saas.unbound

Hosted by Anna Nadeina

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293

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Aug 2026

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About the show

saas.unbound is a podcast where inspiring founders and experts share their stories of founding and scaling their businesses all the way to success and eternal love from their customers. At saas.unbound we have casual chats with entrepreneurs who have already walked from 0 to 1, to 10, and sometimes to a life-changing exit. They share their experiences, actionable insights, and mistakes to avoid. Your host is Anna Nadeina, Head of Growth at saas.group , passionate Growth Marketer, and a big believer in sustainable growth and the power of networking. saas.unbound is brought to you by saas.group

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September 14, 202634 min

$60K to $1M in 7 Months: What Unlocked It for This Legal AI Founder | Devansh @ Irys

Devansh went from $60K bootstrapped to $1M in revenue in seven months — without losing a single enterprise customer. He's also behind one of the largest independent AI newsletters in the world, with 350K subscribers he openly says he doesn't write for. This conversation is about what's actually broken in legal AI, why most tools are glorified RAG wrappers, and how to make real bets in a market full of noise. In this episode: → Why Devansh built his newsletter for 5 people — and doesn't care about the other 349,995 → The three infrastructure bets (memory, user steering, latent-space reasoning) that gave Iris AI a 100% head-to-head win rate → Why workflow-owners will get acquired but platform players will win the market → Why SaaS pricing is dead and usage-based is the only honest model for AI companies → What AI actually does for the technical/non-technical divide — and what it doesn't → The one advice for founders: study the history of a problem before trying to solve it For founders, operators, and builders who are tired of AI hype and want to understand where the real leverage is. ----------- Episode's Chapters ----------- 0:00 Introduction 0:23 Devansh's Journey into Legal AI 2:22 Reading the AI Moment: Signal vs Noise 5:00 Irys's Core Technical Bets 8:25 Building a 350K-Reader Newsletter 15:18 Scaling Irys: $60K to $1M in Revenue 24:41 Is SaaS Dead? Usage-Based Pricing 29:53 AI and the Technical/Non-Technical Divide 🎙️ Devansh — https://www.linkedin.com/in/devansh-devansh-516004168/ Irys - https://www.irys.ai/ 👉 Subscribe for weekly conversations with SaaS founders, operators, and acquirers.

August 31, 202635 min

Why distribution and attention are the real bottleneck in B2B SaaS | Pete Hunt @Dagster

Pete Hunt was a core React team member at Facebook, helped build Instagram's first web app, sold a company to Twitter, and now runs Dagster Labs — the open-source data orchestration company behind Dagster and Dagster Plus. Anna sat down with him to talk about what AI is actually doing to engineering teams, where it isn't helping, and how a $62M-funded company thinks about hiring, distribution, and shipping. In this episode: → The two types of engineers in the AI era — and why "journey people" hate it while "destination people" love it → Where AI gives Dagster a 5:1 compression (and where it gives almost none) → Why they didn't cut hiring after raising — and what high-growth companies actually do with productivity gains → How they handle "slop landing in master" and the alignment work humans are inheriting → Why distribution and attention — not product — are now the real bottleneck → Their 4-week sprint, 2-week cool-down development cycle and what gets done in each → How the open-source product funds the commercial one (and when companies should pay) For founders, engineering leaders, and operators figuring out what AI actually changes about how software gets built and sold. ----------- Episode's Chapters ----------- 0:00 Introduction & Welcome 0:56 Pete's Background and Dagster 3:43 From Engineer to CEO 6:38 AI and Developer Experience 11:17 Data Privacy and Security 14:19 How AI is Changing Product Development 19:16 Developer Productivity and Hiring 26:01 Open Source Strategy and Go-To-Market 🎙️ Pete Hunt - https://www.linkedin.com/in/pwhunt/ Dagster Labs - https://dagster.io/ 👉 Subscribe for weekly conversations with SaaS founders, operators, and acquirers.

