How vulnerability made Liam Boogar-Azoulay a better SaaS executive

On this month’s episode of the Struggle, Alex Theuma speaks with
Liam Boogar-Azoulay, Head of Marketing at MadKudu, a predictive
lead scoring solution for SaaS companies.


Liam has had somewhat of an unusual path professionally and
personally. When everyone was moving to Silicon Valley, he moved
away from it, landing in Paris. While most people would hone
their skills in a particular area first and then dare to start
their own company, Liam’s first job was starting Rude Baguette, a
blog devoted to startups.  


He had started it almost as soon as he moved to Paris. Rude
Baguette would end up being one of the biggest startup
publications in France, which employed 10 people. That is until
Liam brought it to bankruptcy, a slow one as you will hear him
describe in this interview, but a bankruptcy nevertheless. In
retrospect, he knows exactly what went wrong but at the time some
of his flaws were hidden. One thing he realized from the
experience is that he had enjoyed building the brand far more
than being a CEO. With that in mind, he joined Algolia as their
first ever Brand Director, 11 weeks after he had filed for
bankruptcy. They caused mistakes, which he would repeat at
Algolia, a company he joined 11 weeks after filing for
bankruptcy.


He would spend a total of a year and a half at Algolia, leaving
it in almost as dramatic a fashion as folding Rude Baguette. His
time there was marked by some incredible feats like a full
rebrand but also some pretty big mistakes, deriving from often
not knowing what to do but never admitting to it or asking for
help, his innate need to always portray he knew the answer
getting in the way. By the time he started with Madkudu, Liam
knew there were major gaps he needed help with or he would fail
again. Admitting to his vulnerabilities openly Liam asked
for an executive coach. MadKudu’s founders said yes.


As with all the other guests on The Struggle, we have the utmost
respect for Liam for his openness, honesty, and willingness to
learn from his shortcomings so others can learn from them too.


As you will hear in the interview, Liam met Madkudu’s founder
Frances at SaaStock. In fact, for a long time, Liam used to think
SaaStock was called SaaStalk because of all of the invaluable
conversations that take place during our conference for founders,
executives and investors. If you want to partake in the
networking, the life-changing conversations and lasting
relationships, join us in Dublin this October for SaaStock19.


 


 


 


Check out the other ways SaaStock is helping SaaS founders move
their business forward: 


SaaStock Europe: 14-15 October 2025 | Dublin, Ireland
Book you tickets: https://saastock-europe.com/tickets/


SaaStock USA 2025: April 2026 | Austin, Texas
Join the waitlist: https://saastock-usa.com/


SaaStock Founder Membership: A private members group of B2B SaaS
founders between $100K - $10M ARR who are committed to growth and
helping others (https://www.saastock.com/founder-membership/)


SaaStock Local: Monthly meet-ups in cities all around the world,
bringing together SaaS enthusiasts and experts to discuss the
most pressing topics in SaaS (https://local.saastock.com/home)