SaaS Scaling Secrets
The SaaS Scaling Secrets podcast reveals the strategies and insights behind scaling B2B SaaS companies to new heights. Dan Balcauski, founder of Product Tranquility, leads conversations with successful SaaS CEOs, exploring their challenges, triumphs, and the secrets that propelled their businesses to the next level.
SaaS Scaling Secrets
Global from Day One with Kristjan Vilosius, CEO of Katana
In this episode of SaaS Scaling Secrets, host Dan Balcauski interviews Kristjan Vilosius, co-founder and CEO of Katana, a leading cloud-based manufacturing and inventory management software for SMBs. Kristjan shares his journey from Soviet-era Estonia to becoming a global SaaS leader, the early influences on his entrepreneurial path, and the founding story of Katana. The discussion covers milestones like going global from day one, building a diverse and international team, and maintaining company culture across geographies. Kristjan offers valuable insights into scaling strategies, overcoming challenges, and the importance of a clear purpose and transparent communication in achieving business success.
00:28 Meet Kristjan Vilosius: From Soviet Estonia to SaaS Leader
01:18 Early Influences and Entrepreneurial Aspirations
04:12 The Birth of Katana: From Frustration to Innovation
06:17 Scaling Challenges and Lessons Learned
13:11 Global Expansion and the Estonian Startup Ecosystem
20:05 Building a Global Team and Maintaining Culture
25:12 Open Culture and Transparency at Katana
29:30 Rapid Fire Questions and Closing Thoughts
Guest Links
katanamrp.com
https://www.linkedin.com/in/kristjan-vilosius/
Hello, and welcome to SaaS Scaling Secrets, the podcast that dives into the trenches with the leaders of the best scale up B2B SaaS companies. I'm your host, Dan Balcauski, founder of Product Tranquility. Today, I have the privilege of interviewing Kristjan Velocius. Kristjan is the co founder and CEO of Katana, a leading cloud based manufacturing and inventory management software for SMBs. With a background in finance and M& A, Kristjan transitioned from corporate leadership to entrepreneurship, co founding Katana in 2017. He's not only built Katana into a global SaaS company, but has also co founded Yaga, South Africa's leading pre love fashion marketplace, and developed an impressive angel portfolio. Join me as we explore Kristjan's unique journey from Soviet era Estonia to the forefront of B2B SaaS, uncover the secrets to success in building a global team from Estonia, and reveal his strategies for scaling Katana successfully. Let's dive in.
Kristjan Vilosius:Hi Dan, and thank you for having me on the show.
Dan Balcauski:I'm very excited for our conversation today. I believe you are my first guest from Estonia. And actually I think that will figure pretty prominently in our conversation today. I am curious about your background. Like you grow up in Soviet era, Estonia. At least I read that on the internet. how did that impact your view on business and entrepreneurship?
Kristjan Vilosius:It's a great question. It is true. I was born in 1983. and during that time, Estonia was still occupied by Soviets. And I don't remember much of that time to be honest, because Estonia regained its independence in 1991. So at the time when I was around seven, eight years old. But I remember the cues at the shops because there were no codes or the shelves. I remember, when Estonia got its re independence the conflict with the Soviets and the tanks on the streets. but the world changed then super fast starting from 1991 and the country turned into a, a success story that shifted its attention to the West. Established democratic rule, free market principles, and that rapid economic growth followed. By now, Estonia is doing very well, if you compare to the European average. And it's been definitely a success story.
Dan Balcauski:for sure. So like, I'm particularly curious about this point because I, we talked to a lot of entrepreneur CEOs on this program and, there's usually some early influence of, Oh, well, my father was an entrepreneur, sort of was built in the business or like we were, all of our family friends had their own businesses, et cetera. I guess. If you look back to your maybe years, 12 to 18, like what were the early influences on you or what was, what were your particular interests that would portend this career of entrepreneurship?
Kristjan Vilosius:Now, having given you that context I think The important role here is the role models that these early 90s entrepreneurs played in my role. There were some of them among my father's friends, But most of us also followed these kind of success stories of these early 90s entrepreneurs, especially Finns. It was actually Finnish entrepreneurs that kind of kick started the Estonian economy in mid 90s by bringing the capital from Finland and bringing the knowledge from Finland. So there was A lot of Finnish entrepreneurs in our capital at that time and entrepreneurship back then, and I would say to large extent also today entrepreneurs are, entrepreneurship is something that people aspire towards. it's held in high regard. and I think that left a kind of a mark in me in the early days. I knew at quite a young age. That one day I want to be an entrepreneur. I want to be my own boss. And I think the ambition to be one's own boss is kind of very typical also in a country that has been occupied because you've been living in an environment under someone else's rule. You want to break free. You want to be your own boss. You want to live on your own terms. So, I think that was the influence from those early days and from that Soviet rule.
