How to SaaS Podcast

Shiv Narayanan interviews Daniel Pianko, Managing Director at Achieve Partners and host of the Better Money Better World podcast. Daniel and Shiv discuss how Achieve Partners is using talent development to maximize portfolio company growth, unlock revenue potential, and make positive change for employees and their communities. Learn how Achieve Partners' alternative approach is helping set them apart from other firms and connect them with passionate investors and founders.

Ep.1: Daniel Pianko, Achieve Partners | How to Stand Out with Talent Development

Shiv Narayanan interviews Bryce Youngren, Managing Partner at Polaris Growth Fund.

Bryce and Shiv discuss how Polaris Growth Fund creates value in smaller businesses, and why this area of the market is under-leveraged. Learn about the tried-and-tested process that has helped them generate impressive returns, including a founder-friendly approach and strategic acceleration teams.

Ep.2: Bryce Youngren, Polaris Growth Fund | How to Deliver Big Returns on Small Companies

Shiv Narayanan interviews Mike Devine, CMO at Fortra.

Mike and Shiv discuss how the Fortra marketing function has adapted and scaled to suit the company’s changing needs and consistently drive growth.

Learn how they integrated teams, built centres of expertise and maintained open communication with investors.

Ep.3: Mike Devine, Fortra | How Marketing Needs to Evolve for a High-Growth Company

Shiv Narayanan interviews Zane Tarence, Partner and Managing Director at Founders Advisors Technology Practice.

Zane and Shiv discuss what investors look for in potential acquisitions and how founders can make their businesses more appealing for investment. Get an insider’s perspective on the finance options available to growing businesses, what many founders get wrong, and the factors that make a company investment-grade.

Ep.4: Zane Tarence, Founders Advisors | What Makes a Business Investment-Grade

Shiv Narayanan interviews Mariza Warshawsky, Partner at Assembly Group.

Mariza and Shiv discuss Assembly Group’s tried-and-tested process to source and hire for key roles for PE-backed software companies.

Learn how the experts recommend laying the groundwork for a successful search, and how to secure the best candidates in a competitive market. Get clarity on what to expect when you’re looking for a function leader who can supercharge portco growth.

Ep.5: Mariza Warshawsky, Assembly Group | How to Hire the Right Team To Grow Your Portfolio Company

Shiv Narayanan interviews AJ Gandhi, CGO at Marlin Equity Partners.

AJ and Shiv discuss how Marlin Equity Partners’ team of operating professionals create value in their portcos with a hands-on approach to revenue growth.

Learn about the sales and marketing structures that are the foundation to scaling but are often underdeveloped, and hear how Marlin Equity Partners leverage upselling, demand generation and pricing changes for sustainable growth.

Ep.6: AJ Gandhi of Marlin Equity Partners on 6 Needle Movers for Organic Growth

Shiv Narayanan interviews Vinny Prajka, Partner at JMI Equity.

Vinny and Shiv discuss how portfolio companies can increase efficiency and grow sustainably with a more focused approach to sales.

Hear how JMI use customer segmentation to target sales efforts, reduce churn and increase average sales price. Learn how to implement this approach in your portfolio companies, including restructuring the sales org structure, updating product marketing and hiring the right team.

Ep.7: Vinny Prajka, JMI Equity | How to Use ICPs and Segmentation as a Foundation for Scale

Shiv Narayanan interviews George Rossolatos, CEO and Managing Partner of Canadian Business Growth Fund.

George and Shiv discuss how CBGF’s investment philosophy and evergreen fund are a rewarding alternative to companies choosing rapid growth at all costs.

Learn how longer holding periods can be the basis of sustained, profitable growth and better returns for both founders and investors. Plus, hear how founders should be evaluating potential investors to build the right partnership.

Ep.8: George Rossolatos, CBGF | How to Build Sustainable Growth with a Long Term Investment Approach

Shiv Narayanan interviews Matt Gallagher, Portfolio CRO at Hg Capital.

Matt and Shiv discuss how the Hg portfolio team prioritize revenue growth strategies that will move the needle most in the first months after an investment.