August 17, 202639 min

How to actually get your brand into AI search results | Guillaume Ang @Psyke

Guillaume Ang co-founded Psyke after a B2B SaaS exit at 27 and five years running one of Australia's first grocery delivery startups. His company now publishes thousands of pages a day for B2B customers — and reports 6 to 10x returns on the work. Anna sat down with him to pressure-test programmatic SEO in the age of AI search, hallucinations, and slop. In this episode: → Why programmatic SEO isn't dead — and how to do it without producing slop → The three ingredients that make AI-generated pages get cited: your brand voice, your unique data, and what the LLM already knows → The "chunking" technique that gets your content printed word-for-word in LLM answers → How Psyke uses creator-verifier agent loops to handle hallucinations at scale → The pivot story: from a 25,000-user SaaS to programmatic SEO, and why investors called them the dark horse of the portfolio → The SEO and brand cost of a rebrand — and why he still hasn't switched to the .com domain → The one thing he refuses to delegate to AI: accountability For founders and marketers trying to figure out what AI actually changes about content, search, and trust. ----------- Episode's Chapters ----------- 0:06 Introduction & Welcome 4:35 Programmatic SEO & AI Search Concerns 10:04 Creating Content That's AI & Human Friendly 16:15 Handling AI Hallucinations & Guardrails 21:08 AI Consciousness & Agent Personalities 24:08 The Pivot & Rebrand Story 30:51 What AI Still Can't Do 35:00 Closing Hack: Building Personal Influence 🎙️ Guillaume Ang - https://www.linkedin.com/in/guillaumeang/ Psyke - https://psyke.co/ 👉 Subscribe for weekly conversations with SaaS founders, operators, and acquirers.

August 3, 202636 min

Turning users into influencers. How to run a community-based SaaS | Nicky Szmala @picdrop

Nicky Szmala joined PicDrop as CEO after the acquisition — walking into a company built by photographers, for photographers, with a growth engine already running. What he found was a community-led model that's quietly outperforming the shortcuts everyone else is chasing. In this episode: → How picdrop finds and works with influencers who already use the product → The two-engine growth model driving international expansion → What it actually looks like to lead a team post-acquisition (and why openness is everything) → Why picdrop team bets on events even though it's "100% not scalable" → Nicky's take on AI, photography rights, and community trust in a shifting landscape This one's for founders and operators who want real talk on brand building, community-led growth, and what life looks like inside a SaaS acquirer's portfolio. ----------- Episode's Chapters ----------- 0:06 — Meet Nicky: From Asia to PicDrop CEO 1:23 — Why Anna Was Skeptical About the Acquisition 2:44 — Joining a Company Post-Acquisition: Nicky's Approach 7:03 — Nicky's Background: From Berlin to 16 Years in Asia 14:27 — What Is PicDrop and Who Uses It 25:20 — How saas.group 's Central Teams Supercharge Small Brands 🎙️ Nicky Szmala - https://www.linkedin.com/in/nickyszmala/ picdrop - picdrop.com Subscribe to our channel to be the first to see the interviews that we publish - https://www.youtube.com/@saas-group Stay up to date: Twitter: https://twitter.com/SaaS_group LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/14790796

July 20, 202635 min

A SaaS founder's reality check vs linkedin AI hype | Vlad Zhovtenko @ RedTrack

Vlad has been online since 1997 — long enough to have seen every "this changes everything" cycle. Now, as founder of RedTrack, he's built a clear-eyed framework for what AI actually changes in SaaS, and what it doesn't. In this episode: → Why AI is the new internet — and the parts of the hype he's not buying → How iOS 14.5 quietly turned media buying from programmatic into algorithmic → The first-party data foundation every SaaS company should be building right now → What happened when RedTrack connected AI agents to three years of historical data → The four levels of AI adoption — and why most companies are stuck on level one → Why he's not raising another round, even as AI costs rise across the industry For SaaS founders trying to separate signal from noise on AI, attribution, and the "agent manager" hype. ----------- Episode's Chapters ----------- 0:06 — Internet Origins: How Vlad Found Digital Marketing 0:49 — AI vs. the Dot-Com Era: What's Actually Different This Time 3:16 — What Gen Alpha Really Thinks About AI 4:39 — The Birth of RedTrack and First-Party Data 7:33 — Is Attribution Still Relevant in a Cookieless World? 10:01 — How AI Is About to Break (and Rebuild) Media Buying 14:11 — Processing Work vs. Cognitive Work: Where AI Belongs 21:25 — Building an AI-Powered Company: Champions, Workflows, and Mandates 28:00 — Do You Need to Manage AI Agents? (Spoiler: No) 31:41 — LinkedIn Hype vs. Reality: What's Actually Happening With AI in Business 32:44 — To Raise or Not to Raise: Funding Strategy in the Age of AI 🎙️ Vlad - https://www.linkedin.com/in/zhovtenko/ RedTrack - https://www.redtrack.io Subscribe to our channel to be the first to see the interviews that we publish - https://www.youtube.com/@saas-group Stay up to date: Twitter: https://twitter.com/SaaS_group LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/14790796

July 6, 202624 min

Zero outbound, 90% SEO: how to grow without a sales team | Hiren Hasmukh @Teqtivity

