Beekast, a leading provider of a collaborative platform for meetings, training, and events, has recently become a member of saas.group, an esteemed international organization focused on acquiring and nurturing SaaS startups. In an exclusive interview, Yassine Chabli, the founder and CEO of Beekast, and Tim Schumacher, co-founder and CEO of saas.group, shed light on the exciting developments.
Interview with Yassine Chabli, founder of Beekast:
What does this acquisition mean for you and for Beekast users?
With this acquisition, we welcome a unique shareholder who will offer invaluable operational guidance across all facets of our business. It is important to note that while governance is upheld, we maintain our independence, and I will continue to serve as the CEO of Beekast.
What are the main synergies or opportunities you see through this acquisition?
The saas.group family includes over 14 thriving startups within the SaaS industry. These independent entities benefit from the collective support of a central team, which offers invaluable operational and strategic guidance to propel our growth to new heights. The group’s profound specialization in the SaaS domain establishes it as a prominent market player, boasting formidable technical expertise.
What were the reasons that motivated you to make this decision?
Our decision to align ourselves with saas.group was driven by multiple compelling factors. First and foremost, we sought to distance ourselves from the venture capital mindset that prioritizes growth at any cost, and instead embrace a model centered on organic and sustainable growth, grounded in solid financial principles. This approach represents a healthier economic model, one that saas.group embodies flawlessly.
Secondly, saas.group’s remarkable expertise in SaaS models played a pivotal role in our decision. Their specialized team, known as the “central team,” possesses unrivaled knowledge and capabilities to provide us with world-class advice, enhancing both our product and business model.
Another compelling reason that further bolstered our choice is saas.group’s extensive presence in over 20 countries, which will greatly facilitate our internationalization efforts. Additionally, it is important to note that despite this partnership, Beekast remains an independent company, preserving our autonomy and identity.
How do you see the future of Beekast? What are your ambitions for the future?
We have a bright future ahead! Economically, we have recently achieved profitability as a company. In terms of our product, we are committed to continuously improving the Beekast platform by introducing new features and enhancing the user experience with a fresh perspective. Our goal is to provide our customers with an exceptional product that they will love.
In addition, we are determined to accelerate our international growth by expanding our team with talented individuals from around the world. To facilitate this, we are transitioning into a “remote-first company” approach, offering unlimited remote work opportunities for all employees while still organizing occasional in-person meetings.
With these exciting developments on the horizon, we are confident in the positive trajectory that lies ahead, paving the way for our continued growth and success.
Interview with Tim Schumacher, co-founder and CEO of saas.group:
What were the reasons that motivated saas.group to acquire Beekast?
As a remote-first collection of startups, saas.group is very familiar with the challenge of hosting online meetings, and therefore we were impressed with the Beekast product and its market positioning in the French enterprise market. We also saw that we had the relevant experience to further unlock the growth story of Beekast. Finally, having experienced the product firsthand, we could immediately see why Beekast has become a valuable partner to major organizations in France (and at saas.group we love to use our own products like Sniply, Juicer and Tower).
saas.group’s partnership with Beekast will allow us to combine a strong track record of upselling and growing with customers with our expertise in scaling and growing PLG brands, focusing on feature adoption and virality.
We also enjoy partnering with founders like Beekast’s CEO Yassine, as it means we can partner with experienced and motivated founders that are keen to bring products to the next level. Very early on in our acquisition discussion, it became clear that we and Yassine shared a common vision for Beekast.
What are the synergies and benefits that you see from acquiring Beekast?
Generally, saas.group acquires and operates a portfolio of independent brands. At the same time, since Beekast and its sister company Crosstalent are both operating in the French market with similar end-customer bases, we feel that there are areas where the two brands could support each other. For example, we’re looking into a shared office space for the two brands in Paris, with further synergies expected in the areas of Finance, HR and DevOps. We also think that the Beekast team could benefit from the expertise of our central teams, which act as sparring partners. For example, we optimize PPC and technical SEO centrally, meaning our brands benefit from significant real-life experience from 14+ brands.
Another great opportunity for collaboration is with Rewardful, an affiliate management software. Since Beekast has thousands of loyal users, there is a possibility to partner with Rewardful to help turn these fans into the most powerful marketing tool.
How do you see the future of Beekast after this acquisition?
We want to improve the Beekast products for all user groups and also enable smaller teams to profit from Beekast’s awesome platform in “low-touch” mode without having to call a salesperson and get a demo first.
We are also going to invest considerable resources to make Beekast even more user-friendly by improving the UX/UI.
In general, Beekast will be moving away from the VC-financed “growth at all costs” to a healthier long-term business model so that our customers can be sure that Beekast will exist for decades to come. At saas.group we are experts in pivoting businesses to a more sustainable operating mode and have seen the benefits of this multiple times.
We’re not a “company flipper” that sells companies off again. We’re in this for the long run. At saas.group, our intention is to keep, maintain, and improve our products.
What are the main initiatives that you will put in place to help Beekast become more international?
saas.group owns enterprise-oriented brands like Zenloop and PipelineCRM which cater to European and US customers. Yassine will collaborate closely with the respective CEOs of these brands to help unlock these markets, and in return, he will share his team’s knowledge of the French market.
Internationalization is not just about where Beekast markets its product – it is also about internationalizing the team and corporate culture. Going forward, saas.group will assist Beekast in opening recruitment to candidates outside of France, leveraging our experience recruiting and operating teams globally.
For the existing “Beeks”, this also means taking advantage of the opportunities for remote work and engaging with colleagues worldwide, especially during events like our annual saas.grouping – hosted this year in Barcelona.
Overall, we’re excited to have Beekast join our portfolio of independent brands, and we’re looking forward to working with Yassine and his team to bring Beekast to the next level.
