Thread by @paraschopra

1/ A thread for B2B / SaaS FOUNDERS with INSIGHTS from me, @pallavn (founder of @FusionCharts) and @varunshoor (founder of @Kayako)

2/ Two weeks prior, the three of us went on a mentorship call with five SaaS founders and here are the notes / insights

Questions were categorized in three broad areas.
- Product Roadmap
- Demand generation – top of the funnels and Gotomarket
- Focus – what to focus on

3/ -- PRODUCT ROADMAP --

4/ Just because you have the technology, you shouldn’t attack multiple markets.

For example, the same technology – sending emails – has made many different multi-million dollar companies that focus on specific niches.

5/ Serving everyone is not the answer at an early stage. You need to have depth in a particular industry before you go broad.

6/ Entrepreneurs generally underestimate the size of a niche – so they say: “everybody can use our product”.

When MailChimp launched, it was an email marketing service. Now it is more than $400-million-a-year-in-revenue powerhouse.

7/ There are 100s of CRM for different industries. ‘Anybody can use this product’ leads to a mediocre outcome.

Generic tools won’t be able to compete with you if you go for depth in one industry.

8/ @pallavn: Founders are techies at Heart. We see everything with the lens of product. We should let the customers drive out the solution… what features to prioritize. For this, we should be very clear about ‘Who is my Customer?’

9/ @pallavn: There is a structured way of building a product. Ask these questions. What are the segments for my product? What needs these segments have? How to prioritize? Understand your ‘Market’ – ‘Who’ are my customers? Talk to them everyday.

10/ Talking to customers will not only help for feature prioritization but also to answer questions related to your goto market.

At @wingify, out entire GTM including inside sales, development methodology, pricing has been defined after extensive conversations with customers.

11/ @varunshoor: I have seen a very different way of working in the product companies in the valley. These companies are doing really well in solving problems of the customers. Their discussions are always about solving for the customers and at the very end about features

12/ @pallavn: For Business users, tech is not important. What matters is that you solve their problem, speak their language, get integrated in their workflow.

13/ @pallavn: At an early stage of a startup, I also advise against going after customers who are paying for customization – feature/s that are not applicable to others as later on you will have problems around it.

14/ To summarize, there are 2 ways to look at a company

1st is Reactive – go on building products driven by whatever request comes your way. 2nd is to imagine a company like a Rocket, defining its focus and aligning entire product to it. We underestimate focus at the early stage

15/ -- DEMAND GENERATION --

16/ @varunshoor: At @kayako, we sold right from the start. For the first 3 years, 100% of our base was web hosting companies. When customers of these web hosting companies visited the websites, they saw “Powered by Kayako” on the websites. That's how we got traction.

17/ Adwords is significantly under-estimated early on. Customers are literally typing what they need RIGHT NOW. You should capture all such customers (even if they're expensive early on).

18/ @pallavn: You should ask your customers to describe their days and life. Find out where s/he is actively consuming info and how to reach these personas. This will give you ideas on where all to advertise.

19/ Remember, product purchase decisions are never snap decisions. Interview customers who have bought your products recently and ask them to walk you through the moments when they decided to purchase your product.

invertedpassion.com/mer-framework-…

20/ Outbound/ Marketing messages can come off looking pushy. Find out the real ‘Motivation’ why people are buying your product. Customers don’t buy a product just because your product does xyz.

21/ @varunshoor: Outbound can come of as spamming. There is a saying about it which we often quote. “There is no such thing as spamming. It is a wrong message at a wrong time for the wrong motivation.”

22/ Your Adwords ad has a job to fulfil same as your products – to create value for the customer. Same goes for outbound emails. You have to discover what value your outbound mails create for the customer. invertedpassion.com/cold-emails/

23/ -- FOCUS: WHO TO FOCUS ON --

24/ With regards to User vs Buyer, it really boils down to who has more power in the professional settings. In some settings, developers have much more say in products that they are using, and in other setting, someone like a CTO has more influence.

25/ @varunshoor: I would divide power into different categories. Who has implementation power and who has buying/pricing power

Most of the content should be tailored to individual who has implementation power and sales pitch should be tailored to individual who has buying power

26/ @pallavn: for us, at @FusionCharts , the user is developer but the key buyer are Product managers or CEO/CTOs of small companies

27/ @pallavn: what this also changes is the medium of communication. A developer won’t be interested in a PDF, PPT or watching a video but if it is for a PM or business role, they want a brochure, a PDF

28/ @pallavn: regarding the KPI of a business user, what I have seen is that if the product is not helping the person get promoted or look good in front of his manager or not solving his top 3 priorities of the quarter one step way, it becomes difficult to sell

29/ Educating and uplifting the entire market is a very big task.

A single startup can’t do it. It has to happen on a broad level where all your competitors help educate customers.

30/ Here’s how you interview customers: if they have chosen your product for very specific reason, have very open ended conversations and focus on the moments they decided to purchase your products. Then you would know the motivation and where the message should go.

31/ Your lead generation strategy is determined by your customers. If your customers do not hangout online/ don’t prefer checking emails, you really can’t use that method.

32/ @varunshoor: I saw my customers as a liability and if you are making the same mistake (avoiding interacting with your customers), I recommend correcting it.

33/ Most of the mistakes that startup founders do (including me) is this cognitive bias that comes in from living and breathing the product the entire day.

34/ On International focus, you can target mid market and SMBs internationally but not enterprises. Because enterprises require feet on the street. It requires going to conferences, and having presence in that geography.

35/ If your product is meant for mid market and SMBs then, you are making a mistake by not thinking internationally

It is very likely that the problems that Indian mid market customers have are same as those that American or European customers have. Why not target them?

36/ Getting your hands dirty competing internationally will give you a broader perspective.

Any company, unless it solves very India specific problem, can go internationally.

37/ That's all. Here's the entire set of notes (including some bits NOT on this thread): invertedpassion.com/founders-mento…

RT if you have SaaS / B2B founders as friends or followers.