How I Launched This: A SaaS Story

This week on How I Launched This A SaaS Story, Carter Morgan (@carterthecomic) has an insightful chat with Gal Zabib, Co-Founder and CEO of Altostra. Altostra provides individual developers and engineering teams a no-code platform to create and manage cloud infrastructure based projects.

As a software engineer from a young age, Gal’s previous experiences with the Israeli Military Intelligence force and working for a startup as the R&D leader, really carved out who Gal is as an entrepreneur. With Altostra, Gal and her team use their varied engineering skills to accelerate and automate software delivery for their clients. She details the struggles faced as the company began with a small group of developers working tirelessly to get Altostra off the ground. We hear how they overcame these obstacles and became a company bridging the learning gap for developers and empowering them to adapt and use new tools with minimal time investment. In the fast-paced world of infrastructure development, engineers are constantly struggling to keep up with new and changing technologies. Altostra helps remove some of the learning burden by doing the research and updating pieces automatically so developers can focus their time where it’s better suited.

Later in the show, Gal explains how developers use Altostra and the ways it caters to different coding styles. We talk about why Altostra chose to offer a freemium version and what that means for clients and the evolution of the product. Partnerships are a big part of their business, and companies like GitHub have signed on with Altostra recently. Gal offers insights into why personal and business partnerships are so important for business growth. Their recent participation in the Startup Residency Program at Google has also shaped the company and we talk about how Google Cloud has helped them expand.

Just get out there and get started is the valuable advice Gal gives fellow entrepreneurs as we wrap up the show. She looks into the future and gives us insight into the next few years of Altostra and the cloud and wishes everyone a healthy 2021!

Episode Links:
Altostra
LinkedIn Altostra
Twitter Altostra
GitHub Altostra
Medium Altostra

This week on How I Launched This A SaaS Story, Carter Morgan (@carterthecomic) has an insightful chat with Gal Zabib, Co-Founder and CEO of Altostra. Altostra provides individual developers and engineering teams a no-code platform to create and manage cloud infrastructure based projects.

As a software engineer from a young age, Gal’s previous experiences with the Israeli Military Intelligence force and working for a startup as the R&D leader, really carved out who Gal is as an entrepreneur. With Altostra, Gal and her team use their varied engineering skills to accelerate and automate software delivery for their clients. She details the struggles faced as the company began with a small group of developers working tirelessly to get Altostra off the ground. We hear how they overcame these obstacles and became a company bridging the learning gap for developers and empowering them to adapt and use new tools with minimal time investment. In the fast-paced world of infrastructure development, engineers are constantly struggling to keep up with new and changing technologies. Altostra helps remove some of the learning burden by doing the research and updating pieces automatically so developers can focus their time where it’s better suited.

Later in the show, Gal explains how developers use Altostra and the ways it caters to different coding styles. We talk about why Altostra chose to offer a freemium version and what that means for clients and the evolution of the product. Partnerships are a big part of their business, and companies like GitHub have signed on with Altostra recently. Gal offers insights into why personal and business partnerships are so important for business growth. Their recent participation in the Startup Residency Program at Google has also shaped the company and we talk about how Google Cloud has helped them expand.

Just get out there and get started is the valuable advice Gal gives fellow entrepreneurs as we wrap up the show. She looks into the future and gives us insight into the next few years of Altostra and the cloud and wishes everyone a healthy 2021!

Episode Links:
Altostra
LinkedIn Altostra
Twitter Altostra
GitHub Altostra
Medium Altostra

Stephanie (@stephr_wong) and Carter (@carterthecomic) welcome Co-Founder and CPO, Val Yermakova of Warmly today on the show! Warmly helps companies leverage business contacts and streamline networking practices for more efficient lead generation: think Warm Intros to Warm Sales Leads!

Val's intellectual curiosity and flexibility mean she's had myriad job titles and hobbies, including FulBright China scholar, Stanford Melanoma researcher, Security Analyst, Interaction Designer, Krav Maga and Muay Thai fighter, Circus Aerialist, Ex-competitive wrestler and figure skater, speaks Chinese, Russian, Spanish and English. At Warmly, Val continues to expand her knowledge base, learning from the many and varied industries that join. As a networking aid, Warmly helps sales departments in all fields find and foster meaningful relationships with people, allowing them to stay in contact with their network even as those people are promoted or hired by new companies. 

