Teemu Raitaluoto

Next week Funnelytics is doing a big product release and I can't wait! In anticipation of next week's major Funnelytics product release, I decided to create a short guide on how to accurately predict funnel performance, before spending time or money building anything.    (Can you guess what the product release is going to be? 👀 🕵️)   Here’s a concise step-by-step guide to help you get started: #1) Outline Your Funnel Structure Map out each step of the funnel. Use the 6 essential funnel templates as a guide to get started, since 99% of high converting funnels will be one (or a combination) of these 6 funnels. (comment below "Funnel Templates" if you want me to send them to you) #2) Specify Your Targets What's your marketing budget? What are your revenue or KPI targets? What is the frequency or timeline you have to hit those KPIs (per day, per week, per month - or is it for a set time range)? If you don't know what you are trying to achieve, then having a forecast isn't very useful.   #3) Set Your Product Prices, Marketing Spend and Estimated Traffic Volumes Your customer journey/funnel should always be mapped all the way to a purchase, because let's face it - nothing else matters! In order to properly calculate ROI, you'll need to establish the average purchase value and the marketing spend. #4) Research Industry Benchmarks For Conversion Rates Look up conversion rate benchmarks for your industry and similar funnels. More details on this next week - we've got something prepared that will make this very easy for you.   #5) Set Your Conversion Rates Set realistic conversion rates across each step of the funnel based on benchmarks and historical data.    #6) Run Different Scenarios Play with different conversion rates to see how it will impact the ROI of your funnel. Establish a Best, Worst and Likely case scenarios to see the possible outcomes   #7) Compare to Real Data Of course, a forecast is just that - a forecast! You need to compare your forecast to your real numbers to see what's Red, Yellow and Green! Where did you crush it, and where did you fall short?   #8) Adjust the Forecast Based on Real Data Your actual data will guide how you adjust your forecast and where you focus your efforts to make more money from the same marketing spend. By following these steps, you'll be able to create a solid funnel forecast that guides your efforts and helps you make the most of your marketing budget.   Typically this would take HOURS to build in a spreadsheet. Next week, I'm going to show you how you can do it in minutes.

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🙈 The only guide on startup fundraising in 2024 you’ll ever need 2 months ago, Slava Solonitsyn and I hosted a 1.5h private webinar on “How to raise in 2024 — a guide to parallel fundraising” as part of FundraisingHackers.com. Slava is definitely not your average tech founder — previously a VC (with 2 unicorns out of his seed portfolio, cc Ruvento Ventures), he turned to being a founder, went through Y Combinator twice, and co-founded one of the top YC companies, Mighty Buildings. Slava has raised over $180M in his entrepreneurial career. In this guide, you’ll find: 📅 Data on the current market conditions ✅ Benchmarks on the funnel/conversions 🖇️ CRM/weekly plan/taskforce templates 📡 Introduction to parallel fundraising/taskforce concepts ...and much more! Slava has spent more than 10 years applying and perfecting this playbook and you can now get it and read/watch implement it for free — at Fundraising Hackers we believe that fundraising knowledge should be free for all and it’s our mission to do our best to share our experience. Want to get the links to the recording and slides? ✏ Drop a "+", emoji or any other comment below ☑️ Make sure to follow me or I won’t be able to DM you I'll start sending them today. #fundraising #startups #YC #AI

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Stuck in a B2B SaaS design rut? Let's refresh it! The world of B2B SaaS moves fast. Keeping your design current is the key to staying ahead.  Here's how to breathe new life into it: - Small wins, big impact: Break down big design projects into smaller, more manageable pieces. Why? This lets you test ideas quickly and make adjustments along the way. - Talk it out: Communication is key! Get everyone involved in the design process brainstorming and working together. - Listen up! I`ll repeat it again and again that your customers are the ones using your product, so their feedback is invaluable. - Be flexible: New information and market trends are always popping up. Stay adaptable so you can adjust your designs when needed to keep them relevant. Try to follow these few tips and you`ll see your design process that's both creative and adaptable, allowing you to keep your B2B SaaS product ahead of the curve! Have you ever tried this strategy? Share below! #SaaS #B2B #AgileDesign

