Business of Software Podcast

Just a few days into the 2020 Coronavirus pandemic, Wildbit's Natalie Nagele and Balsamiq's Peldi spoke at BoS Europe Online about how even fully remote companies who have been doing asynchronized work for decades have had to change their ways of working when the pandemic hit. For more great talks and insights, sign up for the BoS newsletter at businessofsoftware.org/update

In this talk, Bridget Harris (co-founder YouCanBook. Me) lays out a framework for making sure you hire the right people. Create a company that you want to work for, and aim to hire people who want similar outcomes as you – then document it, describe it, defend it, talk about it, share it, and make decisions based on it. For more great talks, visit businessofsoftware.org.

Back in 2010, Scott Berkun had a ‘wonderful and a horrible’ idea. He thought he’d go get a job as project leader at WordPress. This is his story… For more great talks and articles from the leaders of SaaS, sign up for the BoS newsletter at businessofsoftware.org/updates

In this talk, April is going to teach you the difference between selling and helping customers buy. She will show you the different types of pitches to use and the pros & cons of each, and why Point of View pitches work so well. For more great BoS Talks, visit businessofsoftware.org or sign up for the free newsletter at businessofsoftware.org/update

Joel Gascoigne, co-founder of Buffer, shares some of his thoughts on the advantages and disadvantages of building a business while sticking to the core principles that he and his partner Leo set out when they founded the business. Can such a highly distributed, radically transparent approach to building a business pay off in the long term? For more great talks, sign up for the BoS newsle...

Yes Ep 60 is our 100th Podcast episode - thanks to a re-launch in 2020 where we reset the counter - so what better time to sit down with Business of Software's CEO Mark Littlewood to get the full story of BoS and his story building a community. Don't forget to sign up top the BoS newsletter and get regular doses of BoS Goodness right to your inbox. Visit businessofosftware.org/updates for more inf...

Jason Fried is co-founder of Basecamp, a private company based in Chicago that builds the best web tools possible with the least number of features necessary. The launch of Hey, Basecamp's new email service, has become one of the most talked about product launches of 2020- not least because of the very public fight with the Apple store. In this talk, recorded online at BoS Conf Online USA, Jason t...

People talk a lot about scaling SaaS, or scaling your hiring or culture. But what about marketing? How does your Marketing need to develop in line with the rest of the business? Andrus Purde was head of marketing at Pipedrive, a simple tool that helps small teams get their sales organized. He is currently Co-founder and CEO of Outfunnel (a sales centric marketing automation tool.) For more gr...

Culture is reinforced by strong leaders with a willingness to address some of the daily things that let emotional triggers prevent us from building a great company. Promise is building a loyal team at tap influence, innovating in a product area that's entirely uncharted, and helping evolve how businesses get heard by consumers. Prior to TapInfluence, Phelon was Chief Revenue Officer of the Resumat...

If you’ve ever worked with someone you didn’t trust, you will know why trust is important in the workplace. Teams that don’t trust each other don’t work well together. Much of the talk around ‘trust’ in business is misunderstood and lacks clear and actionable frameworks for you to make things better. Drawing on personal experience and a lot of study, Gareth Marlowe of Eqsytems.io spoke at BoS in 2...

Poppy is a co-founder and CEO of Darktrace, a world-leading AI company for cyber defence, named Europe’s ‘Fastest Growing Super Scale-up’ by Tech Tour in 2018. Poppy was awarded an OBE (Officer of the Order of the British Empire) in 2019 in recognition of her services to cyber security. In this talk from BoS Europe 2019, Poppy will discuss how Darktrace has grown to become one of the wor...

If you don’t have a Head of Product you may suffer from: narrow focus on engineer/development productivity; underpowered product management teams; customer benefits misaligned with actual features; and lack of a realistic product strategy. But it’s hard to hire a Head of Product. We don’t know what product leaders do, and disagree about what’s most important in a new one. We write wildly...

