SaaS Backwards - Reverse Engineering SaaS Success

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Guillaume Moubeche is a fascinating SaaS founder. He recently gained fame for a PR stunt in which he publicly mounted a VC fundraising campaign only to turn down $30 million. But he is so much more than that. He's a real deal entrepreneur who cracked the code on bootstrapping his startup and he did so through a modern approach and old-fashioned focus on the customer.

"G," as he likes to be called, covers a lot of ground in this "things you can do, too," episode that should be of high value to any SaaS founder in the early days, VC-fueled or not. In particular, G talks about how:

• Bootstrapping can lead to hyper-growth, and high profitability. The PR strategy around the public fundraising and rejection was to shine a spotlight on the viability of bootstrapped SaaS and his company in particular.
• Creating a business was a way for him to create freedoms he experienced in a gap year between his chemical engineering degree and marketing studies. First business with his dad failed for lack of customers. Went in business with a friend to help others drive sales and then decided to start his own business helping others to drive sales.
• He identified opportunity - saw that sales campaign tools available weren't doing the job. Met a couple of tech geniuses in an incubator, built some things for others and decided to form a company among them.
• Built an MVP in a few weeks, took market and initial user feedback and kept innovating. Relentless iteration got them to a product and company that people really want to use.
• Selling on value vs features. Lemlist's unique value proposition started with dynamic images within emails. Used his own tool to acquire customers. By running his own campaigns on Lemlist he could show how it worked.

This episode is a deep dive on how G growth hacked via organic, hand-to-hand marketing, sales and customer success.

He also talks about how focus is key - doing one thing as a big differentiator. Mass customization of email was the point of difference for Lemlist. Participating in FB groups (like startup founders) to generate audience and fans. And eating your own dog food to show the value of the solution.

G also talks passionately about how from the early days until today he remains most focused on his users, spending hours a day in touch with them to ensure his success.

Give the episode a listen and let me know what you think!

Resources for SaaS Execs

Recently closed a funding round and need to ramp growth?
Check out our comprehensive "scale-a-saas" guide:

Think your website could generate more leads?
Get our inbound lead generation self-assessment

Want to be a guest on SaaS Backwards?
Click to meet with Ken Lempit to talk about an episode.

SaaS Backwards is a free service to the SaaS community.

---

Stalled pipeline? Lost deals? Diagnose your GTM gaps with a free, actionable checkup. 

🔗 Get your free SaaS GTM Checkup 

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Gaurav Harode is the founder and CEO of Enablix, a sales enablement platform that makes it easier for marketing and sales to manage, collaborate on and share content with prospects. According to Harode, "organizations create content on a daily basis, but there's no simple solution to get it in the hands of salespeople."

He's got the mission sorted now, but his SaaS started out as a knowledge management solution. With so many well entrenched competitors, and ROI elusive, he found it difficult to gain traction. A pivot to helping sales be more effective has been key to growth and a path to a sustainable business.

The new positioning answers a true yearning within marketing and sales organizations to work better together and for marketing to be able to provide more relevancy in its content for the sales process. And speaking of that process, Gaurav reveals an interesting nuance in the difference between scripted journeys as envisioned by marketing and the truth of the iterative and somewhat random nature of enterprise sales  and relationship building... and how Enablix helps its users to succeed in that environment.

Lastly, Gaurav discusses a lead generation tactic he's found that pays for itself, G2, and his search to expand investments in ways that are equally ROI-obvious. A great listen for those in early stages who want some inspiration on bootstrapping their SaaS products.

Resources for SaaS Execs

Recently closed a funding round and need to ramp growth?
Check out our comprehensive "scale-a-saas" guide:

Think your website could generate more leads?
Get our inbound lead generation self-assessment

Want to be a guest on SaaS Backwards?
Click to meet with Ken Lempit to talk about an episode.
SaaS Backwards is a free service to the SaaS community.

---

Stalled pipeline? Lost deals? Diagnose your GTM gaps with a free, actionable checkup. 

🔗 Get your free SaaS GTM Checkup 

Send us Fan Mail

Neil Becker is a soft spoken yet hard driving CMO. His approach to marketing is that it must serve the organization's purpose, which is to sell its products. This puts marketing in a service provider role to sales, where the two teams share the same KPIs.

Interestingly, Neil is the second SoftBank-funded CMO to appear on the podcast (the other was Erez Yerselove of Globality), and they share a lot of perspective on the transformative nature of a $100 million investment.

This is a fast-paced and valuable conversation that touches on post-funding goal setting and building the organization to scale, how marketing and sales can do better together, ABM as a strategic practice (doing it for real), and the power of thought leadership to change marketplace realities.

