SaaStr Podcast #207: Jason VandeBoom, Founder & CEO @ ActiveCampaign Shares Why Thinking There Is A Price Point You Need For A Rep Is BS
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This post is by Harry Stebbings from SaaStr
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Welcome to Episode 207! Jason VandeBoom is the Founder and CEO of ActiveCampaign, a sales and marketing automation platform that enables small businesses around the world to meaningfully connect and engage with their customers. Jason founded the company in 2003 and under Jason’s leadership, ActiveCampaign has flourished from a successful but small company and then in 2013, they transitioned to SaaS. Since, they have grown to more than $50 million in ARR in less than five years, while still maintaining profitability and its culture. They have also only raised a single $20m PE round to accelerate their growth, making them a market leader in terms of funds raised/ARR generated.
In Today’s Episode We Discuss:- How Jason made his way into the world of SaaS and came to found ActiveCampaign.
Why is Jason so bullish that “SMB first, works?” What are the inherent benefits from starting at SMB? does it affect product feedback? How does it affect how you build and scale your team? How does one start to layer in market and enterprise over time? Why does it give you additional leverage?
What does Jason think is the right way to scale your sales team? Why does one not need funding to scale sales teams? When does Jason believe is the right time to hire your first VP of Sales? What were the biggest mistakes that Jason made in the scaling of his sales team? Why should you hire 3 reps to start at one time?
How does Jason view the current fundraising environment? Why does Jason believe that “no one cares if you get funding?” Why does Jason believe there is a fear around needing fast growth? Who is to blame for this? How should founders in the messy middle feel when seeing large fundraises in the media?
Why does Jason believe that all leaders need to be consuming all feedback? How does Jason consume feedback on a daily basis? What metrics and elements does he look for in this assessment? How has Jason’s role changed over the 16-year CEO-ship? Does it get easier over time in Jason’s mind? What has been the biggest challenge?
Jason’s 60 Second SaaStr:
- What does Jason know now that he wishes he had known at the beginning?
No man’s land of SaaS pricing, exist or a myth?
Multi-year deals, all they are cracked up to be or overrated?
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Jason Lemkin
Harry Stebbings
SaaStr
Jason VandeBoom
Transcript
Harry Stebbings: Hello and welcome back to the official SaaStr podcast with me, Harry Stebbings. I would love to see you on Instagram, @HStebbings1996, with two Bs, where you can suggest both guests and questions for future episodes, and it would be fantastic to see you there.
But to our episode today. And I have to say, I’m really very proud of this one. Today we’re featuring an incredible entrepreneur in the form of Jason VandeBoom, founder and CEO at ActiveCampaign, a sales and marketing automation platform that enables small business around the world to meaningfully connect and engage with their customers.
Jason founded the company in 2003, and under his leadership, ActiveCampaign has flourished from a successful but small business. And then, in 2013, they transitioned to the world of SaaS. Since, they’ve grown to more than $50 million in ARR in less than five years, while still maintaining both profitability and its culture.
And they’ve also only raised a single $20 million private equity round to accelerate that growth, making them really, I guess, a market leader in terms of funds raised to ARR generated.
I do also have to say a huge thank you to Jason Lemkin for the intro to Jason, today, and so appreciate that. However, you’ve heard quite enough of my terrible English accent, and so I’m absolutely thrilled to welcome Jason VandeBoom, founder and CEO at ActiveCampaign.
Jason, it is absolutely fantastic to have you on the show. As I said, so excited for this one. So, thank you so much for joining me today, Jason.
Jason VandeBoom: Yeah, appreciate you having me.
Harry Stebbings: Not at all. But I’d love to kick off with a little on you. So tell me, how did you make your way into the world of SaaS, and come to found the beast that is today ActiveCampaign?
Jason VandeBoom: It’s actually kind of a long story in the making. If anyone’s not familiar with ActiveCampaign, we basically exist to help small businesses grow. So it’s basically a new take on marketing automation, where it’s about being the right stack of tools and orchestrating the customer experience.
But to get to that idea, to get that thesis to the market, took me 16 years, so far. So, I started the company back in ’03, and started with on-prem software, selling to SMBs. So I took two extremely difficult things, combined them together, and did that over a decade.
13 years into it, I go from myself to about 20 people. So not exactly like that fast, explosive growth a lot of people talk about, but a solid business. But then, from that point to now, we’re now over 350 people, adding about a couple hundred people in the last year alone.
Harry Stebbings: Can I ask, what was the … I mean, that’s an extraordinary journey that, as you said, 13 years to 20 people, and now 350 within the last three.
Jason VandeBoom: Yeah.
Harry Stebbings: What was the catalyst to that growth?
Jason VandeBoom: It’s a combination of making that decision to go from on-prem software to SaaS. And then starting to find our fit within a new take on marketing automation. I mean, it wasn’t some giant funding event, it wasn’t some giant explosion of new customers coming in, necessarily, from some paid advertising or something like that. It was just truly genuine value we were providing, and that just started to spread.
Harry Stebbings: Another question I do just have to ask, and sorry, off-schedule. I meet a lot of founders who maybe don’t experience the explosive growth of maybe your Slacks of the world. What advice would you have to them, who are enduring building a solid, sustainable business, but they see the funding rounds, they see the huge ARR numbers. What advice would you have for them?
Jason VandeBoom: Like, they should actually be truly excited about the fact that they’re building a sustainable business. Nobody gives enough credit
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