Insight certainty 3/5 debate potential 2/5

Creator SaaS requires users to adopt a new identity to use it

Brian McCanulty · Nobody Wakes Up Excited to Use Software - So He Built This Instead · Sep 1, 2026 · at 1:21

Brian McCanulty, founder of Heights Platform, explains why onboarding creator businesses is uniquely difficult.

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“I think I think I picked a, in some ways a challenging business because it's a software as a service where the customer has to like truly make a decision to become somebody in order to be using your product.”

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