The Orbit Shift Podcast

TAM, technology, team, and timing. There are the four ‘Ts’ that Ankit Sarwahi, Managing Director of Middle East Venture Partners looks for in a startup when investing in them. In our latest episode, we catch up with Ankit the MD of MEVP, one of the biggest venture capital firms in the MENA region whose portfolio companies include Anghami, Rain, and Nana Direct. Ankit talks to us about his early journey, the differences he sees in the Indian and Middle Eastern startup ecosystems, his four T’s of investing, how he communicates clearly with his founders, and his due diligence process before investing in companies.  Get $10,000 free credits to use Freshworks products (including the brand new Freshworks CRM packed with AI-based lead scoring, phone, email, and activity capture) by joining the Freshworks for Startups program. Click here to check eligibility.About the GuestAnkit is the Managing Director of Middle East Venture Partners where he leads investments in fintech, food tech, and e-commerce verticals. He serves on the board of various startups and advises them on fundraising, organizational talent building, and new market entry. Prior to this role, Ankit invested for VC funds in India. Ankit is an alumnus of ISB Hyderabad and SRCC.Sign up for regular updates from The Orbit Shift Podcast.The Orbit Shift Podcast is powered by Freshworks Inc, a global SaaS company headquartered in San Mateo, California. If you enjoyed listening to this podcast, consider giving us a five-star rating on Apple Podcasts. Producer - Shashwath JHost - Soumitra DeshpandeAudio Engineer - Arjun Pillai

In this episode we talk to Charlie Locke, sales leadership expert and Co-Founder of the SDR community, SDR Nation. We explore the key skills that SDRs need to succeed. When founders should hire SDRs, and how they can incentivize them to retain their top sales talent, and the ways in which the industry is changing. Charlie also breaks down the eight phases of cold calling and how SDR professionals can identify their weaknesses and put theory to practice to boost their conversions. Listen in.  Get $10,000 free credits to use Freshworks products (including the brand new Freshworks CRM packed with AI-based lead scoring, phone, email, and activity capture) by joining the Freshworks for Startups program. Click here to check eligibility.About the GuestsCharlie Locke is a sales leadership expert with experience in various companies such as Salesforce, Adobe, and Shutterstock. In 2020, Charlie teamed up with community building expert Michael Gagliano to build the only dedicated community for Sales Development Reps in the world - SDR NationSign up for regular updates from The Orbit Shift Podcast.The Orbit Shift Podcast is powered by Freshworks Inc, a global SaaS company headquartered in San Mateo, California. If you enjoyed listening to this podcast, consider giving us a five-star rating on Apple Podcasts. Host and Producer - Jayadevan PKAssistant Producer - Shashwath JAudio Engineer - Rajesh Subramanian  

In this episode of The Orbit Shift Podcast hosted by Founder Insititute; Ryan Micheletti, Head of Global Operations at Founder Institute talks to Lucas Fox, Head of Relationship Management, Brex, and Pradeep Rathinam, Chief Customer Officer, Freshworks about how founders can build a customer-centric startup.They talk about how to define a customer-centric startup, the best practices of customer-centric startups, and how founders can listen to their customers without moving away from the ethos of their startups or the products that they're building.Listen in. Get $10,000 free credits to use Freshworks products (including the brand new Freshworks CRM packed with AI-based lead scoring, phone, email, and activity capture) by joining the Freshworks for Startups program. Click here to check eligibility.About the GuestsLucas Fox - Lucas Fox was born in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, but spent his adolescence in Madrid, Spain, and London, UK. In 2018 Lucas joined Brex, a >$7b startup reinventing the B2B financial services space. At Brex, Lucas helped start the recruiting team and scale the company, then he moved into a go-to-market role to lead the launch of Brex Cash, and most recently has built a Relationship Management team responsible for existing-customer revenue. Pradeep Rathinam - Pradeep Rathinam is the Chief Customer Officer at Freshworks post-acquisition of AnsweriQ by Freshworks.Pradeep was the Founder & CEO of AnswerIQ, a Seattle-based artificial intelligence company in the customer service automation space. Prior to AnswerIQ, Pradeep was the CEO of Aditi Technologies, a leading cloud services provider, and led the company to a successful sale to Symphony Teleca, a PE firm. Sign up for regular updates from The Orbit Shift Podcast.The Orbit Shift Podcast is powered by Freshworks Inc, a global SaaS company headquartered in San Mateo, California. If you enjoyed listening to this podcast, consider giving us a five-star rating on Apple Podcasts. Host and Producer - Jayadevan PKAssistant Producer - Shashwath JAudio Engineer - Rajesh Subramanian  

