Download as PDF, PPTX
Uploaded bySaaStock
SaaStock 19 - Des Traynor
This document discusses strategies for scaling a startup business. It emphasizes that the strategies that work for early-stage startups do not necessarily scale well. Companies must evolve how they build products, roadmap processes, and measure success. Maintaining high customer retention rates and expanding revenue from existing customers are also highlighted as important metrics for scaling subscription businesses.
More Related Content
Similar to SaaStock 19 - Des Traynor
SaaStock 19 - Des Traynor
- 1. This epidemic ofstart-up advice.
- 5. You can havea truly world class product You can have tens of millions of revenue You can have thousands of customers You can have an amazing valuation You can have an incredible brand And still be a 💩 business :-)
- 6. It’s not allabout product market fit
- 7. Early Growing UpStandard How your product evolves
- 8. Early Growing UpStandard The early days → → A breakout startup! • Make it different • Make it good • Make it work • Make it valuable
- 9. Early Growing UpStandard The product grows up → → A breakout startup! • Make it different • Make it good • Make it work • Make it valuable • Make it sellable • Make it reliable • Make it secure • Make it scale → An established
- 10. Early Growing UpStandard The product becomes standard → → A breakout startup! • Make it different • Make it good • Make it work • Make it valuable • Make it sellable • Make it reliable • Make it secure • Make it scale → An established • Make it justifiable • Make it adoptable • Make it interoperable • Make it customizable → A mainstream
- 11. Early Growing UpStandard Product stage Marketing stage Scale stage
- 12.
- 14.
- 15. THE MARKETING STAGE Learnthe ways people buy Solve from the inside out Market the Job-to-be-Done Practice effective testing
- 16. Trialist Active user Onboarded user Signedup visitor Visitor Advert clicker Audience THE MARKETING FUNNEL Happy, paying customer 😄 DEMAND GENERATION PRODUCT MARKETING ENGAGEMENT PRODUCT
- 17. We tend to lookat funnels from the outside in Trialist Active user Onboarded user Signed up visitor Visitor Advert clicker Audience THE MARKETING FUNNEL Happy, paying customer 😄 DEMAND GENERATION PRODUCT MARKETING ENGAGEMENT PRODUCT
- 18. The temptation is tostart marketing here Trialist Active user Onboarded user Signed up visitor Visitor Advert clicker Audience THE MARKETING FUNNEL Happy, paying customer 😄 DEMAND GENERATION PRODUCT MARKETING ENGAGEMENT PRODUCT
- 19. • It’s shortterm responsive • It’s easy to experiment with • It can be high impact • There’s whole industries here to help Audience THE MARKETING FUNNEL
- 20. “If your customersaren’t happy, engaged, profitable, and sticking around for the long term, then the last thing you want to do is get more of them.”
- 21. The best marketing starts here Trialist Activeuser Onboarded user Signed up visitor Visitor Advert clicker Audience THE MARKETING FUNNEL Happy, paying customer 😄 DEMAND GENERATION PRODUCT MARKETING ENGAGEMENT PRODUCT
- 22. … and works backwards Trialist Activeuser Onboarded user Signed up visitor Visitor Advert clicker Audience THE MARKETING FUNNEL Happy, paying customer 😄 DEMAND GENERATION PRODUCT MARKETING ENGAGEMENT PRODUCT
- 23. THE MARKETING STAGE Learnthe ways people buy Solve from the inside out Market the Job-to-be-Done Practice effective testing
- 24. Are you buildingwhat you sell? Are you selling what you build? Are you selling what they’re buying? Are they buying what you’re selling?
