Jordan Roper

3 years of pricing lessons at Equals condensed into one blog post. Since starting the company, we've tinkered a lot with pricing and packaging. It's one of the single most impactful levers early stage companies can pull. I think folks *don't* experiment with pricing enough, or take big enough bets when they do. We've tried free. We've tried completely sales led. We've tried not listing pricing on the site. Matt Hodges details all the plans we've had, why, and what we've learned in our latest installment on Wrap Text. https://lnkd.in/ecckEDba

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Product Marketing has gained so much prominence in the last few years There’s no doubt that every B2B, and most B2C organizations, need product marketing. PMMs drive value prop and messaging, launches and enablement. They are drivers and integrators, orchestrators and collaborators. They are the voice of the customer, and the storytellers of the product. It's fair to say that PMM is having its moment in the sun 😒 Alas, very few PMMs actually feel that way. Most feel they are stuck in the mill of making content, launching features or generally proving their worth to everyone 🤷‍♀️ It’s not enough to be 'just good' at product marketing. It’s not enough to bring the ‘best practice playbooks and templates’ for launches, enablement, messaging and campaigns. 💪 To be a freaking great product marketer, PMMs need to up their game on storytelling, collaboration and customer centricity 🗣 This topic is very dear to me. Which is why I am looking forward to joining the PMM community in person at Product Marketing Summit Seattle this June 12 & 13. 🎤 I’ll be leading a mainstage session on how PMMs can level up their influence, craft and career. The session will have practical tips and tricks all told via engaging stories Check out what else is in store at the summit: https://lnkd.in/ggAwnnwQ Feel free to drop me a message or comment with any questions. 👇 Early bird pricing ends Friday so be sure to bag your discount. 🐣 #productmarketing #productmarketingsummit Beth Walker

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I'm thrilled to be speaking at the Product Marketing Alliance Summit San Francisco this September 4 & 5! 🌉✨ Curious about the latest trends, cutting-edge frameworks, and best practices in product marketing? 🤩📈 Join me as I lead the panel: "The GTM Cheat Sheet: How to Confidently Set Strategy, Align Leadership, and Prove Results". In this session, you'll uncover the secrets to crafting a powerful GTM strategy that will drive your product to success. We will dive into: 🔑 Key elements of a robust GTM plan 🧩 Strategies for aligning leadership and cross-functional teams 🎯 Actionable insights to confidently bring your product to market and achieve measurable success. Don't miss this opportunity to gain a concise guide to creating and executing a winning GTM strategy. 🔗 Check out what’s in store: Product Marketing Summit San Francisco Feel free to drop me a message or comment with any questions. 👇 ⏰ Early bird pricing ends tomorrow—grab your discount now! 🐣 #productmarketing #productmarketingsummit @Beth Walker

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Over the years I’ve seen the post going around in various forms of how Bessemer Venture Partners keeps a *robust* anti-portfolio on their website. It’s fun, self-aware, humbling, and differentiating. If you haven’t already, go have a look. (As an aside, I’ve been to their offices in Cambridge multiple times back in the day while visiting Kent Bennett, the venerable Felda Hardymon, my dear friend Steve Papa (if Steve was capable of “friendship”), and the young(er) founders of a company called Toast - Bessemer wallpapered their bathrooms with the rejection IRMs of said anti-portfolio). Anyone who has been in the game long enough probably has their own version. Companies they could have invested in, but passed on, only to be made a fool when said company later becomes a decacorn. My personal opinion - and I tend to think one that Bessemer shares - is 1) we all make mistakes, 2) we’re human and at times quite dumb, and 3) hell, at least we had access in the first place. Venture investing is about seeing as many amazing opportunities as you can, even if sometimes that means missing a few…dozen. Either that or I’m totally full of shit and we’re just plain idiots. What do I know. I’ve only been doing this for three years. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ In any case, in the spirit of giving myself a Father’s Day gift of crow, which I plan to eat, here are some of mine: Toast: not sure if Steve P would have let me into his $4M or whatever it was round never mind the Seed or the A, but I feel like I could have convinced them. Steve F and Aman said they were going to fully rebuild a POS after running into integration nightmares with Micros, Aloha, et al, and I thought they were crazy. Old industry incumbents. Entrenched. Insert foot in mouth, and then pull it out and use it to kick my own ass. Klaviyo: TJ Mahoney was a pre-seed investor and he told me about it. Said AB was a stud. I passed without even talking to them. $8M valuation or around there I think. Shopify ecosystem play? Ew. Sigh. I’m a dumbass. Pillpack: mentored TJ a bit early when he was having some team stuff going on at Techstars. The hippie. $4M post or something. Said no. Whoops. Drizly: Nick Rellas kept stonewalling me, the little twerp, but pretty sure I had a small spot. Pat Kinsel would have got me in. Slept on it. Round closed. I’m an idiot. Draftkings: met Jason at a dinner and Ryan Moore told me to hop in at pre-seed - I already had a small play with a competitor. Jason and I became great friends (which we are to this day). Really knocked that one out of the park. Way to go, Phil! Good eye! Anyway, PLENTY more where that came from and I’m sure I’m currently in the process of creating one of the world’s most epic anti-portfolios at Impellent Ventures. But, again, c’est la vie. Better than sitting on the sidelines and wondering what could have been. At least I know what could have been - a gazillion more dollars than I have right now. Ah well. Batter up! *p.s. I’ve had some winners, too ;)

