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Made Not Found

In SaaS businesses, operating results are earned every single day; and good businesses are made, not found. Writing here about building organizations, learning from the experience, and appreciating the ride.

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  • Lock 8 Partners
  • The Irony of Dashboards

    The Irony of Dashboards

    I’ll admit that I love a good dashboard. As an aid to SaaS operators seeking to optimize business performance, dashboards can be…
    Go to the profile of Todd Gibby
    Todd Gibby
    Apr 8
    10 Tips Toward Messaging Clarity

    10 Tips Toward Messaging Clarity

    As he does in his blog with astonishing frequency, David Cummings last week put his finger on a pervasive problem in startups: complexity…
    Go to the profile of Todd Gibby
    Todd Gibby
    Mar 22
    SaaStr Build: 5 + 5 Takeaways in 5 Minutes

    SaaStr Build: 5 + 5 Takeaways in 5 Minutes

    Bullishness and optimism in the air at SaaStr Build. Here’s to another year of sustained market strength.
    Go to the profile of Todd Gibby
    Todd Gibby
    Mar 12
    The 10X Club + 10 Years

    The 10X Club + 10 Years

    Valuations for publicly traded SaaS businesses are bananas right now. At the time of this post, Zoom’s enterprise value relative to its…
    Go to the profile of Todd Gibby
    Todd Gibby
    Dec 28, 2020
    When Setting Top-line Goals, 3 Perspectives are Better than One

    When Setting Top-line Goals, 3 Perspectives are Better than One

    Tis the season…not for jolliness…but for annual forecasting. Countless companies spend the month of December frantically closing out the…
    Go to the profile of Todd Gibby
    Todd Gibby
    Dec 17, 2020
    Pulling Up from the Weeds of “I Can Do that”

    Pulling Up from the Weeds of “I Can Do that”

    Note: This is a loosely defined “Part 2” to a prior post entitled: “Pulling Up from the Weeds of Cash Conservation.”
    Go to the profile of Todd Gibby
    Todd Gibby
    Nov 18, 2020
    Three of the Most Empowering Words a Boss Can Say

    Three of the Most Empowering Words a Boss Can Say

    It was 2001; and my boss was impressive — some would say intimidating. A whiz-kid founder and CEO of a fast-growing start-up that had…
    Go to the profile of Todd Gibby
    Todd Gibby
    Nov 4, 2020
    5 Themes from the TOPO Virtual Summit (with a Little Help from my Friends)

    5 Themes from the TOPO Virtual Summit (with a Little Help from my Friends)

    From time to time, we use this forum to share observations and trends from webinars or virtual conferences (here); and sometimes we invite…
    Go to the profile of Todd Gibby
    Todd Gibby
    Oct 15, 2020
    Walking a Mile: Guideposts on the Customer Journey

    Walking a Mile: Guideposts on the Customer Journey

    The television series Undercover Boss has been a guilty pleasure of mine for years. Now entering its eleventh season, the show features…
    Go to the profile of Todd Gibby
    Todd Gibby
    Sep 23, 2020
    SaaStr Annual at Home: 10 Quick Takeaways

    SaaStr Annual at Home: 10 Quick Takeaways

    As a card-carrying introvert, I’ve always found industry conferences to be exhausting. Likewise, over recent months, Zoom Fatigue…
    Go to the profile of Todd Gibby
    Todd Gibby
    Sep 4, 2020
    Exec Coaching for Coachable Execs

    Exec Coaching for Coachable Execs

    It is a good thing to be “coachable,” meaning capable of being easily taught and trained to do something better. It’s easy to understand…
    Go to the profile of Todd Gibby
    Todd Gibby
    Sep 2, 2020
    Customer Effort > Customer Satisfaction? Not So Fast…

    Customer Effort > Customer Satisfaction? Not So Fast…

    A prior post explored the concept of customer effort as a critical driver of customer loyalty. That piece referenced Gartner research /…
    Go to the profile of Todd Gibby
    Todd Gibby
    Aug 14, 2020
    Exceeding Customer Expectations is…the Wrong Goal?

    Exceeding Customer Expectations is…the Wrong Goal?

