Masters of SaaS

For this episode, we talk to the world's most influential Conversion Rate Optimization expert, Peep Laja. Peep is the founder of three successful companies - CXL,  Speero and, more recently, Wynter, a product marketing research platform. Like many of you I've learned from Peep over the years, so it was humbling to have the opportunity to chat with him. We discuss,- How to validate ideas - How Peep approaches bootstrapped growth with limited resources- The richest sources of qualitative feedback - What exactly is Message market fit and how you can approach it - The advantages of speed in business - How to defend yourself against fierce competition- Hiring lessons and advice - How to prioritise your time

In this episode we discuss with marketing positioning legend April Dunford.Positioning is foundational to everything we do in sales & marketing.But what exactly is positioning? It's a widely misunderstood topic April says...“Positioning defines how your product is the best in the world at delivering some value that a well defined set of customers cares about” If you're building a SaaS business this is a must watch! We discuss, - What exactly is positioning anyway - The 5 Components of awesome positioning- How to tackle positioning and in the correct order - The intersection of jobs to be done & positioning - When to start positioning in SaaS- Choosing the right market- Positioning complex products- Marketing is not magic dust you can throw on bad positioning- Message testing around a positioning thesis - How April became a great storyteller - Radical differentiation in 2021- How to hire great marketers 

In this episode, we sit down with best-selling author, podcast host and SaaS legend Nathan Latka. Why is Nathan the most sued podcaster in SaaS? And why the hell does he lean into it?In his own words:"Your CAC to get a hater is cheaper than your CAC to get a lover'.Or... 'It's cheaper to get more people hating me, but most people aren't tough enough to deal with haters'.We chat about:- Why Nathan is the most sued podcaster- Launching his first SaaS company and funding mistakes- How to convert MRR into upfront cash with Founderpath - Why you should focus on revenue per employee- How & why Nathan bends the rules-  And batching tasks to save on switching costs 

For this episode, we sit down with Cris Villar. Cris is the Co-Founder and VP of Customer Success at Landbot, a product that transforms your website into a Conversational Experience to increase engagement and conversion rates. I was amazed to learn that  Landbot was born out of a product bug...  ... A bug that skyrocketed conversions from 5% to 27%! It's easy to look at successful companies and think their success was linear and without serious setbacks.  The reality is that many companies have limited resources, pivot and get punched in the face… daily.  But the ones still standing get back up and keep going. Who knows, a product bug can lead to an incredible insight! Often times, the obstacle is the way.  That was certainly the case for Landbot. In this episode, you will learn: - How to leverage free platforms like Product Hunt to accelerate growth - The importance of positioning and how to approach it - Outbound sales mistakes and why “supporting is the new selling” - Why Landbot are dedicating 70% of their resources on activation and why you should be too- And the challenge of time management in the retention economy & advice to tackle it.

In this episode, we talk to Annie Maguire, a Conversion Copywriter. She's worked with companies like Samsung, Visa and Loreal, helping them convert leads through customer research and copywriting.Let's face it; if your messaging sucks, PPC won't work! You can spend 100k per month on ads, but if you don't know how to talk to your customers… You've already lost.In my opinion, SaaS companies often overlook messaging - or get it wrong. They often end up with copy that's either too clever or too generic, vague or just “meh”. In this episode, you will learn: - The most common SaaS copywriting mistakes - The importance of qualitative research- How to make the most out of your data- Different methods to collect qualitative research- How to conduct customer interviews- Drawing insights from quantitative and qualitative research - How to structure landing pages- The most impactful copywriting changes you can make- And how to craft a strong value proposition!

This week we sit down with Guillaume Moubeche of Lemlist, who went viral for refusing $30M. They've never taken funding or needed paid advertising. Guillaume tells us why, and how he is on a mission to reinvent what start-up success looks like. Lemlist is a sales automation platform that allows B2B companies to automate their sales prospecting on various channels - cold e-mail, social selling, calls… In just three years, they grew from zero to 10k plus customers & 5M ARR. We discuss, - How Lemlist mastered organic growth;- Why Guillaume Turned Down $30M investment;- The pitfalls of focusing too much on funding;- Guillaume's journey to become a successful entrepreneur;- The difference between getting acquired and taking investment;- Advice for aspiring entrepreneurs;- Why positive feedback and non-violent communication is key;- And how Guillaume got scammed by the Chinese mafia (really)!

In this episode, Mark Colgan, Co-Founder & CRO of Speak On Podcasts, shares his 10 years experience in outbound sales  Mark previously ran a team of 100 outbound prospectors, he's a coach for sales impact academy, startup advisor and mentor and he now runs an agency called speak on podcasts.   The conversation is a deep dive into how SaaS companies can approach outbound Sales.   We cover, Having the right mindset & intention Defining your ICP & Personas Prospecting Using triggers to focus on prospects that are more likely to convertPreparing your dataOutreach and how to leverage the  best channelsHow to approach messaging.The advantages of starting your own podcast

We speak with Shay Howe, Vice President of Platform Strategy at ActiveCampaign. With 130,000 customers and around 800 employees, ActiveCampaign offers tools like Email marketing, forms,  CRM, landing page, live chat and a bunch more.They help businesses meaningfully connect & engage with their customers through customer experience automation.In this episode, we cover:How Shay's upbringing made him a life-time learner and problem-solver;The importance of being “maniacally” customer focused in the SAAS industry;Advice on leadership and managementHow to quickly validate ideas through VOC insightsHow to structure one to ones to make your team more introspective

In this latest episode I speak Mikael Thuneberg the CEO & Founder of Supermetrics.https://youtu.be/UdpOiC5TqtwSupermetrics picks up all the marketing data you need and brings it to your favorite reporting, analytics, or storage platform — whether that's a spreadsheet, a data visualization tool, or a marketing data warehouse.A whopping 10% of global advertising spend is reported through Supermetrics.We cover the origin story and revenue growth over the last 10 years.How he found the primary traction channel in 2015 which had an immediate impact on revenue. What it was like mentally switching from a one man shop.We also tackle their funding, the future of data management with AI & machine learning, productivity, rapid growth during COVID.  