To begin, Val describes the iterations of Warmly and how bringing on co-founders expanded and improved the company. Market research played a big role in refining the product as well. In the current setup, Warmly clients use the dashboard to control which contacts are monitored and how. When a network contact change is detected by Warmly, email notifications are sent to the relevant company employee along with applicable advice. Val gives us great examples of how this process can increase sales and network contacts

Later, we hear how the company will expand in the next five years. Google Cloud products have been integral in the development of Warmly, and Val explains how scaling has been made easier with Google Cloud. Val details how she incorporates positive mental health and nonviolent communication into the company culture and why emotional awareness is so important in work and private life.

Episode Links:
Warmly
Push-Pull
Val on Medium
Warmly Blog
Valy.space 

Stephanie (@stephr_wong) and Carter (@carterthecomic) welcome Co-Founder and CPO, Val Yermakova of Warmly today on the show! Warmly helps companies leverage business contacts and streamline networking practices for more efficient lead generation: think Warm Intros to Warm Sales Leads!

Val's intellectual curiosity and flexibility mean she's had myriad job titles and hobbies, including FulBright China scholar, Stanford Melanoma researcher, Security Analyst, Interaction Designer, Krav Maga and Muay Thai fighter, Circus Aerialist, Ex-competitive wrestler and figure skater, speaks Chinese, Russian, Spanish and English. At Warmly, Val continues to expand her knowledge base, learning from the many and varied industries that join. As a networking aid, Warmly helps sales departments in all fields find and foster meaningful relationships with people, allowing them to stay in contact with their network even as those people are promoted or hired by new companies. 

To begin, Val describes the iterations of Warmly and how bringing on co-founders expanded and improved the company. Market research played a big role in refining the product as well. In the current setup, Warmly clients use the dashboard to control which contacts are monitored and how. When a network contact change is detected by Warmly, email notifications are sent to the relevant company employee along with applicable advice. Val gives us great examples of how this process can increase sales and network contacts

Later, we hear how the company will expand in the next five years. Google Cloud products have been integral in the development of Warmly, and Val explains how scaling has been made easier with Google Cloud. Val details how she incorporates positive mental health and nonviolent communication into the company culture and why emotional awareness is so important in work and private life.

Episode Links:
Warmly
Push-Pull
Val on Medium
Warmly Blog
Valy.space 

Sendur Sellakumar, CPO and SVP of Cloud at Splunk, joins our host Stephanie (@stephr_wong) on our first episode of 2021. Splunk is revolutionizing how enterprises use and act on data, making the process cheaper, faster, and more secure. Sendur's background in engineering and finance means he understands not only the importance of building great software but of running a customer-focused, profitable business efficiently and with empathy. WIth the help of Sendur, Splunk has moved more than half their software focus to hybrid and cloud solutions, enabling their powerful data tools to be used by myriad enterprise customers. 

Later in the episode, Sendur tells us the origin story of Splunk and how they started in the IT and security space. He describes what it was like advancing Splunk and it's customers into the cloud, detailing challenges of this shift and the solutions he found. Their focus on customer needs and support have been the leading factors of change along the way as they adapt and improve offerings to fit client needs. He talks about his time with the company and what it's been like leading as the company grows and changes.

Sendur details the offerings Splunk provides and how machine learning, streaming,  federated search, and other components work together to provide products usable by different types of clients at different stages of development. Through real-world examples, Sendur describes how users have discovered the power of data to solve current issues and empower employees.

We wrap up the show discussing how Google Cloud has enabled Splunk to scale with confidence. Sendur offers his insights on the future of Splunk and how Covid and a company-wide work from home policy have affected them. In his advice to other SaaS companies, Sendur says quantifying goals as much as possible is motivating for companies and their employees.

Episode Links:
Splunk
Anthos

Sendur Sellakumar, CPO and SVP of Cloud at Splunk, joins our host Stephanie (@stephr_wong) on our first episode of 2021. Splunk is revolutionizing how enterprises use and act on data, making the process cheaper, faster, and more secure. Sendur's background in engineering and finance means he understands not only the importance of building great software but of running a customer-focused, profitable business efficiently and with empathy. WIth the help of Sendur, Splunk has moved more than half their software focus to hybrid and cloud solutions, enabling their powerful data tools to be used by myriad enterprise customers. 