Dan Balcauski:Well, I want to talk a little bit about Katana. What was your initial spark that led you to create Katana?
Kristjan Vilosius:The founding story for Katana I can link it back to another kind of a path that I've taken in life, which is angel investing. I've been an active angel investor in Estonia for more than I have a portfolio of tech companies that I've invested in, in addition to that I've been a supervisory board member or an advisor or a board member or a small shareholder in a couple of, traditional and more mature manufacturing companies. One of them is a traditional B to B manufacturing company. The other one is a more modern direct to consumer manufacturing business. When working with these companies for the past decade we tried on several instances to implement ERP technologies, outdated ERP technologies in those modern manufacturing companies. I mean, when I say outdated ERP technologies, I'm referring to, some of the market leaders in the ERP industry. that, were built 20, 30 years ago that are, extremely difficult to to use, extremely difficult to implement, very expensive, outdated UI, UX. And and those implementation processes, they there was a lot of frustration. And the idea for Katana, the kind of the big idea for Katana emerged in my mid thirties, when I finally decided to make the jump towards entrepreneurship was that, what if we could build an easy to use ERP? What if you could build a business software that will be used by manufacturers, retailers, distributors globally, that is really easy to use and that is lovable? Because the ERP space itself, the horror stories of, SAP and Oracle NetSuite implementation that many of us know sparked interest
Dan Balcauski:Lovable, is rarely an adjective that gets associated with that
Kristjan Vilosius:precisely. And that was kind of the big idea that I think that the fact that we were naive allowed us to actually enter that journey and push forward in trying to build something lovable in an industry that is. that's traditionally has been seeing very little customer love.
Dan Balcauski:Well, that idea of being naive is fascinating and I think it's a necessary ingredient to entrepreneurship because I think if you knew all the facts going in, you'd be like, Oh, I'm not getting involved in that. That sounds like a mess. Maybe get the time machine. if Kristjan today could go back to those early days at Katana and give yourself some advice, what would you have advised him to do differently when he was first starting out?
Kristjan Vilosius:Well, I would definitely not advise to try to plan for every possible obstacle and hurdle that will be on the way, because you're very much corrected in that case, we would have never started. And looking back at the journey now, I mean, we haven't had any pivots. the vision that we set, in the early days and the purpose for Katana to really build a platform that is lovable and that enables growth for entrepreneurs everywhere that hasn't changed looking back now, many mistakes were done along the way. And some of them Could have been avoided. And I think that one of the key learnings definitely in hindsight is that, some of the talent that we attracted along the way really showed us the way forward and helped us to get to the next stage of development. Some of that talent we could have hired earlier. We should have hired faster. Some of the decisions that we should have made quicker that we don't ponder on too long, but zooming out the journey has in that sense been smooth and in some ways, even you could say boring that we haven't had the need to to make radical changes in the direction that we have been headed. So we have strayed through to our original mission and vision.
Dan Balcauski:You might be the first SaaS founders ever described their journey as boring. But hopefully in all the positive ways that entails.
Kristjan Vilosius:In positive ways, exactly, because I mean, the problem that we are solving is a big problem. it's a huge total addressable market but inventory is not something that, people typically consider to be sexy. It's a boring problem to solve, but I just, I love big, boring problems.
Dan Balcauski:So I heard a couple of really good nuggets in there of making faster decisions or turning decisions around quicker and then hiring in knowledge faster. I think those are both fantastic tidbits. I guess, obviously this show is called SaaS Scaling Secrets, Obviously, very interested in that early days of Katana. But I guess, what have you learned as you've really hit this scale phase? Like, what do people not understand or, get wrong about scaling a company? Or what has been untrue? Like, what would be the common wisdom you found has been untrue in your experience? In terms of scaling a business like Katana?
