How to Build SaaS Growth Momentum Across Quarters

The shift from seats to agents pressures SaaS margins. At the same time, the longstanding practice of getting enterprise customers to pre-commit and also prepay for functionality they may never deploy will get harder as CIOs look to free budget for their own LLM costs. To weather the storm, some SaaS companies have increased prices. This boosts revenue and margins in the short-term but can't be done repeatedly and creates even greater scrutiny over shelfware as procurement teams right-size and shift contracts to "pay as you go." To achieve sustainable growth, SaaS companies need to become hyperefficient at sales and marketing. Here are common ways to do so and who's doing it well: 1. PLG. Shopify and Atlassian exemplify efficient go-to-market based on product-led growth with free trials, low-friction upgrades and upsells. Their sales teams only need to get involved in the biggest opportunities at the largest accounts; every other step in acquisition, commercial transaction, activation, onboarding, and growth is self-service and automated. 2. Vertical SaaS. Guidewire Software and Veeva Systems are laser-focused on insurance and life sciences, respectively. Rather than casting a wide net, they spear-fish with deep domain knowledge and purpose-built solutions for that industry's specific workflows and regulatory requirements. Guidewire doesn't need to buy Super Bowl ads– their annual customer conference is the Super Bowl for property & casualty insurance executives. Nearly zero GTM effort is wasted– unsurprisingly they're the two most efficient on the list. We modeled Hearsay Systems after both these companies, and this focus allowed us to win incredible market share among Fortune 500 banks & insurers despite only raising $60M in totality. 3. Relocate operations to lower-cost regions and AI. This is private equity's favorite playbook to take costs out of companies they buy. Field sales continues to shift more to Zoom, which means you can hire AEs anywhere. Inside sales contributes a greater % of revenue as PLG motions are established. AI handles top-of-funnel leads qualification and generating marketing content and campaigns. 4. Focus on gross revenue retention. Because of high customer acquisition costs in #SaaS, leaky buckets are margin killers. Use LLMs to help customer success teams analyze product usage, segment cohorts, and identify opportunities to increase value realization. Put in guardrails to prevent sales reps from overselling an account, as doing so only creates churn in the next renewal cycle. 5. Introduce another product line. This only works if your new product has the same buyer as your existing products. Many SaaS acquisition pro formas fail to actualize for this reason, as it's not actually feasible to have the same AE sell both old and new products. Every SaaS company right now needs to double down on one or more of these levers in the AI era.

I spent the last weeks reverse-engineering how AI-natives grow so fast. From $1 to $10M measured in months. Here’s what I learned.. Most use a: - Subscription pricing model - PLG-like GTM motion And, obvious but worth calling out: - They did not hire 10's of SDRs, AEs, and CSMs But also surprisingly... - Very few used AI-tools in their GTM motions So what do AI-natives do to catapult growth? It’s a simple two-step process: Step 1: Obsess over “Immediate and Recurring Impact” + Instant setup & onboarding + One-click integration + Intuitive, self-guided UX + Rapid path to habit-forming daily usage Step 2: Enable users to become your growth engine They designed this in... + Built-in viral loops (users invite users, word spreads organically) + Real-time data infrastructure & mindset (to figure out what works) + View retention & expansion as outcomes, not goals with campaigns Important!: Most AI apps right now don’t require centralized approval and often have freemium starting points, e.g. users can "buy" it on the spot. Now compare this to the classic SaaS-native playbook which relies on an approach around two “reservoirs”: 1. Lead Reservoir Fill it with leads—email captures via content, SEO, outbound, events etc—and “nurture” them. As you grow, marketing must find ever-more leads to hit the next growth target. It never stops, that is... until it breaks. 2. Customer Reservoir This is all about getting renewals, better yet expansions from your champions. It takes time (years) for growth to compound, and most SaaS-natives don’t have that time. For example most CROs are on a 18-month fuse. They want growth now. Important observation, buyers and champions are rarely users. So you are talking to a very different persona (and not one driving adoption on the ground). With that said, AI-natives leverage a very different reservoir: 3. User Reservoir Say per customer there's ~10 users. That means 100 customers = ~1,000 users—several of whom get asked once or twice a year, “What do you use?” by their peers. Users are by definition your ~ICP So that’s not just a lead; that's more likely an immediate opportunity. Key insight: As growth accelerates you gain more users, more uses = more pipeline. In other words, the system start to, in part, fuel itself. We performed repeated scenario analysis on this, using their metrics, over and over again, and the math back this up. This works. The key difference? - SaaS-Natives look at customers as "Logo's" - AI-Natives look at customers as "Users." So maybe the 2026 growth playbook should bring more users into the fold? If you are intrigued and want to dive deeper, join one of our Growth workshops in the next weeks: - San Francisco (At Dropbox) - Chicago (At G2) - Washington (At Pavilion GTM Summit) - New York (At Insight Partners), and - Ghent (At WinterCircus). You know where to go for the 🔗 for the dates and details👇.

