Saas Success Stories to Inspire Your Growth Strategy

Dhanilan Manakkalath Dec 14, 2021 10:30:00 AM

The SaaS (software as a service) is snowballing into vast cloud computing. With no code, SaaS gains mainstream adoption, aided by the emergence of web based computing alternatives and virtual platforms.

Cloud computing is a type of computing in which IT-related capabilities are delivered "as a service," allowing consumers to access web-based tools and applications in the cloud without having to understand the underlying technology infrastructure.

Today, growth hacking has emerged as the most effective way to accelerate the success of a SaaS business idea or an app. It's hard to determine what exactly you need to prioritize for your SaaS startup, especially with deciding how much money should be invested in marketing early on.

This article will show you how top SaaS startups grow their businesses through various strategies.

Contents:

Why SaaS is a great business model for Startups?
What makes a successful SaaS Startup?
Who are the investors in SaaS Startup?
Top SaaS success stories
How to succeed in a SaaS startup?
How to build your SaaS with a no code platform?

Why SaaS is a great business model for Startups?

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According to Gartner, SaaS will continue to dominate the market. The SaaS market is estimated to generate almost $122.6 billion in revenue in 2021 alone. SaaS companies are expected to produce $141 billion by 2022.

SaaS (software as a service) is one of the most popular and profitable business models for startups. What makes SaaS such an attractive model? It allows you to achieve some significant benefits.
SaaS platforms are quite easy to build, even for inexperienced builders.
You can easily run and maintain your SaaS company without having to spend a lot of money on infrastructure. Because the applications are hosted in the cloud, they may be accessed from any location where the customer has access to the Internet.
Rapid scalability, which means you can go from zero to USD 100k in monthly recurring revenue within a few months or less if your product is good enough.
Developers will be more likely to build integration options for their existing clients if your SaaS API (application programming interface) is open, which could lead to faster adoption of your solution. Your data centers and infrastructures will be up to date in terms of security.
Ability to sell multiple products through the same website without having to create another site, generate more traffic, and build up another marketing funnel. This saves time and effort in building up new marketing funnels, managing them, and educating potential customers.

What makes a successful SaaS Startup

The world of SaaS is booming with both sales and new companies. In fact, sales and marketing account for almost 70 percent of your total revenue. Salesforce, one of the biggest SaaS companies out there, is on track to hit USD 21.25 billion in revenue this year alone—and that’s just from their top line.

Every day, hundreds of startups launch, but only a few will succeed. In fact, most fail and for good reason, most businesses fail within the first year. But there are some companies that have been able to maintain a high startup success rate. And it’s not luck or coincidence –they have what they need to make their business work from the start.

You can build a great product, but if you can't sell it, you won't make any money! Selling is the hardest part of starting a business. So, what should be the characteristics of a Successful SaaS startup? We will identify the reasons why startups succeed and grow into successful businesses with tremendous opportunities and growth.

Customer Acquisition and Retention

It should go without saying that supplying high-quality products and services that provide actual value to your consumers' lives is the first step toward success with a SaaS business. Companies that excel at customer-centric processes see revenue, client acquisition, and customer retention all grow. During the acquisition stage, the relationships built through social media and other channels have a significant impact on customer conversion. Develop a comprehensive plan that keeps consumers engaged from the first point of contact to the end of their life cycle.

"The basics of business is to stay as close as possible to your customers—understand their behavior, their preferences, their purchasing patterns, etc." - Indra Nooyi,Former Chairman &CEO of the Pepsico.

Using Analytics can show you who is using your product and how they are using it, as well as how they are not using it. What value does your product have that your current customers aren't taking advantage of? What can you do to make the value of your product or service more apparent to both leads and customers? Collecting this information and implementing it into your targeted marketing becomes achievable. This can help you fine-tune your approach and ensure you're accurately addressing consumers' requirements and preferences.

Multiple Channels

Investors value a SaaS company's customer acquisition channels, which they assess for dominance, competitiveness, and conversion. Organic search, content marketing, affiliate marketing, paid advertising, and other approaches will all be used to get customers to a top SaaS company. Having a variety of channels decreases reliance on a single channel while simultaneously showing its profitability in multiple ways.

Understanding ROI

One of the constant issues for every SaaS company is generating enough leads to feed the front end of the funnel, and this is going to be one of the most significant growth limiting factors. Invest in inbound marketing strategies. This will take some time to scale up, but if done correctly, it will cause significantly cheaper lead costs and greater scaling than other paid methods. The typical SaaS consumer is definitely web-savvy, making inbound marketing material and touchless selling approach likely.

Buyers can now use Google and other search engines to research products, identify alternatives, and read blogs and reviews to learn how other people rank those products. Moreover, persons who have emerged as experts in specific subject areas and use social media to communicate their thoughts have a significant influence on them.

seo Vs SEM

SEO requires great content to work on and patience before it will pay back. Initially, the ROI will be lower. However, if done correctly, the results will continue to improve, and you will begin to develop your own audience and traffic. While SEM(PPC marketing) is a paid strategy, requires a constant flow of traffic and fund to be more effective. While they share similarities, both have their own best strategies. Source

Who are the investors in SaaS Startup?

Before starting your own SaaS software company, you need to nail down how you're going to get funding. There are many ways to get funding for your startup, but the most popular way by far is through seed funding.

Some entrepreneurs start off with bootstrapping and then turn to investors when they have a proven business model. This method is risky because you might fail before an investor ever gets involved, and also limits the amount of money invested in your startup. It takes a lot more time and effort than finding an investor upfront and getting started with the right capital for growth.

