Oleg Rogynskyy

Great post Santosh Sharan 1. If I am reading this correctly, you were in line with what Peter Drucker repeatedly said in classes I was blessed to have taken "Focus on market share and revenue (margins) will follow". 2. I always encourage Startup Clients from Concept through Seed phases: 1. Solid Data Supported Market Analysis (Total Market, SWOT Analysis) 2. Methodical, Low Cost, Essential Features and Fast MVP 3. Traction & Market Share Naturally, I encourage building the business plan immediately and continuously strengthening it. Thanks again for this great launch testimonial!

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🧪 CRO Case Study Episode 54 One A/B test → 930K plus revenue 🚀 Swipe to learn how one A/B test added over $930K to our client's annual revenue. The Results Breakdown: +$77,558 per month +$930,696 per year (forecasted) +$0.58 revenue per session Bookmark this!

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HITRUST chose Vanta as the first pre-built HITRUST e1 solution, which means Vanta comes "out of the box" with the necessary controls, documents, and policies for an e1 assessment and eliminates the manual “do-it-yourself” approach that other platforms require. Up to 80% of requirements are automated by: *️⃣ Guidance around requirements: 44 new controls and 72 automated tests to ensure comprehensive and continuous compliance. *️⃣ Documents and policy templates: 80 new documents and 10 policy addendums to outline practices around managing sensitive data. *️⃣ Automated evidence collection: With over 300 integrations, Vanta automatically and continuously collects evidence from an organization’s technology stack. Our platform also applies overlapping, implemented controls from other supported frameworks, including up to 50% of SOC 2 and ISO 27001, to eliminate duplicative work across compliance programs. Coming soon, our partnership with HITRUST will expand into an integration with their audit portal, MyCSF, so customer evidence is transfered automatically from Vanta to MyCSF, further streamlining the HITRUST validation process Really excited for this collaboration!

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Niche doesn't mean single-product. Data from TideMark's 2024 Vertical & SMB SaaS Benchmark Report backs this up. The sauce for Vertical SaaS is owning a niche and layering new products over time to grow 'share of wallet'... Here’s what I’ve learned from acquiring and operating Micro SaaS: // Product Expansion: - Start with your core offering, but always be mapping out adjacent pain points - Look for low-hanging fruit - features users are cobbling together with spreadsheets or third-party tools - Aim for products that increase switching costs and make your solution "stickier" // Acquisition vs. Development: - Sometimes it's faster to acquire a complementary product than build in-house - Look for small, bootstrapped tools in your vertical that solve adjacent problems - Assess potential acquisitions based on tech stack compatibility and integration ease // Pricing and Packaging: - Bundle strategically - not all products need to be sold separately - Use add-ons to increase ARPA without scaring off smaller customers - Consider usage-based pricing for auxiliary products to lower the barrier to adoption // Sales and Marketing: - Retrain your sales team on solution selling rather than product pitching - Develop clear ideal customer profiles for each product combination - Use your existing customer base as a testbed for new products // Technical Considerations: - Plan for integration from day one - whether building or buying - Prioritize a consistent user experience across products - Consider a modular architecture to facilitate future expansion // Metrics to Watch: - Track product adoption rates within your customer base - Monitor support ticket volume as you add products - Keep a close eye on churn rates for single-product vs. multi-product customers The multi-product approach isn't just about making more money. In smaller verticals, it's often the only path to building a substantial business. It's about creating an ecosystem that comprehensively serves your niche, making it harder for competitors to dislodge you. Depth plus breadth. But don’t diversify for the sake of it — be strategic, based on actual user needs and market dynamics. Follow me if you want to learn more about my journey of acquiring & operating Micro SaaS. For the love of the game 🏴‍☠️ ⚡ #Growth #Product #Strategy #Sales #Marketing

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SDRs, you're not fooling prospects with your title. SDRs in the fintech space aren't finance experts SDRs in the insurtech space aren't insurance experts. SDRs in the payments space aren't payments experts. SDRs like to use every title except... SDR. We are experts in other things, like... -Prospecting -Cold Calling -Relationship Building -Uncovering Pain -Portraying Value SDR doesn't have to be a dirty word. Let's embrace it. ❤️

