S2E20 – Why you should hire globally as a SaaS company? With Amir Reiter

Why should you hire globally as a SaaS company? In this episode on the Grow Your B2B SaaS podcast, we delve into the crucial topic of the importance of global hiring for SaaS companies. Our guest, Amir Reiter, CEO and founder of CloudTask, a prominent B2B sales solution marketplace, brings his expertise, drawing from experiences at companies like Drift, HubSpot, and NetSuite. 

Amir shares insights on the evolving dynamics of work, emphasizing the significance of seeking talent on a global scale, especially post-COVID. Whether expanding your SaaS business or contemplating international hires, this episode is a must-listen. We explore the keys to successful global hiring, distinguish between outsourcing and global hiring, and highlight the transformative impact on both businesses and the lives of those working globally. Tune in for invaluable perspectives!

Why Listen to Amir Reiter?

Amir has an impressive journey of turning a quarter-million-dollar investment into a net seven-figure run rate within four years. He emphasizes that while he might not be the expert on going from a million to a hundred million, he has valuable insights for those navigating the net seven-figure lane. Amir’s experience spans various roles and companies, providing a unique perspective on the challenges and successes of growing a business.

The Global Hiring Landscape

Amir challenges the notion that companies are now considering global hiring due to remote work trends, asserting that many have been hiring globally for years. He highlights the importance of retaining exceptional international talent by allowing them to work remotely in their home countries, leading to significant cost savings.

When to Start Hiring Globally

The main question is when companies should start thinking about hiring globally. Amir suggests that, especially for American companies, this is already happening because of the country’s diversity and diversity requirements. He recommends shifting the question

from “why should we hire globally?” to acknowledging that companies are already doing so. The emphasis should be on adapting to the changing work landscape.

Outsourcing vs. Global Hiring

Amir draws a clear difference between outsourcing and global hiring. He emphasizes that hiring someone globally does not equate to outsourcing; it’s about hiring a remote global individual directly, not through an agency. Amir provides insights into the benefits of hiring globally, including cost savings, gratefulness, and hunger among global talent.

Common Mistakes in Global Hiring

One significant mistake companies make is not having a proper onboarding and training program for remote employees. Amir emphasizes the importance of experience with remote work, having efficient processes in place, and avoiding the trap of hiring based solely on lower costs without a solid hiring process.

Strategies for Scaling a Global Team

Amir shares strategies for scaling a global team, including investing in office space for remote teammates, being hands-on, and treating global teams no differently than local ones. He emphasizes the need for consistency in processes and support, regardless of geographical location.

Benefits of Hiring Globally

Beyond cost savings, Amir identifies gratefulness and hunger as notable benefits of hiring globally. He notes that employees from certain regions may be more appreciative of opportunities, contributing to a positive and energetic work environment.

Challenges in Global Hiring

Cultural nuances, differences in holidays, and potential side hustles are identified as challenges in global hiring. Amir stresses the importance of addressing these issues upfront, ensuring clarity in expectations and rules.

Advice for Those Starting to Hire Globally

For those new to global hiring, Amir advises starting with positions that already have well-established processes. Hiring for roles like executive assistants or administrative positions, where processes are clear, can provide a smoother entry into global hiring.

Scaling from 10K to 10M ARR

As companies scale, Amir cautions against the tendency to over-hire. He recommends taking time to evaluate and optimize processes, emphasizing the importance of maintaining standards and avoiding the pitfalls of excessive hiring.

General Advice for SaaS Founders

Amir’s general advice for SaaS founders revolves around building a community, asking questions, and understanding the future as a network state. He encourages founders to leverage online communities, participate in discussions, and learn from peers, emphasizing the value of shared experiences.

What Amir Wishes He Knew 10 Years Ago

Amir shares personal advice, urging individuals not to be distracted by societal expectations or comparisons. He emphasizes the significance of realizing that success often comes later in life and advises against succumbing to jealousy. Amir encourages focusing on what one loves and avoiding the misconception that success must be achieved by a specific age.

