Scale with Strive Podcast (Scale with Strive)

Welcome to the Scale with Strive Podcast,  the place where you come to listen to some of the world’s most influential leaders of the SaaS industry. 🚀

I am your host, Adam Richardson and today I’m really pleased to welcome John Weisensee, who shares his 20+ years’ experience of commercial Pre & Post Sales experience with us. 

An incredibly humble guy, John has had a hugely successful career having worked for household names, including IBM.

But today I wanted to focus in today on his journey with Collibra – whom he joined when they were at Series B and took them on a journey through many funding rounds and stages of growth. 

Some key takeaways for me were: 

💡 How he built and scaled a Pre-Sales function from the ground-up – taking the team from 4 to 75.  

💡 When he believes Pre-Sales should get involved in the sales process – and the value they bring to the customer 

💡 How to target set for a Pre-Sales function and where he thinks the sweet spot is in terms of base and OTE split.  

A really insightful conversation - we hope you enjoy it!

Let's Dive In!

Watch the episode on YouTube here

Connect with John here

Connect with Adam here

Learn more about Strive here

Welcome to the Scale with Strive Podcast,  the place where you come to listen to some of the worlds most influential leaders of the SaaS industry!I am your host, Adam Richardson and on today's episode, we are joined by Philippe Humeau, a trained engineer who ventured into the world of entrepreneurship from the young age of 23.  Having sold his previous company around 7 years ago, he then co-founded Crowdsec, a Series A Cyber Security company that leverages the power of community to drive value for its customers. He has worn many hats over his career, including CEO, CTO, CSO and CMO roles. It is clear that he is a true all-rounder and that really shows in our conversation today.  Philippe has a way of taking a complicated subject such as cyber security and making it sound simple – and we think you will love some of his analogies too! 

Some of my key takeaways that I think will resonate with you as listener were: 

💡 How he became to be an entrepreneur and some of his key lessons learnt.

💡 Lessons learned from global expansion

💡 His thoughts on Product Led Growth versus Sales Led Growth. 

💡 The when, how and who of C-Suite hiring.  

I really enjoyed this conversation and hope you do too! Let's Dive In!

Welcome to the Scale with Strive podcast - the place where you come to listen to some of the worlds most influential leaders of the SaaS industry. 🚀

I am your host, Adam Richardson and on today’s podcast, I’m excited to speak with Jannis Fett, Investment Manager at HV Capital.  

For those who don’t know, HV Capital is one of the oldest VC companies in Europe – with one of the biggest funds also. They are best known for investing in the likes of StoryBlok, Hadrian, and Sennder - to name but a few. 

Using Jannis’ 5 years' experience in the investment world, I pick his brains on: 

💡 The changes he has seen in the current market re funding.

💡 What sectors are still booming and attracting funding. 

💡 How you can scale through the key funding milestones. 

💡 How to best write a business plan and pitch for funding. 

If you are a Founder looking to better understand the investment world, this is a great listen for actionable advice and tips! 

Let's Dive In!

Watch the episode on YouTube 🎥

Connect with Jannis here

Connect with Adam here

Learn more about Strive here

Welcome to the Scale with Strive Podcast, the place where you come to listen to some of the world’s most influential leaders of the SaaS industry. 🚀

I am your host, Adam Richardson and today I’m really pleased to welcome Yotam Yemini, who shares his 15+ years’ experience of sales experience with us. 

Part of four different start-ups - and Advisor and  Angel Investor to more – Yotam has contributed to $100 million in revenue and $4 billion in valuation! 

Some of my key takeaways from today were: 

💡 What he believes makes a great sales-person 

💡 His philosophy around hiring

💡 His tips for turning around periods of under-performance within a team 

Lets dive in! 

Watch the episode on YouTube 🎥 –  https://youtu.be/rRzdPjEkQ4E

Connect with Yotam here - https://www.linkedin.com/in/yyemini/

Connect with Adam here - https://www.linkedin.com/in/saasheadhunter/

Learn more about Strive here - https://scalewithstrive.com/solutions/

Welcome to the Scale with Strive Podcast,  the place where you come to listen to some of the worlds most influential leaders of the SaaS industry. 

