In Demand: How to Grow Your SaaS and Stay In Demand

In Demand: How to Grow Your SaaS and Stay In Demand

By Asia Orangio & Kim TalarczykBusinessEntrepreneurshipTechnologyMarketing
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In Demand: How to Grow Your SaaS and Stay In Demand episodes

  • EP4: The WORST Assumptions You Can Make as a SaaS Founder
    In our personal lives we’ve learned that assumptions will often lead us astray. When it comes to an early stage SAAS startup, they can be the difference between success and failure. 
    In this episode of In Demand, Asia Orangio of DemandMaven shares the six worst assumptions that you can make as a SAAS founder and how to reframe them for success.
    Extra Resources:
    Check out the Baremetrics blog post on SAAS milestones: https://baremetrics.com/blog/how-fast-saas-companies-hit-arr-milestones
    TLDR; The Worst Assumptions You Can Makes as a SAAS Founder
    1. [1:29] “If you build it they will pay”
    It’s not “If you build it they will pay” it is much more like “If you build it, test it out, validate it, then they are much more likely to pay.”
    Most founders don’t believe the old idea “if you build it they will come.” They know they need to market their product, but today more than ever, many assume that when the time comes the paying customers will be there. 
    If you expect to charge for the product in the future, it is crucial that you don’t just assume that customers will be willing to pay when you ask. “The best way to know if someone will pay for your product is to actually try and charge them for it.” 
    If you’re early on and don’t have paying customers yet there are two directions you can go:
    You can create a group of beta users who get free access 
    You can focus on finding your first ten paying customers 
    2. [16:00] “If it worked for them, it’s gonna work for me”
    It’s not really “if it worked for them, it will work for me”. It’s much more like “if it worked for them, in this market, in this industry, for these kinds of people, for this kind of software category, then it will probably work for me."
    It is great to listen to the stories of other founders, to learn from what they did, but the context for your business will always be different. If you find yourself doing research on others companies journeys, always remember that there is a specific context in which this strategy worked and compare it to the context you are operating in.
    3. [24:00] “The first 100 customers is fast”
    It’s not “the first 100 customers is fast” or that it should be fast, if anything it is exactly correlated to you, your market, and your product. 
    No matter the milestone, never assume that it will be fast or easy. As the saying goes, your first $100k will be much harder than the second $100K
    52 min
  • EP2: The PERFECT Time for Marketing
    When it comes to early-stage SaaS founders trying to grow their businesses, there's a perfect time for marketing and there's less ideal times for marketing. Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to time your marketing efforts for maximum impact and efficient investment. Asia Orangio of DemandMaven digs deep into what scenarios make sense for founders to invest in marketing, and what scenarios would warrant more customer discovery instead.
    37 min
  • EP1: Marketing in an Economic Downturn
    We haven't even hit peak COVID-19 yet, but many SaaS companies are wondering: what in the heck do I do with go-to-market and marketing functions now that we're in an economic downturn? Here's how Asia Orangio of DemandMaven thinks we'll shift. 
    Extra Reading
    Marketing and Growth for Uncertain Times on CXL.com
    34 min

About In Demand: How to Grow Your SaaS and Stay In Demand

From the publisher's feed

Growing a SaaS? Yeah, that's hard. Growing a SaaS without a clue what you're doing from a marketing and growth perspective? Pretty much impossible — especially if you want to break the $1M and $10M ARR marks. Kim Talarczyk sits down with Asia Orangio to extract and unpack all the strategic insights she holds in her brain from working with hundreds of SaaS companies and interviewing thousands of their customers. Together, they break down how to diagnose and troubleshoot growth challenges across every part of a B2B SaaS business.