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Welcome to the Future: No Logins Required

Published about 1 month ago • 5 min read

The Middle from GrowthCurve

Three ideas to level up your week.

Hey Reader,

Welcome to The Middle, your midweek rundown of the most interesting things we've read this week.

Shoutout to the South Carolina Gamecocks for bringing home the Women's Basketball National Championship.

And impressive to see the rise in viewers around Women's Basketball.
(UConn-Purdue: 14.8 million • Iowa-South Carolina: 18.9 million)

4.1 million more people watched the Women's Basketball Championship than the Men's Basketball National Championship this year.

First time in history that's happened.

Let's get you to more greatness in The Middle...

Jeff

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Houston: We have a CAC problem

A single graph in Jamin Ball’s Clouded Judgement newsletter caught my attention.

It underscores the tough road ahead for many SaaS companies:

To succeed, software companies must acquire customers at scale. Then, retain them long enough to pay back the selling costs and become profitable.

Best-in-class companies recoup their selling costs in as little as 12-18 months.

Notice the trend above: Median CAC Payback is 38 months.

Can you believe that: 3+ years to BREAK EVEN.

Everyone’s job just got harder.


Reader, are you busy tomorrow at 11am ET?

We're hosting a talk (fine, webinar). It helps you better understand your SaaS metrics and actionable ways to impact them.

We reviewed the talking points today (they're 🔥). Sneak Peek:

Here are 4 ways to improve your Unit Economics in SaaS:

  • Increase revenue per customer
  • Increase gross margin per customer
  • Decrease customer acquisition cost
  • Increase gross revenue retention rate

Come learn how to improve the economics of your business tomorrow at 11 am ET (sign up here).


Welcome to the Future: No Logins Required

Kyle Poyar is dropping hints at why companies (including ChatGPT) are ungating more than just their content.

Here’s what Kyle had to say:

The classic “gated” funnel:
1️⃣ 5% of website visitors start using the product
2️⃣ All of them give you their email (although you see high rates of spam, bots, duplicate emails, etc.)
3️⃣ 20-40% of sign-ups reach an ‘aha’ moment

The loginless “ungated” funnel:
1️⃣ 15% of website visitors start using the product (3x increase 🚀🚀)
2️⃣ Only a portion give you their email
3️⃣ 40%+ of these reach an ‘aha’ moment (🚀)

Wait, I can get 3x the number of users using the product?
Damn, I’m sold.

But besides the numbers, why would companies do this?

Our hunch: It's one way to build trust upfront and in public with the customer.

They’re signaling “We’ve built a strong, useful product. Go ahead and use it before you buy it.”

It reduces friction for the customer.
And it puts pressure on incumbents to “show their cards.”


AI Corner

Shoutout to Derek from Tray.io for today’s inspiration.

Today’s AI tip: Summarize an earnings report for a publicly traded customer


Here’s a start on a prompt you can use:

I work for [COMPANY], we're the leading software company for handling [OUTCOMES]. One of my customers, [PUBLIC COMPANY], has recently reported their earnings for [TIME PERIOD].

I have an upcoming meeting where I’d like to be able to:
1) ensure we are aligned with their outcomes
2) ensure their renewal and any potential expansion

Please build me a guide that would help present and facilitate this conversation.

If your team uses AI in your daily work, hit reply so you can tell us about it


Surfing In The Chaos

“Curiosity” is a trait that companies seek out in our co-workers.
(Don’t believe me? Go read a few job descriptions.)

But how can you identify curiosity?

Anne-Laure Le Cunff, a PhD researcher, shares the 9 curiosity habits of systematically curious people.

Here are two that stood out to me:

3. Asking generative questions. For curious minds, every interaction is an opportunity to learn. Exchanging generative questions is one of their favorite modes of communication. They not only ask about facts, but also about feelings, underlying motivations, and cultural context. Their questions are open-ended, multidimensional, and empathetic. Some of them even keep a list of their favorite questions.

Customers are more aware of the total experience that surrounds a product.
They want strong business partners, not just a technology vendor.

Build teams that aren’t afraid to ask tough, necessary questions that can lead to strong relationships.

It gets you moving towards business partner and away from vendor.

9. Welcoming the unpredictable. For curious minds, the fact that the world keeps on changing is a feature, not a bug. They believe that their response determines how much disruptions affect them, and they choose to respond with curiosity. They surf with chaos to not only survive, but to thrive in chaotic times.

SaaS is anything but predictable. Look at the last 4-5 years as evidence.

This constant variability requires a person who can be comfortable in the uncomfortable. It’s not for everyone.

Build teams that approach change with an open mind.
And that see themselves Surfing In The Chaos.


Jeff Breunsbach

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Jay Nathan

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