I am your host, Dylan Hoyle and today I’m really pleased to welcome Mike Avery, who is the VP of Sales at one of the most exciting scale up vendors in the market right now, LinearB.

Mike joined at Seed stage as one the founding salesperson and helped secure their $20m series A round and more recently their $50m Series B round from Battery ventures, salesforce ventures and tribe capital

I think you’ll also really enjoy today’s episode with some of my key takeaways being:

• His checklist of considerations for anyone considering joining an early-stage company
• His thoughts around treating Sales as a Science - and the crucial data points you should be tracking in order make better informed decisions
• How important it is to have a slick interview process, how important it is to convey the opportunity in a compelling manner and how important it is to treat hiring like a sales process

Let's Dive In! 

Connect with Mike ⁠here⁠

Connect with Dylan ⁠here⁠

Learn more about Strive ⁠here⁠

Welcome to the Scale with Strive podcast, the place where you come to listen to some of the world’s most influential leaders of the SaaS industry. 🚀

I am your host, Adam Richardson, and on today’s episode I am excited to welcome you to Season 2!

We kick off this Season with a man who will need no introduction – if I say the words “Hey Salespeople!”, you’ll know, of course, that I am referring to the industry Thought Leader, Jeremey Donovan.

Jeremey is Executive Vice President Revenue Operations and Strategy at Insight Partners.

He is also an Author, Thought Leader, the man behind the SellingSherpa and has over 25 years industry experience, having worked for the likes of Gartner, SalesLoft and CB Insights.

Some of my key takeaways from the conversation today were:

💡 Breaking down RevOps – What is it? How does it help your business? Why is it important?

💡 How to know if you are ready to make your first RevOps hire.

💡 What skillsets to look for when making that hire.

 Let’s Dive In!

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Watch the episode on YouTube 🎥 – https://youtu.be/G3uzVd0ns4E

Connect with Jeremey here - https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeremeydonovan/

Connect with Adam here - https://www.linkedin.com/in/saasheadhunter/

Learn more about Strive here - https://scalewithstrive.com/solutions/

Welcome to the Scale with Strive podcast, the place where you come to listen to some of the world’s most influential leaders of the SaaS industry. 🚀 

 I’m your host, Dylan Hoyle, and today I had the absolute pleasure of meeting with Drew Ganther. 

Drew is the VP of Sales at Grip Security, a company who are disrupting the Identity Management space. 

It was a fantastic conversation, with some of my key takeaways being: 

💡 His approach when educating the market on a new way to solve a problem and the evangelism piece that comes with it. 

💡 His approach on organizational and interpersonal dynamics, whether that be in deals or within your own organization. 

💡 The importance of an effective Channel strategy within the security ecosystem. 

Let’s Dive In! 

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 Watch the episode on YouTube 🎥 – https://youtu.be/lZyxTllZjZU 

 Connect with Drew here - https://www.linkedin.com/in/drew-ganther-754b282a/ 

 Connect with Dylan here - https://www.linkedin.com/in/dylanhoyle-saas-recruiter/ 

 Learn more about Strive here - https://scalewithstrive.com/solutions/ 

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 15:24  Strategic Thinkers and Evolving ICP 

22:07  Competitive Landscape and Business Sales Approach 

33:24  Building Sales Champions with Integrity 

41:30  Sales Leadership Challenges and Strategies 

50:09  Channel Led Strategy and Patience 

Welcome to the Scale with Strive podcast, the place where you come to listen to some of the world’s most influential leaders of the SaaS industry. 🚀

 Your host today are Sales Manager, Dylan Hoyle, and Strive's Founder, Adam Richardson. 

Today, we're very pleased to welcome Tammy Moskites from CyAlliance. 

Tammy is an ex-CISO for the likes of Venafi and now runs a Consultancy advising Early-Stage Cyber Security startups. 