Later in the episode, Sendur tells us the origin story of Splunk and how they started in the IT and security space. He describes what it was like advancing Splunk and it's customers into the cloud, detailing challenges of this shift and the solutions he found. Their focus on customer needs and support have been the leading factors of change along the way as they adapt and improve offerings to fit client needs. He talks about his time with the company and what it's been like leading as the company grows and changes.

Sendur details the offerings Splunk provides and how machine learning, streaming,  federated search, and other components work together to provide products usable by different types of clients at different stages of development. Through real-world examples, Sendur describes how users have discovered the power of data to solve current issues and empower employees.

We wrap up the show discussing how Google Cloud has enabled Splunk to scale with confidence. Sendur offers his insights on the future of Splunk and how Covid and a company-wide work from home policy have affected them. In his advice to other SaaS companies, Sendur says quantifying goals as much as possible is motivating for companies and their employees.

Episode Links:
Splunk
Anthos

Stephanie Wong (@stephr_wong) and Carter Morgan (@carterthecomic) take us on a journey recapping serial entrepreneurs, surprising lessons learned, critical technology pivots and uncovering there is no silver bullet to security. The episodes of 2020 surprisingly revealed many common themes between founders, CEO’s and their respective companies. While dual pandemics plagued this year, we kept the recordings going in hopes of giving listeners a platform to learn, grow from and simply enjoy.

This year, we learned what it takes to start and scale global businesses. Being flexible and adjusting to trends and new technologies was a big theme, and we were lucky to hear advice from multiple professionals about how to keep companies effective as the world changes. The complete pivot CEO Dirk Hoerig of commercetools took early in the company's journey is a great example. Pendo CEO Todd Olson enlightened us on the importance of product-led growth in business and how sometimes things have to break to get better.

Bringing together industry tools to create something more than the sum of their parts was a big take away from episodes like TrueFit and Change Healthcare. Flexible, indexed data that's easy to use was another point a lot of our guests touched on, and MongoDB's product offerings focus on just that. We talked online security with guests like MongoDB's Lena Smart and how important it is to have functional, secure networks for users and employees.

From tips on productivity and remote working to understanding the social constructs that affect workplace comfort, we've tackled some of the big issues of 2020 and learned how entrepreneurs have leveraged technology to help overcome these challenges. Guests like Mandy Price taught us about the anonymous reporting system, Kanarys, that's working to create a safe and inclusive workplace. Aeris CEO Marc Jones joined us in a candid conversation about race and entrepreneurship as well, pointing out how a lack of support can create risk-aversion and limit opportunities for certain races of people. Companies like Upswing are striving to change that by supporting marginalized people through college and beyond. And when companies support diversity, great things can happen, Quitebit was a perfect example of this. 

Outside the workplace, entrepreneurs are working for a healthier planet as well. Our very first episode tackled air pollution. We learned from Founder and CEO Davida Herzl, how Aclima is revolutionizing air quality improvement through data mapping and Olea Edge Analytics is helping companies conserve water with their unique meters.

Check out all the episodes from this year to hear in-depth conversations with these guests and more! Thanks for joining us, we'll see you in 2021!

Episode Links:
Aclima
True Fit
Quantum Metric
commercetools
Change Healthcare
Qubit
Pendo
Kanarys
Aeris
Olea Edge Analytics
MongoDB
Upswing.io
Reputation.com
Informatica
Redis
Elastic
Qubole
DataStax
Olea Edge Analytics

Stephanie Wong (@stephr_wong) and Carter Morgan (@carterthecomic) take us on a journey recapping serial entrepreneurs, surprising lessons learned, critical technology pivots and uncovering there is no silver bullet to security. The episodes of 2020 surprisingly revealed many common themes between founders, CEO’s and their respective companies. While dual pandemics plagued this year, we kept the recordings going in hopes of giving listeners a platform to learn, grow from and simply enjoy.

This year, we learned what it takes to start and scale global businesses. Being flexible and adjusting to trends and new technologies was a big theme, and we were lucky to hear advice from multiple professionals about how to keep companies effective as the world changes. The complete pivot CEO Dirk Hoerig of commercetools took early in the company's journey is a great example. Pendo CEO Todd Olson enlightened us on the importance of product-led growth in business and how sometimes things have to break to get better.

Bringing together industry tools to create something more than the sum of their parts was a big take away from episodes like TrueFit and Change Healthcare. Flexible, indexed data that's easy to use was another point a lot of our guests touched on, and MongoDB's product offerings focus on just that. We talked online security with guests like MongoDB's Lena Smart and how important it is to have functional, secure networks for users and employees.

