(This was originally posted on Pat’s blog: www.coolerbythelake.com)
SAVO co-founder, John Aiello, shared his journey and lessons at May’s Chicago Founders’ Stories @ 1871. We had another sold out crowd join us @ 1871 for pizza, beer, and to hear John’s incredible story.
This is the ninth installment of Founders’ Stories. If you would like to check out any of the prior videos from past events, you can see them here: Braintree Founder Bryan Johnson, Open Table Founder Chuck Templeton, Grub Hub Founders Matt Maloney and Mike Evans, Belly Founder Logan LaHive, Context Media Founders Rishi and Shradha, Siri Founder Dag Kittlaus, Starter League Founders Neal Sales-Griffin and Mike McGee, or Centro Founder Shawn Riegsecker.
John is the co-founder of SAVO, the industry's leading provider of Sales Enablement Solutions. SAVO delivers sellers with sales materials, tools and subject matter to improve sales productivity and sales effectiveness. SAVO is a SaaS company with more than a million users across the globe and has been recognized as one of Inc. Magazine 5000s Fastest Growing Companies, awarded the CompTIA SoftwareCEO Innovation Award, Gartner Cool Vendor Award and the 2011 KMWorld Trend-Setting Product of the Year.
My INCISENT Labs teammates and I have really enjoyed partnering and sponsoring all of the Chicago Founders’ Stories @ 1871. Since the event sold out, we recorded it and are putting it online for those who couldn’t make it. We broke up the hour into six segments for easier viewing.
In the first segment, John talks about what SAVO does and how he and his co-founder, Drew got started.
[video:https://vimeo.com/67829820]
In the second segment, John talks about his early life and the idea of having a co-founder and their experiences.
[video:https://vimeo.com/67828937]
In part three, John discusses scaling as a company and as a CEO.
[video:https://vimeo.com/67831685]
In part four, John shares why he decided to no longer be the CEO of SAVO.
[video:https://vimeo.com/67838038]
In part five, John discusses lessons he learned and the things he’d do again.
[video:https://vimeo.com/67840636]
In the final segment, John answers questions from the audience.
[video:https://vimeo.com/67842068]
We hope you enjoyed this interview with John, and look forward to the next Chicago Founders’ Stories @1871 where I will be interviewing Trunk Club Founder, Brian Spaly. To register, click here.
Pat Ryan is a business and social entrepreneur who has created several high growth software companies as well as several innovative urban education initiatives as a social entrepreneur. Pat’s first company, FirstLook, was recognized by Inc Magazine in 2008 as the #4 fastest growing software company in the U.S. in its Inc 500 rankings – the highest ranking ever for a Chicago based software company. Pat is also the Founder of MAX as well as the Founder and CEO of INCISENT Labs, a platform and incubator for innovative, industry-changing technologies that spin out into high growth companies. MAX was created in INCISENT Labs where Pat and a team are currently incubating their latest start-up. Pat blogs at Coolerbythelake.com and can be reached on Twitter @INCISENTLabs.
