People person from a small town. Working hard to better myself everyday and will take on every project I have time for.

Chris Cunningham

Head of Marketing: I'm fixing our attribution by asking customers how they found us.
CEO: No you're not. That's not scalable..

Head of Marketing: Neither is last click attribution... Dark social is 70% of our current pipeline and we're pretending it doesn't exist.

CEO: What are you on about... what's dark social?

Head of Marketing: Every untrackable share that actually drives decisions. Like screenshots shared in Slack, Discord or a text between two VPs.

CEO: We can't measure that... and we can't optimize what we can't measure.

Head of Marketing: We can't measure it because our attribution model is broken. Our tools only tell us "what did they click?". Instead we should just ask THEM "how did you actually find us?"

CEO: And people will just... tell us?

Head of Marketing: They already are. I added one question to our onboarding calls: "Walk me through how you discovered us."

Turns out our biggest deal this month came from a Reddit thread that got screenshot, shared in a private Discord, then forwarded to their team Slack.

CEO: Our attribution says "direct traffic."

Head of Marketing: Exactly my point.

CEO: The board wants dashboards.

Head of Marketing: The board wants revenue. I can show them a spreadsheet of "how we actually found you" from every customer. That's real attribution.

CEO: How do we scale this?

Head of Marketing: One question in every sales call that gets added to a field in the CRM. Actual insights that marketing can work off of.

CEO: If this doesn't work...

Head of Marketing: It's already working. We stopped tracking last-click nonsense and started listening. Turns out customers will tell you the truth if you just ask.

PS - Dark social drives more B2B pipeline than any channel you're tracking.

Thoughts?

I'm Chris Cunningham - I run social media at ClickUp.

Follow me for more actionable marketing tips & tricks.

Chris  Cunningham

li_at

JSESSIONID

Talks about #saas, #startup, #branding, #marketing, and #influencermarketing

Founding Member ClickUp / Marketing

Michelle Strom

When ClickUp launched, nobody wanted us. I was our first sales rep and nobody cared what I had to say. So I set a rule for myself...go for 50 no's before I quit.

I made call after call. Most people hung up, while others laughed. A few were polite but not interested.

Then I closed my first deal & that feeling was so sweet I'll never forget it.

I set the counter back to zero & went for 50 more no's.

But I never hit 50 again. I closed another one, then another, and the momentum built from there.

I took a lot of those early lessons from sales & still apply them to content/social media today.

I see the same patterns with content. Founders post 3 times, get no traction, and quit. They never make it to their first win because they aren't expecting all the "no's" or failed posts.

But content is the same game as sales. You're going to hear no most of the time and the algorithm will ignore you. Your first 20 posts will probably flop. Maybe even your first 100 posts.

That's not failure though...that's the process.

Set a number. 50 posts. 100 posts. Whatever keeps you going long enough to see what works.

Because the first win will feel so sweet that you'll want to keep going. You'll start to learn what your audience responds to. You'll build momentum, and eventually you'll stop guessing.

But you have to make it to that first win. Most people quit before post 15.

Thoughts?

It's Monday. Which means we're going to pitch 20 content ideas to create this week. Only 8 will survive. Here's exactly how it works (steal this framework):

I show up with 3 ideas that I usually find from tweets that went viral or something bizarre I saw over the weekend.

Like last week I saw a tweet asking "what would you do if the FBI showed up and you had 30 seconds to hide a thumb drive?" The replies were unhinged. That became a video.

Luke shows up with 3. Adam shows up with 3. Our guest writer - usually some comedian from the LA scene - shows up with 3-4 more.

We pitch them all, and then we vote blind. No one knows whose idea is whose.

The winners are whatever gets the most votes - pure democracy.

After we pick our 8-10 winners, I sort them into what I call the ABCD formula:

A = Stuff we know crushes. Like HR guys dancing. We'll remake 2-3 of these.
B = Concepts that worked elsewhere that we can steal and make our own.
C = Whatever trend is happening. Severance drops? We're making a Severance parody.
D = Complete wild card. Something so weird it might bomb or might get 100 million views.

By noon, we know exactly what we're shooting Thursday.

Tuesday we'll figure out props and locations.
Thursday we shoot all day.
Friday I color-code everything based on performance.

