25+ years building technology-driven companies from zero to exit. Co-founder & CEO at Scaleflow.com — helping founders, decision-makers, and investors see and fix the gap between commercial ambition and tech reality. Previously CTO & Co-founder at inSided.com (acquired by Gainsight, 2022).

Wouter Neyndorff

Positioning for Sales-Led SaaS companies | My clients win 6+ out of 10 deals, in 3x less time, at 40%+ higher value using my 4-week "Pressure Cooker" program.

Your product wins feature comparisons. Your team works harder than the competition. And you're still losing deals you should win — or worse, losing to "do nothing."It's not a sales problem. It's not a product problem. It's that your market can't see what makes you different — because you accidentally taught them you're a commodity.I find the one remarkable thing hidden in your business. The thing your own team walks past every day without seeing it.I grew up as the son of a Dutch tulip farmer.How I ended up in enterprise software is a longer story.But 30 years in, I’ve learned one thing: the best product almost never wins. The one people can’t stop talking about does.That lesson stuck. It's been the foundation of everything I've done for 30 years.Finding your remarkable thing takes deep immersion. Customer interviews. Workshops. Uncomfortable conversations. The insight usually hits within weeks. But that's just the start. The real work is making the entire team live it, own it, get dangerous with it — and then finding the levers that take the value up even further.Ask Rami Darwish, CEO of Arrow Labs. "Ton kept asking 'who cares? why is that important?' It pissed me off several times. But that's exactly what I needed." Conversion went from 30% to 60% in cycles 3-4x faster.Ask Mark de Jong, CEO Timewax. "I had this gut feeling for years but could never put words to it." Result: biggest revenue ever, leanest team ever.I don't hand you a framework and disappear. I stay until your revenue proves it works. And I tie my fees to your results.I work with sales-led SaaS scaleups past €5M ARR where the product is better than the win rate suggests.If that sounds like you → valueinspiration.com/growthcatalystCreator of The Remarkable Effect. Host of the Remarkable SaaS Podcast. Living in sunny Spain with my wife Joly, our two sons and three dogs.

Ton Dobbe 🔆

Your board wants 3x in 3 years. So you reverse-engineer from the exit.

What multiple do we need? What EBITDA gets us there? What story do investors want to hear?

Every decision starts filtering through that lens. Short-term revenue gets prioritized. Costs get cut. Customers become line items.

And it works. For a while.

Then GRR starts slipping. Your best people disengage. Customers stop expanding. And the business you're building toward the exit starts losing the thing that made it valuable in the first place.

Jon Jorgensen, co-CEO of The Access Group, did the opposite. 

He and his co-founder bought the business for £50 million in 2011. They've done six private equity transactions since.

They never goal-seeked to a transaction. Not once.

Instead, they built what Jon calls a "Forever Business." Employee engagement first. Sustainable recurring revenue. Gross revenue retention as the north star. Not because it sounds noble — because it compounds.

The result? The business was valued at £9.2 billion. That's 184x.

The irony is hard to miss. By not chasing the transaction, every transaction got bigger.

Average software companies build toward the exit. 
Remarkable software companies build a business nobody wants to exit from.


I've added the link to my interview with Jon in the 1st comment.

Ton Dobbe

I find what you can’t see about your SaaS scaleup — then make it worth millions | Creator of The Remarkable Effect

A big payroll contract we signed at Unit4 years ago quietly broke our roadmap for three years.
€1M. 50,000+ users. Everyone was celebrating.

I was responsible for product strategy. I watched 60-70% of our best developers disappear into that one contract. For three years.

Nobody made a bad decision though.

The customer needed custom work. We needed the revenue. It made complete sense on the day it was signed.

The wrong fit only showed up two years later — when our best people were locked in, the roadmap was frozen, and competitors were moving in ways we simply couldn't respond to.

The hardest sales decision isn't whether to chase a deal. 
It's whether to say no to a big one that doesn't quite fit.

Average software companies say yes to every big deal. 
Remarkable software companies protect what creates fans at scale.

Your product has traction. Users are growing. Revenue is climbing. The board is happy. 

But something feels off.

You can't explain it. 
The numbers say you're winning. 
Your gut says you're building toward a wall.

Most CEOs ignore that feeling. 
The numbers are good. Why question good?

Andrei Pitis, CEO of Genezio didn't ignore it.

His serverless developer platform at Genezio had real users, real momentum, real revenue. 
But when he looked at where development tools were heading — 
with platforms like Lovable emerging — he saw a future where his product didn't compound.

So he killed it.

Not because it was failing. 
Because it was succeeding at the wrong thing.

Within months of pivoting to conversational AI optimization, Genezio grew 10x.

The hardest decision in SaaS isn't what to do when something fails. 
It's what to do when something works — but works in the wrong direction.

