Step #3 - TRACTION RESILIENCE - Value Inspiration

Mastermind & Mentorship for Mission-Led B2B SaaS CEOs

Ongoing peer community & mentorship to keep your SaaS business viable, resilient, and remarkable

Remove Blind Spots – Solve Burning Challenges – Penetrate Invisible Growth Plateaus

There are lots and lots of groups out there, but none that are as product focused around the entrepreneurial journey.
– Riaz Kanani, CEO RadiateB2B

AFRAID OF LOSING YOUR MOMENTUM?

After all of your progress …

Arrogance and complacency are creeping in
You’re still chasing investors
And while you’ve stopped chasing the wrong customer, you can already see bad habits creeping back in
You’re making products for audiences that ask for them and then don’t buy them
Your development team is in limbo
Money is going out faster than it’s coming in
It feels like you’re spending all of your time, money and R&D to make unhappy customers happy while the happy customers get neglected
Profitability is under pressure
The cost of doing business keeps climbing
Pressure is coming in from your investors
You’re starting to consider unpopular measures
And while you’ve surprised your competitors, now they’re gaining on you

IMAGINE MAINTAINING AND EXCEEDING YOUR SUCCESS

Having investors chase you instead of the other way around
Replacing arrogance with curiosity
Replacing “good enough” customers with ideal customers
Making your SaaS business unbeatable (again)
Not just “getting there” but staying there
Getting better at working on your business instead of in your business.
Keeping yourself and your team motivated
Shipping new products for an audience you already know will buy them
Bouncing back faster from setbacks
Getting rid of customers that distract you and replacing them with your biggest fans
Making customers that are perfect for you happier
Getting your most loyal fans to sell FOR you

MENTORSHIP AND COMMUNITY WILL KEEP YOU ON TOP

My Traction Resilience program is for folks just like you who want to stop the soul crushing volatility that can befall them after their hard-won success. If you’re stuck in a never-ending loop of progress and regress, the Traction Resilience program will provide the network of peers and private mentorship you need to remove blind spots and always stay two steps ahead of your competitors.

I had no experience being an entrepreneur. And I wanted and needed the input from people that had come through this same journey before me. So what better than to have a group of CEOs that all work in a software as a service business.
– Michel Valstar - CEO Blueskeye AI

Ton Dobbe and the tribe of people I’ve worked with over the last year have been amazing. It truly helped me to see opportunities in a new way, hold me accountable in a supportive manner, and focus on my core offering and go-to-market strategies.
– Scott Sandland - CEO Cyrano AI

LET’S GET THE FLYWHEEL SPINNING FASTER AND FASTER

If you found a business that was humming along, you probably would hold your breath and not want to change a thing.

For instance, when Microsoft ignored the benefit of the cloud – thinking Windows was enough – they began to lose momentum.

When you start thinking of yourself as unbeatable, complacency (and other diseases) can start to creep in.

In fact, it might be too late already.

A remarkable business is characterized by a flywheel with a distinct growth mechanism that keeps it in motion forever.

Let me help you build the resilience to maintain your momentum using a mechanism that has worked for hundreds of companies and stood the test of time.

BENEFITS OF A TRACTION RESILIENCE PROGRAM

Flesh out burning questions with like-minded founders and CEOs determined to deliver their vision

Get out of your own head
Avoid your competitor’s mistakes
Undo the armor, air out and recharge
Hear what you need to hear, not what you want to hear
Find repeatability faster and more often
Watch a much leaner R&D focus their time on building what matters
Increase alignment and leverage
Know what guarantees you can give that will make your product or service incomparable
Start seeing leverage everywhere in your company – not just in marketing and sales
Know precisely where to double down and where to defocus in today’s market
Experience more and more customers becoming fans and selling FOR you
Keep your well-oiled machine running

… and a ton of tactics like:

How to balance value creation and value capturing
How to create leverage across R&D, marketing, sales, service, and customer success
How to maximize monetization in line with the value you deliver
Finding different routes to create predictable traction
How to scale faster and optimize repeatability
Opening up paths that increase gross margin

This has become the single meeting in my week I look forward to most. After only one month I already felt the impact of the tribe. Having feedback from this group has proven invaluable.
– Koen Michiels - CEO Datasapiens

THE BIG PICTURE

TL;DR—You get 1 year of exclusive networking and support from myself and a group of select peers in your cohort.

