1.
1
Tailwinds and Drag:
A practical guide to growth

2.
2
“I have di
ffi
culty sometimes
talking to people who don't race
sailboats.”
Bruno Gianelli, West Wing

3.
3

4.
4

5.
5
Dying Thriving

6.
6
Grow

7.
7
Grow
Run

8.
8
Grow
Run

9.
9
Grow
Run

10.
10
Grow
Run

11.
11
Acquisition Monetization Expansion
Grow
Run

12.
12
Acquisition Monetization Expansion
Churn
Ops/Finance
Team
Run
Grow

13.
13
“PC, I’m awesome. My
business is amazing.
Why should I care?”

14.
14
All markets are rapidly increasing in
density and di
ffi
culty.

15.
15
Growth is harder than ever

16.
16
Growth is harder than ever
Competitors
15.8x

17.
17
Growth is harder than ever
Competitors CAC
15.8x +128%

18.
18
Growth is harder than ever
Competitors CAC Team Tenure
15.8x +128% -34%

19.
19
Growth is harder than ever
Competitors CAC Team Tenure Tech Wages
15.8x +128% -34% +27%

20.
20
Tactical excellence is now just
the entry fee for a chance at
rapid growth.

21.
21
Sound good?

22.
22
“Cute.
Who are you preachy,
bearded man?”

23.
23
We exist to run and grow
subscription companies,
automatically.

24.
You’ll be in
good company.
20% of the market uses Pro
fi
tWell

25.
COMPANY
NAME
$1,240,578
TOTAL MRR
LTV
RECOVERY
Emma Young
UPGRADED
$200
Kyle Turner
REACTIVATED
$200
$5,678
Drastically reduce churn
Retain™
Audit proof revenue recognition
Recognized
Proprietary pricing software
and services for monetization
Price Intelligently
Unit Economics
Churn Insights
In-App Usage Data
Financial Data
Survey Data

26.
26

27.
27
Ok. Let’s jump in.

28.
28
Acquisition Monetization Expansion
Grow
Run

29.
29
Acquiring customers:
“Distribution is harder than
ever”

30.
30
Let’s talk buyer personas.

31.
31
Buyers are the central tenet of your business
POINT OF CONVERSION
DRIVE CUSTOMERS
OFFER PRODUCT A
JUSTIFY PRICE A
OFFER PRODUCT B
JUSTIFY PRICE B
OFFER PRODUCT C
JUSTIFY PRICE C
$ $
$

32.
32
Buyers are the central tenet of your business
POINT OF CONVERSION
DRIVE CUSTOMERS
OFFER PRODUCT A
JUSTIFY PRICE A
OFFER PRODUCT B
JUSTIFY PRICE B
OFFER PRODUCT C
JUSTIFY PRICE C
$ $
$

33.
33
“PC…YAWN…I heard
this in my startups 101
class.”

34.
34
Only 1 in 5 companies have
personas of some kind.

35.
35
Maybe you don’t know the
impact?

36.
36
DATA ON LTV

37.
37
DATA ON CAC

38.
38
DATA ON NPS
X
X
X
X

39.
39
Everything is better.

40.
40
Let me make it easy.

41.
41
Minimum Viable Personas

42.
42
Fill this out individually.
Review as an exec team.
Debate something.

43.
43
Fill this out individually.
Review as an exec team.
Debate something.

44.
44
Fill this out individually.
Review as an exec team.
Debate something.

45.
45
Bonus: If the solution to the
debate is ego,
fi
nd another team.

46.
46
Life’s too short to work with
people who don’t want to win.

47.
47
Let’s talk freemium and
inbound media.

