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Ton Dobbe

Founder / Chief Inspiration Officer at Value Inspiration

Javea, Spain

Ton Dobbe is the founder of Value Inspiration.
In 2017 he saw two fundamental issues:
A) We're living in a world where global problems are just increasing and
B) 90% of startups still fail.

That's where the light went on: Imagine how fast we could solve the world's biggest problems if more SaaS Startups would succeed and gain traction sooner.

Since then he's been on a mission to help fix this. He wrote his book The Remarkable Effect, and established a mastermind/workshop approach to proactively guide B2B SaaS CEOs and their teams in accelerating their mission, and becoming a business the world talks about.

Ton is a strategic product marketing expert with over thirty years of experience in the international enterprise software market. He's the host of the weekly Tech-Entrepreneur on a Mission Podcast and global influencer on Entrepreneurship, Startups, Marketing, and Innovation.

Available For: Advising, Consulting, Speaking
Travels From: Alicante, Spain
Speaking Topics: Success strategies for B2B Software Businesses to stand out and gain predictable traction

Speaking Fee $1,500 (In-Person)

Personal Speaking Website: valueinspiration.com
Ton Dobbe Points
Academic 0
Author 1174
Influencer 105
Speaker 33
Entrepreneur 10
Total 1322

Points based upon Thinkers360 patent-pending algorithm.

Thought Leader Profile

Portfolio Mix

Featured Videos

Back to the Future - Plan your vision instead of from your present
October 27, 2021

Featured Topics

The Remarkable Effect

Remarkable is more than just a word. It’s a vision. It’s the art to create meaningful impact to impact prospects and customers. Being remarkable is something that I believe every software company can achieve. This keynote will give you the inspiration and insights into what it takes to shape a remarkable software business yourself.

Company Information

Company Type: Individual
Minimum Project Size: Undisclosed
Average Hourly Rate: Undisclosed
Number of Employees: Undisclosed
Company Founded Date: Undisclosed
Media Experience: 30 years
Last Media Training: 05/02/2016
Last Media Interview: 08/26/2022

Areas of Expertise

Business Strategy 30.15
Entrepreneurship 99.62
ERP 30.10
Innovation 53.98
Leadership 31.25
Marketing 47.57
Sales 44.42
Startups 100
Culture 30.18
Mergers and Acquisitions 30.44
Management 30.26

Industry Experience

Engineering & Construction
Federal & Public Sector
Higher Education & Research
Professional Services

Publications

217 Article/Blogs
How do you know you have a positioning problem for your SaaS product?
Ton Dobbe
March 19, 2024
If everything in your SaaS business goes smoothly, there’s no need to mess around with your Positioning. However, if not, Positioning is a very powerful measure for fixing problems at their core.
Poor Positioning is not a marketing problem; it is a business strategy problem. It’s often way easier to treat symptoms instead of root problems.

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Tags: Entrepreneurship, Marketing, Startups

How to prevent a Net Revenue Retention downfall in B2B SaaS?
Ton Dobbe
February 02, 2024
David Spitz, shared his prediction on the NRR free fall. “The median dropped 7% for 113% – and the prediction is it will drop to 105%.” It is driving more and more startups and scaleups to act under pressure to increase their profitability and Free Cash Flow (FCF) margins.

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Tags: Entrepreneurship, Management, Startups

How to tune your SaaS roadmap to maximize launch potential.
Ton Dobbe
December 19, 2023
Recently, Derek Osgood, CEO of Ignite posted this on Linkedin:

80+% of features are never adopted (Pendo)
40+% of new products fail to meet targets (Mckinsey)

I knew the numbers weren't rosy, but this bad!?! What's worse - the real impact is way bigger. This is just the tip of the iceberg.
So the million-dollar question becomes - how can you prevent this? To answer this is what this essay is about. To provide you the guidance to solve it once and for all. 

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Tags: Entrepreneurship, Innovation, Startups

What Metrics help best to achieve Predictable SaaS Growth?
Ton Dobbe
November 25, 2023
A question I regularly get is: “What metrics should we track to understand if we’re on the right track toward predictable SaaS growth?”

Enough has been written about the basic SaaS metrics: Monthly Recurring Revenue (MRR), Net Revenue Retention (NRR), Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC), Customer Lifetime Value (CLV), and the list goes on.

And while they are essential, they’re still insufficient to prevent too many B2B SaaS companies from getting into trouble. Just keep your ear out for all the stories about the decline and stress many SaaS founders have dealt with over the past 12 months.

The quality of each metric mentioned above is heavily influenced by the action that we put in to not only make it grow (or decline) – but make it grow sustainably. And that’s where the problem hides.

To help solve this problem, I decided to dedicate this essay to detailing 5 uncommon metrics to consider to influence predictable SaaS growth.

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Tags: Entrepreneurship, Sales, Startups

How to become the best at solving your customers’ problems?
Ton Dobbe
November 04, 2023
As you and I know, a lot of the success of a SaaS business is related to the problem you solve. I talked about that many times.

But as always, the devil is in the details, meaning – if you get your problem statement wrong, it instantly lowers your chances of success. And believe me or not – many things can go wrong and do go wrong JUST on the level of problem definition.