Average software companies ride traction until it stalls. 
Remarkable software companies question traction before it stalls.

I have added the link to my interview with Andrei in the 1st comment.

A 30-40% discount request — after five meetings, a good demo, the main competitor eliminated, and the champion on your side.

How does that happen?

I looked at a  proposal where this happened last week. 
Twelve pain points listed - real problems, and good detail.

Not one had a number next to it.

One bullet (tucked between eleven other points) said: "1-2% of transactions affected by fraud". 
Sounds manageable, right? 

Until you do the math. 
The customer spends €24M annually on payments. 1-2% means €240-480K gone.

And that was just one bullet out of twelve. 

Nobody calculated the other eleven either.
Do the math on all twelve and you're not looking at a list of minor annoyances. You're looking at a 10-15% EBITDA risk. That's a boardroom conversation. Not a discount negotiation.

Here's the thing:

Your sales team already hears what they need. They just don't make it feel real.
The customer won't do this math for you. They've normalized these numbers. 

Your team's job is to make the familiar feel urgent.

Average software companies list problems. 
Remarkable software companies put those problems in a daylight their customers can't ignore.

Your business case showed the problem costs €750K. Your competitor's showed €680K. The customer compared price.

Your sales leader says: "We need to go deeper on discovery next time."

But discovery wasn't the problem. 

Both vendors did the same math. 
Both proved the problem was worth fixing. 
Both proposed a similar investment.

So the only thing left to compare was price.

The real issue? 

Not the value.
Differentiated value.

Average software companies quantify the problem. 
Remarkable software companies quantify their difference.

In nearly 400 interviews with SaaS CEOs, I can count on one hand the ones who tore down what was working — and rebuilt it stronger.

Bassem Hamdy, CEO of Briq has done it four times in seven years. 
Not pivoted. Not iterated. Torn it down and rebuilt it — and came out stronger every time.— and came out stronger every time.

It takes guts. 

One example: he spent 18 months building a forecasting product for construction. Then killed it. Not because it failed. Because the problem itself was unsolvable — nobody actually knows what a construction project will cost. Rain, hazmat spills, client changes. He was automating fiction.

Most CEOs would have kept optimizing. Added more data. Hired more people. 
Bassem pulled the plug and rebuilt around what was actually real.

Average software companies protect what got them here. 
Remarkable software companies tear it down before it holds them back.

I've added the link to my interview with Bassem in the 1st comment.

Your competitor just shipped your biggest feature. Took them one sprint.
Next board meeting, one question: "What's stopping them from doing it again?"

Silence.

So you call a product strategy session. 90 minutes later. 80 ideas on the board. 
Dashboards, integrations, workflow improvements. 
Yet nothing that can't be copied in 1 or 2 sprints.

Here's the test that changes the conversation: 
Would copying this force your competitor to restructure how they make money?

Paddle guarantees full tax and compliance liability. 
Not "we help you manage it." They own it. 

A competitor can match the features. 
To match that guarantee, they'd have to restructure how they operate.

Features get copied. Approach gets defended.

Average software companies fill roadmaps with things competitors ship next sprint. 
Remarkable software companies build things competitors can't copy — or won't dare to.

I've sat with a lot of $10M founders. Most of them are quietly losing their edge — and don't know it yet.

The pattern is always the same. 

They hit $10M and treat it as proof the playbook works. So they do more of it. New product lines. Broader platform. More surface area. Each decision feels like progress — until the thing that built the company starts losing its edge.

Hewitt Tomlin, CEO of TeamBuildr, saw it happening in his own company. And did something most founders won't.

He stopped building new products and started rebuilding the one that got him there. 

TeamBuildr is a bootstrapped strength and conditioning platform — zero outside capital, fewer than 50 people, $10M ARR. And Hewitt's reasoning was simple: "If it's gotten us this far in 10 years, the rebuilt version will carry us for the next 10."

Most founders protect the cash cow. Hewitt opened it up.

Average software companies expand until something breaks. 
Remarkable software companies deepen until no one can follow.

🎙️ Episode 396 is now live. Link in the first comment.

Your monthly active users are up. The team is celebrating.
Nobody asks whether the people behind that number are actually better off.
That's fine. Until it isn't.

Dean Mathews has been asking that question since 2004. He built OnTheClock as a side project and kept asking it for 10 years before going all in.

Today 170,000 people rely on his product every month. 
With zero investors and word of mouth as the primary growth engine.

That's what happens when a CEO genuinely measures success by the impact they help customers create.

Average software companies measure the value they capture. 
Remarkable software companies measure the value their customers create.

If you do that — value will come your way in volumes you cannot forecast for."

🎙The full interview with Dean is in the first comment.

Three SaaS CEOs called me this quarter. All between €5M and €15M ARR, all with the same problem: MRR flattening.