48.
48
AE Takes Over
Point
of
Conversion
Opp
The Demand Gen Continuum

49.
49
AE Takes Over
Point
of
Conversion
Opp
Demo/Audit
Request
The Demand Gen Continuum

50.
50
AE Takes Over
Point
of
Conversion
Opp
Demo/Audit
Request
DL
Ebook
Reading on
churn/pricing
The Demand Gen Continuum

51.
51
AE Takes Over
Point
of
Conversion
Opp
Demo/Audit
Request
DL
Ebook
Bombora
on Pricing
G2 Crowd
Upvoted
PH
Reading on
churn/pricing
The Demand Gen Continuum

52.
52
AE Takes Over
Point
of
Conversion
Opp
Demo/Audit
Request
DL
Ebook
Bombora
on Pricing
G2 Crowd
Upvoted
PH
CEO wants
to grow
PM at target
ARPU company
CX Mgr tweeting
about credit cards
Reading on
churn/pricing
The Demand Gen Continuum

53.
53
AE Takes Over
Point
of
Conversion
Opp
Demo/Audit
Request
DL
Ebook
Bombora
on Pricing
G2 Crowd
Upvoted
PH
CEO wants
to grow
PM at target
ARPU company
CX Mgr tweeting
about credit cards
Reading on
churn/pricing
The Demand Gen Continuum
How fast can we make the river?

54.
54
AE Takes Over
Point
of
Conversion
Opp
Demo/Audit
Request
DL
Ebook
Bombora
on Pricing
G2 Crowd
Upvoted
PH
CEO wants
to grow
PM at target
ARPU company
CX Mgr tweeting
about credit cards
Reading on
churn/pricing
The Demand Gen Continuum
TOFU MOFU BOFU

55.
55
AE Takes Over
Point
of
Conversion
Opp
Demo/Audit
Request
DL
Ebook
Bombora
on Pricing
G2 Crowd
Upvoted
PH
CEO wants
to grow
PM at target
ARPU company
CX Mgr tweeting
about credit cards
Reading on
churn/pricing
The Demand Gen Continuum
All of the money goes here

56.
56
AE Takes Over
Point
of
Conversion
Opp
Demo/Audit
Request
DL
Ebook
Bombora
on Pricing
G2 Crowd
Upvoted
PH
CEO wants
to grow
PM at target
ARPU company
CX Mgr tweeting
about credit cards
Reading on
churn/pricing
The Demand Gen Continuum
Diminishing in effectiveness

57.
57
AE Takes Over
Point
of
Conversion
Opp
Demo/Audit
Request
DL
Ebook
Bombora
on Pricing
G2 Crowd
Upvoted
PH
CEO wants
to grow
PM at target
ARPU company
CX Mgr tweeting
about credit cards
Reading on
churn/pricing
The Demand Gen Continuum
“What if we just
made this bigger?”

58.
58
Freemium.

59.
59
“If the product is free,
then you’re the
product.”

60.
60
“Ummm if people saw
value, they’d pay for it.”

61.
61
Maybe you should evolve your
thinking past 2007?

62.
62
Freemium is an
acquisition model
not a revenue model.

63.
63
AE Takes Over
Point
of
Conversion
Opp
Demo/Audit
Request
DL
Ebook
Bombora
on Pricing
G2 Crowd
Upvoted
PH
CEO wants
to grow
PM at target
ARPU company
CX Mgr tweeting
about credit cards
Reading on
churn/pricing
The Demand Gen Continuum
Freemium
Traditional Inbound

64.
64
You own the right to
nurture a lead over time.

65.
65
GRAPH ON CAC

66.
66
GRAPH ON LTV

67.
67
GRAPH ON NPS

68.
68
Two Types of Free
Forever Free
• Upsell through cross-sell
• Lead or data network e
ff
ect
• Bigger pool, but bigger $$$

69.
69
Two Types of Free
Forever Free
• Upsell through cross-sell
• Lead or data network e
ff
ect
• Bigger pool, but bigger $$$
Faux Free Trial
• Upsell premium version
• Sometimes no network e
ff
ect
• Smaller pool, but less $$$

70.
70
Do you know how to convert leads
to customers?
Is your funnel river
fl
owing faster
and wider over time?

71.
71
Do you know how to convert leads
to customers?
Is your funnel river
fl
owing faster
and wider over time?

72.
72
Inbound Media.

73.
73

74.
74
“We publish ebooks.
We’re good here.”