That’s why I decided to dedicate this essay to that problem – to give you a framework. A framework you can use when you’re defining your roadmap, updating a landing page, creating a campaign, or just doing a sales discovery call with a prospect.

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Tags: Entrepreneurship, Marketing, Startups

The issue with Qualification in B2B SaaS midmarket + up
Ton Dobbe
October 10, 2023
How to avoid making costly mistakes in your SaaS qualification process?

What those traps are – and how you can avoid them is what I focus on in this essay. I’ll dive deep into the art of qualification in B2B SaaS – particularly in the mid-market and up.

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Tags: Entrepreneurship, Sales, Startups

How to avoid stagnation of your SaaS business?
Ton Dobbe
September 18, 2023
Stagnation – it’s a complex topic that’s very much driven by factors out of your control. There are the many dynamics that characterize your market: the cyclical shifts, perhaps unexpected economic shocks, structural factors such as demographics and globalization, etcetera. The fact is – these can not be excuses for allowing stagnation to happen in your SaaS business.

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Tags: Entrepreneurship, Sales, Startups

The power of surprise to spark momentum in B2B SaaS
Ton Dobbe
August 24, 2023
Remarkable software businesses don’t stop by creating a solid product, being crystal clear, and making their offer hard to resist.

They know their momentum grows when people talk about them, not because you (contractually) ask them, but because they want to.

It works for them in good times but even better in times of crisis.

It goes back to the power of trust: In times of crisis, trust erodes – we shrink ourselves, are more protective, risk-averse, and only trust our inner circle – our peers and friends. But once a peer shares his positive experiences, we listen – and often act.

The big question is: what makes people talk about your SaaS?

And one way to do that is by doing the unexpected, i.e., surprise.

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Tags: Entrepreneurship, Marketing, Startups

How to create defensible differentiation in your SaaS business?
Ton Dobbe
July 18, 2023
How to create defensible differentiation? It’s one of the most valuable questions to answer for a SaaS founder.

Here’s why:

If your product is hard to copy:

You have a market access advantage over alternative solutions
You have a resource advantage over alternative solutions
You have a price advantage over alternative solutions
Defensible differentiation is what I always look for in my (re)positioning projects. Because what’s positioning worth if a competitor can ‘catch up’ just by changing some words?

My golden rule: The most potent positioning is when your ideal customer’s reaction is: “I need this!” and your competitor’s response is: “We’re in trouble…”

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Tags: Entrepreneurship, Marketing, Startups

The art of demand creation in B2B SaaS
Ton Dobbe
June 01, 2023
Far too often, we’re just capturing demand rather than creating it. That’s OK when the market conditions are favorable, but you’ll be the first to get harmed when the market isn’t favorable.
That doesn’t have to be – as long as you recognize this: When demand weakens,…It is very often not about ‘the market.’ It is very often also not about your product. It is about your ability to refocus on the most valuable problem to solve.
It might very well be that: Your ICP has shifted. The dynamics have shifted their aspirations. The critical problem has shifted – what was hot last quarter doesn’t have to be today. Their options have shifted – you used to be the go-to vendor, but new competition has stolen your edge.
It is what makes running a SaaS business fascinating – there’s so much opportunity to create demand. […]

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Tags: Entrepreneurship, Marketing, Startups

How to accelerate the sales process in B2B SaaS?
Ton Dobbe
May 05, 2023
The biggest thing that causes failure in a lot of companies is just poor sales process and bad sales process.

Sales is actually your first problem as a CEO that you need to address and get right.

And then, when you got that right, then you’ve got time to get your other bits right. But if you get sales wrong, you don’t really have much of a chance.

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Tags: Entrepreneurship, Sales, Startups

How can you become the obvious choice in your category?
Ton Dobbe
April 13, 2023
Standing out in B2B SaaS is one thing, but becoming the obvious choice is the next level to aim for.

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Tags: Marketing, Sales, Startups

How to approach SaaS pricing if you want customers to happily pay a premium
Ton Dobbe
March 16, 2023
One of the biggest problems I see B2B SaaS companies struggle with is the wrong debates about their pricing.
The value delivered is often entirely out of sync with the charged price. And with that, the bulk of SaaS companies leave money on the table.
In this blog I address the challenge: how to approach pricing if you want customers to happily pay a premium?

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Tags: Entrepreneurship, Sales, Startups

How to create predictable traction in a new SaaS category?
Ton Dobbe
February 23, 2023
You start with a big idea, something that will create a shift in value in the market. And you create a product that once customers see in action, they can’t imagine a life without.

The typical reaction you get: “I’d never even imagined this was possible – let alone thinking there were solutions out there I could even buy.”

All cool, but if no one realizes what you do is possible, how do you grow predictable traction?

In short, there is a playbook of 6 critical steps […]

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Tags: Startups, Marketing, Entrepreneurship

How to achieve and maintain the strongest Product-Market Fit in B2B SaaS
Ton Dobbe
January 24, 2023
A couple of weeks ago, my CEO Mastermind triggered a good discussion on Product Market Fit again – and it has kept me thinking since.