Hiren bootstrapped Tectivity from a smart locker idea into an IT asset management SaaS that competes with VC-funded rivals — with 25 people, zero outbound, and a customer base that refers each other across job changes. In this episode: → Why he pivoted from hardware to software, and the years he wishes he'd gotten back → How a two-week feature turnaround beats competitors who "charge for innovation" → The $900K his team saved one enterprise from a couple of reports on mobile phone usage → The security breach that hit them four years ago — and how they rebuilt trust with SOC 2 and forensics reports → Why founder-led support stops working, and when to actually step back → How 90% of growth comes from SEO and referrals — with zero cold outreach For founders building bootstrapped B2B SaaS in crowded, well-funded categories. ----------- Episode's Chapters ----------- 0:06 — Introduction & Hiren's Background 1:10 — How the Smart Locker Idea Was Born 2:05 — Pivoting from Hardware to SaaS 2:29 — Why Hiren Chose to Stay Bootstrapped 3:44 — Founder-Led Support on Slack: Sustainable? 4:41 — Customizing the Product for Each Customer 6:35 — Word of Mouth as the Primary Growth Engine 9:54 — SEO vs. AI Search: What's Actually Driving Traffic 14:03 — The Security Breach & Lessons Learned 15:47 — Building Remote Culture with a 25-Person Team 20:24 — Biggest Win, Biggest Failure & Final Hack 🎙️ Hiren Hasmukh - https://www.linkedin.com/in/hiren-teq/ Teqtivity - https://teqtivity.com/ Subscribe to our channel to be the first to see the interviews that we publish - https://www.youtube.com/@saas-group Stay up to date: Twitter: https://twitter.com/SaaS_group LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/14790796

June 22, 202633 min

How game mechanics are changing B2B onboarding in 2026 | Karel Papik @ Product Fruits

Karel Papik spent 20 years making video games and then discovered that gaming principles for hooking users in the first hour are more advanced than most B2B onboarding. He brought that thinking to Product Fruits, then scrapped the entire roadmap to rebuild it around AI. We get into why his investors offered more money within 24 hours of hearing the pivot, how "forbidden mechanics" from gaming translate into SaaS adoption, why he stopped doing outbound and content entirely — and why he now tells founders to stop listening to customers about the future of their product. For SaaS founders, product managers, and operators thinking seriously about onboarding, AI adoption, and how to grow without chasing every trend. In this episode: → Why investors offered more money within 24 hours of the AI pivot → How gaming "forbidden mechanics" translate to SaaS adoption → Why they stopped doing outbound and content — and what replaced it → Personalizing onboarding at the user level, not the segment level → Why founders should stop asking customers about the future → The personal cost of critical thinking and going against consensus ----------- Episode's Chapters ----------- 0:00 — Intro & Karel's Gaming Background 1:13 — From Video Games to SaaS: How Karel Found Product Fruits 3:17 — Gaming Principles That Apply to SaaS Onboarding 6:59 — Why Product Fruits Went All-In on AI 9:19 — AI Personalization & How Elvin Works 15:07 — The "Annotation" Method: Teaching AI About Your Product 20:33 — Data Privacy & Why Customer Data Stays Separate 21:40 — Dealing With AI Uncertainty & Pricing Changes 22:58 — Growth Strategy: PPC Over Content 26:21 — Biggest Win: The Bold Bet on AI 29:17 — Founder Hack: The Power of Critical Thinking 🎙️ Karel Papik - linkedin.com/in/karelpapik Product Fruits - https://productfruits.com Subscribe to our channel to be the first to see the interviews that we publish - https://www.youtube.com/@saas-group Stay up to date: Twitter: https://twitter.com/SaaS_group LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/14790796

June 8, 202649 min

Why your biggest pricing mistake is copying competitors and going cheaper | Mark Walker @ Nue

Mark Walker has been a litigator, a music industry lawyer, and a repeat SaaS founder — and he's now CEO of Nue, the revenue orchestration platform quietly running the billing stack for most of the major AI companies you've heard of. We get into why customers come to you looking for reasons not to buy, how one Nue customer had $2M unbilled and didn't know it, when Stripe is genuinely enough and when it isn't, why seat-based pricing was never really right — and what Mark thinks are the only real moats left in SaaS. For SaaS founders thinking about pricing, billing complexity, or what their revenue stack should look like as they scale. In this episode: → Why customers come looking for reasons not to buy → How to find and fix revenue leakage (one customer: $2M unbilled) → When to invest in revenue infrastructure — and when Stripe is enough → Why seat-based pricing was never the right model → Lessons from selling his last company → Why distribution and data are the only real moats left ----------- Episode's Chapters ----------- 0:24 — Introduction: Mark's Unconventional Path to SaaS 1:08 — First Startup Blanketware: Ahead of Its Time 3:21 — What Is Nue? Revenue Orchestration Explained 4:27 — Who's Running Nue: The AI Company Client List 5:44 — Pricing for the Fastest-Growing Companies in the World 9:13 — When to Invest in Revenue Infrastructure 16:08 — How to Price Your Product (and Stop Leaving Money on the Table) 22:40 — Usage-Based Pricing: Hype or Reality? 26:48 — Revenue Leakage: What It Is and Why It's Costing You Millions 35:36 — Lessons from Acquisitions and Exits 39:19 — Biggest Failure and Biggest Win 44:08 — The Hack: Sell by Addressing What They're Afraid Of 🎙️ Mark Walker - https://www.linkedin.com/in/markwalker/ Nue - nue.io Subscribe to our channel to be the first to see the interviews that we publish - https://www.youtube.com/@saas-group Stay up to date: Twitter: https://twitter.com/SaaS_group LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/14790796