"Revenue is vanity, profit is sanity, but cash is king" is the mantra that Alex Theuma repeats to us when quizzed about some of the learnings he has had as the founder of SaaStock — one of the largest SaaS conferences in the world. Join us as Alex talks to us about why building a community is important for startups. He also walks us through his career and how he grew a SaaS blog meet-up into the global conference SaaStock, some of the mistakes and learnings he made in his career, and how to build and scale a community. Get $10,000 free credits to use Freshworks products (including the brand new Freshworks CRM packed with AI-based lead scoring, phone, email, and activity capture) by joining the Freshworks for Startups program. Click here to check eligibility.About the GuestAlex Theuma is the Founder & CEO of SaaStock a conference to help SaaS companies get traction, grow, and scale. Alex launched the conference in 2016, building on the popularity of his blog and podcast for SaaS founders and initial SaaS meetups in Dublin, London, and Berlin.Sign up for regular updates from The Orbit Shift Podcast.The Orbit Shift Podcast is powered by Freshworks Inc, a global SaaS company headquartered in San Mateo, California. If you enjoyed listening to this podcast, consider giving us a five-star rating on Apple Podcasts. Host and Producer - Jayadevan PKAssistant Producer - Shashwath JAudio Engineer - Rajesh Subramanian  

Revenue operations or RevOps is a key growth engine that a startup needs to put into place to become a scale up. The RevOps engine helps companies streamline their sales processes and their commission and incentives payouts. In this episode, we talk to Siva Rajamani the Founder and CEO of Everstage. Siva tells us about when startups should look to build a RevOps function, the talent that founders should look to hire for their RevOps teams, the key goals and metrics RevOps teams should track, and how the RevOps teams are evolving. Get $10,000 free credits to use Freshworks products (including the brand new Freshworks CRM packed with AI-based lead scoring, phone, email, and activity capture) by joining the Freshworks for Startups program. Click here to check eligibility.About the GuestSiva Rajamani is the founder and CEO of Everstage, a no-code sales commissions automation platform. In a short span, several fast-growth companies and unicorns have adopted Everstage to motivate and drive the performance of their customer-facing teams. Previously, Siva ran the Revenue Operations globally for Freshworks and led a 25-member team.Sign up for regular updates from The Orbit Shift Podcast.The Orbit Shift Podcast is powered by Freshworks Inc, a global SaaS company headquartered in San Mateo, California. If you enjoyed listening to this podcast, consider giving us a five-star rating on Apple Podcasts. Host and Producer - Jayadevan PKAssistant Producer - Shashwath JAudio Engineer - Rajesh Subramanian  

A lot is talked about fundraising and billion-dollar exits. But those are rare. How should startups get more realistic about building companies and look for meaningful exits? What’s the right way to approach an M&A so it makes sense both for the buyer and the seller?In this episode, we unpack startup exits for founders with Andrew Gazdecki, the founder of startup acquisition marketplace MicroAcquire and Rowland Savage, VP of Corporate Development at Freshworks and the author of How to Stick the Landing: The M&A Handbook for Startups.This episode was recorded live as part of our webinar series. To stay updated on our events, sign up here. Get $10,000 free credits to use Freshworks products (including the brand new Freshworks CRM packed with AI-based lead scoring, phone, email, and activity capture) by joining the Freshworks for Startups program. Click here to check eligibility.About the GuestsAndrew Gazdecki - Andrew Gazdecki is a 4x founder with 3x exits, former CRO, and founder of MicroAcquire. Andrew has been featured in The New York Times, Forbes Wall Street Journal, Inc. Magazine, Entrepreneur Magazine, and prominent industry blogs such as Mashable, TechCrunch, and VentureBeat.Rowland Savage - Before becoming the VP of Corporate Development at Freshworks, Rowland worked at Atlassian, where he led several acquisitions as part of their M&A team. A recovering entrepreneur, Rowland previously founded two startups taking both from concept to paid deployment. Rowland has also previously worked for two Venture Capital funds and is the author of How to Stick the Landing: The M&A Handbook for Startups.Sign up for regular updates from The Orbit Shift Podcast.The Orbit Shift Podcast is powered by Freshworks Inc, a global SaaS company headquartered in San Mateo, California. If you enjoyed listening to this podcast, consider giving us a five-star rating on Apple Podcasts. Host and Producer - Jayadevan PKAssistant Producer - Shashwath JAudio Engineer - Rajesh Subramanian  

