The best SaaS companies are built by leaders and employees who think and act like shareholders. Not because everyone holds equity, but because ownership is a mindset that drives better decisions, sharper focus, and long-term value creation. This mindset was a critical success factor when we built Mintra into a
Partner sales can be a powerful growth lever in SaaS—but only if the model fits your product, market, and maturity. Below are the most common approaches, and how companies organize around them. 1. Referral partners Partners generate leads; you close the deal. * Best for: Early-stage SaaS, simple products * Pros:
We turned Mintra from a consulting-led business into a global SaaS company. This is what we learned. Focus matters more when building SaaS than when running a consulting business. Consulting rewards breadth. SaaS punishes it. In consulting, saying yes often makes sense. New clients, new use cases, new adaptations — all
Exit structures shape behavior long after the deal is signed. How consideration is paid—upfront, over time, or tied to future performance—often matters as much as headline valuation. Below are the most common exit and earn-out models, each with distinct trade-offs in risk, control, and incentives. Straight Exit (Cash
In cognitive science and behavioral economics, loss aversion refers to a cognitive bias in which the same situation is perceived as worse if it is framed as a loss, rather than a gain. Daniel Kahneman’s work on loss aversion shows that losing $100 hurts more than gaining $100 feels
EBITDA shows operating performance. EBITDAC shows true cash-generating ability. EBITDAC = EBITDA before interest, depreciation, amortization, and capitalization. For acquirers, this matters because capitalization policies can materially distort EBITDA: * costs capitalized instead of expensed * aggressive activation of development, software, or project costs * EBITDA inflated by accounting choices, not economics EBITDAC neutralizes
Daniel Kahneman described this as loss aversion: the tendency to experience losses as significantly more painful than equivalent gains are pleasurable. This makes leadership difficult. In management teams and boards, saying yes is easy. Yes to new initiatives, projects, and bets. Saying no—or shutting something down—is harder. That’
When investing, it’s critical to look beyond the idea and the numbers. The leadership team matters most. Strategy will change. Markets will change. But a strong leadership team determines whether a company adapts—or stalls. In Good to Great, Jim Collins puts it simply: “First who, then what.” Get
For years, we competed head-to-head with our rivals. Then we chose to open Trainingportal and invite those same competitors in. We chose to build a marketplace rather than protect a closed channel. We chose to put customer needs ahead of our own comfort. It was not the easiest path. I
For boards, churn should never be viewed as an operational metric alone. It is a strategic signal about product relevance, execution quality, and market fit. High churn rarely means “customers are unhappy” in general. It usually means something more specific: * The company is selling to the wrong segment * Customers don’
NRR tells you whether growth is structural or just sales-driven. It shows what happens to revenue after the contract is signed. * NRR < 100 %: The company is leaking value. New sales are masking churn. * NRR ≈ 100 %: The business is stable, but not compounding. * NRR > 120 %: Customers are expanding. Growth
As more teams hire across borders, most still rely on fragmented solutions: recruiters to find talent, EORs to handle compliance, and internal teams left to stitch everything together. That approach slows hiring, increases risk, and makes global growth harder than it needs to be. Fronted changes that by bringing recruitment,
Leadership is about managing complexity. Reality consists of many moving parts: people, strategy, technology, finance and culture. Everything is interconnected, often in demanding ways. A leader must first understand this whole. See connections, dependencies and contradictions. Understand why something is difficult before trying to solve it. But leadership is not
To succeed, many companies eventually need to separate the SaaS business from the consultancy. A SaaS business needs clarity and protection. It requires a dedicated product roadmap, long-term investment decisions, and incentives that reward scale rather than hours billed. When SaaS lives inside a consultancy, it is constantly exposed to
Leading sales in a SaaS company is about more than closing deals. It’s about building a repeatable, scalable motion that drives long-term growth and retention. 1. Start with ICP and use cases Be explicit about who you sell to and which problems you solve. Sales velocity improves when reps
The Rule of 40 is a widely used performance benchmark for SaaS companies. It provides a balanced view of a company’s ability to combine growth with profitability. Definition A SaaS company is considered financially healthy when the sum of its revenue growth rate and profitability meets or exceeds 40
Chul Christian Aamodt, partner i Metrics Venture was brought in during 2025 to help elevate BI’s entrepreneurial ecosystem, strengthen its connection with students and industry, and expand The Village as a meeting ground for students, academic research, founders, investors and corporates. BI Norwegian Business School will continue throughout 2026,
The three partners in Metrics Venture previously served in the leadership team at Mintra, a global SaaS company with more than 3 million users. 1. Focus beats everything else Growth accelerated once we committed to a single repeatable model and stopped pursuing opportunities outside the core. Saying no became a
Written by: Chul Christian Aamodt, Partner in Metrics Venture With more than 20 years of board experience — and years as a CEO reporting into boards myself — I’ve learned that great board reporting is not about volume, but about clarity, honesty, and actionable leadership. 1. Present the real numbers — not
The idea is simple: the value of a product increases as more people use it. A classic example is the telephone. The very first telephone was almost worthless — it had no one to call. Two phones created some value. Ten made it useful. A million made it indispensable. The same
The shareholder entities behind Metrics Venture are existing investors in RAYVN and are participating in the current equity financing round.
Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) is one of the most important metrics in SaaS. It tells you exactly how much you spend to win a new customer — and how scalable your business really is. If CAC is too high, growth becomes expensive. If CAC is low and predictable, you’ve found
Growing a SaaS company isn’t about more dashboards — it’s about tracking the few metrics that actually predict success. The essentials: * ARR Growth: The simplest measure of momentum. Tells you if the market wants what you’re selling. * Net Retention (NRR): The real health indicator. If customers expand, you’
What Can We Learn from the Nordic Innovation and Start-Up Scene? Join BI Norwegian Business School for a morning dedicated to exploring Nordic collaboration, innovation, and entrepreneurship, specifically exploring venture capital and entrepreneurship education. The event brings together leading voices from Norway and Finland to share insights, strengthen partnerships, and