Discover this podcast and so much more

Podcasts are free to enjoy without a subscription. We also offer ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more for just $11.99/month.

From $0 to $8M ARR: Stefan Smulders of Expandi on Growth Marketing

From $0 to $8M ARR: Stefan Smulders of Expandi on Growth Marketing

FromThe Scale Up Show


From $0 to $8M ARR: Stefan Smulders of Expandi on Growth Marketing

FromThe Scale Up Show

ratings:
Length:
37 minutes
Released:
Sep 17, 2023
Format:
Podcast episode

Description

Ryan interviews Stefan Smulders, founder and chief strategy officer of Expandi, a LinkedIn automation SaaS company. Stefan shares how he bootstrapped Expandi to $8 million in ARR in just 4 years through relentless hustling, including doing over 700 product demos in the first 3 months. He emphasizes the power of inbound marketing through valuable content creation, building a personal brand with his face on it, and capturing leads into a tight community. Stefan also stresses the importance of focusing on reducing churn by improving onboarding and guidance instead of only chasing new signups. With the right team in place to solve these challenges, he’s confident Expandi can scale to $20 million ARR quickly. Tune in to hear Stefan’s energy, insights and unique story on growth marketing and scaling on LinkedIn.
Join 2,500+ readers getting weekly practical guidance to scale themselves and their companies using Artificial Intelligence and Revenue Cheat Codes.  
Explore becoming Superhuman here: https://superhumanrevenue.beehiiv.com/
KEY TAKEAWAYS:

Stefan completed over 700 product demos in first 3 months to validate product-market fit and learn users' needs
Expandi focused on inbound marketing through content creation and giveaways to build an audience
Stefan his personal story and face on the brand to stand out and build trust
Expandi captured leads into the community, to build relationships and get feedback
90% of new signups still come from content and inbound marketing
The biggest challenge now for Expandi is reducing churn by improving onboarding
With the right team, Stefan is confident Exapndi can rapidly scale from $8M to $20M ARR
Relentless hustling and grind in the early days was key to explosive growth

BEST MOMENTS
"I was working around 16, 17 hours a day and mainly running demos."
"We started heavily to distribute all these pieces of content and that drove so many people."
"If you really understand what's the pain points of the people you want to reach, you can easily host live sessions.”
"The biggest transition I needed to understand and make was, okay, we need to leverage data-driven approaches."
"If we can solve both of them [problems] and we are working on a daily base, we will grow to 20 million within no time."
Ryan Staley
Founder and CEO
Whale Boss
ryan@whalesellingsystem.com
www.ryanstaley.io 
EPISODE RESOURCESSaas, Saas growth, Scale, Business Growth, B2b Saas, Saas Sales, Enterprise Saas, Business growth strategy, founder, ceo: https://www.whalesellingsystem.com/closingsecretsThis show was brought to you by Progressive Media
Released:
Sep 17, 2023
Format:
Podcast episode

Titles in the series (100)

How do you grow like a VC-backed SAAS company without taking on investors? What are the secrets that SAAS CEOs have that the rest of us don't? Do you want to create a lifestyle business, a performance business, or an empire?  How do you scale to an exit without losing your freedom? Join the host Ryan Staley every Monday and Wednesday for conversations with the brightest and best SAAS Founders, CEOs, and Entrepreneurs to crack the code on repeatable revenue growth, leadership, lifestyle freedom and mindset. This show has featured Startup and Billion Dollar Founders, Best Selling Authors, and the World’s Top Sales and Marketing Experts like Terry Jones (Founder of Travelocity and Chairman of Kayak), Gina Bianchini (Founder of Mighty Networks and prior Co-Founder with Marc Andreessen) and Harpaul Sambhi (Founder of Magical with a previous exit to Linkedin). This is where Scaling and Sales are made simple in 25 minutes or less. Saas, Saas growth, Scale, Business Growth, B2b Saas, Saas Sales, Enterprise Saas, Sales, Business growth strategy, Founder, VP of Sales, CRO, Chief Revenue Officer, Technology, Leadership, CEO, Management, Hyper-Growth.