Changes in Hiring Post-COVID

Amir observes a significant increase in global hiring during and after the COVID-19 pandemic. He believes that remote work is here to stay and anticipates a continued shift away from traditional office-based work.

Amir Reiter concludes the conversation by highlighting the importance of community building and networking for SaaS founders. He encourages founders to participate in online communities and leverage the collective knowledge and experiences of their peers.

In summary, this insightful conversation with Amir Reiter provides valuable perspectives on the intricacies of global hiring, challenges faced by SaaS companies, and practical advice for founders at various stages of growth. As the landscape of work continues to evolve, embracing global hiring practices and fostering a supportive community emerge as essential elements for success in the world of B2B SaaS.

Key Timecodes 

• (0:29) Show and guest intro
• (1:11) Why you should listen to Amir Reiter
• (1:43) When should global hiring be considered?
• (3:15) Why should companies care about outsourcing? 
• (5:32) Benefits of hiring globally 
• (6:46)  Common mistakes companies make while hiring globally?
• (8:19)  Proven Strategies or processes for effectively scaling a global team
• (9:20) How to treat your remote team
• (10:23) What is the correlation between hiring contractors and profitability?
• (11:28) How to make your first global hire. What to look out for in contractors
• (13:17) The challenges companies run into while hiring globally?
• (17:30) The big changes happening  now in hiring? The post COVID hiring
• (19:48) How to grow towards 10K MRR
• (20:52) How to grow towards 10 million ARR
• (21:22) Amir’s crucial advice to SaaS founders
• (23:14) What Amir wishes he knew 10 years ago

Transcription

[00:00:00.000] – Intro

Welcome to Growing a B2B SaaS. On this show, you’ll get actionable and usable advice. You’ll hear about all aspects of growing a business to a business software company, customer success, sales, funding, bootstrapping, exits, scaling, everything you need to know about growing a startup, and you’ll get it from someone who’s going through the same journey. Now your host, Joran Hofman.

[00:00:28.680] – Joran

Welcome back to the Grow Your B2B SaaS Podcast, where you get advice on growing your B2B SaaS no matter in which stage you’re in. To grow your SaaS, you will need to hire people. After COVID, hiring globally and remote has become a lot more normal. Why should you care about hiring globally as a SaaS company? That is what we’re going to talk about today. My guest is Amir Ryder. He’s the CEO and founder of CloudTask, a B2B sales solution marketplace where you can find B2B lead generation companies, remote workers, and B2B sales products, including Reditus. Before CloudTask, he worked at Drift, HubSpot, NetSuite, and a couple of other companies. Without further ado, welcome to the show, Amir.

[00:01:06.670] – Amir

Thank you for having me here.

[00:01:08.290] – Joran

Cool. We’re going to dive in with the Dutch plant question. Why should people listen to you today?

[00:01:13.210] – Amir

Because I took a quarter million dollars out on the investors and turned it into a net seven-figure run rate within four years. I don’t think I’m the person to talk to about going from a million to 100 million, but a lot of people that have not broken the net seven-figure lane, I could probably speak to it as I’ve been there, done that. That would be my reason as why to listen to me if I was in their shoes.

[00:01:35.620] – Joran

Nice. It’s definitely a good reason. We’re going to talk about why should you hire globally as a SaaS company? Maybe the first question to begin with, when should you actually start thinking about hiring globally.

[00:01:46.320] – Amir

You’ve always been hiring globally, especially here in America. America is a huge, diverse country. Not only is it a diverse country, but you probably have had diversity quotas in the last five years. You’ve already been hiring globally. The only thing you’ve been doing is that global talent that’s been awesome in your office, their cost of living is 10X because now they move to San Francisco. How do you keep that amazing global talent that you’re already working with and reduce your cost by 5Xs by actually letting them work remotely in their country? I don’t think the statement is why should people hire globally. I think it’s more of a statement of you’ve already been hiring globally. You’re not going back to the office. Time to save some money.

