Claim OwnershipThe SaaSiest Podcast
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Do you want to know what the secret sauce is of the most successful SaaS companies? This show follows founders and leaders of the most prominent European SaaS companies on their way to global success. Learn from their GoTo-Market strategies, how they scale, build winning teams and great products. If you are a SaaS founder or leader looking for tips and tricks from the best in class founders and companies then this is a show for you. Direct, informal and to-the-point discussions with a great level of hands-on advice for the listeners. The show is brought to you by two experienced SaaS professionals, Daniel Nackovski, and Thomas Sjöberg, founders of SaaSiest !
194 Episodes
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In this episode, we’re joined by Frida Ahrenby, CMO at Rillion, the AP automation platform expanding aggressively in the US with a new Austin hub. Frida breaks down how she rebuilt marketing from zero to a lean, 10-person, high-output team, starting with a performance+ops backbone, overhauling content/SEO, and leaning hard into field marketing for CFO buyers, while keeping creativity human in an AI-accelerated org.
We spoke with Frida about sequencing the first hires, structuring around three pods (Demand Gen incl. Field, Brand/Content/Design, Product & Customer Marketing), and using AI to multiply output without outsourcing originality. She shares how to avoid silos and title inflation, decide what must be owned in-house to truly own the number, and what it really takes to crack the US market from a European base.
Here are some of the key questions we address:
How do you build a lean, unsiloed marketing org that still scales output (and keeps standards high) with AI in the mix?
What’s the exact hiring sequence from a blank slate: why start with performance/ops, then content/SEO, then expand demand?
Own it in-house or outsource? A simple rule for speed, agility, and true metric ownership and when agencies still help.
Which marketing roles will compress vs. which remain decisively human in the AI era?
What skills win now: how to hire for smart, analytical, creative demand gen, and deeply curious content that drives revenue?
🎧 Tune in to hear how Frida designed a tighter, faster marketing engine and why cracking the US is a marathon you run with data, creativity, and relentless focus, not headcount.
In this episode, we’re joined by Barbara Matthews, Chief People Officer at Remote, the Series C company with 1800 employees across 85 countries building an end-to-end global HR platform. Barbara shares how her team compressed a 6–8 week performance cycle into 48 hours using monthly manager “trend” nudges, lightweight pre-calibration, and AI-generated self/manager summaries, while scaling a transparent, high-performance culture in a fully async org.
We spoke with Barbara about designing performance to be continuous, objective, and fast, and how you can align leaders on what “good” vs. “great” looks like, avoid surprises for employees, and turn HR from a slow ritual into a real-time operating system.
Here are some of the key questions we address:
How do you build a high-performance culture (with transparency) across 85 countries without burning people out?
What does it take to shrink performance reviews to 48 hours, and what’s the exact sequence from self-assessments to calibrations, promos, and comp?
How do monthly nudges and a simple 5-point trend score improve alignment and reduce end-of-cycle thrash?
Where does AI add the most value in performance, and where should humans stay firmly in the loop?
What is pre-calibration, and how do you align managers on role expectations so ratings are fair and consistent?
How do you keep feedback truly continuous in an async environment - training managers, closing loops, and avoiding “annual surprise” syndrome?
When promotions aren’t available, what retention levers can be used to keep top talent engaged and growing?
🎧 Tune in to hear how Barbara re-engineered performance for speed and clarity, proving that modern people ops is a product you design, not a form you fill.
In this episode, we’re joined by Ruan Smit, SEO & Growth leader at Sendcloud, the leading shipping platform helping 30,000+ e-commerce brands connect carriers, print labels, and turn delivery into a competitive advantage. With a blend of technical SEO, AI know-how, and real-world growth experience across agencies, e-commerce, and SaaS, Ruan shares what actually moves the needle when AI is rewriting search.
We spoke with Ruan about how to gain visibility when AI Overviews and LLMs answer first, and how Sendcloud structures content, tech, and brand citations to appear where customers look—without losing focus on the pages that drive revenue.
Here are some of the key questions we address:
How do you prioritize GEO (Generative Engine Optimization) without sacrificing the SEO “money pages” that pay the bills?
What specific page structures (summaries, headings, FAQs, schema) increase your chances of appearing in Google’s AI Overview?
Where should teams invest to earn brand citations LLMs trust, and how do you do it without sounding salesy?
When does domain consolidation outperform country-by-country sites, and what are the must-do steps for clean migrations and 301s?
How do you track performance in a zero-click world—what proxies (impressions, BOFU outcomes, referrers) matter most?
What’s the practical workflow for “reverse-engineering” AI Overviews to refresh content that actually ranks and converts?