Their first instinct? More pipeline. More reps. More marketing spend.

Not one of them talked about churn.

Here's what I typically find when I dig in: it starts with the ICP. 
On paper it looks clear. Well-defined. Confident nod when you ask about it.

Then I ask: "Describe the last five customers who churned." Same segment. Same size. Same profile.

The ICP isn't wrong on paper. It's wrong in practice. And here's what that costs you: every wrong customer pulls your product in their direction. Custom requests. Integrations nobody else needs. Roadmap detours that make sense for them but not for the customers who would actually stay.

Do that long enough and your product quietly stagnates — not because you stopped building, but because you've been building for the wrong people.

The right customers notice. They don't complain. They just leave.

So GTM costs go up. Revenue stays flat. And nobody connects the dots — because it's easier to blame the pipeline than to question who you're building for.

Average software companies fix flat MRR by selling more. 
Remarkable software companies fix flat MRR by selling right.

“I couldn’t get my CFO to free up budget for this.”

That’s what a champion told his sales rep. A Danish procurement software company. 

Five meetings in. Great demo. Main competitor out of the picture. Everything going their way.

Two weeks of silence. Then that.

The business case was right.
But he was fighting the wrong battle.

He thought he was solving a purchase order efficiency problem.
But was actually enabling his company’s cost reduction strategy.

That’s the bigger box.

When your champion sees it, something shifts.

They stop carrying your proposal into that room.
They walk in fighting for something they believe in.

Average software companies give their champion a product to sell.

Remarkable software companies give their champion an idea to fight for.


What idea are your champions walking into that room with right now?

I regularly ask SaaS CEOs to share their vision with me. Most do it confidently. They've worked hard on it. My honest reaction, most of the time? So what?

Not to be harsh. 
But that's exactly what their customers think too.

The problem is almost always the same. 
The vision describes where the company wants to go. 
Not what changes for the customer.

The test is simple. 

Share your vision with a prospect. 
Do they lean in — or shrug?

A vision that works makes customers say "finally." 
A vision that doesn't makes them say "so what."

Average software companies write a vision for the boardroom. 
Remarkable software companies write one for the customer.

The Undertow team interviewed me on what makes international expansion actually work for B2B SaaS — and where most companies get it wrong. They turned it into a blog post and podcast episode. Link in their post.

🌐 𝗚𝗹𝗼𝗯𝗮𝗹 𝗲𝘅𝗽𝗮𝗻𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻: 𝗮 𝗴𝗿𝗼𝘄𝘁𝗵 𝗼𝗽𝗽𝗼𝗿𝘁𝘂𝗻𝗶𝘁𝘆 𝗼𝗿 𝗮 𝘁𝗿𝗮𝗽? 🤔⁣
For B2B SaaS founders, entering new markets can unlock exponential growth—or lead to wasted time and resources. In our latest blog, Ton Dobbe 🔆, seasoned software leader who spearheaded international growth at Unit4, shares hard-earned lessons on how to get it right.⁣
Some takeaways from Ton’s experience:⁣
 ⚡ A strategy that works in one country won’t necessarily succeed in the next.⁣
 📊 Local regulations, integrations, and customer expectations matter just as much as product features.⁣
 🔍 Differentiation is crucial: don’t aim to be just “better,” aim to be different.⁣
 🚀 Use the “Remarkable Effect” framework to turn customers into fans and build momentum in new markets.⁣
Curious about how to build the right foundation for sustainable international growth?⁣
Link to the blog post: https://lnkd.in/dis47pSF
Link to our interview with Ton on The Multilingual Content Podcast: https://lnkd.in/dKrKFENp
Link to Ton's website: https://lnkd.in/d9aescd ⁣
Link to Ton's The Remarkable SaaS Podcast: https://lnkd.in/drPTRi3n
⁣
#B2BSaaS #InternationalExpansion #SaaSLeadership #Undertow #LanguageStrategy

Your product sells itself. Then you expand your platform. And the doors stop opening.

I spoke with a SaaS CEO last week where exactly this happened.

One person used to say yes and it was done. 
Now he's been talking to prospects for six months. Still no deal.

Same founder. Same company. Completely different game.

Here's what I think happened.

His first product was born from pain he saw as a consultant. Every client had the same problem. He built a tool to fix it. Pain first, product second. Five minutes to go live.

The second product was born from capability. "We have the platform, we have the APIs — we can do integrations too." 

Made perfect sense from the inside.
But outside? He landed in a market full of established players, fighting for budget that nobody had reserved for him. 

His prospects liked what they saw. 
They just didn't need it badly enough to act.

Before you build your next module — ask yourself: did anyone actually lose sleep over this? Or do you build it because you can?

Average software companies expand from capability. 
Remarkable software companies expand from critical pains.

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Wouter Neyndorff

Ton Dobbe 🔆

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