Today's conversation was a little bit different than our typical, with some of my key takeaways being: 

💡 What is keeping a CISO up at night - and how their priority initiatives have changed. 

💡 What parameters a Founder can look at to determine Product Market Fit - and how Founders can successfully drive growth at the top of the sales funnel for the company. 

💡 How we can tailor our message towards CISOs in today's market. 

 Let’s Dive In!

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Watch the episode on YouTube 🎥 – https://youtu.be/SnQFuuyPDFg

Connect with Tammy here - https://www.linkedin.com/in/tmoskites/

Connect with Adam here - https://www.linkedin.com/in/saasheadhunter/

Connect with Dylan here - https://www.linkedin.com/in/dylanhoyle-saas-recruiter/

Learn more about Strive here - https://scalewithstrive.com/solutions/

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11:36  Prioritizing CISO Initiatives and Messaging

21:30  Navigating Challenges in Cybersecurity Startups

31:33  Startup Marketing Strategies for Traction

37:10  Networking and Buying Strategies for Success

47:09  Budget Prioritization in Risk Management

50:33  Career Advice and Humility in Leadership

Welcome to the Scale with Strive podcast,  the place where you come to listen to some of the world’s most influential leaders of the SaaS industry. 🚀

I am your host, Adam Richardson and on today’s podcast, I’m excited to speak with Usman Gulfaraz!

With a strong pedigree background in the Tech Sales Space, Usman has worked for companies such as Oracle, Shape Security, Tessian and is now currently the CRO at Speechmatics, a Series B funded 'Speech to Text' AI Platform.

Some of my key takeaways from our conversation were:

💡 The challenges and sacrifices of being a top performing Sales Rep. 

💡 Selling a Premium Product – the Process, Marketing and Product Development required.

💡 And of course, Usman's philosophy around hiring great Sales Reps.

Let’s Dive in!

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Watch the episode on YouTube 🎥 –https://youtu.be/tG4JBn_xIiY

Connect with Usman here - https://www.linkedin.com/in/usman-gulfaraz-4447807/

Connect with Adam here - https://www.linkedin.com/in/saasheadhunter/

Learn more about Strive here - https://scalewithstrive.com/solutions/ 

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11:47   Keys to Success in Sales

19:57  Navigating Sales Challenges With Oracle

31:22  Positioning as a Premium Solution

41:07  Thought Leadership and Market Segmentation

50:08  Sales Process and Execution Strategies

58:13  Sales Pipeline and Product Development Strategies

1:14:37  Building Success Through Forward-Thinking

 Welcome to the Scale with Strive podcast, the place where you come to listen to some of the world’s most influential leaders of the SaaS industry. 🚀

I am your host, Adam Richardson and on today’s episode, I am excited to welcome Joe Marcin, CRO at FirstUp!

With other 25 years’ experience in the Software Sales world, Joe is a 3 times CRO who has spent the last 10 years focussed on scaling companies across the $100m ARR chasm.

Some of my key takeaways from our conversation were:
 

💡 How your Hiring Profile changes as you scale – and how get people brought into change.

💡 The importance of robust processes and to move away from tribal knowledge and the importance of cross-functional alignment.

💡 The importance of technology and how to evaluate, and in some cases, consolidate this to help you scale.

Let’s Dive in!
 
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Watch the episode on YouTube 🎥 – https://youtu.be/ZeZ7cqrNQJM
 

Connect with Joe here - https://www.linkedin.com/in/jmarcin/
 

Connect with Adam here - https://www.linkedin.com/in/saasheadhunter/
 
 Learn more about Strive here - https://scalewithstrive.com/solutions/ 

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15:09                Sales Leadership and DNA Profiles

20:37                Managing Organizational Change and Engagement

24:45                Strategic Changes in Compensation and Processes

29:37                Process and Accuracy in Sales Forecasting

34:39                Signal and Value Hypothesis in Sales

39:57                Process and Execution Strategies in Business

45:21                Leveraging Technology for Revenue Operations

52:59                Lessons in Scaling Organizations Beyond $100M

1:00:28             Harmonizing Best Practices for Success

Welcome to the Scale with Strive podcast, the place where you come to listen to some of the world’s most influential leaders of the SaaS industry. 🚀 

 I am your host, Dylan Hoyle and on today’s episode, I am excited to welcome Ellen Chisa, Partner at Boldstart Ventures! 