It reminded me of my interview with Shikhar Shrestha, CEO of Ambient, who said this about it.

‘Over time, the success or failure of a SaaS company really depends on the strength of the product-market fit.’

What fascinates me is this:

What defines that strength? How can we ensure we start off with the strongest possible product-market fit and maintain it over time? Cause at the end, it’s a moving target, right?

To answer that question, I thought about the key questions to raise. You'll find them answered in this long-from blog.

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Tags: Entrepreneurship, Marketing, Startups

SaaS Product Differentiation Vs Making A Difference
Ton Dobbe
December 28, 2022
Whenever I speak with B2B SaaS founders around ‘differentiation,’ the conversation goes toward ‘the competition.’ “Here’s how we are different from competitor X or Y.”

My POV – who cares?! It doesn’t mind how you’re SaaS product is different than your competitors. It only matters in the mind of the customers – and then it’s about something completely different.

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Tags: Entrepreneurship, Marketing, Startups

Mastering the art of B2B Positioning
Ton Dobbe
December 10, 2022
Over the past 30 years, I’ve come to experience how powerful positioning is – and how critical the topic is to excel in the B2B software world.

What I do see, however, is that it’s often done away with as ‘that’s marketing fluff,’ or ‘our positioning is clear enough: We’re the only unified [name your] platform that unifies and analyses [name your] data,’ – which, honestly, makes me cringe.

And that’s why I decided to outline what B2B positioning is, why B2B positioning is important, and how to go about creating a positioning strategy that underpins predictable traction and growth of your SaaS startup.

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Tags: Entrepreneurship, Marketing, Startups

Scaling a B2B SaaS business to create remarkable leverage
Ton Dobbe
December 01, 2022
“One thing that SaaS startups need to think about more is how to get leverage. But, unfortunately, most companies focus on throwing people at the problem and not getting more leverage.”

It’s a quote from Auren Hoffman, CEO of SafeGraph – and it has stuck with me since I heard it.

Here’s the thing.

We often think about growing our SaaS business in terms of increasing ARR and MRR. But is doubling your ARR good if this also means doubling the number of people you need to deliver it?

Auren elaborated on this:

One of the key metrics we focus on is revenue per employee. Unfortunately, for many companies, that number stays the same over time. So often we talk about success, stating we have 1000 people in our company. To me, that’s a failure.

Every time you have to hire someone, it means that you don’t have the systems and that you have to have humans do it. Every time you hire somebody is going to be harder to communicate internally. That’s not sustainable long term.

Just think about it. You’re growing but actually slowing down your business. That’s not what your target customers want, not what your employees want, and not what you want. As they say: it doesn’t scale.

So how to go about it? How do you scale a B2B SaaS business?

That’s what I aim to answer in this blog.

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Tags: Entrepreneurship, Marketing, Startups

Designing your SaaS business to create predictable traction.
Ton Dobbe
October 25, 2022
You started your SaaS business…The goal: Create change that will be noticed…
You spotted this massive problem that was screaming to be solved…. and decided to take that challenge.
But as much as the good intentions drive the start…. sooner rather than later, problems arise… Traction problems.
Getting traction is challenging, in various stages of your business. Keeping it and making it predictable is even harder. And the stress it gives harms our good intentions.

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Tags: Entrepreneurship, Sales, Startups

How to avoid getting caught in the vicious cycle of desperately chasing SaaS funding?
Ton Dobbe
September 27, 2022
If you look at the funding needs of your SaaS business – is it driven by desperation or from a source of strength? Answering the question is an easy one. It’s a feeling that’s pretty black or white. For many SaaS founders, unfortunately, the feeling is one of increased desperation. The pressure to meet expectations often forces us to make decisions to fix the short term, that harm our long-term trajectory. How do you avoid this – that’s the big question. That’s what I aim to answer in this blog. Here are the 7 habits to embrace.

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Tags: Entrepreneurship, Startups

The ultimate guide to tuning your B2B SaaS Segmentation
Ton Dobbe
September 01, 2022
Leveraging Segmentation to impact every metric of your SaaS business

I’ve often reflected on the topic of Segmentation. The thought that sparked this blog came after realizing that the bulk of SaaS businesses I spot get it wrong – or better, not perfectly right.

The art is in getting it ‘perfectly right.’ Every inch you’re off harms performance. Just think of:

The unnecessary waste of your marketing budget preaching to a far too broad segment that will never buy
1- Poor quality ‘leads’ in your pipeline that are better off with your competitor, driving down sales performance
2 - The waste of efforts in an attempt to satisfy customers that will never become ambassadors
3 - The pollution of your product roadmap with feature requests that are pure one-offs
4 - Dealing with the wrong customers will eventually result in higher than the average churn rate

These examples negatively impact CAC, MRR, ARR, NRR, NPS, CLTV, and Gross Margin – to name a few metrics.

The problem: Most SaaS startups think they’ve defined their Segmentation deep enough.

“We’re focused on this [industry], in this [region] and in particular on organizations in this [revenue-band] that employ [xxxxx] employees” is what I hear 99%.

At the surface, this seems pretty detailed – but believe it or not, often, it still leads to a funnel that’s loaded with waste, and that’s where all the metric problems start.

