Tony Jamous

In this week's episode of The Leadership Learns Podcast, I chat with Maren Schlieper, Scaleup Coach and Head of Strategy at HudsonGoodman about navigating the infamous “Valley of Death” during hypergrowth. It’s a compelling conversation on how scaling startups can survive and even thrive through early funding challenges and strategic pivots. Key takeaways include: *Identifying the barriers to scaling during hypergrowth *Mastering the balance between strategy and execution *Cultivating a transparent culture to weather growth pains *Knowing when to invest in talent infrastructure and when not to A must-listen for founders and leaders facing their own scaling valleys. Thanks again Maren, your wisdom and honesty are truly invaluable! #theleadershiplearnspodcast #businessscaling #valleyofdeath #hypergrowth

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SaaS companies, “Book a Demo” is destroying your conversion rates. We see this over and over again as a primary call to action. Here’s why it’s hurting your conversions: Nobody wants to book a demo. What they actually want is to speak with an expert who understands their problems. When we changed one client’s CTA from “Book a Demo” to “Speak with a [Industry] Expert,” their conversion rate jumped from 8% to 50% — very recently. If you look at the SiteTuners website, our primary CTA is “Speak with a Conversion Expert.” The psychology is simple: “Book a Demo” = “Let me sell to you” (threatening) “Speak with an Expert” = “Let me help you” (welcoming) Plus, when you pair this with strategic trust elements (phone numbers, testimonials, awards), you eliminate the final barriers to conversion. This isn’t complicated. But most marketing teams get it wrong. It’s a simple change that can have a huge impact. #SiteTuners

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In recent weeks we are speaking with a growing number of startups that have reached the £1-5m stage very quickly and are profitable. It feels like a shift is happening where founders are taking more ownership for building leaner teams with more focus on product market fit and have less distraction towards that next funding round. More Founders / CFOs are not planning to take that next funding round. With smaller overheads startups can reach EBITDA positive more quickly and don’t need to take a big cheque. The mass market availability of cutting-edge technology/AI means Founders can build, test and get traction from customers well before Series A. So what happens next? Smaller cheques and less dilution at Series A & B stage? Growth investors moving earlier and investing at Seed or Series A stage? Higher competition for those superstar startups where this could be their last round?

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At Wellhub, we believe every company can be a wellness company — and the latest World Economic Forum report shows why. While 80% of managers say they value investing in people, only 19% make it a real priority. That gap is costing trillions in lost productivity worldwide. I’m proud to work at a company that puts wellbeing at the center — because it’s not just about perks, it’s about driving real impact: better retention, stronger engagement, and sustainable growth. Read more in Inc. Magazine: https://lnkd.in/e5e2Qvd4

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start-up board meetings are a complete waste of time board doesn’t know enough about the company to help with anything beyond fundraising and M&A every company strategy is a snowflake. it's almost unfair to expect your board to add a ton of value there

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There has been lots of debate recently on the term ARR. ➡️ What does it mean? ➡️ Why is it a much loved metric in the SaaS industry? ➡️ Is it now being misused? ➡️ Is it even relevant in the age of AI? 🧐 After way too many years thinking about & tracking ARR I've written a post that tries to answer these questions. 💡The tl;dr is that the power of ARR is in its compounding contribution to the bottom line & that recently we are seeing more & more examples of 'faux ARR' that falls well short of this standard. Click on the post to read more! Notion Capital Itxaso del Palacio, PhD Kamil Mieczakowski Chris Tottman Stephen Millard Stephen Chandler Jess Bartos Stephanie Opdam, CFA Patrick Norris Andreas Panayiotou Radu Bozga Maximilian Eichler Thomas Diehl #ARR #SaaS #AI https://lnkd.in/ey6NW7m2