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Retention.com ended May up 1.1% at $21.7m ARR, but still below our Dec ‘23 high of $22.1m ARR. RB2B closed the month at $622k ARR (+300% m-o-m). Here’s the good, the bad, and the ugly of May 2024: If you’ve been following along from home... We had four down months in a row (Jan - Apr). April was the biggest down month: - 2.3%. The hardest LinkedIn post I ever wrote was that April monthly update: - We were down for the 4th month. - We were down more than prior months. - The market dynamics had changed completely. - We had competition coming from everywhere, big pricing pressure. - Our churn problem seemed to be getting worse, no matter what we did. The hardest part of that entire post was admitting that I had no idea when it would end. It was even harder listening to our execs tell me that the post read horribly from our employees perspective. But here’s what I knew when I posted that post... We were (arguably, still are) just stuck again. My entire journey has been getting stuck, then getting un-stuck again. I knew we would figure out how to move forward again. If we just kept going, we would figure out: - Exactly how to navigate the new competitive environment - How and what we could do that others couldn’t do  - How to improve efficiency and get in front of churn I don’t think we’re out of the woods yet, but we are on the right track. Retention(.)com team - I’m proud of you. Keep it up! We’re going to emerge on the other side much stronger. Retention(.)com Highlights: - We continued the roll-out of EOS - We are ahead of our Q2 sales target - We’re seeing an increase in our expansion revenue - Average deal size is up around 7% this Q - Canceled revenue is down 18% this Q - 375 people are signed up for our 2nd Retox event - We launched a new Reclaim flow - “active onsite”  - We made significant progress on our SFMC Reclaim integration We generated around $600k of free cash, which offsets some of the free cash miss last month (which was around $300k). RB2B Highlights: - $622k ARR 12 weeks post launch, team of 5 (welcome Jeff Hall) - Still only have a 1.3% conversion rate - We’re going to push out a credit system (lower prices) next week - We are experimenting with a two-touch sales motion next week - We have our first full-time salesperson starting July 1 - Human support down from 8.4% to 3.2% of total interactions - We’ve started to see an uptick in UGC - 3 last week, 7 this week All things considered, May was a pretty good month. There aren’t too many negative things to dwell on. Pretty soon we’re going to start including RB2B ARR in the top line ARR number. That, to me, is the life we have chosen. Get stuck. Figure something else out. Grow again. Doing what we do is not easy. But when you find a new growth lever, it’s sooooooooo satisfying. The good news is I’ll keep reporting everything so you can be a part of the journey. Keep building.

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Many AI-Native SaaS companies are taking too much of an opinionated approach to workflows for enterprises It's making it more challenging to get companies to buy and successfully implement. Instead of trying to build a "one size fits all" solution, here’s three approaches I’ve seen work incredibly well when going after the enterprise: 1. Start with a low-code/no-code custom workflow builder and layer on AI Features A company like Fuse Finance is making it super easy for lenders, credit unions and community banks to adopt as they have a customizable UI with agentic tools being built on top that deliver clear ROI in many ways. Unlike a customers current software, which require tons of engineering time to make any changes (which most banks don't have the resources for), Fuse now makes it 10X easier to make any changes to the process while still harnessing the power of AI. Companies with custom workflow builders find it not only easier to sell, but have quick implementation timelines, easy user onboarding, strong customer satisfaction scores + NPS and lower numbers of CX tickets vs. opinionated user interfaces that require a ton of change management 2. Build on top of the industry standard, outdated 3rd party app Datasnipper, a $1B startup backed by Index did exactly this. How? They built AI to empower Auditors with an intelligent automation platform, sitting on top of excel. By building on top of excel, Datasnipper's users feel right at home and it reduces the friction of change management in a big way for all parties involved. 3. Go into the company with forward deployed engineers, build custom workflows and integrations and then find ways to productize it for other customers Palantir is the obvious case study here and people are catching onto this playbook. My thesis is that we'll see dozens of companies launch with this consultative approach, going after Accentures ~$65B of revenue. What many VCs used to mistake as a services company model is now widely accepted as a new GTM strategy based on a two key things: 1. Palantir's success 2. Unlocked acceleration of software development driven by AI Firms, including ours, General Catalyst, Elad Gils and Jared Kushners are all partnering up with large enterprises to launch new companies that have an easy time selling in what feels like are custom builds, but in the longterm are clearly going to be products. Working on an AI software solution with either of these three approaches? We'd love to chat.

