Noah Johnson
Nov 18, 2023
Scaling a software as a service (SaaS) startup is not easy, but it can be done with the right attitude and approach. Here are some learnings observed by a SaaS founder, Jonathan Martinez who is a UC Berkeley alum and a growth marketing nerd who has helped scale Uber, Postmates, Chime and various start-ups.
He suggests focusing on revenue growth, not vanity metrics that may look striking on the outside but do not echo actual business performance for your start-up.
Track your Monthly recurring revenue (MRR), churn rate, which is the percentage of customers who stop using a SaaS product or service in a given period of time, Lifetime value (LTV), and customer acquisition cost (CAC), and optimise them for profitability and sustainability.
Read more: Google Cloud can help your startup grow faster
Hire the best employees you can afford, and authorise them to do their best work. Invest in coaching, training, and feedback, and produce an ethos of ownership and accountability.
Secure your clients by providing value, overcoming their problems, and outperforming their expectations. Build relationships, pay attention to feedback, and implement product enhancements that matter to your customers.
He suggests to the founders to experiment with various channels and tactics to obtain new customers, but not spread themselves too thin. Look for your ideal customer profiles, and aim at them with customised and relevant messages.
Leverage your current customers to create referrals, testimonials, and case studies. Use word-of-mouth, social proof, and incentives to grow your customer base organically.
