The SaaS Podcast: How B2B SaaS & AI Founders Get Customers

By Omer KhanBusiness Entrepreneurship Technology

The SaaS Podcast: How B2B SaaS & AI Founders Get Customers episodes

November 15, 2018SaaS Growth: Why Unbounce's Channels Stopped Working
Unbounce grew from zero to $7 million in five years. Then the channels that built them stopped working. Blogging, webinars, organic content - all lost effectiveness. The real SaaS growth challenge was not getting to $7 million. It was growing SaaS to $20 million when everything that worked before failed. In this episode, Rick Perreault shares the SaaS growth strategy Unbounce used to navigate from 50 to 170 employees and $20M ARR.
Webinars that once drove 30% of customer acquisition became ineffective as the market got crowded. Scaling SaaS past $10M meant finding entirely new channels - paid search, an annual conference with 1,000+ marketers, and benchmark reports. One Unbounce customer did not even know the product supported mobile years after launch, proving that SaaS growth requires relentless over-communication.
Rick Perreault is the co-founder and CEO of Unbounce, a SaaS product that makes it easier to build custom landing pages and improve conversion rates.
🔑 Key Lessons
📉 Early channels stop working during SaaS growth past $10M: Unbounce's webinars drove 30% of acquisition in 2014 but became ineffective. Founders must continuously test new channels rather than relying on what worked early.
🚀 Over-communicate to customers and team during SaaS growth: An Unbounce customer did not know they supported mobile years after launch. Multi-channel, repeated communication is essential both internally and externally.
🤝 Fire fast and stop confusing being nice with accountability: Unbounce founders kept underperformers for years because they were friends. Nearly every person let go went on to thrive and came back grateful.
🏢 Let go of founder control to accelerate SaaS growth strategy: Rick shifted from running daily operations to providing vision. Empowering smart hires produced better results faster than founders trying to control every decision.
💰 Invest in customer experience early because it pays off when scaling SaaS gets hard: Unbounce's NPS of approximately 80 meant customers defended them during a full outage. That loyalty came from years of founders answering phones.
🎯 Promote your own product within your content: Unbounce separated thought leadership from product marketing and customers did not know what the product could do. Product promotion inside educational content is informing, not selling.
Chapters
Introduction
Catching up four years after episode 25
Unbounce SaaS growth from $7M to $20M ARR
Why content marketing lost its early effectiveness
Not promoting the product on their own blog
The mobile support perception problem
Over-communicating to customers across channels
Internal communication challenges at 170 employees
New marketing channels - paid search, conferences, benchmarks
Competitive landscape and differentiation
The annual conference as a marketing channel
Customer loyalty during a full site outage
What growth channels stopped working
The shift to paid search advertising
Letting go as founders and empowering executives
Hiring great people and firing too slowly
Lightning round
Wrap-up and contact information
Resources
Full show notes: https://saasclub.io/194
Join 5,000+ SaaS founders: https://saasclub.io/email
50 min
November 01, 2018SaaS Marketing Strategy: 1-Page Plan Framework
Most SaaS founders skip the marketing plan because it feels too complex. Allan Dib solved that by creating a SaaS marketing strategy that fits on a single page - nine boxes covering everything from identifying your target market to orchestrating referrals. In this episode, Allan walks through each phase of his SaaS marketing strategy - the before, during, and after stages - with specific SaaS examples and why getting a customer a result during their trial is the most critical conversion step.
Allan's SaaS marketing plan framework breaks the customer journey into three phases with three components each. Only 3% of any market is ready to buy now. Without a marketing plan for SaaS that includes lead capture and nurturing, you lose the other 97%. Allan grew two businesses to national scale and exit using this one-page marketing plan SaaS framework.
Allan Dib is a serial entrepreneur, marketer, and author of The 1-Page Marketing Plan. He grew an IT company and a VoIP provider to national scale, exiting both.
🔑 Key Lessons
🎯 Your SaaS marketing strategy must target narrowly or fail broadly: Allan says trying to market to everyone means you reach no one. Picking a tight target market makes every dollar of marketing spend more effective.