Are videos still worth it for discovery, and why is hosting on YouTube more important than ever for LLM sourcing?
🎧 Tune in to hear how Ruan blends solid SEO fundamentals with GEO tactics, proving that sustainable growth in the AI era comes from clear structure, smart measurement, and showing up helpfully wherever your buyers look.
In this episode, we’re joined by Lukas Saari, CEO and Co-Founder of Tandem Health, the AI-driven platform transforming how clinicians and healthcare teams work together to deliver better patient outcomes. By combining customer obsession with advanced automation, Tandem Health empowers providers to streamline workflows, reduce administrative burden, and keep the human touch at the center of care.
We spoke with Lukas about how AI is reshaping one of the most traditional industries and how Tandem Health has built trust with customers by deeply understanding their real-world pain points.
Here are some of the key questions we address:
How do you build trust with customers in industries where credibility and experience matter most?
Why should commercial and product teams include people who’ve actually lived their customers’ pain points?
How does every new onboarding experience fuel product innovation?
What role does deep customer understanding play in deciding where to take the product next?
Why must SaaS founders think in terms of “jobs to be done” rather than features, and how does that mindset unlock customer value?
🎧 Tune in to hear how Lukas combines customer empathy, sharp execution, and a forward-looking approach to AI adoption, proving that scaling in SaaS isn’t just about technology, but about truly understanding the people you serve.
In this episode, we’re joined by Marili 't Hooft-Bolle, CEO, Trengo, the AI-powered omnichannel customer engagement platform that unifies messaging across email, WhatsApp, live chat, social media, and more into a single shared inbox, helping teams automate repetitive tasks while preserving the human touch. Trusted by thousands of businesses worldwide, it empowers brands to deliver seamless, delightful customer interactions across every channel.
We spoke with Marili about how AI is changing the way they operate at Trengo - and how it has led to a future-proof mentality across the business in everything they do.
Here are some of the key questions we address:
How do you, as a CEO, drive AI adoption across the teams in their daily operations?
Why you may need to "update" your cultural and performance values to support the new AI era for operators?
What is the process to make sure new AI initiatives are focused on must-haves vs nice-to-haves?
How does she see the roles of product, engineering, and marketing need to adjust in this new era to fully leverage AI?
Why does she encourage everyone to be ready to dedicate some "learning money" on their journey to find the best AI leverage for their business?
🎧 Tune in to hear how Marili combines empathy, discipline, and sharp business acumen to guide her team through the reality of scaling in a rapidly evolving tech environment, proving that great companies are built not just on strategy, but on people who grow with intention.
In this episode, we’re joined by Sander van Gelderen, CMO at Effectory, an employee listening solution platform helping organizations measure and improve engagement, enablement, and productivity at scale, serving 700+ recurring customers across the Benelux, DACH, and now the Nordics.
We spoke with Sander about how Effectory transformed from a project-based consultancy into a recurring revenue SaaS business and how his team is reshaping their go-to-market motion through Account-Based Experience (ABX). The goal? Closing the gap between marketing and sales, reducing waste, and targeting only the accounts truly in-market.
Here are some of the key questions we address:
What is ABX and how does it differ from ABM in practice?
How do you unify marketing and sales targeting to remove friction?
What were the warning signs that the traditional MQL model wasn’t working?
How do you implement ABX without losing velocity or your team’s trust?
What process and tech changes are required to make ABX work?
How should marketing compensation evolve in an ABX world?
What are the real trade-offs and pitfalls no one talks about?
🎧 Tune in to hear how Sander and his team are aligning people, process, and technology, proving that better targeting isn’t just possible, it’s essential for sustainable growth.
In this episode, we’re joined by Charles Tenot, CEO of Lemlist - the bootstrapped sales engagement platform scaling past €36M ARR while staying lean, profitable, and fast-moving. Charles took the reins to help Lemlist break through a growth plateau, and under his leadership, the company has nearly tripled ARR and built a truly efficient, remote-first team of 110.
We spoke with Charles about what it really takes to build a high-performing executive team in today’s world of constant change and why being “close to the craft” might be the ultimate leadership advantage.
Here are some of the key questions we address:
What defines a truly efficient executive team, and why do most companies get it wrong?
Why is “disagree and commit” the wrong mindset at the C-level?
How can CEOs avoid building silos across product, marketing, and sales?
What red flags should you watch for when hiring experienced leaders?
How do you bring execs back to the craft without micromanaging?
Why does Charles prefer to hire all C-levels himself, and how does he do it?
🎧 Tune in to hear how Charles is reshaping SaaS leadership at Lemlist, proving you can scale fast without breaking what made you great to begin with.
