So you want to sell your SaaS? The dos and donts when selling your SaaS with Lowell Ricklefs of Traction Advising
Big Break Software Podcast
enMarch 30, 2023
How Rand Fishkin of moz.com and Sparktoro.com creatively raised $1.3M without VC and why search is not part of his marketing plan
enSeptember 08, 2020
What was the main topic of the podcast episode?
Summarise the key points discussed in the episode?
Were there any notable quotes or insights from the speakers?
Which popular books were mentioned in this episode?
Were there any points particularly controversial or thought-provoking discussed in the episode?
Were any current events or trending topics addressed in the episode?
About this Episode
Rand Fishkin has founded many platforms like moz.com, Whiteboard, inbound.org, and Whiteboard Friday before his latest platform, SparkToro. Listen as he shares his journey with Geordie Wardman. He also gives extensive details about SparkToro, an audience intelligence platform that allows marketers to understand websites that an audience reads. Marketers can use this platform to know who their target audience follows on various social media platforms.
What You Will Learn
- How Rand dropped out of college and the events that followed
- How Moz was established
- How Moz evolved and achieved success in revenue generation
- Hy did Rand leave Moz?
- How is Moz different from SparkToro?
- How Rand and his co-founder started SparkToro
- Alternative content marketing strategies that companies can use
- How the audience intelligence product works
- How did the SparkToro launch go?
- What are Rand’s marketing plans?
In This Episode:
Education is critical, but sometimes it takes dropping out of college to become one of the most successful SaaS or SEO gurus available. Rand, for example, dropped from college in 2001 to join his mom at a marketing consulting company. This company would later become Moz. Then, the company was a struggling web design venture, forcing Rand to launch an SEO blog. This blog attracted lots of consulting customers who were interested in SEO services.
Rand and his team would later launch some software, nascent tools that interested parties could subscribe to. To their amazement, demand for the subscription product skyrocketed, and that is how they raised part of their venture capital. The success of Moz did not stop here, and you can get all the details from the podcast.
Listen to figure out how Rand became CEO, and how the company experienced exponential growth before Rand finally left to establish SparkToro. Rand discusses the venture model in detail. If you are an entrepreneur looking to launch a company, you need to listen to Rand’s wise words. Rand says he and his co-founder own SparkToro entirely. Listen as he shares more details on SparkToro with Geordie. For years, Rand has been a passionate marketer, and many people sought him for assistance on SEO matters. However, Rand made a critical discovery about SEO and search. Listen as he shares the discovery with Geordie.
Rand discusses the frustrations entrepreneurs have to deal with when it comes to identifying potential customers from different parts of the world. He tells Geordie that together with his co-founder, they decided that no one should go through these troubles. Listen to find out what they did to achieve that milestone.
Rand mentions that while he works with his co-founder, they have hired some experts to help them during their journey. Listen to Rand explain how the audience intelligence works, how it helps collect data, and how they use the data to develop a validation system. Rand explains that he believes in a marketing flywheel model.
Currently, Rand says he is excited because they have a diverse market and extensive applications. One of the strategies online marketers use to attract traffic is through guest posts and links. However, Rand says that this method hardly works unless your platform is SEO based. According to him, many of the links you use for SEO hardly send back traffic.
The SparkToro system is different because it sends you high-quality traffic. In this case, you would not need a link because your objective is to get coverage and awareness. Rand says that email list building has been one of their most successful marketing strategies. Still, he is quick to mention that, together with his co-founder, they are hesitant about sending people too many emails. They only strive to send emails that will be beneficial to you.
According to Rand, SEO, or SEM (search engine marketing) are not a terrible strategy, but they are risky. He explains this concept in detail and concludes by saying that some businesses have come tumbling down for relying on search exclusively.
