SaaS IT UP 🎙️

Shalini Prakash is the Author of Clueless at 30: A Millennial's search for Everything and Nothing. Through her professional experience in venture capital, start-ups, and the corporate world, she helps entrepreneurs build innovative and scalable technology solutions. She is included in the '40 under 40 - India Alternative Investment professionals in India' list and recognized as a Linkedin Top Voice for her thought leadership in the start-ups and VC Industry. In our candid conversations, we spoke about the slash life, her experience in Israel, the rise of women entrepreneurship, and decision-making frameworks. More details at https://www.republicofsaas.com/the-millenials-playbook-shalini-prakash/

Manav Garg is the CEO of EKA and the founding Partner of Together Fund. Seven years back, he had started SaaSBOOMi along with his colleagues and has recently authored The Indian SaaS Story which is a playbook for many SaaS entrepreneurs in India. In our candid conversations, we spoke about the SaaS wave, future outlook, and some interesting trends in this space. As a strategic thinker, he is long on PLG & product thinking and is optimistic around the $1T SaaS opportunity for India. More details at https://www.republicofsaas.com/the-india-saas-story-manav-garg/

Thomas Smale is the CEO of FE International which has completed hundreds of millions of deals in SaaS, e-commerce, and content business acquisitions since 2010. In our Candid discussions, Saurabh & I spoke with Thomas about his worldview on the evolving SaaS business models, self-funded and bootstrapped entrepreneurs in emerging markets, M&A advisory, and how the business landscape has evolved. Thomas provides an excellent free valuation resource for Startups here. More details at: https://www.republicofsaas.com/m-a-advisory-in-the-saas-landscape/

After using Zoom on a daily basis in this remote-first world, we spoke with Yousuf Khan who has been an advisor to Eric Yuan. In our candid discussions, Nataraj & I spoke with Yousuf to understand his worldview around Investments, pricing strategies, advisory methodologies, and his love for Marvel Movies. Yousuf is one of the finest early-stage start-up advisors because of his global exposure, breadth of knowledge in multiple industries, and a people-first approach. Know more at: https://www.republicofsaas.com/strategic_advisors_in_venturenetworks/

As Andrew launches his book, "Getting Acquired: How I Built and Sold My SaaS Startup", we spoke with him about his worldview around building bootstrapped and venture-backed companies. In our Candid discussions, Ricky & I spoke with him about his entrepreneurial journey and his superb marketing strategies. We also learn why he launched Bootstrappers and his plans for Microacquire. Ricky also shared his experience of buying his first start-up from the Microacquire platform, where thousands of entrepreneurs are currently trading micro-SaaS companies. Know more at: https://www.republicofsaas.com/how-i-built-sold-my-saas-startup-andrew-gazdecki/

As we see the success of Write Useful Books in the non-fiction writer's community, we spoke with Rob Fitzpatrick to learn about his worldview. He went through Ycombinator back in 07 with an attempt to figure out the social advertisement before Meta managed to do so, which obviously didn’t work out so well. He has raised funding in the US and UK, built products used by customers like Sony and MTV, designed and kickstarted a card game, co-founded the education agency Founder Centric, rebuilt a little sailboat, and has built and launched countless silly hobby and side projects which have (so far) managed to keep the wolf from the door. He is a techie who (grudgingly) learned enterprise sales. In our candid conversations, we spoke about non-fiction writers, the new business models around the publishing landscape, and more so, about a creator's journey. Contact Rob at https://www.robfitz.com Connect with the host: Mirror & Maven. Know more at : https://www.republicofsaas.com/writeusefulbooks/

Alex Chisnall is one of the best podcasters from the UK Tech scene and is also the owner of Podpreneur UK. In our candid conversations, we spoke about the new year resolutions, the future of the audio space and the art of podcasting, and how it opens up the doors of opportunities for you. Wishing everyone a very Happy New Year 2022. We'll come back next year with more interesting stories, deep insights peppered with wit and humor. Sleep well! Know more at : https://www.republicofsaas.com/screw-it-just-do-it-alex-chisnall/

Mark Birch is the Founder and Producer of AWS Startups Show and is the Principal Startup Advocate APJ at Amazon Web Services(AWS). He is also the author of Community-in-a-box: How to build event-driven professional communities. In our candid conversations, we spoke about the flywheel effect, content, and communities. He also shared his experience of using the audio medium to effectively produce his AWS Startups Show. Know more at : https://www.republicofsaas.com/community-in-a-box-mark-birch/

As the world rattles with the pandemic, we spoke with Manoj Bharathi about the Bio-tech industry in general and the specifics of vaccines. In our candid conversations, we discussed the venture insights around the Bio-tech industry and how sales play an important role in everyone's life. Manoj also shared his decision-making framework for maximizing joy. Know more at: https://www.republicofsaas.com/the-vaccine-paradox-manoj-bharathi/

As SaaStock prepares for its In-Person conference in Dublin next year, we spoke with Alex Theuma about his journey and his worldview. In our candid conversations, we spoke about Tattoos, Guinness, Travels, Books, SaaS, and also the medium of Audio. Know more at: https://www.republicofsaas.com/the-return-of-in-person-conferences-alex-theuma/

As Udemy goes for IPO, we spoke with the Co-founder of Udemy, Gagan Biyani, who is currently building the next big thing in the ed-tech space, Maven. In our candid conversations, we spoke with Gagan about the future of education as he shared his worldview around the CBC space and his passion for the medium of Audio. You may find more details here.

