⛽ Issue #97: Fueling Success In The SaaS Industry
DoWhatWorks CEO and Product Growth Expert Andres Glusman shares the practical lessons he learned from launching MeetUp.com and his approach to succeeding in the competitive world of SaaS
💬 Welcome to issue #97 of Between the Lines
Good morning & happy Thursday. A new set of apps and software tools pop up every week. And for SaaS startup founders, this translates to fiercer competition and a more challenging road to success than in the past.
This week, Claremont product growth expert Andrés Glusman, co-founder and CEO of DoWhatWorks, discusses leveraging growth experimentation to fuel success in the SaaS industry. He shares the lessons he learned from successfully launching MeetUp.com and how guided learning is key to winning in the competitive world of SaaS. It’s a Claremont world out there. 👇
~ Josh, Miles, Pat
📢 👥 Community Voices: Learning from the Winners with DoWhatWorks' Andres Glusman
Claremont graduate Andres Glusman (PO' 96) is a product/growth leader and the co-founder and CEO of DoWhatWorks. With a background in behavioral economics and early involvement in the Internet, Andres has a deep understanding of online marketing. After co-founding the Performance Marketing Division at i-traffic, the world's first online marketing agency, he spent fifteen years at MeetUp.com as Director, VP for Product, and Chief Strategy Officer before founding DoWhatWorks, a startup aimed at helping growth, marketing, and product teams accelerate their conversion rates.
Recently, Andres joined Ben Hillman from Protect The Hustle for a conversation about embracing experimentation, the practical lessons learned from launching MeetUp.com, and his approach to succeeding in the competitive world of SaaS.
Imagine standing in a gym, facing an overwhelming array of free weights, machines, and fitness programs. Choosing where to start is challenging, and without proper guidance, you may squander your resources on ineffective methods, yielding little progress. Now picture an experienced personal trainer, like Andres Glusman, who directs you towards exercises that are proven to work, align with your personal goals, and minimize risks. This scenario finds its echo in the B2B SaaS landscape, a complex gym of infinite growth strategies where identifying productive strategies from unproductive ones demands the expertise of a growth experimentation maestro.
High-Level Overview:
Embrace Experimentation: Andres Glusman champions the idea of running growth experiments within your organization. The principle is simple, yet profound - test a variety of strategies, learn from the outcomes, and optimize based on what works.
Learn From Successes: Drawing on his experience with MeetUp.com, Andres teaches us to focus on techniques that have already proven successful. It's the equivalent of not wasting time on ineffective workout techniques in a gym.
Avoid Past Failures: Andres emphasizes the importance of avoiding strategies that have already proven to be ineffective. His philosophy cuts down on wasted time and resources, akin to not spending effort on futile exercise routines.
Leverage Real-World Experience: With his involvement in the launch of MeetUp.com, Andres stands out as a seasoned 'trainer'. He offers invaluable, practical lessons, far from theoretical knowledge, which he gleaned from his hands-on experience.
Guided Learning is Key: Andres underscores the importance of guided learning in growth experimentation. Much like having a personal trainer in a gym, having someone who knows the ropes can help avoid missteps and accelerate progress in the complex landscape of SaaS growth strategies.
Learning from Successful Experiments
In the competitive world of SaaS, the difference between success and stagnation often lies in one's ability to conduct and learn from successful growth experiments. As any seasoned gym-goer can tell you, finding the most effective exercise regimen takes time, patience, and a lot of trial and error. This approach is just as applicable when it comes to orchestrating growth in SaaS businesses. The most successful companies aren't those who shy away from experimentation, but those who learn from their winners, optimize, and then iterate.
Trial and Embrace Change: Be prepared to experiment with different techniques, products, or strategies. Embrace change and understand that some experiments will work better than others.
Data-Driven Decisions: Lean heavily on data to determine your 'winning' experiments. This ensures that your strategy is rooted in fact, not guesswork or bias.
Continuous Learning: Even a successful experiment can be improved. Never stop learning, iterating, and experimenting. There's always room for improvement.
