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:

• 🎧 A SaaS founder's rollercoaster ride to success
  

• 🤔 Turn your nice-to-have into a must-have SaaS
  

• 📗 Buffett's business lessons for SaaS leaders

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🎧 Podcast

Perseverance in SaaS: Navigating Pivots, Exits, and New Ventures

Jake Stein is the co-founder and CEO of Common Paper, a platform for standardized contracts and contract management.

In 2008, Jake and Bob started RJ Metrics from Bob's attic. Those early years were grueling as they bootstrapped and struggled to stay afloat.

By 2012, they gained traction, raising over $20 million. However, in 2015, Amazon's Redshift disrupted their business, leading to layoffs.

In 2016, they spun off a feature into a standalone product (Stitch). In just two years, they went from zero to a $60M exit.

Drawing from these experiences, Jake launched Common Paper in 2021 to solve the widespread problem of contract standardization .

But finding success hasn't been easy.

Their initial NDA focused product failed to gain traction and months of enterprise customer conversations resulted in zero conversions.

Forced to pivot, Jake and his team scrapped their model and refocused on more complex agreements for early-stage B2B SaaS companies.

Today, Common Paper is a seed-stage company with 8 team members. They have 140 paying customers, and thousands of companies have used their platform to close deals worth tens of millions of dollars.

In this episode you'll learn:

• How Jake and Bob navigated from RJ Metrics' grueling early years to Stitch's $60 million exit

• What led Jake to pivot Common Paper's focus, and how to recognize when your startup needs a change in direction

• Why Jake chose to offer valuable resources for free, and how this approach might benefit your go-to-market strategy

• How Jake applied lessons from RJ Metrics and Stitch to build Common Paper's business model

• What unique customer acquisition strategies Common Paper employs for B2B SaaS growth that may help your startup

I hope you enjoy it!

Listen to the full podcast episode

🤔 Getting to the First $1M ARR in 7.5 Months

Don't make this mistake with your SaaS product. 
 
Here's how to turn your vitamin into a painkiller: 
 
Imagine you have a headache. 
You need to get relief immediately. 
You reach for a painkiller, not a vitamin. 
 
Now, think about your SaaS product. 
Is it solving an urgent problem? 
Or is it just a nice-to-have? 
 
Customers buy painkillers because they need them. 
 
They buy vitamins when they remember. 
 
Your SaaS should be the solution they can't live without. 
 
How do you do this? 
 
1. Pinpoint your customers' biggest problems. 
2. Show the real costs of not solving these problems. 
3. Share nightmare and success stories from customers. 
 
Urgency drives action. 
 
Position your SaaS as a must-have. 
Make it indispensable. 
 
Remember, people act faster when they feel the pain. 
Ensure your product is the relief they seek. 

Let me know your thoughts here.

 📗 Book of the Week

This week's book recommendation is from Jake:

The Essays of Warren Buffett: Lessons for Corporate America by Lawrence A. Cunningham

" It's like the consolidated excerpts from Warren Buffett's Letter to Shareholders. Like I've read that book, I don't know, probably three or four times. Best book I've ever read." - Jake

🌟 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

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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.

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