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Jun 20, 2024 · 20m · top-founders

Founder Does $18m in 2023 Revenue Following 9 Strange SaaS Playbooks

Gilles Domartini · 17m spoken Nathan Latka · 35s spoken
0:00 / 0:00

gold bands on the timeline = statements, start to end. Hover to read, click to jump. CC turns on captions

In this keynote presentation, Cleeng founder Gilles Domartini shares nine practical playbooks and operational frameworks learned while scaling a subscription-retention SaaS platform to enterprise profitability. He provides actionable insights on vertical focus, pricing evolution, organizational structuring, and founder autonomy amidst rapid business expansion.

How this conversation actually went

Every chapter scored 0–10 on four independent dynamics. Hover any point for the reasoning behind the score. Nathan holds 3.7% of the talking time here. How this is scored →

Nathan as informed peer 0.0 Guest teaching 0.0 Guest disagreement 0.7 Nathan pushing back 0.0
05100:0010:0020:000:42–3:33 · Nathan as informed peer 0/10 Cleeng Background and Enterprise Revenue Acceleration This is a solo keynote stage presentation by Gilles Domartini with no host interaction. Gilles introduces Cleeng's revenue acceleration and warns against expanding outside one's core vertical despite investor pressure.3:37–6:31 · Nathan as informed peer 0/10 Playbook 2: Evolving Enterprise Pricing and Tiered Structures Gilles continues his solo presentation detailing pricing evolution from €99 monthly licenses to seven-figure enterprise contracts using a tiered per-subscriber model. The host is not participating.6:35–10:58 · Nathan as informed peer 0/10 Playbook 3: Prioritizing Customer Success and Account Retention Gilles shares learnings on customer success, describing account managers as mini-CEOs and cautioning against becoming an agency/systems integrator when trying to be customer centric.11:04–13:26 · Nathan as informed peer 0/10 Playbook 5: Resisting External Financial Pressures and Scaling Disciplined Growth Gilles recounts resisting investor pressure to overspend and recalls how conflicting investor advice nearly collapsed the company between 2018 and 2020.13:31–16:18 · Nathan as informed peer 0/10 Playbook 6: Optimizing Organizational Structure and Curbing Meeting Bloat Gilles discusses organizational structure optimization, pointing out that meeting bloat with 8 to 12 people indicates unclear roles and responsibilities.16:24–19:06 · Nathan as informed peer 0/10 Playbook 7: Preserving Core Company Culture During Rapid Scale Gilles highlights the challenge of preserving initial founding culture while onboarding over 50 percent new staff and senior executives.19:08–20:09 · Nathan as informed peer 0/10 Playbook 9: Resisting Bureaucracy and Corporate Boredom Gilles closes his talk advocating against corporate bureaucracy and process boredom. Nathan briefly steps in at the very end to thank the speaker and transition to the next presenter.0:42–3:33 · Guest teaching 0/10 Cleeng Background and Enterprise Revenue Acceleration This is a solo keynote stage presentation by Gilles Domartini with no host interaction. Gilles introduces Cleeng's revenue acceleration and warns against expanding outside one's core vertical despite investor pressure.3:37–6:31 · Guest teaching 0/10 Playbook 2: Evolving Enterprise Pricing and Tiered Structures Gilles continues his solo presentation detailing pricing evolution from €99 monthly licenses to seven-figure enterprise contracts using a tiered per-subscriber model. The host is not participating.6:35–10:58 · Guest teaching 0/10 Playbook 3: Prioritizing Customer Success and Account Retention Gilles shares learnings on customer success, describing account managers as mini-CEOs and cautioning against becoming an agency/systems integrator when trying to be customer centric.11:04–13:26 · Guest teaching 0/10 Playbook 5: Resisting External Financial Pressures and Scaling Disciplined Growth Gilles recounts resisting investor pressure to overspend and recalls how conflicting investor advice nearly collapsed the company between 2018 and 2020.13:31–16:18 · Guest teaching 0/10 Playbook 6: Optimizing Organizational Structure and Curbing Meeting Bloat Gilles discusses organizational structure optimization, pointing out that meeting bloat with 8 to 12 people indicates unclear roles and responsibilities.16:24–19:06 · Guest teaching 0/10 Playbook 7: Preserving Core Company Culture During Rapid Scale Gilles highlights the challenge of preserving initial founding culture while onboarding over 50 percent new staff and senior executives.19:08–20:09 · Guest teaching 0/10 Playbook 9: Resisting Bureaucracy and Corporate Boredom Gilles closes his talk advocating against corporate bureaucracy and process boredom. Nathan briefly steps in at the very end to thank the speaker and transition to the next presenter.0:42–3:33 · Guest disagreement 1/10 Cleeng Background and Enterprise Revenue Acceleration This is a solo keynote stage presentation by Gilles Domartini with no host interaction. Gilles introduces Cleeng's revenue acceleration and warns against expanding outside one's core vertical despite investor pressure.3:37–6:31 · Guest disagreement 0/10 Playbook 2: Evolving Enterprise Pricing and Tiered Structures Gilles continues his solo presentation detailing pricing evolution from €99 monthly licenses to seven-figure enterprise contracts using a tiered per-subscriber model. The host is not participating.6:35–10:58 · Guest disagreement 1/10 Playbook 3: Prioritizing Customer Success and Account Retention Gilles shares learnings on customer success, describing account managers as mini-CEOs and cautioning against becoming an agency/systems integrator when trying to be customer centric.11:04–13:26 · Guest disagreement 2/10 Playbook 5: Resisting External Financial Pressures and Scaling Disciplined Growth Gilles recounts resisting investor pressure to overspend and recalls how conflicting investor advice nearly collapsed the company between 2018 and 2020.13:31–16:18 · Guest disagreement 0/10 Playbook 6: Optimizing Organizational Structure and Curbing Meeting Bloat Gilles discusses organizational structure optimization, pointing out that meeting bloat with 8 to 12 people indicates unclear roles and responsibilities.16:24–19:06 · Guest disagreement 0/10 Playbook 7: Preserving Core Company Culture During Rapid Scale Gilles highlights the challenge of preserving initial founding culture while onboarding over 50 percent new staff and senior executives.19:08–20:09 · Guest disagreement 1/10 Playbook 9: Resisting Bureaucracy and Corporate Boredom Gilles closes his talk advocating against corporate bureaucracy and process boredom. Nathan briefly steps in at the very end to thank the speaker and transition to the next presenter.0:42–3:33 · Nathan pushing back 0/10 Cleeng Background and Enterprise Revenue Acceleration This is a solo keynote stage presentation by Gilles Domartini with no host interaction. Gilles introduces Cleeng's revenue acceleration and warns against expanding outside one's core vertical despite investor pressure.3:37–6:31 · Nathan pushing back 0/10 Playbook 2: Evolving Enterprise Pricing and Tiered Structures Gilles continues his solo presentation detailing pricing evolution from €99 monthly licenses to seven-figure enterprise contracts using a tiered per-subscriber model. The host is not participating.6:35–10:58 · Nathan pushing back 0/10 Playbook 3: Prioritizing Customer Success and Account Retention Gilles shares learnings on customer success, describing account managers as mini-CEOs and cautioning against becoming an agency/systems integrator when trying to be customer centric.11:04–13:26 · Nathan pushing back 0/10 Playbook 5: Resisting External Financial Pressures and Scaling Disciplined Growth Gilles recounts resisting investor pressure to overspend and recalls how conflicting investor advice nearly collapsed the company between 2018 and 2020.13:31–16:18 · Nathan pushing back 0/10 Playbook 6: Optimizing Organizational Structure and Curbing Meeting Bloat Gilles discusses organizational structure optimization, pointing out that meeting bloat with 8 to 12 people indicates unclear roles and responsibilities.16:24–19:06 · Nathan pushing back 0/10 Playbook 7: Preserving Core Company Culture During Rapid Scale Gilles highlights the challenge of preserving initial founding culture while onboarding over 50 percent new staff and senior executives.19:08–20:09 · Nathan pushing back 0/10 Playbook 9: Resisting Bureaucracy and Corporate Boredom Gilles closes his talk advocating against corporate bureaucracy and process boredom. Nathan briefly steps in at the very end to thank the speaker and transition to the next presenter.

