Pascal Weinberger is the founder and CEO of Bardeen. I don’t throw the word genius around lightly but Pascal definitely ranks up there. I really enjoyed this thoughtful and honest interview and I think you will too! In this episode, Pascal shares Bardeen’s growth story and we cover: How they built a beta product and iterated with user feedback His experience launching on Product Hunt How to activate new users And whether startups should be multi-platform or go all-in on a single one to start We also touched on topics covered in previous episodes such as programmatic or product-led SEO and building viral Growth loops into the product. So if you haven’t listened to those episodes, definitely go back and check those out. Timestamps: (0:00) Introduction (3:05) what is Bardeen? (4:40) competitive landscape (9:50) Pascal’s background and coming up with the idea for Bardeen (14:18) iterating through the beta launch (17:22) launching on Product Hunt (23:09) activation growth loops (27:09) leveraging programmatic SEO (30:16) other growth strategies (building virality) (34:39) pricing strategy and freemium (39:50) collecting user feedback (41:18) selling through the Chrome Web Store (44:31) should you go multi-platform? (47:26) lightning round 📅 I will be releasing part 2 of this conversation with Pascal next week. We do a deep dive into the fascinating world of artificial intelligence (AI).   Guest contact info: https://www.linkedin.com/in/pascalweinberger/ https://twitter.com/bardeenai www.bardeen.ai Sponsor: This podcast is brought to you by grwth.co. Grwth offers fractional CMOs, paired with best-in-class digital marketing execution to support early-stage startup success. With a focus on seed and series A companies, Grwth has helped a number of SaaS, digital health, and e-commerce startups build their go-to-market function and scale up. To learn more and book a free consultation, go to grwth.co. Get in touch with us: www.linkedin.com/in/moshehp/ twitter.com/MoshehP hello@pmfpod.com www.pmfpod.com

Rajesh has worked with 50+ product teams and wrote the book Build What Matters — he knows a thing or two about building great products. In this episode, Rajesh covers:  - Why pricing is such a critical component of product-market fit (and signals you may be missing the mark on PMF) - The Kano model for product development - How to gain insights from speaking with customers and prospects - What is vision-led product management? - Hiring product managers and product leaders, and org designs for growth; and more.  I loved this interview and I'm certain you'll walk away with practical learnings from this episode.  Timestamps: (0:00) Introduction (2:34) Rajesh's Bio and about Prodify Group (5:09) What is Product Market Fit (and why is price such an important component)? (7:51) Where does "messaging fit in"? (10:29) Signals that you may have PMF (and signs you might be missing it) (13:00) Case study of company struggling with PMF — using the Kano model (18:51) How to do customer discovery (22:17) What is vision-led product management? (26:40) The difficulties of category creation (27:10) Hiring product managers (32:23) Designing a growth org (36:28) Should startups care about "product-ops?" (39:38) Avoiding product bloat (41:31) Lightning round (45:27) Closing remarks Further reading:Buy the book — https://a.co/d/3NAQSZ8   https://www.prodify.group/blog/a-product-managers-guide-to-the-kano-model https://www.prodify.group/blog/4-signs-you-need-to-make-your-first-product-hire https://www.prodify.group/blog/how-product-operations-can-influence-your-company-culture https://review.firstround.com/how-superhuman-built-an-engine-to-find-product-market-fit Guest contact info: www.linkedin.com/in/rajeshnerlikar/ twitter.com/rajeshnerlikar rajesh@prodify.group www.prodify.group Sponsor:This podcast is brought to you by grwth.co. Grwth offers fractional CMOs, paired with best-in-class digital marketing execution to support early-stage startup success. With a focus on seed and series A companies, Grwth has helped a number of SaaS, digital health, and e-commerce startups build their go-to-market function and scale up. To learn more and book a free consultation, go to grwth.co. Get in touch with us:www.linkedin.com/in/moshehp/ twitter.com/MoshehP hello@pmfpod.com www.pmfpod.com