Choosing the wrong metrics can lead to the wrong strategy, or worse, no strategy at all. (For example, learn why revenue is a dangerous target.) In this talk from BoS USA Online, Matt shares some of the lessons he’s learned in growing companies, large and small, that will help you choose the right metrics to target in your organisation. Recorded online via Zoom at Business of Software Conference U...

Rita introduces her new research on how strategic inflection points offer an opportunity to disrupt existing players using examples like Dollar Shave Club vs. Gillette to show how changes in technology can destabilise existing competitive advantages. Michael Sikorsky shows how companies create entirely new business models to solve perennial problems and drive growth – how can banks use mobile to a...

Jason shared some of the things he did to make ShipCompliant the successful business that it is. More importantly, he’ll talk about the mistakes he made in selling and what he wished he had realised before he did. He believes ‘Exit by acquisition’ should not be the only manifestation of success for bootstrappers. This talk was recorded live at BoS Conference Europe in 2017. For more great talks, v...

Nandini has a background in marketing and journalism and has been responsible for growth and community at companies including Kayako and ProdPad. She was named by Business Insider as one of 23 industry leaders “fixing” digital advertising and a Digiday Changemaker in 2017. At BoS USA Online 2020, Nandini discussed some of the potential dangers organisations face in a world where news travels fast...

Wistia are in it for the long run – they want to run their business their way - which seen them grow and then turn down a buyout before growing some more. Co-Founder & CEO Chris Savage speaks about the process of scaling Wistia in this week's talk from BoS USA 2017, including some fascinating insights into how to communicate well internally in a growing company, and the importance of delegatin...

Like many BoS speakers, Peldi comes to the conference every year regardless of whether he’s on stage. He comes to be part of the community, to learn from others, and to hang out with his "tribe" – incredible entrepreneurs keen to give advice and meet new people.  In this talk he shared an honest update about his worries in Balsamiq’s milestone 10th year. On realizing he’s...

Ayat Shukairy is a ‘queen of CRO’ with over ten years helping companies create websites that customers love, and that result in increased sales and retention. Most marketing talk, or business strategy meetings, emphasizes the importance of ‘customer first’. Yet if we take a look at companies and how they operate, the  C-Level exec are still calling the shots without paying heed to the needs a...

We’ve all been there. You finally step foot into the job you’ve wanted forever only to feel like you aren’t good enough for the role, or worse, a complete fraud. You’re not alone; an estimated 70% of people from all walks of life, both men and women experience imposter syndrome at some point in their careers. In this talk from BoS USA Online 2020, Tiffany Da Silva (Founder, flowjo.co) shares her o...

In this (fireless) Fireside chat, we delve into what inspires and motivates David, how he came to start five different companies, and how he leads a high-growth company. Plus there are some great questions asked by the audience at the end that helps David open up about what he has done and what’s next. Filmed live at Business of Software Conference USA 2018 in Boston, MA

Agile methodology can be confusing and difficult, but B Pagels-Minor breaks it down to bite-size slices of delicious cakes that will will help every team work better, communicate better, and provide better returns. In this talk, you will learn how to understand which version of the many flavours of agile is right for your company based on your company with many cake references. You'll be pleased t...

For most of us, sales means reciting features, benefits, pressuring customers into purchasing. Selling feels icky. It’s not our fault – that’s how most selling is done. There’s a better way. Bob Moesta has taken Jobs-to-be-Done theory and flipped it to apply it to sales. In this talk Bob talks about how to help people to buy, without selling. He takes us through the six steps of a customers journe...

Back in 2016, Josh Seiden and Jeff Gothelf teamed up to explain how the Obama campaign testing their software systems early gave them an upper hand over the Romney campaign using facts and figures and rigorous testing. Recorded live at Business of Software Conference USA 2016 in Boston, MA For more great talks, visit businessofosoftware.org/videos

In this talk, Thompson Aderinkomi - co-founder Nice Healthcare- will share how he has come to understand why so many of the things people know to be true about growing a successful business are simply not true. His experiences as a serial entrepreneur have taught him to question the orthodoxy and why deciding on the right course is down to you. He will leave you with an understanding of...