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B2B software is in an exciting time. SaaS Native's trying to figure out how to leverage and become AI First. AI-Native software startups exploding in volume and revenue. SaaStock: Where AI meets ARR, has built a content program for SaaStock Europe to cover the challenges that founders and their leadership teams are facing with some of the most exciting companies and speakers in the space that will share how they are building the future. Our first 20 speakers drop is here: Guy Podjarny, Founder & CEO, Tessl Manny Medina, Co-founder & CEO, Paid Nikola Mrkšić, Co-founder & CEO, PolyAI Alice Carlisle, Regional VP - UK&I, Wiz Stan Massueras, GTM Europe, ElevenLabs Mindaugas Petrutis, Growth Marketing Lead, Lovable Mariam Hakobyan, Co-founder & CEO, Softr Hakob Astabatsyan, Co-founder & CEO, Synthflow AI Nathan Latka, Founder & CEO, Founderpath Fergal Reid (PhD), VP of AI, Intercom Geraldine MacCarthy, CRO, Oyster® Benoit Aguila, CFO, Typeform Ryan Floyd, Founding Managing Director Storm Ventures Sam Jacobs, Founder & CEO, Pavilion Audrey Soussan, General Partner, Ventech Marc Rougier, Managing Partner, Elaia Hanna Marie Asmussen, Co-founder & CEO, Localyze Ronan Murphy, Co-founder, Getvisibility Dan Hobbs, Co-founder & CEO, Protex AI Christian (CJ) Jessen, CFO, Formalize It's time to be AI Focused and ARR Driven. Get ready to build the future of B2B Software at SaaStock Europe this October 14-15th in Dublin.

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Outsourcing isn’t what it used to be. For years, companies defaulted to India and the Philippines for web development. But today? They’re not always the best choice. There are newer, better outsourcing hotspots that offer top-tier talent, competitive rates, and stronger alignment with US and European markets. Here are 11 of the best countries for outsourcing web development in 2024: Argentina – Strong education system, skilled developers, and US time zone overlap for seamless collaboration. Ukraine – Top-tier technical expertise and cost efficiency, with a resilient IT industry despite geopolitical challenges. Mexico – Close to the US, bilingual talent, and expertise in JavaScript, Python, and PHP. Brazil – Large talent pool, strong startup ecosystem, and multilingual capabilities. Colombia – Government-backed IT initiatives and expertise in web, mobile, and cloud development. Chile – Political stability, skilled workforce, and expertise in frameworks like React and Angular. Poland – High-quality development in AI and machine learning, with strong English proficiency. Romania – Skilled IT professionals specializing in WordPress, Magento, and custom web solutions. Philippines – Affordable, English-speaking developers with a customer-focused approach. India – Long-established outsourcing leader with vast expertise and cost-effective solutions. Vietnam – Emerging market with competitive rates and strengths in e-commerce and enterprise web development. Outsourcing isn’t just about cost savings anymore—it’s about finding the best talent in the right places. Which country have you had the best experience outsourcing from? Follow Hayden Cohen for more global talent content ✅

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🚧 Outbound isn’t broken — it’s just being rebuilt for the PE era Private equity firms aren’t just funding pipeline growth — they’re questioning the entire outbound motion. ❌ Hiring SDRs without strategy ❌ Measuring activity without conversion ❌ Throwing tech at the problem without solving the system At The Pipeline Group, we’re seeing leading firms shift their mindset: 🔁 From headcount to pipeline repeatability 📊 From surface metrics to real conversion signals 🔧 From tools to tightly integrated GTM systems It’s not about abandoning outbound. It’s about engineering it to perform under pressure. 👇 We unpack how top PE firms are doing just that: 🔗 How Private Equity Firms Are Rethinking Outbound GTM - https://lnkd.in/ezxp9Gc5

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Over the past few years, we've made dozens of commercial leadership placements for software companies in the DACH region. To understand the market and talent pool better, we compiled a report on The Big Byte substack on Revenue, Sales, Marketing, and CS leaders in the region across 100 SaaS companies between 200-1000 FTE. I think it's safe to say this is the most comprehensive report on this talent pool ever assembled! 🌟 You'll find benchmarks on Tenure, Churn, Compensation, Gender, Geographic Roots, and much more...! Useful for investors, founders, and execs to get a sense of how the market is behaving. Link in the comments! Hope you enjoy it and find it useful! Thanks to everyone who contributed Ilya G. Nora Lang Borjan Nikolov Dora B. Stojanovska Ema Stefanova Benjamin LUSSERT Antonija Peshevski Vivien Salamon

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