May 25, 202657 min

Why vibe coding is a slot machine (and what to do instead) | Eric Ries @ Lean Startup Co.

Eric Ries wrote The Lean Startup and then spent a decade realizing he forgot to say "for the better." In this one he breaks down what's actually missing from the way founders build companies, and what to do about it before it's too late. We get into why it's always too early to set up governance until suddenly it's too late, the two-page legal filing most founders skip for no good reason, the study showing AI made developers 19% less productive while feeling 20% more, and what Samsung's refrigerator strategy says about cycle time. For founders, operators, and anyone building something they actually want to protect. In this episode: → Why governance is always "too early" until it's too late → The two-page filing that protects mission (and why founders skip it) → How surrogation destroys great companies — and why mission is the cure → The study: AI made developers 19% less productive (they thought they were 20% faster) → What Samsung's refrigerator strategy teaches about lean startup → Why "just give people what they want" is harder than it sounds ----------- Episode's Chapters ----------- 0:05 — Why Lean Startup Still Matters After a Decade 3:47 — What Lean Startup Left Out (and Why Eric Wrote Incorruptible) 8:25 — The Danger of "Change the World" Without Saying "For the Better" 14:51 — Why It's Never the Right Time to Protect Your Mission (Until It's Too Late) 17:51 — The Gruff Founder Who Secretly Had a Mission All Along 20:22 — The Builder's Intuition vs. Shareholder Primacy 22:03 — How to Structurally Protect Your Company's Values from Day One 28:26 — Surrogation: When Metrics Replace the Mission 35:56 — The AI Mania: Demos Without Products and LLM Psychosis 44:51 — How Leaders Actually Learn to Use AI (The Two-Week Hack) 54:09 — The Real Hack: Just Give People What They Want 🎙️ Eric Ries - linkedin.com/in/eries Lean Startup - theleanstartup.com Subscribe to our channel to be the first to see the interviews that we publish - https://www.youtube.com/@saas-group Stay up to date: Twitter: https://twitter.com/SaaS_group LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/14790796

May 11, 20261 hr 0 min

How we doubled prices twice without losing customers | J.Y. Delmotte @BuddiesHR

J.Y. Delmotte co-founded six startups, went through YC, and is now running BuddiesHR — a suite of Slack apps doing $56K MRR. In this one he gets unusually specific about what's working, what flopped, and what could kill the business. We get into the Slack Marketplace SEO play that captured 90%+ of inbound (and why it's nearly impossible to replicate now), what happened when he doubled the price twice, the existential risk of building on Slack, and the co-founder split that got lawyers involved. For SaaS founders thinking about growth channels, pricing leverage, and building a business that can actually be sold. In this episode: → The Slack Marketplace SEO play that captured 90%+ of inbound → Why doubling the price twice barely lost any customers → The platform risk of building on Slack — and the escape plan → Why 40 founder interviews shaped the roadmap before any code → The co-founder split that got lawyers involved → Selling KarmaLinks and TalkFluence: two acquisitions, smooth handoffs ----------- Episode's Chapters ----------- 0:05 — Introduction & Guest Background 1:18 — Why J.Y Built Buddies HR 2:00 — What Is Buddies HR? 4:14 — Platform Risk & Slack Dependency 14:18 — Growth Channels & Acquisition Strategy 22:32 — Building in Public — Does It Backfire? 27:42 — Revenue, Pricing & Predictability 34:06 — Selling Car Links & Acquisition Lessons 43:57 — Biggest Win, Biggest Failure & Lessons Learned 54:31 — Founder Hack: Monthly Self-Reflection 🎙️ J.Y. Delmotte - https://www.linkedin.com/in/jydelmotte 🌐 BuddiesHR - buddieshr.com Subscribe to our channel to be the first to see the interviews that we publish - https://www.youtube.com/@saas-group Stay up to date: Twitter: https://twitter.com/SaaS_group LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/14790796