Lucjan Suski, CEO of SEO tool Surfer, explains why his team initially avoided SEO when bootstrapping the company against established competitors like Ahrefs and SEMrush.
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“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 are bootstrapping, you don't have this money, and ideally you get your cash flowing from the get-go to just be able to invest more on tactics that will compound over time.”
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More from Lucjan Suski
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 …”
Lucjan SuskiApr 26, 2023▶ 4:48How we grew to $15M with less than $1M marketing spend
AssertionNot 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…”
Lucjan SuskiApr 26, 2023▶ 3:56How we grew to $15M with less than $1M marketing spend
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.”
Lucjan SuskiApr 26, 2023▶ 6:41How we grew to $15M with less than $1M marketing spend
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 …”
Lucjan SuskiApr 26, 2023▶ 8:04How we grew to $15M with less than $1M marketing spend
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.”
Lucjan SuskiApr 26, 2023▶ 8:23How we grew to $15M with less than $1M marketing spend
Insight
Suski: Bootstrapped SaaS should price higher than competitors at launch
“You should start pricing higher, and not like lower than your competitors, because at the beginning you are looking for early adopters, they will have higher willingness to pay, so you can just capitalize on this and just get some money to get started.”
Lucjan SuskiApr 26, 2023▶ 10:47How we grew to $15M with less than $1M marketing spend
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