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B2B Seed Stage Founders are meeting tomorrow night in SF to discuss a variety of topics around GTM. One topic Al Rey and I are most interested to learn about is what folks are spending on customer acquisition and what channels are working. Tight funding markets require creative approaches. Come learn from your peers and place smarter bets with your limited resources. We're at capacity but as the time approaches we're likely to get a few folks drop out so please jump on the waiting list and I'll communicate with you regularly leading up to tomorrow night. https://lu.ma/9e9ccv6e

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There's gold in these hills: 👉 Investments in retention can double as acquisition vehicles 👉 Customers do all of the selling to the prospects who join the events 👉 You can do no wrong by doing right by your customers Timeless lessons, Drew Neisser.

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Many SaaS solutions resonate most with directors/VPs/department heads. For the past 5+ years the approach for selling to these folks was to get them very excited about your solution and price in such a way that they could get a deal done with minimal sign off. In enterprise this could run as high as 500k. Now, there is scrutiny on 25k deals. Smart sellers realize this and are running a totally different play. A little different flavor of the traditional top down model. These folks are still doing well. Folks running the old playbook? In struggleville. P.S. - when times are hard it’s actually easier to do big deals…if you know how to sell transformations.

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Awesome SaaStock workshops yesterday led by Kevin "KD" Dorsey on how he operationalizes his sales teams and keep them up to date, Rita Jhaveri on the importance of customer onboarding with a fun workshop (Team Monkey FTW!), and Jake Dunlap for new insights on creating a effective buying experience. My biggest take aways from the sessions were: Our buyers' environment is changing and how they buy is changing. Are your internal processes staying up to date to meet your buyers where they're at? At startups I think of my sales org processes within a constant loop -> What's our.... TAM -> SAM -> SOM -> ICP -> Buyer Persona -> Pain Points for said personas within the ICP -> Does our product solve those pains points -> relevant messaging for marketing + disco + demo -> win customer -> case studies -> renew -> apply case studies and stories to new business sales cycle -> repeat The challenge I hear often is that people don't know what their ICP should be and so everything after that falls flat. But why is this so hard to figure this out? It's going to sound ridiculously simple..but it's your industry tags. Read more on why and how to fix it in the comments below and if you’re attending SaaStock today let’s meet up! #saastockusa2024

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Learning the "Adjacency Matrix" is key to deciding when (or if) to launch new products as a SaaS business. I chatted with Jason Cohen from WPEngine about this on Rogue Startups recently. Full episode at https://buff.ly/4aAz2GH

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Every company & every product has a name. Yet, few folks truly know how to name one. I’ve named companies and products for startups and big brands. I wrote a post this week about naming the Uber One subscription, and Paul A. responded with a request to write a post about the process. Challenge accepted! Let's start by saying that there are plenty of successful companies and products with bad names. Facebook (so lame), Spotify (what), and even Instagram (now everyone just calls it IG). But a good name is a tailwind. And building a business is all about generating tailwinds. Scrub Daddy - instantly makes it fun Shark - a vacuum that looks like a shark and a name you won’t forget Airbnb - fun and easy to remember—unlike VRBO Apple - for a computer! Love it Skims - so simple So, how do you name a company or product? Here are steps to a simple & comprehensive naming process. Step 1 - Brainstorm A well-structured brainstorm is key. You need the right people in the room, with the right prompts, in an environment comfortable enough for all ideas. The goal is to generate as many names as possible. This is a good opportunity to include stakeholders so they feel part of the input. Step 2 - Evalutation criteria Be specific about your needs, and exhaustive. Your criteria will generally have things like: Trademarking - can we own the trademark in our category? Domains available - if a company, what domains can we get? Internationalization - does this word have meanings in other languages? I recently heard about a startup named Corva, a very bad word for anyone who speaks a Slavic language. Don’t make this simple mistake! Alternate meanings - does this name have multiple meanings? Connotations test - Positive or negative connotations? Relatedness - does this communicate a key aspect of our product? Differentiated - how different is this from our competitors? Etc. Make sure your stakeholders approve the criteria! Your criteria will likely remove 90% of your ideas to help you filter. I recommend using a spreadsheet with your criteria as columns. This creates a simple tool to filter names by criteria easily. Step 3 - Picking a name The hardest part of the process is buy-in. Naming is more of an art than a science. I've generally used a voting process. Some tips: - Put the final names into a deck with the finalists used on the website, packaging, ads, etc., so your team can see it in situ. - DO NOT include the internal code name. It will always win the top votes as it is the most familiar. Even your smartest, most discerning colleagues will fall for the familiarity trap. I saw it at Uber many times. Step 4 - Sell it Unveil the name with a splash! We often did this by creating fun campaign examples with the new name. We made social media posts, billboards, and even ad campaigns to show the team how the name would bring their work to life. Happy naming!