Sara Well founded Dropstat with a mission to make healthcare more efficient and humane. Her passion and commitment to that mission are truly inspirational.  In this conversation, Sara discusses her journey from nursing to tech founder, how she came up with the idea for Dropstat, lessons learned while piloting with enterprise customers, and more.  Timestamps:(0:00) Introduction (1:43) What is Dropstat? (3:53) Coming up with the idea for Dropstat and how did COVID affect the business (8:33) Selling to enterprise and the difficulty of behavior change (14:01) Lessons learned on how to choose the right beta customers (17:57) Journey from nurse to tech founder (23:12) Early signs of PMF (29:23) Acquiring customers early on (30:55) Collecting customer feedback (33:04) Grand vision for Dropstat (38:21) Lightning round Guest contact info:https://www.linkedin.com/in/sara-well-35a943168/ www.dropstat.com Sponsor: This podcast is brought to you by grwth.co. Grwth offers fractional CMOs, paired with best-in-class digital marketing execution to support early-stage startup success. With a focus on seed and series A companies, Grwth has helped a number of SaaS, digital health, and e-commerce startups build their go-to-market function and scale up. To learn more and book a free consultation, go to grwth.co. Get in touch: https://www.linkedin.com/in/moshehp/https://twitter.com/MoshehPhello@pmfpod.comwww.pmfpod.com

I’m excited to share my interview with Sam Shepler, founder and CEO of TestimonialHero. I got to work with Sam last year to support his company’s growth efforts and was impressed with Sam’s laser focus on the customer and his methodical way of thinking and executing. Because his business is a tech-enabled service but nearly all his customers are SaaS I thought he would have unique insights on the differences between the two. We also talk about the importance of video, customer storytelling, and finding the right acquisition channels for your business. I really enjoyed this conversation and I think you will too. If you're interested in diving further into the topic of customer storytelling, check out the episode where I was on Sam's podcast The State of Customer Storytelling:https://open.spotify.com/episode/0RZe135vMlT08k9GHEflYG?si=MvYWP8bGQyuHFlORr1J19Ahttps://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/mosheh-poltorak-simplifying-the-customer-marketing/id1599120117?i=1000567612235 Timestamps:(0:00) Introduction (2:02) What is TestimonialHero? (3:42) Coming up with the idea for TestimonialHero (6:14) "Pivoting" during COVID (7:10) Tech-enabled services vs. SaaS (8:35) Finding the right customer acquisition channels (12:21) Customer activation in a service business ("the magic moment") (13:59) Product Market Fit is a moving target (16:43) Getting your first 20 customers (18:51) What is customer storytelling and why is it important? (22:09) What's the grand vision for TestimonialHero? (23:14) Launching secondary product offerings (24:42) Which growth channels worked?   (26:51) Leveraging podcasting as a marketing channel (28:11) Lightning round and final thoughts Guest contact info:https://www.linkedin.com/in/samshepler/ https://twitter.com/SamShepler www.testimonialhero.com Sponsor: This podcast is brought to you by grwth.co. Grwth offers fractional CMOs, paired with best-in-class digital marketing execution to support early-stage startup success. With a focus on seed and series A companies, Grwth has helped a number of SaaS, digital health, and e-commerce startups build their go-to-market function and scale up. To learn more and book a free consultation, go to grwth.co. Get in touch: https://www.linkedin.com/in/moshehp/ https://twitter.com/MoshehPhello@pmfpod.comwww.pmfpod.com

Cart.com’s early story has been nothing short of remarkable! The company was founded in the fall of 2020. And hit $150 million in annualized ARR with an 18 months. To date, the company has raised 400 million in debt and equity financing; and completed nearly a dozen acquisitions. They currently have a roster of over 6,000 brands on the platform. And at last count, a global team of 1400 employees. In this conversation, Omair shares his experience navigating the Cart.com ship through this period of hypergrowth, leading with vision, and growing by acquisitions. We talk about the state of e-commerce and future trends, and what it means to be brand obsessed. Timestamps: (02:57) What is Cart.com? (05:10) Starting out on an ambitious journey (07:27) Finding a blue ocean instead of competing with the incumbents (09:58) The state of ecommerce and commerce enablement software (is Wall St. right?) (13:14) Growing via acquisition (17:19) Are you a roll-up? (18:49) State of the industry and consolidation (20:55) Maintaining culture when growing at break-neck speed / leading with vision (26:27) Fundraising: venture debt vs. equity financing (29:46) Throwing the playbook out the window / brand obsession (33:57) Evolution of the growth team (35:52) The future of digital marketing in a privacy-first world (38:02) Lightning round and wrap-up Guest contact info: https://www.linkedin.com/in/omair-t-922b1913/ www.cart.com Sponsor: This podcast is brought to you by grwth.co. Grwth offers fractional CMOs, paired with best-in-class digital marketing execution to support early-stage startup success. With a focus on seed and series A companies, Grwth has helped a number of SaaS, digital health, and e-commerce startups build their go-to-market function and scale up. To learn more and book a free consultation, go to grwth.co. Get in touch: https://www.linkedin.com/in/moshehp/ https://twitter.com/MoshehP hello@pmfpod.com www.pmfpod.com

