Category Visionaries

Thibaut Sahagian, CEO of Multis: $9 Million Raised to Build a New Category of Software Designed to Meet the Needs of Web3 Organizations

In today's episode of Category Visionaries, we speak with Thibaut Sahagian, CEO of Multis. Thibaut is an entrepreneur active in the crypto world since 2014, and could be called a true pioneer of Web3 native businesses. He’s turned his passion for B2B and SaaS strategies into a dynamic enterprise with Multis, a financial toolkit and banking services platform integrating the best solutions from across the space and helping enterprise partners sort, save, and spend crypto in ways that make sense for them. In a market dominated by greed and growth, Multis focuses on real solutions as a more sustainable, resilient strategy to see them safely through the volatility of a bull-bear business cycle.
Topics Discussed:
How being a crypto pioneer led to a B2B-focused business mindset, and what Thibaut learned in the early years of the space
Why decentralized money markets were the real game changer for crypto, and how compound protocol made all the difference
FTX finance, the effect on crypto’s long-term prospects, greed and the debate over the need for governance
The future of finance as a hybrid space between centralized and decentralized exchanges
Multis’ Web3 pitch - quick, seamless banking solutions to sort, manage and spend funds, token liquidity and more
Why a bear market today is the bull market of tomorrow, and a great time to get in on investments
Breaking through the crypto noise, and why Multis keeps to a traditional, relationship-oriented approach
Why being a market pioneer means spending time on education and constructing your own target markets
 
Favorite book: 
The Ascent of Money: A Financial History of the World

Jason Lavender, CEO of Electives: $10M Raised to Redefine Corporate Training

Welcome to another episode of Category Visionaries — the show that explores GTM stories from tech's most innovative B2B founders. In today's episode, we're speaking with Jason Lavender, CEO & Co-Founder of Electives, a corporate learning platform that has raised over $10 Million in funding.
Here are the most interesting points from our conversation:
Electives' Unique Approach: Electives offers interactive, live classes led by a diverse range of instructors, including FBI agents, athletes, professors, and authors, rather than traditional corporate trainers.
Engagement and Interactivity: Addressing the lack of engagement in corporate training, Electives emphasizes live, interactive sessions that allow employees to connect with peers and instructors.
Customer Profile and Traction: Initially targeting mid-sized tech companies, Electives now serves a wide range of enterprises, celebrating milestones such as 100 companies hosting classes and over $1 million paid to teachers.
Teacher Recruitment and Referrals: The platform sources instructors from varied backgrounds, often through referrals from existing teachers, ensuring a wide array of unique and engaging content.
Market Disruption and New Category: Inspired by the book "Play Bigger," Electives aims to create a new category in corporate learning, moving beyond traditional training models to offer comprehensive human development.
Future Vision: Electives aims to be a staple in every company, providing diverse learning experiences that enhance personal and professional growth, while continuing to refine their category definition.
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Sponsors:
Front Lines — We help B2B tech companies launch, manage, and grow podcasts that drive demand, awareness, and thought leadership.
www.FrontLines.io
 
The Global Talent Co. — We help tech startups find, vet, hire, pay, and retain amazing marketing talent that costs 50-70% less than the US & Europe.
www.GlobalTalent.co
 

Vincenz Klemm, CEO of Baobab: $4 Million to Build the Future of Cyber Insurance

In today’s episode of Category Visionaries, we speak with Vincenz Klemm, CEO of Baobab, about his journey from fintech to political science and back into the startup space, leading the European cyber insurance market with Baobab, a company trying to do digital security more safely. Companies get hacked more than most of us might like to think, and how well we recover depends on getting the right precautions in place. For Baobab, that could mean just a comprehensive insurance package, or going even further with a tailor-made collaboration with customers and symbiotic product learning as we grow together. It's a relatively new science in general, which is why building strong networks across sectors and in different markets is absolutely key to success.
Topics Discussed:
The problem of hacking for modern companies, and the businesses backing hacker labs all over the world
How to differentiate between different attack strategies, and why DDos is getting more sophisticated, and more population
Quantifying intangible assets - how does one account for reputation damage when it comes to calculating an insurance premium?
The fundamental needs of cyber insurance are everywhere, but not all regulatory frameworks are the same. How to expand across different markets in the short-medium term
 
