Owning the Narrative: An Interview with SaaS Operator and Investor Matthew Ross

The landscape for SaaS growth has changed. Paid media, trade shows, and traditional PR no longer guarantee reach. Today, founders themselves are often the most effective distribution channels—turning their expertise and perspective into demand engines that drive sales, attract investors, and open doors for M&A.

Matthew Ross, general manager & CEO of a vertical SaaS business backed by Beacon Software Group and a member of the BizOps Network, has been both an operator and an advisor through this shift. With over a decade of experience in building and scaling companies, he currently leads a vertical SaaS business backed by Beacon Software Group, driving go-to-market, product, and operational strategy.

In this interview, he shares lessons from building Deal Bridge Media, his time advising startups, and how founder-led distribution is reshaping SaaS growth strategies.

Matt, thanks for joining us. Can you start by explaining why founder visibility has become such a critical part of SaaS growth today?

Absolutely. We’ve seen a shift from rented audiences to owned ones. In the past, companies relied on ads, agencies, or earned media to get their message out.

Now more than ever, prospects and customers want to hear directly from founders and operators—they want unfiltered insight into how products are built, what problems they solve, and where the market is headed. They want to buy from people, not companies.

That’s why founder visibility is so powerful: it compounds. A well-structured content strategy doesn’t just build awareness; it creates trust, pipeline, and investor interest. For SaaS founders, it’s no longer optional.

You founded Deal Bridge Media to solve this exact problem. What was the idea behind it, and how did it work in practice?

The idea was simple: most executives had the insights, but not the time or system to turn them into content. Deal Bridge Media helped turn those insights into content—LinkedIn posts, Twitter threads, short-form reels and videos, and PR articles—that could reach the right audiences consistently.

We worked with clients like Codingscape and BoomPop, helping them not only generate leads but also gain visibility with investors and acquirers. Codingscape, for example, went from building quiet momentum to landing on the Inc. 5000 list.

Within the first year, we generated high six-figure revenue, built a five-person team, and helped our clients achieve results like 3x top-of-funnel lead flow and 15+ hours saved per month compared to doing content in-house themselves.

A lot of people see content as just marketing. You talk about it as a capital strategy. Can you expand on that?

Definitely. Content drives distribution for yourself and your products. Over time, distribution builds trust, and trust opens capital markets. I’ve seen clients use visibility not just to close sales but to attract investors and even M&A interest.

As a scout for Spacebar Ventures, how has your perspective on this evolved when looking at companies to back?

When I evaluate startups, I look at two things: product-market fit and narrative-market fit. The first is obvious: does the product solve a real problem? But the second is just as important: can the founder tell that story in a way that resonates and speaks to customers, employees, and investors?

I’ve seen great products fail because they couldn’t break through the noise, and good products thrive because the narrative carried them. As a scout, I pay attention to whether founders can own their story.

What challenges do founders face in trying to build this visibility?

The biggest challenge is consistency. Founders are busy. They’re running teams, closing deals, and raising capital. Building a content engine on top of that can feel impossible.

That’s why at Deal Bridge, we built systems: biweekly interviews, structured onboarding, content calendars, and measurable distribution. It was about creating repeatable processes that scaled founder insights without draining their time.

And the results were measurable: clients saved hours, improved lead flow, and created defensible moats around their messaging.

You’ve also written about this in your Hackernoon article 6 Things You Need to Consider Before Buying a Software Company. How does that tie in with your operator experience?

That piece was about applying the same discipline I’ve seen in SaaS growth to acquisitions. Buying a software company isn’t just about spreadsheets; it’s about understanding narrative risk, operational friction, and market perception.

The lesson is the same: whether you’re buying, selling, or building, the story you tell shapes the outcomes you get. And if you don’t own that narrative, someone else will.

What advice would you give to early-stage SaaS founders who are trying to scale their growth engines today?

My advice is simple: start early, start small, but start. Don’t wait until you’re raising Series B to build your narrative. Talk about what you’re building, why it matters, and who it’s for. Consistency beats polish.

And treat content as more than marketing. It’s fundraising readiness, it’s recruiting, and it’s M&A strategy.

As Ross explains, founder visibility is no longer a nice-to-have; it’s a growth strategy in itself. By building structured systems that transform insights into distribution, he has helped companies scale demand, raise capital, and even attract acquisition interest.

“Distribution is leverage,” Ross says.