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SaaS Insider

SaaS Insider is a show about SaaS - business, marketing, and sales. The host, Shira Abel from Hunter & Bard, interviews a new SaaS Insider every week on how they grew their company. We cover the learnings, mistakes, and best practices so you can learn, grow, and scale your SaaS business.
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Now displaying: August, 2017
Aug 29, 2017

How can freemium be beneficial to your SaaS business? What is the best way to figure out pricing? Which size of business should you be selling to? Elie Khoury, the CEO of Woopra, talks to Shira Abel about starting his business in Lebanon and moving it to Silicon Valley, his challenges and successes along the way.

About Elie Khoury
• Elie Khoury is the co-founder and CEO of Woopra. An engineer by trade, CEO by profession, Elie built Woopra under the belief that data made accessible to everyone in the organization would empower all employees to make better-informed, data-driven decisions.
• He studied computer science at the Lebanese American University where he built the first generation of Woopra in 2007.
• In addition to Woopra, he co-founded YallaStartup, a non-profit organization established to foster entrepreneurship in the Middle East and North Africa.

Key Takeaways:
• Freemium can help you get a head start on your user base, but get ready for challenges when you’re ready to monetize.
• Make sure to have enough support for your paid customers and learn to prioritize when it comes to different levels of paid subscriptions.
• Don’t get involved with selling to enterprise until you know you’re ready. If you know you want to sell to large businesses, start preparing everything early.

Please rate this podcast.

About Shira Abel
Shira Abel is the CEO and Lead Strategist at Hunter & Bard (http://www.hunterandbard.com), a PR, marketing and design agency. Clients include: Folloze, Totango, Cyara, Sarine Technologies, Pushbullet, AXA Tech, CloudEndure, Pitango VC, Allianz, and more. Creator and host of the SaaS Insider podcast. Mentor at 500 Startups. Former professor of Marketing for Startups at Tel Aviv-Jaffa Academic College. MBA from Kellogg School of Management. Loves family time, cooking, and traveling. Hates writing about herself in the third person. She lives with her husband, teen and tween sons and a very large Great Pyrenees.

If you would like to be interviewed on SaaS Insider - please contact Shira at the URL above.

The SaaS Insider podcast is brought to you by Hunter & Bard, an agency specializing in PR, design, branding, and marketing strategy – helping SaaS companies develop mindshare. It’s also a member of the C-Suite Radio Network. Check out Hunter & Bard today at http://hunterandbard.com

Tags and Keywords: saas business, data, freemium

Facebook Status: @shiraabel and @eliekhoury in this episode of #SaaSInsider discuss analytics, pricing, and freemiums when selling B2B. Tune in to find out how Woopra made it work.

Twitter Status: @shiraabel and @eliekhoury of Woopra in this episode of #SaaSInsider discuss analytics, pricing, and freemiums when selling B2B.

Aug 22, 2017

Should salespeople blog and create their own content? How to leverage video to improve sales? What are some different types of content that you could be sharing? Kurt Shaver, the Chief Sales Officer (CSO) of Vengreso, talks to Shira Abel about social selling done right and where to begin.

About Kurt Shaver
• Kurt Shaver is the CSO at Vengreso, a Digital Sales Transformation company. As a former sales rep and VP of Sales, Kurt knows what it takes to reach B2B decision makers.
• He is the creator of the Social Selling Boot Camp and has over 10,000 hours of social selling experience.
• Kurt is a frequent speaker at events like Dreamforce, Sales 2.0, and LinkedIn's Sales Connect conference. His blog was named a Top Sales Blog and clients includes Hewlett Packard, CenturyLink, NetApp, Frontier Communications, Maritz Travel, and City National Bank.

Key Takeaways:
• Salesforce is the greatest potential content distribution force that B2B companies have.
• While salespeople should be sharing company and industry content, they should be authentic and create their own.
• Personal video is hot right now. If you’re not using yet, it’s time to get your salesperson trained on how to use it to close more deals.

Please rate this podcast.

About Shira Abel
Shira Abel is the CEO and Lead Strategist at Hunter & Bard (http://www.hunterandbard.com), a PR, marketing and design agency. Clients include: Folloze, Totango, Cyara, Sarine Technologies, Pushbullet, AXA Tech, CloudEndure, Pitango VC, Allianz, and more. Creator and host of the SaaS Insider podcast. Mentor at 500 Startups. Former professor of Marketing for Startups at Tel Aviv-Jaffa Academic College. MBA from Kellogg School of Management. Loves family time, cooking, and traveling. Hates writing about herself in the third person. She lives with her husband, teen and tween sons and a very large Great Pyrenees.