With experience across multiple geographies including India and the US; and with experience across some of the biggest startups in the world including Uber and Airbnb, Carson Drake knows what it takes to build modern sales teams that grow revenue across different markets. In this episode we talk to Carson about his journey, launching Uber Eats in India, building trust with partner vendors, and how he has acquired over 7000 customers with Firstbase.io, a startup that helps you set up your company in the US.  Get $10,000 free credits to use Freshworks products (including the brand new Freshworks CRM packed with AI-based lead scoring, phone, email, and activity capture) by joining the Freshworks for Startups program. Click here to check eligibility.About the GuestOver the last 8+ years, Carson Drake has spent time focused on operations strategy, scale, launch, and sales management/strategy at startups including Uber, Uber Eats, Airbnb, and other early-stage companies. Now, he has brought his operational mindset to building partnerships and BD at Firstbase.io, with an emphasis on identifying partnerships that drive recurring revenue and create solutions for their partners' customers. Sign up for regular updates from The Orbit Shift Podcast.The Orbit Shift Podcast is powered by Freshworks Inc, a global SaaS company headquartered in San Mateo, California. If you enjoyed listening to this podcast, consider giving us a five-star rating on Apple Podcasts. Host and Producer - Jayadevan PKAssistant Producer - Shashwath JAudio Engineer - Rajesh Subramanian  

Today companies not only want to focus on profitability but also create a positive social impact. With consumers identifying strongly with brands that are committed to the greater good, profitability and positive social impact have become intertwined.In this episode, we speak to Rebekah Bastian, CEO, and Co-Founder of OwnTrail and an award-winning writer, who is a strong advocate of such an approach to company building. We talk about:🚀Rebekah’s journey from Product Manager to VP of Product at Zillow🚀Her new venture OwnTrail and the problem they’re looking to solve🚀The benefits that diversity and inclusion bring to a startup🚀The need for ‘tech mafias’ to refresh their networks🚀How founders can track diversity and inclusion initiatives🚀Building OwnTrail and how Rebekah approaches hiring  Get $10,000 free credits to use Freshworks products (including the brand new Freshworks CRM packed with AI-based lead scoring, phone, email, and activity capture) by joining the Freshworks for Startups program. Click here to check eligibility.About the GuestRebekah Bastian is an entrepreneur, award-winning writer, tech executive, and mentor. She is the CEO & Co-founder of OwnTrail and was previously vice president of product and vice president of community and culture at Zillow. Rebekah is the author of Blaze Your Own Trail, is a contributor to Forbes, and is a frequent speaker on social impact, career navigation, and building AuthenTech companies.Sign up for regular updates from The Orbit Shift Podcast.The Orbit Shift Podcast is powered by Freshworks Inc, a global SaaS company headquartered in San Mateo, California. If you enjoyed listening to this podcast, consider giving us a five-star rating on Apple Podcasts. Host and Producer - Jayadevan PKAssistant Producer - Shashwath JAudio Engineer - Rajesh Subramanian  

When he was 18 years old, Iddo Gino founded RapidAPI, a platform that allowed users to find, connect and manage APIs. Today the platform is the largest API hub in the world, where almost 3 million developers can discover, test, and connect to thousands of APIs. In this episode, we sit down with Iddo to talk about his journey into the world of programming, the importance of building a community, how he approaches VCs and manages relationships with them, and his thoughts on the developer economy and the growth of APIs.  Get $10,000 free credits to use Freshworks products (including the brand new Freshworks CRM packed with AI-based lead scoring, phone, email, and activity capture) by joining the Freshworks for Startups program. Click here to check eligibility.About the GuestIddo Gino is the Founder and CEO of RapidAPI. Part of the Forbes 30 Under 30 list, he's a 2017 Thiel Fellow. Previously, he was a Co-organizer of Hacking Gen Y. Iddo has been programming since he was a kid and continues to contribute to open-source projects. Originally from Haifa, Israel, Iddo is based in San Francisco, CA.Sign up for regular updates from The Orbit Shift Podcast.The Orbit Shift Podcast is powered by Freshworks Inc, a global SaaS company headquartered in San Mateo, California. If you enjoyed listening to this podcast, consider giving us a five-star rating on Apple Podcasts. Host and Producer - Jayadevan PKAssistant Producer - Shashwath JAudio Engineer - Rajesh Subramanian  