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Scaling your SaaS company? Avoid these 5 common mistakes: 1. Not defining your Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) 2. Scaling too quickly without a solid foundation 3. Ignoring customer retention in favor of acquisition 4. Failing to adapt to changing market conditions 5. Not measuring key metrics like churn rate and CAC Don't let your growth stall. Learn from the mistakes of others and scale your SaaS company with confidence. #SaaSTipsAndTricks #RevenueGrowthForSaaS #SaaSMarketingAndSales #SaaSRevenueOptimization #SaaSGrowthAndScaling

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⛓️‍💥 What’s the root cause of trouble for many companies? It's called ICP - Ideal Customer Profile. Most issues at the Go-To-Market and product intersection start here. I work with various founders and CEOs across different company stages. In almost every conversation, the Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) comes up. Two big mistakes I see many companies still make today. I encountered them at least 10 times in the last few months. I post them here not to shame but to increase awareness – I made these mistakes myself due to unawareness. 👉 Here they are, so you can avoid them. 1️⃣ Defining the ICP in itself does not lead to any value. When I ask founders: “Do you have a clearly defined ICP?” They often say, “Yes, we did an exercise once with an external consultant.” Many forget that the ICP is just the basis for improved messaging and positioning, which in turn forms the foundation of all customer-facing copy like sales narratives, decks, and the website. Also, it needs to be a continuous exercise. 2️⃣ ICP exercises are discounted as a marketing exercise. Many understand the importance of a crystal-clear ICP for a repeatable sales process. However, what's often missing is the link to repeatable value delivery on the product side. What's winning a customer based on a crystal-clear ICP, only to figure out that the product cannot deliver it? A bad idea. Defining your ICP is not just a marketing/sales activity but needs to be an integral part of the company strategy. Let me know your thoughts! #GTM #ProductManagement #CEO #Leadership #Marketing #Sales P.S. I’m happy to help you fix these issues at the intersection of GTM and product. — Hi, I’m Tom. I help deep tech CEOs build robust GTM functions in line with their tech advantage. The result? No more confused customers and faster growth with less burn. 🚀 Founders Co.: 🙌 Deep Tech GTM Advisory 📚 Check out my free resources and guides ➡️ Follow for more Deep Tech and Entrepreneurial Insights

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I want to help 3 early stage startups get to Product Market Fit (PMF) in 3 - 6 months for FREE. One of the biggest challenge of early stage startups is getting to PMF as quickly as possible. So what I want to do is serve as a consultant to look into their products. Here are some of the key areas I would focus on: - How valuable is their product - The feasibility of the product - How easy to use the product is - The product's viability I would also be looking into: - The target users of the product - The product's vision - Business objectives - Their product strategy Finally, I would look at their - Product Launch plan - Marketing strategy - Time to value (TTV) - User Experience (UX) - Retention / Churn potential Using all the information and data I have gathered from the key areas above, I would provide guidance on what the startups should do to help them get to Product Market Fit (PMF) as quickly as possible. If you know a startup founder who is building a product or has built a product to solve an important problem that is affecting Africans significantly, connect them with me or share this with them Just simply complete this form - https://lnkd.in/g7qZGTr5 Let's work together to make our ecosystem more robust. #startups #founders #productmanagement #business #enoverlab

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Product Market Fit is something you can feel as a startup founder, things just seem to go smoothly. However, how do you get there? 1. Ship fast 2. Find and develop a distribution channel 3. Sell 4. Iterate 4. Do it again and again — Most startups struggle finding the distribution channel and don’t get enough traction to iterate. For that try finding out where your customers hang out and give them value recurrently and free 🚀

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Win-loss is not just about win rates. And it's definitely not just about losses. ✅ A mature win-loss program is a portfolio view of: - Where to play ♟️♟️♟️ - How to win, more efficiently 💲💲💲 See below image - portfolio view of Use cases (each bubble is a Use case): 1️⃣ Scale: Amplify what's already working well.  📈 2️⃣ Fix: Address revenue leaks / execution issues.  🩸 3️⃣ Grow: Invest in building demand.  🌱 4️⃣ Bet or divest: Wildcards ♠️ ➡️ A portfolio view enables outcome-based resource prioritization. There are no bad choices, just better ones! Here’s the catch. ➡️ Creating a portfolio view, at this level of granularity, requires a LARGE sample size.  As they say, go broad to go deep. ⚙️ That's why Tribyl, Inc. mines ALL deals and conversations, using A.I. But that's not all. ✅ Mature win-loss programs operationalize insights in GTM workflows, AND they surface early feedback from LIVE deals. ➡️ Why wait a few quarters to know what's working, what isn't? Topics for another post! 👋 Want to get more out of your win-loss program, leveraging AI? Let's talk. Tribyl, Inc. #winloss #competition #analytics #productmarketing #cmo #revenueintelligence #demandgeneration #genai #win #loss #cro #salesoperations