[00:02:25.780] – Joran

Yeah, and that’s definitely the case for US companies here in Europe. Often begin in their own region and then hire globally.

[00:02:33.170] – Amir

As in- Yeah, I’m talking to the US now. I’m talking to the US and the UK. I’m talking to the countries that became global that are on the decline now. I’m like, They are.

[00:02:41.350] – Joran

Yeah, I think you already touched upon it a little bit in US. If you’re going to hire in different states, it’s almost already considered hiring globally because you have so many different rules in different states you have to comply to.

[00:02:52.320] – Amir

I like San Francisco is now basically Gotham without Batman. If anybody’s working in San Francisco remotely, they’re living in Marin County or living in Palo Alto where it’s safe. They’re not coming to the office anyways. It’s too dangerous for them. We might as well let them live somewhere else where they don’t need to rent a one-bedroom for $4,000 a month. That doesn’t really help your business. They could go rent a one-bedroom for 300 bucks a month in Medellin, Colombia, and live happily ever after.

[00:03:15.850] – Joran

When hiring globally, often you think about outsourcing as well. Why should companies care about outsourcing?

[00:03:22.050] – Amir

I think people don’t understand the difference between outsourcing and global hiring, and that’s the definition of the day. I think that what people don’t understand is that the word outsourcing refers to an agency. If you have a lawyer, but you access your lawyer through a law firm, you’re outsourcing your legal work to a law firm unless you hire a lawyer internally. Same thing if you have an accounting firm that’s outsourcing. If you have a call center, it’s outsourcing. You’re not actually outsourcing by hiring somebody globally, you’re just hiring a remote global person. To outsource, you’d have to be hiring an agency, which you can. The big difference is that if you were hiring S. D. Rs, which are called Sales Development reps, just because they live in Colombia or live in Latin America does not mean they’re outsourced. They’re actually going to have your email address. They’re going to be paid for their time. Sounds like an employee to me. The only difference is that they’re paying their own taxes. You can make them an employee. You can hire people globally, not through our marketplace, because our marketplace, there’d be independent contractors, freelancers, and liability.

[00:04:23.930] – Amir

But if you wanted to hire anybody as an employee and give them employee benefits in the country, there’s Let’sDeal, Remote. Com, Globalization Partners are all doing that. People need to understand too that global hiring and outsourcing are not the same thing. If you hire someone directly as your contractor, freelancer, or employee, those are just ways of calling them. That’s not outsourcing, that’s just remote hiring. If you hire somebody who is managed by a company, that would be outsourcing. But people always confuse it. As soon as you talk about somebody globally, they do default to the term outsourcing. The only thing that that might have in common is the saving of money. Maybe that’s the parallel. But yeah, outsourcing in my terms would be that they work for an agency that you access to.

[00:05:03.750] – Joran

Yeah, and I think that’s definitely a good point as in you’re just hiring employees, but then you’re hiring them as contractors. As you mentioned, they have lower expense of living because they can, for example, live in Medellin.

[00:05:14.670] – Amir

It’s all very logical. I think it’s logical when people start thinking about it logically, but it’s a hard pill to swallow. It’s hard to admit that it’s very hard for people in cities like New York and Miami to admit that the cost of living is very high because it’s a pride thing. It’s hard to admit the truth, I think, for a lot of people.

[00:05:32.320] – Joran

A lower expense of living is one benefit of hiring contractors that they’re paid their own taxes is another one. Do you see any other benefits of hiring?