📉 Capture leads or lose 97% of your pipeline: Only 3% of prospects are ready to buy now. Without a lead capture system like free trials or email opt-ins, the other 97% simply disappear from your SaaS marketing strategy.
🚀 Get customers a result during their trial to convert: Prospects sign up, see a confusing dashboard, and leave. Onboarding that delivers the specific outcome they wanted turns conversion into order-taking.
💰 Customer lifetime value determines acquisition budget: If a customer is worth $10,000 over their lifetime, spending $2,000 to acquire them is rational. Increasing LTV expands how much you can invest in your SaaS marketing strategy.
🤝 Orchestrate referrals by making the referrer look good: Giving a friend a $100 voucher makes the referrer look generous. Build referral mechanics that create social goodwill as part of your SaaS marketing plan.
🔄 Segment because startups and enterprises need different messaging: Allan runs three segments with completely different messaging, pricing, and goals. Segment-specific content dramatically increases relevance and conversion.
Chapters
Introduction
Allan Dib's background - from IT geek to serial entrepreneur
What is SuccessWise and the 1-Page Marketing Plan
Benefits of a one-page SaaS marketing strategy
Three phases: before, during, and after
Phase 1 - Identifying your target market
Creating an ideal customer profile for SaaS
Crafting your message to the target market
The plan as a living document
Choosing media channels to reach your audience
Phase 2 - Lead capture and free trials
Sales conversion strategies for SaaS
Lead capture, nurturing, and outbound selling
Creative nurturing beyond email
Creating separate plans per segment
Phase 3 - Delivering a world-class experience
Increasing customer lifetime value
Switching monthly to annual subscriptions
Orchestrating and stimulating referrals
The best marketer wins every time
Where to find Allan Dib and the book
Resources
Full show notes: https://saasclub.io/193
Join 5,000+ SaaS founders: https://saasclub.io/email
46 min
October 25, 2018Selling a SaaS Business: $150M Exit Then Failure
Hampus Jakobsson co-founded TAT and sold it to BlackBerry for $150 million. Then he started a new SaaS company called Brisk - and it failed completely. Selling a SaaS business made him wealthy, but the failure taught him more about building products. In this episode, Hampus shares how six friends built a mobile UI company into a $150 million startup acquisition, why his next company failed despite money and experience, and what he looks for across 80+ angel investments.
The contrast is striking. TAT succeeded because device manufacturers needed mobile UI software and TAT had unique technology - the SaaS exit came naturally. Brisk failed because the team built technology they thought was cool rather than solving a validated customer problem. Selling a startup is the reward for real product-market fit, not just good engineering.
Hampus Jakobsson is a serial entrepreneur, angel investor, and venture partner at BlueYard Capital who has invested in over 80 companies after selling a SaaS business for $150M.
🔑 Key Lessons
🎯 Selling a SaaS business does not guarantee your next startup succeeds: Hampus had $150M exit experience, money, and talent when he started Brisk - but still failed because the team built what they found interesting rather than what customers needed.
📉 Skipping customer validation kills startups faster than bad technology: Brisk spent four years engineering a "smarter" sales tool without confirming teams wanted it. Talking to customers earlier would have saved years of wasted effort.
🚀 Use consulting revenue to fund early product development: TAT survived its early years by taking consulting projects alongside core product work. Services revenue kept the company alive on the path to a SaaS exit.
🧠 Real product-market fit feels urgent, not polite: Hampus learned that positive conversations do not mean product-market fit. When prospects are politely interested but not desperate, selling a SaaS business on that foundation is impossible.
🤝 Invest in founders who obsess over customer problems: After investing in 80+ companies, Hampus says the best returns come from founders with deep domain expertise who talk to customers constantly.
💰 Shared founding teams need aligned motivation beyond money: TAT's six co-founders started from genuine friendship in the computer arts scene. That alignment carried them eight years to a $150 million startup acquisition.