This system has generated over 1,000 videos & we've hit 200+ million monthly impressions with this strategy.

All because every Monday, a room full of comedians and actors who barely understand project management software vote on what makes them laugh.

Your content strategy probably took months to develop.

Ours takes 2 hours every Monday (and adapts to trends in real time).

Head of Marketing: We're done with the brand voice guide.
CEO: The 47-page document we spent $30K on? No way..
Head of Marketing: That's the one.

CEO: Why? It ensures consistency.

Head of Marketing: It ensures we sound like every other SaaS company in existence. I ran an experiment. Took our last 10 posts and 10 from our competitor. Removed logos. Our team couldn't tell the difference.

CEO: That's why we need guidelines.

Head of Marketing: Our customers don't want guidelines. They want to know who we actually are. I looked at every piece of feedback from last quarter. The word "generic" appeared 23 times.

CEO: So what's your plan?

Head of Marketing: Let the team sound like humans. Sarah in product has a sarcastic sense of humor. Let her write like that. Tom in sales tells incredible stories. Let him tell them.

CEO: We'll sound inconsistent. The brand team will hate this.

Head of Marketing: The brand team already agrees. They told me they're tired of writing "synergy" and "leverage" when they'd rather just say what we actually do.

CEO: Legal will have a field day.

Head of Marketing: Legal approved our last 5 posts that said "our competitors suck at onboarding." Got more positive replies than anything we've published in 6 months.

CEO: This could backfire.

Head of Marketing: You know what's backfiring? Our NPS dropped 12 points. Customers said we "lost our personality." We used to be scrappy. Now we sound like IBM.

CEO: One quarter.

Head of Marketing: When our engagement rate triples and customers start saying "this actually sounds like you guys," I want to burn that brand guide.

CEO: Deal.

P.S. - Nobody ever bought software because it "leveraged synergies." Stop using corporate jargon, and start telling stories that are actually authentic.

I'm Chris Cunningham - I run social media at ClickUp.

Follow me for marketing that sounds like it was written by a human.

I analyzed our last 1,000 videos at ClickUp. Here are 7 things that actually move the needle on our social media content:
(1) Instagram Trial Reels

Trial Reels are free A/B testing that nobody uses to test 3-5 different hooks. They don't show on your feed, so you can pick the winner for your "real" post. We tested 3 hooks - one got 13k views, another got 1M. That's a 77x difference.

(2) Actors cost less than your agency retainer

LA actors: $60-80k/year. They show up on time, take direction, and don't have ego. The social media gurus recycle the same 5 hooks everyone uses.

(3) Your social media "best practices" are why you're failing

I was told to always show the product, always use UTM links, make people argue in comments... I ignored all of it and now we generate 200M+ impressions/month now...the board loves it.

(4) Stop creating new content - recreate winners

Our HR guys dancing video hit 30M views. So we made finance guys dancing, then IT guys dancing, then Sales guys dancing. 100M+ views total that all stemmed from one winning idea.

(5) Weekly brainstorm meetings > Strategy decks

20 ideas go in every Monday, then 8-10 of the best ones survive after the team votes blindly. The winners get turned into content. This 2-hour meeting generates more pipeline than any strategy deck I've ever seen.

(6) Pattern interrupts that actually work

Opening a banana backwards, someone bursting out of a car trunk, literally circling someone's back when saying "circling back." Subtle confusion from visuals works just as well (if not better) than the words you actually say.

(7) Color-code your best/worst creative

Green = 20k+ views (recreate it)
Yellow = 5-20k (tweak the hook)
Red = under 5k (don't reuse)

This system turned random viral hits into predictable viral hits.

What else would you add to the list?

POV: You thought making a rap about ClickUp was a good marketing decision...

It was.

We spent $50K on a bunch of expensive Sony cameras at ClickUp, but our iPhone videos get 10x more views. This is just the tip of the iceberg on a bigger trend I'm noticing...

People scroll past overproduced content now because it signals corporate ad, not authentic insight. Raw content from a phone feels like you're letting them in behind the scenes, and that's what makes them stop.

I see founders all the time that wait to start creating content because they think they need the perfect setup.

They're shopping for cameras, researching lighting setups, and building out entire studios when they haven't even posted their first video yet.