Pitch, plays, proof, and plans are the four Ps of product marketing that Kevin Murray, VP of Product Marketing at Freshworks uses to elevate a brand’s marketing. In this episode of The Orbit Shift Podcast Kevin walks us through each of these four Ps and how companies can leverage them. He talks about how companies can perfect their pitch with the right messaging, how to set up plays with repeatable sales motions, how to build analyst relations and get proof in the marketplace and how to avoid random acts of marketing by having a comprehensive plan that brings all stakeholders together. Get $10,000 free credits to use Freshworks products (including the brand new Freshworks CRM packed with AI-based lead scoring, phone, email, and activity capture) by joining the Freshworks for Startups program. Click here to check eligibility.About the GuestKevin Murray joined Freshworks in June 2021 to lead the global product marketing team. Kevin joined Freshworks from Automation Anywhere, and prior to that, spent 5.5 years with ServiceNow from 2014-2020. Kevin has also led product marketing teams at top technology companies such as Symantec and VMware and has expertise in IT operations, security, and enterprise mobility. Sign up for regular updates from The Orbit Shift Podcast.The Orbit Shift Podcast is powered by Freshworks Inc, a global SaaS company headquartered in San Mateo, California. If you enjoyed listening to this podcast, consider giving us a five-star rating on Apple Podcasts. Host and Producer - Jayadevan PKAssistant Producer - Shashwath JAudio Engineer - Rajesh Subramanian  

Sara Varni has spent more than a decade scaling marketing organizations for various enterprise SaaS companies. Currently, as the chief marketing officer of cloud communications platform Twilio, she looks after all of marketing including growth, brand, and product marketing, public relations, developer relations, and events. In this episode of The Orbit Shift Podcast, she talks to us about the four horsemen of a marketing org - Inbound, outbound, sales reps, and partner organizations and how companies can leverage these pillars for hypergrowth. She also talks about building marketing channels and how to budget for them, how to get field marketing right, and how to create compelling customer stories. Get $10,000 free credits to use Freshworks products (including the brand new Freshworks CRM packed with AI-based lead scoring, phone, email, and activity capture) by joining the Freshworks for Startups program. Click here to check eligibility.About the GuestSara Varni is a creative marketing leader with a track record for driving awareness and demand for enterprise software products. She is currently the CMO of Twilio, an American cloud communications platform. Before Twilio, she spent a decade at Salesforce in various marketing roles, including SVP of marketing for Sales Cloud.Sign up for regular updates from The Orbit Shift Podcast.The Orbit Shift Podcast is powered by Freshworks Inc, a global SaaS company headquartered in San Mateo, California. If you enjoyed listening to this podcast, consider giving us a five-star rating on Apple Podcasts. Host and Producer - Jayadevan PKAssistant Producer - Shashwath JAudio Engineer - Rajesh Subramanian  

As Co-Founder and Partner at Jjellyfish, a sales consultancy with experience guiding 120+ early-stage startups, Jen Abel has seen how early-stage sales teams can fail. In this episode of The Orbit Shift Podcast Jen talks about why the onus lies with founders to make the early sales and get direct feedback from their customers about their product. She talks about the difference between a buyer and a user, how founders can hit the $1 million revenue mark, how to set up a sales team post the $1 million mark, how sales teams should go about prospecting, and how founders can convert a product-led growth engine to a top-down sales motion. Get $10,000 free credits to use Freshworks products (including the brand new Freshworks CRM packed with AI-based lead scoring, phone, email, and activity capture) by joining the Freshworks for Startups program. Click here to check eligibility. About the GuestJen Abel is the Co-founder and Partner at Jjellyfish, an NYC-headquartered sales consultancy that has supported 120+ early-stage B2B startups in finding product-market fit in the U.S. market. Jjellyfish has had the opportunity to support Founders at startups including Atlan, Mesh.ai, Factors, and partnering with various funds including Sequoia, Accel, Blume, and 3one4 capital.Sign up for regular updates from The Orbit Shift Podcast.The Orbit Shift Podcast is powered by Freshworks Inc, a global SaaS company headquartered in San Mateo, California. If you enjoyed listening to this podcast, consider giving us a five-star rating on Apple Podcasts. Host and Producer - Jayadevan PKAssistant Producer - Shashwath JAudio Engineer - Rajesh Subramanian  

