Behind every successful SaaS business is a founder pushing boundaries—building smarter platforms, challenging conventional wisdom, and rethinking how we work, sell, and create.
This post is a shoutout to them (and hopefully a driver of inspiration for you) . We’ve compiled a list of SaaS founders shaping the future of software, from early-stage disruptors to industry-defining leaders.
So without further adu, here are 20 founders that are definitely part of the SaaS club.
1. Leroy Kerry
Current company they are growing: Field
Leroy Kerry is the co-founder and CEO of Field, a SaaS startup using AI to transform tax preparation. Filed tackles a labor-shortage crisis in the accounting profession by automating the most tedious aspects of return prep. Kerry’s journey into SaaS leadership is unconventional and deeply inspiring. Raised by a single mother in South London, he didn’t picture himself running a tech company. But grit and a relentless focus on customer needs has taken him to the top.
“Our long-term vision extends beyond return preparation to become the foundational AI infrastructure for the entire tax industry — transforming everything from client collaboration to document management and audit preparation,”
— Leroy Kerry
2. Melanie Perkins
Current company they are growing: Canva
Melanie Perkins, co-founder and CEO of Canva, has grown the platform to over 200 million users while steering it into the generative AI era. With tools like Dream Lab and a strategic acquisition of Leonardo AI, Canva now serves both casual users and creative pros. Perkins keeps a community-first mindset, launching initiatives like “Close the Loop” and reversing a major price hike—moves that reflect her vision to reduce friction, elevate creativity, and maintain user trust.
“I think what’s actually really exciting is, if it’s done well, [gen AI] can actually help people to have a more direct relationship with their community, and not just feel like an onslaught of things.”
— Melanie Perkins
3. Bret Goldstein
Current company they are growing: Micro
As a two-time founder and former computational cognitive science researcher, Bret Goldstein is no stranger to deep work and human-centered design. His latest venture, Micro, is an AI-powered productivity platform that reimagines the inbox—not as a list to clear, but as a launchpad for action. With Micro, email becomes the raw data that powers smart apps for managing sales, hiring, fundraising, and more, all within a single, unified interface.
For Goldstein, the product’s mission is personal—rooted in a career spanning AI innovation at Google, patents at Accenture, and platform leadership at Clearbit. Micro is his answer to a fundamental question: what if your inbox worked for you?
“Email is at the center of how we work and interact with the world, but it’s frozen in time”
— Bret Goldstein
4. Alex Bouaziz
Current company they are growing: Deel
When Alex Bouaziz co-founded Deel in 2019, he was just 25 and already hearing advice that didn’t sit right: replace your early leadership team if you want to scale. He didn’t. Today, Deel is valued at $12 billion, with 80% of its leadership still intact from the company’s $0 ARR days.
His hands-on leadership style, constant reevaluation of organizational structure, and refusal to rest on momentum have helped turn Deel into one of the fastest-growing SaaS companies in the world.
5. Rory Blundell
Current company they are growing: Gravitee
Rory Blundell co-founded Gravitee in 2015 with a mission to simplify one of the most complex layers in modern software architecture: APIs. What began as an open-source project is now a fast-growing SaaS company with over $125 million in total funding, a customer base spanning major enterprises, and $22 million in ARR.
“Many companies face major risks around security, observability and control of their APIs and event infrastructure, which isn’t built for this new, dynamic world,”
— Rory Blundell
6. Vlad Magdalin
Current company they are growing: Webflow
Vlad Magdalin co-founded Webflow in 2012 with the vision of empowering more people to build for the web without writing code. More than a decade later, that vision has scaled into a powerful visual development platform used by individuals, startups, and enterprises alike—now generating nearly $130 million in annual revenue.
With deep commitment to team culture, innovation, and customer empowerment, Magdalin continues to influence Webflow’s next chapter—from inside the engine room of the company he helped build.