It's absolutely insane because your audience doesn't care about your gear. Especially when you don't have an audience to begin with.

Whether you're just getting started, or you've been in marketing for 30+ years it's good to be reminded of the basics that actually matter.

The hook matters. The message matters. Authenticity matters. Production quality? Dead last.

tldr; If you can't make good content on your iPhone, your $5K camera won't fix that.

Set your phone up. Hit record. Say something worth hearing. Rinse & Repeat until it works. That's it.

That's the whole playbook.

Agree?

I’ve generated more than 1.8 BILLION views for ClickUp in the last year but NOTHING compares to my first taste of virality - when I FAKED winning the lottery in 2012.

Yep. Long before B2B memes, actors, and 300M-impression goals… I was a broke college kid at Virginia Tech with three friends, Photoshop, and a dumb idea that fooled the entire country.

Here’s what happened:
The Mega Millions jackpot was $640M.

Less than an hour after the drawing, with the help of Zeb Evans ClickUp CEO, I tweeted a Photoshopped “winning” ticket with nothing but:

👉 “My life has forever changed.”
That was it and the internet lost its mind.

Within hours I was trending globally. Journalists, fans, haters - even Good Morning America and CNN - flooded in.

People I’d never met proposed to me.
The DMs were… unhinged. Let’s just say some invitations were not PG-13.
My parents had to unplug their home phone because my small hometown Martinsville was convinced their son had just become a millionaire.

Meanwhile… we were goofing around in our apartment debating:
“Should we go out drinking tonight… or should we fool the world again?”

We chose the world - and it worked. Our entire goal with this prank was to get onto Comedy Central’s Tosh.0 - and it nearly worked.

That moment taught me my first real lesson in content:
When you understand attention, the world reacts. When you manufacture a moment, the world amplifies. 

When you break the pattern, people stop scrolling.

Fast forward to today, and the same principles drive everything we do at ClickUp:
• Make people feel something.
• Break the “B2B is boring” mindset.
• Be the cool brand in a boring industry.
• Study people harder than you study algorithms.

Because virality isn’t luck - it’s psychology, timing, and understanding humans.

Last click attribution misses 95% of the story which is why your LinkedIn campaigns are probably performing 10x better than your dashboard shows. 

We solved this...By using Dreamdata to connect pipeline data directly to LinkedIn. Now our algorithm optimizes for revenue, not vanity metrics.

Want the same visibility? Comment "DREAM" below.

I've written 4,000+ posts for ClickUp's social accounts, and cut my teeth on more failed posts than I'd like to admit. Now, every post I make needs to do at least 1 of these 3 things, or I don't post it at all (share this with your team):

Somewhere along the line B2B marketing got so far away from B2C marketing that it's become out of tune with what actually works on human beings.

That gives the saavy B2B marketer a huge opportunity to fill this gap for their audience. Try one of these angles out for your next post:

(1) Make your audience FEEL something

Anger, hope, or relief. The feeling "that someone finally gets it" is what I'm going for here.

We posted about pretending to understand what your boss said in that meeting while frantically DMing your coworker for translation. It blew up because we said what everyone was thinking but nobody talks about.

(2) TEACH them something they can use today

I'm talking about something they can implement before their 3pm meeting. That's the good stuff people will come back for more of.

Not just another framework or theory.

(3) ENTERTAIN them

Yeah, even in B2B you can entertain your audience.

We had our actors dress up as different departments and dance to old songs. Dumb? Maybe. But it got more than 30 million views while our product demos got 800.

Team leads and VPs are real people who doom-scroll at midnight & laugh at the same stuff everyone else does. Lean into that while the rest of the market is clueless.

If your next post doesn't do at least one of these, edit it until it does.

1 out of 3? Solid post.
2 out of 3? Now you're onto something.
3 out of 3? This is where things compound.

Thoughts?

PS - Let me know why you think B2B marketing has become so...boring. When did things first start to go wrong?

I'm Chris Cunningham - I run social media at ClickUp.

Follow me for more actionable marketing tips & tricks.

Every week I interview project managers using tools like ClickUp to learn about the content they actually watch. Their answers almost never match what "thought leaders" tell you to post about. Here's 3 questions you can steal to figure out what content your ICP wants you to create:

Most marketers live in a bubble talking to other marketers… which is great if your ICP is marketers. But if you're selling to anyone else, you have to escape the echo chamber and figure out what they actually consume.