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Monday's Bessemer Venture Partners Event (Making your first $1M when Driving early Stage SaaS) GTM call was telling... Seed/A companies are deprioritizing VP of Sales hires. Why? - Founder-Led Sales, First - Prefer to Identify patterns, build playbooks, and create a solid foundation. Experimentation and flexibility is crucial - A misstep with a VP of Sales can set the company back 1-2 years - Cost-Efficiency Instead, these companies are focusing on: - Fractional Revenue Hires: Gather insights, refine ICP, and establish processes before hiring full-time leadership - Marketing/BDR Support: Generate leads and gather feedback which will yield shorter deal cycles and help refine strategies - Hands-On Salespeople: Focus on active sellers who will be feet-on-the-ground Bonus Tip: Consider hiring a CS rep first. They can create case studies / gather insights from the initial deals closed by the founder and help establish a strong foundation for growth For some, a VP Sales hire may work really well early on. The icp is nailed down, the process is in sync, and you're generating tons of leads. This said, most early stage companies don't have this.

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Average SaaS companies are seeing revenue growth rates between 15% to 45% year-over-year. But here’s the kicker: those early-stage startups can sometimes shoot for as high as 144%. If you’re not keeping an eye on these numbers, are you even in the game? Is it time to rethink how you assess your startup's growth? Let’s be real—I’ve seen too many founders focus on anything but their growth rate, thinking they have all the time in the world. Whether you're part of an early-stage SaaS or an existing player, knowing your growth metrics is not an option, it’s a mandate. Disagree? Agree? I want to know where you stand. Hit me up with your thoughts and maybe check out the insights behind this claim in a recent article. And if you're a founder looking to stay sharp in the business world, my newsletter, 5 Minute Founders, dishes out the wisdom of full business books in 5 minutes or less. Get your fast fix! https://lnkd.in/eSrmqagz

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Big one: over the course of 4+ months, we helped Fondue scale pipeline by 22% while saving 9 hours every week. Hyped to pull back the curtain here: 1. After getting acquired, Oren Charnoff + co wanted to scale demand gen 2. There were a TON of levers to pull, but he knew content was part of the mix 3. Because he'd partnered with Verbatim before, Oren reached out to our team 4. Fondue needed full-service execution + a deep understanding of ecommerce 5. Our model was a perfect fit, and we hit the ground running to start shipping 6. After deploying case studies, lead magnets and original reports, Fondue saw: + 22% pipeline growth + 17% revenue increase + 9 hours saved per week In Oren's words: “Verbatim’s speed of delivery and 24/7 support is phenomenal. If something comes up, they’re all over it in minutes across Slack and every comms channel. Verbatim genuinely feels like an in-house content team.” Full case study here: https://lnkd.in/gGMSywNk

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Here are 7 takeaways from the 2024 SaaS Benchmark Report by High Alpha, Openview, Paddle, and Tremont: 1. Revenue Growth & NRR at public SaaS cos have stabilized 2. 76% of founders are most concerned about GTM Execution 3. Revenue growth is down for companies >1M in ARR 4. Early signs of re-acceleration of revenue growth in early stage cos 5. NRR is a key revenue growth driver for larger companies 6. Companies with higher ACVs has stronger growth & retention rates 7. SaaS Spend bounced back in 2024 What's the most surprising find you had? Comment 👇 #SaaS #GTM

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Scaling smartly isn't just about hiring more sales reps — it’s about improving win rates, activating demand, and embedding efficiency into your company’s DNA. In our most recent episode of Founded & Funded, I sat down with Jama Software CEO Marc Osofsky to dive into the intentional strategies that helped Jama achieve best in class efficient growth and "Rule of 40" leading to a $1.2 billion acquisition in March of this year. It was a terrific outcome for Madrona, having originally invested in 2013, and the many Jamanians who massively contributed along the way. If you're a founder navigating growth or gearing up for an exit, Marc's insights are pure gold. He shares how to reframe TAM, build a culture of experimentation, and avoid the "grow-then-cut" trap. Listen now! YouTube: https://lnkd.in/gxEFYaib Website & Transcript: https://lnkd.in/gtQSiCSV

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Live optimization workshop on Tuesday. We partnered with Amplitude to help their customers get more wins. We will host a live workshop on Tuesday to share:   1️⃣ The two psychological principles at the heart of optimization 2️⃣ The four simple changes that consistently drive significant results 3️⃣ Over 12 real-world A/B tests from the world’s top testing brands such as Twilio, Apple Music, GoDaddy, Noom, Invisalign, The New York Times.   4️⃣ **Live Optimization** We will put these principles into practice, optimizing audience-submitted webpages live during the webinar.   Reserve your spot today to submit your webpage for live optimization! Jheel Jawharkar, Phil Burch, Austin McCraw #splittesting #cro #UX #optimization #AbTesting