[00:05:40.380] – Amir

Yeah, whoa, big one. Yeah, gratefulness. I would say gratefulness and hunger has been reported to us by a lot of companies I’ve been hiring through our marketplace. They’re like, Man, these guys are hungry and grateful. I’m like, Yes, it’s because it’s not America where everybody’s a victim. I hate saying this, but I’m going to say it, people are not happy in America or the UK and you give them 85k and they’re broke because it costs 90k to live and they’re not that grateful. It’s a declining society. You hear it all the time and it freaking is. You go to Colombia and these guys have been working in call centers, they were treated well. Now you give them a job making 45, 50K, they’re making three times they’re normally me and they’re happy and energetic. It’s flipping the switch. If you’re making a quarter million dollars in New York City and you’re living paycheck to paycheck, how happy are you going to be? That’s the reality for people. They don’t talk about it, but that’s really that’s what’s going on. You’re just literally giving people an opportunity that’s better than they can get versus giving people an opportunity in the states where it’s maxing out as much as you can pay and they’re still not happy.

[00:06:41.350] – Joran

Yeah, and you’re helping somebody else in a country where they can actually develop and grow themselves. When we talk about hiring globally, what are the most common mistake companies make while hiring globally?

[00:06:52.950] – Amir

Thinking that they can hire globally just because the cost is lower without realizing that you have to have a process and offer that works. It depends what you’re hiring for. Obviously, if you’re hiring for sales, your offer, your process matters more than the lower cost. I think people are sometimes looking at the fact that a salary could be $1,000 to $2,000 a month, and they’re going to go for that versus building out a process because it’s like factory, unless you have efficiency is baked into the process. Once efficiency is there, then you could ask questions about, What do I do? Do I lower my electricity? How does that say? But people don’t reach that efficiency and they hire anyways. I think the biggest mistake is just not having a onboarding program, a training program, not having experience with working remote employees. Companies that do it, they’ve been hiring remote workers. They know exactly what that workers are going to do on day one, day two, day three, week three, week four, week five, week six. Now they’re just plugging in a lower cost resource, but they have the process. I think companies that make mistakes hire just based off price without a process.

[00:07:51.010] – Amir

Companies that do it have a process that works and have a beta test.

[00:07:54.560] – Joran

Yeah. I can say this from experience. I grew a CS team globally to 30 people. Whenever we had somebody new coming on board, we had a two-month plan. What is this person going to do within the first two months? There were training materials where they can take their own time and go through. Have something ready so whenever they can’t walk to a colleague, they can check the materials themselves and learn on for themselves as well.

[00:08:18.140] – Amir

Yeah, 100%.

[00:08:19.170] – Joran

This is already a strategy. Make sure you have an onboarding process ready. Any other strategies or maybe processes you used or seen to really skill a global team?

[00:08:29.350] – Amir

That’s a good question. Some people who will succeed actually invest in office and co-working space with their teammates. I think sometimes also realizing that, hey, if you have a team in Colombia, you could also rent an office. You could have them there. You could visit from the onboarding. You could travel there once a quarter. So just being more hands-on. We had a company called Vontage, which was a voice-over IP company that was bought by Sony Ericsson maybe for a few billion dollars. They would put them in the office here, a team of five people. They would come down every quarter, they would work with them. My biggest advice would be to treat a global team the same way you would in a team that is in your office. Don’t look at them as any different because they really aren’t. They’re just people who represent your company and are remote. Just because their cost is lower, don’t give them less support.

[00:09:17.690] – Amir

If that makes sense.

[00:09:18.760] – Joran

I think that’s a big challenge. Any extra advice you can give here because somebody is remote, like they can’t just walk to somebody’s desk or they can’t walk into somebody’s office in the end, they won’t-.

[00:09:28.610] – Amir

Yeah, give them the same systems, same training, same systems, same everything. People sometimes hire people globally and they’re like, What do you do about security? I asked them back, I’m like, What is your security policy in your office? They’re like, Here it is. I’m like, That’s your security policy globally. Why would it be any different? I think it comes down to just like that, giving them all the tools, enabling them all the way. The same, set them up for success, not failure. If that makes sense. I know they will not steal your data if they live in Colombia. It’s the same probability they live in America. It doesn’t change anything.

[00:10:01.400] – Joran

Yeah, in the end you will still have the exact same challenges.