If you would like to be interviewed on SaaS Insider - please contact Shira at the URL above.

The SaaS Insider podcast is brought to you by Hunter & Bard, an agency specializing in PR, design, branding, and marketing strategy – helping SaaS companies develop mindshare. It’s also a member of the C-Suite Radio Network. Check out Hunter & Bard today at http://hunterandbard.com

Tags and Keywords: social selling, digital marketing, saas

Facebook Status: @shiraabel and @kurtshaver discuss content development, social selling, and the best tools to make it work for your business. Learn more about what other B2B companies are already doing and how to convince your salespeople to use social media in this episode of #SaaSInsider podcast.

Twitter Status: @kurtshaver shares his tips on #SaaSInsider with @shiraabel on where to begin with social selling.

Aug 15, 2017

How do you make a transition from a job at a startup to an enterprise? How to help sales and marketing departments work together towards one common goal? Can you get sales fight for MQLs? Where do you start when trying to sell to an enterprise? Dave Ewart, the Head of Digital Marketing at Oracle, shares with Shira Abel his experience of working for an enterprise, developing a collaborative workspace, and driving innovation.

About Dave Ewart
• Hailing from the 50th state, Dave is a SaaS Tech Marketer with few known predators but highly allergic to: poor customer experiences, stodgy corporate marketing and inferior faux-cloud software solutions.
• 
Dave is a Full-funnel Marketing Exec and #Startup advisor with 20 yrs experience driving revenue and demand to scale SaaS companies from seed through acquisition & IPO. David has driven marketing teams and led demand generation for B2B brand leaders including: Tealeaf (acquired by IBM), SatMetrix, Saba, Loggly, Talkdesk and is currently Head of Digital Marketing for North America at Oracle.
• When Dave isn't busy creating demand, he’s likely running on the trails in Marin chasing after his two kids.

Key Takeaways:
• In order to align sales and marketing departments your KPIs need to change to reflect your goals. It’s not about the number of leads and MQLs, it’s about starting conversations.
• Content is king of the internet, but queen is the content channel. You just need to find the right recipe.
• Hire for specific skills, but look beyond a resume: get to know your candidates, what they’re passionate about, their attitudes, and their ability to drive change.

Please rate this podcast.

About Shira Abel
Shira Abel is the CEO and Lead Strategist at Hunter & Bard (http://www.hunterandbard.com), a PR, marketing and design agency. Clients include: Folloze, Totango, Cyara, Sarine Technologies, Pushbullet, AXA Tech, CloudEndure, Pitango VC, Allianz, and more. Creator and host of the SaaS Insider podcast. Mentor at 500 Startups. Former professor of Marketing for Startups at Tel Aviv-Jaffa Academic College. MBA from Kellogg School of Management. Loves family time, cooking, and traveling. Hates writing about herself in the third person. She lives with her husband, teen and tween sons and a very large Great Pyrenees.

If you would like to be interviewed on SaaS Insider - please contact Shira at the URL above.

The SaaS Insider podcast is brought to you by Hunter & Bard, an agency specializing in PR, design, branding, and marketing strategy – helping SaaS companies develop mindshare. It’s also a member of the C-Suite Radio Network. Check out Hunter & Bard today at http://hunterandbard.com

Tags and Keywords: enterprise sales, marketing, MQL

Facebook Status: @shiraable and Dave Ewart discuss how to drive innovation at an enterprise, increasing the sales efficiency and modernization of marketing in this week’s episode of #SaaSInsider.

Twitter Status: @clickbyclick of Oracle talks to @shiraabel on #SaaSInsider about #marketing, making change, and demand generation.

 

Aug 8, 2017

How do you enforce culture and set people up for success? How can you choose the right people to join your team? Can you make sure you have diversity? Shira Abel talks to David Cancel about having five successful exits, company culture, and the importance of building a startup around your customer.

About David Cancel
• David Cancel is a serial entrepreneur, podcast host (Seeking Wisdom) and angel investor/advisor.
• He is best known for creating hyper-growth products and product teams at companies such as Drift, HubSpot, Performable, Ghostery and Compete. David has been featured by media outlets such as The New York Times, Forbes, Fortune, Wired, and Fast Company, and has guest lectured on entrepreneurship at Harvard, Harvard Business School, MIT, MIT’s Sloan School of Management, Bentley, and other universities.
• His popular blog davidcancel.com has been read by 1M+ entrepreneurs, and his Twitter account @dcancel has 135k followers and is considered a “must-follow" account for entrepreneurs, executives and product people.

