5 Growth Lessons from Scaling to $75+ Million in Revenue - Jason VandeBoom
•Download as PPTX, PDF•
1 like•653 views
ActiveCampaign CEO Jason VandeBoom will share his take on traditional growth strategies, why they don’t always make sense and break down the lessons learned from scaling the unscalable into one of the fastest-growing, sustainable businesses.
Recommended
Recommended
More Related Content
Similar to 5 Growth Lessons from Scaling to $75+ Million in Revenue - Jason VandeBoom
Similar to 5 Growth Lessons from Scaling to $75+ Million in Revenue - Jason VandeBoom (20)
More from Traction Conf
More from Traction Conf (20)
Recently uploaded
Recently uploaded (20)
5 Growth Lessons from Scaling to $75+ Million in Revenue - Jason VandeBoom
- 2. Lessons learned from scaling beyond $75m in ARR
- 3. Quick background on ActiveCampaign 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019
- 4. Decade focused on on-premise software 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019
- 5. Transition to SAAS 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019
- 6. Scaling 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019
- 7. Common themes: Chasing the most difficult paths. Not following a playbook.
- 9. Scale doesn’t require distance from your customers
- 10. CX First = Qualitative Measurement
- 11. Invest in CX Support Team (We all do this) Customer Success Team (Most are doing this) CX Team (We should be doing this) (But we often overthink it)
- 12. Lesson #2: Find your own path
- 13. Use unscalable to your advantage
- 15. Lesson #3: Don’t go global, be global
- 16. International is not a growth channel
- 18. Lesson#4: Pain is not success
- 19. People seek pain to drive ego
- 20. Chase happiness
- 21. This should be company wide
- 23. False validators
- 24. True validators
Editor's Notes
- Today - how we scaled - continue to grow/accel Taking a less than obv path Things that may not make sense on paper Challenge norm Innovating how you scale
- First All the way back 2003 consulting/repeating Didnt like that so much Package as on-prem / focus on smb / challenge
- Decade building tools / Contact mgmt 8 tools / customer lifecycle Not normal approach / maybe didnt provide growth results others like learned about growing businesses/ customer experiences Automation within each Conclusion = unifying customer experience
- Pay for things Not abandon early customers
- Since 2016 -- added 75k customers -- 20 to over 500 people Creating a category of Customer Experience Automation improving how brands and customers interact
- Key to our growth Sustainable Not needing to buy growth Having passion Finding a different path Seemingly random / early stage / using same
- used to like product first / thought it would solve everything Dream - vocal - no sales team Realization = Product first well intentioned but its narrow We all know this. When we start a biz or launch a prod we obsess
- As we find some traction.. Something interesting starts we create distance (human instince/ think required to scale) Cpl customers? Get support Feedback? Tooling replace the human component Try to make quantitative issue
- Customer experience much more qualitative Nps / avoid / Tone vs numbers @ac take it pretty far - read all nps/churn emails - never know actual # - But always know the tone # Qualitative throughout org - esp to leadership - we have created paths where at risk acts surface to all levels of leadership Goal is to surface qualitative sentiment - that will drive team. Engagement to solve for pain & opportunities
- Support - spreading tone Success - assume it will help Tools / Acv limit @ac how we built success / no specific acv value Things going great - Churn improving. Cx opp existed (based on tone) Cx -- Create a cx role. Build into team. Not success. Looking at entire experience. Not part of any not cx expert Have been able to further accelerate (now proven qual and quant) This impact. Took an assumption. tool
- Differentiating with cx just the start Believe your path needs to be differentiated need to innovate how you scale - just like your biz
- Many talk about unscalable sales & mkting growth hacks - way to find growth #1 growth hack is ppl Counter intuitive -- service frowned upon Goes against the idea of “product first” Early on can do so much… that others cant Freemium - strat sessions - thousands Migrations team - 40-80 hrs. sticky/advocacy/where we build tooling Think about your biz. What 1 thing waiting to build.. Offer today with people dont replace people - extend reach
- May sound scary/unrealistic Thats the poiint = allows for greater opportunity Why we focus on smb. Operate there Ent will come to you. Defensible Wanted to see customers in person / User conf Cultural advantage. Solving complex. Wanting challenges. drives engagement -- drive innovation - fun
- first client scuba 55% intl When people hear -- they want to know how
- True international growth -- Part of dna of company Dont bolt on Needs to be part of culture. Part of dna of company Dev stories / personas Customer stories Get face time. Hire in pers translators. Understand their difficulties
- Misconception Start with prod/eng - Easter egg - br example - transparent partial Ready to invest? Pick single market Avoid following peers/obvious locations Brazil - understanding of passion and need within market This approach - invest in highest potential - not the most proven
- Common thought is you should struggle Articles of people barely making it.
- Pain idolized True - rollercoaster - team & founders Type of thinking makes us Look for it // keep longer than needed Interesting. Ego-driven. to validate self Jason overextending; hinders growth
- So how do we break? Requires a true focus & continual work Think about in same way as delegation & team building At AC, focus on high/low energy moments Invest in higher energy Sounds simple - Growth takeaway - chase happy
- Not just CEO Company can/should have culture/framework to support @ac Ind level 2x year Run programs and tests to try new things invest L&D well beyond our peers Most importantly. Setting expectation A comp cant do this for people A comp cant create happiness But we can make it a focus. A theme We can allow time to pursue But we are there to help guide
- While scaling a company its normal to compare To peers Whats on the market So much of that is designed to Make you feel like you are losing Trick you down the wrong paths
- false validators - or short lived partial validators Employee count Funding Press, speeches Noise Stop worrying/chasing is freeing feeling Need constant reminder AC spend time on this, only to find had advantages
- What’s true? May sound generic/obv Customers. Retention. Employees. Cust Stories Qual tone of your CX Celebrate, long lasting / market internally (celebrate more than false) (reiterate non stop) Do whatever you can to control ability to focus on true validators Trust you know your business // differentiation Follow hunches