Episode 471 | Fighting to Gain Traction in a Crowded Space with Jane Portman of Userlist
Nov 19, 2019
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Jane Portman, co-founder of Userlist and a SaaS growth expert, shares her insights on navigating the challenges of a crowded market. They discuss the importance of community and effective onboarding strategies for early-stage founders. Jane delves into the emotional and financial implications of securing a strong brand identity and the difficulties in customer acquisition for essential products. She also reflects on team dynamics during co-founder transitions and the lessons learned from their previous product, highlighting the relentless pursuit of product-market fit.
The podcast emphasizes the significance of long-term thinking and maintaining work-life balance to avoid burnout in startup life.
Jane Portman highlights the essential role of meaningful customer engagement and educational content in overcoming user onboarding challenges for SaaS products.
Deep dives
Navigating the Startup Landscape
The discussion highlights the importance of maintaining balance in startup life, emphasizing the significance of freedom, purpose, and relationships. Founders are encouraged to avoid burnout while pursuing their entrepreneurial dreams. Emphasizing long-term thinking, the conversation touches on the need for sustainable practices that promote well-being while building startups. The overall philosophy promotes relentless execution coupled with a focus on personal values and healthy relationships.
User List's Journey to Traction
User List, a customer lifecycle email tool designed for SaaS businesses, faced challenges entering a competitive market, competing with established players like Intercom and Customer.io. Jane Portman and her co-founder, Benedict, conducted extensive customer interviews and launched pre-orders prior to onboarding customers. Their slow growth was attributed to an initial overestimation of their timeline to market, compounded by the complexities of providing a critical business tool rather than a simpler product. They acknowledged the difficulty of onboarding users while managing their expectations in this crowded space.
The Challenges of Product Positioning
The podcast discusses the struggle of transitioning users from existing solutions to User List, emphasizing the switching costs related to customer retention. Founders face difficulties convincing users to migrate due to the anxiety associated with changing established processes and systems. User List positions itself as a crucial tool meant for serious business operations, leading to higher retention rates but more challenging onboarding phases. Jane reflects on how meaningful customer engagement, educational content, and support are essential to help potential users see the value in committing to User List.
Lessons from Past Experiences
Jane shares valuable insights from her previous SaaS venture, which taught her about the challenges of marketing and customer acquisition. She learned the drawbacks of targeting a broad audience and implementing a freemium model, finding success was harder to attain for SaaS products compared to informational products. She stresses that personal audiences often do not translate into successful SaaS sales, and emphasizes focusing on finding a product-market fit instead. These critical lessons shape her approach to building User List, as she aims to navigate a more focused and targeted marketing strategy.
In this episode of Startups For The Rest Of Us, Rob talks with Jane Portman of Userlist. They discuss the struggles of growing slowly, gaining traction in the crowded space, and some of the lessons learned from her first SaaS app.