Santi Darmandrail

I recently talked with Paz Yanover, VP of Product at Amplication, about creating and managing effective docs. Here is his developer docs success formula (check 1st comment): In this interview, Paz shares his formula to creating developer docs that drive product adoption. You'll learn: - The important role docs plays in support and attracting devs - Tips for balancing technical accuracy with user-friendliness in your docs - Strategies for effective collaboration between technical writers and product teams Check the first comment for the full interview. --- Enjoy this? ♻️ Repost it to your network and follow Derick Ruiz for more.

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Learn how to fine-tune your product to meet market demands with strategic customer conversations and data-driven feedback mechanisms 👇 ➡ 𝗜𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗿𝘃𝗶𝗲𝘄𝗲𝗲: Brian Long, CEO & Co-Founder at Attentive 🔌 𝗜𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗿𝘃𝗶𝗲𝘄𝗲𝗿: Nick Moran, General Partner at New Stack Ventures and Nate Pierotti, Principal at New Stack Ventures ✏ “The Playbook to Finding Product-Market Fit, When Founders Should Begin to Scale, and Lessons from Building Attentive” ⭐ 𝗦𝗮𝘃𝗲 𝘁𝗶𝗺𝗲 𝗯𝘆 𝘁𝗮𝗹𝗸𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗼 𝗮 𝘁𝗿𝗲𝗺𝗲𝗻𝗱𝗼𝘂𝘀 𝗮𝗺𝗼𝘂𝗻𝘁 𝗼𝗳 𝗰𝘂𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗺𝗲𝗿𝘀: 💬 "I think that what we got right were two things. One, I think that we talked to a tremendous amount of customers, before we started building things. So we learned to hear their problems, hear their issues, and then start building and assaulting those, you know, rather than kind of just jumping right into build-build-build, so that saved us a lot of time." ⭐ 𝗚𝗲𝘁 𝗾𝘂𝗮𝗻𝘁𝗶𝘁𝗮𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝘀𝗰𝗼𝗿𝗲𝘀 𝗳𝗿𝗼𝗺 𝗰𝘂𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗺𝗲𝗿𝘀, 𝗻𝗼𝘁 𝗷𝘂𝘀𝘁 𝗾𝘂𝗮𝗹𝗶𝘁𝗮𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝗳𝗲𝗲𝗱𝗯𝗮𝗰𝗸, 𝘁𝗼 𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗿𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗲 𝗽𝗼𝗹𝗶𝘁𝗲𝗻𝗲𝘀𝘀 𝗯𝗶𝗮𝘀: 💬 "I think you're also looking at things like NPS, you know… because if that number starts dropping, it's often because you're no longer solving the problem." ⭐ 𝗧𝗮𝗸𝗲 𝗮 𝗹𝗼𝗻𝗴-𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗺 𝘃𝗶𝗲𝘄 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗵𝗮𝘃𝗲 𝗮 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝘀𝗶𝘀 𝗮𝗯𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝘄𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗺𝗮𝗿𝗸𝗲𝘁 𝗶𝘀 𝗴𝗼𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘄𝗵𝗲𝗻 𝗯𝘂𝗶𝗹𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗽𝗮𝗻𝘆: 💬 "I think that we've taken an even longer term focus. We know what can be big. And we know it's dangerous to start getting an ego to think you can do things because it's always very hard. You've always got to think towards taking a longer term view, having a thesis around that view, and then understand how the pieces can come together for success." ───── 👉 Follow me, Alexander Small, for tactics and strategies for building startups from industry-leading Founders, Operators and Investors