7. Jake Cronin
Current company they are growing: Siro
Jake Cronin’s path to building Siro began with a college summer job selling knives door to door. The challenge of coaching remote reps sparked a deeper insight: field sales lacks real-time support, and software could fill that gap. Years later, after time at McKinsey and coding the early product himself, Cronin launched Siro—a tool built to empower on-the-ground sales reps with AI-driven coaching.
“The more I researched sales, I thought that the biggest opportunity here is not in data enrichment or customer relationship management, but it is in improving the lives of sales reps who are on the ground.”
— Jake Cronin
8. Tobias Lütke
Current company they are growing: Shopify
Tobias Lütke started Shopify after a personal frustration with building an online snowboard shop. That side project quickly turned into a foundational ecommerce platform powering millions of businesses globally. Over 20 years, he’s transformed Shopify into a powerhouse for entrepreneurs—without chasing flashy disruption. His focus has remained on refining tools, simplifying business creation, and scaling through consistent, incremental improvements.
“I think the best trick to pull off in life is to find your calling early and hone it into a craft, and then share it in some way,”
— Tobias Lütke
9. Sheilah MacSporran
Current company they are growing: DesignFiles
Few founders get a second shot at a product idea—but Sheilah MacSporran turned a near-failure into a breakout success. Her first venture, Olioboard, earned media buzz and thousands of users but struggled with monetization. Rather than scrap it completely, she let the platform run quietly and kept an eye on who kept showing up. It wasn’t casual decorators—it was professional interior designers.
That insight sparked a pivot. Sheilah started talking to those users directly, identifying their workflow challenges and rebuilding the platform around their needs. The result was DesignFiles, launched in 2017—a lean, feedback-driven design management tool that now serves thousands of designers worldwide.
10. Nico Ferreyra
Current company they are growing: Default
As the founder of Default, Nico Ferreyra is tackling one of B2B sales’ most overlooked problems: the chaos of disjointed inbound funnels. Ferreyra’s focus is clear: leverage AI and a unified data model to automate what bogs sales teams down and eliminate the lead leakage plaguing traditional workflows. For high-growth companies burning cash to acquire prospects, that kind of efficiency isn’t just nice to have—it’s survival.
“Shifting markets and rising expectations are putting pressure on sales leaders. Leads are getting more expensive to generate so they need to be handled intelligently.”
— Nico Ferreyra
11. Marc Benioff
Current company they are growing: Salesforce
Marc Benioff co-founded Salesforce in 1999 and scaled it into one of the world’s top enterprise software companies. A pioneer of cloud computing and the 1-1-1 philanthropic model, he’s known for blending innovation with social responsibility. Benioff’s leadership style emphasizes experimentation, iteration, and values-driven growth, earning him global recognition as a transformational CEO.
“You’re going to have to throw a lot against the wall before you figure out what sticks.”
— Marc Benioff
12. Jonathan Cherki
Current company they are growing: Contentsquare
Jonathan Cherki founded Contentsquare to bring clarity to UX data and eliminate guesswork in digital strategy. His platform turns billions of interactions into real-time insights, helping teams understand user behavior and drive measurable ROI. By democratizing data and combining it with AI, Contentsquare makes analytics accessible to everyone on a team—not just data specialists.
“For years, analytics has been reactive. You ask a question, run a query, dig for insight, and try to decide what to do next. At Contentsquare, we believe it’s time to flip that model with AI and agents.”
— Jonathan Cherki
13. Ivan Zhao
Current company they are growing: Notion
Notion’s rise to a $10 billion platform wasn’t immediate. After early setbacks, Ivan Zhao rebuilt the product from the ground up, applying systems thinking and a near-obsessive focus on user feedback. His leadership style is philosophical and hands-on—he tracks every support ticket and uses that data to drive development. The result is software that grows in lockstep with its users, solving real problems instead of just adding features.
“We have a process for people who make a request. We tag it. So once we release the new product they request, we follow up with you to say, ‘Hey, remember you asked for this a year ago? Now we released it.’ No software company does this.”
