Startups For the Rest of Us
Episode 739 | Selling SaaS to Customers Who Don't Know They Have a Problem
Tue, 12 Nov 2024
In episode 739, Rob Walling interviews Andy Kim, co-founder of Trotto, about his unique journey into SaaS. Andy shares how “go links” work, and why they are so valuable for internal, enterprise use despite their relative obscurity. They also explore the marketing hurdles and customer adoption challenges in a business like Trotto. Episode Sponsor: Hiring senior developers can really move the needle in your business, but if you bring on the wrong person, you can quickly burn through your runway. If you need help finding a vetted, senior, results-oriented developer, you should reach out to today’s sponsor, Lemon.io. For years, they’ve been helping our audience find high quality, global talent at competitive rates, and they can help you too. Longtime listener Chaz Yoon, hired a senior developer from Lemon.io and said his hire ”definitely knew his stuff, provided appropriate feedback and pushback, and had great communication, including very fluent English. He really exceeded my expectations.” Chaz said he’d definitely use Lemon.io again when he’s looking for a senior level engineer. To learn more and get a 15% discount on your first four weeks of working with a developer at lemon.io/startups. Topics we cover: 3:13 – Go links, URL shorteners for enterprise 6:14 – History of the problem and core users 9:44 – Customer education and growth opportunities 15:37 – Finding the repeatable marketing funnel 21:07 – Buying into a co-founder role at Trotto 24:42 – What’s the hardest part of running Trotto? Links from the Show: Exit Strategy: The Entrepreneur's Guide to Selling Your Business Without Regret MicroConf Masterminds - Applications close on December 4th, 2024 Trot.to Trotto go links (@TrottoHQ) | X TinySeed How did go links start and evolve at Google? Quiet Light If you have questions about starting or scaling a software business that you’d like for us to cover, please submit your question for an upcoming episode. We’d love to hear from you! Subscribe & Review: iTunes | Spotify
Full Episode
Welcome back to another episode of Startups for the Rest of Us. I'm your host, Rob Walling. In this episode, I talk with Andy Kim. He's the co-founder, co-owner of a SaaS app called Trotto. That's at Trot.2. Andy acquired the majority of the business from the original developer that built it.
And Trotto is in an interesting position in the sense of once they acquire customers, their retention is extremely high. But most people who need the tool are either unaware they have a problem or they're not aware they have a problem. or problem aware, but they're not even solution or product or most aware.
And we talk about that dynamic in the show of how difficult that can be and how it can be a bit of a headwind to get over. But to Andy's credit, he's making progress and growing the business month to month and has figured out some interesting approaches for getting around that. The Entrepreneur's Guide to Selling Your Business Without Regret
Sherry and I have taken our combined many, many years of experience going through exits, counseling founders through exits, and it's not just focused on SaaS. It's all types of businesses, but obviously there's a light emphasis on SaaS because, of course, we do have more of a network in the space.
But if you'd consider backing the Kickstarter, you can head to exitstrategybook.com and click the back the Kickstarter button and we will be in touch the moment it goes live. Could really use your support. First 24 hours is a great signal to everyone that if there's a lot of backers, then we tend to get more. So exitstrategybook.com if you're interested in that.
Before we dive into our conversation, MicroConf mastermind matching happens three times a year, and it's happening right now. Applications close on December 4th, so just a week or two after this episode goes live. Masterminds have been critical to my development and frankly my longevity so
as an entrepreneur, and I've been a proponent of them for probably 12 or 13 years, you can go to startups, the rest of us.com and search for startup mastermind and find the first time that I ever mentioned it on the show.
And it's it's a long time ago, because I became a believer in meeting with like minded founders over time, a small group of founders who really followed my journey, almost like honorary co founders. So if you've been feeling alone or isolated or lost, or like you're
just not sure what to do next and you need some accountability and someone else to be in the trenches alongside you, head to microconf.com slash masterminds. You pay a one-time fee and we will match you up with other like-minded founders. And with that, let's dive into my conversation with Andy. Andy Kim, welcome to the show. Thanks for having me. what the hell is a Go link?
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