So I started interviewing actual users. Share these questions with your team:

(Question 1) What content do you actually watch?

They never say LinkedIn thought leadership content. They say comedy sketches, TikToks, and YouTube videos about literally anything except productivity hacks.

That's when I realized that after 10 hours of actual project management, they don't want more project management content. They want to decompress.

(Question 2) What's something cool you learned last week?

Not one person has ever mentioned a framework from a carousel. It's always some random thing that stuck because it was entertaining first, educational second.

This told me to stop leading with value props and start leading with entertainment.

(Question 3) What would genuinely help you?

They don't want another "5 tips" post. They want to feel seen. They want someone to acknowledge that work is absurd sometimes. They want to laugh at the same corporate buzzwords that drive them insane.

So we created exactly that. We started making content that makes them laugh about their reality instead of lecturing them about it.

Project Managers spend 8 hours a day in meetings about workflows and optimization. When they open their phone, they don't want more of that. They just want to chill for a second.

A lot of these execs you're trying to reach - they're still regular people & they like to laugh..

15 minutes talking to actual users taught me more than 3 years of marketing conferences.

You're guessing what your audience wants based on what other marketers tell you. I'm asking them directly and creating exactly that.

One of us is getting 100M views from dancing videos.

Maybe try asking your audience what they want instead of telling them what they need.

We doubled our content performance in 90 days at ClickUp using a color-coded system. Here's how it works so you can steal it (bookmark this for later):

Most teams create content, then move on and never analyze what actually worked.

At ClickUp, we test everything so we can double down on the winners and ditch the losers. Here's the exact process:

Step 1: Create content for at least a full week

Don't analyze results daily, you need to give yourself enough data to spot patterns.

Step 2: Put all your videos/posts into a table

Links in one column, impressions in another, likes, comments, and so on. 

We use ClickUp for this (and you should too!)

Step 3: Color code everything - keep it stupidly simple

Green = Winner. It performed well.
Yellow = Potential. Needs tweaking.
Red = Miss. Don't repeat this.

Step 4: Make decisions

Reds: Stop making this type of content.
Yellows: Change the hook or format, try again.
Greens: Remake it. Your audience already proved they like it.

Most marketing teams try reinventing the wheel every week. This allows you to have an ongoing system. Then when trends happen, you can hop on them without breaking your entire process.

When something works, double down on it. Make more versions of it.

Your greens show you what your audience wants so give them more of it.

Do this every week and your numbers will climb because you're learning what works instead of guessing.

In App analytics are great, but there is something to having all your channels + posts in a single location to analyze and share with your team. It makes things more accessible.

Thoughts?

The most interesting distribution channel in 2025 isn't TikTok or LinkedIn.

It's AI model training data.

Let me explain:

Warner Music Group just partnered with Suno.

They went from suing to partnering.

Why?

Because they realized something:

If AI models train on your content...

Your brand becomes part of AI's worldview.

When someone asks ChatGPT for music recommendations?

The models trained on Warner content will recommend Warner artists.

This is distribution at the infrastructure level.

Not on the platform.

IN the platform.

And most brands are still thinking about this wrong.

They're trying to block AI from their content.

When they should be negotiating to be OVER-represented.

Because here's what happens:

AI becomes the default discovery layer.

The brands in the training data win.

The brands blocking it become invisible.

Same pattern playing out in:

Recruiting (AI resume screeners)

Sales (AI research tools)

Marketing (AI content generators)

If AI can't learn about you...

It can't recommend you.

Are you optimizing to be AI-discoverable or AI-invisible?

Huge move from the Replit team, Fast Mode is a real step up - and I don't even code haha! 5x faster workflows, and it’s free to try. Highly recommend checking it out if you haven't yet.

Replit is free for the first time ever! 
  
We’re introducing Fast Mode, a 5x faster way to build with AI. Complete tasks in under 30 seconds. 
  
And for a limited time, it’s completely free 
   
Try it out today at https://Replit.com

Younium

- Leading our efforts to substantially increase our footprint on UK&I markets.
- Created a business strategy plan and actively driving initiatives to accelerate net new logo acquisition.
- Partnering across teams for seamless cross-functional collaboration, ensuring our efforts align and amplify impact.

