Interview with a founder
Valueblue CEO
Wilko Visser
1. In one sentence, what does your company offer and who do you target? We offer our SaaS product BlueDolphin to enterprises, enabling them to realise ‘Digital Transformation’ and become more agile and profitable.
2. How did you make your way into the world of SaaS and start your company? We offered services in the area of Enterprise Architecture and experienced that there was no adequate tooling in the market to really serve the customers’ needs, so we developed BlueDolphin. As BlueDolphin is a collaboration platform, building it as a SaaS application was logical.
3. Gartner recognises ValueBlue in the Magic Quadrant for Enterprise Architecture Tools. It is an important acknowledgement. How did you define and build the competitive advantage of ValueBlue in an established market? The two main differentiators are (1) BlueDolphin is a collaboration platform for all employees involved in improving the business, IT and Data and (2) BlueDolphin offers seamless integration between IT and Data processes. We focus on improving on these two topics.
4. The company has focused on the Dutch market previously, and now you are preparing for the US expansion. How do you plan to strengthen the team? We have a number of nice customers in the US, like Wyndham and Wakefern Food Corp. We will strengthen the team both on the product development side as well as on the marketing & sales side, both of which are required for scaling.
5. What are your initial learnings of selling to and serving customers in the US? We need to be there, and the quality of the product and the services is key. We also experienced that when we are taking part in the decision making processes of customers, we often win the deal. So it is essential that we become known and top of mind in the market in the US.
6. ValueBlue is on the way to becoming an entirely data-driven and metric-driven organisation. Can you please share your experiences so far? We have been building up data about the lead generation and sales process. With this data, we have become more predictable and effective, so we keep on following that way. Now we are following the same path at the product and product development level so we can see where we can improve and become better and more predictable.
7. There is no easy path to success. What was the biggest challenge you went through, and what was your most significant achievement? The biggest challenge is how to improve the quality of the product and services for a large number of customers. This became relevant when we passed 100 customers. Our most significant achievement is how we have been able to keep the organisation focused on working together to learn and build while being successful in the market.
8. The Covid-19 pandemic caused a lot of uncertainties and risks, but also opportunities. How is ValueBlue doing during this particular period? How do you mitigate risks and seize opportunities? We defined various scenario’s in April when business fell. We assumed the worst-case scenario, but we implemented the implications of this scenario in phases. As the business recovered from June, we didn’t need to take measures that would hurt our growth strategy, and we were able to proceed with the growth path we were following before Corona. Now I expect we will grow a bit less than planned for 2020, but still substantially.
9. As a CEO, what do you know now that you wish you had known in the beginning? In general, I can say that I have learned new things about building a SaaS product, handling a large number of customers and internationalisation. Still, I see that as a way of trying new things and adapting to results and circumstances.
10. What advice would you give to other founders in the B2B SaaS industry? Stay close with your customers and your own business and be prepared for the problems that accompany scaling up.