Kristjan Vilosius:It's a great question. Obviously in the early days you have to be leading from the front, You have to be very hands on as a founder. you have to, really roll up your sleeves and get to the details of every possible problem which, for first time founders and also first time leaders and first time people leaders creates a pattern of micromanagement. That you need to start to get rid of as the company continues to scale. You need to more and more move to the, leading from the back, supporting the organization building the culture making sure that the right type of values are there and hiring that talent that will show you the way forward. And for some people, this transition, comes very naturally. For some people, it's more difficult, but I think that is the one very important ingredient to success that as a founder, can you make that transition from a hands on executor towards a leader that leads from the back.
Dan Balcauski:So being prepared to give up those
Kristjan Vilosius:Give up your toys. Yeah. And, it's in very many ways start giving up your baby piece by piece. Right? I mean, the number of hats that all of us founders wear in the early days it's a long list and you start transitioning those hats over one by one. And every time you're giving a piece of that baby it away that you built you distribute that ownership. And it's a fascinating process.
Dan Balcauski:What have you found in your experience that helps you sort of signals to you, okay, this is something that. I really need to start kind of letting go of I need to find somebody else to run this. Have there been ways that you've been able to, overcome that emotional barrier for it's like, okay, I can, if I'm seeing this, I know it's time to give up this part and hire in the right talent to, to take this over.
Kristjan Vilosius:Yeah, I believe what is very important for founders to understand in those situations is to have a very clear way of evaluating whether, you still are the best man or woman for the job and where your strengths and weaknesses lie. in my case, I was the first product manager for Katana. Being the one who had prior experience to in our funding team, the prior experience to having worked with, with or having worked in and having worked with companies that sell physical products, manufacturers, retailers, distributors, that's the market that we cater to and having had that up and close experience of understanding their frustrations and their needs in terms of software to run their business. Thank you. And then I took the role of early product manager without having prior experience in, what world class product management means. And I guess in the early days, it is not that important because what matters is really, being close to the customer, understanding the customer needs, being very experimental, moving fast. But as you start building the organization and growing the organizations, you need to start taking every part of your company closer to what world class looks like and in order to succeed on this market and bringing in the talent in all of those respective divisions. So, so, I also very quickly realized that, I'm not the best man for the job. I need to bring someone in to do that part of the job. and I've been giving them up one by one as I've reached the point where I look into the mirror and realize that I don't know the way forward. And I think it's a very important moment to admit to yourself that, I've reached the despite my growth mindset I know that It is possible for me to continue learning, but it's faster to bring in someone that already knows the way forward instead of trying to get myself to a level required to take the company to the next stage. So in those situations, I've looked into the mirror and made the decision that now I need to give away another hat and bring in another team member. and you need to do that check, from time to time with regards to all the hats that you wear.
Dan Balcauski:Yeah, I love that story. And I think that I heard two really key points there, which is one sort of that personal reflection, am I the best person for this? But then also what is in the best interest of the company? And I think that shift of perspective can help to, when you widen that lens, there's some sort of, Psychological trick you could play on your own brain where it becomes, Oh, it's not about me. It's about the company. So widening that perspective, I do want to widen perspective in our conversation and then zoom back into Katana. But at the beginning of our conversation, we are talking about, you are based in Estonia, and Estonia has gained a reputation as a hub for Not only tech startups, but tech unicorns kind of punching way above its weight class. Tallinn is not a giant city. Estonia is not a giant population, but very popular successful companies have come out of there. How has being part of that ecosystem in Estonia influenced Katana's journey?
Kristjan Vilosius:Without that ecosystem, we wouldn't be here. That's for sure. maybe it's fascinating for your listeners to get a bit of perspective into it, how it works in Estonia. I'll give a bit of context and background here. Estonia is only 1. 5 million people. But we have highest number of unicorns per capita in the world. Companies like Skype. Wise po and pipe Tribe and many others come from Estonia. what is peculiar about the ecosystem and why it's also so valuable here for founders that are part of this ecosystem is that almost all of the founders from Estonia, including the founders of those unicorns, are all on the same Slack channel, which is very weird, but this is how it operates. Jokingly, there is a term called Estonian Startup Mafia. It's like an inner circle that protects each other, right? So it's, we're all on the, we're almost everyone in the ecosystem are part of the same Slack channel, which means. It gives the opportunity for some of the early stage founders to really approach directly some of those late stage founders and ask for advice or exchange, ideas or change notes on talent and so on I think that is very valuable, and it's possible probably only in Estonia such a small community, but it's very valuable for newcomers into the scene. I did not know the key talent. I didn't have access to venture capital and this community helped a lot.