Everyone talks about building a top 1% SaaS product. Very few can actually answer the questions or measure the KPIs that matter most. After digging into Andrew Chen’s book "The Cold Start Problem," here are the questions and KPIs every founder and operator should obsess over if they want to build a product that dominates. Key Strategic Questions Market & Network Foundation Who are the atomic users that will get immediate value from our product? What network type are we building: utility network like Slack, marketplace like Airbnb, content/social like Instagram, or a hybrid? What is the minimum network density needed for users to feel value? How do we seed the first networks—niche communities, single-player tools, or incentives? Growth & Scale What are our engines of growth: virality, paid acquisition, partnerships, integrations, sales? Where is the tipping point that turns slow adoption into exponential growth? What is our playbook for scaling from atomic networks to large networks? How do we avoid the chicken-and-egg problem between supply and demand? Retention & Engagement What is the core action that users repeat every day? How do we measure whether users are sticking? What triggers users to come back daily or weekly? What is the minimum retention rate required for sustainable growth? Defensibility & Competition How do network effects make us stronger as we scale? What switching costs prevent churn once a network is established? How do we defend against competitors who try to replicate our playbook? Monetization & Business Model When is the right moment to layer in monetization without stalling growth? What monetization aligns with our network effects: usage-based, subscription, transaction fees? How do we balance growth with revenue optimization? Core KPIs to Track and Improve Acquisition & Activation New user signups and activations Cost per activated user Viral coefficient (K-factor) Activation rate to the “aha” moment Retention & Engagement DAU/MAU ratio Cohort retention curves Time to first value Core action frequency Churn rate Network Effects Network density Cross-side liquidity Virality loop completion rate Power users percentage Revenue & Monetization ARR and MRR growth Net dollar retention ARPU Free to paid conversion rate CAC payback period Scaling & Defensibility Network concentration risk Geographic or vertical expansion Competitor overlap and switching rate The playbook is simple but not easy. In the early stage you optimize activation, TTFV, and network density. In growth you push virality, retention, and DAU/MAU. In scale you drive ARR, net dollar retention, CAC payback, and expansion. In defensibility you double down on network effects, switching costs, and market share. This is how you build a top 1% SaaS product.

I recently worked with a SaaS Founder who reached an impressive $2.5M ARR. Now, we're focused on taking that growth to the next level. To scale faster, we took a deep dive into three key areas: 1. We identified which segment of the market his best customers are coming from. Knowing this allows us to target the most profitable audience. 2. We analyzed which features those customers were using the most. These popular features reveal what’s resonating with users and driving retention. 3. With this data, we’re refining his Ideal Customer Profile (ICP), updating the messaging to highlight those top features, and honing the execution strategy to target more of these high-value customers. The key takeaway? Focus on what’s already working best, and double down on it. If you're a SaaS Founder looking to accelerate your growth, grab a complimentary copy of my 5-Point SaaS Growth Strategy Guide. Just follow the link in the comments below. 👇

The 2025 Growth & GTM Funnel Map (AARRR Framework) 💸 Check where your money leaks — and build your revenue engine. This is how I build continuous growth funnels to scale B2B SaaS and AI startups — from lead to revenue, referral, and back again. Using modern tools, AI, and automation. Let’s break it down.👇 1️⃣ A → Acquisition — Traffic to Lead Generation 4 core channels: Organic / Content → SEO / AI Agents, AI Search, LinkedIn, X, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, Blog, Podcast, PR Paid / Ads → Meta Ads, Google Ads, LinkedIn Ads, Reddit Ads, Event Sponsorships Outbound → Cold Email, ABM DMs, Cold Calls, WhatsApp, Telegram, Discord, In-person events Partnerships → Agencies, Integrations, Affiliates, Influencers, Platforms, White-label 🎯 Capture → Lead to Contact Info - Turn attention into action: - Landing Pages - Calendly / Typeforms - Chatbots - Calls & Messages - Lead Magnets - Free Tools - Webinars 🤝 Nurture→ Contact to Lead - SDR Touchpoints - Retargeting - Content & Newsletter - Community - Webinars - 1:1 Invites - In-Person Events - Email/DM Flows - Gifts 2️⃣ A → Activation — Contact to First Value How Quickly Can You Get Your Customers To The “Aha-Moment”? - Product Demo - Trial Onboarding - Sales Call - Smart Activation Flows Feature triggers, Push, Email, Frontend/Backend logic, Sales & Marketing touchpoints - Auto Follow-up (LLM) 3️⃣  R → Revenue — Deal Closed / Payment How Can You Increase Revenue? CONVERSION → MEETING OR TRIAL Buyers convert when proof outweighs doubt: - Video Demo - Testimonials - Case Studies - Product Marketing - Resources - Free Trial - Free Tools QUALIFICATION → SALES READINESS → Sales Process (automated or manual) REVENUE → PAYMENT - Trial → Paid - Expansion Offer - CRM - Pricing Logic - Manual Deal Close Congratulations, the deal closed. What's next? 4️⃣ R → Retention & Keep using Expansion How Many Of Your Customers Are You Retaining & Why Are You Losing The Others? Keep growth moving: - Lifecycle Emails - Retargeting - CRM / Feature Triggers - Webinars - Community 5️⃣ R → Referral — Share & Invite How Can You Turn Your Customers Into Your Advocates Let users fuel the growth engine: - In-product Invites - Review Campaigns - Affiliate / Referral Programs - AI Outreach - Founder-Led Content 🧠 TL;DR Most funnels look like a to-do list. The real moat is building a system that scale and work on you 24/7 hours not you. And your Growth Funnel system needs: - activation that leads to value, not drop-off - touchpoints & triggers that actually convert - smart follow-up, not random AI outreach - content that builds trust before your sales call, not GPT cliche - a growth engine that runs into self-service or purchase 📌 Save this when you audit your funnel. Or better — run it with your team on Monday. If you want to adapt it to your funnel — follow or DM me, Irina Dubovik. I’ll help build it. Or fix it. #GTM #SaaS #B2BMarketing #Growth #ARRRR #ProductMarketing #StartupTools #AI