A founder is often someone who recognizes a gap in the market and looks to address this gap. Our latest guest is one such founder who has spotted a gap in professional social media networks and is looking to provide a solution to it. As the founder of Polywork, Peter Johnston is looking to change the way professional social media networks operate. In this episode of The Orbit Shift Podcast, he talks to us about the problem with professional social media channels, how the idea of Polywork came about from his Google 20% project. His future plans for monetization of the platform, the importance of design for product and growth, his approach to hiring and dealing with hiring missteps, and his advice on fundraising.   Skip the waitlist to create your Polywork profileNot Boring Newsletter by Packy McCormickGet $10,000 free credits to use Freshworks products (including the brand new Freshworks CRM packed with AI-based lead scoring, phone, email, and activity capture) by joining the Freshworks for Startups program. Click here to check eligibility. About the GuestPeter Johnston is the Founder of Polywork, a professional social network that is backed by a16z, Anthony Pompliano, and Alexis Ohanian amongst others. A designer by trade Peter has previously founded Kalo a freelancer management platform, before which he worked as a designer for Google. Sign up for regular updates from The Orbit Shift Podcast.The Orbit Shift Podcast is powered by Freshworks Inc, a global SaaS company headquartered in San Mateo, California. If you enjoyed listening to this podcast, consider giving us a five-star rating on Apple Podcasts. Host and Producer - Jayadevan PKAssistant Producer - Shashwath JAudio Engineer - Rajesh Subramanian  

If you’re a founder and are wondering how to really get sales right, or if you’re a sales leader and want to figure out how to hire people, help them level up and really propel your company into the next orbit, you must listen to Joe Manuele, the SVP of Corporate and Business Development at cloud communications company Dialpad. For several years now, Joe has had a ringside view of the transformation in the selling process. In this episode of The Orbit Shift Podcast, we talk to him about his journey and the need to continuously evolve as a manager. The top traits and abilities he looks for in salespeople, the metrics with which to track a sales team, how companies can wed an inside sales motion along with a product-led growth motion, and the lessons learned from the acquisition of his previous company Highfive. Get $10,000 free credits to use Freshworks products (including the brand new Freshworks CRM packed with AI-based lead scoring, phone, email, and activity capture) by joining the Freshworks for Startups program. Click here to check eligibility.To signup for Dialpad for Startups click here About the GuestJoe Manuele is Sr. Vice President Corporate and Business Development at Dialpad and former CEO of Highfive, which Diaplad acquired in August 2020. He has over 25 years of IT and communications experience in the enterprise and global carrier markets, gained at Avaya, Cisco, and Actelis Networks. Joe also served as Group Executive ̶ Communications at Dimension Data and NTT Global, where he was responsible for the $2 Bn UC and Collaboration business unit. Sign up for regular updates from The Orbit Shift Podcast.The Orbit Shift Podcast is powered by Freshworks Inc, a global SaaS company headquartered in San Mateo, California. If you enjoyed listening to this podcast, consider giving us a five-star rating on Apple Podcasts. Host and Producer - Jayadevan PKAssistant Producer - Shashwath JAudio Engineer - Rajesh Subramanian  