Dan Balcauski:That's amazing. Having all of that core group of talent in a single Slack channel is fantastic. And yeah, one and a half million. I mean, that's a midsize American city. that's an incredible amount Of talent and entrepreneurship and success, honestly. Cause it's one thing to have a bunch of people trying to start a company and then to have that many folks come out who actually reached that unicorn status or beyond. you guys didn't stay in Estonia. from what I was able to research, it looked like, Katana went. Global with your go to market ambition sort of on day one. And you can correct me if that's mistaken, but I think that's unusual for many European tech companies. Talk to me a little bit about that decision, that point of view.
Kristjan Vilosius:that is very true. And I think that's also one of the. cornerstones for our success with Katana. To put this into perspective Katana today services more than 1, 500 small to medium sized companies around the world. We have customers in 90 different countries, but our focus is very much on North America. And you could say that Katana's, core market is U. S. and Canada. And When we started Katana, we had to go global from day one. And that's the same for many startups coming from Estonia and it's kind of a common pattern. This is because there is no internal market. The local demand is so small that it's impossible for you to build something and get meaningful traction by focusing on the local market. So you have to go global from day one, which puts founders from the region in a very peculiar position, which can be turned into a competitive advantage. So, I mean, many companies from Europe that are founded in, Germany or France or elsewhere. They may spend first five years just servicing the local market before they even think of global expansion. Entrepreneurs and founders from Estonia have to go global from day one. So that's exactly what we did. our first customer was from Mexico. Our second customer was from US and we continued from there. we did not try to build up some form of a local customer base and then to grow from that. But We went head on with the global ambition from day one.
Dan Balcauski:What did they say? Necessity is the mother of invention. So not having a local market to sell into can create some interesting moves. Well, that's interesting. customers one and two, both in North America, our neighbors to the South of Mexico and the U S and so I guess, how did build awareness Or credibility in the North American market. Were you able to just build off those additional couple successes or were there, challenges or strategies you had to use along the way in order to say, well, Hey, like, I don't know this company, this tiny company of Estonia is trying to sell us. ERP is a core function of the business. It's like, there's CRM, ERP, or general ledger. I think those are kind of the beating hearts of most companies. And so, why am I going to take a bet on this tiny company and a Country maybe I've never heard of. How did you go about building that awareness and credibility from overseas?
Kristjan Vilosius:Yeah. Happy to walk you through the early go to market approach that we had. The story of Katana has been a continuous move up market. And, by now we are, in the SMB and mid market space, and we have customers we have customers on board that have tens and even hundreds of millions of revenues. But that wasn't the case in the early days. So I think the way that we thought about it was to pick the smallest under serviced customer segment that we can find on the market and deliver value for them. So in the early days when we started Katana, we focused on manufacturing companies, micro manufacturing companies that were selling on the Shopify ecosystem. Shopify ecosystem at that time. was lacking proper inventory and order management capabilities for those brands, Shopify brands that had in house manufacturing, small workshops and small factories. So we catered to them. And, since those were tiny micro businesses, it was very much kind of the self serve and free trial motion. to tell you the truth, we didn't put the slogan on the first front page that we are from Estonia. We pretended to be a North American business and started growing our North American commercial team very early on and started getting this early traction through the Shopify ecosystem, through Shopify App Store, but also review sites like, G two crowd, Capra, software advice, and so on and so forth. And then We started moving up market and these days, of course it's much more kind of your typical mid market and enterprise sales style of sales motion of demo first and implementation and onboarding teams and customer success teams and so on and so forth, but it wasn't that in the early days. It was much simpler, free trial, self service focus to get those first small customers on board.
Dan Balcauski:there was a really intense focus on those smaller customers who were experiencing a significant amount of pain to then sort of use as a launchpad to slowly move up market and establish your credibility. You also mentioned sort of. Along with that, building out your commercial sales team locally to help you with that beachhead. that's an interesting area I wanted to talk about was kind of team building globally, because that can, Have a whole bunch of implications, operationally and culturally. how do we're based over here, how do we even hire over there? How do we start an office? Let me ask you, going back to something you said earlier around. Hiring in talent was one of the things that you would advise your younger self to have done faster. Are there specific areas, that come to mind around that particular topic where, maybe it was a, maybe it was a C suite role, maybe it was an entire departmental function, maybe it was geographic hires where you should have moved faster to make hires in a specific area versus trying to figure it out?