Chapters
Introduction
What gets Hampus out of bed every day
Favorite motivational quote
How six friends started TAT from the computer arts scene
Building mobile UI software for Motorola, Samsung, Nokia
TAT's path to selling a SaaS business for $150M
Life after the exit - adjusting to wealth and identity
Starting Brisk - the SaaS product for sales teams
Why Brisk failed - building cool tech vs. solving real pain
The mistake of not talking to enough customers
Lessons from failure versus lessons from success
Becoming an angel investor and joining BlueYard Capital
What Hampus looks for in founders and startups
Lightning round
Wrap-up and contact information
Resources
Full show notes: https://saasclub.io/192
Join 5,000+ SaaS founders: https://saasclub.io/email
53 min
October 17, 2018SaaS Sales Process: From 20% to 45% Close Rate
Delamon Rego was stuck at a 20% close rate. Instead of guessing, he mapped every reason deals were dying and built a SaaS sales process from scratch. Within a year, his close rate hit 45%. In this episode, Delamon walks through his complete B2B sales process - from building targeted prospect lists using outsourcers, to cleaning and qualifying leads, to crafting multi-touch SaaS sales process cadences that blend email, phone, and social selling.
The SaaS lead generation system starts with outsourcing list building on Upwork at low cost - custom lists outperform purchased ones because you control the fields. NeverBounce reduced bounce rates from 25% to under 3%. Then the SaaS selling process kicks in: 11-step cadences over three weeks mixing six emails and five phone calls, because half of all leads come from touch seven and beyond.
Delamon Rego is the COO of TOMIS Tech, the first AI-powered marketing intelligence platform for tour operators, and creator of The Win Rates Bible.
🔑 Key Lessons
🎯 Outsource list building for your SaaS sales process: Hiring outsourcers on Upwork produces tens of thousands of qualified rows far cheaper and fresher than purchased lists, with custom fields that improve response rates.
📉 Validate emails before outreach or risk killing your SaaS lead generation: NeverBounce reduced bounce rates from 25% to under 3%. High bounce rates damage sender reputation and can get your domain flagged as spam.
🤝 Qualify prospects early in your SaaS sales process: Filtering 10,000 leads down to 2,000 qualified ones using company size, buyer title, and BuiltWith tech spend data produces the same wins with far less effort.
🚀 Run long cadences because half of responses come late: Most founders quit after two or three touches, but data shows roughly 50% of positive responses in any B2B sales process come from touch seven and beyond.
💰 Write short curiosity-driven emails focused on prospect pain: Two to three bullet points, a curiosity-driven subject line, and language framed around problems rather than features consistently outperform long emails in the SaaS sales process.
Chapters
Introduction
Delamon's background and current work at TOMIS Tech
Starting the Win Rates Bible and improving close rates
Overview of the SaaS sales process for email outreach
Step 1 - Defining your ideal customer profile
Three ways to build a prospect list
Why outsourcing list building beats buying lists
Scraping, buying, and outsourcing compared
Step 2 - Cleaning and qualifying the list
Qualification criteria examples
Deduplication and email verification
Using NeverBounce to reduce bounce rates
Step 3 - Outreach and sales cadences
Email versus phone - which works better
Using social media in your outreach cadence
Email writing tips and recommended resources
Tools for sending outreach emails at scale
Anti-spam best practices
Final advice and wrap-up
Resources
Full show notes: https://saasclub.io/191
Join 5,000+ SaaS founders: https://saasclub.io/email
52 min
October 11, 2018Non-Technical Founder: Professor to 12K Users SaaS
Lindy Ledohowski was an English professor who did not know how to register a domain name. She had zero technical skills, zero business experience, and zero funding. As a non-technical founder, she flew a developer from Malaysia to live in her guest room for four months, started selling before her website could accept payments, and built a SaaS product that 12,000 students use - generating $500,000 a year.
This non-technical founder validated her product by testing with 200 students before charging a penny. In-class demos converted 35-65% of students on the spot. But the real non-technical founder breakthrough came from partnering with Nelson, a major educational distributor, to leverage their nationwide sales team. As a non-technical SaaS founder, Lindy proved you can build SaaS without coding skills if you bring domain expertise and distribution partnerships.
Lindy Ledohowski is the co-founder and CEO of EssayJack, a SaaS product that makes it easier for students to write essays and get better grades by reducing writing anxiety and procrastination.