Seeing the metrics getting worse often leads to the measures that worsen things even more: Widening the Segmentation to address an even larger market. You can imagine what there this leads to.

So let’s get back to the objective of getting this right: It is to identify high-yield segments- that is, those segments that incorporate your most valuable customers, that are likely to be the most profitable, and/or that have the highest growth potential.

That’s not easy – and a question I, therefore, often get is: How do you segment a market in B2B SaaS?

To address this, I’ve decided to help you solve this problem. The answer is in narrowing down – getting laser-specific across five layers. The magic is not in picking ‘the right layer’ but in how you blend them as a cocktail.

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Tags: Marketing, Sales, Startups

How to turn a market downturn into your tailwind in SaaS
Ton Dobbe
May 19, 2022
What can we do different to grow resilience in periods of crisis?

You might know I am writing my second book, themed “Remarkable Resilience,” and in essence, I aim to answer the key question: What are the secrets SaaS businesses leverage to not only bounce back from adversity but to come out stronger as a whole.

A big aspect of addressing this challenge is the question: How can we keep growing ARR momentum and more specifically: How to make a market downturn your tailwind? So this is what I’m addressing in this blog

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Tags: Entrepreneurship, Marketing, Startups

5 strategies to optimally position your B2B SaaS business
Ton Dobbe
April 21, 2022
In the past weeks I've contributed my posts to different ways of positioning. Today I bring it all together - 5 strategies to optimally position your B2B SaaS business

One thing you'll learn from reading this blog is that it all starts with recognizing what’s creating the traction problem in your business:

...Not getting enough of the right, high-quality leads is often not solved by throwing in yet another campaign

...Long sales cycles or low win rates are often not solved by throwing salespeople out and hiring new

...Challenging product adoption is often not the fault of the quality of your development department

More often than not it comes down to foundational problems – and weak product or brand positioning is one of them.

The second thing to embrace is that positioning is not about you, it’s about your ideal customer. It’s about taking position about what they deeply care about and how that helps to paint the right reference point in the mind of the prospect.

This is about empathy. About deeply understanding the problems that they perceive most valuable and critical to solving. Your positioning goldmine is hidden inside that knowledge.

Thirdly it’s about choosing your positioning angle:
︎ Position yourself around what your ideal customers stand for
︎ Position around what your ideal customers secretly want
︎ Position around the essence of the most valuable problem your customer wants to be solved
︎ Position around the values your customer embraces to stand out
︎ Or any combination of the above

And lastly, it’s about tuning for impact i.e. working on the key ingredients that make your positioning remarkable.

Strengthening your value foundation in this way is extremely valuable and brings numerous results. It's what underpins the SaaS businesses no one can ignore.

What if that was your SaaS business....?

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Tags: Entrepreneurship, Marketing, Startups

What’s stopping B2B SaaS companies from growing traction?
Ton Dobbe
March 15, 2022
I recently asked the question on Linkedin: What do you believe is the prime reason so many B2B SaaS startups fail? I mean, year after year, the statistics keep showing the depressing number that only 10% eventually succeeds, and 90% fail. VCs and Investors are actually calculating their odds on the back of this wisdom…

The #1 reason mentioned: the inability to gain enough traction in MRR and ARR in a given period.

It wasn’t a surprise. But unfortunately, for many of the B2B SaaS I work with, this is not their prime strength – in fact, it’s their weakness for many. So, in this blog, I want to dig deeper into some of the underlying factors that have a leverage effect on helping to create ‘enough’ traction and beat the benchmarks.

Leverage factor 1: Enough Product-Market fit
Leverage factor 2: Being clear which customer group(s) perceive the value of your solution 10x of that of alternatives (segmentation)
Leverage factor 3: Your ability to stand out in front of your ideal customer (positioning)
Leverage factor 4: Your ability to hit the right nerve (Messaging)
Leverage factor 5: Repeat – leverage your traction.

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Tags: Entrepreneurship, Marketing, Startups

How to avoid losing your edge in B2B SaaS?
Ton Dobbe
February 24, 2022
It hurts my heart when I see high-potential SaaS vendors slowly lose their edge.

I think we’ve all seen the examples. And you wonder: What happened? How could this have gone wrong?
That’s what I aim to explore with this blog.

Let’s start with my own experiences. I know there are many reasons where things can go south. One, however, what I’ve seen particularly hurtful is when a great idea pops up, and then, without even realizing it, we tone it down until it becomes mediocre…

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Tags: Entrepreneurship, Innovation, Startups

1 Book
The Remarkable Effect
The Choir Press
February 02, 2020
Remarkable is more than just a word. It's a vision. It's the art to create meaningful impact to prospects and customers. Being remarkable is something that I believe every company can achieve. The Remarkable Effect was written to help tech-entrepreneurs-on-a-mission shape the software business they've always aspired to run: Remarkable and Impactful.

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Tags: Entrepreneurship, Marketing, Startups

1 Industry Certification
The GC People Leader Series meets…Game Changer Ton Dobbe
Dialog Review
August 05, 2020
In this edition of The GC Index People Leader Series Lucy Brown talks to Ton Dobbe, Founder and Chief Inspiration Officer at Value Inspiration about what it is to be a leader and how his natural proclivities support his effectiveness as a leader.