Launch, Lift, Locate, and Level Flight. These are the four stages that Ken Lundin, Founder of sales consultation group Ken Lundin & Associates, prescribes to early-stage startups to attain high growth. On this episode of The Orbit Shift Podcast, we caught up with the sales leader to talk about🚀How the selling process, sales teams, and sales talent need to pivot during the pandemic and beyond 🚀Breaking down the sales alpha roadmap and the four stages of Launch, Lift, Locate, and Level Flight🚀Building a sales team and the Key Performance Indicators to set for sales teams🚀How founders can design successful incentive programs for sales reps🚀How startups can align sales, marketing, and product 🚀How founders should go about building an outbound engineGet $10,000 free credits to use Freshworks products (including the brand new Freshworks CRM packed with AI-based lead scoring, phone, email, and activity capture) by joining the Freshworks for Startups program. Click here to check eligibility. About the GuestKen Lundin, founder of Ken Lundin & Associates, has a unique perspective on thriving during unpredictable times. After learning in 2011 that his family home had been sold on the market, Ken had to start again, working his way up from a mid-level sales position to achieving the role of SVP of Sales within two years. With his impressive sales knowledge and his determined outlook on life, Ken quickly became a consultant, bringing his successful business acumen to other companies who are looking to excel during the COVID era and beyond.Sign up for regular updates from The Orbit Shift Podcast.The Orbit Shift Podcast is powered by Freshworks Inc, a global SaaS company headquartered in San Mateo, California. If you enjoyed listening to this podcast, consider giving us a five-star rating on Apple Podcasts. Host and Producer - Jayadevan PKAssistant Producer - Shashwath JAudio Engineer - Rajesh Subramanian  

Marketing has changed dramatically over the last 20 years. Today data empowers marketers to understand where their dollars are going and what their return on investment is. Heather Zynczak, a board member at DemandBase and ex-CMO of Pluralsight, has had a firsthand view of this change in the field.In this episode, she talks to us about the changes in marketing trends and how startups need to react to them. Why she thinks the way Account-Based Management is defined is problematic and how companies can get ABM right. Heather also talks about how she led product-led growth at Pluralsight and why companies should not have to choose between sales and product-led growth.Get $10,000 free credits to use Freshworks products (including the brand new Freshworks CRM packed with AI-based lead scoring, phone, email, and activity capture) by joining the Freshworks for Startups program. Click here to check eligibility. About the GuestHeather Zynczak has spent the last 25+ years in marketing, product, and revenue leadership positions at some of the world’s most successful tech companies. Heather spent 4+ years as CMO of Pluralsight, where she was responsible for all aspects of marketing and digital revenue. During her tenure there, the company grew B2B revenue by over 50% year-over-year, growing revenue to almost half a billion and enabling the company to IPO in 2018. Sign up for regular updates from The Orbit Shift Podcast.The Orbit Shift Podcast is powered by Freshworks Inc, a global SaaS company headquartered in San Mateo, California. If you enjoyed listening to this podcast, consider giving us a five-star rating on Apple Podcasts. Host and Producer - Jayadevan PKAssistant Producer - Shashwath JAudio Engineer - Rajesh Subramanian  

Dave Kellogg, known as the ‘Yoda of SaaS metrics,’ is our latest guest on The Orbit Shift Podcast. We talk to the SaaS veteran about🚀The two essential SaaS metrics - ARR and ARR growth🚀The importance of picking a big enough TAM🚀Importance of measuring NDR 🚀CAC vs NDR, when to use what🚀The limitations of an NPS🚀Why startups shouldn’t become metric slavesThis episode was recorded live at SaasBoomi’s annual event.Get $10,000 free credits to use Freshworks products (including the brand new Freshworks CRM packed with AI-based lead scoring, phone, email, and activity capture) by joining the Freshworks for Startups program. Click here to check eligibility. About the GuestDave Kellogg is an advisor, independent board member, consultant, and blogger at www.kellblog.com. In 2019, he was named to the Top 5 Most Respected Leaders in SaaS by the 15,000 attendees of SaaStr. He brings a balanced and uncommon perspective to enterprise software challenges, having 10+ years experience at each of the CEO, CMO, and board levels across ten different companies ranging in size from $0 to over $1B in revenues.Sign up for regular updates from The Orbit Shift Podcast.The Orbit Shift Podcast is powered by Freshworks Inc, a global SaaS company headquartered in San Mateo, California. If you enjoyed listening to this podcast, consider giving us a five-star rating on Apple Podcasts. Host and Producer - Jayadevan PKAssistant Producer - Shashwath JAudio Engineer - Rajesh Subramanian  

