The Long Slow SaaS Ramp Of Death - MFF023

Marketing For Founders | Growth Hacking | Startups | Direct Response Marketing

Most startups enter the world of SaaS (Software as a Service) thinking everything is going to be rainbows and gold coins falling from the sky; where you upload your final code and watch the money pour passively into your Cayman Island bank account every single month without lifting a finger.

Turns out this is NOT the case (Tim and I can both say from personal experiences). Running a SaaS product is extremely difficult, but sometimes the majority of that difficulty is self-inflicted. Common wisdom says that it should be a long, slow, painful, ardous process, but we disagree.

Tim and I will discuss a couple reasons why we believe most startups end up in the Long Slog SaaS Ramp of Death:

• Not understanding the market
• Not solving a paindful enough problem in that market
• Only using one marketing channel to reach that market
• Being passive rather than active in your marketing and sales
• Having a crappy pitch, and blaming it on your feature set
• Failing fast in a binary way

Links mentioned in the show:

• Gail Goodman, Constant Contact. How to Negotiate the Long, Slow, Saas Ramp of Death
• Amy Hoy – Sales Safari in Action
• Patrick McKenzie – Long-Term Revenue Growth Is Harder Than Short-Term Revenue Growth
• Justin Wilcox – How I Interview Customers

Listen to the show at http://marketingforfounders.com/saas-ramp-of-death-mff023/