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Tags: Entrepreneurship, Innovation, Leadership

15 Influencer Awards
Top 50 Global Thought Leaders and Influencers on Entrepreneurship (August 2021)
Thinkers360
August 01, 2021

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Tags: Entrepreneurship

Top 50 Global Thought Leaders and Influencers on AI (June 2021)
Thinkers360
June 19, 2021

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Tags: AI

Top 50 Global Thought Leaders and Influencers on Smart Cities (February 2021)
Thinkers360
February 12, 2021

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Tags: Smart Cities

50 Books from Thinkers360 Thought Leaders You Should Read in 2021
Thinkers360
December 03, 2020

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Tags: Entrepreneurship

#6 Global Thought Leaders and Influencers on Marketing (August 2020)
Thinkers360
August 09, 2020

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Tags: Marketing

Top 50 Global Thought Leaders and Influencers on Digital Disruption (July 2020)
Thinkers360
July 27, 2020

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Tags: Digital Disruption

Top 50 Global Thought Leaders and Influencers on Emerging Technology (April 2020)
Thinkers360
April 05, 2020

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Tags: Emerging Technology

100 B2B Thought Leaders and Influencers to Follow in 2020
Thinkers360
December 30, 2019

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Tags: Entrepreneurship

#7 Global Thought Leaders and Influencers on Innovation (November 2019)
Thinkers360
November 19, 2019

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Tags: Innovation

Top 50 Global Thought Leaders and Influencers on Blockchain (November 2019)
Thinkers360
November 16, 2019

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Tags: Blockchain

Top 50 Global Thought Leaders and Influencers on Innovation (November 2019)
Thinkers360
November 11, 2019

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Tags: Innovation

#3 Global Thought Leaders and Influencers on Artificial Intelligence (September 2019)
Thinkers360
September 21, 2019

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Tags: AI

Top 20 Global Thought Leaders and Influencers on FinTech (March 2019)
Thinkers360
March 01, 2019

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Tags: FinTech

Top 20 Global Thought Leaders on Blockchain (November 2018
Thinkers360
November 01, 2018

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Tags: Blockchain

#1 Global Thought Leaders on AI
Thinkers360
October 04, 2018
Proud to be ranked #1 on the Thinkers360 leaderboard for global thought leaders on AI for October 2018

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Tags: AI

3 Keynotes
We’re at a stage where tech has the power to amplify people’s skills beyond their natural limits
Value Inspiration
October 11, 2018
Exponential results are created when humans and machines work together.
Once you combine these powers together it magnifies the core strengths that we have forgotten about
Our Creativity strengths…
 
That’s what we should strive for.

Intelligence augmentation is where we should focus the discussion
To build solutions that make people better – not just automate them out of a process

Once we do that, we’ll create a world that’s fun to work and live in

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Tags: Entrepreneurship, Marketing, Startups

How do organisations go "Back to the Future"
CIO Conference 2017
April 16, 2017
How do organisations go "Back to the Future" and combat disruption in their sector? Ton Dobbe, Chief Evangelist, Unit4 explains.

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Tags: Digital Transformation, Digital Disruption, Innovation

Start planning from your vision, rather than your present
IDG
July 14, 2016
Digital Transformation drives the agenda of (m)any organization(s). It's a critical undertaking to stay relevant in a world that's where nothing appears to remain the same as digital innovation is reshaping the markets we operate in, the competition we face, and the business models we've become so familiar with. But how do you go about - what are the do’s and don’ts?
In this keynote, I take your audience on a journey and inspire them with examples of successful transformations where the mantra was: Start planning from your vision, instead of from your present.

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Tags: Innovation, Startups, Entrepreneurship, Sales

9 Media Interviews
Bits About Books: In Conversation with Ton Dobbe
Subhanjan Sarkar
April 08, 2023
In Conversation with Ton Dobbe, Author, "The Remarkable Effect". He speaks to Subhanjan Sarkar in this episode on his book, "The Remarkable Effect"

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Tags: Marketing, Sales, Startups

The Wicked Podcast #34 - Ton Dobbe: The Remarkable Effect
The Wicked Podcast - Markus Kirsch
February 23, 2021
We talk to Ton Dobbe, product specialist and startup consultant about how to make your product or service relevant to your customers.

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Tags: Entrepreneurship, Marketing, Startups

Reality Check Leadership podcast - E17 - Ton Dobbe
The Reality Check Leadership Podcast
January 19, 2021
This week our incredible guest is Ton Dobbe!

If you don’t know who is Ton Dobbe I’d like to invite you to check on his podcast (Tech Entrepeneur on a mission), his book (The remarkable effect), his company (Value inspiration), and his feed here on Linkedin

We have shared paths a couple of years ago and the first time I saw Ton he was on stage giving an incredible inspiring keynote about ERPs future!!! (normally a not so exciting theme on a keynote format!). Well, guess what… Ton made it exciting and he definitively inspired me to look to that business in a different way. We kept in touch ever since.

