Learnings of bootstrapping a B2B SaaS: Reditus.
Joran Hofman
Building a B2B SaaS Affiliate Network. Connecting B2B SaaS companies with people and companies that have access to their ICP. An actual Pay-per-performance marketing channel.
In this newsletter, I will share my story and challenges in growing a B2B SaaS (Reditus ) and a podcast called "Grow Your B2B SaaS ".
Bootstrapping is challenging, hard and exausting but when things start to come together it is more than worth it.
This edition might still be a bit chaotic; in the future, they have a more general theme. To give you some insights into our journey so far and what we are doing, see some of the things we are doing below ??
Our Growth Channels
We have been focusing on "organic" growth channels so far, meaning we do not pay to acquire new clients. Our primary focus channels have been:
We have started sending newsletters (like this) to build up more engagement around our LinkedIn presence. Thanks, Evan Weber , for the tip. I just found out you could also do this for personal profiles (we purely did it for our pages).
The most significant achievement in the last month
In December, we interviewed 30 clients/ prospects about a new feature we are building. In short, it allows SaaS companies to search, filter, and contact B2B SaaS affiliates using first-party data sources.
The MVP of this feature will go live in ±2 weeks, and we have already sold annual subscriptions for the launching program, which is entirely new for me: selling something that isn't live yet.
It is great to see that people believe in the idea and vision we have and are willing to invest in it with us ??
I'm excited to see how the launch goes. Our goal is to have ten launching partners. Our biggest priority is to ensure that we can deliver the expected value.
?? DM me if this sounds interesting.
How do I keep learning and staying sane while bootstrapping?
Learning and staying sane is pretty simple for me. I interview people who have already done it and ask them for their advice. This is being recorded in the podcast. However, many things happen beyond that.
With the podcast, I have started to build up a network of people who are further than I am, and I have a connection. I don't have a specific ask for many of them at the time, but when I do, they will be more likely to help me.
Listen to the interview I did with Alexander Theuma on this topic. "How to grow a network to kickstart growth "
领英推荐
As you interview people about their journey, you will learn that things are more complex than how they appear on Linkedin. Hearing about their challenges, early-day struggles, pivots, etc., will make you reflect on your journey. Make sure you keep growing month over month, and you will get to a point where things become easier ??
Our Team
We have been working full-time with three people on Reditus since June last year: a backend developer, a frontend developer, and a business person. A small team means many things will come at you, and it is great to see we can maintain focus while addressing critical issues.
For tech planning, we use Linear , which is excellent; it keeps us organized and allows us to plan things while remaining flexible for ad hoc issues.
Besides this, we have Jibril Mubatsi , who organizes everything around our podcast post-recording, and SaaStorm , organizing our website and content. By outsourcing these tasks, we can keep focus on talking to our clients and growing the revenue and network of affiliates.
Since February, we have also taken on a marketing intern, Georgi Furnadzhiev . He will first focus on getting the foundations in order. As he has (a lot more) experience than your traditional intern, he has been able to run with things from day one.
In December, we decided to move to HubSpot CRM, and we now have a friend helping us set up proper sales tracking. Nothing is getting lost anymore, and we will (finally) have proper insights into our conversion rates ??
Remote first has been our motto. However, we did get together physically three times in 2023 and plan to do the same in 2024. By arranging a "teamweek" we could combine work & team building. All of the weeks had a theme, so we also had a clear agenda for the week. These are valuable and great to do ?? Our next long-term goal is to unite everyone.
Getting the foundations right
In 2023, we already started with getting the core right of our app, which resulted in Reditus 2.0 and a #1 launch on Product Hunt . As mentioned above, we also switched CRM systems and started working on the marketing basics.
As we now have data available, we can start making some educated decisions;
To get this done, we have set up proper reports in Google Analytics, rearranged CRM, and set up automation and processes to track things. We can start our upcoming marketing efforts with a solid foundation as we do some bigger analysis.
Taking one step back, to take 2 forward ??
Learnings/podcasts to check out as bootstrapped founder
As mentioned, I learn a lot from other people and their stories. See here some of the podcast episodes I learned a lot from and are from Bootstrapped B2B SaaS founders:
Hope you enjoyed reading about our journey ??
Scalable Webflow sites & design systems for B2B @ Candid Leap | Enterprise Webflow Partner | Form Connector Webflow App | Award winning sourdough bagels ??
9 个月Exciting movements Joran!
Co-Founder and CEO at Leadzen
9 个月"Inspiring journey of Reditus, showcasing the power of affiliate marketing in SaaS growth."
Student at SHRI RAMSWAROOP MEMORIAL UNIVERSITY
9 个月"Inspiring journey of Reditus, showcasing the power of affiliate marketing in SaaS growth."
Fantastic insights on scaling Reditus! It's inspiring to see innovative strategies in action. #GrowthHacking #B2BSaaS #Innovation
Associate Product Manager | Technology | Conducted 1000+ client interviews | Designed, managed, and executed communication with 200+ stakeholders
9 个月At the risk of sounding like Kathy Bates, I might be your biggest fan. ?? I hope to emulate the generosity you show by sharing what we learn on this ??strapping adventure. Thank you for the clarity and no-nonsense approach to all that you provide in the podcast, newsletter, etc. I’m always confident it will be time well spent!