SaaS Origin Stories Phil Alves

Episode Summary:
In this episode of SaaS Origin Stories, Phil speaks with Jon Darbyshire, CEO of SmartSuite, a platform that helps coordinate workflow across all levels of an organization to ensure that team members have the information they need to accomplish their best work. Previously, he was the Executive Chairman at The Archer Foundation. He is also the Founder and the previous CEO of Archer Integrated Risk Management.
They dive head first into how long it can take to build a SaaS product, why SmartSuite chose to have no paid marketing, why you need to keep a transparent and trusting relationship with your customers, and the importance of building a community within a SaaS business. Jon also talks about his unique and fortunate journey into building SmartSuite, delving into why it needed to be perfect before even announcing it.
Guest at a Glance:

Name: Jon Darbyshire

About Jon: Jon Darbyshire is the CEO of SmartSuite, a platform that helps coordinate workflow across all levels of an organization to ensure that team members have the information they need to accomplish their best work. Previously, he was the Executive Chairman at The Archer Foundation. He is also the Founder and the previous CEO of Archer Integrated Risk Management.

A previous colleague at Archer described him as “Visionary, disciplined, focused, family, mentor. These are terms that come to mind when I reflect on my time working for Jon at Archer.”

Jon on LinkedIn
SmartSuite on LinkedIn
SmartSuite’s Website
Topics we cover:

How SmartSuite helps businesses run their workload
The long, drawn-out time frame of building a SaaS product
Why SmartSuite chose to have no paid marketing
Building a SaaS community 
The importance of transparency with your customers
Managing workload
The democratic process for SmartSuite features
Taking accountability for bad decisions


Key Takeaways:
Rome Wasn’t Built in a Day 

Any sort of product or service, especially in SaaS, will take an incredibly long time to build and polish. Jon acknowledges this, claiming that SmartSuite took about two years to complete, even with the help of a hundred different developers. But don’t let this long, drawn-out time frame discourage you from your craft. Afterall, Rome wasn’t built in a day; in fact, most disruptive and revolutionary creations weren’t.

“We did something that was quite unique: we hired about a hundred developers, and we spent the next two years building the core platform before we made any announcements about what the company would do [...] I was in a unique position in that I had the funding personally to be able to build the company without needing to raise any capital.” 
The Power of Just a Few LinkedIn Posts

When Jon first released SmartSuite into the world, he chose not to do any sort of paid marketing. Instead, he opted to make just a few LinkedIn posts to get people talking. As they gained traction and a few customers came in, they were able to engage with them more and find out what worked for them. Now, much larger companies are coming in, proving that you don’t always need to rely on paid marketing for the success of your platform.

That being said, Jon admits that they will indulge in paid marketing and invest in  a marketing team eventually, but right now they have no use for it.

“We kinda went into a beta programme, but we didn’t announce that. The only thing we did was we turned on our website. We have no paid marketing—even to this point—we just made some announcements on LinkedIn. And our first customer came in, a single user in the Northeast, and that’s how it all started.”
Community: A Core Part of the SaaS DNA

A core part of SaaS DNA is community. Jon talks about how, at SmartSuite, this is definitely put into consideration. With so many people working to make a product great, it’s important that there is a sense of community where employees feel as though they can share ideas with each other without being judge

In this episode of SaaS Origin Stories, Phil speaks with Kaumana Rindlisbacher, Co-Founder and COO of Pickle, a platform designed to help companies of any size understand their customer conversations and strengthen their relationship by transcribing audio into text. He is also a member of the Revenue Collective, RevGenius, and Modern Sales Pros. Prior to this, he was an Enterprise Account Executive at EasyPost.
They discuss Kaumana’s atypical journey into becoming a founder, how COVID influenced the creation and popularity of Pickle, why he quit his job in order to pursue his vision, and the importance of having a distraction free space. Not only that, but they also delve into why having a sales-driven business model works so well for them.

Guest at a Glance:

Name: Kaumana Rindlisbacher

Kaumana Rindlisbacher is the Co-Founder and COO of Pickle, a platform designed to help companies of any size understand their customer conversations and strengthen their relationship by transcribing audio into text. He is also a member of the Revenue Collective, RevGenius, and Modern Sales Pros. Prior to this, he was an Enterprise Account Executive at EasyPost.
A previous colleague of his, Carlos Diamond, said about him, “Kaumana is one of the hardest workers I have ever met. He comes in early and stays late. Not only is he working hard to reach his goals, but he also goes out of his way to help others too. Kaumana is the type of worker you want on your team no matter what project you are a part of. He will learn what is required of him and find success whatever it takes”
Kaumana on LinkedIn

Kaumana on Twitter

Pickle on LinkedIn

Pickle’s Website

Topics we cover:


How Pickle utilises artificial intelligence for high quality transcriptions
Kaumana’s atypical journey into becoming a founder
COVID’s influence over the creation of Pickle
Quitting their jobs and funding the business
Diversifying your content and marketing
The importance of having a good sales team
Pickle’s ambiguous product market fit
Key Takeaways:
From Salesperson to Founder: Kaumana’s aTypical Journey

Kaumana says it’s not all that common to see salespeople become business founders, especially in SaaS. It’s for that reason that Kaumana’s journey was an atypical one, especially considering his dense background in sales. But this gave him a unique perspective as a founder, enabling him not to fall into traps his peers do. 

“A lot of people think that if you build it, they will come, especially first time founders,” he says. “They focus heavily on product, and they think ‘if we just focus on product, the rest will take care of itself. That’s not the case. You have to be able to sell”
“This Call Will be Monitored for Quality and Training Purposes”

We’ve all heard those words spoken into our ears the minute you call a business or a call center. But how much of those calls are actually monitored and reviewed? According to Kaumana, even the biggest corporations only review about two percent of their customer phone calls. 

This is how Pickle came to be, and because of the pandemic and the uprising of Zoom calls, they were able to really focus in on and transcribe different conversations, making a name for themselves and really coming into their own.
The Fundraising Process: All in or Nothing

Kaumana says that Pickle wasn’t something they just did as a side project. In fact, they were so determined and enthusiastic about the idea that they quit their jobs to pursue it and rented an office space. However, this isn’t to say that you should do the exact same thing. After all, it is a very risky move to pull off, and if it wasn’t for how lucky they were with the fundraising, it could have gone very wrong. 

But luckily, it didn’t! Their passion for the project and their willingness to learn elevated them to heights beyond what they could have imagined. If you have a project that you’re passionate about, or a business idea you

In this episode of SaaS Origin Stories, Phil is joined by Ran Aroussi, Founder of Tradologics, a cloud based platform which helps traders, investors, and firms across the world develop, test, run, and scale their programmatic trading strategies. Previously, he was a special project manager at Panda Trading Systems, and Founder of Tuki Media and Tuki Apps.

In this episode of SaaS Origin Stories, Niclas Lilja, CEO of Younium, joins host Phil Alves to discuss a wide range of topics, from keeping your Minimum Viable Product (MVP) simple to early growth strategies and scaling outwards from a narrow customer profile.

In this episode of SaaS Origin Stories, Phil is joined by Carl Carell, Co-Founder of GetAccept, a digital sales room empowering revenue teams to increase their win rates by engaging and understanding buyers. Previously, Carl was also the Co-Founder and Managing Director of Adsensus Denmark Aps, and was a Sales Manager AtlasTM SRL.

In this episode of SaaS Origin Stories, Brendon Metcalf, CEO of Place, joins host Phil Alves to discuss a wide range of topics ranging from funding strategies, creating a product-market fit, and how to run a SaaS startup when 80% of your business comes from one client.