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Being a founder is not a status symbol When I started Maera in Panama, I never called myself a founder. I didn't call myself anything, I just did the daily work because I needed to pay rent and buy food. After moving into the US, people started telling me that I was a founder. Met a lot of guys with ideas that were looking to raise millions, and they were all founders. I decided to look for a meaning of founder in the startup scene and came up with: "A founder is a person who comes up with an idea (hopefully a profitable idea) and then transforms it into a new business or startup." 90% of the people I met, qualify at the idea part; the profitable angle, quite a different story. From my limited experience in the US startup scene, I've noticed that profitability is not a priority of a lot of founders, but being a founder is; the way they want to grow their company is by raising the next round, and just pumping the valuation of their business. That's ok for some businesses, but I'd like to challenge the status quo. What if we all decided to see profitability as something important and aim towards it sooner than later, and just make a business that runs by itself. I understand that there are highly capital intensive businesses that don't quite fit the rule, but let's be honest, most of the companies being started out there are not those type of businesses. Back in Panama it's simple. If your company doesn't make money, you will shut down. In the US, it used to be if your company doesn't make money, someone will give you more money. This has been changing and it took a lot of companies by surprise, because they got used to depending on getting more money to save them when needed. Either you call yourself a founder or not, just remember that it's not a status symbol. It's a responsibility. If you decide to launch a business, hire people, raise money, etc., you are responsible for all of that. Every employee is a human being with family and responsibilities too. The money you got from an investor, was money that someone that to produce and now is trusting it to you. Honor the trust your team, investors, customers and all around you are giving, and make something out of it. As Tony Robbins say, where focus goes, energy flows. So how about we all start to focus on making good companies that are profitable and that are able to provide jobs and value to the marketplace.  

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Retention.com ended May up 1.1% at $21.7m ARR, but still below our Dec ‘23 high of $22.1m ARR. RB2B closed the month at $622k ARR (+300% m-o-m). Here’s the good, the bad, and the ugly of May 2024: If you’ve been following along from home... We had four down months in a row (Jan - Apr). April was the biggest down month: - 2.3%. The hardest LinkedIn post I ever wrote was that April monthly update: - We were down for the 4th month. - We were down more than prior months. - The market dynamics had changed completely. - We had competition coming from everywhere, big pricing pressure. - Our churn problem seemed to be getting worse, no matter what we did. The hardest part of that entire post was admitting that I had no idea when it would end. It was even harder listening to our execs tell me that the post read horribly from our employees perspective. But here’s what I knew when I posted that post... We were (arguably, still are) just stuck again. My entire journey has been getting stuck, then getting un-stuck again. I knew we would figure out how to move forward again. If we just kept going, we would figure out: - Exactly how to navigate the new competitive environment - How and what we could do that others couldn’t do  - How to improve efficiency and get in front of churn I don’t think we’re out of the woods yet, but we are on the right track. Retention(.)com team - I’m proud of you. Keep it up! We’re going to emerge on the other side much stronger. Retention(.)com Highlights: - We continued the roll-out of EOS - We are ahead of our Q2 sales target - We’re seeing an increase in our expansion revenue - Average deal size is up around 7% this Q - Canceled revenue is down 18% this Q - 375 people are signed up for our 2nd Retox event - We launched a new Reclaim flow - “active onsite”  - We made significant progress on our SFMC Reclaim integration We generated around $600k of free cash, which offsets some of the free cash miss last month (which was around $300k). RB2B Highlights: - $622k ARR 12 weeks post launch, team of 5 (welcome Jeff Hall) - Still only have a 1.3% conversion rate - We’re going to push out a credit system (lower prices) next week - We are experimenting with a two-touch sales motion next week - We have our first full-time salesperson starting July 1 - Human support down from 8.4% to 3.2% of total interactions - We’ve started to see an uptick in UGC - 3 last week, 7 this week All things considered, May was a pretty good month. There aren’t too many negative things to dwell on. Pretty soon we’re going to start including RB2B ARR in the top line ARR number. That, to me, is the life we have chosen. Get stuck. Figure something else out. Grow again. Doing what we do is not easy. But when you find a new growth lever, it’s sooooooooo satisfying. The good news is I’ll keep reporting everything so you can be a part of the journey. Keep building.