Senior Account Executive

- Closed most net new logos in 2023.
- Exceeded my annual quota in 2023.
- Biggest net new logos were generated from outbound efforts.

Account Executive

ARRtist Circus

If you're in sales, customer success, or pre-sales, this podcast is tailor made for you. Gain invaluable insights and learn from top talents at renowned tech companies across EMEA. We deliver new episodes every week, featuring diverse and amazing co-hosts. Are you prepared to elevate your career to new heights?

Co-Host - The Revenue Circus Podcast

Microsoft

- Responsible for managing high potential Azure customer life cycle.
- Assisting customers with assessment, migration, optimization and continuous improvement of their Azure estate.
- Positioning myself as a trusted advisor for customers from a commercial and technical perspective. 
- Orchestrating internal and external resources (Partners) to ensure customer projects are delivered on time and budget.
- Closely track customer satisfaction, usage and consumption, and working to identify opportunities for improvement. 
- Identify cross-sell and up sell opportunities utilizing services in the Azure portfolio.

Customer Success Manager

- Drive digital transformation by empowering businesses to drive innovation and growth. 
- Recruit and find high-potential ISV Partners.
- Support Swedish ISV partners to deliver their Software as a Service through Microsoft's Azure Platform. 
- Connect Partners to the Microsoft Partner ecosystem to grow their business globally.
- Help ISV Partners scale through Microsoft's Cloud Marketplaces.

Partner Development Manager

- Recruit and open up the dialogue with new ISV's (Independent Software Vendors). 
- Help ISV Partners grow their business in a partnership with Microsoft, focusing on deliver their SaaS business and succeed with their cloud business, through Microsoft's Azure Platform.
- Conducting workshops with Partners focused on Value Proposition and Pricing Strategy.

Business Development Representative

GetAccept

GetAccept is a solution where you design, send, track and market your proposal to get more deals digitally signed. It gives you control of the most important part where quotes turns into cash. 

Worked with GetAccepts SaaS solution as one of their first employees. The role included sales, business development, on-boarding, social selling and support.

www.getaccept.com

BannerFlow

In this role I strategically marketed and sold a cloud-based SaaS using a consultative-based sales approach. Executed a complex and technical sales cycle and negotiated with decision makers at C-level.

Sales Executive

Bisfront AB

Responsible for bringing in new clients to support the organisation with new projects and contributing to the current growth rate of Bisfront. Position includes tasks such as book meetings, conducting customer visits, negotiation and administration.

Client Manager

Powa Technologies

Payment solution enabling technology that seamlessly integrates the physical and online experience to transform the future of shopping.

Find potential clients and schedule meetings for the Scandinavian launch of PowaTag. Part time job during my studies.

Sales Development Representative

Verifone Sweden AB

Technical support and sales of payment solutions to small and medium business. Part time job during my studies.

Technical Support & Sales

Analyze sales statistics, generate sales reports, quotation writing, conducting customer visits and negotiation. Trainee program during my studies.

Key Account Management Trainee

NetJobs Group AB

NetJobs is the leading provider of specialized career websites in northern Europe. NetJobs specialized career websites serve as online marketplaces where employers find and recruit prospective employees, and where professionals find attractive job opportunities and information about their future careers.

Responsible as an Account Manager for building my own client base for two of NetJobs career sites.

Account Manager

AE @ Younium | Co-Host - The Revenue Circus Podcast 🎪 | SaaS Sales Enthusiast 🔥

Fierce, high-energy, unapologetically passionate about SaaS, and a frequent London traveler 🇬🇧

As a full-time single mom and career-driven sales professional, I thrive on balancing it all, while embracing the chaos.

I create content for B2B SaaS finance leaders who are done guessing and want to actually trust their numbers, I share real insights on:

- Revenue leakage (it happens more than you think)
- Why SaaS metrics sometimes don’t reflect reality, and what to do about it
- How finance teams can stop being stuck in reporting mode and actually drive strategy
 
After countless conversations with CFOs and finance leads, the same thing keeps coming up:
Finance teams are stuck in spreadsheets and siloed systems. It's time-consuming, error-prone, and holds them back from being truly strategic.

