Having recently come out of stealth having raised $35M from Atempo Growth, LocalGlobe, Concentric, FJ Labs and others, Unaric buys, builds, and grows Salesforce-focused Independent Software Vendors (ISVs). With an experienced team who have built and grown multiple companies in the SaaS and ISV space, Unaric is uniquely positioned to help bring ISVs together to help them through their growth journeys.

We’re excited to be sitting down with Founder and CEO, James Gasteen to shine a spotlight on Unaric and share his advice for aspiring founders.

Share the story of Unaric, how did it come to fruition?

The idea came about from solving a problem at my first company, a SaaS business with an app on Salesforce. We were bootstrapped for most of our journey, and as a bootstrapped founder I was constantly facing stressors like keeping customers happy, while making sure the business stayed afloat and the team stayed onboard. In March 2019 we were strategising on what to do next, but at the time, we didn’t feel that VCs would be a good fit for us. So, I ended up reaching out to another founder and asked what they would think about merging our two companies. Their business was in project management and mine was in resource planning, and we believed that we could create a stronger proposition by combining the two.

We went through a DIY-style merger for around £10K in legal fees, and hey presto — we were a bigger company overnight.

Investors began knocking on our door shortly after, as technically, by merging the two companies, we had now reached an ARR threshold where we were viewed as scalable.

What truly inspired Unaric was the customer impact from bringing these two companies together. With a wider solution for customers, we could help solve bigger problems and cross-sell sister products. This happened just before COVID-19, and then when we looked at the numbers, we saw that cross-selling went up dramatically, even despite the pandemic. This triggered a light bulb moment: we can bring together apps on the same technology platform and cross-sell effectively. It’s a better way to grow versus chasing new business acquisitions, or partnerships, etc.

The idea behind doing a rollup within a common ecosystem is that you have a lot of synergies right out of the box. Since customers are already using the same tech stack, you don’t need to educate them further. It’s almost like a smartphone for businesses — you just get an app that works out of the box.

Then, I was invited to a ski trip for tech entrepreneurs, where I spent three days telling everyone about this idea. After I departed, a new group of entrepreneurs arrived, including my brother, who introduced me to someone who had been talking about a SaaS consolidation play. That someone was Peter, who is now one of my cofounders.

We were introduced in early 2022, and that’s how we got started! Peter’s previous business, a very successful company called Frontier Car Group was a mixture of SaaS and marketplace, and he found the SaaS component to be much more profitable. Having seen the impact of Saas and worked with the Salesforce platform and technology within his business, the combination of SaaS and Salesforce was a perfect match.

What has been the hardest lesson learned so far?

Starting a business can be challenging, especially when it comes to building a team and gaining momentum but, it’s important to stay positive through the ups and downs of each day.

One of the most difficult lessons to learn is that things will often take longer than you expect, so be prepared for delays.

For instance, the economy experienced a downturn at the end of 2022 and the beginning of 2023, resulting in increased investor caution. It can be difficult to factor in these macroeconomic factors when planning. Therefore, staying positive and understanding that reaching initial milestones may take time, is key.

What has been the biggest surprise during your time at Unaric?

There have been two surprises. The first is a positive one: the response from founders.

We’ve had great reception from founders so far, with many approaching us an expressing enthusiasm, saying someone should have done it ages ago.

Having an audience that is receptive to a business model that includes acquisition is a great validation of what we’re doing and has been a pleasant surprise. It’s been fantastic working with founders who believe that becoming part of our structure will help them be more successful.

One of the negative surprises has been the shifts in the economy. When we started, everything was booming after COVID with investors throwing money around. However suddenly after the summer of 2022, things flipped, and many investors became nervous about the macroenvironment. You can see where the pendulum has swung from a lot of confidence to a “wait and see” kind of attitude.

I think we’re fortunate as second-time around founders. Our previous successes have given us a great deal of experience which helped enormously as things have shifted to a more challenging market.

What advice would you offer other growth companies about financing their businesses?

There are three things I would recommend to growth companies. Firstly, focus on one thing: one market, and one product. In my first business, we tried launching three products with one developer and we suffered losses as a result. I think it helps to focus on your target audience and then narrow down your messaging.

Many technical founders, (I was guilty of this in my first business), try to sound too sophisticated in their vocabulary and end up confusing their audiences. By focusing on one market, and one product, you can really simplify your messaging and get to the point.

Finally, once you have a focus and clear messaging, consider building an ecosystem around your business. This will allow you to have partners bringing in new customers while helping service your existing ones.

By making your product part of something bigger, you can have a natural interaction with other software companies, professional services businesses, and resellers. These connections can help you acquire customers more cost-effectively.

Starting out, it’s hustle territory, and you need to get off the ground quickly, trying to achieve this solely via direct sales is difficult.

What has been Unaric’s biggest achievement so far?

I believe we’ve built a fantastic team with a wealth of experience. In terms of team structure, we have intentionally opted for a top-heavy model, instead of adding more managerial roles.

We’ve also welcomed our first company to our portfolio, Salesbolt, a fantastic company with a product that automatically keeps CRM contacts up-to-date, with an excellent founder.

Finally, we have been able to secure funding and have attracted support from Atempo and other backers, and have been featured in the likes of TechCrunch in recent weeks — all of which have been big achievements for us and have validated our efforts so far.

Any tips for aspiring founders?

When starting out in the software industry, it’s highly likely that you have a non-existent product. Therefore it’s crucial to consider your areas of defensibility and create an advantage or “secret sauce” through your sector experience.

It’s easy to get caught up in trying to be overly sophisticated and overlook the basics. Instead, focus on an area you know well.

Identify a problem that is being solved poorly and what impacts this has. Then communicate how your novel solution can change this. Squeeze the pips of your existing knowledge and experience to support your storytelling and establish credibility.

If you’re a Salesforce ISV founder and found James’ story interesting, James and the rest of the Unaric team will be at Dreamforce 2023 in San Francisco this September