How SaaS startups scale

Link Roundups

• From Big Tech to a startup: The lessons of scaling down along the way (Link)

• Lessons from 1,000+ YC startups: Pivoting, resilience, avoiding tar pit ideas, more (Link)

• How to win the LinkedIn game fair and square? (Link)

• Why SaaS Companies Are Adopting Usage-Based Pricing (Link)

SaaS Weekly Reads

The Top SaaS Reads of Q1 2024

Here's a review of the most clicked-on articles from the SaaS Weekly roundups!

Go-to-market efficiencies were top of mind for readers. From wedge marketing to partnership plays, and writing high-converting email flows, the focus was finding levers to pull to drive scalable pipeline creation.

Discover the top seven reads in the latest roundup of roundups.

Ian Ito @ SaaS Weekly [saas]

Growth Reads

Pinecone’s journey from seed to 10,000 sign-ups per day

Pinecone’s user growth is one for the history books. The company achieved an impressive 10,000 daily sign-ups in under three years. Here's one nugget to learn from.

Prioritize educational content over promotion. Instead of just promoting your product, create content that educates your target audience about topics related to your product.

Although people weren't directly searching for Pinecone, the company wrote content around vector search topics to increase visibility.

Kyle Poyar @ Growth Unhinged [growth]

JumpCloud’s Growth Story From 0 To $2.6B

When going toe-to-toe against industry incumbents, honing in on your company’s core values can give you a leg-up when winning over customers. For JumpCloud, that meant crafting its go-to-market motion around transparent product pillars that resonated with its target audience.

Guided by the company’s 'Freedom and Openness' principle, JumpCloud launched with a freemium model that was truly ungated, which helped the company build trust with users.

As JumpCloud scaled, the company combined its PLG motion with a sales-assisted strategy that allowed customers to access support and sales demos throughout their evaluation journey.

OpenView [growth]

Marketing & Growth Reads

How Potion Gained 100 Paying Customers Before Launching a Product

Here's how to launch a product and get your first 100-paying customers within a month. Start by tweeting about your startup's journey before the product is released. Start by sharing ideas, decisions, and setbacks as a way to build an engaged community.

Then, use your audience on one platform to build engagement with others. Before posting on ProductHunt, share that you are doing an upcoming launch. And once you're live, share the post so others can engage with it.

Ian Ito @ SaaS Weekly [marketing]

How Zapier Automates Growth

Zapier's journey demonstrates that hefty funding isn't the only path to success for SaaS companies. Instead, a lean and smart approach can lead to significant growth.

Take their SEO strategy for example, Zapier cleverly mixed programmatically generated landing pages with authentic human-crafted content. This not only drew in early traffic but also established a solid base for brand recognition.

Jaryd Hermann @ How They Grow [marketing]

Lessons From A Founder

When scaling goes wrong

Scaling too fast is a common pitfall for venture-back startups – over-extending resources can shorten your runway. Here's Mark Roberge's blueprint to thrive past $10M ARR.

👉 Avoid Premature Scaling – Don't rush. Scale with demand and infrastructure that backs up your team’s growth.

👉 Implement Paced Hiring – Gradually add sales reps in response to solid performance and market demand.

👉 Realign Commission Structures – Boost long-term growth by incentivizing retention and expansion, not just new sales.

Toni Hohlbein @ Revenue Letter [founder]

Podcasts I'm listening to

• Acquired | Democratizing the Tools of Big Tech with Statsig CEO Vijaye Raji (Link)

• Mostly Metrics | Rippling CFO Adam Swiecicki on Building a Compound Startup and Channeling Ambition (Link)

SaaS Weekly Resources

1) The SaaS Weekly Database: Search Thousands of the Best SaaS Articles and Resources

2) Generative AI Tracker: B2B SaaS Companies Adding GenAI Capabilities

SaaSy Social Posts

Last issue’s most clicked links

• Shifting Positioning - Why B2B Tech is Different (Link)

• The Top SaaS Reads of Q1 2024 (Link)

• The average enterprise has 23 vendors in their core GTM tech stack! (Link)