Learn about the importance of due diligence as a foundation for scale and the metrics you should review to assess performance and potential, plus common areas of inefficiency in portfolio companies and how to address them.

Ep.9: Matt Gallagher, Hg Capital | How to Increase Efficiency with Data and Strategy

Shiv Narayanan interviews Allen Duan, General Partner at B Capital Group.

Allen and Shiv discuss how B Capital Group’s role as minority investors influences their approach to value creation and how they leverage the experience of advisors and partners.

Learn how you can guide companies towards growth through team and organization, capital advisory, strategy and operations, BD and ecosystem development, and community knowledge sharing.

Ep.10: Allen Duan, B Capital Group | 5 Pillars of Value Creation for Minority Investors

Episode 1 of the How To SaaS podcast with Ryan Anderson, CEO of Filevine.

01: How To Exhibit at Conferences with Ryan Anderson, CEO of Filevine

Episode 2 of the How To SaaS podcast with Donald Cowper (Head of Content at ClearFit), co-author of Breaking The Time Barrier and What To Why.

02: How To Write Books With Donald Cowper, Bestselling Author and Head of Content at ClearFit

Episode 4 of the How To SaaS podcast with Shiv Narayanan features Joey Coleman on onboarding users in the first 100 days of their journey and turning initial experience into an advantage to increase retention and referrals


04: How To Onboard Users In The First 100 Days® with Joey Coleman, Founder of Design Symphony

Episode 5 features Tim Paige, Senior Conversion Educator at LeadPages, on how to create a multi-channel education strategy for SaaS companies using webinars, podcast, courses and more. 

05: How To Create A Multi-Channel Education Strategy With Tim Paige of LeadPages

Episode 6 of the How To SaaS podcast with Shiv Narayanan features Hana Abaza, VP of Marketing at Uberflip, on pioneering the Content Experience conversation and how their webinar strategy is helping them distribute the message to the market. 


06: How Uberflip is using webinars to pioneer Content Experience

Episode 7 of the How To SaaS podcast with Shiv Narayanan features Omar Zenhom, co-founder of the $100MBA & Webinar Ninja, on how to bootstrap a SaaS company using content marketing.

07: How to bootstrap a SaaS company using Content Marketing with Omar Zenhom

Episode 8 of the How To SaaS podcast with Shiv Narayanan features Heather McCloskey, Inbound Marketing Manager at Uservoice, and we discuss how to run your blog like a product manager.

08: How To Run Your Blog Like A Product Manager w/ Heather McCloskey of Uservoice

Episode 10 of the How To SaaS podcast features Jon Miller, founder and CEO of Engagio, on how to plan, deploy and measure an Account-Based Everything strategy.

10: How to plan, deploy and measure an Account Based Everything strategy with Jon Miller

Episode 11 of the How To SaaS podcast with Shiv Narayanan features Adam Fried, CEO of SimplyColorLab and ShootQ, on how to layer a retail business and a SaaS company on top of each other to create synergies and generate additional streams of revenue.

11: How To Acquire A SaaS Company And Build Synergies With Your Existing Business

On Episode 29 of the How To SaaS podcast, Shiv Narayanan interviews Mitch Solway, the former VP of Marketing at Freshbooks, on how to deploy and measure radio ads as an avenue for acquiring customers.

12: How To Deploy And Measure Radio Ads For Your SaaS Company

On Episode 30 of the How To SaaS podcast, Shiv Narayanan interviews bestselling author Tucker Max on how to manipulate the media and build a PR machine like Donald Trump.

13: How to manipulate the media and build a PR machine like Donald Trump with Tucker Max

On Episode 31 of the How To SaaS podcast, Shiv Narayanan interviews Laura Roeder, Founder and CEO of Meet Edgar, on how to use your brand to say "No" to good opportunities to uncover the story behind the critical decisions that helped grow Edgar to $4MM in ARR in just 3 years.