A seed round of funding can help you get your business up and running, but it will only be enough to cover the bare minimum expenses needed to start a company. But how do you find seed investors? How much does it cost? Is there any way to get money for free?

Angel Investors

An angel investor is a single individual with significant financial resources who is willing to invest in your business. They could be great for entrepreneurs seeking their first significant investment.

Venture Capitalists

Private investors, known as venture capitalists (VCs) provide funding to firms in exchange for equity. They want a high rate of return on investment. They will not only give you money, but also a network and excellent mentorship.

A startup incubator is a program administered by non-profits or private foundations with the sole purpose of assisting entrepreneurs in growing their businesses. Universities and business schools are frequently affiliated with it.

Established SaaS companies look for startup accelerators that fit their needs and use them for a new type of funding experience.

Government-backed investors will also invest in new firms with unique ideas.

65 VC Firms and SaaS Angel Investors to Fund Your B2B Startup

Top SaaS success stories

With the rapid advancement of technology and the internet, we see more and more SaaS (Software as a Service) startups appearing nowadays. With over 1,000 SaaS companies vying for the attention of tech-savvy entrepreneurs and small businesses, gaining that all-important traction is no mean feat. The good news is that when it comes to inspiring tech startups to follow in your footsteps, there’s plenty of inspiration out there. The key is knowing where to look.

I’ve rounded up some of the best examples of SaaS startups who have successfully grown their brand and business through a range of different channels — from viral marketing and crowdfunding sites to social media platforms.

1. HubSpot

HubSpot was formed in 2006 by two MIT fellows, Brian Halligan, and Dharmesh Shah. HubSpot Academy, an online digital marketing training platform, was launched in 2016.

HubSpot, the number 1 tool in SaaS companies, built an ecosystem that combines software, education, and community to help organizations can improve their performance on a daily basis. It was built on the inbound methodology. Inbound marketing is a company strategy that combines multiple "pull marketing" strategies to attract, engage, and delight prospects in order to convert them into customers. SEO, blogging, social networking, and content marketing are examples of such strategies.

HubSpot's strength is its inbound marketing technique, which has allowed the company to dominate multiple marketplaces in various nations throughout the world. HubSpot publishes a few items on its blog every day and organizes webinars on a regular basis.

Another source of the company's strength is the popularity and usefulness of its content management system (CMS) software. The HubSpot cloud based CRM platform is a comprehensive set of tools designed to support this inbound strategy and assist you and your clients to achieve greater success.

hubspot revenue growth

On the open market, HubSpot, Inc. is valued at $26.30 billion. The number of customers has increased by 45 percent to 113,925. The number of customers is increasing faster than revenue. This is possibly the most important takeaway of all.

2. Airbnb

Airbnb was founded in 2008 as AirBedAndBreakfast.com by three friends, Brian Chesky, Nathan Blecharczyk, and Joe Gebbia, in San Francisco. Airbnb began as a platform for more than just travel, were struggling to make ends meet. Today, there are over four million hosts all over the world.

Airbnb is a SaaS based website that connects visitors with local hosts that allows people to market their available space and earn money by renting it out. Airbnb allows visitors to book unique homestays from local hosts, saving money and allowing them to interact with the community.

Referral programs that reward community members for trying to refer new users to the platform, showcasing and selling the unique experiences that customers have had using it in the form of blogs and video content, and an influencer marketing strategy that increased website traffic and lead generation are all part of Airbnb's marketing strategy.

Airbnb has a presence in over 100,000 places and has over 5 million active listings on its websites to assist visitors in engaging with fresh travel experiences. Its tremendous expansion has resulted in a thriving business worth $35 billion.

Airbnb, well-known for offering services at a lower cost than hotel chains, is active in over 220 countries worldwide. This platform has been added to Nasdaq 100 Tech index as part of its annual reconstitution.

How to succeed in a SaaS startup?

Understanding the market

Once a company has identified a specific client problem that needs to be solved, they might well be assured that there is a market for the product they are developing. By studying the market, they are better able to determine what each client requires, implying that their SaaS solution will find a niche in which it may thrive.

As specific as possible

A SaaS product's success depends on how well it focuses on solving a specific problem. It's tempting to look at Salesforce's enormous success and want to replicate it, but businesses must start small before they can scale up.

“There is only one boss—the customer. And he can fire everybody in the company from the chairman on down, simply by spending his money somewhere else.” - Sam Moore Walton

Finding a niche of people who have a specific problem that has to be handled is the only way to do it. The most successful SaaS products are often built by establishing a strong, devoted customer base, which ultimately determines the success of any product.

A visioned founder

https://blog.undaku.com/product-led-growth-and-saas

The quantity of capital raised

Unless anything extraordinary happens in the future, money will continue to be the most important factor in any product's success. Those that are good at raising funds stand a better chance of succeeding.

Must watch this video by Palki Sharma Upadhyay (editor at WION): Gravitas Plus: India's start-up story

How to build your SaaS with no code platform?

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The SaaS industry is flourishing with its success stories. If you want to establish a business that scales, it's important to learn what's succeeded for other SaaS organizations to inspire your growth approach.

Create a go-to-market business early on. Make your early recruits passionate and proud about their successes. When customers are given the ability to develop, they become the first advocates for your products.

Undaku no-code platform is remarkably versatile and scalable, regardless of the size of your company or your plans for future expansion. Customers are enabled to create unique solutions for themselves due to the products' building block nature. This platform enables quick creation and deployment without the need for coding.

To get started with your own SaaS product, call Undaku experts for a free consultation.

Try the Undaku No Coding Platform for free here!

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