The SaaSiest Podcast
198. Jakob Lilholm, Co-Founder & CEO, Formalize - The S-Curve Bet: How to Time Product #2 Before Product #1 Peaks?
The SaaSiest Podcast
•October 28, 2025•49 min
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The SaaSiest Podcast•Oct 28, 2025
Why It Matters
The play demonstrates how SaaS firms can capture higher‑margin growth by anticipating market inflection points and building platforms before their flagship product peaks, a blueprint for scaling beyond early‑stage traction.
Key Takeaways
- •EU regulatory tailwinds drove platform timing.
- •Innovation pod with separate OKRs enabled product development.
- •New‑logo sales validated platform before existing customers.
- •ICP narrowed to regulated industries for higher ACV.
- •Platform now >50% of revenue within a year.
Pulse Analysis
SaaS companies traditionally ride a single‑product S‑curve until growth stalls, then face a risky transition to a platform model. Formalize’s approach flips that script by aligning product timing with external regulatory shifts, effectively surfacing a second growth wave before the first peaks. This proactive stance reduces reliance on organic churn mitigation and creates a runway for higher‑margin, enterprise‑level contracts, a tactic increasingly relevant as Europe tightens compliance standards across finance, health, and data privacy.
At the heart of Formalize’s execution was an insulated innovation pod, granted its own objectives and key results separate from the core revenue engine. By shielding the new product team from short‑term sales pressures, the company could iterate rapidly and test market fit with fresh logos rather than existing customers, avoiding false positives that often plague platform bets. The decision to narrow the ideal customer profile to heavily regulated sectors sharpened messaging and justified a shift to consultative, higher‑ACV pricing, accelerating revenue contribution from the platform.
The broader lesson for SaaS founders is to monitor macro‑level catalysts—such as legislative changes—and embed dedicated, metric‑driven units that can validate platform demand without jeopardizing the cash‑flow engine. Key performance indicators in the first year should include new‑logo platform ARR, conversion ratios from point‑solution to platform, and the proportion of total revenue derived from the new suite. Companies that master this disciplined, data‑first expansion can outpace competitors and position themselves for unicorn trajectories, as Formalize aims for by 2028.
Episode Description
In this episode, we’re joined by Jakob Lilholm, Co-founder & CEO at Formalize, the Danish-based compliance SaaS that went from a single-point whistleblowing tool to a multi-product GRC platform used by 8,000+ customers across ~80 countries. Jakob shares how his team timed EU regulatory tailwinds, built whistleblowing software, and then layered products on top, shifting from high-volume transactional sales to a focused, consultative motion for regulated industries.
Fresh off announcing a €30M Series B, Jakob walks through the internal rewiring it took: carving out an innovation pod with its own OKRs, resisting flattering false positives from the existing base, and proving platform demand with new-logo sales first, going from ~€100k ARR on the platform to >50% of company revenue in a year.
Here are some of the key questions we address:
When do you expand from a point solution to a platform? We discuss the timing model Formalize used (EU roadmap + S-curve “next wave” before the first peaks).
What’s the right ICP for a platform? Why did they end up narrowing their ICP and say “not yet” to others?
How do you avoid false positives when you already have thousands of customers? Jakob explains why he decided to validate platform fit with new logos first.
What org design supports a second act like this?
How do you shift GTM, pricing, and messaging? What is the process moving from low ACV sales to higher-ACV, consultative deals without breaking the engine?
Which metrics matter in the first year of a platform bet? How do you prove value creation, track conversion quality, and know when to re-inject the core team?
🎧 Tune in to hear how Jakob and team rewired a fast-growing SaaS from a single product to a multi-product platform play, aligning product, GTM, and finance while keeping the culture hungry enough to chase unicorn status by 2028.
Show Notes
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