speaking balance: gold is Nathan, purple is the guest (3 minute bins)

0:00 · Nathan 17.9% · guest 82.1%0:00 · Nathan 17.9% · guest 82.1%3:00 · Nathan 0% · guest 100%3:00 · Nathan 0% · guest 100%6:00 · Nathan 0% · guest 100%6:00 · Nathan 0% · guest 100%9:00 · Nathan 0% · guest 100%9:00 · Nathan 0% · guest 100%12:00 · Nathan 0% · guest 100%12:00 · Nathan 0% · guest 100%15:00 · Nathan 0% · guest 100%15:00 · Nathan 0% · guest 100%18:00 · Nathan 10% · guest 90%18:00 · Nathan 10% · guest 90%
Sharpest disagreement ▶ 11:55 Calling out destructive investor advice

Gilles describes how investors demanded aggressive spending in 2018 only to advise shutting down the company in 2020 when macro conditions shifted.

 Hardest push from Nathan ▶ 20:22 Host wrapping up keynote session

Because the episode is a solo presentation, the host offers no substantive pushback and simply prompts the audience for applause and questions before transitioning offstage.

 Biggest teaching moment ▶ 8:05 Educating founders on the customer centricity trap

Gilles delivers a clear lesson on how over-indexing on customer centricity can accidentally turn a scalable SaaS product company into a custom systems integrator.

