Scaling SaaS after a merger without losing momentum with Matt Colebourne @Qwist

saas.unbound is a podcast for and about founders who are working on scaling inspiring products that people love, brought to you by https://saas.group/, a serial acquirer of B2B SaaS companies. 

In episode #42 of season 5, Anna Nadeina talks with Matt, CEO of Qwist, a full-stack Open Finance platform, connecting third-party providers with financial data and services.

I moved to Berlin to lead a turnaround and sale of a SaaS business, and what followed was a detour into open finance that changed everything. I was skeptical at first—open banking felt full of hype with no clear killer app—but once I saw the real, practical value it could deliver, I knew there was an opportunity. Two technically strong businesses had not found commercial success. That is the exact situation I love: great technology, an underexploited market, and a real chance to build something coherent that customers can buy and operate.

From Skeptic to Operator: Why Open Finance Matters

Open finance is not about flashy components. It is about solving specific, tangible problems for banks and consumers. At its core our business has two distinct parts:

• Bank-facing technology that helps banks meet PSD requirements by staging data into a standardized API.
• Consumer-facing services that take bank account information and make it useful for third parties and end users.

Both are valuable, but each introduces its own complexity. Every bank has different core banking systems, compliance approaches, and integrations. That technical fragmentation can quickly break a commercial plan if you keep treating every client as a bespoke project.

Flip the Model: Sell the Solution, Not the Components

One of the first big changes we made was commercial and delivery model rethinking. Rather than selling pieces of technology and expecting clients to own the problem, we moved to an outcome-led offer:

“What you’re selling is the net package that is a vehicle that does X.”

In practice this meant we kept a single, up-to-date core platform and separated the implementation layer. We offered hosting, operation, support, reporting, and compliance services so the bank does not have to manage the integration and regulatory burden themselves. That shift reduced technical debt, simplified sales, and created clear, repeatable value for customers.

Why a Single Core Matters

• Maintaining one up-to-date codebase reduces ongoing maintenance and cost.
• Standardized delivery lets us promise compliance updates centrally rather than charging clients for bespoke changes.
• It enables scale: single-stack, multi-tenant architectures win in SaaS growth scenarios.

If every customer requires a different tech stack, you will be hamstrung. Either you shift to a model of a few very large bespoke contracts, or you consolidate to a single stack that serves many customers efficiently.

Regulation, Data Separation, and the Merger Reality

Merging two businesses—one regulated, one not—creates practical constraints. Until legal and regulatory merging is complete you often cannot share data or teams freely. We had to be explicit about legal boundaries and still move toward a single company character and operating model. That meant asking hard questions and making real decisions.

People First: Honest Conversations and Clear Roles

One of the most repeated mistakes in acquisitions is neglecting HR clarity. If you can, decide in advance where the acquired business fits in your organization and who will do what. That prevents a demotivating interregnum where people do not know their reporting lines or future.

“If you possibly can make that decision beforehand, be firm with it.”

Sometimes the best way to integrate is to elevate talent from the acquired company into roles for the combined organization. It signals true integration and can motivate the acquired team. But if people are tired, uninterested, or simply do not fit the new path, be honest and plan a respectful transition. We said to some people, in effect, do you want to be on the train? If not, let us find a positive exit.

Culture: Team, Not Family

We made an explicit cultural choice: we are a team, not a family. That does not mean cold corporate rules, but it does mean expectations. Everyone must contribute. If someone is not up to the standard or not motivated for the new phase, keeping them for sympathy damages the team.

Keep Momentum with Customers After Acquisition

Post-acquisition momentum is fragile. Customers can get nervous, contracts might be long, and commercial growth often stalls. We were fortunate to keep most customers; one major customer left but had signaled their intention prior to the transaction. The bigger risk wasn’t churn in the short term—it was lack of growth because both legacy businesses were technically brilliant but commercially thin.

That realization drove a commercial simplification: reduce complexity in offerings and contracts. We found ourselves with dozens of annexes and a compliance packet that could be a thick booklet. That makes buying harder, not easier.

Product Packaging: Make It Easy to Buy

Selling a toolkit is different from selling a solved problem. Banks will happily buy a hosted solution that removes their compliance burden. Packaging matters:

• Define clear products, not endless options.
• Offer turnkey versions where you operate the integration, and more advanced options for customers who want to run it themselves.
• Reduce the documentation and compliance friction—standardize what can be standardized.

“It’s the difference between saying I’ll build you a bridge and saying I’ll sell you 30 steel girders for you to build a bridge.”

Match Tech Strategy to Commercial Reality

Too often product and engineering live in a bubble. Tech decisions determine how you can scale commercially. If your tech requires a separate instance for each customer, your commercialization strategy must align to pursue very large deals or a different growth model. If you want many smaller customers, invest in a unified core stack and multi-tenancy.

Look at your team mix. If 80 percent of people are product and engineering and only 5 to 8 percent are commercial, you probably will struggle to scale unless you have a handful of massive clients. Good tech wins only when matched with sensible go-to-market investment.

Hard-Won Lessons about Founders, Products, and Marketing

Founders are naturally passionate and often believe the product will sell itself. That rarely happens. The market needs clear value statements and repeatable sales motions. Some common missteps:

• Relying on a “viral plan” as a strategy. That is hope, not a plan.
• Assuming “best product” is obvious to customers. You must demonstrate and explain the value.
• Defaulting to API-first delivery when customers actually want simpler, immediate delivery like emails or PDFs for quick adoption.

Practicality beats purity. If you can show value quickly, you reduce friction and accelerate adoption.

Pragmatic Planning: Focus on Tomorrow

Long, rigid mid-term plans are often useless in dynamic markets. You need a clear 2 to 3 year goal, yes, but the actionable parts are what people do tomorrow. My rule: set the destination and then iterate daily improvements. If everyone does something slightly better tomorrow, the compound effect after six or twelve months is massive.

“What really matters is what people do differently tomorrow.”

Actionable Takeaways

1. Define the role of the acquired business before the deal closes. Decide who will report to whom and where people fit.
2. Prioritize a single, maintained core platform. Avoid proliferating divergent tech stacks.
3. Sell the solved problem, not the components. Offer hosting, operation, and compliance as part of the package.
4. Be honest with people. Ask them if they want to be part of the new journey and plan positive exits if not.
5. Simplify product packaging and contracts to reduce buying friction for customers.
6. Invest appropriately in commercial teams; great product alone will not scale a SaaS business.
7. Set a 2 to 3 year goal, then focus on what needs to be done tomorrow to make progress.

Final Thought

Merging businesses and scaling SaaS is messy and human. It requires aligning strategy, technology, and people. Be pragmatic, make decisions early where you can, and build a commercial story that customers can understand and buy into. Keep asking the simple question: whose problem are we solving, and are we prepared to own it end to end?