SaaS and Pandas

Let's begin by getting SaaSy (Software as Service - is there any other kind?).

I caught up with one of the co-founders of Monday.com at its Elevate roadshow, when it hit the Excel in London.

Monday.com is currently valued on Nasdaq at more than $13bn. It makes a highly versatile digital project management tool, which lots of SMEs now use, across many different industries.

Full disclosure, I've never used it - so I did a demo at their conference. I imagine it's a very useful tool for managers trying to keep track of people like me.

I managed to get 45 minutes with Eran Zinman , who is co-CEO of the company as well as co-founder.

We discussed the origins of the company, his attitude of 'radical transparency' with employees, his attitude to failure and his take on 'performance marketing' - and a lot more. Lots of amazing insight from someone who has scaled a start-up to an incredible size.

You can tell he started out as a hands-on coder, though, as he revealed he still likes to sit back sometimes and observe how people use his software products.

It's not often you meet someone who has built a company of this valuation from scratch - a unicorn more than a dozen times over.

Video and podcast to come out soon.

Panda time

You might not think that a firm that makes toilet paper would be tech-focused. But think again!

One of the things I learned from speaking to Julie Chen , who co-founded The Cheeky Panda | Certified B Corp with her husband, is that she is very tech-focused indeed.

I learned several things that surprised me during our conversation at her London HQ offices.

First of all, she is very fascinated by the practical application of AI - and this extends to every aspect of her life. She even uses AI to generate fantastical bedtime stories for her son! Technology applications begin at the home.

She's also developing an internal app for the company that will use AI to share deep knowledge, a tool for onboarding and strengthening company culture.

Tech also ensures that her supply chain of bamboo-created products travels around the world efficiently and on time.

So lots of tech as well as discussion about sourcing sustainable bamboo.

I think we recorded on camera at least two or three potential secrets and I'm yet to choose which one we'll publish for the series. (You can see the growing archive here).

I've been very busy recently and have built up a stockpile of videos and podcasts, so there is something of a log-jam to get them all out.

Come to think of it, I might need a project-management tool like Monday.com to help me!

Next newsletter and more

The next newsletter I can exclusively reveal will document a trip to Paris to visit the mega tech hub that is STATION F .

And I also sampled a second SaaS conference, this time in an immersive art gallery, and paid a visit to a business leader who specialises in what he calls "boring products", like washing-up liquid and lentils (yes lentils, not utensils, actual Puy lentils).

And a few other things you might like to know...

• The Business Leader Summit takes place on 26 March next year. The website is now live if you want to check it out and get early-bird tickets. It is crafted especially for the founders and CEOs of companies with a turnover of between ￡3m and ￡100m. It will address the specific opportunities and challenges that come with trying to scale a mid-sized business.
• Business Leader's list of Billion Pound businesses is now live, check it out
• Our daily newsletter to your email inbox will keep you up to date with the UK's business agenda, sign up here.
• Also, if you are thinking early about a Christmas present for an entrepreneurial loved-one, in that less-than-￡20 sweet spot (including P&P), then the CEO25 promo code still works at Bloomsbury to buy my CEO Secrets hardback book that I did with the BBC. Find it here.