The program includes:

Three Remarkable Index Assessments to reveal the truth about where you stand on your journey at the start – 4 months in and 8 months in.
A cohort-based Mastermind program with a maximum of 8 B2B SaaS CEOs per cohort (no competitors allowed).
Private 1-on-1 mentoring calls with me (typically bi-weekly).
An exclusive group made up of peer B2B SaaS CEOs providing generous feedback in a safe and confidential environment.
Private access to me via a confidential Slack channel. I will reply within 24 hours but usually more like 90 minutes during business hours.

Kickoff Meeting Agenda

Review SOP for the mentoring and mastermind program
Exchange private contact info
Review application answers
Deep dive into current state and desired future state
Build a profile that you will share with the cohort
Set a recurring meeting with end date for the mentoring calls
Set a reminder one month before the last mentoring call
Agree on the first set of action items

Mastermind Format

Each mastermind session is 60 minutes long.
Sessions are organized around monthly themes inspired by the 10 traits that define remarkable software businesses with ample time carved out for the biggest priorities on your agenda.
We meet on Zoom with a recording and transcript shared after every call
- Week 1 is the barometer track where we reflect on how you score (scale 1-10) related to the monthly theme
- Week 2 is a hot seat track where one peer CEO shares a challenge he or she needs help with
- Week 3 is a case study where a peer B2B SaaS CEO outside the cohort shares their biggest learnings on their journey.
- Week 4 is dedicated to a special prompt

1 on 1 Mentoring Format

Each mentoring call is 60 minutes long
Each month we’ll collaborate on the area that stands to have the biggest impact on accelerating your growth with me guiding you through to execution.
Meetings held on Zoom or your preferred platform
Quarterly strategy sessions held with your full leadership team

The Fine Print

I will never publish any of your communications, publicly or privately. Anything you share with me will be kept in the strictest confidence.
You are free to share any of my communications however you like without asking me first.
You are welcome to call me any time without an appointment, but you’ll probably get my voicemail (I’m on the phone a lot). Leave a message and I’ll get back to you ASAP.
If we need to talk real-time, we can schedule a mutually convenient time.
If you have a truly urgent question, you can text me on my personal cell number.
Payment is quarterly and due 100% at the start of each quarter.
If you’re not happy with our first call for any reason, you can ask for your money back. After that, no refunds under any circumstances.
You can pause the clock in the event of a family emergency or something of similar seriousness, but not for vacation or because you “got busy”.

Ton Dobbe is a force you can count on to awaken your leadership potential. His collaborative DNA helps inspire you to do more, reach higher, and constantly challenge you to think harder and harder – guiding you to where you are and where you need to be.
– Cindy Gordon - CEO Saleschoice

PRICING

My Traction Resilience program is a year-long program and only available to B2B SaaS companies that have completed the Traction Foundation Pressure Cooker program.

The investment is €5,000 per month (i.e. €60K for the 1-year commitment)
or €9,000 per month (12x) if in combo with Traction Foundation + Traction Momentum

It’s not uncommon for my coaching students to recoup their entire investment after working together for just one month.

You can apply using the button below but before you do, let me first say this…

The program is not for everyone. We go deep.

You need to be prepared to change habits, routines, and processes that you’ve been addicted to for years.