🔑 Key Lessons
🎯 A non-technical founder can validate through direct user testing: Lindy tested the prototype with 200+ students across different grades and disciplines before spending money on a full build. Building SaaS without coding starts with paper prototyping.
💰 Sell before your website can accept payments: EssayJack collected checks from schools before Stripe was integrated. If customers write checks, you have validation that no landing page conversion rate can match.
🤝 Distribution partnerships scale faster than founder-led demos: In-class demos converted 35-65% of students, but partnering with Nelson gave EssayJack access to a nationwide sales team with 20 years of institutional relationships.
📉 Anchor pricing to what customers already buy: EssayJack priced itself as a digital writing textbook at $60-100 per year, fitting within existing educational budgets.
🧠 Apply academic peer review to startup development as a non-technical founder: Lindy had an IBM colleague review code quality and submitted for industry awards. Systematic validation built credibility with institutions.
🚀 Start thinking about investment earlier than comfortable: Lindy focused on validation for two years before considering fundraising. By the time growth appeared, she lacked capital to pursue it.
Chapters
Introduction
Favorite quote from John Milton on trial and adversity
What EssayJack does - a literacy platform for structured writing
Users vs customers - students vs institutions
From English professor to reluctant non-technical founder
Building the first prototype with paper cutouts
Developer involvement and iterative feedback
Validating with 200 students across schools and universities
Getting access to classrooms through relationship equity
Charging for the first time - from prototype to beta
Pricing based on textbook costs
Navigating educational institution budgets
Growing to 12,000 users through demos and partnerships
Marketing through classroom workshops
Revenue - $500K ARR and distribution partnerships
Friends and family round - raising $500K in 2017
Advice for non-technical founders on process and partners
Lightning round
Where to find Lindy and EssayJack
Resources
Full show notes: https://saasclub.io/190
Join 5,000+ SaaS founders: https://saasclub.io/email
52 min
October 04, 2018First SaaS Customers: Referral Formula to 1M+ Users
Nick Macario has built four companies over 10 years. Three of them grew to over a million users each. He sold two. And he used the same formula for getting first customers every time - referral marketing, content education, and obsessive attention to retention. In this episode, Nick shares the exact mechanics of his repeatable growth playbook, how Branded Me reached 500,000 early customers in four months, and how Dock.io raised $20 million through an ICO.
Nick's startup traction formula starts with making it easy for users to import contacts from Google and LinkedIn, then delivering value before asking for referrals. His first company Branded Me hit 500K initial traction users in four months but taught him that getting first customers means nothing without retention. Growth without retention is just expensive churn.
Nick Macario is the co-founder and CEO of Dock.io, a blockchain-based service that lets you control your information across the web and own your digital identity.
🔑 Key Lessons
🚀 Use referral marketing as the backbone for getting first customers: Nick used the same formula across four companies. Making it easy for users to import contacts and invite friends was the primary driver behind reaching 1M+ users each time.
📉 Retention matters more than acquiring first customers: Branded Me grew to 2-3 million users but could not retain them because users had no reason to return. Growth without retention is just expensive churn.
🎯 Deliver value before asking users to refer: Dock lets users experience the product's value before offering the option to invite friends. No incentives needed when the experience itself motivates sharing.
🧠 Engagement does not equal revenue product-market fit: Branded Me attracted M&A interest from Amazon and LinkedIn yet almost nobody would pay. Proving people want something is different from proving they will pay.
🤝 Content marketing educates users in new categories: Dock invests heavily in content about data privacy and GDPR because most users do not understand how their information is misused. Education builds awareness first.