With Melissa Sargeant, the chief marketing officer of email marketing company Litmus, we explore the role of a chief marketing officer, how they’re hired, why they last the least in the c-suite, and e-mail marketing, one of the most powerful channels for marketers. Get $10,000 free credits to use Freshworks products (including the brand new Freshworks CRM packed with AI-based lead scoring, phone, email, and activity capture) by joining the Freshworks for Startups program. Click here to check eligibility. About the GuestMelissa Sargeant is the CMO of email marketing company Litmus. She has more than 20 years of experience in various marketing leadership roles. She was previously the CMO of SugarCRM, ChannelAdvisor, and the Senior Director of Product Marketing at CA Technologies. Sign up for regular updates from The Orbit Shift Podcast.The Orbit Shift Podcast is powered by Freshworks Inc, a global SaaS company headquartered in San Mateo, California. If you enjoyed listening to this podcast, consider giving us a five-star rating on Apple Podcasts. Host and Producer - Jayadevan PKAssistant Producer - Shashwath JAudio Engineer - Rajesh Subramanian 

When you sell subscriptions to a SaaS product that needs to be renewed frequently, it is necessary to prove the value of your product to customers every day. This not only prevents them from churning but also eventually makes them evangelists for your product.  This is the essence of value SaaS. In our latest episode of The Orbit Shift Podcast, we talk to Prasanna Krishnamoorthy, the Managing Partner at SaaS accelerator Upekkha about value SaaS. We discuss how founders, can cut through the noise and build a sustainable SaaS company including how to find early adopters, which customers to target, how to position and build a website, and how to have successful fundraises. Listen in. Get $10,000 free credits to use Freshworks products (including the brand new Freshworks CRM packed with AI-based lead scoring, phone, email, activity capture, and more) by joining the Freshworks for Startups program. Click here to check eligibility. About the GuestPrasanna Krishnamoorthy is a partner at Upekkha, where he works with founders to build capital-efficient Value SaaS businesses. He is a full-stack growth driver who has coached more than a hundred entrepreneurs during his time at Upekkha, Microsoft Accelerator, and iKen. While working with these entrepreneurs, Prasanna has created frameworks for early-stage founders to accelerate growth predictably, scalably, and profitably. Prasanna was part of two B2B startups between 2005-2012 and also worked at Amazon, Microsoft, and Tejas Networks. He has a Master's Degree in Telecommunications from the University of Texas, Dallas, and a Bachelor's Degree in Electronics and Communications Engineering from CEG, Chennai.Sign up for regular updates from The Orbit Shift Podcast.The Orbit Shift Podcast is powered by Freshworks Inc, a global SaaS company headquartered in San Mateo, California. If you enjoyed listening to this podcast, consider giving us a five-star rating on Apple Podcasts. Host and Producer - Jayadevan PKAssistant Producer - Shashwath JAudio Engineer - Rajesh Subramanian  

Founders are often in the trenches when it comes to fund-raising, making new hires, and driving their company’s growth. What often goes under the radar however is how founders can navigate their way through a board room. In this episode of The Orbit Shift Podcast, we talk to Cindy Padnos, a VC with 25 years of experience in the tech industry who sits on the board of six companies. We talk about🚀What is the profile of an ideal chairperson🚀When should founders get an independent board member🚀How to deal with conflicts in the boardroom🚀How to compensate board members 🚀The key ingredients for a good relationship between board members🚀How to evolve a board over timeGet $10,000 free credits to use Freshworks products (including the brand new Freshworks CRM packed with AI-based lead scoring, phone, email, activity capture, and more) by joining the Freshworks for Startups program. Click here to check eligibility.About the GuestLeveraging 25 years of high-tech industry experience, Cindy Padnos is the founder and Managing Partner of Illuminate Ventures. She focuses primarily on the Enterprise/B2B cloud and mobile computing sectors, with a particular emphasis on SaaS applications and platforms, solutions leveraging data for business impact, and new business models that accelerate customer acquisition. Cindy serves as a board director for Bid Ops, BrightEdge, CafeX, Hoopla Software, nFlux, and Pex.Sign up for regular updates from The Orbit Shift Podcast.The Orbit Shift Podcast is powered by Freshworks Inc, a global SaaS company headquartered in San Mateo, California. If you enjoyed listening to this podcast, consider giving us a five-star rating on Apple Podcasts. Host and Producer - Jayadevan PKAssistant Producer - Shashwath JAudio Engineer - Rajesh Subramanian