    “The key to customer loyalty is an effortless customer service experience.” These seemingly innocuous words caught me flat-footed and…
    Go to the profile of Todd Gibby
    Todd Gibby
    Aug 12, 2020
    Operational Readiness: The Overlooked “Other Stuff”

    Operational Readiness: The Overlooked “Other Stuff”

    A previous post on this blog shared observations about high-stakes SaaS product development initiatives; and a follow-on piece took a…
    Go to the profile of Todd Gibby
    Todd Gibby
    Jul 2, 2020
    Variety is the Spice of Life When it Comes to Operator-Investor Interactions

    Variety is the Spice of Life When it Comes to Operator-Investor Interactions

    This blog typically focuses on sharing observations from the twenty years I spent operating small-scale SaaS businesses. This post takes a…
    Go to the profile of Todd Gibby
    Todd Gibby
    Jun 24, 2020
    Who Should be on the Bus: A Shortcut to Getting There

    Who Should be on the Bus: A Shortcut to Getting There

    It’s easy for leaders to get caught up in the day-to-day of running small-scale businesses. Particularly during challenging times, it can…
    Go to the profile of Todd Gibby
    Todd Gibby
    Jun 4, 2020
    Just Say No to Being an “X-led” Company

    Just Say No to Being an “X-led” Company

    People say it all the time, usually with great pride: “We are a sales-led company.” Or, in businesses with deep technical roots, it might…
    Go to the profile of Todd Gibby
    Todd Gibby
    May 20, 2020
    8 Steps for “Making the Most of a Good Crisis”

    8 Steps for “Making the Most of a Good Crisis”

    There’s some debate about who first said, “Never waste the opportunity offered by a good crisis.” (N. Machiavelli, W. Churchill, R…
    Go to the profile of Todd Gibby
    Todd Gibby
    Apr 29, 2020
    They Can Handle the Truth: Communications Tips for Leaders during Crisis

    They Can Handle the Truth: Communications Tips for Leaders during Crisis

    In the 1992 legal drama film “A Few Good Men,” Colonel Nathan Jessep (Jack Nicholson) barks an iconic and scathing reproach to Lieutenant…
    Go to the profile of Todd Gibby
    Todd Gibby
    Apr 15, 2020
    Pulling up from the Weeds of Cash Preservation

    Pulling up from the Weeds of Cash Preservation

    I remember being trapped for days in forecast models, repeatedly scouring a laundry-list of line-items to be considered for cost-cutting.
    Go to the profile of Todd Gibby
    Todd Gibby
    Mar 26, 2020
    Rule of Holes (Part 2): More Thoughts on Answering Deceptively Difficult Questions

    Rule of Holes (Part 2): More Thoughts on Answering Deceptively Difficult Questions

    This blog recently featured a post that invoked the First Rule of Holes (“Stop Digging!”). That piece had been triggered by some…
    Go to the profile of Todd Gibby
    Todd Gibby
    Mar 20, 2020
    The Case for Drop Allowance: An Under-Used SaaS Metric

    The Case for Drop Allowance: An Under-Used SaaS Metric

    When I joined my first subscription-based software business in 1999, the term Software-as-a-Service wasn’t even a thing. Since then, SaaS…
    Go to the profile of Todd Gibby
    Todd Gibby
    Mar 4, 2020
    “The first rule of holes: when you’re in one, stop digging!”

    “The first rule of holes: when you’re in one, stop digging!”

    The “law of holes” was drilled into my head as a kid; and it is sound advice. The problem, of course, is proactively identifying whether…
    Go to the profile of Todd Gibby
    Todd Gibby
    Feb 20, 2020
    Setting Cloud Services Strategy: 5 Lessons from 5 Years

    Setting Cloud Services Strategy: 5 Lessons from 5 Years

    In a previous post, I shared observations relating to the process of re-platforming a SaaS solution. I was grateful when a former…
    Go to the profile of Todd Gibby
    Todd Gibby
    Jan 28, 2020
    CEO as…Chief Conversation Officer?

    CEO as…Chief Conversation Officer?

    The CEO role can be described in countless ways. One definition comes from the Corporate Finance Institute, which states: “The CEO is…
    Go to the profile of Todd Gibby
    Todd Gibby
    Jan 21, 2020
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