75.
75
AE Takes Over
Point
of
Conversion
Opp
Demo/Audit
Request
DL
Ebook
Bombora
on Pricing
G2 Crowd
Upvoted
PH
CEO wants
to grow
PM at target
ARPU company
CX Mgr tweeting
about credit cards
Reading on
churn/pricing
The Demand Gen Continuum
Only provide signal to
get someone from
here to there

76.
76
Build audience not lead volume.

77.
77
Inbound Media
Offer
Audience
Social
Blog
Email
Paid
Inbound Marketing Wheel

78.
78
AE Takes Over
Point
of
Conversion
Opp
Demo/Audit
Request
DL
Ebook
Bombora
on Pricing
G2 Crowd
Upvoted
PH
CEO wants
to grow
PM at target
ARPU company
CX Mgr tweeting
about credit cards
Reading on
churn/pricing
The Demand Gen Continuum
Freemium
Traditional Inbound
Inbound Media

79.
79
Inbound Media
Media Strategy
Inbound Strategy
Time
Leads
Time
Leads
Show 1
Show 2
Show 3

80.
80
Inbound Media
MON
SHOW A
TUE
SHOW B
WED
SHOW C
THU
SHOW C
FRI
SHOW C
SAT
SHOW C
SUN
SHOW C
X
X
X X X X X X
X
X
X
X
X
X
Multiple Shows Increases Touchpoints

81.
81
Inbound Media
Media Strategy
Inbound Strategy
Cost of Offer
$10.4k per ebook Under $10k per season
Cost of Offer

82.
82
Inbound Media
Media Strategy
Inbound Strategy
Cost of Offer
$10.4k per ebook Under $10k per season
Cost of Offer
Touchpoints Expected
1.4 per week
Touchpoints Expected
Over 3 per week

83.
83
Path 1: Start a podcast
interviewing customers and
target customers.

84.
84
Path 2: Turn each blog post
Into a video.

85.
85
“Can’t wait to go viral”

86.
86
Monetizing and Expanding customers:
“Pricing is important”

87.
87
$idk*/month
Awesome feature
Feature built last night
Thing not built yet
This’ll never get built
Livechat support
Pricing Evolution
*I googled some pricing pages and read a DHH rant and settled on $50/month or $100/month,
but I’ll put it at $49 or $99, because I heard that gets people to buy more.

88.
88
Buyers are the central tenet of your business
POINT OF CONVERSION
DRIVE CUSTOMERS
OFFER PRODUCT A
JUSTIFY PRICE A
OFFER PRODUCT B
JUSTIFY PRICE B
OFFER PRODUCT C
JUSTIFY PRICE C
$ $
$

89.
89
$better/month
Awesome feature
$good/month
Awesome feature
X
X
X
X
$best/month
Awesome feature
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
Integration Integration
SSO
Pricing Evolution

90.
90
$better/month
Awesome feature
$good/month
Awesome feature
X
X
X
X
$best/month
Awesome feature
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
Integration Integration
SSO
Pricing Evolution
ENTERPRISE Contact Us →

91.
91
$499/month
For those with an X team
$99/month
For this just starting with X
X
X
X
X
$999/month
Pros at X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
Actual special
features only this
group would need.
Special features
Enterprise Things
Pricing Evolution
ENTERPRISE Contact Us →

92.
92
Pricing Evolution
$499
X
$99
X
X
X
X
X
$999
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
ENTERPRISE Contact Us →
X
$X/
X
X
X
X
$XX/month
X
X
X
X
$XX/month
X
X
X
X
$X/month
X
X
X
X
$XXX/month
X
X
X
X
Shadow tiers

93.
93
$499/month
$99/month
Up to 500 per month
X
X
X
$999/month
Up to 1k per month
X
X
X
5k per month
(.01 per after that)
X
X
X
Pricing Evolution
ENTERPRISE Contact Us →
X X
X

94.
94
GRAPH ON VALUE METRICS
GROWTH

95.
95
GRAPH ON VALUE METRICS
CHURN

96.
96
GRAPH ON VALUE METRICS
EXPANSION

97.
97
Setting your value metric
What is the perfect
measure of value?
$ made through HubSpot

98.
98
Setting your value metric
What is the perfect
measure of value?
What are 5-10 proxies
for that value?
$ made through HubSpot • # of Contacts
• # of Visits
• # of webpages
• # of users
• # of features

