ConvertKit
October 12, 2023
It’s January 2013 in Boise Idaho and Nathan just set himself an ambitious goal.
He is going to invest $5k in building a SaaS web application and aims to grow it to $5k MRR in six months.
After six months of hard grind, Nathan lands on $2,480 MRR.
Surely growth would continue up to the $5k goal over the coming months to allow Nathan to hit the goal in maybe twelve months?
Unfortunately not, by October 2014, monthly revenue had slid down to $1,207.
In the end, it took 23 months and a further $50k investment for ConvertKit to reach $5k MRR.
But fast forward to May 2019, ConvertKit has sent 851,000,000 emails and enabled $273,482,000 in earnings for its 19,000 customers over the previous 12 months.
Today MRR is $1.7m – SaaS business growth at its absolute best.
How did he do it?
This episode of Confessions of a B2B Marketer explains 🤓
What did we learn?
- SaaS business can start on the side, but to grow – they need full time attention from their founders.
- What are the skills that you or your cofounders can develop BEFORE embarking on the hard journey of building a SaaS business?
- Forget your blog, social channels and email list. Find a database of prospects and hit them one after another until you’re over $50k MRR.
- Niche down and focus on the group of customers that you serve best (and that serves you best)
- When you find a growth channel that works: go HARD.
- Consider building a smooth, data gathering, customer experience improving onboarding flow for your SaaS…
- All tribes thrive when they come together in person – when is your next event?
- What are your brand values and have you truly internalised them?
- If you go freemium, ensure that you “get paid” by your users in the form of exposure to the people they communicate with.
- What are the skills or assets you can build NOW that will lead to the immaculate conception of your SaaS business or next killer growth strategy?
- Baremetrics for ConvertKit
- Why the Future Belongs to Creators - Nathan Barry at ConvertKit Craft + Commerce 2019
- ConvertKit: Nathan Barry’s Bumpy Road To $1.7m MRR
- Derrick Hicks on LinkedIn
- Check out our awesome sponsor Fame, they start and grow the world's most profitable B2B podcasts
Confessions of a B2B Entrepreneur is handcrafted by our friends over at: fame.so
Check out our five most downloaded episodes:
Check out our five most downloaded episodes:
- How To Start A Movement with David Heinemeier Hansson of 37signals
- Chris Walker Rants On Dark Social, Creating Demand & Company Building
- CEO Spends 70% Of Time On His Personal Brand? Guillaume Moubeche Shares All
- OLD WAY/NEW WAY with Adam Robinson of Retention.com
- Nathan Latka Shares His “King-Maker Strategy"
Hit me up on Twitter or LinkedIn with any questions or feedback, I reply to them all.
Guest submissions here: fame.so/cbe-guest
Our sponsor: Want to explode your organic traffic AND keep tabs on your competitors? Ahrefs' new $29 Starter plan lets you track content changes on ANY website, giving you the edge you need. Discover what's included and how it can transform your marketing strategy. Learn more here.
Guest submissions here: fame.so/cbe-guest
Our sponsor: Want to explode your organic traffic AND keep tabs on your competitors? Ahrefs' new $29 Starter plan lets you track content changes on ANY website, giving you the edge you need. Discover what's included and how it can transform your marketing strategy. Learn more here.