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Yesterday, I ran a GTMsession for GTMfund portfolio company founders and their executive teams with the brand and content marketing legend, Udi Ledergor 🏳‍🌈. (🤔 GTM what now? GTMfund… GTMnow…) Yes, we have more words attached to the acronym GTM, though not widely talked about since they’re internal. GTMsessions are monthly private digital live sessions on various go-to-market topics, led by an executive operator who is an expert in the field. They’re available to GTMfund portfolio companies and their executive teams. Being closed-door and not open to the public, these sessions allow any and all questions to be comfortably asked, the conversation tailored to be hyper-specific to startups and their current concerns, questions, etc. We didn't even get through half of the moderated points that I had prepared because the questions for Udi just kept rolling in (a good thing, that's the point of these sessions). Udi dropped some 🔥 insights that we’ll share more on later, but for now, Stan Rymkiewicz nailed summarizing key takeaways on how Gong thinks about content creation and distribution that I've dropped in the comments. One key pain point discussed in the session was the challenge of keeping up with the ever-changing landscape of content marketing. It often feels like by the time one strategy is implemented, its effectiveness has already diminished. So, what’s next? How do you stay ahead of the curve? Since GTMsessions are private, their recordings aren’t shared openly. However, the feedback was so phenomenal that we knew other revenue leaders could benefit from the conversation. If you’re a revenue leader looking to understand the future of content marketing and stay ahead of the curve: Join me for a GTMnow digital live event with Udi Ledergor 🏳‍🌈 , Jon Miller, and Pete Lorenco. You'll learn from them how to stay two steps ahead and walk away with content tactics and inspiration. 🗓 June 18th at 10:00 AM PST / 1:00 PM EST 👉 To register: https://lnkd.in/gsdsai23 (pictured here: two passionate hand talkers 👋 )

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Seed-stage fundraising looks very different depending on the startup industry. Valuation and cash raised typically move together (not a lot of tiny rounds at very high valuations), but the disparity between industries can be quite large. All data from 1,271 priced Seed rounds raised from Apr 2023 thru Mar 2024. Primary rounds only, US rounds only. Industries had to have 10 separate raises to be included. A note on AI - if you tracked it as a separate industry, it would at the top of every list. But it exists within many of these categories as well, so we displayed it in the chart below as a little red box. 𝗢𝘃𝗲𝗿𝗮𝗹𝗹 𝗞𝗲𝘆 𝗣𝗼𝗶𝗻𝘁𝘀 1. Healthtech overtook Fintech as the second-largest category in our data, a change from the last time we measured these metrics. 2. Seed volume is down across almost every category save AI (and even there, not up much lately). More seed deals are being completed on SAFEs (not shown in this chart) but the valuations and cash raised are very similar between SAFE and Priced rounds by industry. 3. The laggards in the chart (DTC Retail, Food, Personal Products) are essentially the same as last year. Are founders here turning towards other methods of funding, including revenue, instead of going the VC route? 4. Will many of these companies ever raise a Series A? Lots of talk lately about "venture stripping", "thin VC", "single round VC", whatever you want to call it - founders who explicitly set out to raise only 1 round and then fund their growth with revenue from then on. Very cool strategy! Remains to be seen if many $1B+ valuation companies can be built that way (though of course that isn't always the goal). Please share this post with a fundraising founder 🙏 #cartadata #startups #fundraising #seed #founders ---------- More data like this out every week in our Carta Data Minute Newsletter - subscribe at the link in graphic!

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Despite tightening marketing budgets, in-person events continue to be a core marketing channel for B2B SaaS companies. According to Sagefrog Marketing Group, LLC, in person trade shows and events are the leading area of marketing spend for 2024, with 38% percent of respondents saying that exhibiting or sponsoring in-person conferences will be a tactic they employ. It’s clear marketers understand the value but with budget pressures and a move towards efficient and sustainable growth, 41% say the pressure to prove the value of their marketing efforts is high. For events in particular, justifying the spend and proving the ROI is more important than ever. In our latest blog post, we look at the different ways to sponsor events, why events remain a core B2B SaaS marketing channel, and run through three ways to measure the ROI of your event marketing efforts. Blog post first in comments section. How are you measuring ROI for Events? #Events #conferences #ROI #marketing #saas #B2B #saastock2024