99.
99
Setting your value metric
What is the perfect
measure of value?
What are 5-10 proxies
for that value?
What do customers
and our data prefer?
$ made through HubSpot • # of Contacts
• # of Visits
• # of webpages
• # of users
• # of features
Most preferred?
Least preferred?
Histogram analysis

100.
100
Pricing Evolution
$499
X
$99
X
X
X
X
X
$999
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
ENTERPRISE Contact Us →
X
$X/
X
X
X
X
$XX/month
X
X
X
X
$XX/month
X
X
X
X
$X/month
X
X
X
X
$XXX/month
X
X
X
X
$XXX/month
X
X
X
X
Add-on: $XX/month Add-on: $X/month
Add-on: $X/month Add-on: $XXX/month
Add-on: $XXX/month Add-on: $XX/month

101.
101
Customers with add-ons see
18-54% higher lifetime value.

102.
!50
X
!25
X
X
X
X
X
!100
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
ENTERPRISE Contact Us →
X
kr999
X
kr499
X
X
X
X
X
kr5k
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
ENTERPRISE Contact Us →
X
£325
X
£199
X
X
X
X
X
£2k
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
ENTERPRISE Contact Us →
X
$499
X
$99
X
X
X
X
X
$999
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
ENTERPRISE Contact Us →
X
102
Pricing Evolution

103.
103
DATA ON LOCALIZATION

104.
104
“Customers will never
like these changes”

105.
105
Changing Pricing:
Principles and a Practical Guide
๏ Don’t “legacy” your existing customers

106.
106
Do your research.

107.
107
Your pricing process needs to be data driven
DATA DRIVEN PRICING
QUANTIFIED BUYER PERSONAS
PRICING STRATEGY
DATA COLLECTION & SEGMENTATION ANALYSIS & DECISIONS
EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN
Basic Statistical
Models

108.
108
Do an impact analysis.

109.
109
Changing Pricing:
Principles and a Practical Guide
๏ Don’t “legacy” your existing customers
๏ People with +50% or more get a phone call or personalized message

110.
110
Proper messaging is key.

111.
111
“Over the past 12 months we’ve added so much value to Pro
fi
tWell:
- We’ve made you $18,418
- Feature A is now standard in your account
- Feature B is awesome, and you use it daily”

112.
112
“Over the past 12 months we’ve added so much value to Pro
fi
tWell:
- We’ve made you $18,418
- Feature A is now standard in your account
- Feature B is awesome, and you use it daily”
For us to continue to invest in making Pro
fi
tWell better for you and
the COMPANY crew, we need to increase our prices.

113.
113
“Over the past 12 months we’ve added so much value to Pro
fi
tWell:
- We’ve made you $18,418
- Feature A is now standard in your account
- Feature B is awesome, and you use it daily”
For us to continue to invest in making Pro
fi
tWell better for you and
the COMPANY crew, we need to increase our prices.
You’ve been insanely loyal to Pro
fi
tWell though, using us for the last
four and a half years, so as of today we’re raising prices on new
customers, but since you’ve been so loyal we’re going to keep you on
your existing plan for the next 6 months (after which we’ll bump you
up to the new price of $XXXX).

114.
114
“Over the past 12 months we’ve added so much value to Pro
fi
tWell:
- We’ve made you $18,418
- Feature A is now standard in your account
- Feature B is awesome, and you use it daily”
For us to continue to invest in making Pro
fi
tWell better for you and
the COMPANY crew, we need to increase our prices.
You’ve been insanely loyal to Pro
fi
tWell though, using us for the last
four and a half years, so as of today we’re raising prices on new
customers, but since you’ve been so loyal we’re going to keep you on
your existing plan for the next 6 months (after which we’ll bump you
up to the new price of $XXXX).
Thanks for letting us be a part of COMPANY’s mission. If you have
any questions at all, let me know. All replies go directly to me.

115.
115
P.S. If this materially impacts your
business, let me know and we’ll work
something out

116.
116
Changing Pricing:
Principles and a Practical Guide
๏ Don’t “legacy” your existing customers
๏ People with +50% or more get a phone call or personalized message
๏ Focus on them, not you
๏ Legacy discount ftw

117.
117
Pricing is not hard.
It’s a process.