Focus on the Customer: All experiments should ultimately improve the customer experience. If they're not, reassess your strategy and pivot accordingly.
Organizational Buy-In: Everyone within the organization should be aligned on the value of experimentation and be prepared to learn from the results, whether they're positive or negative.
In conclusion, learning from successful growth experiments isn't just about finding what works and sticking to it. It's about understanding why it works, and how you can apply those learnings to other areas of your business. It's about taking calculated risks, analyzing your results, and using this data to guide your future strategies. It's a continuous journey, not a destination. With this mindset, your SaaS company will be well-positioned to stay ahead of the competition and sustain long-term growth.
Check out the full interview for more insights on how Andrés leverages growth experimentation for success. 👇
👨🎓👩🎓 Claremont Introductions: The Silicon Valley Program
Looking for interns? As the fall semester approaches, undergrads from the Claremont Colleges are seeking internships as part of CMC’s semester-long Silicon Valley Program. Their interests include engineering, data analytics, product management, biz dev/sales, and content creation. Many technical interns are also interested in engineering roles this year.
Internships can be remote or in-person, beginning Monday, September 11, and ending Friday, December 8, though they can be extended if there is mutual interest. The program does not require compensation, but some students may need it to help cover the increased costs of living in the Bay for the semester.
You can view program information and the students' resumes here. If you are interested in hiring any of these interns or would like to connect them to others, contact Ron LaPierre. 👇
📣 Claremont Announcements: Laura Hsieh & Andrew Gray
Indie Bio recently announced their 2023 Cohort and two Claremont-founded startups made it to the list. Congratulations to Claremont grads Laura Hsieh (SC' 09), CEO and founder of TippingPoint Biosciences, and Andrew Gray (KGI' 13), CEO and co-founder of Karma Biotechnologies.
TippingPoint Biosciences is dedicated to creating new approaches to treat diseases of genome packaging, such as hard-to-treat cancers, and improving the patient’s quality of life.
Karma Biotechnologies is an oncology company targeting solid tumors, starting with colorectal cancer. Their technology aims to deliver cytokines and other biologicals, such as IL-15, specifically to tumor and metastatic sites, avoiding the dangers of systemic toxicity. This localized IL-15 will turn cold tumors hot, allowing the body to clear the cancer.
Check out the full announcement to learn more about what these 7C scientists are working on. 👇
🏷️ Claremont Discounts: BioVenture Nexus
A massive shoutout to Claremont alumnus and Orbillion Bio co-founder Samet Yildirim (KGI' 13) for procuring a 25% discount code for the Claremont community to this year’s BioVenture Nexus conference in downtown LA.
BioVenture Nexus is where you’ll have the opportunity to connect with industry leaders, leading investors, top researchers, and visionary entrepreneurs transforming the future of synthetic biology, biotech, food tech, bioprocessing, AI, startups, and venture capital.
When: October 5-6, 2023
Where: JW Marriott - The Ritz Carlton, Los Angeles, CA
DISCOUNT CODE: BIONEXUSCLAREMONT25
Check out the website for more information about the event, or register with the link below if you’re interested.
💼 Who’s Hiring?: Drafter & Subcity
Claremont entrepreneur and VC Peter Atkin (PO) and Chris Barton are the co-founders of Drafter – an early-stage engineering software built to simplify and automate 2D drawings, ensuring accuracy and reducing creation time. Drafter allows hardware teams to control quality, increase time to market, and lower the cost of producing high-quality products. Peter and Chris are looking for a rockstar Full-Stack Engineer to join their founding team. If you’re interested in an opportunity to lead the development and work on a cutting-edge product with a talented team, check out the opening here:
Subcity is a comprehensive cash flow management and planning system democratizing access to capital for small businesses and manufacturers. The company was co-founded by Claremont entrepreneur Gil Gonzales (PZ' 03), who directly negotiated $150M+ in economic incentives for hundreds of businesses with over $1.7B in capital expenditures. Subcity is backed by top investors, including HomeBrew, Garuda Ventures, and The Fund. They’re hiring for several founding member roles:
Check out the other ~5,000 open jobs at 400+ Claremont-affiliated companies here on our Storyboard. Plus, create a profile and enter your preferences to get alerted to new job postings relevant to you, be they the 1,000+ remote jobs, 100+ internships, or 40+ part-time positions available. We’ve published research that shows that Claremont-founded companies that disproportionately hire Claremont talent outperform — so pay attention, Claremonsters!