I help CFOs and finance teams in B2B SaaS to eliminate manual, repetitive, and error-prone tasks so they can focus on what truly matters - driving sustainable growth, increasing profitability, and delivering strategic insights. By streamlining complex billing, automating revenue recognition, and providing real-time SaaS metrics, finance teams get the tools they need to prioritise high-value tasks and trust their data 📈

With over a decade of experience in B2B SaaS - spanning sales, partner development, and customer success, I’ve had the privilege of working with some of the best in the game, including leading platforms like Microsoft Azure.

I live for creating connections, sparking meaningful conversations, and making an impact. Let’s connect and chat about SaaS, finance, sales, or anything in between 👋

Klara Ahlgren

Just Landed 🛬

Time to take London by storm 🌪️

Two days at SaaStr.ai with Sofie Murphy, the perfect Younium duo 

If you’re at SaaStr later today, let’s have a chat, we both promise to give you a fashionable cap 🧢


PS. They call me bag lady for no reason 🤭

Driving UK&I expansion @ Younium – Enabling scalable recurring revenue growth through automation, AI & reliable metrics | London regular | AI enthusiast 🔥

No alternative text description for this image

Two days at SaaStr.ai London, back-to-back networking, AI everywhere, and a very busy Q4 in the background…

Honestly? I loved every second of it.

A few things stood out, and made me even more convinced Younium is on the right track:

1️⃣ With AI, you can’t pick everything.
 There’s a sea of shiny tools out there, and it’s loud.
 The winners won’t be the ones using 47 different AI apps…
 It’s the ones who pick a few and go deep, across functions, not in silos.
 Because without the right data foundations, even the smartest AI falls flat.

2️⃣ Cross-functional AI is the real deal.
 Finance + RevOps + Product + GTM + CS.
 If those teams don’t align, your AI strategy becomes a nice ppt, not a business advantage.
 (And yes — that’s why I’m big on purpose-built data + revenue infrastructure.)

3️⃣ Road to $100M ARR? Build enterprise from day one.
 Snuck into that session, and the message was clear:
 If you want to scale like an enterprise later…
 you can’t operate like "we'll fix it later" startup now.

4️⃣ And let’s not forget: growth = doing the right things + a bit of luck.
 Right market.
 Right timing.
 Right customers.

And maybe… a bit (or plenty) of frickin' stubbornness.

Also got to meet both new faces and familiar ones: Mark Blakemore Michael Damnjanovic Alexander Theuma Thomas Sjöberg Mikko Mäntylä - thanks for some great chats 😎 

SaaStr London — thanks for the inspiration, the conversations, and the reminder that this industry moves fast…

...and I honestly wouldn’t want it any other way.

Let’s go 🚀

Monday startup calls with the sales team...

Or as we say, tip of the spear 😉

Come as you are, do what you love!

Tired?
Running on coffee?
Or you haven’t had your coffee yet?
Just dropped the kiddos at school?
Or pretending you’re more awake than you actually are? 😅

…or just not pretending at all.

That’s the beauty of our Monday startup call.

No need to put on a show.
No filters.
Just the team kicking off the week together, however we show up.

(And yes… they might’ve staged a few smiles for this screenshot 😂)

But honestly, this little ritual sets the tone for the week.
Energy, accountability, and a reminder that we’re in it together,
even when we’re not fully there yet, or at least some of us.

Happy Monday! Let’s get after it 👊

Back to London next week for SaaStr.ai 🔥 
 
London, it’s been way too long!
 
Can’t wait to dive into two full days of SaaS energy, real conversations, and the latest AI trends.
 
And of course… I’ve lined up a couple of side quests, catching up with prospective customers.
 
The mix of community, learning, and building relationships?
My kind of trip.
 
If you’re there 1–2 December, let’s connect, grab a coffee, and talk about something I’m genuinely curious about: how your revenue teams are structuring revenue operations together with finance to be on the same revenue forecast, and how you're breaking down silos between sales, finance, and cs.
 
London. SaaStr. Great people.
 
Let’s gooooo! 🚀🔥

Everyone’s been screaming AI will kill SaaS…
 
…until someone finally did the math.
 
Interesting read where Ben Murray broke down the numbers behind the viral claim that “AI companies generate more profit per customer.”
 