Change can be scary. It’s hard for everyone.
But if you want things to be better, you have to change something.
If you think you’re ready, here’s the link to apply:

APPLY NOW

Regularly engaging in generous feedback, both giving and getting, with a group of diverse but uniformly smart peers has been invaluable. I have gotten help making very actionable decisions. You can’t get that from subordinates, only peers. Ton’s leadership on this has been excellent.
– Jon Ruby - CEO Jonar

100% MONEY-BACK GUARANTEE

It’s free to apply and there’s no risk or obligation. If you are accepted into my coaching program, I offer a 100% money-back guarantee. I don’t want your money if we’re not a good fit. If at any time during the first month you’re not happy for any reason, just let me know and I’ll refund your money in full.

BUT DON’T TAKE MY WORD FOR IT …

Check out these long-form testimonials from current and past Mastermind members:

Testimonial from Frank Schneider, CEO SpeakEasy AI

It’s almost impossible for me to find a trusted community of peers that don’t necessarily want something in return, that have the mantra of giving value. That’s why I make these meetings because I can’t find that anywhere else.

I definitely have peers or different kinds of CEOs with different verticals, as well as within my own vertical, but those conversations don’t flow like the ones I get here.

These give value without expecting anything in return.

This helps me when I’m trying to do something more risky. And I feel like, gosh, you know, if I just pitch this to my team, there might be people who just say yes because I’m their boss.

Hearing first hand what Ton learned and what he would have done differently from when he was just getting revenue – which is where we are now – we’re now funding on our revenue, and hearing what he definitely would NOT do again, was really pivotal and influenced the way I handled a meeting that very week.

It’s just hard to get a bunch of top top CEOs, or entrepreneurial folks or, you know, type A personalities together and not have them compete with each other with their narratives in a way that makes it authentic.

Sometimes I come with something specific in mind that I bring to the table, and that’s helpful. But it’s almost more helpful when I come with a clean slate just with one of Ton’s prompts that I then use to get my thinking going, which gets my wheels spinning in a different way.

So for me, I would miss it because it has become a value add to what I do and how I perform in my role.

– Frank Schneider, CEO SpeakEasy AI

Testimonial from Greg Silverman – CEO Concentric

I’m very competitive, and I don’t like being wrong. I like to accelerate my life by getting more things right. So I don’t want to go back to the feeling like I might be getting it wrong and never having the right people around me to help question it.

I love winning, but I hate losing even more. And this group makes sure I don’t lose as much. It’s a tough challenge for managers to help the CEO. Very tough, and I don’t think they’re prepared for it because they’re not CEOs.

Being part of a community where people are facing the same type of challenges, sometimes a little ahead of us, sometimes behind the vocabularies, the insights are easier to pick up.

I don’t think you can go down or up to get the help you need. You have to have peers.

The feedback and learning I’ve gotten from the group has led to our sales and pipeline and customer metrics going up and staying up.

One way the tribe helps is just the routinization of being self-reflective every week, there’s something every day.

Over time, what those two interactions create is like a personal awareness and that allows you to make better choices with better energy and more confidence.

I was trapped in my own feedback loop and this whole process has been about finding how we are remarkable and that emotional connection that I never knew how to focus on because I was too in my own head. I found it incredibly valuable, and I ended up in a totally different space than I could’ve expected.

It’s been four or five, six months now since I’ve been reading the book and getting feedback from my peers and rediscovering the passion and the rebellion. And it’s been so liberating for everyone around me including our customers.

What I’m seeing is my leadership role, my confidence, my energy, my passion is spilling over into everyone else.

We actually showed what we did to our board. And they were like, we’re now engaged again. We’re excited. Everything’s moving.

I’ve been reawakened to our mission, what we’re rebelling against, why we exist, and I’m just talking about it all the time.

We’re going to have so much more momentum because of this. I haven’t felt this good coming to work in 5 years.
– Greg Silverman - CEO Concentric

Testimonial from Hew Leith, CEO Atomley

As a bootstrap entrepreneur, obviously, you’re in the wild a little bit – you’re on your own. And there’s no one really to talk to, which can be a bit lonely sometimes.

You don’t really know if what you’re doing is the right thing. Because you have no context.

What Ton is doing with his mastermind is fantastic because it means I can speak to lots of people who are in a similar position to me – entrepreneurs who I can learn from and talk to.