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One of the most BS statements about VCs: VCs do not add value to companies pre product-market-fit. RUBBISH. They can hone ICPs, advise on messaging, channel selection, content creation, pricing. I have seen countless VCs move the needle in helping companies find PMF. #founder #funding #business #investing #vc #venturecapital #entrepreneur #startup

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Being an early stage founder is lonely and fundraising is a hard slog. One thing that I am constant with is that as a founder you are your presentation. It is the core of the relationship between founders and potential investors. On the other side, I think the most important thing investors have for founders is feedback. Too many investors walk away from meetings with founders without giving them real feedback. I often hear investors say there is no upside to feedback. I actually believe the opposite is true. Good founders need feedback to become great. I think it should be part of the founder seed investor bargain. Give direct feedback and make sure that feedback is what you say in private. Of course, I do not hear from the folks I may have offended, But for me, I would rather live with that then not help a founder.

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Product-Led Growth isn't just a buzzword. It's the future of SaaS. And at Writesonic, it's our present. 85% of our revenue comes from PLG. Yes, you read that right. 85%. Here's why PLG works so well: 1. Users become your best salespeople 2. Lower CAC 3. Faster growth, global scale But here's the catch: PLG isn't just about having a free trial or freemium model. It's about building a product that sells itself. Our journey to 85% PLG revenue wasn't easy. It required: • Obsessive focus on user experience • Constant iteration based on user feedback • Seamless upgrade paths • Strategic use of AI to enhance product value But the real magic of PLG? It forces you to build a product users actually want. Not what you think they want. Not what your sales team can convince them they want. What they actually want. And that's powerful. So, here's my challenge to you: Don't just add a free trial and call it PLG. Rethink your entire approach. Put your product at the center of your growth strategy. Let users experience the value before they pay. Trust me, your CAC will thank you. Your users will thank you. And your growth curve? It'll speak for itself. The PLG revolution is here. Are you ready to let your product do the talking?

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The highest valuation in a financing round might be attractive but often it is not the option you should chose. Because it will hurt you later. 1.) With an established valuation you also create an expectation for the exit price. E.g. if you raise at 50m you need to build a 500m company - ask yourself how feasible that is in your industry with your model 2.) The highest bidder might not be the best fit for you in terms of know-how and/or on a personal level. Given you will be "married" to your investor for a longer period of time a 100% match is important. 3.) Often raising at a more aggressive valuation takes longer, so you will put the money to work later than with a less competitive but faster round. It is worth asking yourself if some or maybe all of the additional dilution of a lower priced round will be offset by putting the money to work earlier and spending less time on fundraising. 4.) The high price might come with additional asks that can hurt you later 2x liq pref, additional guarantees.... So don't raise the price at all cost

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Most startups measure Time to Value in the wrong perspective When is your customer receiving value? TTV can vary greatly. I suggest kicking off the client engagement by asking them to agree on a joint success plan. For example: if you load data on day 1, and they suddenly have better insights than they had before your purchasing your product, aren't they receiving value? This could only be the first of 5 modules that they need to get started with, but now they are receiving value at the beginning, instead of waiting until the end of implementation. This thinking will reset the conversation from "having all the features live by x day" to customers seeing value from the beginning. At the kickoff call, ask the 3 most important outcomes that they are looking for by using your software. When you achieve outcome 1, celebrate it. Rinse and repeat

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Your primary product images can boost or fail your product sales. Our recent tests have shown that: → optimizing these images can increase product conversion by 30-40%. However, it's crucial to balance effectiveness with platform guidelines. Here's how you can leverage this opportunity: 1) Understand platform rules thoroughly 2) Use clear images that highlight your product's unique features 3) Use A/B testing to find what works best 4) Keep refining based on performance data It's your job to find new ways to: → show your products effectively without making false promises. ** Improve your product listings and potentially boost your sales by up to 40% with us. Book a free consultation call (link in comments).

