If you’re feeling like you’re in a rut and spinning your wheels around your next “big move” inside your SaaS company… I’m gonna make you a little promise, k? If you watch this week’s video and follow through on the 3 questions… your company will look drastically different by this time next quarter. Why am I so confident making that prediction? Simple…

Did you know that there’s a multibillion dollar industry dedicated to doomsday prepping? Even crazier… Reid Hoffman was quoted in the New Yorker, estimating that about 50% of Silicon Valley billionaires have acquired some level of “apocalypse insurance”. Now whether you buy into that idea or not, there is a type of doomsday in the software world you absolutely NEED to be prepared for. It’s this:

Nightmare scenario: You just spent 30 mins delivering an amazing product demo. The guy on the other end of the Zoom call is all hot and bothered. Loves your solution. Sees the value. Wants it yesterday. So you go in for the close…

If you run a small team of just 5 employees/co-founders… Your weekly meetings are likely costing you well north of 50k/year. Simple math… … average hourly rate x number of people x 52. That’s how much you’re spending to run your weekly meeting.

Few things can shatter a founder’s confidence quicker than a poorly managed board meeting. At best… … you’ll get glossed over stares and “checked out” investors who secretly hate you for wasting their time. At worst… … you’ll accidentally knock over the first domino in getting kicked out of your own company. Pay special attention to Step #4 in this week’s video to make sure that never happens.

“You’re not suppose to succeed!” “The numbers are against you from day one.” Those were the words hurled at me across the board room from one of my mentors. Encouraging, right? Up until that point I had so much confidence that failure wasn’t an option. But the truth is - and you hear it all the time - most startups fail.

All SaaS companies need sales people. Even products like Dropbox & Slack have sales teams. If you look at the Montclare SaaS 250 list, they all have sales teams. So why do startups push off making this hire for so long? It’s usually because they don’t know what to look for and are scared that a new fancy pants sales person wouldn’t close enough deals to cover their cost. A totally legit concern. But one you need to quickly blast

Have you ever been talked into do something you knew was dumb? *raises hand* Back when I was scaling my company Spheric Technologies, a friend introduced me to his buddy who did outsourced sales. Essentially, a quick fix “easy button” for business owners who can’t be bothered to take full control of the lifeblood of their business. Smart right? ;) His big promise was that he could get me scheduled meetings with qualified buyers for our services... ... so I

Do you remember the first time you had someone buy something from you? For me it was when I convinced a bunch of bed & breakfast owners in Atlantic Canada to send me cash in the mail to have their property published online. Still not sure if that was legal. Suspect cash collection methods aside… What they didn’t know is that I was a 17 year old kid with no formal “business.”

One of my favourite questions to ask someone is “Who’s the best [CMO/CTO/VP of Sales] you know?” I don’t care if they already have a job... I just want their name. Actually, I prefer if they’re already working because it allows me to build a relationship with them without the pressure. My approach once I have a name is to reach out with a big, real-world challenge that I can get their advice on... ... usually the first contact lasts