Axcient: Don't Get Caught With Your Saas Down

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Don’t Get Caught With Your SaaS DownMark Swendsen

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• Mark Swendsen, VP of Sales at Axcient

Introduction

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“Why some companies thrive in

uncertainty, even chaos, and

others do not?”

Jim Collins

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“Why some companies are

caught with their pants down

while others laugh?”

Mark Swendsen

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Jim Collins book “Great By Choice” provides a great

framework for our conversation today.

Yes, most of the ideas here were taken from his book.

We will talk about some of the key concepts in the

book and draw parallels to your business and our

industry.

Get a copy of the book by the end of this presentation.

Copyright Notice

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It is not about…

Being able to predict the future Taking risks Making bold moves Being more creative Innovating more Making fast decisions Acting fast Being lucky

Becoming Successful And Keeping Ahead

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The Framework To Become Great

FANATICAL DISCIPLINE

PRODUCTIVE PARANOIA

EMPIRICAL CREATIVITY

LEVEL 5 AMBITION

20 Mile March

Fire Bullets, Then Cannonballs

Leading Above The Death Line

Incredibly ambitious, but for the cause of the company not themselves

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• Three Stories− The Race to the South Pole− Southwest Airlines− Axcient

• Key Questions to Ask Yourself• Applying the Framework to Your Business• Open Discussion• Book Drawing

Agenda

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The Race to the South Pole

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Preparation and Fanatical Discipline

Amundsen Scott

• Started from a place many considered unstable, but closer to his objective

• Built buffer for unforeseen events (placed 20 flags around the supply depots, market his path)

• Team of 5 people

• Carried 3 tons of supplies

• Used dogs

• Walked in 15 to 20 mile max increments

• Started from a known place previously mapped and documented

• Ran extremely lean counting on accuracy of his plan (only 1 flag per depot, not marking his path)

• Team of 17 people

• Carried one ton of supplies

• Used ponies and motor sledges

• Tried to make as much progress as possible

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Reaching The Pole

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Elements Required for a “20 Mile March”

• Performance markers• Self-imposed constraints• Tailored to the enterprise and its environment• Lies within your control to achieve• Goldilocks time frame• Designed & self0imnposed by the enterprise, not outside• Must be achieve with great consistency

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Southwest Airlines

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The Industry

• Number of flights cut by 20%

• Employees laid off, or furlough

• Delivery of new aircraft cancelled or deferred

Southwest Airlines

• No flights were cut

• No employees laid off, temporary freeze in hiring

• Negotiated revised delivery schedule of 132 new aircraft

September 11 Attacks And The Airline Industry

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Fleet Configuration

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• Didn’t innovate, they copied PSA • Faced major obstacles since its inception • Instead of rapidly expanding, decided to take a careful

approach to opening new routes• Standardized on one type of airplane• Created a model that worked and stuck with it, ensuring it

would work at every route and that it would be profitable

Southwest Airlines

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Axcient

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Axcient Company Overview

One of the Fastest Growing Companies in Silicon Valley

Headquartered in Mountain View, CA

$85M+ in Funding

Channel Only

Over 4,000 Customers

Founded in 2007

2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014

3,120%+ Revenue Growth

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Backup Replication Dedupe

Vs.

Business Continuity

Archiving

vs.

Disaster Recovery

The World’s First Business Recovery Cloud

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Our initial focus was on smaller accounts, but we started getting to larger and larger deals.

As we won larger deals, the data requirements changed. 1TB used to be big for us 3 years ago, now 10TB is normal.

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In 2012, we measured support success by case backlog volume. Despite hitting our targets, our support rating was only 7 out of 10.

In 2013 we changed our measurement to time to answer phone, case update frequency, and time to resolution. Now have a partner rating of 9 out of 10.

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Early in our history we had an option to OEM different technologies to get our product to market faster.

We decided to take the longer, more difficult road and build everything ourselves.

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Our major fail on the channel came early… but we finally learned how to make it work!

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• What is your ultimate goal? Where do you see your company 5, 10 years from now?

• What will your performance markers be?

− Profitability, utilization rate, number of clients, etc?

• Which constraints make sense for your business?

− Total capacity per client, number of vendors supported, cities served, etc?

Key Questions To Ask Yourself

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• Are you willing to embrace the behaviors that will lead your company to become great?

• Where should you place big bets, based on early experimentation?

• Are you constantly monitoring the market and thinking about ways in which your company can be disrupted?

Key Questions To Ask Yourself

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1. Value-based pricing

2. Charging more to support larger clients

3. Bundling services

4. Clear path for existing customers to adopt additional offerings

5. Leveraging automation to maximize efficiencies

6. Focus on managed services sales/marketing, less on resale

Characteristics Of Fast Growing MSPs

Source: Kaseya 2014 MSP Pricing Survey

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The Framework

FANATICAL DISCIPLINE

PRODUCTIVE PARANOIA

EMPIRICAL CREATIVITY

LEVEL 5 AMBITION

20 Mile March

Fire Bullets, Then Cannonballs

Leading Above The Death Line

Incredibly ambitious, but for the cause of the company not themselves

Axcient: Don't Get Caught With Your Saas Down

Technology

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