Kristjan Vilosius:I mean, generally kind of rule of thumb for us has been that we've always realized how much value a commercial team member can provide to the team if he or she is close to the customer. And that of course is relevant for sales. I mean, even let's put outbound sales aside, but even inbound sales, it's not possible to do inbound sales from different time zones. Or from a different cultural context and background. I mean, you have to speak the same language and you have to know the same jokes as the customer. So you have to be close to the customer in order to be able to sell to them. So it's definitely sales, but it's not only sales. It's also product marketing to get the marketing insights. It's also product research to really understand how those customers think, how they operate, how they think. How they themselves describe the problems they are facing and then to successfully transition that or translate that into value proposition. So we've constantly been kind of moving closer step by step to our customer with many functions across the board, especially in the commercial part of the organization. At the same time, We have retained and continue to focus on building the engineering and kind of product talent here in Tallinn, Estonia. There's amazing talent available when it comes to engineers in the region. And we see this as a great synergy and opportunity for us to have our commercial teams close to the customer in North America while having engineering talent here in Tallinn.
Dan Balcauski:I love that. So not only the sales, it's like, Oh, it's not just, we opened a sales office, but you know, we thinking of things like your marketing, messaging your research product development those things to get them closer to the customer as well I totally agree with you where Language, you could be nearly fluent in language and still the humor is the last thing to come through. So, very difficult to build those deepest connections without being able to tell jokes in the same language. I guess our challenge that, some founders hit when they, are in multiple geographies though, is how do you think about or maintain the culture, right? And is that, what is the culture you want to have, and does it embody the core values of the company? How did you guys approach that as you were going through this global expansion? How did you think about that? Scaling so early going multi multinational.
Kristjan Vilosius:In some ways the fact that we had to go global from day one created a situation where we had to build a global organization from day one instead of trying to transition into something that is local, trying to transition that into global at later stage, which in many ways can be more difficult, right? So we had to build the foundation and kind of a culture Compass for our company with that in mind already from day one. And of course there are cultural differences. There's a lot of them. we are a total of 150 people about 100 of us are from Europe or in Europe, and there's quite a lot of Estonians, but there's also a lot of other nationalities in Katana from Europe, and then we have most of our commercial team in North America Estonians in general, for example, are very direct. There's very little small talk, for example. We get straight to the point. And I know that for some of my North American colleagues, when they've started working in Katana, they in the beginning feel kind of uncomfortable that, why do we jump straight into the topic? Where was that small talk in the beginning? but, at the same time this directness in Katana is delivered with empathy. and we talk about the good and the bad and the ugly very openly. And over time I think what all people start to value working in Katana, doesn't matter what culture they come from, is the fact that the organization is transparent and people speak the truth. And that seems to be something that is very, I found that over the years, it seems to be something that people from around the world value. And start to value more as they work in such an environment where they know that they are given the information and transparency to make their decisions and they can trust the colleagues around them. And if you kind of combine that with a very strong message on why we exist and what we want to achieve. And if you combine that with giving people the ownership over their respective domains, then all of that creates a very strong feeling of belonging.
Dan Balcauski:So I love this idea of openness and transparency and I think a lot of companies aspire to it, but you also talked about sharing not only the good, but the bad and the ugly. Is there a situation example that you can recall where the bad and the ugly got shared in this open culture? Cause I think it's easy to say, Oh yeah, we're open, transparent when everything's good. It's when the bad and the ugly hit that it becomes difficult.
Kristjan Vilosius:I mean, to give you an example of how we live that in practice I think is one good example is that the, almost all tech companies that are venture capital funded, like Katana, we have to send our monthly newsletters to our board and to our investors, to the VCs, right? So what we do in Katana, we send it also to every team member. And I mean, the monthly newsletters always the board. You need to cover all the good, the bad, and the ugly as well, right? which means that the same information is given to all the dean members. which I strongly believe in because it allows me to realign the organization towards, under attention towards the same problem areas or so, towards the same direction that we want to be headed. Or another example of, if there is a change in the team in, for example, in leadership or in some critical position that creates a lot of questions or concern around the organization. We hold the fireside and let the team to kind of a MA or ask me anything, session on that topic. And I think if you approach it with that kind of a mindset then over time the team learns to trust the leadership and the decisions made.