In this episode, Alex Theuma, CEO & Founder of SaaStock, shares his learnings on what you need to consider when planning and running your own online conference or event.Prior to COVID 19, SaaStock ran the largest in person SaaS events in Europe with their flagship event being held in Dublin each year.  In March 2020 ticket sales dried up & SaaStock's revenue went to zero. They had to quickly pivot, remobilise and switch to an online event experience. What else we cover: - a brief history of the conference - how SaaStock re-invented its industry-leading conference - why replicating a virtual event from a live event doesn't work (and what does)Links >>Upraw media: https://uprawmedia.com/Episode summary: https://uprawmedia.com/blog/saastock-alex-theuma

In this episode, Matthew Barnett, founder and papa bear at Bonjoro,  tells us all about the value of customer support for a business and how it can become a strategic investment that increases customer retention and reduces churn.We also cover:- the importance of brand authenticity and how the teams have leaned into their own quirky & human approach- customer advocacy and how this can be used as a core growth lever. - matt's top video tips for SaaS companies- how to find and maintain focus in your workLinks >> Upraw media: https://uprawmedia.com/Episode summary: https://uprawmedia.com/blog/customer-support-bonjoro

Question for brand marketers: how do you get found before anyone goes to Google? Paul Campillo, Director of Brand at Typeform helps us answer the above question and also takes us through the company's 3-step framework to a meaningful brand design.You'll also get to hear more about:- why we should stop creating hot dog content (and what that means)- the importance of passing down wisdom in a growing team-  why branding has to come from the Founder- the most undervalued part of a copywriting frameworkLinks >> Upraw media: https://uprawmedia.com/Episode highlights: https://uprawmedia.com/blog/podcast-meaningful-brands-paul-campillo

In this episode I speak with Dave Woodward The CEO of ClickFunnels and host of the weekly Funnel Hacker Radio Podcast.In just 6 years, the company went from 0 to 125K Customers, 350 employees and $150 Million in annual revenue, and what it meant for him.Did we mention they did it with zero funding?We also went through a variety of topics, including:- how to instil a company's culture from a small team to hundreds of employees- how to build a community with people, not for them- the work people should prioritise to become more effective leadersUpraw media: https://uprawmedia.com/Episode highlights: https://uprawmedia.com/blog/customers-clickfunnels

In this episode we're talking to Lorena Morales, VP of marketing at Go Nimbly.Get ready for a wild ride through the lessons of becoming a marketing leader: from moving to the US as an immigrant student to the often-overlooked importance of self-awareness and its impact on building a happy team.Other topics we dive into:- the role of speed and adaptability in marketing- how to measure branding ( if you think you can't, give this episode a listen!)- why sleep is on her one on one meeting checklistUpraw media: https://uprawmedia.com/Episode highlights: https://uprawmedia.com/blog/lead-go-nimbly

As a startup CEO, where do you spend most of your time as the company grows? Common answer: in meetings; Ideal answer: prioritising your customer base more Chris Ronzio, CEO and founder of Trainual walks us through the lessons and key decisions that took the company from 0 to 5 Million ARR in just two and a half years.By our standards, that's pretty impressive. We also cover: - how to approach unit economics as a SaaS startup- the simple practice that helps him answer all the common messages he gets on his channels- how to use customer feedback to drive your businessLinks >> Upraw media: https://uprawmedia.com/Episode highlights: https://uprawmedia.com/blog/customers-trainual

How often should you follow your gut feeling?

What is a piece of bad advice that you've heard and is usually disguised as useful?Our next guest Mike Korba, CMO at User.com has an answer that's definitely worth hearing – especially if you're working in a startup. In this episode we discuss:- how industry-specific investment can be a superpower- how it changes your company's approach to growth- the full story behind the company's great domain name – It took one year of negotiation that started at 400k. Yes, you read that right.Links >>Upraw media: https://uprawmedia.com/Episode highlights: https://uprawmedia.com/blog/scaling-user-com

Be honest: how many times have you worked on a content piece that you thought was great, sunk hours into it, only to get zero engagement on it? Tim Soulo, CMO at Ahrefs and our next guest is convinced that it's because you're not saying anything new. He learned that after asking Rand Fishkin, co-founder and CEO of SparkToro for a tweet to share his work.Rand's feedback was incredibly insightful and ended up being more than just a fail story!We cover all this plus:- How a SaaS company with limited resources should approach SEO- The framework to select and create content around business potential - The three variables required to gain links to your content Links >> Upraw media: https://uprawmedia.com/Episode transcript: https://uprawmedia.com/blog/seo-ahrefs

On this first episode, we chat with founder of Convert.com, Dennis van der Heijden about his 10-year journey from securing Silicon Valley funding to leading a fully remote team on trust.What else we cover: - why funding can be helpful but also hurtful when you're starting a business- how to encode autonomy and purpose alignment into your company's DNA- why his current title is Head of Global HappinesLinks >>Upraw media: https://uprawmedia.com/Episode transcript: https://uprawmedia.com/blog/trust-convert-com