I'd love to hear your thoughts on this episode.

Resources for SaaS Execs

Recently closed a funding round and need to ramp growth?
Check out our comprehensive "scale-a-saas" guide:

Think your website could generate more leads?
Get our inbound lead generation self-assessment

Want to be a guest on SaaS Backwards?
Click to meet with Ken Lempit to talk about an episode.
SaaS Backwards is a free service to the SaaS community.

---

Stalled pipeline? Lost deals? Diagnose your GTM gaps with a free, actionable checkup. 

🔗 Get your free SaaS GTM Checkup 

Send us Fan Mail

Accelerating SaaS growth is a multifaceted challenge. For the right kinds of SaaS applications there might be nothing that accelerates growth  faster than a strong integration or "platform" ecosystem. Fraser Davidson, CEO of iPaaS Cyclr goes deep in this episode on the value and strategy for building integrations.

Davidson puts forward the idea that there are three kinds of integrations: Strategic to the product, which should be built in-house (think Google Maps for a real estate SaaS); Commercially important to drive sales and retention (the more integrations in use, the stickier your SaaS); and, Emerging use cases that aren't yet important but might need a path to support and could develop into something meaningful.

Fraser also talks about what a CEO needs to consider post-funding - setting priorities as you scale your SaaS fueled by VC or PE money. It's a revealing and valuable conversation with a CEO who used to be a private equity exec, so he really knows the subject in depth. Lastly he talks about leadership at Cyclr being a match between a business exec and a tech visionary (he's the former) and how he makes that work to Cyclr's and his clients' advantage.

Fraser is a fascinating interview subject and his company is a valuable resource to SaaS firms which are scaling up. Take a listen and let me know what you think!

Resources for SaaS Execs

Recently closed a funding round and need to ramp growth?
Check out our comprehensive "scale-a-saas" guide:

Think your website could generate more leads?
Get our inbound lead generation self-assessment

Want to be a guest on SaaS Backwards?
Click to meet with Ken Lempit to talk about an episode.
SaaS Backwards is a free service to the SaaS community.

---

Stalled pipeline? Lost deals? Diagnose your GTM gaps with a free, actionable checkup. 

🔗 Get your free SaaS GTM Checkup 

Send us Fan Mail

Erez Yereslove is a serial marketing leader whose company, Globality, is changing the way professional services are sourced. By applying AI to the process, the company creates efficiency in specifying requirements, finding the right partner (starting with incumbents) and negotiating a clearer scope and fairer deal for all.

Erez talks about innovating in professional services, reveals a new feature that enables proposal comparison "apples to apples" vs "apples to kumquats." Saving time for CMOs and CIOs as they procure services and for the suppliers as well is a key benefit. AI and natural language processing make the process of buying services more organized, detailed by asking questions buyers might not anticipate (going way beyond what is possible in an RFP) and effective by narrowing the choices to likely fits. It's also valuable for supplier diversity and finding suppliers outside your home territory or for services where the buyer has no network to draw from.

Interestingly Globality is an enterprise commitment to change the way professional services are procured, and so is an interesting case study in go-to-market. They're elephant hunting by design, with highly focused and strategic approach to identifying, proposing, and onboarding clients.. Conversely, there are thousands of suppliers on the platform who make themselves available to economic buyers.

This is a fascinating conversation with a successful CMO on how he's driving go-to-market for a groundbreaking product and service to its clients. Enjoy!

Resources for SaaS Execs

Recently closed a funding round and need to ramp growth?
Check out our comprehensive "scale-a-saas" guide:

Think your website could generate more leads?
Get our inbound lead generation self-assessment

Want to be a guest on SaaS Backwards?
Click to meet with Ken Lempit to talk about an episode.
SaaS Backwards is a free service to the SaaS community.

---

Stalled pipeline? Lost deals? Diagnose your GTM gaps with a free, actionable checkup. 

🔗 Get your free SaaS GTM Checkup 

Send us Fan Mail

Jim Sharpe was a man with a strategic plan just a few weeks into his tenure as CEO of Aventri, an enterprise-class SaaS for live events, when the pandemic hit. While many SaaS weren't impacted, his firm's life blood, trade shows and private in-person events, came to a halt.

Using his strategic plan as a starting point, Jim, his team and their board / investors, regrouped, reinvested and pivoted the business to support the virtual events his clients were holding. He's also driving toward a new vision for in-person events where virtual attendees are an important and permanent part of the strategy going forward.

This is very deep dive on how leadership can and did make the difference between go forward or go home... the pandemic could have been fatal to Aventri, but it looks like it won't just have survived but in fact will thrive as 2021 unfolds.