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How do you reduce costs while accelerating growth? That was the crux of the question posed in a post recently by Michelle Benfer after a dinner she attended with other Revenue Leaders. While Executive Leadership too often favors reducing " sales support staff" (aka RevOps/Enablement) over reducing sales headcount, Michelle argues that, when done right, RevOps makes revenue orgs less reliant on headcount not more. What do you think? This topic was tailor-made for The GOATS of Growth podcast, so I asked her to join me. In this clip you'll hear her describe what she thinks best-in-class RevOps looks like.  Michelle, you are what best-in-class GTM leadership looks like, and I thank you for joining me! Please follow Michelle for more great content and reach out if you have more questions--ONLY after listening to the episode. Here is the link to the full episode. https://buff.ly/3Cjhr6Q. Please subscribe to the show if you like what you hear!

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One key to scaling a DTC brand profitably is alignment between marketing and finance, but it isn't all about alignment around contribution margin. Yes - I harp on contribution margin a lot because it is important. But I don't want to glaze over another key area that marketing and finance collaboration break down - Using different definitions for the same term. Most specifically - marketing and finance functions needs to get on the same page about how they define MER and ROAS. Yes there are conflicting definitions out in the world. The exact one your company uses isn't "right" or "wrong." Use whatever definition of MER and ROAS you want. But make sure your entire company knows how you define these terms. And definitely make sure your marketing and finance functions define these terms the same way. Or else you can be in for some costly mistakes. -- Find this post helpful? Consider reposting or giving me Jon Blair a follow. Also consider following my DTC-focused Fractional CFO firm Free to Grow CFO

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🔴 You can't outrun churn by forcing CS teams to drive revenue through upsells, cross-sells, and referrals. Startups are missing are missing the forest for the trees. Chasing a 120% NRR? Good luck if you're bleeding customers left and right. If you were as obsessed with stopping the bleeding as you are with hitting sales quotas, you'd be far better off. 🤯 Here’s the brutal truth: even the best CS team can't save you if have a high churn rate. Reaching a 1-2% monthly churn rate takes discipline, effort, and consistency. Many startups struggle with this because they: ❌ Don't invest in better discovery. BANT and MEDDIC is not the answer. ❌ Think Customer = Company. Companies dont buy, people do. ❌ Confuse Initial Company Profile for Ideal Company profile. ❌ Deliver customer onboarding are like a 42km hurdle race. ❌ Rely too heavily on Buyer Personas and not JTBD. ❌ They lack the courage to stick 6 months to a plan. ❌ Build ICP from a acquisition pov, not retention. ❌ Fail at refining the Initial Company Profile. ❌ Don't delivery recurring outcome/values. ❌ Have short visioned sales incentives. ❌ Can't say no to bad-fit customers. 💡 Why should you focus on reducing churn? ✅ Lost referral opportunities. ✅  It shrinks your target market. ✅ Drives up your CAC as you fill up the sales funnel. ✅ A 5% increase in customer retention = 25% to 95% increase in profits. ✅ High churn rates can tank your startup’s valuation. ✅ Compounding revenue loss. The bottom line? 💡 You can’t outrun churn. Prove me wrong. PS: 👇 Do you think high churn rates are more a product issue or a sales issue? What strategies have you found effective in reducing churn? #customersuccess #saas #startups #careercoaching  #CS #CSM #SuccessHacks #customersuccessmanager #saas  

