Kick SaaS Podcast

Have you started a Software as a Service (SaaS) business and need to raise early-stage capital, but don’t know the best strategies to do so? Today’s episode features a panel discussion with SaaS influencers sharing their advice on how to pitch a SaaS company to investors. Panelists include Jonah Midanik, founder of Limelight Platforms and managing director of the Acceleprise Accelerator Program; and Mikael Dia, founder and CEO of Funnelytuics.io. The panel discussion is hosted and moderated by Jono Landon, founder and CEO of Hubbli. Topics Include: Funnelytics.io: Funnel analytics company that helps marketers turn traffic into profit Limelight Platforms: Offline marketing platform evaluates events, sponsors, and shows Acceleprise: SaaS-only accelerator program provides capital to companies with products in market to avoid problems How to select investors? Build momentum, gain traction, and find investors that fit What is haute to fundraise? Venture-backed startups don’t always correlate to success Pitch Deck vs. Narrative: Share a story that resonates with investors to get buy-in Mistakes Made: Thrown out of investor offices and not doing stage-appropriate pitching Pre-Seed Pitching: Is the market big? Are you good? Do you know how to get there? United States vs. Canada: Risk tolerance is different and product of your environment Work/Life Balance: Time, energy, attention, love, and patience is fixed resource Pre-Revenue Advice: Talk and listen to customers without trying to position your product’s solution to a problem Proof of Concept: Positioning generates revenue and system attracts same buyers Wow Moments: Combination of expertise, traction, and no attribution of offline marketing Leading Indicators: List, learn, practice, and improve to be successful with investors Early-Stage Price Model: Tweak, test, and play with pricing regularly Links and Resources: Hubbli Jono Landon on LinkedIn Toronto Software as a Service (SaaS) Meetup Group Jonah Midanik on LinkedIn Limelight Platforms

Are you struggling to raise capital to sustain your Software as a Service (SaaS) startup? If you want to raise money, ask for advice. If you want advice, ask for money. Today’s episode features a panel discussion with founders from two early-stage SaaS companies in Toronto. Panelists are Roy Pereira, founder of Zoom.ai and mentor at Techstars, and Wes Moon, co-founder and COO of Wisely. The panel discussion is hosted by Jono Landon, founder and CEO of Hubbli. Topics Include: Elevator Pitch: Future plans and ideas from SaaS startup founders Wisely: Started with a prediction engine to help charities raise more money Zoom.ai: Targets mid-market companies with AI-powered meeting scheduling assistant What makes a safe (enough) bet for investors? Take money from friends or angel investors, but not family members—for now Team vs. Traction: Attributes depend on phase and problem to be solved by right people What KPIs and metrics drive SaaS companies? Stage sets story to make metrics Practice makes Perfect: When trying to raise capital, seek advice on what matters Lead Gen Ratio: It’s a numbers game; don’t give up on finding investors to raise capital Pre-Seed, Seed, and Series Fundraising: Who to ask and how much money to request How much time does it take to raise money? Go all in with complete focus and understanding because you don’t choose your venture partner, they choose you U.S. vs. Canadian Investors: Know your audience’s perspectives on deal flow and funds Accelerator and Roadshow Programs: Worth giving up equity to grow and gain validation How to start fundraising? Warm vs. cold call, network referral/intro vs. unscheduled visit Links and Resources: Hubbli Jono Landon on LinkedIn Wes Moon on LinkedIn Wisely Roy Pereira on LinkedIn Zoom.ai Techstars AngelList Crunchbase

How do you drive sales? Set territories, pricing, metrics, and quotas? Build a team? Be a leader? Today’s episode features a panel discussion on Software as a Service (SaaS) sales and scaling hosted by Jono Landon, founder and CEO of Hubbli. Panelists include Cheryl Fearon, Zensurance sales director; Bram Belzberg, KEV Group CEO; Jordan Grant, Zafin head of business development; and Nick Kozmin, Salesprocess.io founder. Topics Include: What is sales? Mastering a craft, learning every day, figuring out what works, and how to make it better and easier for customers and team members KEV Group’s growth lifecycle due to product, pricing, and positioning innovation Salesprocess.io started to help SaaS startups scale successfully through product-market fit, lead generation, selling, and closing Sales Strategies and Metrics: Selling hasn’t changed, but marketing technology and tools make an impact Sales Sprints: Implement weekly, monthly, and yearly goals and action items to achieve Successful Strategies to Scale: Hiring practices and personality tests to find top talent that fit with a company’s culture and onboarding process Ideal Customer Profile: Required characteristics of potential prospects include asset size, interviews, and value of solution Conducive and Compelling Candidates: Competencies, hard work, and diligence may not be enough or make someone worthy of position Art of Sales: Customize, interpret, develop, and deliver message to get customers Content Marketing: What should you do to solve your problem? How can you solve the problem by purchasing a solution? Salary, Commissions, Compensation, and Bonuses: Different business models that generate motivation and participation Links and Resources: Hubbli Jono Landon on LinkedIn Cheryl Fearon on LinkedIn Zensurance Bram Belzberg on LinkedIn KEV Group Jordan Grant on LinkedIn Zafin Nick Kozmin on LinkedIn Salesprocess.io