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I've invested in over 300 startups over the last 5 years, and there is one common trait that nearly all failed early stage startups share - they don't run a proper customer discovery process. You can read about the importance of customer discovery all over the internet, but that practical application of it among first time founders is still extremely low. We look at over 10,000 deals each year Forum Ventures and I see firsthand just how few founders actually excel in this process. One subset of founders simply doesn't do it at all. It's a classic archetype - build product in a vacuum without running any validation cycles. Typically the founder profile here skews more technical/product where founder-led sales feels out of character and not an area they enjoy spending time. Often founders think they can "product their way" to initial customers, but more often than not that new feature set they are excited about fails to generate user demand, simply because they never asked anybody if they care about what they were building. There is a classic startup'ism - first time founders focus on product, second time founders focus on distribution - and it rings very true within this subset. The second group of founders actually understands the importance of running discovery and leans into it early in their build process. While they have the best intentions, ultimately they come up short because in practice they don't actually know how to run an unbiased process. Discovery that focuses around a feature/solution set will skew toward lukewarm positive responses from potential customers, "sounds interesting, let me know when the beta is ready". The reality is no one is going to tell you that your baby, in this case your product, is ugly when it's far easier to just smile and nod. Founders often take this false signal as validation and race to ship a product that ultimately falls flat on its face. There is an art to soliciting feedback from a potential customer. The process emphasizes questions on their existing workflows, bottlenecks they experience in their day to day, understanding what motivates them and how they measure success in their role. This is a critical area we emphasize when evaluating investment opportunities, and a process we are very hands on in assisting our portfolio companies. Having a strong network is a massive advantage when launching a startup but close network relationships have the potential to give false signals across a customer discovery process. There are ways to combat this by being very deliberate when once solicits feedback from their network, but there are definitely bonus points for net-new out of network customer validation.

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This GTM practitioner has cracked the code on PLG and signals. Meet Saad Khan, Director of Sales @ Aligned producing growth results and massive TANGIBLE value for clients and our community. Results like: 180% increase in outbound ARR 250% increase in pipeline 454% increase in qualified pipe YoY and 60% ARR CONTRIBUTION. To name only a few of many accolades. From playbooks to tactical execution, Saad helps revenue team make more money. (Including in how they use Aligned!) Saad has built a name for himself not on any hype or trends, but outcomes. You should follow and talk to Saad to accelerate your sales and of course see how Aligned could help your business. Do it right and convert your pipe. ~~~ Meet someone with a fiery passion and they can help light the way for you. It fades unless they are right there beside you, gaining your trust every step of the way. I'm on a mission to understand trust, networks, and how they produce long term business outcomes. Saad embodies the success of this. He comes as another highly recommended person in my network. He should be a part of yours too. ---------- This is part of a small project for the month of November to highlight men in my life that have impacted me in more ways than they know. Saad is somehow both serious and silly. He can yap for days and he can actually make a lot of sense. We take hours to get through a conversation but I love it - we have realizations and help eachother have new perspectives. You honor your friends, family, and partners by challenging them. I don't let Saad tell me any BS and I'm always watching out for him. That's because I believe in him and I know that what he has to offer needs to be nurtured. He does the same for me, so I must honor him by doing the same. Saad puts in the work. Sometimes too much, but what I love most about him is he is constantly pushing his own boundaries. He constantly redefines 100%. He challenges himself. In work. In the gym. With his friendships. With his family. It's the mark of a man to take the first step and push others to be better. Saad embodies this in himself first. He isn't one to tell others to do something, without being able to do it himself. And damn... if you knew what this guy goes through... you'd know just how much wisdom he has because of coming out the other side with his level of energy. Saad Khan thank you for being you. I love you man. P.S. We don't have a better picture together, but this one is pretty great.

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My saas.wtf newsletter just cracked the 2,500 subscriber mark. 🎉 These were the 5 most popular articles: 1️⃣ My Go-To SaaS Benchmark Reports: https://lnkd.in/eVwEqJPj 2️⃣ SaaS Valuation Myths: https://lnkd.in/e2sA_Bgn 3️⃣ Time to hit $1M ARR: https://lnkd.in/emmyt-Hy 4️⃣ Micro M&A for SaaS Startups: https://lnkd.in/e5sCK2mB 5️⃣ Cohort Analysis using AI: https://lnkd.in/ebAxhdma I hope you enjoyed the others too. 🙂 On to the next 2500 subs! #saas #startups #founders #kpi #analysis #valuation #ai #benchmarks #pricing #newsletter