Dan Balcauski:the investor updates. You're right. A good investor update does include the good, the bad, and the ugly. early surprises are usually better than late surprises as a general rule. So the better that you have it in your monthly update that you find out at the quarterly board meeting. Going back to something else you said on culture though so you're talking about the Eastern European preference for getting right to the point and how maybe that's a little bit jarring, et cetera, like, does that sort of cross cultural Friction for baccalaureate, it's not it's not good. It's not bad. It's just different. Like how have you approached that as you've brought on, international employees to make sure that, Hey, there's different people, different ways of working is how does that practically work at Katana?
Kristjan Vilosius:These days the stage that the Katana is now in it's not so much of an issue anymore because if I also look at my leadership team and C level and it's, it's people around the world. The I mean, by now in that sense, Katana is a kind of a typical tech company that is truly global in terms of its customer base, but also in terms of its talent. In the earlier days, when we started from Estonia, more of the core team was from Estonia or from the neighboring countries. And we were just kind of starting to hire our commercial teams in North America, as well as in UK and as well as in Australia and New Zealand, where we have people on the ground. then, yeah, we had to build a kind of an onboarding experience that included, the introduction of our culture compass and the ways of working, and we really put a lot of effort into defining our values and explaining how this machine operates. So, I think it's very important to kind of get the people to start with the right foot. And keep all that context. So they wouldn't be surprised if they go into a meeting with a couple of Estonians and those guys or girls just, get straight to the point and start shooting questions their way without much of an introduction. But at the same time, we also had to teach the team members here in Estonia during those early days that, there are certain differences in terms of how you talk to your colleague in Estonia versus your colleague in North America. We had to teach them to do small talk. And I also had to learn it myself. And it's still a process. I'm not in anywhere good at this. But, I've learned to make a couple of jokes at the beginning of the meeting before I dive into the topic. If you have a growth mindset, and you teach that to the organization, both sides of the table, can, make a step towards each other.
Dan Balcauski:Having awareness is important. I've got a friend, a very successful business leader who's Danish. And I think one of my first conversations with him, he goes, I'm gonna apologize up front. We Danes are very impolite and not very blunt. And so, and it turns out he's super polite and not that blunt. But at least it took any sort of misunderstanding out of the room,
Kristjan Vilosius:example.
Dan Balcauski:Well, Kristjan, there's so many other questions about, Katana and your journey that I wanted to get to ask you, but I we're going to be running short on time. So I wanted to jump into a few rapid fire closeout questions. If we might, you ready?
Kristjan Vilosius:Sure,
Dan Balcauski:Kristjan, how do you define success?
Kristjan Vilosius:Success for me personally I define through growing as an individual and getting more and more an awareness into who I am and what I want to achieve in life. And success in business. I think it's very much about the journey. and I think, we are very much focused on, those KPIs and metrics and status symbols and when creating those businesses, or when founding those businesses and when going after the next, fundraising cycle and so on and so forth. But I think we have to, from time to time, kind of sit back and think about the journey and appreciate that more and the people that we have on that journey. So success for me is when I can look back and say that, it was an amazing journey and I got to spend time with some amazing people from around the world and doing something together and getting that business success together. I think the churn itself will probably be more valuable in the end than the business metric that we achieved.
Dan Balcauski:I absolutely love that. And that's one of the reasons why my firm is called Product Tranquility because I learned during my time in product is you're always focused on that next end of sprint, that next release go thinking that, okay, once we get this feature out, once we get this release out it's all going to be rainbows, unicorns.
Kristjan Vilosius:there's always the next thing, right?
Dan Balcauski:always the next thing. How do you keep yourself on the top of your game? Intellectually, emotionally physically.
Kristjan Vilosius:I'm starting from the latter. I'm a surfer, which is a horrible choice for a hobby if you're living in Estonia because there are almost no waves. It's very rare where you get a swell. So then I need to travel to dedicate time on that. So, surfing is brilliant. It's something that I've been doing for more than 15 years. And I find it very meditative and truly relaxing. So that's what, and of course, gym two times a week and things like that for sure as well. What else on top of that? I've learned over the years To rely more on the people around me, I think, as an early stage founder, I somehow thought that I need to, push through these obstacles and the stress started to accumulate inside me and I wasn't really good on sharing the struggles and asking for help and asking for advice from people around me. I think I've gotten better over the years and I think this is also something that is super important for every founder to avoid that turnout.