Andrew Warner is the founder of Mixergy. He is one of the finest business podcasters who has more than 2000+ interviews to his credit. This month, he is launching his book Stop Asking Questions which is being loved by the upcoming podcasters worldwide. In our candid discussions, he talks about the art of conversations and his worldview around the podcasting space.

Wes Kao is the co-founder of Maven.com. In this episode, she shares her spiky point of view on the future of education. In our candid discussions, she talks about her worldview on CBCs (Cohort-Based Courses). As I am learning the secret sauce of CBC in her Maven Course Accelerator #MVN3, in Season 2, we speak with our mentors, friends, and advisors. https://future.a16z.com/cohort-based-courses/

Arthur Nobel is a B2B SaaS investor at Knight Capital. In our Season finale, we speak with Arthur Nobel who shares his experience from both sides of the coin, of being a former entrepreneur and a current investor. He shares his founder journey at Flexpat, a company that facilitated Remote work prior to the pandemic. He is currently an advisory board member of Zephr. Arthur is also the author of Leaders of Growth, where he interviewed 47 leaders of world-class companies who grew their start-ups from $1 million to $25 million and beyond. Republic of SaaS Season 2 coming soon as we take the feedback from all our community members.

Denis Kalyshkin is an investor of I2BF ventures. Prior to joining I2BF, Denis held various positions in investment management, sales, and analytics in banks, VCs, and energy companies and was a co-founder in an ad tech start-up. Denis has an Applied Mathematics & Physics degree from Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology, and a Corporate Finances degree from National Research University Higher School of Economics.

Simon Lau is the Product head of Otter.ai which is an AI-powered assistant that generates rich notes for meetings, interviews, and other important voice conversations. After meeting him at Clubhouse, we spoke to him about his views on the future of audio in the digital universe. The Audio revolution is here to stay in 2021.

Anna Boyarkina is the Head of 'Use cases' of Miro, which is the online collaborative whiteboard platform that empowers distributed teams to work together efficiently and effectively. She shares her favorite book: "The Power of Moments: Why certain experiences have an extraordinary impact" by Dan & Chip Heath during our candid conversations. Feel free to join the Miro Community to navigate the Miroverse and learn from the digital mavericks.

Justin Mitchell is the Founder of Yac which is an audio-first messaging platform that helps you talk faster and build stronger relationships with your remote team. Yac is Featured in TechCrunch & Wall Street Journal after their recent fund-raise of $10M in funding from GGV, Slack, Betaworks, BoostVC, Active Capital, Bessemer Venture Partners, and more. Audio is indeed powerful, and it touches every aspect of our lives. It connects us with our loved ones, and strangers across the world. It tells us stories, and it keeps us company as we simply work in this new world. Just when ClubHouse opened up its platform to Android users, we had a candid chat with Justin to understand how the world of audio is shaping the future of work.

Alisée de Tonnac is the co-founder of Seedstars, which is a Swiss-based investment holding with a mission to impact people's lives in emerging markets through technology and entrepreneurship. The groups' activities cover over 80 emerging ecosystems through a variety of activities such as acceleration programs, events & training, physical hubs called Seedspace, venture capital investments, and company building activities. We speak with Alisée to discover her worldview around her entrepreneurial experiences. Feel free to join our future conversations on the Seedstars House.

Kiran Mysore is a Principal at UTEC Japan leading their Global AI Investments, with a focus on Singapore and India. He is an AI-researcher-turned VC. Since joining UTEC in 2018, Kiran has led investments of close to $30 Million in frontier science & deep-tech companies incl. Tricog Health, Bugworks Research, OPALai, Agara & SWAT Mobility. He is also responsible for UTEC’s collaboration with Blume Ventures in India named BUDHA (Blume UTEC Deep-tecH Accelerator). Before becoming a VC, Kiran worked on Open innovation in Deloitte Japan, and was an AI/ML researcher at The University of Tokyo where he also co-founded a student-led social enterprise named 'Kriya'. For his contribution to the ecosystem, Kiran was featured in the 2020 FORBES Asia 30 Under 30 list in the Finance & VC category.