 Boldstart's speciality is partnering with Founders at inception, and today's conversation was centred around advice for Early-Stage Founders when looking to build a company. Some of my key takeaways from our conversation were: 
 

💡 The first steps that a Founder should take when they have an idea. 
 

💡 The specific qualities that VCs look for in Founders when considering investment. 

 
💡 Some of the common mistakes that Founders make when pitching to Venture Capitalists. 

 
Let’s Dive in! 
 
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Watch the episode on YouTube 🎥 – https://youtu.be/OfwrJqPug-4 
 

Connect with Ellen here - https://www.linkedin.com/in/ellenchisa/ 
 

Connect with Dylan here - https://www.linkedin.com/in/dylanhoyle-saas-recruiter/

Learn more about Strive here - https://scalewithstrive.com/solutions/  

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9:09                  Navigating Early-Stage Startup Challenges 

 20:15             Navigating Early-Stage Venture Capital Relationships 

 25:05             Building Relationships with VCs Before Pitching 

 29:31             Market Trends and Investor Resilience 

Welcome to the Scale with Strive podcast, the place where you come to listen to some of the world’s most influential leaders of the SaaS industry. 🚀 

 I am your host, Adam Richardson and on today’s episode, I am excited to welcome Pablo Dominguez, Operating Partner at Insight Partners, a leading VC firm in the B2B Software Space! 

Pablo has over 25 years' experience in the SaaS industry and today I tapped into his incredible knowledge of the industry, focusing in on achieving more by doing less through operational efficiency.  

Some of my key takeaways from our conversation were: 
 

💡 Ensuring goals are aligned from the overall company strategy and the importance of cascading objectives throughout the organization. 
 

💡 Achieving more by doing less, by not allowing distractions to take you away from your core focus. 

 
💡 The different stages of growth throughout the lifetime of the software business - and knowing when the right time is to launch new products, expand into new territories or when it's time to pivot. 

If you're a founder in the B2B software space, looking to scale your business, this is certainly worth a listen! 
 

 Let’s Dive in! 
 
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Watch the episode on YouTube 🎥 – https://youtu.be/OyckYHKDXfE

Connect with Pablo here - https://www.linkedin.com/in/pabtexas/

Connect with Adam here - https://www.linkedin.com/in/saasheadhunter/

Learn more about Strive here - https://scalewithstrive.com/solutions/  

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11:02                  Focus and Alignment in Business Strategy 

25:09                 Vendor Growth and Maturity Stages 

31:19                 Aligning Product, Engineering, Marketing, and Sales 

37:18                 Product-Led Growth and Sales Strategies 

51:14                 Strategic Decision Making and Growth Planning 

Welcome to the Scale with Strive podcast, the place where you come to listen to some of the world’s most influential leaders of the SaaS industry. 🚀 

 I am your host, Adam Richardson and on today’s episode, I am excited to welcome Laura Garvey, who was most recently VP of Solutions Consulting at Sprinklr!

Beginning her role as an IC, she worked at Sprinklr for over 8 years, with some of her Key Achievements being:

• Scaling the EMEA solutions team while improving win rates.
• Leading organisational restructure driving 53% YoY growth in product revenue.
• Developing globally adopted sales methodologies and training programs

Some of my key takeaways from our conversation were: 
 
💡 The what, why and how of Forecasting - and its importance for identifying sales opportunities that might otherwise have been missed.
 
💡 How to use Solutions Consultants effectively as your 'ARR weapons' by linking their technical expertise to business outcomes effectively. 

💡 How to structure your SC team as the business grows to ensure optimal ratios - and how to onboard and train these team members efficiently and effectively. 

 
Let’s Dive in! 
 