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Yesterday we launched the next chapter of Pocus to help companies run ALL go-to-market playbooks, powered by AI. After 3 years building with the best leaders in GTM, this launch is a realization of our founding vision to unlock data for GTM teams. Isaac Pohl-Zaretsky and I built Pocus because we saw that go-to-market teams were desperate for accurate & actionable data. We started with PLG companies, who felt this pain acutely with product usage data. As we dug in deeper we realized there was an entirely new GTM motion — Product-Led Sales — that companies needed help building. With our customers and community, we built PLS from a niche strategy to a standard GTM motion. It has been incredible. This next chapter is a natural extension of what we’ve built in Product-Led Sales. In this next chapter of Pocus, we unlock ALL data (not just product usage), to power ALL go-to-market playbooks (not just PLS). We help customers turn all data into revenue, powered by AI. We’ll do this with 3 key product investments 1/ Enrich: unify customer identity across various data sources 2/ Engage: helps sellers reach out to the right users with the right message at the right time 2/ Optimize: help leaders copy & paste their best reps’ workflows Check out the blog Isaac wrote highlighting new features launching today and what’s coming soon (hint - it’s a LOT). We’re also co-hosting a webinar in a few weeks to talk through the state of the market, the trends we’re seeing, and how Pocus will help our customers continue to thrive.  RSVP at the link below.

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Great article here from the team on the challenges of not only selling Health Insurance, but getting paid reliably and on-time from Carriers, FMOs, and SMBs alike. Before starting work with e123, I never fully appreciated or understood just how complex the #commissions management process can be for everyone involved. Excited to be helping smooth this process using modern #technology, and a whole lot of #empathy for the users 💜

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🚀 Calling All Product Leaders! 🚀 I'm partnering with several innovative, early-stage vertical SaaS companies to find their very first VP of Product. If you're passionate about shaping product strategies, building teams, and driving growth, this is your chance to make a significant impact. These well-funded companies are on an impressive trajectory, and they need experienced leaders like you to help scale their success. 🌟 Why This Role Rocks: - Trailblaze: Be the pioneer VP of Product, defining the product vision and strategy from the ground up. - Scale Impact: Leverage your product expertise in a fast-paced, venture-backed company. - Innovate: Join vertical SaaS companies who are leading their industry with cutting-edge AI-based solutions. 🌟 Is This You? - You've got experience driving product success from $10M to $100M ARR. - You're excited by the challenge of building teams and scaling products. - You like to both "do and direct" to deliver on your product vision. - You have worked on several B2B products with serious complexity. If you or someone you know is ready to take on this challenge, let's connect. Comment below, DM me, or share this with your network. #ProductManagement #VPProduct #vSaaS #Hiring #ProductLeadership

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Too many teams own NRR. So nobody truly owns it. As a CRO joining a new company, one of my first priorities is understanding existing revenue streams. Why? Because acquiring new customers is insanely expensive right now. $2.45 to get $1 in first-year revenue! To drive efficient growth, we need to focus on expanding our current customer base. But most companies struggle with NRR (Net Revenue Retention). Even unicorns like Snowflake saw NRR drop 27% this year. The core issue? Lack of accountability. In most orgs, NRR is "owned" by 3-4 different teams with competing priorities: ⚠️ Customer Success wants to reduce churn ⚠️ Product pushes for more usage ⚠️ Sales cares about upsells/cross-sells With nobody truly owning the NRR metric end-to-end, it's impossible to move the needle in a coordinated way. As the CRO, I'll put someone in charge of NRR from beginning to end, asking: 1. How do we spot churn risks early? 2. What motivates customers to expand? 3. Are incentives aligned across teams? Until there's clear ownership with aligned goals, even the hardest workers will spin their wheels on NRR. I've seen it before - companies working hard but NRR still struggles. It's time for a fresh approach! What's your take on owning this crucial metric? I'm all ears!

