The SaaS Podcast - SaaS, Startups, Growth Hacking & Entrepreneurship

433: Summize: SaaS Lessons on Narrowing Your Target Market - with Tom Dunlop

Mar 6, 2025

Tom Dunlop, co-founder and CEO of Summize, shares his journey from in-house lawyer to SaaS entrepreneur. He discusses the importance of narrowing target markets specifically in the legal sector and the challenges of balancing broader strategies. The conversation dives into the value of automating contract management and aligning sales efforts with customer pain points. Dunlop also highlights how lessons from sports can be applied to business, emphasizing resilience and personal growth as keys to success.

51:46

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Episode guests

Tom Dunlop

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Episode notes

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Quick takeaways

Tom Dunlop's journey in creating Summize stemmed from a frustrating contract review experience, highlighting the need for automated solutions in contract management.

Focusing on in-house legal teams within mid-sized companies allowed Summize to redefine its target market, improving sales effectiveness and customer engagement.

Adapting marketing strategies to the U.S. landscape emphasized the importance of understanding customer needs and differentiation in driving growth.

Deep dives

The Genesis of Surmise

The idea for Surmise originated from a painful experience that Tom Dunlop encountered while working as an in-house lawyer. During a company acquisition, he was tasked with manually reviewing 500 contracts and was frustrated by the inefficiency and complexity of the task. This ordeal motivated him to partner with a software engineer to create an automated solution to generate contract summaries, leading to the development of the product. After validating the concept through customer feedback, they successfully raised £250,000 to build the initial version, capitalizing on the demand for contract management solutions during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Intro

4min

Embracing a Winning Mindset: Lessons from Sports for Business

2min

Streamlining Contract Management

18min

Refining Target Markets: The Struggle for Focus in SaaS

5min

Targeting Success in SaaS

17min

From Sports to SaaS: Insights on Success

6min

Navigating Development Challenges in SaaS

2min

Tom Dunlop is co-founder and CEO of Summize, a contract lifecycle management (CLM) platform that helps helps companies create, review, and manage contracts.

Show Notes: https://saasclub.io/433

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