Peter: Now you're over at Silicon Valley Bank, but you actually used to do quite a lot of interesting stuff in building SaaS businesses. What is it that really interests you so much about SaaS? Why is a SaaS business such a great platform?

Maria: For me, I think it started with when I was a business myself, I had my own business direct to consumer and I tried some of the challenges of being a business and running a business, and I saw some opportunities for developing companies within that space. When that is being said, B2B SaaS is interesting because it has some different aspects from being direct to consumers. But at least when you are going a little bit to the bigger businesses and enterprises, it's super strong to sell to these companies. The sales cycles are longer, but you also have more robust companies and customers. You don't need to go out and sell to that many compared to when you are, for example, a B2C company.

Peter: Yeah. So in terms of that and of course in terms of the business model with the recurring revenue, that is super interesting. One of the things that I know a lot of founders think about all day long is how can we then be this must-have solution rather than just something nice-to-have? What are sort of the key ingredients in terms of succeeding, being a must-have in your opinion?

Maria: Yeah, there's definitely a difference between being vitamins and painkillers. The classic analogy. So of course as a startup you want to be a painkiller, and not a vitamin. And I think there's several ways you can do that. Well, of course you can look at the technology. You could have groundbreaking technology that can revolutionize an entire industry if used correctly. And then of course, you can also make the product really good and you need to have an eye for the user, which in this case is another company, and make sure that you don't have a solution looking for a problem, but that you're thinking the other way around. So I think that's crucial. And then of course, the third thing, besides having a great technology and a product, it can also be either or. Like you don't need to have groundbreaking technology to be able to make something really well, if you understand the customer, you understand the user journey and you can make something they can really use. The third thing is of course to be able to gather your organization and to create the culture and to hire people who are willing to work for you. And often, hopefully, it's someone who's smarter than you so you can actually get a really good team. So I think you need all those ingredients to make a good product, basically.

Peter: And when talking about that, I think about strategy because that to me plays a vital role in sort of making these decisions. What is business strategy to you?

Maria: In a way it's a super broad question. And on the other hand, you can also simplify it a lot. That doesn't mean that it's easy. But I really like doing experiments. So of course you need to have the bigger picture, you need to know where you're going and you need the smaller steps to get there. And I just love to do small experiments and to look at data and then, based on the data, to make those decisions. For example, let's say I am testing a B2B SaaS solution, then I would go out and test it with several channels. For example, for sales, I'll collect that data and I'll make my decision based on that data. And that's also how we at Silicon Valley Bank look at the companies. So we look at how they are data driven, what their KPIs are, those kinds of things. So I think business strategy can be super overall and super fluffy, but in the end it all comes down to the results and hence the data.

Peter: Yeah, and as you said, making decisions about where to go and where not to go. And then to you, the approach to making these decisions is making experiments so that you have data rather than just like a stomach feeling or something like that.

Maria: Yes, and I would rather make fast decisions, and I would rather make a wrong decision fast and then collect the data and then say, okay, this was not a good decision, and go back. Then I would overthink things and go with my gut feeling. When that is being said, I think gut feeling is a collection of your intuition and of data and a lot of things. So you should never dismiss gut feeling. You need to collect information, and you need to collect statistical information, in a way.

Peter: When you think about yourself as being a former entrepreneur and doing that sort of thing on your own, and now from Silicon Valley Bank, where you look at a lot of businesses, is it very easy or really tough for these people to make these decisions and maybe especially make the trade offs? What is your experience here?

Maria: Yeah, I think of course it depends from founder to founder or from depending on how big the company is, from executive to executive. But in general, especially early on, it can be pretty tough making those kinds of decisions. It's tough to figure out what kind of data you need, how to collect the data, and how to navigate in it. I think it's also a matter of you're way deep in your own company, and sometimes you're too deep in your own company, so you can't see the forest because there's too many trees in your way. So I think a huge thing is to get the outside view on your company. So, short answer? No. Not always easy.

Peter: No. What I also hear is that founders, they have those, of course, ideas about, okay, there's a problem here, I can do this. And when they look at themselves and the technology, they can see opportunities everywhere. And that is great. But how do you then make the decisions within that space so that you can scale and basically do what you dream of?

Maria: I think that's one of the greatest things about being a founder and one of the biggest Achilles heels is that you see so many opportunities out there and you're easily excited. A lot of founders are, and it's so easy to run after. And if you're not very cautious of where you're going, the direction, you might end up developing your solution for a customer you don't even want. But it was basically just one of the first customers, and it was the one who put the biggest check on the table. And that's one of the dangerous parts of B2B SaaS. 

I actually talked to a founder the other day of a very prominent B2B SaaS here in Copenhagen who raised a lot of funding and is doing super well. And he said, I don't want to develop my software. I don't want to do it to the big companies who are there today. I don't want to do it to people who are over 35 because their brains are fixed. I want to hire people who are in their twenties and I want them to tell me what is the next new thing? And those are the people I'll develop this product for. Because when I'm ready, they will be the decision makers in the companies that I want to sell to. And that was super interesting and I think that's a great thought. And if you really want to go big in this field and you want to be the next solution within your field worldwide, then you need to think like that and you need to have a long term strategy and perspective on it. And you need to be very strategic and not be misdirected by the first and biggest customer who puts the biggest paycheck.

Peter: When you look at all the people you talk to, what is sort of their number one priority? So when you think of different SaaS founders and the tech companies that you are in contact with, could you have an overall priority number one based on everything you hear and see if we should say something about that? 

Maria: I would say focus. And of course they need to decide what to focus on. That's not for me, but I would say focus and make that, “where is it you want to be with your company?” Not everyone wants to be a unicorn with your B2B SaaS. Not everyone wants to be the market leading within your field globally. But if that's where you want to be, you need to focus hard on how to get there. And just like before, in let's say five years when your product is ready, or maybe even ten years, your key decision maker and the one you're selling to is not the same as it is now. So you need to focus on the future key decision makers. And that's crucial. And I think it all comes back to sales. You need to be able to sell it. You can have the best product ever. If you can't sell it, you're not going to get there. You need liquidity to be able to grow and then of course, you need profitability at some point. So I think that the most important thing is to figure out who's going to buy your product and when? And then how do I sell to that person?