118.
118
Acquisition Monetization Expansion
Churn
Ops/Finance
Team
Run
Grow

119.
119
Churn:
“If it was valuable enough, they’d stick
around.”

120.
120
Value is not binary.

121.
121
Advocates
Critics Point of cancellation

122.
122
Advocates
Strategic Retention
Critics Point of cancellation

123.
123
Advocates
Point of cancellation
Strategic Retention
Critics
Tactical Retention Zone

124.
124
Advocates
Point of cancellation
Strategic Retention
Critics
Tactical Retention Zone
60-75%
25-40%!!!

125.
125
Optimize your term length.

126.
126
Longer term plans have
200-800% higher lifetime value.

127.
127
You need to ask
beyond the initial sign up.

128.
128
Subject: Discount on your WHOOP subscription
Hey Hiro, wanted to let you know that there’s a way to save
money on your WHOOP subscription.
We’re giving those members who’ve been with us a while 2
months free if they sign up for our annual plan ($240).
Click here to easily get on the annual plan and we’ll take care
of the rest.
—
Johanna Timms
Member Success
Get 2 months free by switching to an
annual plan for $240.00/year.
Questions? Contact Us
CANCEL CONFIRM
Upgrade your subscription
DISMISS
UPGRADE PLAN
Get 2 free months of WHOOP by
upgrading to annual ($240.00).

129.
129
Implement cancellation
fl
ows.

130.
130
• Add friction
• Redo the
fl
ow
Why?
Want to leave
• Catalog to automate
• Predict future churn

131.
131

132.
132
• Add friction
• Redo the
fl
ow
Why?
Want to leave
“I can put you on the $XXX plan for 90 days”
Salvage Offer
Maintenance
Pause
Freemium Tier
“Put you on plan for $XX to ensure your data is
here when you’re back”
“Pause your plan for 90 days until this blows over”
“We’ll bump you down to our free tier for now”
Play Chicken
“We’ll be here for whenever you want to get
started again”
• Catalog to automate
• Predict future churn

133.
133

134.
134

135.
135
You will lower your
cancellations by
10%-25% with
cancellation
fl
ows.

136.
136

137.
137
Check your payment failures.

138.
138
Payment failures are the single
largest bucket of lost customers.

139.
139
CREDIT CARD BENCHMARKS
20-40% of lost customers in B2B/DTC
Delinquent churn accounts for 20-40% of overall churn in B2B and appears to grow signi
fi
cantly as a
proportion of total churn as a company becomes larger. The recovery rate on this churn is less than 20%.
%
OF
TOTAL
CANCELLATIONS
SOURCE: 2020 STUDY ON PAYMENT FAILURES
0%
25%
50%
75%
100%
Less than $5M ARR $5.01 to $10M ARR $10.01 to $50M ARR $50.01M+ ARR
61.0%
68.1%
72.0%
78.1%
39.0%
31.9%
28.0%
21.9%
Delinquent Churn Active Churn
N
1.4k
ANNUAL REVENUE OF COMPANY

140.
140
Most companies can
double their recovery rates.

141.
COMPANY
NAME
Towards the end and beyond
the point of failure, Retain will
lock out a delinquent user,
allowing for a long tail of
recovery.
TACTICAL RETRIES NO SIGN-IN NEEDED FORMS
LOCKOUT
EMAIL, WEB-APP, & SMS
POINT
OF
FAILURE
+5%
Utilizing historical and usage
data, Retain monitors when
the best time is to ask for an
updated credit card from an
expiring user.
+5%
Retain scans card & usage
metadata and delivers
notifications and emails to
recover trial customers with
failed payments.
+10%
Retain retries a customer's
credit card when there's the
highest chance of recovery.
+40%
Message copy greatly
influences recovery. Retain is
constantly adjusting timing
and content of notifications to
optimize recovery. SMS
included for free.
+15%
Retain reduces friction
immensely by not requiring a
user to login to update their
payment information. Apple
and Google Pay included for
free.
+15%
Retain’s targeted approach
EXPIRATION TRACKING
TRIAL RECOVERY

142.
142
Operations and Finance:
“What do they do again?”