[00:10:04.220] – Amir

With lower cost and more money in your bank account. It’s better to have the same challenges and more money in your account. That’s my whole thing. This war you’re fighting as a business owner is going to be easier with more money in your accounts.

[00:10:16.690] – Joran

Yeah, because there was one question I wanted to ask. All SaaS companies now focus on profitability, or almost all of us, hiring contractors and profitability. How do they go together?

[00:10:27.620] – Amir

I can read all the companies that are hiring in Colombia now. It’s Salesforce, Google, Amazon, the list goes on deal. They’re all hiring in Colombia. And these companies, their net profits are 1.9 billion for Salesforce. So a company with a 1.9 billion dollars is hiring Colombia for lower capital. But you’re not. You should look at yourself in the mirror and realize that you’re the fool because the billion-dollar companies are the ones making billions of dollars. You’re the one who wants to make a billion dollars. They’re doing it. You’re not. It’s clear as day. You go on LinkedIn, you go job openings in Colombia, you could see all the companies hiring. They’re bigger than you. They make more money than you. Try to be like them. Well, the problem is to say that it’s not that people just haven’t been paying attention. They haven’t been paying attention. This has been happening for a long time. Nobody just asked questions. I was yesterday doing a sales software review with Apollo. Io. Guess where the rep was based? It was in Bogota, but he spoke fluent English, like American to me, and I couldn’t tell. I think people just need to actually open their eyes and ask questions.

[00:11:27.200] – Amir

Does that make sense?

[00:11:28.290] – Joran

Maybe come back to the question I wanted to ask. I think it’s going to be scary maybe for companies who haven’t done it before. Maybe walk through the process because our companies are scared to do the first hire or get over that step. What would you give for advice as in hiring the first contractor globally so not somebody.

[00:11:45.970] – Amir

Within the office. That’s a good question. I would say hire for a position that has been working very well that you have the most process in place, like customer support or sales or something that’s already been working and don’t run any experiment. Don’t hire globally being like, Let me hire globally an SDR, but I never had an SDR before, and I’m going to hire that SDR globally. That’s a recipe for failure because that’s a high chance of failure locally in your office. I would say hire your executive assistant, your administrative assistant, the person who does your email. Hire for the easiest work first and then work your way up.

[00:12:18.790] – Joran

Yeah, and as you mentioned, you have to have a good foundation, good processes, so give them the same treatment.

[00:12:23.190] – Amir

Don’t.

[00:12:23.340] – Joran

Experiment.

[00:12:24.730] – Amir

I’ve been doing this role for three years. I’ve had three people doing it. They get paid 70K a year. They’ve been great. I have everything locked down. Let me hire globally for this position at 35K and see what happens. That’s a safer bet.

[00:12:37.430] – Commercial Break

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[00:13:17.100] – Joran

We talked about best practices and why you should hire, but I think a lot of companies will also face challenges hiring globally. Can you name a few of some challenges you run into or companies running into while hiring globally?

[00:13:29.820] – Amir

I think one of the big challenges is to be like nuances in the culture. This is similar to America. In America, they say that the average American doesn’t have a thousand dollars for an emergency, which is a true statement. But what they do have is access to credit cards and things like that. Just understanding that it’s similar in Latin America, but they don’t have access to credit, so they need to be paid on time. Two to three days, delays in payment can matter to them. It’s a nuance on culture where it’s like in America, they’re used to getting paid two weeks later. They have a little bit more of a buffer. They have less of a buffer here. I’ll just be honest, they do. And B, I would say a little bit more aware of the fact that there are some pitfalls in holidays. There’s a lot of holidays in Latin America in different places, and just really talking to the people before about, Hey, this is our working schedule. Are you cool not having your Colombian holidays and following American holidays? Which most will be, but just asking that in advance, I think, is a big deal.

