How Fred Shilmover grew InsightSquared by not going global

Fred Shilmover, CEO of InsightSquared, shares how he has grown the company the past 7 years by staying laser-focused and not expanding globally.

It has been there since day -1, back when Fred applied for an MBA to figure out what SaaS company he wanted to create.

Fred did a proper research what would be of most value to people. Eventually, he figured that to deliver the best value to customers and not have a bloated product, the focus should be only on revenue.

A lucky early sale to a cohort of similar companies showed a pattern that what they were onto made sense. Fred created a prototype putting together loads of spreadsheets and gave that to his co-founders to build a product. In the first year, he made all the sales. Somewhere there Fred made the decision that sales efforts would be focused solely on The North American market.

With that geographical focus, InsightSquared now has close to 1000 customers, has banked $27 million in funding and employs 130 people.

In that, he is a prime example that to grow, SaaS founders have to do less.

Listen to learn how he has kept his focus on:

• Why a CEO should do a tour of duty for all main functions


• How to avoid building the wrong product at the start


• What is the cost of defocusing


• How to manage your appetite when you are hungry for many things


• How the strategy of a company should change through its different stages

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