What are the key stages of scaling a SaaS startup?

In this episode, SaaS veteran and serial entrepreneur Stijn Hendrikse shares his insights on how to scale a SaaS startup successfully. Drawing on his experience at Microsoft and other companies, Stijn discusses the key stages of scaling a SaaS company, the importance of building a strong team, and the challenges of balancing growth and profitability. 

Stijn Hendrikse is a tech professional with 30 years of experience in SaaS and AI. He spent time at Microsoft and founded Kolungi, a B2B SaaS marketing agency.

Key topics that Bill and Stijn explore in this episode: 

- The importance of teamwork and collaboration, drawing parallels between military experiences and business leadership.

- Insights into the unique culture at Microsoft and its focus on people and leadership development.

- Strategies for effective outbound marketing and the importance of adding value.

- Adapting to the changing landscape of content marketing and the need for hyper-relevance.

- The importance of customer success, service costs, and the "hero plus" pricing model.

- Understanding the T2D3 framework for achieving exponential growth in a SaaS business.

- The need to transition from individual problem-solving to system-based approaches for scaling effectively.

- Embracing a quarterly rhythm (like OKRs) for setting goals, driving urgency, and fostering accountability.

- Key milestones in the early stages of a SaaS startup and the importance of answering "what's it for?" and "who's it for?".

- The Rule of 40 and balancing growth and profitability in the SaaS world.

Chapters: 

(02:34) Stijn Hendrikse’s Background

(08:42) Culture at Microsoft

(13:17) Spamming on LinkedIn

(23:06) Content Marketing

(30:56) SaaS Examples

(39:08) Stages of a Company

(42:35) The Rule of 40

Thanks to Stijn Hendrikse for being on the show! 

Connect with Stijn on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stijnhendrikse/

Learn more about Stijn and T2D3: https://www.t2d3.pro/stijn-hendrikse

Get Stijn’s book “T2D3: How some software startups scale, where many fail”: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09HPDDHDY/ (co-authored with Mike Northfield). 

Bill Gallagher, Scaling Coach and host of the Scaling Up Business podcast, is an international business coach who works with C-Suite leaders to achieve breakthrough growth. 

Join Bill in the Growth Navigator Coaching Program: https://ScalingCoach.com/workshop 

Bill on LinkedIn: https://www.LinkedIn.com/in/BillGall

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Visit https://ScalingUp.com to learn more about Verne Harnish, our team of Scaling Up Coaches, and the Scaling Up Performance Platform, which includes coaching, learning, software, and summit. We share how the fastest-growing companies succeed where so many others fail. We help leadership teams with the biggest decisions around people, strategy, execution, and cash so that they can scale up successfully and beat the odds of business growth. 

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This episode was produced by Story On Media & Marketing: https://www.successwithstories.com