[00:14:22.300] – Amir

Then another pitfall, I would say, would be, and I’m just being honest here, people ignore this, 41 % of Americans have side hustles. I think just asking questions being like, Are you doing another job? You have a weekend? It’s setting your rules straight because people are closing an eye to the stats in America, and then they’ll hire globally and see the guy doing another hustle and get angry. This is already happening everywhere. If it’s not your rules, make sure that you ask them beforehand. Back to having one onboarding process, one hiring process, one hiring standards. Don’t lower your standards, but that would be it. Just nuances and culture.

[00:14:56.920] – Joran

I think once you have that global team, you’re definitely going to have even more cultural differences. Like once you have people within different regions within your team, any best practices that you’re not going to have any arguments.

[00:15:08.900] – Amir

Or- I’ll give you a good one. Americans don’t take vacations. They answer everything on the weekends. In Latin America, less answering phones on weekends. But that’s common in Europe too. I think Europeans go on vacation in the summer and actually take a vacation. So that’s similar.

[00:15:23.140] – Joran

Yeah, I can’t remember the amount of times I had to tell an American person to take a proper holiday. And a proper holiday for us is at least two weeks.

[00:15:31.420] – Amir

I lose my mind on a two-week vacation. I have a nervous breakdown.

[00:15:35.850] – Joran

You should definitely do it one day. I don’t do them now anymore myself, but working for a boss.

[00:15:40.790] – Amir

I definitely- I promise you that when I have $20 million liquid in my account, I’ll take a vacation. Life is hard. Until then, I don’t need a vacation. That’s just me personally. Other people will take your advice and take vacations, I’m going to be working.

[00:15:51.690] – Joran

For myself even, I don’t take those two weeks anymore, but sometimes plugging off, that’s definitely going to help you to get to it after as well.

[00:15:58.120] – Amir

Do you love what you do? I do. Then why do you need a vacation from what you love?

[00:16:03.450] – Joran

In the end, I do plug off a bit, but not completely. But in the end, if you just are, for example, surfing and you can just do it for a week and then come back, you will have refreshed ideas. I have so many ideas regarding my company and I love what I’m doing. If you can turn it off for a bit and then come back refreshed and have.

[00:16:22.960] – Amir

Many more ideas. I would say that I don’t need a vacation from what I love. I’d say that I want to work more because my work is not work. My work is my passion. I think that if you need to take a vacation, then you should probably take a look at what you’re doing. That’s just me. I don’t want to insult anybody, but why do I need to take off from what I love? I feel like vacations were designed for people that are like, been this hamster wheel, just doing these things and following these button. I feel like if you really work your butt off, your whole life could be a vacation because you can just enjoy it.

[00:16:49.880] – Joran

I think so as well because I just did one with Melissa Kwan. She’s bootstrap and she enjoys life as well already. Now as a bootstrapper and she mentioned I can do what I want. But in the end, she does work, of course, a lot as well. But in the end, it is indeed you have to do what you love and then it doesn’t feel like vacation or taking a lot of.

[00:17:06.800] – Amir

Time off or… Do I have the ability now to help 10,000 Latin Americans or global people who are starting Latin America help get jobs that they never had access to before? That changed their lives. I get messages being like, Do I have a wife and kids? I could afford it because I have a good job. I think that taking time off from that, I would just be waiting to get back to doing that. But it has a lot to do with, I guess, I’m fortunate to be doing what I love, but it makes me feel a little bit anxious and anxiety.

[00:17:29.480] – Joran

When we go back to hiring globally or at least hiring, we had a big shift, of course, with COVID. Do you see any big changes happening now in hiring?

[00:17:37.890] – Amir

That’s a good question. Yeah, I do. I think there’s been a boom of global hiring. I mentioned those companies deal, globalization parties, they all became unicorns and people are hiring globally. I think that the huge enterprises are doing it because they’re profitable and they’re doing it. I think it’s now trickling down to the mid and small company. But I think that’s been a big shift. I think during COVID, I think global hiring has probably gone up. I don’t want to throw a stat out because I don’t know the exact number, but I think it’s probably gone up substantially. I think that I think remote work is here to stay and I don’t think we’re going back to the office. I’m in an office because I choose to come to the office. But no one’s forcing me to. This feels like my house. I feel like remote work is not coming back. Remote work is here to stay and I feel like we’re not coming back to the office.