I can see if what I’m doing is the right thing or the wrong thing.

And I can give back as well by telling people what I’ve seen which in turn reinforces my own thinking and my own lessons that I have learned. So it really helps me too.

As an entrepreneur, these calls are great for refocusing. You can essentially just listen to what others are doing and learn from it because you trust them.

Which means you’ll do more of what they say, versus a random blogger that you read on the internet. Because you know that these people are in the thick of it and they’re actually doing it.

Of course, you learn from things that aren’t working as well too and where people have made mistakes.

The one thing we can’t buy more of in this world is time. Seriously, even Buffett can’t buy more time. And so that’s the one thing we lose if we go down the wrong path. And you could spend months doing the wrong thing.

The problem with sometimes reading blog posts or listening to podcasts is it’s not interactive. And I think that’s the benefit of Ton’s mastermind is that you can actually check something with someone and see if they’re seeing the same things.

It’s just a high definition, high fidelity bit of data that you get because you’re getting real time live feedback on what you’re thinking. And you just don’t get that from blogs, books or podcasts.
– Hew Leith, CEO Atomley

Testimonial from Riaz Kanani – CEO RadiateB2B

There’s so much nuance in what we do that if Ton had tried to put all that into his book, it would be so big that nobody would ever read it.

Ton simply uses the book as a foundation, but it’s what he helps you build on top that’s the invaluable part.

You could use the book as a reference. But again, when you are talking about a book, I did an executive MBA. And you know, we had lots of books to read. But if I sat down outside of the Executive MBA and read those books, they’re not reflective of what I got out of the Executive MBA – not even a single digit percentage.

The mastermind on the other hand encompasses almost everything that you come across as an entrepreneur when you’re building a company.

And so what I really, really like is the sort of additional framework that is put around this on a week to week basis.

I’m able to engage and discuss with other founders who are thinking about the same things. And that suddenly means that we’re not just thinking about theory, we’re actually starting to translate that into the real world. And that is hugely valuable.

I’m spending a little bit of time just listening to what other people have done that has moved the lever and allowed them to change.

The peer group are all founder entrepreneurs. And so either they’ve been through this or they are going through this. And so that’s invaluable.

There are lots and lots of groups out there, but none that are as product focused around the entrepreneurial journey.
– Riaz Kanani - CEO RadiateB2B

Testimonial Marieke de Wildt – CEO The New Fork

You need peers – and it often feels with Ton’s mastermind that it’s much more than that. I now have direct access to very practical, hands-on knowledge. That’s invaluable. It’s exactly what you need in a world that’s changing so fast.

I think it’s the only place I know of where you can get that level of experience, that diversity and at the same time, that same recognizable mission drive for purpose.

I know many other entrepreneurs in my sector, but I know nobody has the network that we are having.

For example, there are so many possibilities of financing your growth and it’s so difficult to have the right answer and as an entrepreneur you have to find that answer for yourself. And you can only arrive at that by talking to people with different perspectives, and only with those who’ve had similar growth stages. And that is exactly what you’ll find in the tribe.
– Marieke de Wildt - CEO The New Fork

Testimonial Rami Darwish CEO Arrowlabs

Every week we get on the call, you can see it in everybody’s eyes. Founders are warriors. You fight battle after battle. You’ve got to be unbelievable in reading the market. If you misread it, you’re dead.

What the mastermind does for me the most is bring diverse perspectives. The ability to sit with a group of people – they’re not going to judge you, we’re all in the same boat.

It provides the founder with an outlet to describe his issue unhinged with no hidden agenda.

You’re just pure in what you’re describing. Because you’re in a safe environment.

Everyone in that room is there to help. They’re there to listen and to help and share. So, that gives the founder an outlet to air out and recharge.

I have an advisory board. I have my investors. I have my executive board, and I have my team. I have all these outlets, but I can’t think I can be totally free in any of them, realistically speaking.