Chapters
Introduction
What drives Nick - unique and innovative ideas
What Dock.io does - blockchain-based digital identity
Nick's background - four companies, two exits over 10 years
How Dock works - two-sided protocol and consumer app
How Dock differs from Google or Facebook login
Building the consumer side and partner ecosystem
Referral marketing as the repeatable first customers formula
Content marketing for educating a new market
How referral growth works without incentives at Dock
When to ask for referrals - after the aha moment
Building content strategy for blockchain and privacy education
The retention lesson from Branded Me
Partner integration and blockchain adoption challenges
Traction with partners - 130 dialogues, 40 commitments
Team structure - 25 people across 8 countries
Lightning round
Where to find Nick and Dock.io
Resources
Full show notes: https://saasclub.io/189
Join 5,000+ SaaS founders: https://saasclub.io/email
43 min
September 27, 2018Inbound Marketing SaaS: Auth0's 6-Step Framework
Martin Gontovnikas started coding at 12, built his career as a software engineer, then switched to "the dark side" - marketing. At Auth0, he applied a 6-step inbound marketing SaaS framework that grew the company from $200,000 to eight figures in less than five years. In this episode, Gonto walks through each step, shares a case study where two experiments failed before the third unlocked growth, and explains why 85% of Auth0's revenue comes from inbound marketing SaaS strategy driven by developer content.
The six steps are: decompose the problem, formulate a hypothesis, define a metric, run the experiment, verify the data, and iterate. Auth0's first SaaS content marketing experiment attracted existing users instead of new ones. The second got great conversion but low traffic. The third - greenfield content distributed through Hacker News and developer newsletters - finally drove organic growth SaaS founders can replicate.
Martin Gontovnikas is the VP of Marketing and Growth at Auth0, a platform that makes it easier for developers to implement authentication and authorization for web and mobile products.
🔑 Key Lessons
🎯 Decompose big inbound marketing SaaS problems into testable pieces: Auth0 was flat on signups. By interviewing developers about their habits, Gonto broke the problem into specific, testable experiments rather than guessing at solutions.
🔄 Treat content marketing SaaS failures as data for the next experiment: Auth0's first two experiments failed, but each revealed critical insights. The third iteration combined both learnings into a scalable acquisition engine.
🚀 Write greenfield content that solves problems without mentioning your product: Auth0's breakthrough came from writing about authentication in Angular without leading with Auth0. A small aside converted at much higher rates than product-focused content.
📉 Inbound marketing SaaS without distribution is invisible: Auth0's second experiment had excellent conversion but almost no traffic because SEO alone was not enough. Adding distribution through Hacker News and developer newsletters multiplied page views.
🧠 Scale by spinning up dedicated teams for proven channels: When developer content worked, Auth0 hired 10 technical writers as their first marketing team. The experimentation squad moved on to test new channels.
Chapters
Introduction
Favorite quote - be yourself, everyone else is taken
What Auth0 does and its developer-focused platform
Martin's role as VP of Marketing and Growth
Transition from software engineer to marketer
What is developer evangelism
How Martin joined Auth0 through serendipity
The rise of the CTMO and engineering approach to inbound marketing SaaS
Step 1 - Decompose the problem into smaller pieces
Step 2 - Formulate a hypothesis
The first experiment that failed
Steps 3-6 - Define, Run, Verify, Iterate
Deep dive into qualitative and quantitative decomposition
Formulating hypotheses with problem statements
Setting time frames and statistical significance
Verifying data - segmenting metrics to find hidden insights
Getting traditional marketers to embrace experimentation
Auth0's growth - from $200K to eight figures
Lightning round
Where to find Martin and Auth0
Resources
Full show notes: https://saasclub.io/188
Join 5,000+ SaaS founders: https://saasclub.io/email
48 min
September 21, 2018SaaS Serial Entrepreneur: $2M ARR on Word of Mouth
Calvin Correli lost his biggest client to outsourcing, had a mortgage three times higher than expected, and his second child would not sleep at night. Everything he tried to make money fell flat. Then this SaaS serial entrepreneur sat down one night and asked himself what he was actually meant to do - and that moment of clarity launched a bootstrapped SaaS growth story that reached $2 million in annual recurring revenue.
Calvin failed at five different startups before building Simplero. As a serial SaaS founder, he tried project management, journalism, publishing, and recruiting - none worked. He paid $2,000 for Marie Forleo's B-School course solely to access its Facebook community, where answering questions organically earned him 25 US customers. Word of mouth was the only channel that ever worked for this SaaS serial entrepreneur.
Calvin Correli is the founder and CEO of Simplero, a bootstrapped SaaS platform that makes it easy for subject matter experts to market, sell, and deliver their information online.