Today’s episode focuses on Software as a Service (SaaS) lead generation strategies. From Audience Ops to Zapier, many tools and plugins are available. Jono Landon is the founder and CEO of Hubbli, a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and SaaS company that works with private schools find prospective parents to grow enrollment. Jono describes Hubbli’s use of lead generation tools, software, and strategies. Topics Include: Hubbli generates sales leads via target audience, cold calling, products, content, education, and paid traffic funnel to schedule demo Webinar Elements: What’s the roadmap to reach a buying decision? Infomercials are ridiculous, unless you’re the person needing a solution to a problem Sales Metrics: Results show drastic increase in price point and shorter sales cycle Webinar: Way to engage audience, improve attendance, and offer real value Subject Matter Experts (SMEs): Build trust to get people to part with their money Tools to Try: WebinarJam, Audience Ops, Infusionsoft, Leadpages, Zapier, and more Links and Resources: Hubbli Jono Landon Jono Landon on LinkedIn Amy Porterfield WebinarJam EverWebinar Audience Ops Brian Casel Zoom Buffer Infusionsoft Leadpages Zapier Funnelytics Facebook Ads LinkedIn Sales Navigator Google Ads Google Boomerang Callbox

Why focus on targeting a niche market for Software as a Service (SaaS)? What value comes from it? Today’s episode features a fireside chat between Margie Ramos, sales and marketing coordinator at Block 64, and Jono Landon, founder and CEO of Hubbli. Hubbli is a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and SaaS company that helps small private schools find prospective parents and engage them throughout the enrollment process. Jono shares his experience with niching down to accelerate growth at Hubbli and empower school leaders to deliver education through its easy-to-use technology and marketing platform. Topics Include: Why create Hubbli? Solve communication problems and prevent liability issues that lead to lawsuits in education sector Parent Engagement: Positively impacts students’ outcomes Why call it Hubbli? Serves as “hub” for communication management tools Multiple channels of non-relevant and repetitive communication makes lives difficult Revert to Paperwork patchwork? Offers consistency and standardization of information Public vs. Private Schools: Target niche market to develop strategic partnerships, relationships, and investments Marketing Metrics Make Money: Focus on niche to improve conversion results Stay or Go: How long should you stick with a niche market, before moving on Disadvantages of not defining or targeting your niche market Hubbli’s niche is CRM for private schools; and uses beachhead marketing strategy Avoid natural instinct to be broad; narrow your focus to one customer with one problem Product vs. Marketing Niching: Grow a healthy business by not outpacing product sales with onboarding customers Entrepreneurs: Start your own company; do it yourself, if you don’t believe in others Competitive Edge and Lead Gen: Cold calling to schedule demo for decision makers Different Demographics: Parents and school administrators have different expectations and experiences with communication tools Skills and Drills: Narrow scope of product and marketing being offered to be successful Links and Resources: Hubbli Jono Landon Jono Landon on LinkedIn Block 64

What is customer success? Is it customer support? Glorified training? A precise definition doesn’t exist, but Julie Federman describes customer success as a resource that helps customers align with core business objectives and priorities through measurable results. As a customer success manager at LinkedIn, she would know. Julie shares tips and tactics on combining software as a service (SaaS) sales and customer success. Her tagline on LinkedIn is: “Driving success and a love of learning through leadership consulting and education.” Topics Include: Customer Success Manager Role and Responsibilities: Consulting, change management, deployment, enablement, and training Account Manager Role and Responsibilities: Maintains commercial relationships to renew, upsell, and cross-sell current customers Buying Committee: Opportunities for collaboration between sales and customer success Who does what when making a decision? RAPID Decision Making Model: Recommend, Agree, Perform, Input, Decide How much time and energy should you invest in upselling clients to bring in additional revenue? Pareto Principle: 80% of your business comes from 20% of your customers Success Criteria: What does success mean to your customer? LinkedIn’s customer success support varies across business-to-business (B2B) lines Reasons for Conflict: How to have meaningful and productive work relationships Show Benefits of Service: Stories, surveys, measurable metrics, and other options Structured Communication: Create deliverables that succinctly resonate with certain populations and audiences What metrics make a healthy account? Existing internal metrics that indicate success to motivate team and help customers Change Happens: Maintain and mitigate churn, rotation, and retention LinkedIn’s Levels of Merit: Leadership, leverage, and results from performance reviews Potential for artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) to predict churn Client-facing Community: Chat, connect, and comment to provide feedback on products Links and resources: Julie Federman LinkedIn How to Work Well With Others Lynda.com/LinkedIn Learning