[00:18:20.870] – Joran

Yeah, and you do read some things regarding US companies where they try to get people back to the office, but.

[00:18:26.550] – Amir

They’re victims. I had a video guy quit because I asked him to come to my office and he was literally broke with no savings. He quit because it was too much trauma for him to take a 10-minute Uber to come to the office. There’s a lot of weak people in the world. I think they’re going to get rolled over unless America becomes a socialist, which it might, and then they’ll win. But yeah, I think that certain people, listen, get a remote job, work a remote job, but at the same time, don’t act like a victim. You have to go 10 minutes to work. I think that’s what’s happening a lot of times. People are like, Oh, my God, I got to drive to work. I would say to those people go to work every day hard. If you want to get a remote job, just apply to a new job.

[00:19:02.890] – Joran

I’m an advocate of remote work. Reditas is remote. Our two developers are in Romania. Then we have the podcast editor who’s going to edit this podcast. He’s in Kenya. Then we have an affiliate recruiter. She’s in Canada. I’m in the Netherlands. The way we do it, for example, is even though we do everything remote, we do try to meet up every six months at least at a physical location and then have fun. I haven’t been able to get everybody in the same location yet because we’re bootstraps. I can’t fly from people from Canada and Kenya yet, but that will be the plan.

[00:19:33.560] – Amir

You have the metaverse soon. You just put on your headset. Probably like a year or two.

[00:19:38.440] – Joran

I do think having just a drink at the bar does do much more than having a headset on. I agree. We’re going to come to the final four questions. When we talk about hiring globally, what advice would you give somebody who’s just starting out and grow to 10K MR?

[00:19:52.560] – Amir

Just do the variable of 10K MR-OR, I would say don’t over hire. I would say to really optimize and automate your process before hiring people because you’re going to have a lot of opportunity to automate and optimize the process. It all depends who you’re hiring too. Obviously, hiring an executive assistant might be very different than SDR. But I would say just keeping your standards exactly the same, whether they’re in the States, they’re next door or globally, don’t lower your standards of hiring. I think that’s what some times people do, and I don’t think you should. But these are your standards. Somebody either needs to meet these standards or not. If they meet those standards and they’re in Colombia and their cost is 2,000, that’s a win. Great. But don’t lower your standards to make that happen.

[00:20:31.420] – Joran

Yeah, because in the end, especially in that phase, you need people who can indeed meet the standards.

[00:20:36.170] – Amir

Just never lower your standards. Have your rules. You break your rules of business. I break my rules of business all the time. I could sit here talking like I’m awesome and I don’t break rules. It’s easy to be like, Hey, Jaron, don’t break your rules of business. But it’s hard for us CEOs not to break rules.

[00:20:47.970] – Joran

Yeah, because you always think, Oh, this is going to be different or this time it’s going to work. Nice. When we go past that 10K MRR, what advice would you give a sales fund who’s growing to 10 million ARR?

[00:20:58.920] – Amir

If you grow to 10 million ARR, just don’t get into the habit of overhiring. I think you always hear that people are overhiring during those days. They get very manic and just excited and happy. We’re going to hit 100 million revenue on the over hire. I would say just do the opposite. Take a look back, value, analyze all your KPIs or positions and optimize because I think that success will give you a tendency to want to over hire and just be careful. That’s a pitfall.

[00:21:21.800] – Joran

Nice. When we zoom out again, is there any general advice? This could be about anything basically for SaaS founders, but is there any general advice you would always give to other SaaS founders who are now on their journey growing their SaaS?

