people are building random side projects with no business model. We also talk about copycats, why building one is a waste of a life, and how building software is getting easier every month.

    57 min

  3. 19 JAN

    E39: Jack learns about Tech Debt

    In this episode of the SAAS Operators, we go from HVAC techs to stablecoins to tech debt, the question is the balance between speed to market and borrowing from the future.The trades, like HVAC techs, are winning because real work still needs to get done. Zach explains about how he's running ads for his brothers home services business, and says it’s basically shooting fish in a barrel. If he ever moves to the jungle he's turning into a media buyer.Then we talk about 2026, how building is getting cheaper, teams are getting smaller, and the bar is moving. Taylor Holiday describes stablecoins as contribution margin tech because traditional rails, wires and card fees are stuck in the Stone Age.The conversation closes on velocity and speed of change. How most decisions are two way doors, and why Jack believes shipping more, worrying less, and how “doing it right” kills momentum. But let's be honest, Jack's still learning about tech debt.

    44 min

  4. 5 JAN

    E38: The Repeatable Launch Strategy with Matt Espinoza and Ryan Kaufman from Clover Labs

    In this episode of the SAAS Operators Podcast, we sat down with Matt Espinoza and Ryan Kaufman, the founders of Clover Labs to unpack how they're building a holding company designed to launch and scale multiple SaaS offers in parallel. Clover Labs is a 6 month old, 42 man team that increased MRR by 200K with one Slack message. We talk how they deliver LLM SEO in a fast changing environment, how organic is hard to measure, and the three buckets they anchor on when clients ask “what am I buying?” Matt and Ryan explain why they're starting as a done for you service powered by internal tooling, how Echo fits into the portfolio, and why Reddit is one of the most interesting high intent channels again. They also talk about how Clover Labs is mostly bootstrapped, and why they prioritized exit optionality while building a portfolio instead of one brand with many products. We talk about risk reversals by showing value first, and the challenge of keeping vision and direction clear once you're managing 40 people.

    46 min

  5. 29/12/2025

    E37: SAAS Economics with Michael Alt

    In this episode of the SAAS Operators Podcast, we sat down with Michael Alt to talk about the economics of building and running software. We talk about usage based pricing for ecommerce SAAS, why it feels great in November and awful in February, and how order volume, support load, and infra change your cost to serve each customer. Michael explains what happens when your COGS is mostly cloud and AI, why balance sheet funded startups can ignore gross margin for years, and why bootstrapped teams do not have that luxury. We talk about the quiet tax of bad decisions, how indexes, data models, and reporting layers can swing profitability, and why most brands are still planning nine figure supply chains in Google Sheets. The conversation shifts into copycats, why you should study the people copying you, and how to use bigger players as a very expensive R&D lab. Michael describes how new platforms could feasibly beat Shopify and WordPress, the case for focused vertical products, and how to build in a world where a customer comment in Slack can turn into a ticket, a code change, and a pull request without a meeting.

    55 min

  6. 15/12/2025

    E36: Back in stock with Jannik Semmelhaack

    In this episode of the SaaS Operators Podcast, we sat down with Jannik Semmelhaack, founder of Voids.ai, the forecasting platform behind more than €1.5B in revenue for European consumer brands. Jannik shares how he went from running Philips’ online store to fixing the problem of keeping bestsellers in stock while ops is trapped in Google Sheets, and even with the incredible people on inventory, brands are stocking out. We ask Jannick why Germany is such a powerful ecom market, how reputation and referrals drove 500 percent growth, their plans for the US, and the mechanics and limitations of forecasting, and the power of faster and more informed decision making.

    49 min

  7. 08/12/2025

    E35: PostScript is more than a tool with Mike Manheimer

    In this episode of the SaaS Operators Podcast, we talk to Mike Manheimer, CMO at Postscript, about what happens when AI, services, and SaaS all converge around a single outcome. Mike shares how Postscript measures its success on customer economics, not feature usage, why only a small slice of their base needs a full “done for you” service, and how they think about threading the needle between automation and human operators. We cover why support is ground zero for AI driven cost cutting, why lifecycle and SMS are still guarded by brand taste, and how the next wave of SaaS winners will be the ones that can prove they drive better outcomes than the internal team, without flattening every brand into the same generic voice.

    58 min

  8. 01/12/2025

    E34: Software Enabled Agencies with Taylor Holiday

    In this episode of the SaaS Operators Podcast, we talk to Taylor Holiday, the Founder & CEO of Common Thread Collective, about the line between ecom SaaS and marketing agency services. Taylor explains how CTC evolved from an agency into a software enabled service business, why he doesn't call it a software company, and how a single growth map spreadsheet became their operating system. We talk about the differences in gross margin, NRR, and risk of ruin. Why agencies can actually have better unit economics than many SaaS companies, and why PE quietly loves marketing services. The episode closes on packaging and positioning, when to sell what you do as software versus service, and the very real arbitrage for operators building “Seans”, Software Enabled Agencies.

    44 min
See All (41)

About

3 CEOs from some of the fastest growing software brands and Jack trying to get as much information out of them as possible.

Information

  • Creator
    SAAS Operators
  • Years Active
    2025 - 2026
  • Episodes
    41
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © SAAS Operators
  • Show Website
    SAAS Operators

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