Heidi Jannenga, President and Co-Founder of WebPT, talks about how their cloud-based idea grew into the leading physical therapy software on the market. WebPT did over $80M in revenue last year with a 99% customer retention rate.

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Topics Discussed in this Episode:

• [01:38] How Heidi first came up with the idea for WebPT
• [06:03] How they saved a tremendous amount of money in building their platform by finding a technical co-founder
• [07:03] Launching their product, deciding on pricing, and getting customers
• [09:59] How much money they were saving versus how much money they were spending for transcription
• [10:41] WebPT’s secret sauce and how they started getting leads
• [13:13] Building WebPT’s marketing strategy
• [14:49] How much traffic they’re getting from their content and SEO
• [16:06] Creating brand awareness among university students
• [17:08] Doing trade shows and building their reputation
• [18:10] Going after the SMB space and engaging with their customers to improve their platform
• [20:53] WebPT’s retention rate in the past and now
• [21:52] The challenge of getting customers on board
• [23:54] WebPT’s workflow
• [25:42] WebPT’s Idea Portal and other ways of getting customer feedback
• [28:51] Bringing on a CEO and scaling the company
• [32:19] What made them decide to raise funds and how they did it successfully
• [38:17] Taking risks to grow the business
• [40:32] Growing through acquisitions
• [41:21] Why Heidi thought the business would fail and what she did about it
• [42:41] What had the biggest impact on WebPT’s growth
• [43:17] The area that Heidi had to personally grow in to grow the business

 

Key Takeaways:

• Having a technical co-founder and a subject matter expert is a very good fusion to launching a successful product.
• What’s tremendously important during the early stage of a business is staying niche.
• The number one reason acquisitions fail is because there’s not a culture fit between the two companies.
• It’s okay to be vulnerable even as a leader. You don’t have to have all the answers, and it’s okay to say you don’t know. That vulnerability component in a leader can lead to loyalty.

 

Action Steps:

• Know the impact that your business is having on customers.
• Bring people that are smarter than you into your business but still own that you’re the leader they’re looking up to.

 

Heidi said:

“You can’t discount the actual product. The product has to work… If it’s a shitty product, you’re going to have a problem with people leaving.”

“As a leader, it’s okay to be vulnerable. I think too often we have our work selves and we have our out-of-work selves, and the authenticity is what people really migrate to.”

 

More from Heidi Jannenga:

• WebPT’s Website
• Heidi’s LinkedIn
• Heidi’s Twitter (@HeidiJannenga)

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