[00:21:34.770] – Amir

Build community, ask questions, and realize that the future is a network stage. I think that if you’re going to be successful as a SaaS founder, you’re going to be in a bunch of Slack communities. You’re going to be in a bunch of Facebook-groups, and you’re going to be in a bunch of Facebook groups, and you’re going to be in a bunch of WhatsApp groups, and you should just talk to your peers and ask them the truth. I did LinkedIn ads, and I’m in a group called Demand, which is a community from Metadata. Io, which is a friend, a partner, a customer, and a seller with everything to us now. When I do LinkedIn ads, I’m literally copying and pasting what I’m doing into a Slack group of 2,100 marketers, experts. I think my biggest advice would be that to just leverage community. Don’t get into the buzzword of community-led growth. That’s just a buzzword. But just leverage community to ask questions.

[00:22:17.070] – Joran

Yeah, and in this case, it’s even leverage the community to learn from somebody else’s mistakes or successes and just replicate it for yourself.

[00:22:24.170] – Amir

I think that’s the biggest opportunity people have that they should ignore.

[00:22:27.350] – Joran

Yeah. In the end, there’s going to be a lot of Slack groups around almost anything you do or WhatsApp groups or.

[00:22:33.460] – Amir

Basically just the future. I’m like, Look, you’re far away from me, but I have more in common with you than I do somebody downstairs at a grocery store. It’s a network state. I wake up 7:00 in the morning, I’m at coffee, and I’m talking to you about business. I think just realizing that there’s a book called The Network State that just talks about the future of the network state and just realizing that your friend from high school might not be as aligned with you if you’re a software CEO. As a software CEO is completely aligned with you halfway around the world. With the internet, you can make friends with them, talk to them. Like I said before, I’m in WhatsApp chats throwing you people and I’m helping them. I’m helping you help them and help me. We never were able to do that 15, 20 years ago. Me and you would never have met.

[00:23:11.130] – Joran

Exactly, yeah. When we talk about a bit more personal advice, what is one thing you wish you knew 10 years ago?

[00:23:17.720] – Amir

Best business advice I’d give to people is understanding that the average millionaire is admitted at age 40 and stop getting distracted by flukes of nature, thinking that you’re a loser somehow, or if you didn’t make it by age 26 or 29, and also not to be distracted by people that buy a Shiva coin to make $20 million. Just leave the jealousy on the table. I never felt jealousy, and I have experienced people that have displayed that on me, and I think it holds them back. I think the biggest thing is to just look at the stats, know that you got time, and also make sure that your job is not something that you need a vacation from.

[00:23:50.900] – Joran

People might disagree or agree with that, but with.

[00:23:53.420] – Amir

The last- They’re supposed to agree or disagree. It’s called an opinion.

[00:23:56.610] – Joran

Nice, but it’s good advice. If people want to get in contact with you and mirror, what would be the best way to do is.

[00:24:02.450] – Amir

Pull up a mirror writer and you can find me on LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook. I use my name everywhere. You could message me on LinkedIn. You could literally hit my linktree on LinkedIn, hit my WhatsApp chat. I’m very easy to reach.

[00:24:16.430] – Joran

Good. For people listening, just go to his profile. We’re going to link it up and then you can even find his number and just get to it. If you are looking for something related to B2B Sales, they have a cloud test. It’s a B2B Sales Solution Marketplace, hit him up and you will find Redditors on there as well.

[00:24:33.700] – Amir

Yeah, you will. It’s true, you are in our software department.

[00:24:37.430] – Joran

Exactly. Thanks for coming on to the show, Amir.

[00:24:40.700] – Amir

My pleasure, man.

[00:24:42.100] – Joran

Cheers. Have a good one.

[00:24:43.540] – Amir

You got it. See you.

[00:24:45.160] – Outro

You’ve been listening to growing a B2B SaaS. Yoron has been ahead of customer success before founding his own startup. He’s experiencing the same journey you are. We hope you’ve gotten some actionable advice from the show, and we hope you had fun along the way. We know we did. Make sure to like, rate, and review the podcast in the meantime. To find out more and to hook up with us on our social media sites, go to www. Getreditas. Com. See you next time on Growing a B2B SaaS.