Favorite book: 
A Culture of Growth: The Origins of the Modern Economy 

Casey Rosenthal, CEO of Verica: $17 Million Raised to Build the Future of Chaos Engineering

In today's episode of Category Visionaries, we speak with Casey Rosenthal, CEO of Verica, about his career in digital security, making a name for himself with the concept of chaos engineering, and how he eventually took those ideas mainstream with Verica, a continuous verification platform which helps people map the limitations of their existing software solutions and make contingencies for when things go wrong. An increasingly popular concept, ‘chaos engineering’ is essentially a toolkit to experiment with a system’s critical capacity, but a great tool doesn’t always make a perfect product, and Carey explains a little bit about how commercial viability can be an engineering challenge all of its own, why continuous verification is the final piece of the DevOps revolution, and why the biggest challenge for Verica is aligning disparate development cycles.
Topics Discussed:
Chaos engineering - what does it mean? Why is it so important and what impact can it have on an enterprise tech setup
Why more and more companies are seeking to add chaos engineering to their approach, and why it’s already popular in fintech
Why diversity is key for modern tech companies, driving better performance and ultimately more success
Continuous verification and the DevOps revolution - where does this new category stand in the story?
How harmonizing schedules between different departments can be a real challenge for a company looking to expand
 
Favorite book: 
What Works: Gender Equality by Design

Hersh Tapadia, CEO of Allstacks: $16 Million Raised to Build the Value Stream Intelligence Category

In today's episode of Category Visionaries, we speak with Hersh Tapadia, CEO of Allstacks, about his journey between disciplines to eventually develop a value stream intelligence platform to close the development gap between software companies and their clients in the pharmaceutical and healthcare sector. Navigating the very different approaches of RnD-release and constant evolution takes a great deal of highly coordinated communication, and Allstacks integrates seamlessly within an existing workstream, providing insights, indicators, and alerts to make sure you always know what’s going on. More than just helping us predict and respond to problems coming down the pipeline, the Allstacks approach provides employees with the storytelling tools they need to deliver context, advocate key positions and assert impact over a team, department or entire organization.
Topics Discussed:
An intersectional career between engineering and biomedicine, how Hersh found a career between disciplines
Stakeholder expectations, unexpected challenges and what ‘delivering’ really means
Solving the surprise issue, and why everyone wants to plan for an anticipated outcome
Harmony, building teams, and why individual accomplishment isn’t enough for success
Why value stream intelligence gives employees the tools to create a more satisfying, meaningful workplace experience
 
Favorite book: 
The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics

James Hawkins, CEO of PostHog: $21 Million Raised to Build the Future of Product Analytics

In today's episode of Category Visionaries, we speak with James Hawkins,  Co-Founder and CEO of PostHog, about what makes startups so exciting, and how to make a successful business in the digital era. By leveraging a strong commitment to PNG and flexible approach to development through their open source product operating platform, PostHog integrated the needs of their customers with a stellar business proposal, driving opportunities to innovate and grow together as a community.
Topics Discussed:
How finance became startups - how James fell into the world of start-up enterprises from a career in investment banking
Why not everyone is happy about the digital transition, and why some companies prefer to keep their data offline
Why 'slow and steady' is still relevant for stable growth in the market, even today
PLG as a core business strategy, and why a transition to big enterprise might require a revised sales strategy
The power of feedback in building a customer profile before going overboard with staff spending.
 
Favorite book: 
No Rules Rules: Netflix and the Culture of Reinvention

Philippe Humeau, CEO of CrowdSec: $21 Million Raised to Build the Future of Cyber Threat Intelligence

In today's episode of Category Visionaries, we speak with Philippe Humeau, CEO of CrowdSec, a cyber security startup building a neighborhood watch for the internet era, leveraging collaboration and mutual benefit to optimize protection against contemporary online threats. By identifying aggressive IP addresses and bad actors in real time, and sharing that information with users, the bulk of your security legwork can be taken care of before the threat ever reaches your servers. It's this powerful security infrastructure which has helped CrowdCec secure 110,000 users in just two years, and be well on the way to their first million.
Topics Discussed:
How cracking computer games at school led Philippe to a career in cybersecurity
How security needs have changed in the ransomware era, and what aggressive security means for your business
Why selling signals is a massive market, and how CrowdSec manages to stay free to use
PLG as the idea growth strategy for small businesses, but why it might not always be scalable
Market innovation and enterprise categories - why detecting trends is different from imposing them
Cybersecurity’s high burn rate, and why if you want software maintained well you need to pay a top-level salary
Favorite book: 
Thinking, Fast and Slow