Eli Schwartz literally wrote the book on "Product-led SEO," a practice he has applied at leading B2B and B2C companies such as Coinbase, Zendesk, Gusto, MixPanel, Quora and many more.  In this conversation he shares practical advice on implementing this strategy along with examples from Zillow, Figma, Canva and others. We also talk about hiring for SEO in a startup and where SEO should live inside the org, as well as AI tools in SEO.  Sponsor: This podcast is brought to you by grwth.co. Grwth offers fractional CMOs, paired with best-in-class digital marketing execution to support early-stage startup success. With a focus on seed and series A companies, Grwth has helped a number of SaaS, digital health, and e-commerce startups build their go-to-market function and scale up. To learn more and book a free consultation, go to grwth.co. Episode timestamps: (1:27) What is Product-led SEO? (4:07) Zillow case study (7:24) The three pillars of SEO (9:45) Product-led SEO in B2B vs. B2C companies (11:59) Planting as many seeds as possible (13:18) Leveraging AI in SEO (16:11) Hiring for SEO at the early stages (17:34) Where should SEO live within the organization? (18:49) Houston vs. the Bay area (21:29) When does product-led SEO not work? (22:48) Figma & Canva case studies (see notes below) (24:08) The value of link-building (25:29) Applying this to eCommerce (26:38) Final thoughts Guest contact info:  https://www.linkedin.com/in/schwartze/ https://twitter.com/5le Book: https://a.co/d/i8oAiRS Further reading: When you're done the book and want more examples of product-led SEO, check out this article from Kevin Indig (who coincidentally recently started a podcast with Eli called "Contrarian Marketing"): https://www.kevin-indig.com/5-examples-of-product-led-seo/ And here are a couple of great articles on Canva's SEO growth strategy: https://buildd.co/marketing/canva-seo-case-study https://thegrowthplaybook.substack.com/p/canvas-seo-strategy-is-elite Get in touch: https://www.linkedin.com/in/moshehp/ https://twitter.com/MoshehP hello@pmfpod.com www.pmfpod.com

Welcome to Product Market Fit, a podcast all about startup growth.  To kick things off we have Raphael Allstadt, founder and CEO of tl;dv, a tool for recording and transcribing meetings. In this episode, Rapha shares his experience launching on Product Hunt, building viral loops into a product to accelerate growth, experimenting with SaaS pricing and more.  Sponsor: This podcast is brought to you by grwth.co. Grwth offers fractional CMOs, paired with best-in-class digital marketing execution to support early-stage startup success. With a focus on seed and series A companies, Grwth has helped a number of SaaS, digital health, and e-commerce startups build their go-to-market function and scale up. To learn more and book a free consultation, go to grwth.co. Episode timestamps:  (1:29) What is tl;dv? (4:27) Gathering feedback from users (and delighting them) (6:30) Defining product market fit (8:05) Thinking about competitors (10:50) Launching on product hunt (12:59) Video strategy (tl;dv's launch video) (16:30) Building inherent virality into the product (20:46) Product-led motion vs. other go-to-market motions (22:50) Land and expand strategy (24:12) Expanding into additional use-cases (27:21) Social media for brand awareness (29:20) How to launch pricing (33:24) Experimenting with pricing (34:45) The changing nature of work (38:28) final thoughts  Further reading:  To dive deeper into learning about product virality, I recommend reading up on "K-factor" for measuring virality: article 1, article 2. And here are a couple more general guides to building product virality: guide 1, guide 2, guide 3 Get in touch:  https://www.linkedin.com/in/moshehp/ https://twitter.com/MoshehP hello@pmfpod.com www.pmfpod.com

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