---
title: "SaaS Backwards Episode 66: Finding the best route for growth—with Steve Benson, CEO of Badger Maps"
description: Welcome to episode sixty-six of the SaaS Backwards podcast with Steve Benson, CEO of Badger Maps, where he talks about founder/CEO involvement in sales and hacks to keeping churn low.
---

[SaaS Backwards Podcast ](https://podcast.austinlawrence.com)

# [SaaS Backwards Episode 66: Finding the best route for growth—with Steve Benson, CEO of Badger Maps](https://podcast.austinlawrence.com/finding-the-best-route-for-growth)

 Written by [Jason Myers](https://podcast.austinlawrence.com/author/jason-myers) | May 12, 2023 4:53:28 PM

*Welcome to episode sixty-six of the SaaS Backwards podcast, where we interview CEOs and CMOs of fast-growing SaaS firms to reveal what they are doing that's working, and lessons learned from things that didn't work as planned. *

*You can listen to the full episode directly below via Spotify, or visit SaaS Backwards on Buzzsprout or wherever you listen to podcasts.*

 

 

Working at Google’s mapping team, Steve Benson thought that field salespeople needed a lot more functionality to adequately plan their routes.

So, in 2012 founded [Badger Maps](https://www.badgermapping.com/) and set out to build a tool where field sales teams could not only build routes, but also visualize their customers on a map on their mobile device that automatically connected with their CRM. 

To ensure product/market fit, Benson personally talked to hundreds of field salespeople to ensure that this was a problem worth paying for and not just a nice-to-have. 

Key takeaways from this episode: 

- When and what skills/background to look for when hiring the first salesperson. 
- The importance of founder involvement in early product management. 
- Debt vs. equity financing and how Badger Maps used debt most effectively.
- The role that thought leadership content played in building their reputation. 

**Other resources to check out:**

[Interview with Vinay Bhagat, Founder and CEO of TrustRadius who publish a yearly report about how B2B buyer behavior is changing.](https://blog.austinlawrence.com/blog/leveraging-the-buyers-voice-to-increase-saas-sales-engagement)

[The Lead Gen Mistake I Guarantee You’re Making – how to create content that better identifies intent from today’s b2b buyer.](https://blog.austinlawrence.com/blog/the-lead-gen-mistake-i-guarantee-youre-making)

[And, if you want an outside look at your content with actionable advice, take advantage of our Content Audit. *Valued at $20K in free consulting*.](https://info.austinlawrence.com/free-content-audit)

[View full post](https://podcast.austinlawrence.com/finding-the-best-route-for-growth)

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