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Connect with Laura here - https://www.linkedin.com/in/lauraannegarvey/

Connect with Adam here - https://www.linkedin.com/in/saasheadhunter/

Learn more about Strive here - https://scalewithstrive.com/

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4:20                 Transforming Solutions Teams into Revenue Engines

8:26                The Importance of Forecasting

21:42                Linking Technical Expertise to Business Outcomes 

33:51              Organizational Change and Growth

Welcome to the Scale with Strive podcast, the place where you come to listen to some of the world’s most influential leaders of the SaaS industry. 🚀

I am your host, Adam Richardson and on today’s episode, I am excited to welcome Dave Joshua, Founder at Scale Gen AI, a Consultancy which helps Generative AI startups and creators move beyond founder-led growth with lean, AI-powered Go-To-Market (GTM) strategies.

Dave has spent 20+ years leading GTM, marketing, sales, and revenue strategy for AI companies, including Stability AI and other generative AI pioneers. His expertise covers, amongst other things:

✅ AI-Native GTM – Integrating AI-driven sales, marketing, and customer success

✅ Enterprise Monetization – API, platform, and direct sales strategies

✅ D2C/B2C Growth – Scaling acquisition, prosumer/consumer segmentation, and retention

✅ Strategic Hiring – Building lean, high-impact GTM teams that leverage AI

✅ Exit Strategy – Positioning for IPO, acquisition, or sustainable growth

Today, we focus in on all things Gen AI and some of my key takeaways from our conversation were:
 
💡The growth of the Gen AI space in the last three years and where investment has concentrated. 
 
💡 GTM Strategies for Gen AI start-ups - including Proof of Concept, identifying ICP, product simplification and Customer Acquisition Costs.

💡 The future of the Gen AI space. 

 
Let’s Dive in!
 
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Watch the episode on YouTube 🎥 – https://youtu.be/lUpb-mpt-EU

Connect with Dave here - https://www.linkedin.com/in/davejoshua/

Connect with Adam here - https://www.linkedin.com/in/saasheadhunter/

Learn more about Strive here - https://scalewithstrive.com/

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Chapters

00:00     Introduction to Generative AI and Dave's Background

02:58      The Current State of Generative AI

06:03      Investment Trends and Market Dynamics in Gen.AI

09:12       The Role of Investors and the Impact of OpenAI

11:59        Challenges in Go-to-Market Strategies for Gen.AI

15:02       Navigating the Gen.AI Landscape: Opportunities and Risks

23:15        Navigating Market Pivots

26:49       Understanding Revenue Models and Growth Challenges

30:22       The Importance of Product Management

34:49       Identifying Ideal Customer Profiles

38:27        Pricing Strategies and Revenue Predictions

43:25       Future Trends in the Generative AI Market

Welcome to the Scale with Strive Podcast, the place whereyou come to listen to some of the world’s most influential leaders of the SaaS industry. 🚀

I am your host, Adam Richardson and today I’m really pleasedto welcome Andrew Ermogenous, who is Head of North America at Atlan, a Series B Data Catalogue company, which is backed by the likes of Sequoia Capital, Insight Partners and Salesforce Ventures (just to name a few!).

Today was a really invaluable conversation, with some of mykey takeaways were:

💡 Why Atlan are so well positioned for success in the Data Catalogue Market.

💡 The importance of documentation in a remote-first global organisation.

💡 How enablement is important for setting your team up for success.

Let’s Dive In!

Watch the episode on YouTube 🎥 – https://youtu.be/v0EzSUq3yVY

Connect with Andrew here - https://www.linkedin.com/in/aermogenous/

Connect with Adam here -https://www.linkedin.com/in/saasheadhunter/

Learn more about Strive here -https://scalewithstrive.com/solutions/

Welcome to the Scale with Strive Podcast, the place where you come to listen to some of the world's most influential leaders of the SaaS industry. 🚀

I am your host, Adam Richardson and on today’s podcast, I’m really pleased to introduce President and Advisor, Chris Finan.

