CUSTOMER OBSESSION:
A 6-MONTH MASTERMIND PROGRAM FOR EARLY STAGE SAAS FOUNDERS

STARTS APRIL 2019

CAN YOU RELATE? »

• "I'm stuck on getting my SaaS product in front of people who have a burning need for what I have to offer."
  
  
• "I break into a cold sweat when I think about shifting my role from solitary developer to *gag* "people person" marketer"
  
  
• "I keep delaying  my product launch because the thought of crashing and burning on Product Hunt is too humiliating to bear."
  
  
• "I'm lost in a launch-obsessed fog, worrying that I've overlooked something BIG and essential to my company's success."
  
  
• "I'd be in really good shape if I had someone to keep me on track and coach me on how to get it right from the start. Someone who's done this before - a lot - and knows what it takes to bring SaaS products successfully to market."
  
  
• "I'm inspired by companies like Drift and InVision App that have grown big-time while keeping their customer at the center of everything they do."
  
  
• "I want to understand my customer so deeply that I can innovate solutions to problems they don't even know they have yet!"

If you say "YES, THAT'S ME" to any of these scenarios, this online mastermind program is right for you!

You've dedicated your HEART AND SOUL to turning your brainchild into an awesome SaaS product, but it's 

GOING NOWHERE

The people you're pitching aren’t quite getting value out of the product, word of mouth isn’t spreading, you're having a hard time finding beta users, press reviews are kind of “blah”, the sales cycle takes too long, and lots of deals never close.

Sometimes it

HURTS

Maybe you lie sleepless in your bed, paralyzed by anxiety, despair and loneliness.  Not that anyone would ever know it. After all, ‘fake it till you make it’ is the mantra of the startup world. 

So you hide behind the illusion of success--and it takes a lot of energy (and booze and drugs and maxed out credit cards)  to keep that mask up all the time. 

And the lonelier and more overwhelmed you get, the less likely your amazing SaaS brainchild will see the light of day. 

ALAURA WEAVER

Hey wuzzup. I’m Alaura Weaver, Content Marketing Strategist and story-based copywriter. I worked in B2B sales for over a decade and made the shift to SaaS marketing when I realized the corporate world was playing a numbers game that customers were losing, and the only way to change it was to humanize how business was done. 

For the past three years, I’ve been working with and writing for customer-driven SaaS companies like Reply, Forecastly, CourseCraft, Prosperworks and CoSchedule to help transform their relationships with their potential and current customers from total strangers to total stans.   

Also, like Nichole, I’ve watched as some founders lose their way because of poor product-customer fit, inefficient prioritizing, trying to please everyone, focusing on new customer acquisition instead of cultivating their current customer base, and trying too hard to follow in the footsteps of tech billionaires instead of forging their own path.

So between the two of us––the SaaS superheroine and the up-and-comer, we’ve learned a lot about the ups and downs of growing a SaaS biz.

Meet Your Champions

NICHOLE ELIZABETH DEMERE

Hi, I’m Nichole Elizabeth DeMeré,  SaaS Growth Consultant and Customer Success Evangelist. I’ve been developing growth, community growth and engagement and customer success strategies for top SaaS companies for over a decade. I’ve been working with companies and communities like Segment.com, Hotjar, Copy Hackers, Autopilot, Vervoe, Wootric, Appcues, InVision, HubSpot, Drift, ChartMogul, Notion, Product Plan, Growth Hackers and Product Hunt.  

I’ve seen too many early-stage SaaS founders stumbling around in the dark, trying to do everything - and do it right - but becoming so scattered that their launches fizzle, their funding seems to scatter to the wind, and the brilliant idea that fired them up in the first place grows cold. And dies.

I’ve also seen what happens when SaaS founders discover the ultimate growth hack that gives you permission to stop worrying about roadmaps and product launches and helps you prioritize exactly what to focus on next.

...And I’ll tell you what that is, but first I want to introduce you to my friend and up-and-coming sustainable growth expert. The Etta Candy to my Wonder Woman, if you will. 

