What’s the problem? Why does it matter now?
For years, the SaaS playbook has been clear: raise capital, fuel hypergrowth, and worry about profitability later. But in today’s climate, that strategy is no longer sustainable. Investors and boards are demanding efficiency, clarity, and purpose. Companies that fail to evolve risk scaling chaos rather than value.
At AGR, a supply chain SaaS platform headquartered in Iceland, the leadership team found themselves at a tipping point. On the surface, growth looked strong. Underneath, profitability was missing, scalability was unclear, and even employees struggled to articulate the company’s value.
The lesson from AGR’s transformation? You cannot spreadsheet your way to sustainable growth. Culture, not just code, drives lasting performance.
The shift hit home for Sigrún Gunnhildardóttir, Chief Product Officer at AGR. Trained as an engineer, she had spent more than a decade transforming AGR’s legacy software into a modern SaaS platform. For much of her career, she believed optimization was about algorithms, data, and tools. But leading AGR through its next phase taught her a different lesson: the most important optimizations are human.
At SaaSiest 2025, she shared AGR’s journey of shifting from “growth at all costs” to “profitability with purpose,” anchored in cultural leadership.
Game Changer #1: Prioritize culture like you prioritize product
Product leaders know prioritization is everything. The same is true for culture.
“Culture isn’t soft background noise,” Sigrún said. “It has to be treated as intentionally as product.”
At AGR, that meant designing rituals to create alignment. Their most impactful? One AGR, a weekly Friday all-hands across every office. Unlike traditional one-way town halls, One AGR is a two-way ritual:
- Customer wins and team updates
- New hires and guest speakers (customers, board members, even students)
- Full transparency on what’s working and what’s not
The key? Clarity isn’t assumed. It has to be created. AGR even made One AGR a standing topic in executive meetings: every Monday leadership asks, what’s the one thing the team needs to feel or understand this week?
The result: shared understanding became a “culture delivery system” that could not be automated or outsourced.
Game Changer #2: Create stories that stick
Strategy decks rarely inspire action. Stories do.
AGR’s first bold signal was a simple goal: 1,000 customers. At the time, the company had only 150 after 20 years. The number wasn’t the point. The story was. It shifted how teams thought, worked, and filtered decisions.
Later, when the board demanded profitability, AGR used a new metaphor:
We are like a 40-year-old still living with our parents.
The image clicked. Teams instantly understood the pressure of dependence and the need for independence. By being radically transparent about their financial reality, AGR unlocked ownership rather than fear.
“People might leave when you tell the full truth,” Sigrún admitted. “But the opposite happened. They stepped up. They asked sharper questions. They felt ownership.”
Game Changer #3: Invest in your culture carriers
For too long, AGR believed leadership could carry culture alone. They delayed hiring HR until 90 employees. Eventually, the team spanned 10 countries.
“You don’t scale culture by being everywhere,” Sigrún reflected. “You scale it through people.”
Not just managers, but natural influencers—the colleagues others look to for cues. Supporting these culture carriers, even those with whom leaders had friction, became essential. The awkward conversations were often the most impactful.
Because culture doesn’t scale through structure. It scales through people.
The result: Purpose that customers feel
AGR has recently navigated tough transitions: repricing, cost-cutting, even layoffs. Yet customers are staying loyal, showing up at events, and rooting for the company.
Why? Not just product. Culture is contagious. Customers could feel that AGR cared. Teams delivered not just features, but commitment.
One of AGR’s values—we care about what we do and why we do it—proved to be more than words. It was lived. And it translated into customer trust.
Takeaways for SaaS leaders
Sigrún’s playbook for leaders navigating today’s market:
- Start with people, not spreadsheets. You cannot lead a culture you don’t understand.
- Build rituals that reinforce culture. Make them weekly, intentional, and transparent.
- Tell stories, not just strategies. Simplify complex goals into narratives people can repeat.
- Invest in culture carriers. Influence the influencers, even when it’s uncomfortable.
- Be radically transparent. Ownership thrives when people see the real picture.
Final word
The shift from growth at all costs to profitability with purpose is not about cutting ambition. It is about channeling it. AGR’s journey proves that when leaders build rituals, tell stories that stick, and invest in culture carriers, teams align, customers stay loyal, and profitability follows.
Or, as Sigrún put it: “When you lead with people, profit follows.”
Watch Sigrún’s full keynote from SaaSiest 2025 here