Unlike most, Chris actually started his career as a Pilot and Intelligence Officer in the US Air Force! He has now spent over 10 years in the Cyber Security Industry, with two acquisitions under his belt - and he has also been involved in companies such as Shape Security and ActZero.

Today we focused our conversation around Chris’ philosophies on building a data driven sales process with some of my key takeaways being:

💡 How his career in the Air Force set him up for a successful SaaS career.

💡 The cultural transformation required to move to a data driven sales approach.

💡 How to adapt your approach in times of economic uncertainty.

 Let’s Dive In!

 Watch the episode on YouTube 🎥 –  https://youtu.be/QtsC437FRxo

Connect with Chris here - https://www.linkedin.com/in/cfinan/

Connect with Adam here - https://www.linkedin.com/in/saasheadhunter/

Learn more about Strive here - https://scalewithstrive.com/solutions/

Welcome to the Scale with Strive Podcast, the place where you come to listen to some of the worlds most influential leaders of the SaaS industry. 

I am your host, Adam Richardson  and on today’s podcast, I’m really pleased to introduce Ashraf Mohamed, VP of Europe for Obsidian Security.  

After completing a degree in aero-nautical engineering, Ash moved into the world of SaaS Sales and has had a hugely successful career spanning 18 years, working for companies such as Fuze, Confluent and Lacework.  

He has significant experience in building out GTM teams from scratch into global leaders following the MEDDIC playbook 

Some of the key takeaways from today:

💡 How he gets customer buy in by drawing on his technical ability 

💡 How he operates as a Sales Leader and his top tips for success 

💡 His experience of working for prolific sales leaders and being hired by the likes of John McMahon 

We hope you enjoy listening, as much as we enjoyed recording! 

Let's Dive In! 

Connect with Ashraf ⁠⁠here⁠⁠

Connect with Adam ⁠⁠here⁠⁠

Learn more about Strive ⁠⁠here⁠⁠

Welcome to the Scale with Strive Podcast, the place where you come to listen to some of the world’s most influential leaders of the SaaS industry. 🚀

I am your host, Adam Richardson and today I’m really pleased to welcome Eva-Maria Elya, who is VP Channel and MSSP at Lookout, a Cyber Security company. 

Starting as only their third employee in EMEA, Eva has a lot of significant experience to share about building out a GTM Strategy and some of my key takeaways were:

💡How to build out a scalable channel led GTM strategy.

💡How to continually evolve your model to monopolise the market you operate in.

💡How to get your CV to the top of a HM’s pile in a tough hiring market.

Let’s Dive In!

Watch the episode on YouTube 🎥 –  https://youtu.be/-Mzjblc8WGA

Connect with Eva-Maria here - https://www.linkedin.com/in/eva-maria-elya-30632263/

Connect with Adam here - https://www.linkedin.com/in/saasheadhunter/

Learn more about Strive here - https://scalewithstrive.com/solutions/

Welcome to the Scale with Strive Podcast,  the place where you come to listen to some of the worlds most influential leaders of the SaaS industry. 

I am your host, Adam Richardson  and on today’s episode, we are joined by Alexandre Pierrin-Neron, who is the RVP of  South EMEA for Lacework.  

With an impressive 30-year career, as you can imagine, we packed a lot in today’s podcast! 

With experience working for companies such as Cybereason, Splunk and Leapwork, he has supported some of the worlds leading vendors scale towards success, and has hired, developed and led some of the best sales reps in the software industry. 

In today’s episode, at Alex’s request, we focus on Emotional Intelligence and the importance of certain traits to look for when hiring for your GTM SaaS team. 

Some key things I think you will take from the episode today are: 

💡 Turning underperforming reps in to star players 

💡 The different types of Emotional Intelligence and how they present themselves in Sales Reps and Leaders 

💡 Alex’s thoughts around the importance of ‘Learn, Earn and have fun 

I personally really enjoyed recording this episode and sharing ideas with Alex – we hope you take a lot from it! 

Let's Dive In!

Connect with Alex here

Connect with Adam here

Learn more about Strive here