In this episode, we’re joined by Ronni Zehavi, Co-Founder and CEO of HiBob—one of the fastest-growing HR tech platforms on the planet. With nearly 5,000 customers across the globe, HiBob is redefining HR through its modular, AI-powered platform “Bob,” built for modern, multinational, midsize businesses.
We spoke with Ronni about what it really takes to build a high-growth SaaS business that's not just growing fast—but growing right. From IPO readiness and leadership transitions to why putting people first is still your strongest moat in the AI era, Ronni shares the inside story of HiBob's 10-year journey to becoming a category leader.
Here are some of the key questions we address:
What’s the real reason HiBob is preparing for an IPO—and why now?
What are the internal changes a company must make to be IPO-ready? (Think finance ops, governance, reporting, culture)
How do you lead a company through different stages of scale without burning out—or stalling?
Why are line managers the true AI-era heroes inside organizations?
What’s the biggest mistake CEOs make on the path from $50M to $250M ARR?
What does “people-first” actually mean in practice—and how does it translate to business growth?
How is HiBob using AI internally, and how are they helping customers do the same?
What should you know about secondary events, long-term vision, and building a sustainable culture?
🎧 Tune in to hear how Ronni and his team are scaling HiBob into a global category leader—without compromising on values, velocity, or vision.
In this episode, we’re joined by Jennifer Peters, Head of Customer Success at Vesper, the commodity data platform working to bring transparency to the global commodity marketplace. Vesper provides market data, benchmarks, and forecasting to allow you to make confident decisions in volatile food markets.
We spoke with Jennifer about what it really means to design and implement an effective customer journey, and why managing a customer portfolio doesn’t automatically mean you’re managing that journey well.
Here are some of the key questions we address:
What’s the difference between managing customer portfolios and managing the full customer journey?
Where does the customer journey actually begin, and why is that moment so often misunderstood?
How do you make your onboarding flow keep pace with a fast-evolving product?
Why is launching a new feature once never enough?
What kind of adoption and usage metrics should CS teams monitor to prevent churn?
How do you operationalize customer success playbooks so they trigger action, not just insight?
What’s the role of CS in ensuring goals set during the sales cycle don’t disappear after onboarding?
How do you keep stakeholders across sales, marketing, and product aligned on the journey you're all supporting?
Tune in to hear how Jennifer and her team are building a proactive customer success engine at Vesper - and what any SaaS org can learn about keeping customers engaged, growing, and renewing long after the contract is signed.
In this episode, we’re joined by Emelie Linheden, VP of Marketing at Younium, a Subscription Management tool that helps B2B SaaS companies in Europe and North America streamline subscription management, invoicing and billing, financial reporting, and data insights.
We talked with Emelie about how Younium's event strategy has fueled their growth, and specifically how you make the most out of your investment in external events.
Here are some of the key questions we address:
- What are the most important criteria you use when deciding which external events to sponsor?
- What are the key things a team needs to do in the 4-6 weeks leading up to an event?
- How do you build a pre-event outreach strategy to ensure you're not just showing up cold?
- What’s your approach to lead capture, note-taking, and team coordination on-site?
- Who “owns” post-event results and how do you ensure accountability?
- What’s your timeline and process for post-event follow-up?
- How do you turn an event into a broader campaign that lasts beyond the week of the show?
- What KPIs do you track to evaluate event success—and how early do you define them?
Tune in to learn from Emelie how you also can make the most out of your event budget and plan, to ultimately drive real business value for your organization.
In this episode, we’re joined by Karolina Wrońska-Boukhalfa, Director of Customer Success, Dixa, the Value Experience Customer Service Platform empowering companies to deliver effortless, personalized experiences that drive customer loyalty. Trusted by leading consumer brands of the world, Dixa supports over 30 million conversations annually.
We talk to Karolina about how they go about segmenting customers, and specifically how to interact with each segment to drive real business value when you have a big pool of customers, and at times with very different characteristics.
Here are some of the key questions we address:
- How do you personally decide what dimensions to segment on — revenue, usage, potential, lifecycle stage? Can you walk us through a real segmentation model you’ve used that worked well?
- Once you’ve segmented your customer base, how do you make that segmentation actionable across the team? Any tips for operationalizing it across CS, Sales, and Product?
- Have you ever had to rework your segmentation model because it wasn’t driving the outcomes you wanted? What triggered the change, and what did you learn?
- In lower-revenue or long-tail segments, how do you ensure customers still feel seen and supported without scaling your CS costs?
- For a CS leader who’s never done structured segmentation before, or for the ones that need to revisit this exercise, what would be your first three steps to get started?
