Hi Reader,
"We chose to not be part of that first cohort that's in kind of like a very commodity race at the bottom."
Martin Gourdeau is the CEO of Vacation Tracker — and the former President and GM of Workleap, who took a year off to figure out what's actually changing in software before picking his next seat.
Before we get to what he did differently — three reflexes most of us share.
→ We compete in the same layer as everyone else in our market — and never actually ask whether that's the right layer to be in.
→ When growth slows, we reach for the same lever our competitors reach for: more features, more market, more headcount. We're surprised when the result looks the same.
→ We tell ourselves we're winning on being better. Our customers can't tell the difference.
Martin made a different call on all three.
- Small is the new edge
After running Workleap, Martin took a year off to study what's actually changing in software. He came back convinced that a 22-person bootstrapped company has an edge most large companies will never get back — speed, focus, and the freedom to bet on a thesis that doesn't have to be defended to a board. He picked Vacation Tracker because of that.
- More headcount isn't more growth
When Martin joined, the company tracked ARR like everyone else — and tied raises to hitting an ARR target. He changed it. Now the metric is ARR-per-head. When the company hits the number, the whole team gets the raise. Growth stops being about hiring more bodies and starts being about every employee getting more strategic.
- Don't fight where everyone else fights
Most SaaS in his category sit at the bottom of the pyramid — doing the paperwork. Solid, but commodity. Martin questioned whether his job was to compete in that layer at all. He looked one or two levels up — from leave-management logistics to energy management. Different layer, different conversation, different competition.
Click here to listen to the full interview with Martin.
Question to reflect upon:
Are you building AI features that cut work out of your customer's day — or features that make your customer worth more to their own company?
The remarkable effect is when your product creates energy for the people using it.
Ton