Geoff Roberts @Outseta. Growing a SaaS in a competitive market

saas.unbound is a podcast for and about founders who are working on scaling inspiring products that people love brought to you by https://saas.group/.

I’m your host Anna Nadeina, Head of Growth for saas.group. In this episode #6, we are talking with Geoff Roberts the co-founder of https://www.outseta.com/ , an all-one platform to monetize any website, SaaS product, or online community. With Geoff, we discuss their 2-year journey to MVP, partnership with Webflow, and adoption by the no-code community, as well as Outseta’s outstanding company culture.

(0:00:01) – Founding and Scaling Outseta 

Outsata’s founding story, scaling story, and how they managed to become successful in the competitive SaaS market are discussed. It took two years to develop the MVP and two more years to mature the product to a future parity with the tools they compete against. Jeff states that a great product is the best flywheel for success and that targeting SaaS founders from the start was a difficult challenge. He shares that the key to success was recognizing the inefficiencies of the status quo and offering a better solution.

(0:08:29) – Scaling a Bootstrap SaaS Business 

Outsata’s founding story and scaling story have enabled them to become successful in the SaaS market. They were able to stay close to their customers and were eventually discovered by the no-code community. SEO and content have been their biggest source of leads and they leveraged partnerships with Stripe and Webflow to further their growth. Their focus on bootstrap founders has impacted their approach to running the company, including not having a sales team.

(0:19:08) – Sustainable Software Platform Building 

Outsata has been able to stay close to their customers and serve early-stage software companies, even with their limited feature set. We explore how they combat objections from customers who want more specialized tools. We also reflect on the goals of Outsata and how they strive to create a win-win situation for their customers, employees, and themselves.

(0:33:35) – Scaling a Company and Lessons Learned 

We discuss the importance of bringing on the right hire at the right time. We learn about Outseta’s last hire, Bernard, and his role in the company. We also explore how scaling the business has changed the founder’s management style and how they have been able to remain customer focused even with a limited feature set. Finally, we hear about the founder’s biggest wins and failures, and what motivates them on a daily basis.

(0:49:34) – Technical Knowledge and No-Code Success 

We explore the need for non-technical users to understand the basics of technology, and how the no-code community is investing in education to support this. We also examine how the no-code market is maturing and how Outseta has managed to stay close to their customers and serve early-stage software companies even with their limited feature set. We learn about Outseta’s last hire, Bernard, and his role in the company, as well as the importance of bringing on the right hire at the right time.