- 26. What are theylooking for? What doesn’t work? What’s their definition of value? How do they measure things? Where are we most solid? Why does the job go away? SHOPPERS ACTIVE NEW CHURNED TRIALING INACTIVE
- 28. Understand your competition andwhy people should switch to you
- 29. INDIRECT COMPETITORS SECONDARY COMPETITORS DIRECT COMPETITORS They do thesame job in the same way (McDonalds vs Burger King) They do the same job in a different way (Zoom vs Business Class travel) They do a different job with a conflicting outcome (McDonalds vs Weight Watchers) Know who you’re fighting with and why
- 30. EXISTING SOLUTION NEW SOLUTION THE 4 FORCESINFLUENCING A CUSTOMER SWITCH Reasons to switch Reasons to stay Problems with Current Product Attraction of New Product Existing Habits & Allegiances Anxiety & Uncertainty of Change PUSH PULL ANXIETYHABIT
- 31. What customers think theyhave What customers actually have What companies actually built What companies think they built THE “9X EFFECT”
- 32. What customers actually have Whatcompanies think they built Why wouldn’t they switch?? HOW YOU EVALUATE YOUR COMPETITOR’S PRODUCT
- 33. What customers think theyhave What companies actually built Why would we switch??? HOW CUSTOMERS EVALUATE YOUR PRODUCT
- 34. What customers think theyhave What companies actually built think they built What customers actually have SWITCHING IS HARD SO YOUR PRODUCT NEEDS TO BE THAT MUCH BETTER
- 35. THE MARKETING STAGE Learnthe ways people buy Solve from the inside out Market the Job-to-be-Done Practice effective testing
- 36. HOW PEOPLE BUYYOUR PRODUCT They search by the solution category They want a better version of what they currently have They want you! They search by the description of their problem PROBLEM BASED CATEGORY BASED COMPETITION BASED BRAND BASED
- 37. “I need atool to talk to my customers.” “I need something better/faster/ cheaper than my current solution.” “I need an Intercom on my website.” “People are coming to my website but not buying.” HOW PEOPLE BUY YOUR PRODUCT PROBLEM BASED CATEGORY BASED COMPETITION BASED BRAND BASED
- 38. THE MARKETING STAGE Learnthe ways people buy Solve from the inside out Market the Job-to-be-Done Practice effective testing
- 39. Default to redesign,not optimize. A billion dollar company isn’t built from better button colors.
- 40. Sign up nowSign up now
- 41. Sign up now Signup now
- 42. Sign up nowSign up now
- 43. Don't get suckedinto black hole of tiny optimizations. Know when to reset.
- 44. 1. How muchcould this experiment impact the metric? 2. Given that impact, how long will you need to run the test to get accurate results? 3. Is it worth the wait? BEFORE YOU EXPERIMENT, ASK YOURSELF…
- 45. Sign up now Timeto implement: 2 hours Time to test: 68 days Total time: 70 days Percentage improvement: 1.4% Sign up now CONTROL SIGN UP FLOW TEST SIGN UP FLOW
- 46. Time to implement:4 days Time to test: 20 days Total time: 24 days Percentage improvement: 4.2% CONTROL SIGN UP FLOW TEST SIGN UP FLOW
- 47.
- 48.
- 49.
- 50.
- 51. Getting Product andMarketing right are the first steps to Product Market Fit. MARKETINGPRODUCTYOU
- 52.
- 53. THE SCALE STAGE Evolvehow you build Beware of dogma Maintain your edge Evolve your roadmap Evolve how you measure
- 54. What got youhere won’t get you there.
- 55. Early product companieswork off intuition, inspiration, gut, feel, etc. This doesn’t scale.
- 56. Even if itdid scale, it’s not a good idea.
- 57. RE-DEVELOP YOUR ROADMAPPROCESS
- 58. ROADMAP Current customers Product iterations Voice ofsales Competitive landscape Churn reports Product health New ideas
- 59. HOW YOU ALLOCATEYOUR TIME HERE IS CRUCIAL Current customers Product iterations Voice of sales Competitive landscape Churn reports Product health New ideas
- 60. SOME WILL FLAREUP, SOME YOU HAVE TO EARN Current customers Product iterations Voice of sales Competitive landscape Churn reports Product health New ideas
- 61.
- 62. If we makedecisions that perfect us for one customer but make us useless for others, we’ve over-solved OVER-SOLVING CUSTOMER’S NEED PERFECT SOLUTION
- 63. THE “PERFECT” PRODUCTWON’T SELL VERY WELL
- 64. HIGHEST COMMON DENOMINATOR Howspecific can we be, while serving all target customers and excluding as few as possible?
- 65. HIGHEST COMMON DENOMINATOR Howspecific can we be, while serving all target customers and precluding as few as possible?