Rand opines that investing in social media and content marketing that does not depend on SEO, but the quality of content is a great idea. Marketers should invest in content that leaves an impact on people so much so that they would miss it if it were unavailable. Rand has some sentiments about podcasting as well. Listen as he shares what he thinks and how you can use them to your benefit.
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How Tammy Developed a Security Application that Adults and Teenagers can use to Seek Assistance in an Emergency
Tammy Haldeman, CEO of Your Shield, talks about coming up with the idea, developing it, their pricing plan, and why the application is ideal for adults and teenagers.
You Shield is a safety application that users install on their phones. Tammy Haldeman, the developer, tells Geordie about it.
What You’ll Learn
- How Tammy came up with the idea
- Lessons Tammy learned along the way
- Challenges Tammy and her team faced during the development process
In This Episode
Tammy Haldeman believes the You Shield app can protect users from sexual harassment, sex trafficking, kidnapping, bullying, and domestic violence. After activating it, users need to program a secret word they can remember easily, which comes in handy in an emergency.
If you ever experience an attack, your attackers will never know about the app. All you need to pre-program your secret word on the app is shout your preferred term. The app will notify everybody you have programmed, begin tracking your location, and record audio. Tammy gives out an example in the podcast to better understand how the app works.
Tammy describes, coming up with the idea as a gift. She narrates how a bullying incident where the victim, a 10-year-old girl, committed suicide affected her. Suddenly the thought of a security application hit her brain. She says aspects of designing and improving her idea kept flooding her mind, and that’s when she decided to actualize it.
Investing in application development can be a costly practice. However, Tammy mentions that her heart was ready to go over and above to catch attackers or prevent them from violating other people’s rights.
With zero experience in software, Tammy admits that venturing into the industry was intimidating. She struggled with finding the right people to trust with her idea and reputable professionals she could work with.
Tammy narrates how she met Geordie, with whom they had an easy conversation. She says Geordie made her comfortable even though she was not conversant with software-related terms. Find out how Tammy and Geordie’s development team collaborated to build the app.
Geordie highlights how they struggled with finding the ideal sequence because they needed to configure the iOS operating system. At some point, they encountered particular regulations that barred changes on iOS. How did Tammy navigate that phase?
She remembers one specific week when accessing her account on App Store was impossible for two weeks. However, despite the challenges, Tammy says everything worked satisfactorily because it allowed their developers to focus on the complexities of the application. That phase gave them sufficient time to prepare the app for launch.
Every entrepreneur struggles with the fear of the unknown, and Tammy was not an exception. Sometimes she feared that the app would never go live. However, she was certain she could keep pushing until her dreams actualized.
Tammy quickly mentions that developing an application is a long, tedious, and time-consuming process. When it comes to app development, a celebration of the last day never comes because you are always thinking about what to improve to enhance the user experience. What’s more, customers keep demanding new features. Still, Tammy describes two moments when her persistence seemed to be bearing fruits. Listen to the podcast to learn about it.
When Tammy started developing the You Shield idea, she had not emphasized sexual harassment. However, her niece was recently harassed sexually at school, which made her regret for not activating her niece’s Shield activated.
In today’s world, where insecurity is rising exponentially, every teenager can benefit from using the You Shield app. Do you have privacy concerns regarding this app? Tammy says only app users can playback recordings from their devices.
Further, they don’t collect the user’s information. Such data is only necessary for activating the app. She also discussed their payment plans in the podcast. If you are interested in the app, do not miss this podcast section.
This app is meant for both teenagers and adults as well. Tammy says you can never predict when something happens to you and insists that having the app can rescue you from risky situations. One of the most interesting features of this application is that victims can call out for help without their attackers knowing.
If you are an aspiring app developer, Tammy says documenting your dreams about the project is crucial. She says potential app developers should create recordings, draw their plans, and write down their expectations. Collaborating with trustworthy people with whom you can easily communicate is also crucial during the development process.
Your Shield app is only available on iOS, but Tammy says they are working on availing it for Android users soon.
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