Of all the episodes that I've published over the past 2 years or so, those that discuss the on-prem to SaaS transition continue to be among the most popular. In this week's episode, I speak to Steve Lau and Rameez Ansari, two entrepreneurs who (very) successfully navigated this transition themselves.

Steve and Rameez purchased, operated, and sold D'Esco (later renamed FieldEdge), from its original founder in 2015 at 5X EBITDA, when its product was entirely on-premise and its revenue was generated solely through the sale of perpetual use licenses. After successfully transitioning the company to one that sold a cloud-based product and generated revenue on a subscription basis, they sold the company to a private equity firm for 8X revenue in 2019.

Even if you're not contemplating operating or investing in a software business, I’d suggest that any CEO, in any industry, ought to pay attention to the lessons that Steve & Rameez learned, especially if they’re considering a transformation of any sort within their own companies: We talk about shifts in organizational culture, changes in salesforce compensation, how to communicate the need for change within a company, how to respect the history and legacy of a business while still keeping an eye towards the future, how non-technical CEOs can run a technically-oriented business, and much much more.

Please enjoy!


Buy at 5X EBITDA, Sell at 8X Revenue: The On-Premise to SaaS Transition of FieldEdge