Dan Balcauski:And that's a perfect segue into my next question. there's CEOs like every other human are, continual works in progress and nobody gets there on their own. we go by the grace of God and the help of others. Has there been someone that has really helped you on your journey? a leader a mentor maybe a peer that has really helped you along your way.
Kristjan Vilosius:Oh, that's a tough one. Because I think we gather a lot of insight and value and an experience from all the people that we meet during this journey on earth and especially when building a business, every team member that joins teaches. something. And of course, there have been some from whom I've learned more and who I really have to thank for taking the company to the next level. But if I look at my own personal journey in my twenties, prior to becoming an entrepreneur, prior to becoming a founder, I was in investment banking. Don't hold it against me. So no longer an investment banker, but I did that for the first seven, eight years of my post university career. there was a gentleman experienced in this field And kind of picked me up as a young man I learned the ropes with his help and he gave me the opportunity to get access to, big deals and and interesting transactions and interesting projects that that that is quite rare. So I've always and I'm very thankful towards, People that have the experience and have achieved something that they give young people the opportunity to make their mistakes and to have that success. I've tried to develop that mindset for myself as well and giving back by giving the ownership and trust to people that are much younger than me and much more inexperienced, but to give them the opportunity to be part of something big and to have that full ownership and responsibility is a great way to give back. Let
Dan Balcauski:days, is there something specific that they helped impart to your worldview and your view on business or entrepreneurship, or maybe it was just investment banking.
Kristjan Vilosius:me think for a second, is there anything specific? Yeah, I think the main theme clearly was that he put a lot of trust in me, Gave giving me a lot of responsibility when perhaps I wasn't ready for it. I guess the learning from that for me was that you have the person with the right Set of values and with the right growth mindset. If that person lacks the expertise and specific skills, then, these will, these can be learned quickly. If the person is thrown into the water, with the right type of support from the side. So, I guess the, he really helped me to gain that. Trust towards myself that I am able to overcome those challenges and to have success on things that, at first may seem very difficult and very daunting with the right type of support with the right type of guidance I have the capacity to take on a lot of responsibility and ownership. So it's a learning that I guess has allowed me to also bring in talent that necessarily doesn't have the expertise, but I see that they have the right growth mindset, the right set of values, and the right drive, And then with some guidance I've seen those people grow around me and then grow beyond me.
Dan Balcauski:I love that. And yeah having a shift in perspective that you are someone who's worthy of that trust to take on the bigger things that can be that can be a big stepping stone early in your career, for sure. So, definitely put more of that out in the world for the folks who come behind us. I couldn't agree more. If you, I gave you a billboard and you could put, One thing on it for other scale up B2B SaaS CEOs trying to build and scale their businesses. What would it say?
Kristjan Vilosius:I mean, immediately you have 10 thoughts running through the head. what is the most important? I think I would come back to the question. Does this company exist? What's its purpose? And I know it sounds super trivial if you're an early stage founder, because you want to solve the problem for your first customer, and you want to get that first funding, and you want to get that first talent, but having a very clear why for yourself, And being able to articulate that for your team and being able to articulate that to the market and to the investors and all the possible stakeholders and repeating that, time after time in your internal or external meetings that creates a kind of a feeling of belonging and purpose for the team. And that makes sure that that helps you stay true to your vision and because there will be A lot of, influence coming in from left and right that will try to, divert you from your chosen path. having a very clear why kind of helps you through the hard days and also keeps the team moving in the same direction.
Dan Balcauski:Have a clear why. Love that. Kristjan, if our listeners want to connect with you, learn more about Katana, how can they do that?
Kristjan Vilosius:Check us out on our homepage katanamrp. com. Or just type into Google Katana inventory. I'm sure you'll find it. Follow me on LinkedIn. I broadcast from time to time, what we are doing in Katana and how's it going and what exciting stuff we're working on. I think these two are the best choices to have a closer look at what we do and who we are and what value we bring to our customers.
Dan Balcauski:Fantastic. I will put those in the show notes for our listeners. Everyone, that wraps up this episode of SaaS Scaling Secrets. Thank you to Kristjan for sharing his journey insights and valuable tips. For our listeners, if you found this conversation as enlightening as I did, remember to subscribe so you don't miss out on future episodes.
