Why are you raising capital? If your only answer is “growth,” there might be more work to do. It’s also a problem if you can’t articulate why raising capital might be the wrong choice, said Kevin Kliman, co-founder and CEO of SMB HR platform Humi. Speaking with SAAS NORTH, Kevin shared his first principles approach to using capital for growth.

When you’re bootstrapped, cash flow is always top of mind. At the same time, founders can’t let money-focus hamstring creativity—instead, it should foster creative solutions that both help you reach your vision and bring revenue in the door. This is the balance Kaaveh Shoamanesh has struck in his role as CEO of community-based ad marketplace Plaiced. Speaking with SAAS NORTH, Kaaveh explained more about bringing vision and community together to scale globally in a lightweight, cost effective way.

A lot of startup advice says to be customer obsessed (or some similar verb). Billionaire businessman Richard Branson famously flipped this on its head, saying a focus on employees will lead to customers being taken care of. Mehrsa Raeiszadeh, Co-Founder of online car marketplace MintList, agrees with Richard Branson and goes one step further: treat all stakeholders as investors. Speaking with SAAS NORTH, Mehrsa explained how this mindset drives growth.

How do you get your ideal customers to test your product? You ask them! But founders need to realize they are asking for way more than a siloed product trial. Renae Farough, co-founder and CEO of AI-powered sales tool Kicker, got a lot of engaged beta testers—all of whom still use the product today. Speaking with SAAS NORTH, Renae explained how she structured her ask for the best chance of getting a “yes.”

Growth experiments need to deliver a potential outcome and give you data to both understand what happened and inform next steps. This is something April Hicke lives and breathes, as co-founder and Chief Growth Officer at Toast, a career and mentorship platform for women in tech. Speaking with SAAS NORTH, April explained her approach to growth experiments within a social enterprise.

You need traction to fundraise… but you need resources to invest in getting traction. This is a classic parallel dependency problem. It’s also a challenge Mehrsa Raeiszadeh, co-founder of online car marketplace MintList, found a way to overcome, fundraising over $1 million for her startup before writing a single line of code. Speaking with SAAS NORTH, Mehrsa explained her three-step process for overcoming parallel dependencies.

Product-led growth is the strategy behind many unicorn startups—it can also help steer away from becoming a “feature factory” mired in custom requests. Partho Ghosh, now the VP of Product at Uberall, has been a tech product leader for over a decade and seen many teams tease the cliff edge. Speaking with SAAS NORTH, Partho shared a few tips on how you can avoid this same fate.

One of the earliest employees at Uber, Andre Charoo saw firsthand what it takes to build a global tech powerhouse. Now, as General Partner of Maple VC, Andre invests in Canadian founders building the next generation of companies. Speaking with SAAS NORTH, Andre shared more about his principle of “durability” and how to create stronger startups.

Disco counts some of the world’s largest upskilling programs and startup accelerators as customers of its social learning platform. Speaking with SAAS NORTH, Disco Founder and Co-CEO Candice Faktor explained more about the company’s growth journey.