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:

• 🎧 Discover how firing customers fueled SaaS growth
  

• 📈 Turn website visitors into actionable leads
  

• 🚀 Accelerate your path to $10K MRR

• 🤔 Why selling benefits isn't enough for SaaS success

• 📗 A visionary's guide to groundbreaking startups

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🎧 Podcast

Tilled: How Firing Customers Helped Build a 7-Figure SaaS

Caleb Avery is the founder and CEO of Tilled, a PayFac-as-a-Service platform that helps B2B software vendors embed and manage payment processing for their customers.

In 2019, after years of consulting Caleb spotted an opportunity to help his clients generate more revenue from payments.

He started Tilled as a solo founder, spending 10 months exploring the viability of the business idea before bringing on a team.

The initial product launch was far from perfect.

It took 18 months and a complete rebuild to create a truly sellable solution that could even attempt to compete with established players like Stripe.

When the pandemic hit, their outbound sales and trade show strategy was thrown into disarray. Caleb was forced to pivot to content marketing.

He invested in building his personal brand on LinkedIn, starting with less than 500 followers in 2020 (he now has over 17,000 followers).

But what's more interesting is that his LinkedIn profile helped drive 95% of lead flow in the first year and got them close to $1 million in ARR.

But as the team started to gain traction, they faced new challenges.

They struggled with product-market fit and onboarding customers that weren't a good fit - which created numerous headaches for the team.

Eventually, they made the tough decision to fire some customers and refocus on their ideal customer profile, which led to a period of uncertainty.

But after a few months, their bet paid off, and they started seeing growth.

Today, Tilled generates multiple 7-figures in ARR and is approaching eight figures. The company has ~100 customers and has raised $40 million.

In this episode, you'll learn:

• How Caleb's personal LinkedIn profile drove the majority of leads in the first year and how you could do the same for your SaaS.
• Why it took 18 months to build a truly competitive product and the lessons Caleb learned about creating a great developer experience.
• How Caleb's team identified their ideal customer profile and why narrowing focus led to faster growth, despite initially losing revenue.
• What strategies the team used to pivot their go-to-market approach during the pandemic and they lessons they learned.
• How Caleb discovered and capitalized on channel partnerships, and why this might be a game-changer for your SaaS startup.

I hope you enjoy it!

Check out the full episode on:

Apple Podcasts | Spotify | YouTube | Web

📈 Leadfeeder: Turn Pageviews Into Sales

Leadfeeder helps you turn anonymous website visitors into actionable leads. See which companies are browsing your site, track their behavior, and sync with your CRM.

Get a free demo and enjoy an extended premium trial today

🚀 Fast Track Your SaaS to $10K MRR

SaaS Club Launch is a 12-week program designed to help early-stage founders reach $10K MRR faster by avoiding common mistakes and implementing proven strategies for growth.

Get personalized coaching, join a community of like-minded founders, and start scaling your SaaS business with confidence.

Apply now and take the next step to $10K MRR

🤔 SaaS Insights

Why Selling the Benefits of Your SaaS Product Isn't Enough

Don't sell product features. Don't even sell product benefits.

Sell the desired outcomes your customers are hoping to achieve.

Example:

1. Selling Features

- "We've got 100s of beautiful email templates."

2. Selling Benefits

- "Create marketing emails faster and improve productivity by 52%."

3. Selling Desired Outcomes

- "Send emails that get customers to know, like, and trust you more."

 📗 Book of the Week

This week's book recommendation is from Caleb:

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

This book focused on how to build innovative products that create entirely new markets. It’s great guide if you want to pursue groundbreaking ideas for big success.

🌟 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.