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7 years ago, I started my 4th business We raised $450k in a crowdfunding campaign for our first client. Within 2 years, we worked with Microsoft, Segment, Envoy, Perfect Keto, and dozens of other clients. We wrote for Techcrunch. We gave talks at YC and Google. We even got accepted into YC in 2019. In a few years, we had created two 7-figure brands, Bell Curve and Demand Curve. But nobody knew who I was. I hid behind the brands—and let my cofounder, Julian, be the face. He leveraged his writing to reach millions of people while working together. The result? - My network was small - I was never asked to be an advisor - I was never asked to speak on podcasts - I only got DMs from recruiters and SDRs - I relied on Julian to meet other cool founders 2 years ago, Julian moved on to start an investment fund. I decided to stop hiding behind the brand. I started posting on LinkedIn multiple times per week. I didn’t expect to: 1. Hit 50k followers in the first year. 2. Be asked to be an advisor frequently. 3. Get invited to speak at conferences. 4. Get DM'd by some of my startup heroes. Nor did I expect to create UNIGNORABLE, which earned $500k+ in its first few months—part-time. I just hoped it would help grow our newsletter, attract more agency clients, and reduce my reliance on Julian to make connections. (Which it has.) My follower count is great for my ego. But what I care about are the knock-on effects. I know, I know. These transformation stories on LinkedIn are cringe and contrived. But I swear this is the truth. Every week, I reflect on how different my life looks today. A lot of the people I interact with daily are a direct result of writing. And how my entire business was bootstrapped off my cofounder's personal audience. If you’re an entrepreneur ready to stop hiding behind your brand, enrollment is open for the Apr 22nd cohort of the UNIGNORABLE Challenge. In 5-weeks, you’ll learn how to build an audience of future buyers. To become the go-to expert in your space. To become UNIGNORABLE. 252 people have already enrolled. And this is the last cohort for ~6 months. Learn more and enroll here: https://lnkd.in/gYcVDnDB (This photo was taken in Australia a few months into running an agency—before various stages of burnout 😂 )

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Jordan Lange and Elisha Amar at Gorgias are absolutely crushing it when it comes to partnerships, and they're using Dataland as the control center for partnership referrals. Gorgias is a titan in the eCommerce space. They serve 15,000+ merchants with their leading customer support platform, and operate a partnership ecosystem of 2000+ vendors and tech partners. So how do you keep the ecosystem going? Jordan and Elisha designed a novel partner incentive + loyalty program, powered by tons of data across BigQuery, Hubspot, and Segment. That's where Dataland came in. They used it to bring all their data together and build a command center for handling referrals, payouts, and tracking - all in one spot. The outcome? Thousands of top-notch referrals and a partnerships machine that's running smoothly. Jordan and Elisha's strategy shows just how powerful it is to mix your data with your day-to-day work. When you've got a team that can make that happen, the results are game-changing. I'm psyched to share this case study as a reference for other GTM teams looking to. Huge thanks to Madison McIlwain for introducing us a while back. Check out the full case study: https://lnkd.in/gAFbMC-Z

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The best way to understand if your company has PMF…

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For those that saw part I of this article, here’s the second version that goes into more detail. If you’re running a data team or scaffolding one, these insights will help you shape your strategy and team with the right fundamentals.

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Meet Ariel Levin, CEO At SDR Labs, a sales outsourcing company offering Managed Teams. Are you thinking about hiring a company to do telemarketing, B2B lead generation, customer support, Sales Training, CRM Setup, or any other Revenue Operations tasks on your company's behalf? 💼 🌟 If so, you can speed up your research process by using our marketplace to access information about Services, Pricing, Onboarding Process, etc. for SDR Labs and 200+ other sales outsourcing companies from around the globe. 🔍 Get FREE access to comprehensive information about Sales Outsourcing Companies instantly here: https://lnkd.in/gVXhx7h5 #SalesforStartups #SalesOutsourcing #RevOps #TalentAcquisition #CloudTaskMarketplace #leadgeneration #B2BLeadGeneration #B2BLeadGenerationCompanies #Sales #B2BSales #OutboundSales #InboundSales #revenueoperations

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Is NRR trending down? There has been recent analysis of public SaaS companies suggesting that Net Revenue Retention is trending down. Is that also the case for private companies? This is one of the questions that the PeakSpan Capital Ibbaka 2024 NRR survey will answer. Please participate and we will share our results and recommendations on how to improve NRR performance. https://lnkd.in/gYZ9GxBZ #NRR #innovation #SaaS #B2B #NDR #pricing

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Launching a new cold outbound campaign? Here's a breakdown of an OKR to hit >3.5% trial conversions. 1️⃣ Craft manual messages to current users — identify where they live and how to capture nuanced personalization points. 2️⃣ Dive into data from our last 10x paid users -- most important JTBD? First actions in the product? 3️⃣ Use the above to select optimal channels and digital surface area to inform personalization, craft a template campaign 4️⃣ Warm up domains with 300 leads, then scale to 1k+, documenting every step in our v1 Playbook. What key results have worked best for you in outbound campaigns? #SalesStrategy #OKRs #LeadGeneration"

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