Better Done Than Perfect

SaaS is an industry open to anyone passionate enough to enter, but certain niches are particularly challenging — accounting and finance among these, no doubt. Our guest today is Paul Kogan, a fearless serial entrepreneur and the “new” founder of LessAccounting. You’ll hear about his multiple previous products, how he acquired and revamped LessAccounting, their user onboarding struggles, and his valuable advice for SaaS founders.

Visit our website for the detailed episode recap with key learnings.

Show notes

• LessAccounting — Paul’s SaaS, an invoicing and accounting tool
• Shopify — a popular ecommerce platform
• Shipamax — Paul’s previous product
• Flippa — a popular marketplace for online businesses
• QuickBooks — popular accounting software
• GetMyTime — a Quickbooks time-tracking add-on, Paul’s first acquired product
• Google Analytics — Paul’s preferred analytics tool for tracking the user journey
• Intercom — a customer messaging tool Paul uses for automation
• UI Breakfast Episode 168: Succeeding at Freemium with Tim Valishev
• Follow Paul on Twitter

Thanks for listening! If you found the episode useful, please spread the word about this new show on Twitter mentioning @userlist, or leave us a review on iTunes.

Templates are a very powerful onboarding instrument, especially for “open-ended” creative tools. How do you use them effectively? Today’s guest is Christopher Gimmer, co-founder of Snappa. You’ll hear Christopher’s take on design templates, repurposed content, conversion, the friction of confirmation emails, onboarding videos, and much more.

Visit our website for the detailed episode recap with key learnings.

Show notes

• Snappa — Christopher’s SaaS product together with Marc Chouinard
• Product-Led Institute by Wes Bush
• Checklist — a productivity app
• Inspire, Not Instruct: How We Do User Onboarding at Userlist
• Follow Christopher on Twitter

Thanks for listening! If you found the episode useful, please spread the word about this new show on Twitter mentioning @userlist, or leave us a review on iTunes.

Sponsor

This show is brought to you by Userlist — the best tool for sending onboarding emails and segmenting your SaaS users. To follow the best practices, download our free printable email planning worksheets at userlist.com/worksheets.

How does a brand new SaaS company launch smoothly amidst a global pandemic? Can the founders learn from past errors, or is it all about starting from scratch? Today’s guest is Rand Fishkin, co-founder of SparkToro and previous co-founder at Moz. You’ll learn about SparkToro’s onboarding and launch strategies, their highly successful user survey, conversion tactics, and the founders’ past and present challenges.

Visit our website for the detailed episode recap with key learnings.

Show notes

• SparkToro — Rand’s SaaS product we’re talking about
• Moz — Rand’s previous company
• Casey Henry — Rand’s co-founder at SparkToro
• SparkToro Raised a Very Unusual Round of Funding & We’re Open-Sourcing Our Docs — an overview SparkToro’s fundraising process
• TinySeed — Rob Walling’s accelerator which follows the SparkToro funding methodology
• Lost and Founder — Rand’s book
• Drip, ConvertKit — marketing tools
• UI Breakfast Podcast Episode 78: Customer-Driven Organic Growth with Ashley Greene
• Follow Rand on Twitter

Thanks for listening! If you found the episode useful, please spread the word about this new show on Twitter mentioning @userlist, or leave us a review on iTunes.

Sponsor

This show is brought to you by Userlist — the best way for SaaS founders to send onboarding emails, segment your users based on events, and see where your customers get stuck in the product. Start your free trial today at userlist.com. 

Effective user onboarding is a matter of life and death for freemium products. Today we’re learning from one of the most established players in the email plugin industry. Our guest is Kim Gjerstad, co-founder of MailPoet. You’ll hear the product’s story as well as Kim’s insights on user onboarding, fighting churn, website design, and more.

Visit our website for the detailed episode recap with key learnings.

Show notes

• MailPoet — Kim’s SaaS product; an email plugin for WordPress
• WordPress — the most popular open source software for blogging, websites and apps
• Mailchimp — a popular email automation tool
• Mixpanel — a product analytics tool
• Dribbble — a designer hub for showcasing work and networking
• Follow Kim on Twitter or contact him directly via email at [email protected]

Thanks for listening! If you found the episode useful, please spread the word about this new show on Twitter mentioning @userlist, or leave us a review on iTunes.

Sponsor

This show is brought to you by Userlist — the best way for SaaS founders to send onboarding emails, segment your users based on events, and see where your customers get stuck in the product. Start your free trial today at userlist.com.

