The Razor's Edge #16: Talking SaaS With Investor and Tech Veteran Justen Stepka

We continue to follow the software as a service sector and the impact of the work from home world, but this time with an outside perspective. Justen Stepka, the founder of Authentisoft and then a longtime product management executive at Atlassian and Docker, joined us to talk about his positions in Slack and Atlassian and what makes the companies stand out. Currently the co-CEO/co-founder of Enterprise Fund, a private equity firm, he also shares his views on the work from home environment we're in and its potential knock-on effects, as well as what he's seeing in private markets. Topics Covered 2:30 minute mark - The importance of R&D in retention 6:00 - Product stickiness vs. ease of use 11:30 - Evaluating R&D as a competitive edge 15:00 - The importance of dogfooding 18:00 - Okta's position 23:30 - How can a software company really be on sale in this market? 28:45 - ServiceNow's position 30:00 - What's next in the industry, where is Justen watching, and what does the private market look like? 36:30 - The change in perspective from being an insider to an outside investor 41:00 - Work from Home and its broader effects 52:00 - Commercial real estate

Om Podcasten

The Razor’s Edge is an investing podcast that combines a prop trader’s viewpoint and deep-dive fundamental research to provide a unique take on the markets. The show is co-hosted by Akram’s Razor, a trader and investor with decades of experience and a track record of truly differentiated ideas and analysis, and by Daniel Shvartsman, an individual investor for the past decade who saw thousands of investing pitches and ideas and how they played out during his previous time at Seeking Alpha. The duo start with a theme or idea from Akram’s investing, then break it down to understand what goes into the idea, what could go wrong, and what else investors and traders need to know. They also interview industry leaders, executives, and other investors to get a wider perspective. The show has thousands of listeners around the world.