Passioned by business he dedicates his life in helping software businesses and their leaders to create remarkable products while working on the transformative ways to get there.
We had a really cool conversation about leadership and the effects of positive and negative leadership on teams and businesses. We also took the opportunity to share our common thoughts about José Duarte, CEO of Infovista who has been for me one of the most inspirational leaders I’ve ever worked with!!

A quote: “A team that works together and collaboratively always wins!”

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Tags: Entrepreneurship, Leadership, Startups

What Makes a Great Software Business | With Expert Ton Dobbe
SaaS District
January 08, 2021
Ton Dobbe is an author, podcast host, speaker & founder of value inspiration, a growth consultancy focused tech-entrepreneurs where they help B2B software CEO’s grow their businesses.

Ton believes that the future belongs to software businesses that create products worth making a remark about.

Ton is also the founder of the Tech-entrepreneur-on-a-mission tribe, a community focused on delivering the vision behind your software company with more impact and accelerating growth trajectory. He’s also the author of “the remarkable effect”, what he describes as the essential book for tech entrepreneurs on a mission.

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Tags: Entrepreneurship, Marketing, Startups

Full Episode: Tech Entrepreneurship 2020 & The Remarkable Effect | Tech Entrepreneur Talk
SaugaTalks
September 10, 2020
Full Episode: SaugaTalks with Ton Dobbe.

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Tags: Entrepreneurship, Marketing, Startups

How to build a remarkable company with Ton Dobbe, keynote speaker and author (MDE386)
MinterDialogue
September 05, 2020
Minter Dialogue Episode #386

Ton Dobbe is an expert in developing software companies, founder of the boutique Value Inspiration agency, a keynote speaker, podcaster and the author of The Remarkable Effect: The Essential Book for Tech-Entrepreneurs-on-a-Mission. In this conversation, we discuss how and why Ton wrote his book, what it takes to build a successful software company (where per Ton all companies are going to become at least in part a software company), and how to become a remarkable company.

Please send me your questions -- as an audio file if you'd like -- to nminterdial@gmail.com. Otherwise, below, you’ll find the show notes and, of course, you are invited to comment. If you liked the podcast, please take a moment to rate and/or review it here: https://ratethispodcast.com/mdial.

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Tags: Entrepreneurship, Marketing, Startups

New Normal: Ton Dobbe of Value Inspiration
Deal Architect - Vinnie Mirchandani
July 09, 2020
Ton Dobbe, Chief Inspiration Officer at Value Inspiration talks to Vinnie Mirchandani of Deal Architect about heroics he has seen acrobatics he has seen during the COVID-19 crisis at startups he follows.

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Tags: Entrepreneurship, Innovation, Startups

Thought Leader Interview with Ton Dobbe, Chief Inspiration Officer, Value Inspiration
Thinkers360
May 28, 2019
Thinkers360 Interviews profile prominent members of the Thinkers360 community who embody the power of ideas in their work. In this edition, we speak with Ton Dobbe, Chief Inspiration Officer, Value Inspiration.

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Tags: Entrepreneurship, Marketing, Startups

Standing out in a crowded marketplace with Ton Dobbe
Dr. Diane Hamilton
March 08, 2019
As the marketplace becomes more crowded, many organizations find it harder and harder to stand out. If they do not rise above, this will cause for momentum and the creation of products to stop altogether. Recognizing this problem, Ton Dobbe, Chief Inspiration Officer at Value Inspiration, helps CEOs stand out in their category, most especially those in the software industry. Ton talks about getting CEOs to become more innovative. He lays down the common mistakes organizations make when it comes to their foundational ideas and gives out great points to think about in order to overcome those.

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Tags: Entrepreneurship, Marketing, Startups

298 Podcasts
#306 - Vinnie Mirchandani, CEO Deal Architect - on seizing emerging opportunities.
Ton Dobbe
March 27, 2024
An exploration on how to navigate the complexities of the market and build a resilient SaaS business.

This podcast outlines key strategies for SaaS CEOs to explore in 2024 to optimally prepare for 2025. My guest is Vinnie Mirchandani, Founder of Deal Architect.

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Tags: Entrepreneurship, Leadership, Startups

#305 - Dean Guida, CEO Infragistics - on business resilience
Ton Dobbe
March 20, 2024
A story about a software business that has been gaining strength for over 3 decades.

This podcast interview focuses on the resilience lessons learned from running a successful business software company for +34 years. My guest is Dean Guida, CEO of Infragistics.

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Tags: Entrepreneurship, Leadership, Startups

#303 - Rory Codrington, CEO of Trust Keith - on building an exceptional SaaS business.
Ton Dobbe
March 06, 2024
A story of how to build a successful SaaS company with 80%+ Gross Margins

This podcast interview focuses on the entrepreneurial journey to become a trusted brand in a heavily competitive and unsexy market. My guest is Rory Codrington, Founder of Trust Keith.

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Tags: Entrepreneurship, Marketing, Startups

#302 - Ron Gidron, CEO of Xtype on creating ecosystem success.
Ton Dobbe
February 28, 2024
A story about growing traction in a multi-billion dollar platform ecosystem.

