Starting an international startup from South Africa isn't the simplest thing. Geographically you're cut off, the funding environment is harder, and your time zone doesn't work great with the US. Yet Bradley Elliott has started four companies from South Africa. Today Shira Abel talks to Bradley about the companies he's started, how he grew them, and how he plans on expanding to the US.  About Bradley Elliott Bradley Elliott is the Founder & CEO of Continuon, the personalized marketing & social intelligence platform. He has strong skills in Digital Strategy, Operations Management, Customer Relationship Management (CRM), Product Development and Management. Has founded 3 startups and a founding partner in 1 startup. Only 1 has failed.  About Shira Abel Shira Abel is the CEO and Lead Strategist at Hunter & Bard (http://www.hunterandbard.com), an inbound marketing and branding agency. Clients include: Totango, Cyara, Sarine Technologies, Pushbullet, AXA Tech, CloudEndure, AppsGeyser, Pitango VC, Chipolo, Allianz, and more. Creator and host of the SaaS Insider podcast. Creator of the Behavior Engineering Canvas. Mentor at 500 Startups. Former professor of Marketing for Startups at Tel Aviv-Jaffa Academic College. MBA from Kellogg School of Management. Loves family time, cooking, and travelling. Hates writing about herself in the third person. She lives in Silicon Valley with her husband, teen and tween sons and a very large Great Pyrenees.  If you would like to be interviewed on SaaS Insider - please contact Shira at the URL above.  The SaaS Insider podcast is brought to you by Hunter & Bard, a marketing agency specializing in design, branding, content and marketing automation – helping SaaS companies reduce their marketing debt. Check out Hunter & Bard today at http://hunterandbard.com

048: Starting from South Africa

SaaS Insider is a show about SaaS - business, marketing, and sales. The host, Shira Abel from Hunter & Bard, interviews a new SaaS Insider every week on how they grew their company. We cover the learnings, mistakes, and best practices so you can learn, grow, and scale your SaaS business.

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How to target and engage prospective customers? What message does your company need in order to appeal to both small businesses and enterprises? How to grow your company through content and social media marketing?   About Naomi Assaraf  -Naomi Assaraf is co-founder and Chief Marketing Officer of cloudHQ, a profitable tech startup that makes Gmail productivity tools for clients like Uber, Autodesk, and CapitalOne. In the past two years at cloudHQ, she increased user acquisition by a factor of seven. -Assaraf specificializes in growth and is especially passionate about the process of growing startups to their profitability stage.  -She has founded three companies since her first one at age 17 and mentors other startups on growth.  -Assaraf is also a global keynote speaker and blog contributor for the Huffington Post. Her most current interests revolve around artificial intelligence and mixed reality.  Key Takeaways:  -One of the biggest problems marketers face is establishing their target base: Once you do this, it is easy to engage them with ads or keywords.  -Decide what to produce based on existing products with high user levels and low satisfaction rates. -Learn from your customers: They provide useful feedback on who they are and how they are using your products.  -A self-motivated and inspired team is a must for achieving growth and success with your product or service.   Please rate this podcast.  About Shira Abel Shira Abel is the CEO and Lead Strategist at Hunter & Bard (http://www.hunterandbard.com), a public relations and design agency. Clients include: Folloze, Totango, Cyara, Pushbullet, AXA Tech, CloudEndure, Pitango VC, Allianz, and more. Creator and host of the SaaS Insider podcast. Mentor at 500 Startups. Former professor of Marketing for Startups at Tel Aviv-Jaffa Academic College. MBA from Kellogg School of Management. Loves family time, cooking, and traveling. Hates writing about herself in the third person. She lives with her husband, teen and tween sons and a very large Great Pyrenees. If you would like to be interviewed on SaaS Insider - please contact Shira at https://www.hunterandbard.com.  The SaaS Insider podcast is brought to you by Hunter & Bard, an agency specializing in Public Relations and design – helping SaaS companies develop mindshare. It’s also a member of the C-Suite Radio Network. Check out Hunter & Bard today at http://hunterandbard.com