Key Takeaways:
• You should questions yourself and have the centre of truth, because at the end of the day you need to accept the fact that you could be wrong. For a product - the customer is the truth. Internally - the people on the team are the truth.
• Firing is the #1 thing you should think about to enforce culture.
• When it comes to customers, it’s all about making business personal again and having those conversations.

Please rate this podcast.

About Shira Abel
Shira Abel is the CEO and Lead Strategist at Hunter & Bard (http://www.hunterandbard.com), a PR, marketing and design agency. Clients include: Folloze, Totango, Cyara, Sarine Technologies, Pushbullet, AXA Tech, CloudEndure, Pitango VC, Allianz, and more. Creator and host of the SaaS Insider podcast. Mentor at 500 Startups. Former professor of Marketing for Startups at Tel Aviv-Jaffa Academic College. MBA from Kellogg School of Management. Loves family time, cooking, and traveling. Hates writing about herself in the third person. She lives with her husband, teen and tween sons and a very large Great Pyrenees.

If you would like to be interviewed on SaaS Insider - please contact Shira at the URL above.

The SaaS Insider podcast is brought to you by Hunter & Bard, an agency specializing in PR, design, branding, and marketing strategy – helping SaaS companies develop mindshare. It’s also a member of the C-Suite Radio Network. Check out Hunter & Bard today at http://hunterandbard.com

Tags and Keywords: company culture, diversity, customer relations

Facebook Status: @shiraable talks to David Cancel about his great success with 5 exits. They discuss how to enforce a company culture and building a product around your customer in this week’s episode of #SaaSInsider.

Twitter Status: @shiraabel and @dcancel discuss how to enforce a company culture and building a product around your customer in this week’s episode of #SaaSInsider.

Aug 1, 2017

Why you should have an even distribution of UX professionals and developers on your team? How do you fail before you write code? Shira Abel and Anders Härén talk about data, gamification, building an ideal customer persona for your business and much more.

About Anders Härén
• Anders Härén is the CTO of Leeroy – a Swedish retail tech startup that has been around for 8 years.
• Previously Anders was the CTO at MittMedia – Sweden’s largest publisher of local news (28 regional newspapers, 22 free newspapers, 50+ sites and 50+ native apps) where he played an active and strategic role in MittMedia’s successful digital transformation and climb to top three newspaper groups in Sweden. As a CTO his two main passions are User Experience and Machine-learning. Anders was in charge of creating and scaling MittMedia’s development organization from 5 to 60 developers in three years.
• In the fall of 2016 Anders joined Leeroy as a co-owner and CTO. His responsibilities are similar to the ones at MittMedia: Scaling product, platforms and development organization

Key Takeaways:
• You need to capture the emotions during a customer journey.
• Data is your best friend.
• If you understand how to measure things, you can measure anything.
• Demographics is not the first thing you should look at when building an ideal persona.


Please rate this podcast.

About Shira Abel
Shira Abel is the CEO and Lead Strategist at Hunter & Bard (http://www.hunterandbard.com), a PR, marketing and design agency. Clients include: Folloze, Totango, Cyara, Sarine Technologies, Pushbullet, AXA Tech, CloudEndure, Pitango VC, Allianz, and more. Creator and host of the SaaS Insider podcast. Mentor at 500 Startups. Former professor of Marketing for Startups at Tel Aviv-Jaffa Academic College. MBA from Kellogg School of Management. Loves family time, cooking, and traveling. Hates writing about herself in the third person. She lives with her husband, teen and tween sons and a very large Great Pyrenees.

If you would like to be interviewed on SaaS Insider - please contact Shira at the URL above.

The SaaS Insider podcast is brought to you by Hunter & Bard, an agency specializing in PR, design, branding, and marketing strategy – helping SaaS companies develop mindshare. It’s also a member of the C-Suite Radio Network. Check out Hunter & Bard today at http://hunterandbard.com

Tags and Keywords: UX, software development, customer journey

Facebook Status: @shiraabel talks to Anders Härén about gamification, building an ideal customer persona for your business and much more in this episode of #SaaSInsider.

Twitter Status: @shiraabel talks to Anders Härén about gamification, building an ideal customer persona for your business and much more in this episode of #SaaSInsider.

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