14: How To Use Your Brand To Say "No" To Good Opportunities With Laura Roeder, CEO Of Meet Edgar

On episode 32 of the How To SaaS podcast, Shiv Narayanan interviews Lars Lofgren, Head of Growth at I Will Teach You To Be Rich and former Head of Marketing at Kissmetrics. Lars has had the unique opportunity of working with 3 marketing all stars in Hiten Shah, Neil Patel and now Ramit Sethi, so he has a ton of experience and mentorship to pull from. Shiv and Lars discuss how Lars was able to generate 8000 leads per month at Kissmetrics, how to generate millions of visitors to your blog and his 8 simple rules of A/B testing that you and your marketing team HAVE to listen to.

15: How To Generate 8K Leads per Month with 8 Simple Rules Of A/B Testing ft. Lars Lofgren

On Episode 33 of the How To SaaS podcast, Shiv Narayanan interviews Neil Patel, the guru of content marketing. The interview starts with a discussion on how SaaS companies can leverage content as a source of traffic and leads but quickly transitions to Neil's take on whether or not all SaaS companies should be doing content marketing, especially in the early days or if funding is limited, where other channels can likely produce a more immediate return.

16: Neil Patel On Why Content Marketing Is Not For Every SaaS Company

On Episode 34 of the How To SaaS podcast, Shiv Narayanan interviews Nicholas Kusmich -- the go-to expert on Facebook ads. Nicholas has worked with all kinds of industry leaders, including Tony Robbins, Robin Sharma, Joe Polish, and many SaaS companies, including SamCart, Zapable and more. 

Shiv and Nicholas discuss all the ways in which SaaS companies could leverage Facebook ads as a new channel of acquisition. A lot of SaaS companies are leaving money on the table by ignoring low-hanging fruit on Facebook.

Check out Nick's latest book: Give - The Ultimate Guide To Using Facebook Advertising To Generate More Leads, More Clients and Massive ROI. You can get the book here: www.givebook.info

17: Nicholas Kusmich on how to leverage Facebook ads for SaaS companies

On Episode 35 of the How To SaaS podcast, Shiv Narayanan talks to Will Dinkel (CEO of Nova.ai) on how to find product-market fit for your SaaS company, Will's journey through YCombinator and all the struggles involved in the early stages of a startup.

18: How To Find Product-Market Fit for Your SaaS Company With Will Dinkel, CEO Of Nova.ai

On Episode 36 of the How To SaaS podcast, Shiv Narayanan talks to Zane Tarence, Managing Director of Founders Investment Banking, on the 5 critical factors private equity investors analyze when investing in SaaS companies.

19: The 5 critical factors of private equity investing in SaaS companies with Zane Tarence

In Episode 37 of the How To SaaS podcast, Shiv interviews Paul Teshima, CEO of Nudge.ai, on how to build a product-led go-to-market strategy.

20: How to build a product-led go-to-market strategy with Paul Teshima, CEO of Nudge.ai

On Episode 38 of the How To SaaS podcast, Shiv Narayanan gives a behind the scenes look of the Wild Apricot acquisition.

21: How SaaS acquisitions work (Wild Apricot's acquisition by Personify)

On Episode 39 of the How To SaaS podcast, Shiv interviews Bryce Youngren, Managing Partner at Polaris Partners, and they discuss how SaaS companies can expand internationally. 

Bryce shares 5 ways SaaS companies can go about doing this and uses real life examples from his portfolio companies:
1) Channel Partners
2) Telesales
3) Freemium
4) Local Presence
5) Acquisitions

22: How To Expand Internationally with Bryce Youngren, Managing Partner at Polaris Partners

On Episode 40, I interview Elle Morgan (VP of Marketing at Woopra) on how to use Product Qualified Leads (PQLs) to close more opportunities.

The conversation with Elle is especially relevant for transactional SaaS companies who use a freemium and/or free trial model and do not have access to large sales teams to talk to all prospects 1-on-1.

23: How to use Product Qualified Leads (PQLs) to close more opportunities with Elle Morgan

On Episode 42, Shiv Narayanan interviews Dev Basu, CEO of Powered by Search, on how SaaS companies can build an Intent Engine to attract, engage and convert prospects into paying users.

How To SaaS

24: How to build an Intent Engine with Dev Basu, CEO of Powered by Search

On Episode 25, Shiv and Stephen Silberbach (SVP of Global Sales at Clio) discuss how to build a sales machine for your SaaS company, including team structure, roles, responsibilities and KPIs.