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One of the most iconic growth hacks of all time and what we learned: Airbnb Problem: Acquisition Airbnb faced a chicken or the egg problem. Initially they manually invited people to the platform. This was tedious but worked. Unfortunately, it was not scalable. Then they cleverly leveraged craigslist to get new hosts for the platform. A bot easily allowed cross posting in 1 click. Lessons: 1. "Do things that don't scale." (Initially) - Paul Graham 2. Meet customers where they're at. 3. Make it easy and obvious. How can you apply these lessons to your current product? 💬 If this was interesting, lmk and repost 🔄

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To all the founders and VCs out there who still focus on good ol' traffic as a measure of success: 🙈 🙉 🙊Traffic without conversion is just noise. I can't believe that in 2024 we still need to talk about this. 🙈 🙉 🙊 Your north star shouldn't be traffic-related. Not even when it comes to your SEO strategy. Here’s why you might want to rethink focusing solely on traffic Quality Over Quantity: Not all traffic is created equal. A high volume of visitors who bounce quickly or don't engage with your content doesn't contribute to your growth. Period. Instead, focus on attracting and retaining the right audience who find value in your content and convert into loyal customers. Engagement Is Key: Google and other search engines are smart. They understand when users engage with a site and when they don't. Just blindly driving traffic to a page that users will bounce from won’t do you any good. Organic growth thrives on engagement. Focus on user metrics. Did they read the article? Did they engage with it? What areas worked best on my product page? Is my content easily understood? Conversion Rates Matter: Traffic without conversions is pure noise. Prioritize metrics that reflect your business goals. Don't let the internet mess with your head. NO, you do not need 1M unique users a month to be successful. You need enough users that convert to paying customers. That might be 10, 50, 100, or 1,000. It depends on your product. SEO Performance: While traffic can indicate SEO success, take some time for your product's sake and look deeper. Right keywords, right intent, right pages, organic conversions—so many things make more sense than tons of traffic. Content Relevance: Organic growth is fueled by relevant content. Analyze which topics, formats, and channels drive the most engagement and conversions. This helps you tailor your strategy to meet your audience’s needs and preferences. User Experience: High traffic with poor user experience can harm your brand. Focus on user experience more than anything. I've been doing SEO for the past 15 years. If anyone asks me what we should focus on between A & B, my answer always has and forever will be "whatever improves user experience." Everyone wants to be Canva nowadays, but no one wants to do the work. They all want to copy the "SEO Strategy."

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I wrote Peak Teams after working with hundreds of VC-backed companies to figure out why some fail, and some succeed. The success factor is pretty simple: an operating system designed for VC-backed teams, which is why I designed Peak OS. #venturebacked #vcbacked #venturecapital #leadership #ceo #founder #operatingsystem #peakOS

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Why did Notion and Figma move from Product-Led to Product-Led with sales assist for their current GTM? To accelerate sales conversions 🚀 Lenny Rachitsky shares a great list of 28 B2B SaaS startups. 14 have already transitioned from PL to PL with Sales Assist. GitHub Shopify Datadog Figma Notion PagerDuty Plaid Slack Stripe Twilio Coda Retool Airtable Dropbox Why? ✅ To target large accounts and cater to the unique needs of high-value clients, offering tailored solutions and dedicated support. ✅ Support conversions with sales teams engaging with leads, understand their pain points, and guide them through the process. ✅ Custom solutions for large organizations with complex workflows, integrations, and requirements. ✅ Expansion and retention with customers as they grow and evolve and identify opportunities for upselling and cross-selling. For example... Notion's account managers offer personalized support, custom templates, and integrations to tailor the platform to each team's specific needs and workflows. Figma's enterprise specialists help organizations scale their design systems, assist with workflow integrations, and configure enterprise-grade security features and permissions. What's your GTM strategy? Comment below 👇 1️⃣ if you're still PL only 2️⃣ if you're switching from PL to PL with Sales Assist. I've helped over 300+ founders seize opportunities. Click 'Follow' for powerful marketing and pitching advice 🚀 #Startups #Sales #Strategy #Business #Growth #Success 

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According to a trusted source, which is ChatGPT 3.5 🙂 , the TOP 10 skills that CTO needs in priority are as follows: - Technical Proficiency - Leadership - Strategic Planning - Team Building and Management - Problem-Solving - Project Management - Strategic Partnerships - Business Acumen - Communication Skills - Adaptability Carefully identify the candidate to avoid the problem caused by title inflation.

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