🔑 Key Lessons
🛠️ Build your SaaS for yourself first to ensure growth: Calvin built Simplero because he needed it for his own online courses. When other course creators saw it, they asked to use it too - proving demand before spending a dollar on marketing.
💰 Buy access to communities where target customers gather: Calvin paid $2,000 for B-School not for the content but for access to its Facebook group of online course creators. Answering questions organically earned him 25 US customers.
🎯 Word of mouth outperforms paid channels for a SaaS serial entrepreneur: Simplero tried AdWords, agency-led content, and affiliate programs. All produced zero bootstrapped SaaS growth. Personal customer service was the only strategy that worked.
📉 Kill affiliate programs that cost revenue without driving growth: Simplero's affiliate program cost 20% of revenue but attracted mostly existing customers wanting retroactive credit. Only one affiliate ever used it as a real acquisition channel.
🧠 Finding your purpose concentrates scattered entrepreneurial energy: Calvin failed at five startups before asking what he was truly meant to do. Once he found alignment, every effort compounded instead of canceling out.
🔄 Founders who step back lose customer confidence: When Calvin pursued other passions, customers said they would not choose Simplero because the SaaS serial entrepreneur seemed disengaged. Visible founder commitment is a trust signal.
Chapters
Introduction
Favorite quote - persistence and changing his name to Calvin
What Simplero does and who it serves
Rock bottom - losing clients, mortgage crisis, new baby
The pivotal night that defined his purpose
How finding purpose led to the idea for Simplero
Letting early users try Simplero for free
When Simplero became a real business
Getting first 25 US customers through B-School community
Growth strategies - what worked and what failed
Why paid ads and affiliate programs produced zero results
The newsletter strategy that built loyalty
Reaching $1M ARR run rate
Mindset struggles and hiring challenges
The journey of a SaaS serial entrepreneur
Lightning round
Where to find Calvin and Simplero
Resources
Full show notes: https://saasclub.io/187
Join 5,000+ SaaS founders: https://saasclub.io/email
56 min
September 12, 2018SaaS Free Trial Conversion: How JotForm Hit 4M Users
Aytekin Tank launched JotForm as a completely free product in 2006 and waited 14 months before charging a single dollar. That free trial conversion bet turned into a company with over 4 million users and seven-figure annual revenue - all without raising a cent of outside funding. In this episode, Aytekin reveals how he validated his idea without customer interviews, got his first 500 paying customers through word-of-mouth alone, and why adding branding to free forms increased daily signups from 1,000 to 300,000.
JotForm's free trial conversion strategy started with zero paid features. Aytekin wanted to see adoption patterns before building billing. In the first year of paid plans, 500 users converted to paying customers out of 20,000+ free users. Adding branding to free-tier forms in 2017 increased daily signups from 1,000 to 300,000 - proving that freemium SaaS virality can transform growth overnight.
Aytekin Tank is the founder and CEO of JotForm, a bootstrapped SaaS product that helps people create and publish online forms. The company has over 4 million users, 100 employees, and generates seven figures in annual revenue with zero outside funding.
🔑 Key Lessons
🛠️ Launch free first to validate demand before optimizing free trial conversion: Aytekin launched JotForm with zero paid features and waited 14 months to see if users would adopt the product before investing time in billing.
💰 Treat free users as a marketing investment, not a cost: JotForm provides support to free users because successful free users eventually upgrade. The cost of serving free users is lower than traditional marketing spend for trial to paid conversion.
🚀 Add product branding to unlock viral growth: JotForm resisted adding branding to free forms for years, but when they tested it in 2017, daily signups jumped from 1,000 to 300,000 - proving built-in virality beats paid acquisition.
📉 Never ship major releases behind closed doors: JotForm's 2009 release changed too many things at once, angering users who depended on the product daily. The team spent three months fixing problems and switched to continuous updates.
🎯 Turn support threads into an SEO engine for SaaS free trial optimization: By defaulting support questions to public, JotForm created 100,000+ searchable threads that rank for long-tail queries and provide social proof.
