#1: Hello world! 👋 Ft. 3 instructive ideas from Sofia Quintero, Hiten Shah, and Bob Moore
Introducing The Baton with advice on user research (how qual triggers quant and quant triggers qual), dealing with the current (or any other) crisis, and PMF (the mind-expanding water-hose analogy).
“Of all the lessons we’ve gathered — traversing this long, arduous, nonetheless meaningful and rewarding journey that is building a SaaS business — one stands out: We couldn’t have done it alone.
Having access to advice from some incredibly generous minds on the interwebs has shaped our thinking, and thus, some of our most critical decisions. The first hires, the cash-flow puzzles, the particular grasp of knowing what not to build, and others.
Relay, a founders-only online community, is a small way with which we’re hoping to pay it forward. A place where you can seek similar counsel on challenges from peers who’ve been there already; if not definite answers, perspectives that’ll help you feel (and probe) the fullness of a problem.”
Krish and Rajaraman,
Co-founders, Relay, and Chargebee
In the same vein, we’re excited to introduce you to The Baton. 🎉⚡️
A fortnightly newsletter that will bring you three, select pieces of advice drawn from the thoughtful exchanges and interviews taking place on Relay.
All casting necessary light on both known and unknown SaaS challenges. All bearing squiggly signatures of founders’ first-hand experiences. All teeming with tact and insight. Delivered every other Wednesday.
Why this format?
Having heard from multiple Relay members over the past few weeks, two specific asks — 1) The preference for a more digest-like, consumable structure, and 2) the ability to share lessons with other teammates, not just co-founders — came to the fore time and again and led us in this newsletter’s direction.
(We’re keen on hearing what you think of this format. So, please do write to us with your feedback?)
This inaugural edition features instructive and inspiring pickings from the brains of EnjoyHQ’s Sofia Quintero, FYI’s Hiten Shah, and Crossbeam’s Bob Moore.
⌗1. Sofia Quintero, founder and CEO of EnjoyHQ, on the value of anecdotes that surface in customer research conversations and how to marry qualitative feedback with quantitative data. ➿
“Anecdotes are great because you can use them as a jump-off point. You need to gather as many stories as possible from the segments you care about the most. Or, at least you need to have the intellectual honesty to say that these stories are true but only for customers who look like XYZ. Do we want to invest/build only for these customers, or do we need more stories?
Once I have identified a pattern from qualitative research, I normally go back and try to link it with the usage data or with any behavioral data we collect. Normally, it would come from our data warehouse, Amplitude, and Fullstory. It goes both ways; we do some usage segmentation and notice a particular behavior, and that triggers a bunch of calls with customers so that we can understand the reason behind it. Qual triggers quant, and quant triggers qual. It never ends.”
⌗2. Hiten Shah, co-founder and CEO of FYI, on the three things that hold the key to your company’s survival during a crisis and how to take care of them. 😇
“Three things matter right now or during any crisis in no particular order:
Your team
Your customers
Your cash flow
It’s more than likely your team is dealing with a lot right now with the uncertainty related to a pandemic. This impacts everyone. You need to make sure your team is OK and do whatever you can to help them get through these times. Which first and foremost means not pressuring them like you might normally hit their targets or goals. This is an unusual situation and the parameters of how to operate like you normally do are thrown out the door. Be compassionate and think about what each and every team member might be going through, ask them what their challenges are, and help them the best you can. Being reassuring and supportive is the best way during this time.
Your customers are also going through the pandemic. Being customer-centric is really critical at this time. This means that whatever you do, make sure you find out what problems/challenges your customers are having right now and if those have changed from what they are normally dealing with. A pandemic like this where everyone has to work from home and schools are also closed means that this isn’t your usual remote work situation. Day to day your customers’ needs might be different than normal and might even be changing on a regular basis. Staying close to your customers and figuring out how their mindset is changing can be helpful for you to figure out what to do for them. This is how you’ll make sure you are aligned with customer needs. Whatever you thought you knew about your customers, you should be considering reevaluating it to ensure you really know what’s going on and how to support them best with your business.
Cash is king. Especially right now. My biggest piece of advice during this time is to spend energy to figure out what kind of cash position your business is in and do some scenario planning. To the point where you have a best case, moderate case, and worst-case scenario in mind. The decisions you make should be based on the fact that a lot about the future is uncertain. Having enough cash in the bank for as long as possible is key. If you don’t have a lot of cash in the bank, you have to think about ways to increase your cash reserves so you have time. This might involve some really hard decisions that it’s likely during normal times you wouldn’t consider.”
⌗3. Bob Moore, co-founder and CEO of Crossbeam, on the deliberations of getting to PMF: to create a niche or not and the other dimensions to consider for your PMF. 🎢
“You can put your thumb over the end of a hose and it’ll cause water to come out faster, but it kind of masks how big the original opening actually is. The niche thing is like that – you can iterate more rapidly, get more pointed feedback, and generally create value faster by focusing on a core group. But it masks the data about the size and applicability to your total addressable market. That’s the tradeoff.
I would encourage you to think about your target market in terms of user personas. What are their titles, what do their jobs consist of, and how many of them are out there? Make sure that universe is large enough and the problem you’re solving for them is significant enough. THEN you can layer on additional segmentations such as industry, geo, etc, to give you a more focused market and messaging — but without majorly pivoting your core value proposition to the persona.”
Upcoming: Tête-à-tête with Ashwini from Vue.ai
This week we’re delighted to be hosting Vue.ai’s CEO and Co-founder, Ashwini Asokan for an AMA session. Founded in 2016, they’re among the leading enterprise SaaS startups, serving customers like Macy’s, thredUP, and Flava.
Ashwini will be bringing her first-time founder lens to address questions on the novel complexities of developing AI-driven products, the distinctions of enterprise-first GTM strategies, building incredibly inclusive and diverse teams, and why careers aren’t about climbing ladders but parkour on rooftops, among other things.
You can find the AMA and ask her a question here.
P.S. This is the first edition of The Baton and we’d hope to meet you every fortnight with some incredible, wide-ranging ideas from veteran SaaS founders from around the world. But if you would rather not, just hit “unsubscribe”. We get it.
Until next time,
Astha and Akash