The SaaS Club Newsletter

Hey Reader

Here's a quick round up of what's been going on at SaaS Club:

 In this week's newsletter:

• 🎧 From Cold Calls & Rejection to SaaS Success
• 🧩 Attio: The CRM for Modern Startups
• 🏆 SaaS Success Boils Down to ONE Thing
• 📚 A Classic on Startup Philosophy
• 📚 Lessons from an AI Startup

Received this email from a friend? Subscribe here to get your own.

🎧 Podcast

From Cold Calls & Rejections to Scaling a SaaS Startup

Zach Rattner is co-founder and CTO of Yembo, an AI-powered platform enabling virtual home surveys for the moving and insurance industries.

In 2015, while working as a software engineer, Zach noticed computers were becoming better than humans at identifying objects in images.

His wife’s experience at a moving company inspired him to apply AI to an industry struggling with accurate quotes and complex logistics.

However, building an AI-powered product was no easy feat.

As introverted engineers, Zach and his co-founder Sid forced themselves to step out of their comfort zone. They made cold calls, visited moving companies in person, and often faced rejection.

In the early days, the founders also handled sales themselves. 

They attended industry trade shows and conferences to generate leads and build relationships with potential customers.

Despite their efforts, the first version of Yembo's product had limitations in its AI capabilities and user interface, which led to some customer churn.

So the founders focused on finding early adopters willing to work through initial challenges and they kept iterating based on feedback.

Through determination and hard work, Yembo gradually gained traction.

Today, Yembo serves customers in 30 countries, processes 100s of hours of video daily, and generates high seven-figures in ARR with a team of 70.

In this episode, you'll learn:

• How Zach and Sid validated their idea despite facing rejection and discomfort, and strategies they used to overcome these challenges.

• Why setting realistic expectations about your AI-powered product is crucial for maintaining trust and preventing customer disappointment.

• How Yembo overcame skepticism by educating customers about AI and focusing on early adopters eager to try new solutions.

• Why handling sales yourself initially, even as a technical founder, is essential for gathering direct feedback and refining your pitch.

• How attending trade shows and creating engaging demos helped to generate leads and build relationships with potential customers.

I hope you enjoy it!

Listen to the full podcast episode

🤝 Attio: A Powerful, Flexible & Data-Driven CRM

Attio is built specifically for the next generation of companies. It syncs with your data sources, easily configures to their unique structures, and works for any go-to-market motion from self-serve to sales-led.

Attio automatically enriches contacts, syncs your emails & calendar, gives you powerful reports, and lets you quickly build Zapier-style automations.

The next generation of companies deserves more than an inflexible, one-size-fits-all CRM. Join ElevenLabs, Replicate, Modal and more, to scale your startup to the next level.

Get your free account today!

🤔 SaaS Success Boils Down to ONE Thing

So, you want to build a successful startup?

You need one thing:

To solve a customer's pain better than anyone else.

It's that simple.

Learn from the most successful startups

↳ like Uber, Airbnb, and Amazon.

They identified their customers' pain points

↳ and went all-in on solving it.

Everything else is secondary.

So, ask yourself:

1. What's the biggest pain my customers have?
2. How can I solve it better than anyone else?

Then, focus relentlessly on delivering that solution.

Make it your mission to alleviate their pain
↳ in a way no one else can.

Be their aspirin, not just another vitamin.

Be the essential painkiller they can't live without.

When you do that, you'll have customers for life.

And that's the path to a truly successful startup.

Let me know if you agree or disagree here.

 📗 Book of the Week

This week's book recommendation are from Zach:

Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future by Peter Thiel

Grow Up Fast: Lessons from an AI Startup by Zach Rattner

🌟 Help Spread the Word

Enjoyed this week's newsletter? Please do me a favor and forward this email to someone who would benefit from it as much as you did. 

Sharing is caring, and it helps us grow! ❤️

😍 Let's Get Social

Want to get more social? Follow me on Twitter or LinkedIn.

Have a great week!

- Omer

Interested in sponsoring The SaaS Podcast or this newsletter?

P.S. Whenever you're ready, here are 3 ways I can help you:

1. Join SaaS Club Plus: Get early access to our new community for early-stage SaaS founders. Join the waitlist now!

2. Apply for SaaS Club Launch: Designed to accelerate your journey to $10K MRR for new and early-stage founders.

3. Apply for SaaS Club Mastermind: Scale from six to seven figures with our focused mastermind group.