EPISODE · Apr 25, 2024 · 59 MIN
B2B SaaS Sales: 5 Years to Build What Oracle Said Was Impossible
from The SaaS Podcast - AI, Growth & Product-Market Fit for SaaS Founders · host Omer Khan
Thomas Cottereau spent five years building what Oracle's engineers said was technically impossible. When he demoed the B2B SaaS sales platform at Salesforce, a lead engineer tested every feature by midnight and emailed: 'It works as you said. Come to my office tomorrow.' Learn how weekly office visits earned a strategic partnership for B2B SaaS sales, why HP saved millions using SightCall for remote visual support, and how persistence and a working product beat pitch decks in enterprise sales. 🔑 Key Lessons 🏢 B2B SaaS sales platforms take years, not months: SightCall's prototype took 4 months, but building a globally scalable enterprise SaaS platform required 5 years of bridging telecom and software. 🤝 Strategic partnerships unlock B2B SaaS sales you can't reach alone: Thomas showed up at Salesforce every week until he earned a demo, and that partnership delivered HP as the first enterprise sales customer. 🧠 Build technology others believe is impossible for a B2B SaaS sales moat: Oracle said SightCall's cloud-based visual support was not feasible. Proving them wrong created an unreplicable advantage. 📉 Post-fundraising is harder than the B2B SaaS sales fundraise itself: Each round brought scaling pressure that introduced silos and political tension, temporarily slowing growth. 🎯 Validate with a working product, not slides: Salesforce had been faking cloud video at Dreamforce with hidden hardware. Thomas showed a real demo and they requested API access the same day. Chapters Introduction Thomas's favorite quote and why it inspired SightCall What SightCall does and how visual support works How augmented reality guides customers through repairs SightCall's 200 enterprise customers including GE Healthcare Business size - 8-figure ARR, 100 people, global offices Going back to 2008 - bootstrapping and the origin story Working at UUNet and the MCI WorldCom cultural shock Designing the platform in a basement every night Technology-first approach versus lean startup methodology Four months for a prototype, five years for enterprise SaaS Raising a 1 million euro seed round How persistence and a blunt email secured the first investor Landing HP through B2B SaaS sales via Salesforce How Thomas became a Salesforce partner by showing up every week The Wemo trademark dispute and forced rebrand to SightCall Series A - raising $8.4 million and the pressure that followed Enterprise sales and marketing go to war after the fundraise Series B - raising $42 million and scaling challenges Lightning round Resources Full show notes: https://saasclub.io/394 Join 5,000+ SaaS founders: https://saasclub.io/email
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B2B SaaS Sales: 5 Years to Build What Oracle Said Was Impossible
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