This podcast interview focuses on the entrepreneurial journey to create a serious business by daring to focus on some fundamental flaws of one enterprise platform. My guest is Ron Gidron, Founder and CEO of Xtype.

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Tags: Entrepreneurship, Marketing, Startups

#301 - Jason Cohen, Founder WPEngine - on building profitable businesses.
Ton Dobbe
February 21, 2024
A story about the critical lessons learned from +20 years of tech-entrepreneurship.

This podcast interview focuses on the entrepreneurial journey to build a business that lasts and creates funding freedom. My guest is Jason Cohen, Founder of WPEngine.

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Tags: Entrepreneurship, Marketing, Startups

#300 - The most valuable advice from 23 B2B SaaS CEOs
Ton Dobbe
February 14, 2024
26 hand-picked Don'ts & Do's from the last 100 editions.

Welcome to episode 300 of the Tech-entrepreneur on a mission podcast.

Because this is a big milestone on the journey I didn’t want to devote this podcast to one guest – instead, I got 23 B2B SaaS CEOs on the mic.

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Tags: Entrepreneurship, Leadership, Startups

#299 - Matt Holland, CEO, Field Effect - on turning a market upside down.
Ton Dobbe
February 07, 2024
A story about making the cybersecurity problem go away for the price of a cup of coffee a week.

This podcast interview focuses on the entrepreneurial journey to deliver on the promise of offering the best cybersecurity service in the world. My guest is Matt Holland, CEO of Field Effect.

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Tags: Entrepreneurship, Marketing, Startups

#298 - Aditya Varanasi, CEO Awarity - on democratizing marketing
Ton Dobbe
January 31, 2024
A story about a corporate branding expert taking it up for the small ones: making world-class marketing affordable for everyone.

This podcast interview focuses on the entrepreneurial journey and critical choices that were required to sustainably enable small businesses to compete with the big ones. My guest is Aditya Varanasi, CEO of Awarity.

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Tags: Entrepreneurship, Marketing, Startups

#297 - Jonny White, CEO Ticket Tailor - Making Growth on Purpose work.
Ton Dobbe
January 24, 2024
A story about creating cycles of positivity to create a flywheel for growth.

This podcast interview focuses on the entrepreneurial journey to make the biggest possible impact as a business in the most positive way. My guest is Jonny White, CEO of Ticket Tailor.

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Tags: Entrepreneurship, Sales, Startups

#296 - Mads Wedderkopp, CEO of Dreaminfluence - on creating a growth machine.
Ton Dobbe
January 17, 2024
A story about using unconventional techniques to turn a SaaS company around in no time.

This podcast interview focuses on the entrepreneurial journey to turn a B2B SaaS company with negative growth into a sustainable growth machine in less than a year. My guest is Mads Wedderkopp, CEO of Dreaminfluence.

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Tags: Entrepreneurship, Sales, Startups

#295 - Aaron McReynolds, CEO of Alysio - on competitive drive to fuel Sales innovation.
Ton Dobbe
January 10, 2024
A story about redefining sales productivity and individual success.

This podcast interview focuses on the entrepreneurial journey to help overcome performance challenges in SaaS revenue operations. My guest is Aaron McReynolds, Co-Founder and CEO of Alysio.

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Tags: Entrepreneurship, Sales, Startups

#294 - Sharekh Shaikh, CEO of CleverX - on breaking 30 years of Status Quo
Ton Dobbe
January 03, 2024
A story about solving a $55 Billion trust issue in the research industry.

This podcast interview focuses on the entrepreneurial journey to change the status quo of an industry that hasn’t changed in 3 decades.

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Tags: Entrepreneurship, Innovation, Startups

#293 - Juha Berghäll, CEO ONEiO - on Cannibalizing your own business
Ton Dobbe
December 20, 2023
A story about moving away from a red ocean to create a solution so valuable customers say it's 'too good to be true.'

This podcast interview focuses on product innovation that has the power to plug directly into the services of IT suppliers around the globe at the click of a button. My guest is Juha Berghäll, Co-founder and CEO of ONEiO

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Tags: Entrepreneurship, Innovation, Startups

#292 - Guy Cohen, CEO Wonder - on curiosity and innovation.
Ton Dobbe
December 13, 2023
A story about creating a better world by helping people to ask more, better questions.

In this podcast interview we explore the journey of building a B2B SaaS business around the bold mission of making the world a little more curious. My guest is Guy Cohen, CEO of Wonder.

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Tags: Entrepreneurship, Innovation, Startups

#291 - Graham Hogg, CEO, See6 - on leveraging first mover advantage.
Ton Dobbe
December 06, 2023
A story about becoming 'the one' in a vertical by living the vertical in everything you do.

This podcast interview focuses on product innovation that has the power to prepare for tomorrow while successfully managing the present. My guest is Graham Hogg, CEO of See6.

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Tags: Entrepreneurship, Sales, Startups

#290 - Joe Lewin, CEO Foundy - on enabling life-changing moments in SaaS
Ton Dobbe
November 29, 2023
A story about building a trusted place to grow, buy, and sell SaaS businesses.