 Nathan holds their own ▶ 0:04 Host introduction and platform database plug

Nathan outlines his SaaS metrics database and interview archives during the pre-recorded intro segment before the keynote recording begins.
the scores for every segment, with the reasoning behind each
ChapterTopicNathan as informed peerGuest teachingGuest disagreementNathan pushing backWhy
Cleeng Background and Enterprise Revenue Acceleration 0010 This is a solo keynote stage presentation by Gilles Domartini with no host interaction. Gilles introduces Cleeng's revenue acceleration and warns against expanding outside one's core vertical despite investor pressure.
Playbook 2: Evolving Enterprise Pricing and Tiered Structures 0000 Gilles continues his solo presentation detailing pricing evolution from €99 monthly licenses to seven-figure enterprise contracts using a tiered per-subscriber model. The host is not participating.
Playbook 3: Prioritizing Customer Success and Account Retention 0010 Gilles shares learnings on customer success, describing account managers as mini-CEOs and cautioning against becoming an agency/systems integrator when trying to be customer centric.
Playbook 5: Resisting External Financial Pressures and Scaling Disciplined Growth 0020 Gilles recounts resisting investor pressure to overspend and recalls how conflicting investor advice nearly collapsed the company between 2018 and 2020.
Playbook 6: Optimizing Organizational Structure and Curbing Meeting Bloat 0000 Gilles discusses organizational structure optimization, pointing out that meeting bloat with 8 to 12 people indicates unclear roles and responsibilities.
Playbook 7: Preserving Core Company Culture During Rapid Scale 0000 Gilles highlights the challenge of preserving initial founding culture while onboarding over 50 percent new staff and senior executives.
Playbook 9: Resisting Bureaucracy and Corporate Boredom 0010 Gilles closes his talk advocating against corporate bureaucracy and process boredom. Nathan briefly steps in at the very end to thank the speaker and transition to the next presenter.

Statements from this episode (11)

Assertion Not checkable as stated
Domartini: The NFL is Cleeng's largest customer
“Our largest client is actually the NFL in the US.”
Gilles Domartini Jun 20, 2024 ▶ 1:45
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Cleeng manages 35 million accounts and $500M in gross billing
“We manage about thirty-five million accounts, half a billion in gross billing, so we became quite, ah, sizable nowadays.”
Gilles Domartini Jun 20, 2024 ▶ 2:02
Insight
Domartini: Software is easy to stretch across verticals, but sales is hard
“It's easy to stretch a software but actually it's hard to stretch the sales and to stretch the experience and just, and the marketing and this type of activities.”
Gilles Domartini Jun 20, 2024 ▶ 2:55
Insight
Domartini: Tiered pricing eliminates renegotiation friction when clients overperform
“Big benefit of this is that you don't need to renegotiate a contract if your client is overperforming. This is always a huge amount of time and a bit of frustration, frustration also was for the client because he's overperforming. And now he's saying, oh, but …”
Gilles Domartini Jun 20, 2024 ▶ 4:26
Disclosure
Cleeng secures over $1 million ARR per customer with per-user pricing
“So even though we work still on a pair user basis, since we go after clients with potentially millions of users, you end up with an AR of a million or more with certain clients.”
Gilles Domartini Jun 20, 2024 ▶ 5:17
Insight
Domartini: Customer Account Managers Must Operate Like CEOs
“A good account manager is like a CEO. You need to know about sales. You need to be able to negotiate with a client. You need to know very well your product because your client is asking, okay, but how do I use this product? How do I generate the right value fr…”
Gilles Domartini Jun 20, 2024 ▶ 7:41
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Domartini: Cleeng Has 120% to 130% Net Dollar Retention
“From a net dollar retention. We are a 120, 130%.”
Gilles Domartini Jun 20, 2024 ▶ 8:16
Insight
Domartini: Over-indexing on customer centricity risks turning SaaS companies into system integrators
“By becoming customer centric, we are moving, to my liking at least, way too much as a solution integrator, system integrator type of company.”
Gilles Domartini Jun 20, 2024 ▶ 9:10
Insight
Domartini: Meeting bloat signals unclear roles and a need to reorganize
“So once you get to that stage, it's a sign you need to reorganize. If the meeting goes too big, it's not because, okay, people just want to have more people in the meeting, it's because the roles and responsibilities aren't clear.”
Gilles Domartini Jun 20, 2024 ▶ 15:37
Disclosure
Domartini: Cleeng restructured pricing by benchmarking Salesforce, Looker, and AWS
“Large part of the reorganization on pricing is when we signed the Looker, when we signed the Salesforce. You know, you really go deep as a CEO to understand, okay, but why Salesforce is building like this? Why Looker is building like this? Why AWS is being lik…”
Gilles Domartini Jun 20, 2024 ▶ 18:35
Insight
Domartini: Bureaucracy starts slowing down decisions at just 100 employees
“So very important to I think resist the temptation of a form of bureaucratic model as you grow, and again, hundred employees, not like Microsoft size, but it already starts to wait on, on our capacity to decide effectively.”
Gilles Domartini Jun 20, 2024 ▶ 19:54
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