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How do you stay focused, energized, and sharp every day? As I step into my new role as Chief Business Officer at Brandwatch, I’ve been reflecting on this question. Let me share a glimpse into my playbook: → Morning Workouts: My Power BoostForget the snooze button; my real wake-up call is a workout. It’s not just about staying fit; it’s about setting the tone for a day full of focus and drive. The endorphins kick in, the brain ignites, and I feel awake. This is my morning coffee (note: I don’t normally drink coffee) → Prime Time: When Brilliance StrikesWe all have that golden hour when our brain hums with creativity and clarity. For me, it’s the early hours of the working day—the time when strategies brew, plans crystallize, and big decisions find their footing. Know your prime time, guard it fiercely, and let it fuel your innovation. → Midday Strolls: The Refresh ButtonPicture this: I’m working from home, and the clock nudges mid-afternoon. That’s my cue. I leash up my dog, step out, and take a 15-minute walk. It’s not just about stretching the legs; it’s about resetting the mind. The change of scenery, the fresh air—it’s like hitting the refresh button on my brain. Sometimes, I even take calls during these walks. The Takeaway: Find Your “Secret Sauce” Your superpower might be a dawn run or quiet contemplation at dusk. Maybe it’s a midday nap or a sunset meditation. Whatever it is, make it yours. These personal victories - the small rituals that recharge you—ripple into professional wins. They’re not distractions; they’re your rhythm, they’re your secret sauce. So, I suggest we embrace our quirks, honor our rhythms, and watch how they transform our workday. Because in the end, it’s these seemingly simple habits that fuel our greatness. What does your rhythm look like? Share it below! #focused #worklifebalance #productivity

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Got a fundraising sea story for you . . . I've known Andrew Bialecki and Ed Hallen, Klaviyo co-founders, for >10 years. They personally helped me back when Klaviyo had ~10 employees. I was running marketing at a turnaround in Boston (Karmaloop--it had gone bankrupt). Klaviyo was a few doors down on Boylston street. Or Newbury. I can't quite remember. Our turnaround marketing team was FRUSTRATED. Karmaloop's email program was on some legacy platform (I won't mention it. . . we shouldn't speak ill of the dead). We couldn't do any of the lifecycle marketing we wanted to do . . . . . . and lifecycle marketing was critical to our turnaround thesis. It was the only way we were going to make it work. So after a particularly frustrating time trying to get a triggered email send to work, I threw up my hands, announced "I'm going next door," walked over to Klaviyo, and knocked on the door. Ed answered. Andrew waved--he was coding. "Hey, can your team help me migrate this beast onto your platform and make it sing? Like, this week?" Andrew and Ed bent over backwards for me and helped me get Karmaloop's 5M emails migrated and humming. It's not a stretch to say the turnaround (and the next ones) could only happen because of Klaviyo. I've stayed in touch with them ever since. They've given Michael Epstein and me advice over the years, been in our corner, and been a part of PostPilot journey. (PostPilot's original thesis was simple: "Klaviyo for direct mail." Now, it feels like the story's come full circle, because Andrew and Ed just invested in PostPilot's Series A. Like so many other things in my career, it all started with a turnaround. 

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Hiring your first Product Marketing Manager (PMM) as another Individual Contributor (IC) for your sales content? Think again. Jason Oakley recently sat down with Mark Assini on the Product Marketing Life podcast to dive deeper on launching the PMM role from scratch. If your new hire is expected to merely churn out ad-hoc sales content, you're missing the mark. This isn't about glorified content creation; it's about strategic enablement. Further, your Chief Revenue Officer (CRO) and Chief Product Officer (CPO) need to be more than just involved—they need to be invested. But who should this founding PMM report to? Placing them under the CEO, even initially, could be a game-changer. It emphasizes the role's strategic importance beyond traditional marketing boundaries, blending research, development, and enablement into a cohesive strategy. Perhaps it's time we rethink the title. 'Product Strategy' might just capture the essence of this evolved role more accurately. This is more than a job description tweak; it's a call to elevate the position to its rightful strategic pedestal. 🔗 Dive deeper into this conversation (https://lnkd.in/eenSJ4XA) and your thoughts in the comments below👇

