Nick Francis Required Phone Numbers to Call Every Early Help Scout User
Nick Francis · Episode 839 | The Journey Growing Help Scout to $35M ARR · Jun 30, 2026 · at 9:27
Help Scout co-founder Nick Francis discusses early customer discovery tactics after participating in Techstars Boston.
0:00 / 0:17exact quote · 17.4s
▶ Watch the full episode on YouTube → 720p mp4 · rendered on demand · StarZero watermark
“Something else that we did was every time somebody signed up, we would require a phone number and I would call every single sign up just to understand. I wasn't there to sell. I was actually just there to be like, why did you sign up? What problem were you trying to solve? Just some really high level questions that really helped us understand our ICP early and often.”
quote is from the automated transcript, cleaned for reading: filler sounds and stutters are removed, nothing is rephrased. names can be misheard (the analysis reads context, assessments check outside sources). how →
More from Nick Francis
Intercom Defines AI Support Resolutions Differently Than 98% of the Market
“The way Intercom, for instance, defines an AI resolution is not the way 98% of the market actually defines an AI resolution.”
Nick Francis Regrets Raising Venture Capital for Help Scout
“But for me personally, looking back now on a 15 year journey, yeah, I would have done it differently. I wouldn't raise money.”
Nick Francis Admits 37signals Was Right About Bootstrapping Over VC
“Damn Jason and David. They just, they were always right about this stuff, you know. As much as I wanted to stress tests, you know, and really push against their way of thinking about this that we've all been inspired by over the years, I just think that they h…”
Nick Francis: 20% of Per-Seat SaaS Subscriptions Are Unused Waste
“The secret of SAS, per seat SAS particularly, is that 20% of those seats shouldn't be paying for anything because they're not even using the tool, right?”