This podcast interview focuses on product innovation that has the power to buy and sell SaaS businesses in less than 30 days. My guest is Joe Lewin, CEO Foundy.

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Tags: Entrepreneurship, Mergers and Acquisitions, Startups

#289 – George Huff, CEO Opal – on reinventing his SaaS business.
Ton Dobbe
November 22, 2023
A story about taking a SaaS business from a period of downswing into solid momentum for the future.

This podcast interview focuses on product innovation that has the power for marketing teams to work better together. My guest is George Huff, CEO of Opal.

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Tags: Entrepreneurship, Marketing, Startups

#288 – Jon Ricketts, CEO of Writerly – on building defensible differentiation.
Ton Dobbe
November 15, 2023
A story about how to succeed in a generative AI market seeing a tsunami of companies being released.

This podcast interview focuses on product innovation that gives creators the power to supercharge their productivity. My guest is Jon Ricketts, Co-founder and CEO of Writerly.

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Tags: Entrepreneurship, Marketing, Startups

#287 – Melissa Kwan, CEO of eWebinar – on living the Bootstrapped SaaS dream.
Ton Dobbe
November 08, 2023
A story about creating a remarkable SaaS business while keeping personal and professional freedom.

This podcast interview focuses on product innovation that has the power to run hundreds of engaging webinars without having to be there. My guest is Melissa Kwan, CEO of eWebinar.

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Tags: Entrepreneurship, Marketing, Startups

#286 – Yoav Vilner, CEO of Walnut – on creating a new SaaS category
Ton Dobbe
November 01, 2023
A story about taking a market by surprise by being remarkable in everything they do.

This podcast interview focuses on product innovation that has the power to create interactive and personalized product demos that prospects will love. My guest is Yoav Vilner, Co-founder and CEO of Walnut.

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Tags: Entrepreneurship, Sales, Startups

#285 – Doug Camplejohn, CEO at Airspeed – on creating magic moments
Ton Dobbe
October 25, 2023
A story about how to leverage technology to build phenomenal cultures in a remote-first world.
This podcast interview focuses on product innovation that has the power to improve your team’s happiness, engagement, and collaboration. My guest is Doug Camplejohn, CEO at Airspeed.

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Tags: Entrepreneurship, Innovation, Startups

#284 - Josh Haynam, CEO Interact- on building a SaaS business that customers love.
Ton Dobbe
October 18, 2023
A story about bootstrapping a successful SaaS business that nobody believed in.

This podcast interview focuses on product innovation that has the power to increase your business visibility and tap into viral possibilities. My guest is Josh Haynam, Co-founder and CEO of Interact.

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Tags: Entrepreneurship, Marketing, Startups

#283 – Joel Stevenson, CEO of Yesware – on competing in a dense market
Ton Dobbe
October 11, 2023
A story about the puzzle to solve to find product market fit and create defensible differentiation.

This podcast interview focuses on product innovation that has the power to enable Sales Teams to do meaningful email outreach at scale. My guest is Joel Stevenson, CEO of Yesware.

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Tags: Entrepreneurship, Sales, Startups

#282 – Stijn Hendrikse, Author T2D3 – on scaling a B2B SaaS business
Ton Dobbe
October 04, 2023
A story about the the essentials to take B2B SaaS companies into growth stage after finding Product Market Fit.

This podcast interview focuses on the art of successfully scaling a B2B SaaS business. My guest is Stijn Hendrikse, Author of T2D3.

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Tags: Entrepreneurship, Marketing, Startups

#281 – Kelsey Bishop, CEO Candor on making the dreams happen
Ton Dobbe
September 20, 2023
A story about leveraging a bootstrapped mindset inside a funded business creates remarkable value

This podcast interview focuses on product innovation that has the power to put your team culture on autopilot, share authentically, and discover how to work better together. My guest is Kelsey Bishop, Founder and CEO of Candor.

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Tags: Culture, Entrepreneurship, Startups

1 Speaking Engagement
How to Differentiate from the Competition - with Ton Dobbe
Matt Wollach
March 07, 2023
In this week’s episode of Scale Your SaaS with B2B SaaS sales coach Matt Wolach, we sit down with Ton Dobbe, author of the book "The Remarkable Effect" and Chief Inspiration Officer and Founder at Value Inspiration, to discuss the importance of customer segmentation and creating loyal fans for your software product.

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Tags: Marketing, Sales, Startups

1 Video
A key takeaway from my interview with Ofer Tziperman, CEO of Anagog
YouTube
July 13, 2020
Espresso moment with Ton!
It's time for a short break so here's a quick take away that inspired me from my interview with Ofer Tziperman, CEO of Anagog (link to the full interview: https://lnkd.in/dZfZxNs)

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Tags: Entrepreneurship, Innovation, Startups

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Radar

1 Prediction
2020 Predictions for Digital Marketing

Date : September 25, 2020

The problem is not the tools – The problem is our message. In 2020 deep empathy will win. Marketers that will rise to the surface will be the ones that make the effort to truly resonate with their ideal customers and create urgency to change and act. Their ability to cut through the noise will be noticed because it’s remarkable. They’ll use technology to amplify their advantage and create an unstoppable flywheel.

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