143.
143
You should invest
as soon as possible.

144.
144
Taxes will creep up on you.

145.
145
People:
“Mo’ people, Mo’ problems”

146.
146
“People and culture
are everything 🤔”

147.
147
Then why is the average tenure
of a manager 17.2 months?

148.
148
Avg Director on up tenure is
only 22.3 months.

149.
149
These people defend your
culture, but they aren’t sticking
around that much.

150.
150
Why?

151.
151
We’re scared of losing people.

152.
152
We don’t de
fi
ne who we’re for,
nor hire and
fi
re based on these
values.

153.
153
Pro
fi
tWell believed in “giving
the most charitable
interpretation”.

154.
154
Integrity with con
fl
ict.
Exec
Talk Directly
Talk Directly Manager Alt Manager HR
Con
fl
ict MCI

155.
155
Integrity with con
fl
ict.
“God Forbid” Things
Exec
Talk Directly
Talk Directly Manager Alt Manager HR
Con
fl
ict MCI

156.
156
What happens if this is hard for
someone?

157.
157
We’re not great for them.

158.
158
We also hired poorly.

159.
159
Make sure you de
fi
ne it.

160.
Chaos
“What even is the vision?”

161.
161
Alignment is everything.

162.
162
Our Mission

163.
163
Our Mission

164.
164
Our Mission

165.
165
Our Mission

166.
166
Of course, this isn’t reality.

167.
167
Our Mission

168.
168
Our Mission

169.
169
How do we generally move people
in the same direction?

170.
170
Paddle’s Mission

171.
171
Mission
We exist to grow subscription revenue automatically
Core Metric: Subscription Revenue on PW

172.
172
Mission
We exist to grow subscription revenue automatically
Core Metric: Subscription Revenue on PW
Sales Support Product Engineering
Marketing
Guiding Principle 2
Guiding Principle 1
What

173.
173
Mission
We exist to grow subscription revenue automatically
Core Metric: Subscription Revenue on PW
Sales Support Product Engineering
Marketing
Be the most helpful brand in SaaS
Do it for you
What

174.
174
Mission
We exist to grow subscription revenue automatically
Core Metric: Subscription Revenue on PW
Sales Support Product Engineering
Marketing
“Recur Media”
1. Audience Growth
2. Field Guides
3. Director Level Content
Be the most helpful brand in SaaS
Do it for you
How

175.
175
Mission
We exist to grow subscription revenue automatically
Core Metric: Subscription Revenue on PW
Sales Support Product Engineering
Marketing
“Recur Media”
1. Audience Growth
2. Field Guides
3. Director Level Content
Process
Metrics
Feedback
Cycle
Tempo
Be the most helpful brand in SaaS
Do it for you
How

176.
176
Mission
We exist to grow subscription revenue automatically
Core Metric: Subscription Revenue on PW
Sales Support Product Engineering
Marketing
“Recur Media”
1. Audience Growth
2. Field Guides
3. Director Level Content
Process
Metrics
Feedback
Cycle
๏ 6 shows per year
๏ 1 product launch a month
๏ 1 brand video per month
๏ SEO to the max
Tempo
Be the most helpful brand in SaaS
Do it for you
How
Much

177.
177
Mission
We exist to grow subscription revenue automatically
Core Metric: Subscription Revenue on PW
Sales Support Product Engineering
Marketing
“Recur Media”
1. Audience Growth
2. Field Guides
3. Director Level Content
Process
Metrics
Feedback
Cycle
๏ 6 shows per year
๏ 1 product launch a month
๏ 1 brand video per month
๏ SEO to the max
Tempo
Be the most helpful brand in SaaS
Do it for you
What
How
How
Much

178.
178
Alignment is how high performing
teams become a high performing
company.

179.
179
Enough?
Everyone get value?

180.
180
Acquisition Monetization Expansion
Churn
Ops/Finance
Team
Run
Grow

181.
181
You need to cuddle with the
chaos.

182.
182
Questions?
@Patticus on Twitter
pc@patticus.com