Resources for SaaS Execs

Recently closed a funding round and need to ramp growth?
Check out our comprehensive "scale-a-saas" guide:

Think your website could generate more leads?
Get our inbound lead generation self-assessment

Want to be a guest on SaaS Backwards?
Click to meet with Ken Lempit to talk about an episode.
SaaS Backwards is a free service to the SaaS community.

---

Stalled pipeline? Lost deals? Diagnose your GTM gaps with a free, actionable checkup. 

🔗 Get your free SaaS GTM Checkup 

Send us Fan Mail

The irrepressible Dan Tyre is our guest for this episode, and he makes a compelling case that the Inbound methodology can and must be applied far beyond lead generation to make your company as successful as it can be. If you want to be jazzed up for 2021, this is the episode for you.

Dan talks about how the flywheel, a model that HubSpot introduced to represent the integration of sales, marketing and customer success, is central to achieving goals in 2021 and beyond. He also talks about how the principles of Inbound apply to organizing your business internally as well, as described in his book, "Inbound Organization." It's a great listen.


Resources for SaaS Execs

Recently closed a funding round and need to ramp growth?
Check out our comprehensive "scale-a-saas" guide:

Think your website could generate more leads?
Get our inbound lead generation self-assessment

Want to be a guest on SaaS Backwards?
Click to meet with Ken Lempit to talk about an episode.
SaaS Backwards is a free service to the SaaS community.

---

Stalled pipeline? Lost deals? Diagnose your GTM gaps with a free, actionable checkup. 

🔗 Get your free SaaS GTM Checkup 

Send us Fan Mail

Gregg Bienstock and his parter Tim Stevens follow a path we've come to recognize; subject matter experts who decide to get into the software business. Gregg provides a nuanced and "open book" look at how the company was formed, learned from its missteps and capitalized on its opportunities. 

Gregg  reveals another side of success we also are noticing as a pattern: he engages clients and leads his team with empathy, humility and open-mindedness. By allowing himself to be vulnerable he's developed relationships that matter, yielding fruit that helps him grow the business by meeting the real needs of his clients and prospects.

Resources for SaaS CMOs and CEOs:

Recently closed a funding round and need to ramp growth?
Check out our comprehensive "scale-a-saas" guide:

Think your website could generate more leads?
Get our inbound lead generation self-assessment

Want to be a guest on SaaS Backwards?
Click to meet with Ken Lempit to talk about an episode.
SaaS Backwards is a free service to the SaaS community.

---

Stalled pipeline? Lost deals? Diagnose your GTM gaps with a free, actionable checkup. 

🔗 Get your free SaaS GTM Checkup 

Send us Fan Mail

Vytas Kisielius, CEO of ReferWell, is one of the smartest, most perceptive, successful and approachable CEOs I know. He's the kind of leader you just innately want to help achieve his goals, right after meeting him.

In this episode, Vytas and I talk about what's working for his SaaS, how he needed to dramatically pivot sales strategy and product positioning to accelerate growth, how CEOs can know when to delegate as you are scaling and more. He also goes into some detail on the relationship he has with the firm's founder and investors. It's a great episode with a lot of inspiration and questions to ask for SaaS CEOs and CMOs as they scale their own enterprises.


Resources for SaaS CMOs and CEOs:

Recently closed a funding round and need to ramp growth?
Check out our comprehensive "scale-a-saas" guide:

Think your website could generate more leads?
Get our inbound lead generation self-assessment

Want to be a guest on SaaS Backwards?
Click to meet with Ken Lempit to talk about an episode.
SaaS Backwards is a free service to the SaaS community.

---

Stalled pipeline? Lost deals? Diagnose your GTM gaps with a free, actionable checkup. 

🔗 Get your free SaaS GTM Checkup 

Send us Fan Mail

Chalva is a wonderfully thoughtful CMO with a great background in advertising and consulting before he became a client-side marketing leader and multiple time SaaS CMO. 

In this episode we talk about the new CMO's imperatives including alignment with the CEO and board, the need for a CMO to be a tech-savvy leader as well as a marketing leader, and how to build consensus and drive innovation. A great wide-ranging conversation with a powerful marketing mind.

Resources for SaaS CMOs and CEOs:

Recently closed a funding round and need to ramp growth?
Check out our comprehensive "scale-a-saas" guide:

Think your website could generate more leads?
Get our inbound lead generation self-assessment

Want to be a guest on SaaS Backwards?
Click to meet with Ken Lempit to talk about an episode.
SaaS Backwards is a free service to the SaaS community.

---

Stalled pipeline? Lost deals? Diagnose your GTM gaps with a free, actionable checkup. 

🔗 Get your free SaaS GTM Checkup