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Our guest today is COO Alliance Member Matt Verlaque, Chief Operating Officer of SaaS Academy, a complete business growth system for Software as a Service (SAAS) founders based in Kelowna, British Columbia. Matt is a passionate tech entrepreneur who took a very non-traditional path to get there. After a decade as a fire Lieutenant with the Arlington County Fire Department, he switched gears to co-found UpLaunch, a marketing automation platform for gyms which was acquired in 2020. Today, Matt is running operations at SaaS Academy, the largest business coaching program for B2B SaaS founders in the world. He’s also the co-founder of High Speed Ventures, where he and Dan Martell invest in early stage B2B SaaS companies. In today’s episode, Cameron and Matt discuss the transition from firefighter to a coding bootcamp, which began his tech journey. They look at SaaS Academy’s hybrid of command and control and modern leadership, building teams and collaboration. Matt also shares some of the skills and lessons he learned from being an entrepreneur and running his own business that he still carries with him today as a COO.
In This Episode You’ll Learn:
- The point of diminishing returns when being too prescriptive, especially as the officer in charge, and why the best ideas don’t always come from the top.
- The importance of developing customer obsession, being able to analyze a market, fall in love with the customer persona and go hard on delivering results for them.
- The ‘three legs of the stool’ of the SaaS Academy: coaching, community and growth.
- Why standardization can sometimes serve as a roadblock.
Resources:
Connect with Matt: Website | LinkedIn
Connect with Cameron: Website | LinkedIn
Get Cameron’s latest book: The Second in Command – Unleash the Power of Your COO
Subscribe to our YouTube channel – Second in Command Podcast on YouTube
Get Cameron’s online course – Invest In Your Leaders
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