Tune in to learn how Karolina and her team are making sure that every customer is getting the attention they deserve and need to not just stick around but also to expand their commitment to Dixa.
In this episode, we’re joined by Søren Schønnemann, CEO, Factbird, the SaaS provider that helps manufacturers maximize their performance through manufacturing intelligence from Operator to Process Engineer to Plant Manager,
We talk to Søren about the hiring strategy and organizational evolution that he's taken the company on to support their rapid growth, from 8 to 90 people while going from startup to breaking 10m Euro in ARR in less than 4 years.
Here are some of the key questions we address:
- Why was his first 2 hires a Talent Aqcuistion specialist and a Sales Ops way before they had a commerial and GTM team in place?
- How has his hiring philosphy evolved as the company needs evolved?
- How do you balance the need for personal growth of staff vs the need of organization growth?
- What have been some of the most tricky challenges through this growth spurt and how did they handle them?
- Which are his biggest lessons learned from growing the organization at this pace, and what would he do differently next time?
Tune in to learn how Søren and his team have supported the need of the organization with a unique look at who to hire at what point in time, spoiler alert it is not sales people to start with, to get to the 10m Euro mark.
In this episode, we’re joined by Karel Callens, CEO & Founder, Luzmo, an embedded analytics platform, purpose-built for SaaS companies. They bring complex data to life with beautiful, easy-to-use dashboards, embedded seamlessly in any SaaS or web platform and are doing serving many well known customers across Europe and US.
We explore with Karel the concept of stacking S-curves on top of each other, making sure to always make the most of opportunities ahead and support an upward trajectory, even when that means pivoting, changing ICPs and more to make sure to fuel future growth!
Here are some of the key questions we address:
- How do you know it’s time to evolve or expand your ICP?
- What’s the actual process you use when making that kind of pivot or expansion?
- When you make a move to a new ICP, what happens to the existing one?
- What impact does this kind of ICP shift have on the org structurally and culturally?
- How do you align Sales, Marketing, Product, and CS around what might feel like a moving target
- What have been your biggest missteps in making these transitions - and what did you learn from them?
- We talked about stacking S-curves”—how do you plan that kind of growth without losing focus or diluting execution?
Tune in to learn how Karel and his team have set up a process to future-proof their business and always be ready for the next thing, not just to follow but to lead and control their business destiny.
In this episode, we’re joined by Massimo Arrigoni, CEO, Beefree, a powerful design suite that lets you create no-code beautiful, high-performing emails that work with any marketing platform. Today the Beefree platform is embedded in over 1000 SaaS products powering the email component for some of the most well-known SaaS companies in the world.
We explore how an embedded and white label product strategy has fueled Beefree's growth and specifically what the learnings are from this journey.
Here are some of the key questions we address:
- What does it really take from a company to offer an embedded white-label product?
- How do you determine if a part of your product is a good candidate to be sold as an embeddable component?
- What are the key differences between a traditional SaaS GTM strategy and an embedded/white-label model?
- How do you price an embeddable SaaS component to reflect the value it provides without overcomplicating contracting?
- How do you mitigate the risks or limitations of not being a domain expert in the industries you're embedding into?
Tune in to learn how Massimo and Beefree have leveraged an embedded strategy to grow to 15m+ USD in ARR, 30% year on year growth with practically 0 churn and a happy customer base all over the world.
In this episode, we’re joined by Anna Jäger, VP Marketing at Sinch, a global leader in customer communications with over $3B in revenue and operations in 60+ countries. Anna shares hard-earned lessons from expanding into the U.S. - one of the most competitive and complex SaaS markets in the world.
We explore how marketing strategies, buyer expectations, and team dynamics shift dramatically when crossing the Atlantic, and why failing fast, bold messaging, and the right hires are essential to making it work.
Here are some of the key questions we address:
- What makes U.S. marketing radically different from EMEA?
- Why do ROI-driven messages matter more in the States?
- Should your first U.S. hires be local or from your European team?
- What budget and timeline should you plan for?
- How do you build one unified brand across very different regions?
Tune in to learn how Anna and her team cracked the code and what you can take away for your own U.S. expansion journey.
In this episode, we sit down with Ashley Faus, Head of Lifecycle Marketing at Atlassian, to unpack what lifecycle marketing really means and how one of the world's best-known SaaS companies makes it work at scale.
Ashley walks us through Atlassian’s approach to lifecycle marketing across its vast product suite, shares key moments that matter most in the customer journey, and breaks down what a successful campaign looks like in action.