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A peek into the acquisition playbook: Build superior products, get noticed, and create relationships that open doors to buyout opportunities 👇 Actionable insights from: ➡ Jason M. Lemkin, Founder at SaaStr ✏ “Dear SaaStr: How Do You Build a Real Exit Strategy?” ⭐ 𝗔𝗰𝗾𝘂𝗶𝘀𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀 𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝗿𝗲𝗹𝗮𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗲𝗹𝘆 𝗿𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗿𝘁𝘂𝗽𝘀: "Bear in mind acquisitions are relatively rare. The vast majority of startups will never get one acquisition offer, let alone a good one." ⭐ 𝗕𝘂𝗶𝗹𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗯𝗲𝘀𝘁 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗱𝘂𝗰𝘁 𝗶𝗻 𝗮𝗻 𝗶𝗺𝗽𝗼𝗿𝘁𝗮𝗻𝘁 𝘀𝗽𝗮𝗰𝗲 𝗶𝗻𝗰𝗿𝗲𝗮𝘀𝗲𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗹𝗶𝗸𝗲𝗹𝗶𝗵𝗼𝗼𝗱 𝗼𝗳 𝗮𝗻 𝗮𝗰𝗾𝘂𝗶𝘀𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻: "Build the best product in an important space. It really is this simple. If you are #1 in an important space, the potential acquirers, if there are any, will eventually pay attention." ⭐ 𝗚𝗮𝗶𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗮𝘁𝘁𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗿𝗼𝘂𝗴𝗵 𝗺𝗲𝗱𝗶𝗮 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗻𝘁𝘀 𝗰𝗮𝗻 𝗵𝗲𝗹𝗽 𝗮𝘁𝘁𝗿𝗮𝗰𝘁 𝗮𝗰𝗾𝘂𝗶𝗿𝗲𝗿𝘀: "Acquirers assemble a list of companies they should pay attention to based on media, events, and customer and partner conversations. You'd be surprised how leaders at Big Tech Cos hear of startups, and who they know about, and who they don't." ⭐ 𝗕𝘂𝗶𝗹𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗿𝗲𝗹𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀𝗵𝗶𝗽𝘀 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝘀𝗲𝗻𝗶𝗼𝗿 𝗲𝘅𝗲𝗰𝘂𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗲𝘀 𝗮𝘁 𝗽𝗼𝘁𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗶𝗮𝗹 𝗮𝗰𝗾𝘂𝗶𝗿𝗲𝗿𝘀 𝗶𝘀 𝗰𝗿𝘂𝗰𝗶𝗮𝗹: "Get to know as many of the senior folks at your potential universe of acquirers as you can. And this can and will take years. You'll hear this story again and again from founders that were acquired. This is good for your business anyway." ⭐ 𝗘𝗻𝗴𝗮𝗴𝗲 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝗣𝗿𝗶𝘃𝗮𝘁𝗲 𝗘𝗾𝘂𝗶𝘁𝘆 (𝗣𝗘) 𝗳𝗶𝗿𝗺𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗮𝗽𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗮𝗰𝗵 𝘆𝗼𝘂: "Talk to PE firms that approach you, especially after $10m-$20m ARR, that reach out. This is a world you likely won't know much about in the early days. But in SaaS, as you cross $10m, $15m, $20m ARR … PE firms will start to reach out. Just take the call. They have money to buy good SaaS companies not burning too much cash. There are pros and cons to selling to PE. But one big Pro is you often don't have to stay; vs. a tech company will want you to stay for years." ───── 👉 Follow me, Alexander Small, for tactics and strategies for building startups from industry-leading Founders, Operators and Investors

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It was an awesome time in Portland representing MintPass with Melissa Leventhal at TravelCon! 🙌 Here are a few takeaways after 3 days of chatting with travel creators of all kinds ⬇ ⬇ ⬇ 1️⃣ Making it as a startup travel creator is TOUGH 😓 And why wouldn’t it be? Getting paid to travel the world is the dream. The reality is that platforms are now saturated with this content vertical, and it’s becoming more and more difficult to separate oneself such to break through the noise and grow a following. 2️⃣ The game is skewed toward those who have already made it 🏆 The travel creator landscape is quite top-heavy heavy where those who were there early to build an audience continue to do well with guaranteed brand deals. Smaller creators long for unique, alternative tools to even the playing field and aid in community growth outside of the usual social platform algo hacking. 3️⃣ The new way to get attention is to niche down 🔎 Less is more in community growth when your community is hyper-focused on a particular niche. As the landscape becomes more and more competitive, travel creators are focusing more on finding their unique content vertical to differentiate themselves. We talked some cool ones across areas of geography, wellness, budget, luxury, family, solo, and so many others. 4️⃣ Web3 doesn't matter 🤷‍♂️ This one was obvious, but I’m reminded again that our means for delivering value is arbitrary and rather the value itself is what matters. Most of those with whom we chatted were not web3 users, but they were intrigued by the value that our web3 platform can deliver. Value = Adoption. Go figure.‍ As we aim to build MintPass into a tool for travel tastemakers, it was awesome to chat with and get direct feedback from the creator persona who often has the best recs to share, but lacks the proper tools for sharing and building a brand off of that credibility. 🤝 Thank you to all who provided insights for us. ❤️ Back to work. 👷‍♂️ #traveltech #startups #creatortools‍‍‍

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