If any of these roles catch your eye 👀 , apply and mention Between the Lines. Or, if you are an employer looking to hire tip-top Claremont talent, fill out this form to have your jobs featured.
🗣️ Conversations on the Interwebz:
This week’s must-watch 📺
Claremont grad and StoryHouse portfolio founder Sagar Batchu (HMC) sat down with Mike Difulco to discuss what inspired him to build a world-class API DevEx platform. He is the CEO and co-founder of Speakeasy – an API DevEx platform that instantly creates SDKs that make API integration easy for your users.
This week’s Claremont financing 💸
Congratulations to Claremont serial entrepreneur Brian Johnston (PO) and his company RealSeq Biosciences on their $1.5M Seed round led by Tech Coast Angels. RealSeq is developing RNA fragmentomics as real-time diagnostics for diseases and is a spin-out of SomaGenics’ RNA-seq business, another biotech startup co-founded by Brian that pioneered the development of a proprietary class of short interfering RNA.
Congratulations to Claremont grad and Tezcat Biosciences CEO Craig Ramirez (PO' 11) on their recent $2M SBIR Phase II Grant from the NCI. Craig co-founded Tezcat to research and develop novel biologic-based therapies to treat the most aggressive cancers. In addition, Tezcat has also been selected as one of the showcase companies for the 2023-2024 NCI SBIR Investor Initiatives program.
Congratulations to Claremont entrepreneur and CEO David Arfin (CGU ‘86) and Ninedot on their recent $25M financing from NY Green Bank and $1.2M grant from NYSERDA. NineDot, co-founded by David, focuses on distributed “community-scale” battery energy storage system projects which provide flexibility to enable electrification and decarbonization in urban environments.
This week’s top listen 🎧
Claremont grad Vanessa Castañeda Gill (CMC ‘18) was interviewed on the HER Ambition podcast about her experiences growing up with autism and ADHD. She shares the founding story of her company and sheds more light on the need for a more inclusive approach to the development of today’s youth. Vanessa is the co-founder and CEO of Social Cipher – an SEL platform that connects neurodivergent youth and their advocates in an immersive virtual world.
Claremont grad and CEO Eric Youngstrom (PZ' 91) joined the Debutify podcast to share his insights on the best time to consider financial lending for e-commerce, how best to use the funds, and the usual lending challenges. Eric founded Onramp Funds – a financing platform purpose-built for eCommerce entrepreneurs.
Everything else you need to know💡
Fresh from their $200M funding round, CNN interviewed Claremont entrepreneur Kurt House (CMC' 01) about how his company utilizes AI and data aggregation to pinpoint critical metals for clean energy. Kurt is the co-founder and CEO of KoBold Metals – an AI mining startup recently valued at $1B+ and backed by Bill Gates’s Breakthrough Energy Ventures, a16z, and BOND.
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🍽️ BTL Snacks:
🏗️ Building A $2B Facility In The Metaverse….. AI and metaverse company MeetKai recently teamed up with Silicon Box to build a digital twin of the semiconductor startup’s $2B chipmaking plant in Singapore. MeetKai will provide Silicon Box with one of the top immersive digital twin technologies demonstrating its commitment to developing and rolling out AI and metaverse solutions. They also plan to expand their list of virtual experience solutions and contribute their GenAI technologies to the current and future Metaverse. Claremont grad James Kaplan (HMC) is the co-founder and CEO of MeetKai.
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