What can SaaS CEOs who have led businesses for over a Decade Teach You?

What can SaaS CEOs who have led businesses for over a Decade Teach You?

Mimecast Founder & CEO Peter Bauer has been named one of the top ten most influential figures in the world of cybersecurity and has run Mimecast for over 14 years. Peter spoke at Business of Software Conference USA in 2012, soon after he moved to the US to build Mimecast’s presence there.

His talk title was, ‘Founding Principles vs Scaling Principles‘ and it’s well worth another watch.

It’s a talk about some of the big challenges founders face when their ideas take off. Not the challenges of growth that people usually discuss – hiring, operations etc – but the challenges that growth bring to your own personal identity, your values and principles and those of your company. Can the principles you have when you set your company up with a few friends survive in a business of a few hundred people?

Mimecast has continued to grow and Peter still leads the company which went public on NASDAQ in 2015.

He is one of the few people to have led a pure SaaS business for over a decade.

We know others!

Gail Goodman spoke at the same BoS Conference giving the now legendary talk, ‘The Long Slow SaaS Ramp of Death‘.

Gail returned to BoS USA last year having left Constant Contact after 17 years as CEO and shared some, ‘Lessons Learned in 17 Years Building and Exiting a SaaS Company‘.

Both BoS Legends with some very valuable lessons to share about leading SaaS businesses.

You can hear more BoS legends sharing what they’ve learned at Business of Software 2017 – including Fog Creek’s Anil Dash and  Seth Godin.