From tips on productivity and remote working to understanding the social constructs that affect workplace comfort, we've tackled some of the big issues of 2020 and learned how entrepreneurs have leveraged technology to help overcome these challenges. Guests like Mandy Price taught us about the anonymous reporting system, Kanarys, that's working to create a safe and inclusive workplace. Aeris CEO Marc Jones joined us in a candid conversation about race and entrepreneurship as well, pointing out how a lack of support can create risk-aversion and limit opportunities for certain races of people. Companies like Upswing are striving to change that by supporting marginalized people through college and beyond. And when companies support diversity, great things can happen, Quitebit was a perfect example of this. 

Outside the workplace, entrepreneurs are working for a healthier planet as well. Our very first episode tackled air pollution. We learned from Founder and CEO Davida Herzl, how Aclima is revolutionizing air quality improvement through data mapping and Olea Edge Analytics is helping companies conserve water with their unique meters.

Check out all the episodes from this year to hear in-depth conversations with these guests and more! Thanks for joining us, we'll see you in 2021!

Episode Links:
Aclima
True Fit
Quantum Metric
commercetools
Change Healthcare
Qubit
Pendo
Kanarys
Aeris
Olea Edge Analytics
MongoDB
Upswing.io
Reputation.com
Informatica
Redis
Elastic
Qubole
DataStax
Olea Edge Analytics

This week, Carter Morgan (@carterthecomic) speaks with Sacha Labourey about enterprise software delivery company CloudBees. CloudBees enables developers to focus on what they do best: Build stuff that matters, while providing peace of mind to management with powerful risk mitigation, compliance and governance tools. CloudBees streamlines the software delivery management process for companies.

Sacha starts the show with a thorough explanation of how CloudBees saw a need in the market and filled it. Previously, companies would take months or years to get their software products out there, often guessing at what customers need. With CloudBees’ continuous integration and delivery processes, companies can now evaluate customer needs, build and adjust useful products, and get them to market quickly. By allowing companies to codify team roles and knowledge and integrate with hundreds of tools, enterprise software can be automated and secured, decreasing time to market.

Later, we talk about CloudBees’ specific offerings for different types of enterprise customers. Sacha details the process to build, iterate, improve, and deliver software quickly, all while efficiently managing the team members and tools used. We learn about the compliance and security measures in place to help clients not only work quickly but safely.

CloudBees continues to grow and expand their offerings, and we talk about what’s in store for the future. Sacha graciously shared stories of the ups and downs of entrepreneurship, from getting the first customer to continually improving and learning from the lows while celebrating highs. Covid has impacted many businesses, and Sacha shares how CloudBees has handled this curveball.

We wrap up the show discussing the special relationship between CloudBees and Google and the changes customers can expect from CloudBees in the future.

Episode Links:
CloudBees
Software Delivery Management
Kubernetes 

This week, Carter Morgan (@carterthecomic) speaks with Sacha Labourey about enterprise software delivery company CloudBees. CloudBees enables developers to focus on what they do best: Build stuff that matters, while providing peace of mind to management with powerful risk mitigation, compliance and governance tools. CloudBees streamlines the software delivery management process for companies.

Sacha starts the show with a thorough explanation of how CloudBees saw a need in the market and filled it. Previously, companies would take months or years to get their software products out there, often guessing at what customers need. With CloudBees’ continuous integration and delivery processes, companies can now evaluate customer needs, build and adjust useful products, and get them to market quickly. By allowing companies to codify team roles and knowledge and integrate with hundreds of tools, enterprise software can be automated and secured, decreasing time to market.

Later, we talk about CloudBees’ specific offerings for different types of enterprise customers. Sacha details the process to build, iterate, improve, and deliver software quickly, all while efficiently managing the team members and tools used. We learn about the compliance and security measures in place to help clients not only work quickly but safely.

CloudBees continues to grow and expand their offerings, and we talk about what’s in store for the future. Sacha graciously shared stories of the ups and downs of entrepreneurship, from getting the first customer to continually improving and learning from the lows while celebrating highs. Covid has impacted many businesses, and Sacha shares how CloudBees has handled this curveball.

We wrap up the show discussing the special relationship between CloudBees and Google and the changes customers can expect from CloudBees in the future.

Episode Links:
CloudBees
Software Delivery Management
Kubernetes