Interviewing monday.com, ironSource, Yotpo, Lemonade, Fiverr, Playtika…

The first hint of my most recent TinySeed project has been released on the Startups for the Rest of Us podcast. In our accelerator, we work with early-ish stage startups and have seen the unique challenges that arise when folks hit $1M ARR+. Typical B2B SaaS advice is generally aimed at early stage. Advanced help is way harder to find. It's also a lonely spot to be in as a founder. So if you already know the basics, what's happening and how do you fix it? How do you cut through all the noise and grow your startup from just hitting 7 figures to 8 figures and beyond? That's why we're building the TinySeed SaaS Institute. If you know of founders who would benefit, send them my way.

Founders are delusionally optimistic only for the first one or two years. After that, life hits you like a thousand bricks from every direction." - Sera Arora, Partner at Bharat Founders Fund In a recent episode of the Thought Bistro podcast, our very own Sera shed light on the realities of being a founder and the role of VCs in the startup ecosystem. 💡 While founders are often characterized as innately optimistic, Sera argues that this optimism is quickly tempered by the challenges and setbacks of running a startup. As she puts it, "It's the hardest thing for a founder to not get constantly depressed." 😔 This is where the partners at BFF come in. Having experienced the ups and downs of the startup journey themselves, they bring a realistic perspective to the table. Balancing the delusional optimism of founders with the critical eye of VCs, BFF partners offer a unique and valuable perspective. 🤝 Tune in to the full episode to hear more of Sera's insights on the founder journey and the role of BFF in supporting the Indian startup ecosystem. 🇮🇳🚀 Listen to the whole episode: https://lnkd.in/gBNsb6Y9

From a successful 18 month startup exit to leading go-to-market at a fast-growing startup, James Kaikis has a unique perspective. He has... Led sales engineering at companies like Salesforce and Showpad.  Founded, grown and successfully exited a community, PreSales Collective.  Gone through the transition of Founder to Chief of GTM. Now, he leads go-to-market at a fast-growing startup, TestBox. When you see (or hear, in this epi) the way James leads, the community roots show through. Rooted in give-first without expectations and fostering connection, this approach that comes naturally has helped to fuel growth in his current company. With the importance of partnerships continuously growing, I bet we'll see more GTM leaders with community backgrounds surfacing as prominent leaders. In The GTM Podcast episode that just dropped, James Kaikis and Scott Barker break down insight around: -Bootstrapping a community-based business to multi-million dollar revenue - the secrets behind PreSales Collective’s rapid growth and successful exit.  -The transition from Founder to Head of GTM/Chief Solutions Engineer -The future of B2B software demos and how they are evolving.  -Balancing product-led growth with customer-centricity.  +more And of course, alllll the lessons learned along the journey. Full episode links in the comments.

Rapti (ex-CMO Bugasura, Co-founder HSR Founders Club) made a great point about why she prefers working in startups during our conversation on the podcast. These are some great points for any marketer or non-marketer considering startups. Having started my career with bigger companies, I could definitely relate to it. Startups move fast. That means your learning curve is 10x fast. You get to experiment fast, learn fast, and fail fast. That's a massive opportunity to level up your skills. Also, you can have a direct impact on the product and users. There's less bureaucracy and more room to grow. If you're a marketer who thrives on speed and agility, consider working at startups; they might be a good fit for you. Full conversation on YouTube and all major podcast directories. Link in bio.

We see websites and social media posts from startup founders and it all looks so cool and glamorous 😎 Alina Vandenberghe shares what it took to bootstrap Chili Piper, in her podcast with Adam Robinson Spoiler alert - it involves selling her house 🏠 😅 #Founder #Stories

We're excited to officially launch the "Scaling Smarter" webinar series. 👀 Our brand and content strategist Ron Dawson has already done a number of webinars interviewing sales, marketing, and fundraising experts. A few are already published. More are on the way; and today we have the latest. Craig Rosenberg, Chief Platform Officer for Scale Venture Partners, and co-host of The Transaction podcast, joins Ron and LinkedIn for Marketing for Startups manager Ruby James to discuss how sales and marketing teams can better collaborate. Ruby and Ron spearheaded our B2B Benchmark Guide report, and Craig lended some valuable insight to the report: "Deepened collaboration between marketing and sales is essential. Right now, sales and marketing can’t afford to be disjointed. There is no margin for error. The strongest performing startups’ sales and marketing teams share a revenue number. That should tell us a lot: When we do this together, we’ll be more successful. And these teams look at all efforts across the customer lifecycle as a cohesive experience." In this webinar, Craig elaborates on these ideas and shares many more valuable insights. If you sit on any sales or marketing teams for scaling startups, you'll want to watch this webinar (and get the report). Access both at: https://hubs.la/Q02Y0vq60 #gotomarket #startups

($169M raised) --> Hitting Product market fit is one thing, but how about sustaining it? Thank you, Randy Wootton, Founder of Maxio, for sharing your story! Check out the full episode on the Zendesk Sit Down Startup podcast in the comments! CC: Zendesk for Startups

Savvy's first podcast! 🥳 Incredibly proud of how far the Savvy Sites team has come since our launch. Have a listen to our founder, Trevor Swart chat with Bobby Sequeira Renier Kriel on the The Open Letter about how Savvy aims to get 2.5M hustle online in South Africa. It definitely hasn't been an easy road, Trevor speaks a bit about our early go-to market struggles (and the struggle was / still is real 😆) and the importance of a solid MVP to validate our key assumption of figuring out if a one pager would be ranked by Google. Trevor also touches on our continuous research - an important part of our journey of finding product-market fit. We've collected some incredible stories from our customers. South African entrepreneurs are truly a powerful bunch, from retirees selling coffee bean products in Gqeberha to mobile beauticians with nationwide dreams - the next wave of hustlers! Take a listen, who knows - maybe it's time to take your side hustle online 👀 💫 #startup #podcast #saas #southafrica #sme #entrepreneur

Gusto is a $9.5B startup that does $500M ARR. Josh R. built an absolute monster of a company-- and it all started with payroll software for SMBs. Not just that, he started by servicing only new tech startups that were based in California. It was exceptionally niche, and it worked. After YC, he raised a $6M seed round from tier 1 angels, back when large seed rounds were not at all common. But, unlike others, he didn't spend the money. He kept his team small as they iterated on the product. By the time they raised their $20M Series A, they were only 10-15 people. Gusto is now a $9.5B startup doing $500M ARR. Here's the story of how they got started, gained initial traction, and took off. Listen to the full episode here:

Embrace the Unexpected Journey Zepto represents a unique case in the Indian startup landscape, defying conventional narratives that typically accompany new entrepreneurial ventures. Unlike many successful founders who often draw from prestigious education or personal experiences to identify and solve problems, the founders of Zepto entered the market lacking both local understanding and the usual entrepreneurial pedigree. Their background as Stanford dropouts contrasts sharply with the typical stories of founders who faced challenges in their formative years that inspired them to create solutions. This disconnect highlights the complexities and unpredictable nature of their journey in a market they barely comprehend. Snipped from Two by Two - Is Zepto a gold medalist or a bronze medalist?. Via AI-powered podcast app Snipd. https://lnkd.in/g-KnJcTY