In this episode, you'll learn:
What lifecycle marketing is (and what it isn’t)
How to identify the most critical touchpoints in the customer journey
The metrics that matter most
The pitfalls even experienced marketers fall into
Whether you're running onboarding flows, retention campaigns, or upsell motion - this episode is packed with takeaways for any marketer looking to drive sustainable growth.
In this episode, we sit down with GTM strategist and best-selling author Maja Voje to dive deep into the concept of the Early Customer Profile (ECP) - and why it’s more important than ever in the AI era. Maja explains what defines an ECP, where to find them, how to speak their language, and how to avoid the most common mistakes when launching new (especially AI-driven) products.
We explore how to validate willingness to pay, protect yourself from underpricing, and structure a GTM team for success. This episode is a must-listen for anyone launching new products or features - whether you're an early-stage startup or an established company entering new territory. Here are some of the questions we addressed with Maja:
What is an Early Customer Profile (ECP) and how does it differ from an Ideal Customer Profile (ICP)?
Where and how can you find your ECPs - especially in AI-related markets?
How should you message and sell to early adopters who are skeptical or risk-sensitive?
How do you validate willingness to pay before fully launching a product?
What pricing models work best in early-stage AI product launches - and how do you avoid underpricing?
What are the most common GTM pitfalls when launching new products or features?
Who should be on your internal "launch squad" to successfully bring a new AI product to market?
Tune in and find out how you can successfully launch your new AI feature set.
In this episode, we speak with Frederic Laziou, CEO, Puzzel, a leading European provider of cloud-based contact center solutions, helping businesses deliver seamless customer service across multiple channels. Their AI-powered CX platform integrates voice, email, chat, and social media, enhancing efficiency and personalization. With 25+ years of experience, Puzzel continues to innovate, ensuring businesses stay ahead in customer engagement.
We talked with Frederic about their journey well on their way to reaching 100m Euro in ARR, how M&A has been an important strategy, and a focus on defining a product operating model that supports sustainable and continued growth. Specifically in this episode, we discuss how a focus on building the right things from a product perspective is key, which also at times means sunseting product programs and features that don't support the P&L in a positive manner.
How do you assess which features are adding real value versus those that are just adding complexity?
Once you identify redundant or low-value features, what practical steps do you take to sunset them?
How do you communicate this to customers, and what challenges can you expect to face in ensuring a smooth transition?
What are the biggest cultural or leadership challenges shifting from a "feature factory" mindset to an outcome-driven approach?
This and much more. Tune in to learn mode from Frederic and his team's journey moving away from a feature factory to an outcome-driven product approach that drives tangible financial value to both the customer and the business.
In this episode, we speak with Maja Lindström, CPO, Talentech, a leading developer of HR providing a seamless talent journey through a centralized platform. With main hubs in Oslo, Amsterdam, Stockholm, Helsinki, and Copenhagen, Talentech's scalable solutions support every stage of the talent pipeline, offering personalization and flexibility to meet tomorrow's challenges.
We talked with Maja about their M&A journey, 8 acquisitions to date and counting, and how you make the unifying process work from a product and technical staff perspective. Some of the questions we discuss in this episode are:
First, what are the different underlying strategies that can fuel an M&A strategy of this nature?
What is the process of "onboarding" separate product teams into a new unified and larger team working on a platform strategy?
What are the most common pitfalls to avoid here, and why?
What is the process of integrating different products, at times on different tech stacks and different maturity levels?
To be successful with this amount of frequent and large acquisitions, it requires a lot from the organization. Which are the key players, processes and characteristics needed from an organization to be successful in a process like this?
How do you find a balance between product autonomy vs central platform thinking to avoid losing speed in deployment and releases?
This is for all the product leaders out there and people considering an M&A strategy. Tune in to learn mode from Maja's journey of acquiring and integrating 8 product organizations into one platform unit.
In this episode, we speak with Mie Elmkvist Schneider, VP of Sales & CS, Queue-it, a leading developer of virtual waiting room services, empowering 1,000+ organizations worldwide to build and nurture trust with 25+ billion visitors annually by delivering reliable, fair, and transparent online experiences.
We talked with Mie about the important measures and KPIs to track for a sales leader when focusing on profitability. Some of the questions we discuss in this episode are:
What does your Sales Leadership Dashboard look like - what metrics are you keeping track of?
What are the key metrics when focusing on profitability vs growth?
Which are key metrics to focus on in new client acquisition vs existing customer expansion?
Who is involved, why, and how in the ongoing process of monitoring these KPIs, and triggering necessary actions if/when needed based on deviations?
What tool stack do you use to track this?
This is for all the sales leaders out there, tune in to see if your dashboard aligns with Mie's and if there are any KPIs that you also need to double down on.
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