So I left Paddle.com and started my own company... Do you see a need for this as a SaaS Founder?
We're a SaaS focused growth agency, helping SaaS companies leverage social media to aid their growth.
From strategy, to content to managing your channels...
I'm trying to work out if there is a need for this in the SaaS space, would you go to an agency to accelerate your growth for your SaaS in the marketing side of things?
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FYI this isn't a pitch ultimately I want to understand your pains and see how you foresee the need for going to an agency to aid your growth, in an ideal world I'd have a SaaS but it's my stepping stone :)
You namedrop Paddle in the title of the post and then don’t talk about it, I’m wondering, why is you leaving Paddle.com (specifically) relevant to this post? Why did you leave?
Hey - You're right I did name drop Paddle. Not to project them into a bad light, but I know that Paddle has a fantastic name in SaaS, I don't have a name in SaaS and know how to write copy that stands out when you're .scrolling through a feed!
It's not that relevant but is a part of my journey and that's why I included it. You've for once stopped an may not have if you hadn't seen 'Paddle' it's affirmation by association.
I'm Boostrapped and will do what I have to do to rise above the noise, showcase my worth in SaaS and tell my story through leveraging my past.
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Why did I leave Paddle?
A: I started at Paddle in a room of 10 people, we went through so much, I went through so much learning not just social media it all started in the business development side prior to their being a team, we moved offices and my roles changed over time as did the company!
I'm Paddle's biggest advocate and always will be looking up to Christian and Harrison almost like older brothers.
After 4.5 years, we went through a lot, I started as a kid with no skills other than tenacity and desire to learn. Harrison trained me and we built out the lead generation process hand in hand, naturally, we scaled and so did my skills.
I grew up in Paddle and didn't know where or what I wanted to do but found my home in marketing, Octave their VP of Marketing allowed me to explore the function and social media was somewhere we hadn't accelerated at and they gave me an opportunity to do so, I already knew it had done so for others years before so had transferable skills.
Eventually, I wasn't as fulfilled as I once was I wanted to be around others who had done social media marketing and at first thought maybe I'd join an agency but ultimately realised I had a love for SaaS and software and this was where I wanted to be...
Following conversations with a friend who owned an agency it clicked! I realised it was my time to do what I was doing @ Paddle for others! 150 people at Paddle it felt like the right time to do me!
So, I took off and did so! Think about it from this perspective, yes I love Paddle and the environment I was in but I wanted to do more and always wanted to own a business for myself!
When I look back at my life I would have regretted it if I hadn't said F*CK it!!
I was looking for an opportunity, I even bought mac apps prior, it just didn't feel right and I didn't have the drive or interest - I've finally found something I'm passionate about and Paddle helped me do that!
For me it's not leaving Paddle / It's 'Graduating' - That's how I think of it, I've found my place or at least have started to move in the right direction of doing so.
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Thanks, very much appreciate the insight! I’ve got a similar backstory originating in a big web dev agency.
I actually clicked the post because it read like you previously used Paddle.com to sell something and decided to develop your own solution instead. :-)
I wish you all the best on this adventure!
Not to worry, happy to have shared and cleared that up!
I see - I'm not that technical and to be honest seeing what went into building Paddle, I wouldn't want to go into building something like that the man-hours and then ensuring it's built for scalability is so hard + I'm no coder!
Thank you really appreciate it :)
Just curious, why did you decide to leave Paddle and start your own company? Was it mainly because of the old company or is it simply what you have always wanted to do?
Thanks for asking, I had been at Paddle since there were 10 of us, moved between roles ultimately my goal was to find something I liked enough within one of my roles and think of a way to scale the skill to turn it into a business!
Social media @ Paddle showed me I could do this for others, I wanted to leave to do that but ultimately had an itch for starting my own company having launched numerous ventures over the years!
Yes, for sure this is a need.
It just depends on your cost and what results you've provided in the past. If you can bring in results, there will be no shortage of people willing you pay you.
The difficulty might be in getting started and proving that you can bring in results for a reasonable cost, and do it repeatedly.
As an additional note -- email marketing is the cheapest option, and most SaaS' are not doing a good job of that. That's where I would start.
Thanks for that, you're right referrals are so important to accelerate my credibility there and showcase the justification in cost.
There are several agencies and individuals targeting SaaS and startups for growth strategy. I think there will always be a need for some companies to outsource marketing tasks. So, the more important question may be whether the market is saturated?
If it is, it's saturated with bad agencies which makes it a great feeding ground for people who know what they're doing.
I don't think it's saturated, though. There's still a massive number of SaaS companies to be built and others just in their infancy. The whole industry might look big from the inside, but from everywhere else it's tiny at just ~ $130B globally. Compare that against retail which is a multi-trillion dollar industry and look at the amount of marketing and advertising going into that market.
This is just the beginning.
Can you list some of these agencies that come to mind?
I can't really name anyone in particular. It is more of a marketing effort that I see in my social feeds. Several marketers are specifically targeting growth hacking for startups.
As far as I know, social media is not a good growth channel for Saas. The CAC is usually astronomical and, according to a report based on the biggest 50 Saas in the worl, only 2% of their traffic come from social media.
I have to say that I am not an expert, what I am saying is based on a few articles I read on the topic.
Social media CAC can be extremely competitive when done right. One of the big reasons the average cost is high is the ease of starting a web marketing agency means it's attracted a lot of folks who have no clue what they're doing.
The same people who have no clue advertise in every single category and even more in popular categories like ecommerce and apps, so this kind of logic doesn't make a lot of sense.
The main reason is that ads that work blend well in the platform. On both Instagram and Facebook software doesn't blend at all and people easily identify it as an ad. Yes, some people make it work but the vast majority don't.
On Linkedin, software could blend but Linkedin is in general a terrible platform to advertise on.
Interesting. Can you link me the article? What's the top growth channel then?
Organic search is the biggest by far, then referrals, and email marketing.
Consider that the 2% of social media traffic included organic and paid, so it is on average a very bad channel for Saas.
https://www.mikesonders.com/traffic-sources-saas/
Thanks for this! I'll take a look.