🧠 Focus beats diversification for bootstrapped founders: Aytekin split his time between JotForm, side products, and consulting for three years, slowing growth significantly. Concentrating all resources on one product accelerated everything.
Chapters
Introduction
Favorite quote and learning mindset
What JotForm does and who it serves
How the idea for JotForm was born
Building the MVP and launching free in 2006
Free trial conversion - 500 paying customers from 20K users
Why freemium worked - lessons from college
Pricing evolution from $9 to $19 per month
Growth strategies - word of mouth and SEO
Public support forums as SEO and social proof
How Aytekin thinks about competition
Mistakes - divided focus and big releases
Lightning round
Where to find Aytekin and JotForm
Resources
Full show notes: https://saasclub.io/186
Join 5,000+ SaaS founders: https://saasclub.io/email
57 min
September 05, 2018SaaS SEO: Use-Case Pages That Drive 20K Hits Each
Christopher Gimmer built 10 use-case landing pages that each drove up to 20,000 hits per month. That SaaS SEO playbook helped Snappa grow from zero to $45K MRR with a team of just four people and no outside funding. In this episode, Christopher shares the exact SaaS SEO approach he used to outrank competitors, how a failed dating startup taught him keyword research, and how he validated the product through 15 Skype interviews before writing any code.
Snappa's homepage keyword "graphic design tool" had almost no search volume. But use-case keywords like "Twitter header maker" and "Facebook cover maker" had massive demand. Christopher built dedicated SEO for SaaS landing pages for each use case, then drove backlinks through guest posts. Each page needed only about 5 backlinks to rank in the top 5 results, generating organic traffic SaaS founders dream about.
Christopher Gimmer is the co-founder and CEO of Snappa, a bootstrapped graphic design tool that makes it easy to create online graphics in your browser.
🔑 Key Lessons
🎯 Target use-case keywords instead of generic terms for SaaS SEO: Snappa's homepage keyword had almost no volume. Ten use-case pages targeting "Twitter header maker" and similar terms each drove up to 20,000 monthly visits.
🛠️ Validate with non-leading questions before building: Christopher conducted 15 Skype interviews using the Lean Customer Development framework, never mentioning his product idea to let prospects reveal their own pain points.
🚀 Build an audience asset to bootstrap your SaaS SEO: StockSnap, a free stock photo site, drove leads into Snappa by ranking for "free stock photos" and providing a built-in audience for early customer acquisition.
📉 Failed startups teach the skills that make the next one work: Classmate Catch taught online marketing. BootstrapBay taught keyword research and SaaS search marketing. Both failures directly enabled the strategy that grew Snappa.
🔄 Guest posting drives backlinks to commercial landing pages: Guest posts were the most predictable way to build backlinks. Each use-case page needed only about 5 quality backlinks to rank in the top 5 search results.
Chapters
Introduction
What motivates Christopher - consistent daily execution
What Snappa does and who it serves
The Classmate Catch dating startup failure
Getting 1,000 users but unable to scale
Lessons from the first failed startup
Building BootstrapBay through keyword research
Cold emailing theme authors for marketplace supply
Growing BootstrapBay to $10K per month and selling it
How StockSnap was born from a viral blog post
Selling StockSnap to focus on Snappa
How both businesses were acquired
Getting started building Snappa
Validating with Skype interviews and non-leading questions
Getting first customers from StockSnap leads
Building use-case landing pages for SaaS SEO
How competitor research in Ahrefs revealed the keyword opportunity
Building 10+ use-case pages with identical layouts
Guest posting to drive backlinks to commercial pages
Only 5 backlinks needed to rank each page
Size guide blog posts as additional SEO traffic
Revenue and profitability at $45K MRR
Can low-price SaaS be profitable
Lightning round
Resources
Full show notes: https://saasclub.io/185
Join 5,000+ SaaS founders: https://saasclub.io/email
45 min

About The SaaS Podcast: How B2B SaaS & AI Founders Get Customers

From the publisher's feed

Building software got easier. Getting customers didn't. Every week, a founder building B2B SaaS or an AI product tells you how they got their first customers, and how they kept them: what worked, what didn't, and what they'd do differently.