And the reality is pretty simple:
→ AI hasn’t changed the math, it’s changed the inputs.
AI companies run at lower margins because of compute and model costs.
SaaS still wins on margin efficiency.
 
→ For AI to beat SaaS economics, it needs one thing:
Higher ARPA or way more revenue.
Same revenue? SaaS still produces more profit.
Same EBITDA? AI needs ~6x the revenue.
 
And here’s the part people forget: 
TAM is fundamentally different.
AI taps both software spend and labor budgets.
SaaS typically taps software spend only.
 
That TAM difference isn’t going away, which is exactly why there’s room for both to thrive.
Just… in different ways.
 
And from my own day-to-day bubble:
The most interesting space isn’t “AI vs. SaaS.”
 
It’s AI-infused SaaS, where you keep the margin profile of SaaS, add AI-driven efficiency, and still meet compliance, audit, and financial control requirements.
 
Because like it or not, we’re not at a point yet where you can hand your entire revenue engine over to AI.
 
Not with today’s regulations.
Not with today’s audit standards.
Not in finance.

The hype is loud.
But the economics, and the guardrails, they still matter.
 
Link to Ben's blog in the comments 👇

If your revenue and finance teams don’t align on the numbers…
 
It’s often not a forecasting problem.
Many times, it’s a system problem.
 
Talk to any finance or revenue leader in a recurring-revenue business and their stories are similar:
Keeping up with technical debt, pulling resources in the wrong directions.
Sales, finance, and CS all running different versions of the truth.
Teams spending a big chunk of their time on manual work instead of moving the business forward.
 
And at the end of the day, you want to add headcount where it actually matters to fuel growth, not for manual processes.
 
When you never get to one single, trusted view of revenue, it slows everything down… day-to-day ops, forecasting, decision-making, growth.
 
Honestly, if your systems don’t talk to each other, your teams won’t either.
 
That’s why unified revenue management is crucial.
One place to manage the full subscription lifecycle.
One forecast everyone actually believes in.
One view of SaaS metrics the business can rally around.
 
This is where purpose-built revenue management is needed for scale,
breaking down silos, eliminating the manual work with high risk of errors,
and sometimes even angry customers… and you don't want that for things that are an easy fix.
 
And not to mention, giving leadership a unified, real-time view of the business.
 
Because growth gets a whole lotta easier when your revenue and finance teams speak the same language.

And who knows, you might even be able to reshuffle headcount.
Let your teams spend their time where it actually moves the needle, not buried in manual work.
 
And I’m pretty sure your CEO, CRO, and CFO will have better discussions with the board… just saying.


Oh, and Happy Wednesday peeps!

There’s still an outdated view of what finance actually does… 
 
A great finance team should be a trusted partner to the business strategically, not just number crunchers at month-end.
 
That line hit hard during a panel I hosted with three seasoned finance leaders.
 
And honestly? It’s the reality I see every day in recurring-revenue companies.
 
Finance can’t be the team that cleans up the mess after growth happens.
It needs to shape the growth.
 
And that only works if you stop treating finance as an afterthought and start enabling it like the core of the business.
 
What came up again and again in the discussion:
→ If complexity ends up in finance, it started somewhere else.
→ Messy contracts, exceptions everywhere, outdated systems.
 
…by the time finance feels it, it’s already too late.
 
Automate early, before the challenges arrives:
→ Don’t build your way into technical debt and then try to fix it later.
→ Standardise processes while you still can.
→ Choose tools that support your future state, not just today’s fire drill.
 
Finance can’t scale alone.
If sales or ops are still stuck in the stone ages, no modern finance setup will save you. You need shared ownership of processes across teams, not silos passing problems downstream.
 
Simplicity now beats complexity later:
→ Build a clean 80% foundation and isolate the edge cases.
→ Don’t let exceptions become your operating model.
 
And the big takeaway?
Finance needs a seat at the table earlier.
With automation, clean processes, and the right tools, finance becomes a growth multiplier, not a bottleneck.
 
But without it?
You end up with manual work, errors, slow reporting, and leadership teams debating which version of the truth to believe.
 
If you’re scaling a recurring-revenue business and feeling that strain…
...it’s probably time to rethink your setup.

