CXL - Making big bets > minor optimizations

Your host today is Peep Laja, Founder at CXL

Back in 2011, I had to make a choice - whether to kill my SaaS company or to keep going.

If the business is obviously failing (or the opposite), it's easy. But most of the time, it's not that.

The hardest decisions around whether to keep going or not are when it's sorta kinda working.

It's not just about whether to shut down a company or a new business initiative. It's how you approach any strategy. Should we keep going, or change it?

I bet that a lot of things you're doing are in the Zombieland territory - not quite dead, but not exactly alive either. They're producing some money, some leads. Something's happening. Maybe something more will happen if we just keep going.

So you keep tinkering with them. Maybe we can get a 5% improvement here or there.

Most of the time, it's a trap. You'd likely be better off trying something else. Changing the strategy.

A buddy of mine had a startup (they even did YC) that was stuck. They couldn't get over $400k ARR for years. They shipped features, launched campaigns. Very little movement - 2% here, 3% there.

"We're smart dudes, why can't we figure this out?" they asked. Then they decided to hop on a completely new opportunity. They stopped shipping any code/effort towards the existing SaaS, and focused on building a new one.

1 year after launching they raised money at a $250M valuation and are the category leader in that new space.

Don't go for the 5% improvement, go for the 100% improvement.

(Oh, and I did decide to kill that startup of mine called Traindom. I started CXL after that, and success came so much easier).

Connect with Peep on LinkedIn.

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I go to marketing conferences to watch recycled content from YouTube… Said no one ever.

The greatest ROI with events comes from building relationships. And not just ROI tho, the fun too.

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3. How high-performing companies use north star metrics in practice

How did Outreach grow in just a few years to 50,000 monthly active users, $10 million in new bookings, and net revenue retention (NRR) of more than 140%?

By focusing intently on a single measurement, known as a north star metric.

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In this article, you’ll learn how other growing companies use the north star metric to achieve customer success. Apply these lessons to align your teams and drive revenue growth.

Read the entire article here.

4. Ecommerce Marketing Minidegre: Strategy track

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5. Ecommerce Brand Strategy course

This course will teach you how to turn your idea into a flourishing cult ecommerce brand that stands out among others. You will:

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7. How to set up and scale experimentation programs strategically

Join Speero, Decathlon, and ABTasty in a workshop to learn from their experience on how to set up and scale experimentation programs strategically and take away key frameworks that will support you.

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