093: Naomi Assaraf on Growing Your Business By Knowing Your Customer

What is growth marketing? How can you meet KPIs without compromising product quality or customer experience? What is the difference between performance marketing and experimentation? How to make the most out of your experimentation?   About Ferdinand Goetzen  Ferdinand Goetzen is the head of growth at Recruitee, which provides companies with an all in one tool for managing and streamlining their entire recruitment process. It is one of the fastest growing SaaS startups in the Netherlands and has the goal of expanding to the entire European continent. Ferdinand has been working in various forms of marketing and growth for almost a decade and is an expert in full-funnel marketing and growth experimentation. He began marketing at the age of 15 and has been dominating the industry ever since.  He is a passionate traveler and avid blogger. Ferdinand loves to blog about tech, travel, and growth. You can check his blog out at blog.ferdinandgoetzen.com  Key Takeaways:   Growth Marketing requires marketers to work full funnel: Conversion is not enough, growth marketers need to be involved in customer retention, satisfaction, and return. Experimentation is a great way to discover new marketing methods, but it is crucial that your experiment is scalable and appropriate for the intended channel.  Product quality is key. A high-quality product leads to high-level customers and their valuable recommendations.  Data, creativity, and alignment within department teams are essential aspects for growth.  Please rate this podcast.  About Shira Abel Shira Abel is the CEO and Lead Strategist at Hunter & Bard (http://www.hunterandbard.com), a public relations and design agency. Clients include: Folloze, Totango, Cyara, Pushbullet, AXA Tech, CloudEndure, Pitango VC, Allianz, and more. Creator and host of the SaaS Insider podcast. Mentor at 500 Startups. Former professor of Marketing for Startups at Tel Aviv-Jaffa Academic College. MBA from Kellogg School of Management. Loves family time, cooking, and traveling. Hates writing about herself in the third person. She lives with her husband, teen and tween sons and a very large Great Pyrenees.  If you would like to be interviewed on SaaS Insider - please contact Shira at https://www.hunterandbard.com.  The SaaS Insider podcast is brought to you by Hunter & Bard, an agency specializing in Public Relations and design – helping SaaS companies develop mindshare. It’s also a member of the C-Suite Radio Network. Check out Hunter & Bard today at http://hunterandbard.com

092: Ferdinand Goetzen on Growth Marketing and Experimentation

How do you identify your target market? What tools should you be using to attract them? How to introduce a novel product in an established market? What relationships should you be making and questions should you be asking to effectively land and expand your customer base?  About Whitney Sales  Whitney Sales is a business leader, venture capitalist, and the founder of Sales Method, a consultancy that helps startups grow by identifying their target markets, establishing strong sales teams, and launching their product quickly and successfully.  Sales is a fitting surname for Whitney, who has over 10 years of start up sales experience and is an expert in early stage sales and efficiently getting company’s products to the market. She specializes in building successful sales teams and has lead four companies to Inc. 500 Fastest Growing Companies list, including LoopNet, Joby, Meltwater, and SpringAhead. Whitney graduated University of California San Diego with honors and a Bbachelor’s degree in Ssociology, and continues to study sociology and neuroscience.   Key Takeaways:  When identifying your target buyers, always be informed of whether they are dealing with a pain, if they are allocating a portion of their budget to this pain, and if the people dealing with the pain and the budget are accessible.  When making connections in companies, learn to differentiate between champions, who get things done, and talkers, who waste your time. Domain expertise is essential for establishing credibility with clients.  Please rate this podcast.  About Shira Abel Shira Abel is the CEO and Lead Strategist at Hunter & Bard (http://www.hunterandbard.com), a public relations and design agency. Clients include: Folloze, Totango, Cyara, Pushbullet, AXA Tech, CloudEndure, Pitango VC, Allianz, and more. Creator and host of the SaaS Insider podcast. Mentor at 500 Startups. Former professor of Marketing for Startups at Tel Aviv-Jaffa Academic College. MBA from Kellogg School of Management. Loves family time, cooking, and traveling. Hates writing about herself in the third person. She lives with her husband, teen and tween sons and a very large Great Pyrenees.  If you would like to be interviewed on SaaS Insider - please contact Shira at https://www.hunterandbard.com.  The SaaS Insider podcast is brought to you by Hunter & Bard, an agency specializing in Public Relations and design – helping SaaS companies develop mindshare. It’s also a member of the C-Suite Radio Network. Check out Hunter & Bard today at http://hunterandbard.com

