Messy Growth
Welcome to Messy Growth, the podcast where SaaS founders hear the unfiltered truth about scaling. I’m Syed — I’ve spent over a decade in the trenches, growing SaaS companies from zero to tens of millions in revenue. On this show, I break down the wins, the mistakes, and the messy middle that nobody talks about. Let’s get into it
Episodes
24 episodes
Building Community, Leadership, and Growth with Barbara Derkowska and Wiktor Sobolak
Barbara Derkowska (Fractional CMO) and Wiktor Sobolak (Head of Product at Text) join me to talk about building Warsaw's best growth meetup from a small group of friends to a must-attend tech event.We cover:How they created a ...
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Episode 4
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58:40
Block out the noise - Basics FTW
LinkedIn will have you believe sales has been reinvented every other week, new frameworks, AI hacks, hustle porn at 4 a.m. But here’s the truth: sales hasn’t changed.In this episode, I cut through the noise and share why the basics still...
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Episode 3
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12:40
AI Products Don't Sell Themselves - And Founders Are Learning This the Hard Way
Everyone's rushing to build AI products. The logic seems simple: add GPT, ship fast, watch the money roll in. Except it's not rolling in.In this episode, I break down why AI products still need to be sold and marketed - and why founders ...
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Season 2
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Episode 2
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15:45
Why Applying for Jobs the Normal Way Doesn't Work Anymore
In 2012, I applied to 400 companies in one month and got zero responses. I was 18, broke, and picking blueberries just to pay rent. Eventually, one company gave me a shot and it changed everything.Fast forward to today: the job applicati...
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Season 2
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Episode 1
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18:40
Key things to look out for when hiring for Customer Success
Hiring a Customer Success Manager (CSM) is crucial for ensuring customer satisfaction, retention, and growth of your current customer base. Without a healthy state of your current revenue, you will not be able to maximize the impact that your T...
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Episode 20
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21:49
NRR vs GRR
For a while now, I have been trying to find the best way to gauge the performance of my CSMs (Customer Success Managers). It started off with NRR (Net Revenue Retention) being the north star through which I could see how my team is performing.<...
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Episode 19
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21:03
Getting Started with RevOps
Alright, so what is RevOps?The simple way to think about this is to see it as a framework with the goal to align marketing, sales, customer success, and other teams around a common goal - that goal being? Well, to drive sustainable reven...
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Episode 18
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28:58
Next Feature Fallacy
We all have fallen prey to thinking that if we build out a certain feature, we will get a lot of customers, or retain the current customers we have. Using feature building as a retention tool or a tool to attract new customers cannot be farther...
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Episode 17
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24:47
Guide to building the Customer Success team
Typically, companies should start contemplating a customer success team when they have a significant portion of high-value customers, such as when a minority of customers contribute the majority of revenue. My guide on how to go ahead and build...
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Episode 16
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28:48
Inter-department communication
If someone were to ask me what takes most of your energy over a course of a month. I would have to say that inter-department communication is right there at the top.
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Episode 15
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21:53
People are your greatest asset
Yes, people. Not the product, not the brand, certainly not your social media presence. It all boils down to people. These are folks that run the marketing campaigns, contact leads, win customers, retain customers, support customers throughout t...
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Episode 14
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21:06
Job postings are broken
Talk to anyone in sales or customer success and they will tell you that looking for a job is not easy. Well, come to think of it, looking for a job for just about any role seems like an excruciating exercise.You know folks already have ...
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Season 1
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Episode 13
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16:34
How to make sure your sales reps are successful
Yes, you guessed it. The key to ensuring that you are successful as a manager is to ensure that your team is successful. Their work reflects on your work but most importantly it's your job as a manager to make sure that your team is not only ha...
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Episode 12
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15:49
Commission structure that actually works
I have seen a ton of comp plans over the course of my career. I've seen some really great ones and some really really crappy ones, ha. The one thing all the good compl plans have in common is they are dead simple. Let's dig deeper into a good c...
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Episode 11
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20:08
Heart to heart in the midst of the pandemic
Tired and trying to keep my myself afloat. Wanted to share some tips that really helped me throughout the pandemic and how you can stay in shape and mentally sharp over this difficult time period.
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Episode 10
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15:28
To have a sales script or not?
I'm a huge fan of structured approach when it comes to selling. It helps you to have a blueprint close to you when you are talking to prospects over the phone. Some key questions, pointers can be the difference between you qualifying a lead vs ...
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Episode 9
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16:41
Your friend and foe in sales
Alright, not trying to be philosophical ha. I do however want to use this episode to talk about persistence and time, both of which are equally important when it comes to how well you sell. Let's dig in.
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Episode 8
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15:03
Discounting in sales
Should you discount or shouldn't you? Well, it depends who you ask but I do believe there are pros and cons of offering discounts to prospects. Let's dig in to that in this episode.
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Episode 7
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15:09
Annual vs monthly subscriptions
Yes, the fun stuff. Annual subscriptions are great because not only does it show commitment from customers but its great for your retention numbers. If you're closing high MRR customers, better to push for an annual subscription because chances...
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Episode 6
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16:20
Do and Don'ts of cold outreach
Cold outreach, if you haven't already done it (lucky you), you will do it soon enough. Ha. We all reach out to prospects, always a good idea to have a guide handy that you can review before reaching out to prospects. Hoping this episode helps y...
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Episode 5
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18:42
Sales metrics you need to be tracking
I hear about metrics all the time, which metrics sales teams should be tracking and keeping an eye on. Metrics help you get a better idea about what works for your team, what was working and how your team is performing in the future. Critical f...
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Episode 4
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17:06
Hiring and building your sales team
Hiring and building out your sales team is never easy. In today's episode I wanted to dive deep into what you need to hire sales people and what you need to build out a fully functioning sales team.
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Episode 3
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14:54