Pascal Weinberger, CEO of Bardeen: $18 Million Raised to Build the Future of No-Code Automation

Welcome to another episode of Category Visionaries — the show that explores GTM stories from tech's most innovative B2B founders. In today's episode, we're speaking with Pascal Weinberger, CEO & Founder of Bardeen, a no-code workflow automation platform that has raised over $18 Million in funding.
Here are the most interesting points from the conversation:
Origin of Bardeen: Pascal and his co-founder Artem were frustrated by the time spent copy-pasting data between tabs and set out to solve this with Bardeen, aiming to automate tedious workflows.
Proactive Automation: Unlike traditional trigger-based tools like Zapier, Bardeen operates on user context, enabling more powerful and intuitive automations.
PLG Approach: Bardeen employs a product-led growth strategy, focusing on community support and direct user feedback to continuously refine their product.
Challenges of PLG: While PLG offers rapid feedback and user-centric development, it also demands high attention to detail and faces competition for user attention.
Category Creation: Bardeen aims to establish a new category of proactive automation, bridging the gap between simple trigger-based tools and complex enterprise solutions.
Future Vision: Bardeen aspires to bring automation to everyone, aiming for a world where automation tools proactively identify opportunities to save users' time, akin to how Honey finds savings at checkout.

Jaclyn Chen, CEO of Benepass: $14 Million Raised to Build the Future of Employee Benefits Management

In today's episode of Category Visionaries, we speak with Jaclyn Chen, CEO of Benepass, about how her journey towards becoming a 'giver' led her to establish an exciting new Employee Benefits Platform, empowering people with the choices they need to make real wellbeing a reality. A simple, intuitive tool with no gimmicks or hidden costs, Benepass helps companies reimagine how they take care of their people, providing a flexible and accountable way for people to get the benefits which make the most difference in their lives. Whether your well-being comes from hitting the gym, joining a meditation class or just having someone to take care of your chores while you work, Benepass offers a one-stop solution with tailor-made choices, without any additional administrative burden on the company.
Topics Discussed:
The power of 'giving' in the marketplace of ideas, and how prioritizing consumer needs helped drive the birth of Benepass
Why wellbeing means different things to different people, and how companies are starting to give them the right to choose
How a cheap, simple contribution can make a big difference in people's mindset - show them you care with a tailor-made gesture
The pandemic, the at in Ukraine, and a what 'wellness' means is always changing with the times
Why Benepass is driving a mindset change in the HR industry, and letting personal choice be the bedrock of how businesses operate
Why Benepass targeted the mid-sized business market, and how the next few years look set to be critical for ongoing growth and expansion

Romaric Philogene, CEO of Qovery: $4 Million Raised to Help You Deploy Your Apps on AWS in Seconds

Welcome to another episode of Category Visionaries — the show that explores GTM stories from tech's most innovative B2B founders. In today's episode, we're speaking with Romaric Philogène, CEO & Founder of Qovery, a developer tool that's raised $4 Million in seed funding.
Here are the most interesting points from our conversation:
Vision for Qovery: Romaric explains how Qovery helps developers deploy applications in the cloud quickly, enhancing productivity and efficiency.
Target Audience: Qovery primarily targets SaaS companies, with over 30,000 developers using the platform across various industries like fintech, healthcare, and HR.
Growth Strategy: The company grew from 50 to over 30,000 developers in just a few years by building a strong community and offering a freemium model.
Market Category: Qovery is creating a new category by integrating DevOps and developer workflows to improve deployment processes.
Funding and Market Potential: With $4 million in seed funding, Qovery aims to address the massive global market for cloud deployment tools, offering solutions that simplify complex cloud infrastructures.
Future Vision: Romaric emphasizes the company’s commitment to solving the collaboration challenges between DevOps engineers and developers, aiming for faster and more efficient application deployment.