I joined Twitter 2 months ago to share what I've learned about SaaS...

And now we're at 25k followers!

There's clearly a demand to learn more about SaaS,

So if I were you, I'd go ahead and follow these people as well:
Andrew Gazdecki (Founder of Micro Acquire)
@agazdecki

Andrew is basically the leader of the bootstrap community,

So if you're into that?

Follow him.

I actually have a story with Andrew:
When I was a nobody, he took time out of his day to get on a Zoom call with me.

He listened to all our business pain points and offered advice.

He cheered me and said "Dude, keep doing what you're doing. Focus on x - not y".

He does this with other founders too - follow him.
Nathan Latka (Founderpath)
@nathanlatka

Nathan is building Founderpath, a company that helps SaaS founders get money (based on your ARR).

He was a big influence when I was getting started because of his podcast - it's all about asking questions to SaaS founders.
Essentially, his podcast is an endless stream knowledge for SaaS founders.

From 2016 and on, I was listening to his podcast all day every day.

That's how I almost learned about SaaS in general.
Dan Martell (Multiple exits)
@danmartell

Dan has 'SaaS Academy',

An academy for helping SaaS founders grow.

I talked to him early on when I was building Uplead.

He has a Youtube channel where he creates content everyday almost exclusively about SaaS.

Great follow.
Dharmesh Shah (HubSpot)
@dharmesh

I learned a lot about content marketing from Hubspot.

SEO has been a big driver of growth for my businesses,

And HubSpot was a pioneer in inbound marketing (something I focus heavily on in my marketing).
Shaan Puri & Sam Parr
@shaanvp & @thesamparr

These guys are co hosts of "My first million podcast".

This is my favorite podcast ever.

Whenever I'm not working, my phone looks like this at almost all times:
In the podcast, they discuss

>business
>growth
>life

Plus unique business ideas that blow my mind.

If you want to start a SaaS from scratch?

Listen to the podcast (a goldmine for ideas) and follow these guys.
Andrew Wilkinson (Tiny)
@Awilkinson

Andrew is building Tiny,

A holding company of different SaaS, eComm and other businesses.

He's very good at finding great managers + leaders to run his business autonomously.
He's not 'in the weeds' in the day to day operations,

Just a very high-level 'big picture' thinker.

Highly recommended follow.
Ross Simmonds
@thecoolestcool

Ross tweets about SaaS & content marketing.

He gives out A LOT of valuable free content & his newsletter is unreal.

If you're into SaaS/SEO, he's a must-follow.

(btw, Ross & I have partnered a few times - he really is the coolest)
Andrew Warner [Mixergy]
@andrewwarner

Andrew does the Mixergy podcast - he interviews successful SaaS founders & goes into depth on the specifics, such as

>industries
>pain points
>growth levers of the industry

It's a free playbook for building a SaaS - pure gold.
Daniel (Cold Email Wizard)
@blackhatwizardd

Daniel 'Cold Email Wiz' merges direct response marketing with SaaS techniques.

He's showing how personal brands can be monetized not only with info products,

But SaaS as well.

Highly recommend following him.
Thanks for reading!

Follow everyone if this thread if you're interested in SaaS & making money.

And follow me as well to watch my journey to sell UpLead for a billion dollars :)
I share threads weekly on SaaS, Startups, Cold Email and Entrepreneurship

Follow me if you'd like to see more of those ;)

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More from @iamwillcannon

15 Sep
4 Reasons Why You Should Start Your Own SaaS

(And why becoming a multi-millionaire is way more likely than you think):
Even though I failed at

- Real estate
- Insurance
- Merchant services

And even filed for bankruptcy at one point,

Today I own 2 SaaS (one valued at ~$75Million) and they changed my life forever.

Here’s why it might change yours:
#1 Recurring revenue

For me, this was life-changing.

With recurring revenue:

>You have a rough estimate of how much money you will make (and when)

>Every client/customer you acquire is worth more than a one-off purchase
Read 12 tweets
10 Sep
I built a SaaS from zero to a ~$75 Million valuation in 3 years.

Here are 8 lessons I learned the hard way (so you don't have to):
#1 Talent

Once you get past a million in ARR, your job changes.

It turns into finding the best people for the job:

>hiring
>recruiting
>managing
>leading talent
This is super important.

Remember:

You're not gonna be able to build a huge business without talent.

>Find very talented people
>Pay them a lot
>Leave them alone

Simple.
Read 23 tweets
8 Sep
My SaaS just broke $8 Million in sales this year,

And I'm incredibly grateful to be in this position.

But it wasn't always this way...

Here’s the 6 (and a half) business I've failed at:
#1 Real estate

I didn't have any money and I wanted to build a real estate empire at the time.

At one point,

I slept in my real estate office.

I was leasing an office (800 sq feet) for my own business and lived in it because I didn't have enough money for an apartment.
I slept there and woke up and showered in a bucket.

(there was no shower)

Yes, I had a small bucket in a little bathroom.

This was just me and my girlfriend at the time (now my wife).

We lived in our office until we hustled enough to finally buy an apartment.
Read 16 tweets
3 Sep
Crazy Story:

One time we had to stop a cold email campaign because we were actually getting too many replies...

(80% open rate & 62% reply rate)

Below is the exact cold email so you can steal it:
There are 7 moving parts here so don't get lost!

1. Subject line

"Your story"

The subject line is short, adds curiosity, and most important of all:

It doesn't look spammy.

If your subject line begins with something like "hey Will, wanna chat this week?"

You already lost.
2. First line

"Rand. I came across your interview with Alex Turnbull from Groove"

Very personalized.

Rule of thumb:

A good cold email doesn't look like a cold email.

We thought:

"Who are some thought leaders in the B2B customer acquisition space we want to learn from?"
Read 19 tweets
1 Sep
David Ogilvy once said:

“Advertising people who ignore research are as dangerous as generals who ignore decodes of enemy signals”

But doing market research sucks,

So here's 5 tricks you can use to make it suck WAY less

(Bookmark this thread):
#1 Talk to them in person

Most people don't do this.

They think it's best to assume what they want...

But "assuming" never won anything in business.

When you talk to customers?

You get an idea of who they are and you can write to them much more easily.
#2 Go Unsexy

When you're starting, look for the 'unsexy' business.

Don't be a new "marketing agency for tech startups"...

Become a "marketing agency for dentists".

Start in a boring industry because there's less competition there.
Read 14 tweets
27 Aug
TRUTH BOMB:

You're (probably) not gonna build the next Facebook or Amazon.

But that shouldn't demotivate you.

You can still build a HUGE business by copying an existing business

And doing 1 of these 5 things differently:
1. Make it easier to use

You don't have to develop an entirely new & unique algorithm...

Just make your product very easy to use.

A lot of software is very complicated.

(you get inside it and you're like "How do i do XYZ?")
Make it simple and get your clients.

By the way,

That's what we did for Signaturely.

Getting online signatures was hard...

So we did the exact same thing other signature SaaS's were doing + made it easier to use.

Simple.
Read 16 tweets

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