The Remarkable SaaS Podcast

A story about what compounds when you don't take the shortcut. This episode is for sales-led SaaS founders who invested to grow fast but now realize they forgot to grow their differentiation.Most software companies buy speed — they build on someone else's foundation — and never count the cost. Renaud Charvet, co-founder and US CEO of Ringover, took the opposite path. He started in 2005 selling cheap international calls, watched Skype and WhatsApp kill that business, and built something new from scratch. Bootstrapped for fifteen years, then raised to expand — and moved his family to the US to make it work. He's never once taken the shortcut.And this inspired me to invite Renaud to my podcast. We explore how choosing ownership over speed creates an edge competitors can't copy. Renaud shares how he thinks about what's worth owning, where to focus, and what actually makes customers stay. You'll discover why the slow, expensive choice compounded into something no shortcut could match.We also zoom in on two of the 10 traits that define remarkable software companies: – Aim to be different, not just better – Acknowledge you cannot please everyoneRenaud's journey proves remarkable companies don't copy the playbook — they own what others rent and let the advantage compound.Here's one of Renaud's quotes that captures how he thinks about building an edge:"Focus — it might feel slower in the short term, but it compounds much faster in the long term."By listening to this episode, you'll learn:What you give up the day you build on someone else's stackWhat changes when you stop selling features and start selling outcomesWhat he did when the US market ignored himWhy the customers easiest to win are the ones who leaveFor more information about the guest from this week:Guest: Renaud Charvet, co-founder and US CEO of RingoverWebsite: ringover.com

A story about choosing what others avoid—and creating competitive advantage no one can copy. This episode is for sales-led SaaS founders wondering why their AI product investments are not creating the competitive edge they expected.Most SaaS companies race to add AI features and wonder why nothing changes.Tal Peretz, CEO of Onfire, took the opposite path. Before writing a single line of code, he interviewed 275 revenue leaders. Then he spent months building a proprietary data layer from the public web—Reddit, Stack Overflow, Discord—tracking 50 million engineers. Only after that foundation was solid did he add AI on top.The result: customers generating 4x more pipeline with the same headcount, $50 million in closed deals since beta launch, and a $20 million funding round.And this inspired me to invite Tal to my podcast. We explore how mastering curiosity—reading signals competitors ignore—creates competitive moats that compound over time. Tal shares how 275 customer interviews revealed one critical pattern everyone else missed, and why choosing the hardest buyers simplified everything else. You'll discover why he spent months building invisible infrastructure before writing features, and how that decision alone separated Onfire from hundreds of AI tools fighting for attention.We also zoom in on three of the 10 traits that define remarkable software companies:Master the art of curiosityAim to be different, not just betterSell the idea, not the productTal's journey proves that remarkable companies don't chase the obvious path—they build the hard thing first, creating advantages no competitor can copy.Here's one of Tal's quotes that captures his contrarian thesis:"AI basically makes sales much harder, not easier, because the noise-to-ratio right now goes up. When we started the company, we said the main advantage is to find the needle in the haystack in your context. Building what we call our Knowledge Graph—this is probably the main IP of the company."By listening to this episode, you'll learn:Why building infrastructure before features creates advantages competitors cannot replicateWhat customer discovery reveals when you interview hundreds before building anythingWhy focusing on the hardest segment often creates easier sales than targeting everyoneWhy adding intelligence to strong foundations beats bolting features onto weak dataFor more information about the guest from this week:Guest: Tal Peretz, Co-founder and CEO at OnfireWebsite: onfire.ai

A story about how "everyone agrees" is the most dangerous lie in SaaS. This episode is for SaaS founders frustrated watching their solution solve real problems—but wondering why no one actually buys it.Most healthcare startups don't fail because their tech doesn't work. They fail because they can't find anyone willing to pay for it.Mariano Garcia-Valiño, Founder and CEO of Axenya, spent 18 months proving his preventive care model worked clinically—reducing diabetes costs by 20% and mortality risk by 18%. Then he spent another year without selling a single dollar because insurers, hospitals, and patients all had reasons not to care enough to pay.He found the answer by buying a healthcare broker and changing who he sold to: employers in Brazil who actually bear the cost and have the timeframe to benefit from prevention.This inspired me to invite Mariano to my podcast. We explore why solving the right problem for the wrong buyer kills traction—and how changing your business model changes who cares. Mariano shares how he rejected the obvious paths (selling to insurers, doctors, or patients) and instead built a broker model that aligns incentives with outcomes. You'll discover why clinical proof means nothing without economic urgency.We also zoom in on three of the 10 traits that define remarkable software companies:Acknowledge you cannot please everyoneMaster the art of curiosityAim to be different, not just betterMariano's story is proof that the best solution dies without the right buyer—and why changing your business model, not your product could be the easy way out.Here's one of Mariano's quotes that captures the challenge he faced:"It's one thing to actually see the problem and find a technical solution for the problem. It's a different thing to deploy it in the right place within a very complex value chain that has a lot of incentives that are not well aligned."By listening to this episode, you'll learn:Why solving a highly valuable and critical problem alone won't create a market without economic incentive alignmentWhat happens when you build for huge global humanity problems instead of expensive local onesWhy focusing on who pays reveals better opportunities than focusing on who usesHow buying your distribution channel creates stickiness competitors can't copyFor more information about the guest from this week:Guest: Mariano Garcia-Valiño, Founder and CEO at AxenyaWebsite: axenya.com

A story about speed as strategy—and why saying no to billion-dollar deals built a stronger company. This episode is for SaaS founders who feel stuck between landing big logos and building what actually scales.Most SaaS companies don't fail because they lack ambition. They fail because they chase the wrong customers.Mark Walker, CEO of Nue, took a different path. With decades in enterprise software—ERP, CRM, NetSuite—he joined Nue in March 2022 when it was pre-revenue and a "science experiment." He made one decision that changed everything: focus on speed over complexity. When Nvidia came calling, he said no. When asked to build for everyone, he picked his peers instead.And this inspired me to invite Mark to my podcast. We explore why treating speed as your core product creates defensible value. Mark shares his philosophy on saying no to wrong-fit customers, building modular systems that compress implementation from years to weeks, and why honesty beats hype when competing against legacy vendors. You'll discover why OpenAI went live in 8 weeks and Anthropic in 12—and what that speed signals to the market.We also zoom in on two of the 10 traits that define remarkable software companies:They acknowledge they cannot please everyoneThey aim to be different, not just betterMark's story is proof that when you optimize every decision for customer speed, saying no to complexity becomes your competitive advantage.Here's one of Mark's quotes that captures his approach to market focus:"If you want to be great at something, you have to be bad at something else. There are no NFL linemen who are also World Champion marathoners. They're both elite athletes, but they're not the same athlete."By listening to this episode, you'll learn:Why the fastest implementations come from saying no to features, not adding themWhat happens when you tell a billion-dollar prospect they're not the right fitWhen modularity beats monolithic systems in multi-model revenue businessesWhy traditional enterprises are preemptively switching systems before they know what's comingFor more information about the guest from this week:Guest: Mark Walker, CEO at NueWebsite: nue.io