— Ivan Zhao
14. Andrew Filev
AI startup they are building: Zencoder
The founder of Wrike is now tackling software development with Zencoder, a platform that acts more like a smart intern than a magic fix. Andrew Filev’s focus is on AI agents that deeply understand your codebase and can troubleshoot, optimize, and assist with multi-step programming tasks. Rather than replace developers, Zencoder is built to empower them through context-aware, self-correcting agents that fit seamlessly into existing workflows.
“It’s not an agent that pretends that it’s going to do the whole work for you. It’s your companion, kind of your little AI intern, that can help you recreate what you want to do.”
— Andrew Filev
15. Matt Kunkel
AI startup they are building: LogicGate
With a background in GRC consulting for Fortune 100s, Matt Kunkel launched LogicGate to modernize risk management. His platform helps enterprises automate and adapt governance and compliance processes using AI-enhanced workflows. But it’s not just about scale—it’s about building a long-term, strategic foundation with the right people and partners.
“We optimized this round not for the size or valuation but for the folks we’re going to get around the table who will help drive the company forward.”
— Matt Kunkel
16. Bret Taylor
AI startup they are building: Sierra
Bret Taylor, former Salesforce co-CEO and OpenAI board chair, is now building Sierra—an AI platform focused on branded, conversational agents for customer service. Sierra isn’t chasing the chatbot label; it’s creating adaptive, personality-rich AI that companies can tailor to represent their values and tone. With backing from Thrive Capital and Greenoaks, Sierra is making waves across industries like security and retail.
“We think every company in the world, whether it’s a technology company or a 150-year-old company like ADT, can benefit from AI, and the technology is ready right now.”
— Bret Taylor
17. Eran Zinman
AI startup they are building: monday.com
As co-founder and co-CEO of monday.com, Eran Zinman transformed what started as a simple team tool into a full-fledged work operating system. With a platform that powers workflows for 180,000+ organizations, he’s leaned into product-led growth, enterprise scalability, and platform extensibility. From visual collaboration to advanced automation, this SaaStr’s vision continues to shape how modern teams operate.
18. Mike Murchison
AI startup they are building: Ada
Mike Murchison co-founded Ada to help enterprises automate customer service with powerful AI—no coding required. His focus has always been on enabling business teams, not just technical ones, to own and scale AI-driven support. With clients like Meta and Zoom, Ada has become a leader in customer experience automation, pushing the boundaries of what conversational AI can do for non-technical users.
“Companies typically endure a debilitating dependence on IT resources to bring AI to life, and business stakeholders are left in the dust, their needs unmet.” – Mike Murchison
19. Arjun Pillai
AI startup they are building: DocketAI
With DocketAI, Arjun Pillai is reinventing revenue enablement by embedding AI directly into sales workflows. His platform acts as a virtual Sales Engineer—serving up answers, documents, and insights in seconds. By integrating with 100+ knowledge sources, DocketAI helps revenue teams work smarter and close faster. Pillai draws from previous startup exits to build what he calls “cognition-as-a-service,” delivering productivity where it matters most.
“I saw firsthand how technical questions and administrative tasks could bog down revenue teams, detracting from their core goal of closing deals.” – Arjun Pillai
20. Caleb Peffer
AI startup they are building: Firecrawl
At Firecrawl, Caleb Peffer is hiring AI agents like employees—literally. His Y Combinator-backed startup is building infrastructure that lets engineers operate “armies of agents” to scale productivity. From autonomous content creators to support engineers and junior devs, Firecrawl imagines a near future where top developers act more like fleet managers for intelligent agents than traditional coders.
“The future, what we see, is a world where the next 10x engineers are operating armies of agents, AI systems that they’re building, maintaining, and monitoring. What we want to do is work with people that want to be those agent operators.” – Caleb Peffer
Have these founders gotten you exited about a new product? Learn how DevSquad can help accelerate you to market.