The last element that I think is super important is that you’re not alone in the journey. There are other people that are going through your same challenges.
– Rami Darwish - CEO Arrowlabs

STILL HAVE QUESTIONS?

Q: How do I know if I’m a good fit for the Traction Resilience Program?

People who will get the most out of coaching are folks who have been plateaued and aren’t sure what to do about it. If your intellectual curiosity and talent cause you to wander from task to task prior to completion, and you require more urgency in creating results, you will probably benefit from the accountability that comes with this program.

Q: What do I have to do to qualify?

This program is for B2B SaaS CEOs who have achieved product market fit and crossed the $1 million ARR mark, but feel like they’re on a hamster wheel and not getting ahead, unsure of what to do to get to the next level.

NOTE: If you do not have product market fit or paying customers, my private coaching program probably would not be a good investment.

Q: May I speak with a couple references about their time with you?

If you find a testimonial above you relate to, feel free to email ton.dobbe@valueinspiration.com and I’d be happy to connect you to them.

Q: What is the average ROI after completing coaching with you?

The bottom line ROI depends greatly on the member.

At the high end, I’ve had SaaS CEOs that overachieved their revenue and profitability targets.

At the low end, I’ve had people not commit to the work and get little direct financial ROI. But even those folks are happy with the educational aspect and sense of control they gain over their business.

Q: How long are the Mentoring and Mastermind calls?

They’re usually around an hour.

Q: Do we have to use Zoom for the calls?

For the Mastermind: Yes.

For the 1-1 mentoring calls: No. We can use different platforms like Microsoft Teams or Google Meet if you have a strong preference.

Q: What happens after I pay?

Once you sign the contract and pay the first invoice, you’ll be presented with a calendar link to schedule a kickoff call. On our kickoff call, we will agree to a game plan, share private contact info, set your first assignment, and pick a regular time for our mentoring calls and get you onboarded for the Mastermind.

Q: I still have questions!

Just shoot me an email and ask: ton.dobbe@valueinspiration.com

MY BIO IN NUMBERS AND HOW IT WILL
HELP YOU MAKE A DIFFERENCE

2 Words: Passion + Mystique (My Archetype: The Intrigue – if you’re familiar with Sally Hogshead’s How to Fascinate)

My rare ability to switch between taking an analytical view and connecting emotions will help you find the most effective method to persuade your audience.

3 Scores on the Game Changer Index

Being a Game-Changer 9 (Creates the Future), Strategist 8 (Maps the Future), and Polisher 8 (Creates a Future to be Proud of) all help create clarity and momentum for you.

+30 Years of Experience in International B2B Software

With over 3 decades of experience in B2B software, I can help you avoid the pitfalls and rabbit holes I’ve made in the past across product strategy, segmentation, positioning, pricing, sales, globalization and even expansion through mergers & acquisitions.

+300 B2B Software Entrepreneurs I’ve Interviewed & Worked With

Take my insights gleaned from conversing and working with entrepreneurs like you to connect critical dots and spark many Aha! moments. I also connect you with the right peers to help you level up and take your business forward.

1 Typical Dutchman

Among many things, I’m here to help you remove your blind-spots. Being an outsider, I look at your business with fresh eyes, without emotion or complacency. Being Dutch I can, and will be, direct (just as a warning!). Together, we will challenge the status quo, turn over every stone, and ask the questions nobody internally ever dares to ask.

NOW IS THE TIME

This could just be the super direct Dutchman that I am but now is the time. Don’t waste another year moving one inch in every direction.

APPLY NOW

Don’t worry, there’s no risk or obligation, and it’s free to apply.

ACT NOW. SERIOUSLY.

Availability is limited. I usually only take on 10 new members per year. If you are considering this program, apply now to start the process.

When the sh*t gets hard, when I feel the walls are closing in on me and problems are coming at me from every direction – from the team, from the board, from the VCs, from customers, from the bank, whatever. I just go back to the basics.

– Excerpted from Rami Darwish in conversation in Mastermind on 11/5/22 (used with permission)