Why is it so critical to be aware of customers’ Jobs to Be Done, especially when you work on their onboarding? In this episode, we chat with Ramli John, founder of Growth Marketing Today, fellow podcaster and consultant. You’ll hear about Ramli’s EURECA user onboarding  framework, as well as his insights on segmentation, minimizing friction, success metrics, analytics tools, and more. 

Visit our website for the detailed episode recap with key learnings.

Show notes

• growthtoday.fm — Ramli’s podcast
• When Coffee and Kale Compete — a famous book on JTBD by Alan Klement
• The Stewart Butterfield interview wherein the Slack founder refers to the 2000 messages metric
• How Userlist Onboards New Users feat. Jane Portman by Product-Led Institute
• How FullStory Onboards New Users by Product-Led Institute
• Product-Led’s full list of user onboarding teardowns
• Wave — a financial app and great example of segmented onboarding
• SQL, ChartMogul, Mixpanel — tools Ramli recommends for product analytics
• How Appcues’ Jonathan Kim Boosts Retention — a ProfitWell article on Appcues’ approaches on user retention and churn rate reduction
• jtbd.info — the Jobs To Be Done website
• UI Breakfast Podcast. Episode 181: Jobs to Be Done with Jim Kalbach
• The Product-Led Podcast — the podcast Ramli co-hosts with Wes Bush
• onboardingteardowns.com — visit for Ramli’s onboarding reviews
• ramlijohn.com — Ramli’s website
• Follow Ramli on Twitter

Thanks for listening! If you found the episode useful, please spread the word about this new show on Twitter mentioning @userlist, or leave us a review on iTunes.

Sponsor

This show is brought to you by Userlist — the best way for SaaS founders to send onboarding emails, segment your users based on events, and see where your customers get stuck in the product. Start your free trial today at userlist.com.

Some entrepreneurs break into SaaS fairly early in life and make a real impact in the community. One of such inspiring founders is today’s guest, Adii Pienaar, the founder of WooCommerce and CM Commerce (previously Conversio). In this episode, you’ll hear about Adii’s successes  and failures in user onboarding, as well as his views on email marketing, task simplification, concierge onboarding, success metrics, segmentation, and much more.

Visit our website for the detailed episode recap with key learnings.

Show notes

• CM Commerce, WooCommerce — Adii’s previous products
• Dan Martell’s SaaS Academy
• Life Profitability — Adii’s podcast & an upcoming book
• Facebook’s Aha Moment Is Simpler Than You Think — an article by Benn Stancil that analyzes the ‘7 friends in 10 days’ method
• User Onboarding: The UX Behind Our Magically Extending Free Trial — an article by Janna Bastow on gamified trials
• Amplitude, Kissmetrics, Mixpanel — tools for product analytics
• adii.me — Adii’s website
• Follow Adii on Twitter

Thanks for listening! If you found the episode useful, please spread the word on Twitter mentioning @userlist, or leave us a review on iTunes.

Sponsor

This show is brought to you by Userlist — the best tool for sending onboarding emails and segmenting your SaaS users. To follow the best practices, download our free printable email planning worksheets at userlist.com/worksheets.

When it comes to user onboarding, one of the first names that pop to mind is Samuel Hulick, an accomplished UX consultant, founder of User Onboard, and author of The Elements of User Onboarding. In this episode, you’ll learn Samuel’s take on exactly that — the “ideal” user onboarding experience, as well as his Mario-fireball concept, Value Paths, success metrics, Jobs to Be Done, segmentation, and his invaluable advice for SaaS founders.

Visit our website for the detailed episode recap with key learnings.

Show notes

• Useronboard.com — Samuel’s user onboarding resource website
• The Elements of User Onboarding — Samuel’s book
• We Are No Strangers — Samuel’s article, which refers to his Mario-fireball concept
• Value Paths — Samuel’s new onboarding approach
• UI Breakfast Podcast. Episode 181: Jobs to Be Done with Jim Kalbach
• The Jobs To Be Done Playbook — Jim Kalbach’s popular book
• Why We Do What We Do — a book by Edward L. Deci
• Startup Metrics for Pirates: AARRR! — a talk by Dave McClure on his Pirate Metrics framework
• Follow Samuel on Twitter

If you found the episode useful, please spread the word on Twitter mentioning @userlist, or leave us a review on iTunes.

Sponsor

This show is brought to you by Userlist — the best way for SaaS founders to send onboarding emails, segment your users based on events, and see where your customers get stuck in the product. Start your free trial today at userlist.com.