- 66. How specific canwe be, while serving all target customers and precluding as few as possible? HIGHEST COMMON DENOMINATOR
- 67. THIS IS WHATCUSTOMISATION IS It’s a way to let customers fit your product to their workflow Options
- 68. BUT THIS ISNOT A PRODUCT
- 69. THE SCALE STAGE Evolvehow you build Beware of dogma Maintain your edge Evolve your roadmap Evolve how you measure
- 70. INNOVATION AND PROBLEMSOLVING ARE DIFFERENT MODES OF WORK Addressing problemsIterations & new ideas Speculative Open ended Failure is acceptable Opportunity to differentiate Well understood outcome KPI driven Failure rarely acceptable Follow best practices
- 71. EVERY PIECE OFPRODUCT WORK NEEDS A REVENUE HYPOTHESIS This work will… Help Sales close more deals Help us sell at higher prices Decrease customer churn Improve our site conversion rate Give us a unique position in market Decrease costs to serve our customers
- 72. But adding features justto close deals is easy. It leads to consulting-ware long term.
- 73. Feature Feature FeatureFeature Feature Feature %ofcustomersthatuseit
- 74. Feature Feature FeatureFeature Feature Feature %ofcustomersthatuseit Feature Feature Feature Feature Feature Featur “Just this once” “Look at the ARR tho!” “Said they’ll quit”
- 75. This isn’t someproduct purist bullshit. You pay for that complexity in your Marketing, Customer Support, Success, etc. It’s “easy” to build everything customers want.
- 76. Act on yourcustomers’ behalf, not their request
- 77. THE SCALE STAGE Evolvehow you build Beware of dogma Maintain your edge Evolve your roadmap Evolve how you measure
- 78. Net dollar retentionis the defining metric of a subscription business. Churn and expansion will define your success
- 79. THE ROLE OFRETENTION €0.00 €10,000.00 €20,000.00 €30,000.00 €40,000.00 €50,000.00 €60,000.00 €70,000.00 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 101% NDR 99% NDR
- 80. GROWTH $100/M and100% NDR. 0 500 1000 1500 Jan 2019 Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Jan
- 81. DOES YOUR BUSINESSGROW FOR SHRINK BY DEFAULT? 0 500 1000 1500 Jan 2019 Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec By adding new customers By expanding from existing customers
- 82. GROWS BY $100BUT CONTRACTS BY 1% 0 500 1000 1500 Jan 2019 Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Jan
- 83. WHAT DOES “GOOD”LOOK LIKE? Twilio Atlassian Slack Pager duty New Relic Net Dollar Retention 0% 50% 100% 150% target range 120%-140% 155 148 143 140 115
- 84. LTV > CACLifeTimeValue of a customer Customer Acquisition Cost
- 85. THE SCALE STAGE Evolvehow you build Beware of dogma Maintain your edge Evolve your roadmap Evolve how you measure
- 87.
- 88.
- 89.
- 90.
- 91.
- 92.
- 93.
- 94.
- 95.
- 96.
- 97.
- 98. Beware of prioritizingproduct requests that make you more like your competitor.
- 99. “We need thefeatures they have” will soon turn into “We need to differentiate”
- 100. THE SCALE STAGE Evolvehow you build Beware of dogma Maintain your edge Evolve your roadmap Evolve how you measure
- 101. All opinions inyour software cost you customers, so they better be worth it.
- 102. • “We don’tthink we should collect email addresses up front” • “We have specific ways we want our customers to speak” • “We think the messenger should always ___ and never ___” • “We think there’s only ‘X’ ways you can set up permissions” • “Our bot Operator should always sound like a ____” REAL EXAMPLES FROM INTERCOM:
- 103. When an opinionis costing you more than it’s earning you, it’s dogma.
- 104. • Attract aset of target customers • Inspire your team • Fuel your marketing • Reduce your product scope • Simplify your product • Block sales • Confuse your team • Are only surfaced in product • Paint you into corners technically • Confuse your users GOOD OPINIONS vs BAD OPINIONS
- 105. “But we’ve alwaysdone that” “I remember back when…” “But on the blog it says…” “I found this Google Doc and it said” “Des once said at an all hands that…” OPINIONS SHOULD EXPIRE
- 106. A foolish consistencyis the hobgoblin of little minds.
- 107. Either you killyour dogma, or your dogma kills you.
- 108.