Founder Views - SaaS, Business, and Beyond

I was super excited about this episode, I’m speaking with Renat Zubairov, the co-founder and CEO of elastic.io, a B2B SaaS that helps enterprises connect and process different applications.

They were founded in 2013, and have been seeing triple digit revenue growth year after year, which is extremely difficult for a company this size. They’re currently doing well over $2M in annual recurring revenue. elastic.io was acquired in 2017 by mVISE, a publicly traded company in Germany. They acquired a majority stake of elastic.io, but they still operate independently.

This was such an informative chat, Renat is a very high-level CEO. We deep-dive into a lot of marketing, including some of the advantages and disadvantages of inbound vs outbound sales, how elastic.io is benefiting from content marketing, and what marketing channels are currently working the best for the company. Renat tells us why churn is the most important metric in SaaS, and how elastic.io maintains negative churn, which is something all SaaS folks should strive towards.

If you’re in the B2B space, or just want to level-up your way of thinking about business, this is the episode for you!

Show Notes

I was super excited about this episode, I’m speaking with Renat Zubairov, the co-founder and CEO of elastic.io, a B2B SaaS that helps enterprises connect and process different applications.

They were founded in 2013, and have been seeing triple digit revenue growth year after year, which is extremely difficult for a company this size. They’re currently doing well over $2M in annual recurring revenue. elastic.io was acquired in 2017 by mVISE, a publicly traded company in Germany. They acquired a majority stake of Elastic, but they still operate independently.

This was such an informative chat, Renat is a very high-level CEO. We deep-dive into a lot of marketing, including some of the advantages and disadvantages of inbound vs outbound sales, how elastic.io is benefiting from content marketing, and what marketing channels are currently working the best for the company. Renat tells us why churn is the most important metric in SaaS, and how elastic.io maintains negative churn, which is something all SaaS folks should strive towards.

If you’re in the B2B space, or just want to level-up your way of thinking about business, this is the episode for you!

PS. Thank you to my friends at Chargify for sponsoring this episode. If you want to manage your SaaS revenue better, make sure you check out Chargify. I was able to get my listeners the first month of Chargify completely free, plus free premium onboarding. This deal is only good if you sign up before the end of 2019. And they have to know that I sent you. Make sure you sign up here and tell them Founder Views sent you. I promise, you won't regret it!

What is Founder Views - SaaS, Business, and Beyond?

Founder Views is a podcast for SaaS builders who want real conversations, not recycled playbooks.

Hosted by Kosta Panagoulias, a 2x SaaS founder, the show features in-the-trenches conversations with SaaS CEOs, operators, and experts. Each episode digs into the decisions, strategies, wins, and struggles that shape real companies - practical insights from people actively building, not theorizing.

While the core focus is SaaS growth, leadership, and execution, the podcast also leaves room for broader discussions that help founders think better - whether that’s economics, technology, markets, or other big-picture business topics.

If you want raw, easy-to-follow conversations with people who've actually built something, you’ll feel right at home.