SaaS transformation
Getting SaaS businesses moving again
SaaS companies rarely stall because the team stopped working hard. They stall because the product, the platform and the organisation grew in different directions, and nobody noticed until delivery slowed to a crawl. I have worked on that problem as a CTO and as a divisional CEO.
What usually goes wrong
- Product delivery slows as the organisation grows, and more people produce less.
- Platform and portfolio complexity builds up faster than anyone can explain it.
- Engineering investment drifts away from the outcomes the business actually needs.
- Product ownership is split across teams, so decisions wait for a meeting.
- Technical debt starts to decide what the company can and cannot build.
- Acquisitions leave overlapping products and systems that nobody has the mandate to consolidate.
- AI adds new architecture and operating model questions on top of all of the above.
How I approach it
I start by finding the constraint. It is rarely the one people name first. Sometimes it is an architecture decision from six years ago. Often it is a decision nobody owns. I spend the first weeks with customers, engineers and the leadership team before I propose anything.
Then I reset the work around the few outcomes that matter and rebuild the rhythm that gets them delivered: clear ownership, a roadmap people believe and a cadence the business can rely on. Cutting scope is usually harder than adding it, and it is usually where the momentum comes back from.
I treat the customer and the people on the team as part of the problem definition, not an afterthought. A turnaround that burns out the team or loses the customers it was meant to protect has not worked, whatever the dashboard says.
Where I have done this
SaaS turnaround
Turning around a $19M+ ARR SaaS product at MRI Software
The turnaround of a SaaS product with more than $19M in ARR.
Insurtech turnaround
Turning around Wilbur, a claims technology business
Product delivery restarted, enterprise customers were secured and commercial momentum returned. Wilbur achieved CPS234 compliance and ISO 27001 certification.
Acquisition
Bringing an ASX-listed PropTech company into MRI Software
MRI Software announced a scheme of arrangement in October 2022 at A$0.60 cash per share, an implied equity value of about A$93.4M. The acquisition completed in February 2023. MRI’s share of Sales CRMs in Australia went from roughly 8% to roughly 45%.
What I have written about this
Related
Let’s talk
Tell me what isn’t moving.
No pitch deck required. A little context about the business, the constraint and what you have already tried is a good place to start.