25: How to build a sales machine with Stephen Silberbach, SVP of Global Sales at Clio

On Episode 26, Shiv and Patrick Campbell (CEO of ProfitWell) discuss how to price your SaaS product, including the hot button topic of pricing increases.

26: How to price your SaaS product with Patrick Campbell, CEO of ProfitWell

On Episode 27, Rand Fishkin (Founder of Moz and SparkToro) and Shiv discuss how to avoid the biggest pitfalls of being a SaaS founder, Rand's journey with Moz, his book "Lost and Founder" and the 5 things he is doing differently as a second time founder.

27: Rand Fishkin on how to avoid the biggest pitfalls of being a SaaS founder

On Episode 28, Eric Thurston (CEO of Personify) and Shiv discuss how to build a platform SaaS company, including the strategy, process, challenges, learnings and personal growth that come along with it. Eric is the CEO of the company that eventually acquired Wild Apricot.

28: How to build a platform SaaS company with Eric Thurston, CEO of Personify

Have you ever tried to get more funding for Content Marketing initiatives or team members, only to have your CEO / CFO / CMO tell you there's not money in the budget for that? On this episode of How To SaaS, Shiv Narayanan talks about how you can go about making sure Content Marketing gets the funding it deserves to help you drive the business forward.

Go to the full episode blog post with slides, video and more: https://www.howtosaas.com/blog/how-to-get-more-funding-for-content-marketing

How to get more budget for content

Has your company ever missed its quarterly or annual sales projections? This is one of the top reasons why C-Level executives are let go from growing companies. It often happens inside companies where forecasting is treated more like a math exercise and the underlying growth model for the business isn't strong enough. That's why on this episode of How To SaaS, Shiv Narayanan talks about how executive teams can forecast sales projections more effectively, while still setting ambitious targets.

How to forecast sales projections more effectively

Are you trying to figure out your content strategy? Here are 6 simple steps that can help you create a massive content backlog:

1) Who are you trying to help / serve? Ideally, use a real life example.
2) What keeps them up at night? What problems are they facing?
3) What are the negative consequences of their problems? What happens if they don't solve this problem?
4) What is their dream scenario? What are their motivations, needs and goals?
5) What are the checkpoints and milestones between where they are now and their dream scenario? Who do they need to become to achieve the transformation they want?
6) Build content for each step. Focus on the pain points, not the mechanical funnel stages.

How to build a content strategy for your SaaS company

On this episode of How To SaaS, we discuss how to hire a rockstar product manager and what aspiring product leaders need to become to be effective. Your Product leader needs to:
1. Understand the intersection of product management encompasses UX, Tech and Business and be able to serve the needs of each
2. Be market focused to help the rest of the company understand the market needs and pains that need to be addressed.
3. Be able to make important tradeoffs with limited resources to serve and please all the different stakeholders involved.
4. Appreciate growth and all the different levers that can be pulled to take the business to the next level.
5. Be incredibly data-driven and make decisions using an ROI, business case based approach.

How to hire a rockstar product manager

How to have 1-on-1s with your manager

On episode 29 of the How To SaaS podcast, Shiv interviews Dave Gray, the former CEO of Daxko and current CEO of the Biso Collective. Dave and Shiv discuss how Daxko deployed a growth by acquisitions strategy to scale its business and the importance of focus in growing companies. Dave also shares the vision for his new initiative, Biso Collective, and how he plans on deploying a buy-and-hold strategy to give founders of mission-critical software companies a third alternative to a liquidity event outside of a strategic or financial buyer.

29: How to grow through acquisitions, focus and culture with Dave Gray

Have you ever wondered about what other SaaS companies are doing to grow their business? What channels are they experimenting with? Where are they finding traction?

Welcome to How To SaaS — the go-to podcast for growing your cloud software company. Hosted by growth strategist Shiv Narayanan, Founder of How To SaaS and the CMO of Wild Apricot — the #1 membership software for small associations and nonprofits.

Each week will bring you interviews with founders, CEOs and growth leaders who have successfully implemented a growth strategy to help you take your cloud software company to the next level.

How To SaaS

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