Because finance isn’t back-office anymore. It’s the engine that powers predictable, confident growth, when you give it the chance.

I'm all in for AI…
 
…but not (only) for the saving time piece.
 
Being neurospicy 🌶️  is… a journey (if you know, you know).
 
And here’s the thing people don’t always talk about:
For many of us, it’s not only our skills or creativity that spike.
It’s energy, emotion, motivation, dopamine.
 
When something sparks interest we're all in.
Hyper-focused, sharp, unstoppable.
 
When it doesn’t, a total crash.
Overwhelmed. Staring at the task like it’s written in hieroglyphs.
 
Dopamine dysregulation.
Or the daily rollercoaster.
 
And the more I’ve learned about myself, the more I’ve realised this:
there's no magic bullet to fix it, rather learning, 
understanding and finding tools that support it.
 
For me, in work, it's AI.
Privately, obviously running is a solution to everything. 
 
On the lowest of lows,
when the engine is overheated,
motivation is nowhere to be found,
and my brain is doing 50 tabs at once.
 
AI isn’t a shortcut.
It’s: Structure. Stability. Breathing room.
 
It’s like throwing dirty laundry in the washing machine,
and voilà, it comes out clean.
 
…and trust me on the lows I don't think I always make sense,
but AI get the "dirty laundry" thoughts that I'm throwing in there 😅 
 
It gives me a calm, rational “co-pilot” when my engine is running on low batteries.

It's a total blank when I think about how I managed before this.
 
Becoming a single mom probably flipped the script a bit too…
 
Is anyone else using AI not just to work faster or crunch data, but to stay steady when the brain goes offline? neurospicy or not 😎

Finance doesn’t need more AI hype. It needs results.
 
I’ve seen a lot of noise lately around AI in finance, 
clever demos, buzzwords, and automation dressed up as intelligence.
 
But, (there's always a but):
Most finance leaders I talk to aren’t looking for “wow.”
They’re looking for accuracy, security, and time back in their week.
 
AI that actually understands financial logic.
AI that doesn’t just chase invoices or match transactions,
but helps build confidence in the numbers.
 
Because when it comes to finance, the margin for error is zero.
 
That’s where the future is heading, not towards more flashy stuff that sounds cool during a salesy pitch but actually don't add any value, but more trust.
 
Trust me, experienced finance leaders see right through AI hyped dressed up features.
 
AI that supports compliance, accelerates reporting,
and gives finance the control they need to lead, not react, on the other hand, then we're touching on real value.
 
And yes, one day we’ll get to agentic AI in finance, systems that don’t just respond, but act.
We’re not there yet. Regulations still need to catch up.
 
But the groundwork is already being laid.
 
The goal isn’t AI that sounds good, or and AI for AI's sake.
It’s AI that delivers, built for finance, not for hype.

Have you seen any automation dressed up as intelligence lately?

Connecting the dots just got a whole lot easier.

It's clear: Finance and revenue leaders wants the same thing:
Analyze SaaS metrics alongside CRM data, customer insights,
and financial results, all in one view.
Because that’s where the real story lives.

With Younium MCP, you can now interact with your Younium data through AI agents, securely and with full context.

Cross-checking, analyzing, and prompting across systems is no longer a manual exercise, it’s instant, accurate, and compliant.

AI isn’t replacing financial control.
It’s enhancing it, giving finance and revenue leaders the clarity they need to make faster, smarter decisions.

Check it out 👉 https://lnkd.in/dJsNTbkQ

taplio

The Battle

Chris Cunningham

Klara Ahlgren

Followers

Posts

Engagements

Likes

Performance ScoreChris Cunningham's LinkedIn Performance

Performance ScoreKlara Ahlgren's LinkedIn Performance

Ready to grow your LinkedIn presence?

taplio

The Battle

Chris Cunningham

Klara Ahlgren

Followers

Posts

Engagements

Likes

Performance Score.css-goub6s{font-size:var(--chakra-fontSizes-md);font-weight:500;color:var(--chakra-colors-gray-600);display:block;margin-top:var(--chakra-space-1);}Chris Cunningham's LinkedIn Performance

Performance ScoreKlara Ahlgren's LinkedIn Performance

Ready to grow your LinkedIn presence?

Performance ScoreChris Cunningham's LinkedIn Performance