Lucjan Suski, CEO of Surfer, explains the economics of paying recurring 30% lifetime affiliate commissions in SaaS.
Insight
Suski: SaaS Under $10M ARR Should Charge Upfront Instead of Free Trials
“If you are just starting, or if you are just below ten million dollars ARR probably, you should focus on building a shut up and take money money product. So, focus on getting those early adopters. They will basically Either buy your product or not. They don't …”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Suski: Offering 7-Day Free Trial Did Not Increase Surfer's Conversion Rate
“And then we thought, yeah, maybe it's a good idea to let people try Surfer without, you know, paying up front 15, 59 dollars just for, like, a credit card details. We'll charge them after seven days. That's probably going to make the conversion much higher. An…”
Insight
Suski: SEO in competitive niches is impractical for early bootstrapped startups
“Our niche was highly competitive, so we were to compete with Ahrefs, SEMrush, HubSpot, big domains, big players, so if that's the case, you will need to wait for results for a long time, like a year or so, and you'll need to invest a lot of money, and if you a…”
Insight
Suski: Startups should wait until $1M+ profit before investing in SEO
“If you're profitable over one million dollar a year, you do invest in SEO, so we just waited for some time.”
Insight
Suski: Early-stage startups should prioritize local meetups over giant conferences
“Don't go to like, big conferences trying to sell your product if you're just getting started. What to do instead? Go for a local meetup. You will be able to form much more intimate relationship with your customers, area adopters. It will compound over time as …”
Opinion
Suski: Avoid generic conferences like Web Summit or SaaStock to sell software
“That, that can work, but don't go to, like, generic, ah, Web Summit or SAS talk conferences.”