Vibe Weekly Updates

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Wednesday, May 28, 9:00 – 10:30 am Pacific Time

I will present 19 unconventional ideas that founders can harness to exploit every quirk, loophole, and AI-driven advantage startups have to create the kind of magnetic resonance traditional marketing can't.

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The 10 Things You Need to Do to Scale Your SaaS

Hitting that first $10K in monthly recurring revenue isn't just an arbitrary milestone. It's validation that your SaaS has real market potential. After working with dozens of founders, I've identified the key steps that separate those who reach this threshold quickly from those who struggle.

Here's what you need to focus on:

1. Find a Painful Problem, Not Just a "Nice to Have"

The SaaS graveyard is filled with "cool ideas" that nobody needs enough to pay for. Your solution must address a problem that causes genuine pain. How do you know if you've found one? People are already spending money trying to solve it, just inefficiently.

Action you can take: Interview 5 to 10 potential customers about how they're currently solving the problem. If they're cobbling together spreadsheets, hiring people, or using multiple tools, you've found pain worth solving.

2. Nail Your ICP (Ideal Customer Profile)

If you don’t know who you’re selling to, you will never achieve product-market fit. The fastest path to $10K MRR is finding a specific customer segment with:

• A shared, urgent problem

• Budget to solve it (most important)

• Easy access to decision-makers

Action you can take: Create a detailed profile of your ideal first 20 customers, including industry, company size, job title or role of the buyer, and specific triggers that would make them need your solution now.

3. Build a Minimum Sellable Product, Not Just an MVP

Too many founders build a "minimum viable product" that's too minimum to sell. Instead, build a Minimum Sellable Product (MSP) with:

• One core feature that solves the painful problem well

• Enough supporting features to make it usable

• A decent onboarding experience

Action you can take: Identify the one core problem you're solving and build a solution focused exclusively on solving that specific pain point better than any alternative.

4. Price for Value, Not Based on Costs

Underpricing is the silent killer of SaaS businesses. If you're solving a $10,000 problem, charging $50/month, you’re leaving serious money on the table. Your early pricing must:

• Reflect the value you provide (not what it costs you to build)

• Be simple to understand (avoid complex pricing tiers initially)

• Include annual plans for cash flow

Action you can take: Calculate the tangible ROI your solution provides and price it at 10-20% of that value.

5. Focus on Direct Sales

Yikes, I know this might sound scary to lots of founders. You like to have your head down slinging code. Content marketing and SEO are great for scale. They will take too long to get to $10K MRR. Instead:

• Use LinkedIn to build a list of 50 to 100 ideal prospects

• Reach out directly through warm introductions or cold outreach

• Get on calls and genuinely listen to their challenges

• Demonstrate your solution solves their specific problem

Action you can take: Create a prospecting system where you connect with 20 new potential customers every week. Social networks, not just LinkedIn, are great for this. If you don’t have a social presence, now’s the time to start one.

6. Create a Frictionless Onboarding Experience

A poor onboarding experience kills your retention before it even starts. Ensure your new users:

• Can achieve a meaningful win within their first session

• Understand exactly what to do next at each step

• Get personal support when they're stuck

Action you can take: Map out your onboarding sequence and identify the "aha moment" that demonstrates value. Ruthlessly optimize the path to that moment.

7. Implement a Customer Success System

Churn will kill your growth faster than anything else. Set up processes to:

• Check in with new customers after 7, 30, and 90 days

• Identify and reach out to customers showing signs of potential churn

• Collect and implement feedback systematically

Action you can take: Create a simple customer health score based on product usage and engagement, then prioritize outreach to at-risk accounts. I have seen founders create specific alerts that notify them when a signal flashes that indicates churn.

8. Focus on One Growth Channel at a Time

Trying to do content marketing, paid ads, social media, and sales all at once leads to mediocrity across the board. Instead:

• Choose one channel with direct access to your ICP

• Master it completely before adding another

• Invest enough to get meaningful data (at least 3 months)

Action you can take: Select your primary acquisition channel based on where your ideal customers already look for solutions, and focus 80% of your resources there.

9. Build Growth Into Your Product

The fastest-growing SaaS products include viral or expansion elements. A growth loop is critical to scaling any SaaS business. Consider the following:

• Collaborative features that encourage inviting team members

• Usage-based pricing that grows with adoption

• Clear upgrade paths as users mature with your product

Action you can take: Identify opportunities to add features that naturally encourage expansion within existing accounts. It needs to be genuine and add value, adding team features that don’t add real value, benefit no one, and waste your time. Be smart and only add what you believe will work.

10. Create a Metrics Dashboard and Review Weekly

Most engineers I know are great at this part, but tracking and measurement are critical to success. Consider tracking these metrics weekly:

• New MRR

• Churn rate (both customer and revenue)

• Conversion rates at each funnel stage

If you have paid campaigns, you need to be able to tease out:

• Customer acquisition cost (CAC)

• Lifetime value (LTV)

Action you can take: Set up a simple dashboard with these key metrics and review it with your team every week, focusing on the 1-2 metrics most critical to your current stage. Be sure to focus on metrics that are core to your specific app and business.

The Road Beyond $10K

Remember that reaching $10K MRR isn't the finish line. But it proves you've found product-market fit and built a foundation for scale. Once you hit this milestone, you can start building more sophisticated marketing systems, expanding your team, and investing in longer-term growth channels.

The most common mistake I see SaaS founders make is trying to run before they can walk. Follow these steps in sequence, focus relentlessly on solving a painful problem for a specific customer segment, and that $10K MRR milestone will come much faster than you might think.

Apply This to Your SaaS

You can read all the growth playbooks in the world, but if you’re not turning these steps into real customers, you’re just spinning your wheels.

That’s why I created Vibe Your SaaS — a hands-on, tactical coaching program built for technical SaaS founders who want to stop guessing and start growing.

• I’ll help you define your ICP (Ideal Customer Profile)

• Build your first real marketing plan

• Launch a campaign that actually drives leads

• And stop wasting months “planning” without results

Spots are limited.
If you’re serious about growing your SaaS, book a free intro call here → Schedule an intro all now. Let’s vibe.