Harry did a great deep dive with Russ Fujioka, President U.S. at Xero. Xero seemed to come out of nowhere a few years back, with a seemingly strange New Zealand IPO, followed by a big investment by Peter Thiel … but there was a method to all of it. Fast forward to today, and Xero is doing nine figures of ARR selling to small businesses — not an easy thing. Let’s learn more straight from Russ and Harry. — Jason, ed.
Welcome to Episode #6! Joining us today, I am delighted to have Russell Fujioka, US President at Xero, the world’s fast growing SaaS company, making accounting software beautiful. Prior to joining Xero, Russ was the Global Vice President of Marketing at Dell, EIR at Bessemer Venture Partners, and held executive roles at the likes of Adobe.
In today’s show with Russ we discuss:
How Russ came to be US President at the world’s fastest growing SaaS company.
How has Russ seen the SaaS industry change over his 25 years?
Why does Russ believe all the SaaS best companies are founder-led?
What were the determinants that allowed Adobe to go from 40m to $1bn?
How does Russ view the current competitive landscape for accounting software?
What were the main benefits of experiencing the VC industry with Bessemer?
In a round we call the 60 Second Saastr, we also hear:
Which public markets SaaS company does Russ most respect?
Russ’ favourite SaaS resource?
Is accounting software a winner take all market?
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Jason Lemkin
Harry Stebbings
SaaStr
Russell Fujioka