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In 2015, ServiceTitan grew to $10M contracted ARR (10x YoY) without spending a dime on sales & marketing. Today, it's worth $9.4B on NASDAQ. This has to be the one of the craziest early stage growth stories for a piece of SaaS software. SaaS isn't sexy. SaaS for plumbers really isn't sexy. But the product was SO GOOD that its initial sales came entirely from word-of-mouth and referral channels -- customers knocking down their doors to get their hands on the product. That initial momentum propelled the company onto NASDAQ this year, where they are now trading at ~12x ARR -- a 125x multiple from Bessemer's entry valuation of $75M -- and joins other vertical SaaS public darlings like Veeva, Toast, and Procore. Just like those other companies, ServiceTitan's initial market looked small. Operational software for plumbing companies? How much TAM is in that? (The Bessemer memo estimated it at $600M / yr) But just as the memo predicted, the company successfully expanded outside its initial vertical into HVAC, electrical, and many other field services industries. And it also continued building out products to generate more value customer, growing its average contract value from $15k / yr to $78k / yr. I constantly see VCs pass on companies because of their initially unimpressive TAM. As for me, ServiceTitan is a good reminder to keep an open mind. #VC #SaaS

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The SaaS industry is still growing. But much more slowly. Last month I shared an Aleph statistic. Over the last 3 years we have invested in 17 companies. Only 1 out 17 was a classic horizontal SaaS company. SaaS was the single best business model of the last cycle (2008-2021), but the category has since entered a maturity stage (see graph below). This new report from the wonderful software team at Avenir clearly illustrates it. Growth rates for the combined SaaS industry are quickly declining as we are entering the later stages of maturity. In other words, there’s already an established software company in most sectors - and there’s very little room for entirely new software categories. At Aleph we still believe there’s an opportunity to build successful SaaS companies, but new entrants would have to carve out market share in existing industries and displace existing vendors. Vertical software is one area where lesser competition makes it more attractive, but entrepreneurs in crowded horizontal markets would have to work harder than ever before. Another key takeaway from the report - there are only 72 publicly traded companies (with market cap > $5Bn) with a combined market cap of $5.8Tr. However, 56% of this value is attributed to Microsoft alone, followed by a very long tail of lesser performing companies. Moreover, only 2 of the largest 11 companies were funded after the year 2000 (ServiceNow, CrowdStrike). If you are building or investing in SaaS, you should definitely read the full report by Jared Sleeper, Hannah Bao and David Prilutsky (link in the first comment).

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MAJOR news to share – announcing Totango Unison, the only enterprise-grade AI built to tackle churn with real precision, not just the typical “out-of-the-box” solutions you’ve all seen lately –👇 1. Here's how Unison is different: Everyone’s throwing around “AI” like it’s a magic wand. But most of these so-called solutions are surface-level, one-size-fits-all models that claim to predict churn or growth by pulling just sentiments from emails or call transcripts on Gong / Zoom. For enterprises, they need AI that’s as tailored and complex as their own operations—not some generic plug-and-play model. Unison's Custom AI is built from your data, your customers, and your specific business model. We dig deep into your "historical" customer data—relationships, contracts, usage, feedback, sentiments, and even market signals. We then analyze that information to build customized models that deliver insights unique to your business. This allows you to predict churn and spot expansion opportunities months or even years in advance with UNMATCHED accuracy. 2. Security and compliance you can trust: This is where Unison’s custom models really shine. In enterprise environments—especially those with thousands of employees and rigorous security protocols—deploying AI solutions often hits roadblocks during security reviews. Out-of-the-box solutions, while marketed as “security-ready,” usually fail to pass real-world security audits. Why? Because they often pool and process data across multiple customers in shared environments, which poses significant risks to data privacy, data residency, and access control. With Unison, all models are isolated within your controlled environment. This means you’re not sharing model inputs, outputs, or training data with other businesses. P.S. For smaller teams, we also have something for you 😃. Unison offers a standard AI model that will deliver immediate insights by analyzing your customer data in days! Wait there’s more: Catalyst Software has unified under the Totango brand, along with Unison, creating one unified, comprehensive suite of products. This lets us deliver the most advanced, enterprise-grade solutions, ensuring that both fast-growing businesses and global enterprises have the tools they need to drive customer-led growth. And ONE MORE piece of news: we’ve also brought on Keith Frankel as our Chief Product Officer. His team at Parative built the tech behind all of this, achieving over 99% accuracy in churn prediction for some of the world’s largest enterprises! This is just the beginning. Unison launches in December, and we’ve already got more AI models and features coming in 2025. The future of customer-led growth is here, and Totango is leading the charge. See comments for a special event to join us to learn more: #CustomerSuccess #AI #ChurnPrediction #RevenueGrowth #EnterpriseAI #CLG #AI #Revenue #GTM

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