091: Whitney Sales on Growing and Selling in New Markets

How do you develop a winning idea? What is the secret to making a profound impact on your customers? How to balance quantifiable data with creativity in order to predict client reaction and satisfaction? In this week’s episode of Insider SaaS, Steve Tornello shares his experiences in creative problem solving with host Shira Abel.  About Steve Tornello Steve Tornello is an award winning creative director and writer who currently works at Sales Force as Director of Integrated Marketing, where he creates and relays meaningful messages through all aspects of marketing and advertising.  His extensive background includes 14 years of leading and creating huge ad campaigns for companies like Nike, EA Sports, Xbox, Visa, Youtube, Ebay, and many others. His work spans across mediums such as print, television, websites, social, and more. Whether he is writing, directing, editing, producing or managing a project, Steve strives to communicate a human truth to his audience.  Aside from his role in marketing, Steve cultivates his creativity through writing articles which have been featured in Sports Illustrated and other media outlets, and is currently in the process of selling and producing a screenplay.    Key Takeaways:  It takes sorting through several ideas before you discover a brilliant one.  Judge your work based on the knowledge and experience of past failures and successes. Your work should constantly evolve and improve alongside your company and audience. Creative success is achieved through collaboration between visual and writing departments, as well as creative freedom and mutual understanding between directors and their team members. “Ideation by committee, design by yourself.” Personal outlets, self-care, and healthy habits are crucial for maintaining the necessary energy to foster creativity and motivation.     Please rate this podcast.  About Shira Abel Shira Abel is the CEO and Lead Strategist at Hunter & Bard (http://www.hunterandbard.com), a public relations and design agency. Clients include: Folloze, Totango, Cyara, Sarine Technologies, Pushbullet, AXA Tech, CloudEndure, Pitango VC, Allianz, and more. Creator and host of the SaaS Insider podcast. Mentor at 500 Startups. Former professor of Marketing for Startups at Tel Aviv-Jaffa Academic College. MBA from Kellogg School of Management. Loves family time, cooking, and traveling. Hates writing about herself in the third person. She lives with her husband, teen and tween sons and a very large Great Pyrenees.  If you would like to be interviewed on SaaS Insider - please contact Shira at https://www.hunterandbard.com.  The SaaS Insider podcast is brought to you by Hunter & Bard, an agency specializing in PR and design – helping SaaS companies develop mindshare. It’s also a member of the C-Suite Radio Network. Check out Hunter & Bard today at http://hunterandbard.com

090: Steve Tornello on Creative Marketing and Advertising

What is operational and customer debt? What are some challenges of going from a freemium to a paid subscription offering? How to manage your team and make sure they concentrate on the right things? Joshua Ho shares his successes and failures with the host Shira Abel in building a software company.   About Joshua Ho Joshua Ho is the founder of Referral Rock where he leads the product and marketing teams. By his own admission, it is an odd combination of responsibilities but makes use of his primary skillsets as well as providing a vision for the business throughout the customer lifecycle. His background in engineering and software architecture as well as his passion for customer experience helped him realize he could build solutions that fit a business need.  Outside of Referral Rock, Joshua is a competitive handball player who also enjoys engineering marble towers and elaborate train track systems with his two kids.  Key Takeaways:  Inside sales and simply talking to your customers can bring surprising results.  Customers expect a certain level of responsiveness, make sure your sales team knows how to prioritize.  Content is a powerful tool in bringing your customers to your website and getting them interested in what you do.   Please rate this podcast.  About Shira Abel Shira Abel is the CEO and Lead Strategist at Hunter & Bard (http://www.hunterandbard.com), a public relations and design agency. Clients include: Folloze, Totango, Cyara, Sarine Technologies, Pushbullet, AXA Tech, CloudEndure, Pitango VC, Allianz, and more. Creator and host of the SaaS Insider podcast. Mentor at 500 Startups. Former professor of Marketing for Startups at Tel Aviv-Jaffa Academic College. MBA from Kellogg School of Management. Loves family time, cooking, and traveling. Hates writing about herself in the third person. She lives with her husband, teen and tween sons and a very large Great Pyrenees.  If you would like to be interviewed on SaaS Insider - please contact Shira at https://www.hunterandbard.com.  The SaaS Insider podcast is brought to you by Hunter & Bard, an agency specializing in PR and design – helping SaaS companies develop mindshare. It’s also a member of the C-Suite Radio Network. Check out Hunter & Bard today at http://hunterandbard.com

048: Starting from South Africa

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