"WHOEVER GETS CLOSEST TO THE CUSTOMER WINS"

Ask Jeff Bezos of Amazon. Ask David Cancel of Drift. Ask the folks at Hotjar or Trello or Mailchimp:

There is no better “growth hack” than talking with your customers.

Not just when you’re developing or marketing a product, but through every stage of the customer lifecycle. 

Your customer’s success drives every aspect of your growth.

But if you don't have many (or any) customers yet, how can you identify who your ideal customer is?

And how the hell do you scale one-to-one conversations with thousands–and hopefully–millions of users as you grow? 

There’s no tried-and-true checklist to follow for growing your SaaS business. 

Sure, there are books and downloads, good ones even, that tell you how to grow lean, do customer research, find product-market fit and build sustainable business models - but no book or download will answer all your questions and hold you accountable for getting things done. 

No book will say “normally this is what people do, but in your situation…”

Plus, especially when it’s early on, how do you even know you’re on the right track? 

STARTING APRIL 2019 - YOU CAN BE PART OF THAT CHANGE

If you are an early-stage, seed-round founder, you can have access to the same guidance for business growth as some of Silicon Valley’s most innovative SaaS leaders. 

Get the clarity, accountability, tough love, permission to fail, and expert guidance you need to turn your SaaS startup into a customer-obsessed growth machine.

INTRODUCING THE
CUSTOMER OBSESSION MASTERMIND PROGRAM

By the end of the 6-month Customer Obsession Mastermind program, you will have overcome the number one reason why 90% of SaaS startups fail: a poor product-customer fit.

A mentored community created to support you, guide you, and hold you accountable to your goals as you grow your SaaS startup, using a fact-based, research-backed, customer success-driven framework.

Why Customer Success driven growth?

If you're not customer-driven, all the marketing in the world won't save you. Plus, once you nail your product-customer fit, it sets you up for success in other growth channels like paid advertising.

Here's what it looks like when your company is customer success driven:

The customers are buying the product just as fast as you can make it — or usage is growing just as fast as you can add more servers. Money from customers is piling up in your company checking account. You’re hiring sales and customer support staff as fast as you can. Reporters are calling because they’ve heard about your hot new thing and they want to talk to you about it.

Customer success is the key to building a scalable, sustainable growth engine. 

If the experience your customers have with you is a bad one, or your customers are a bad fit for your product,  they will not return. And they’ll tell the world on social media and review sites to stay away from you. 

But if your customers have a great experience and you delight them and help them achieve their desired outcomes, they will remain loyal customers and tell others. That is the most powerful form of marketing – studies show that people trust word of mouth recommendations from friends (and even strangers) much more than what a company says about itself.

We’re going to give you the tools you need to do Customer Success right, from the very start. 

OVER 6 MONTHS YOU'LL GET WEEKLY COACHING AND MONTHLY EXPERT WORKSHOPS FROM SOME OF THE BRIGHTEST SaaS GROWTH MARKETING STARS IN TECH

You'll grow your SaaS startup–from fine-tuning your business model to onboarding and retaining the right new customers–alongside a select group of other SaaS founders, using the same customer success-driven frameworks and strategies we've used with HubSpot, Appcues, Hotjar, InVision, Drift, Prosperworks, CoSchedule--just to name a few. 

• Identify your core values to align with the right clients
  
  
• Identify ideal customers, bad-fit and stretch customers
  
  
• Create logical customer segments based on appropriate experiences
  
  
• Conduct a competitive analysis to effectively differentiate your startup
  
  
• Build human to human relationships to organically support your business
  
  
• REALLY listen to customers  with conversations and surveys
  
  
• Create a business model / strategy and stay accountable to your core values
  
  
• Write a kick-ass value proposition statement that speaks to your ideal customers 
  
  
• Determine your ideal customers’ desired outcomes, success gaps, and success potential
  
  
• Align Customer Success and Product Management to correctly prioritize the highest-impact features and fixes
  
  
• Improve on-boarding, activation, user flows, and off-boarding for higher retention
  

• Create customer journey maps that help customers reach their desired outcomes
  
  
• Develop a brand story that inspires your employees and customers
•   
• Create a SaaS content marketing strategy (inbound marketing alone isn’t sufficient for SaaS)
    
• Drive traffic with essential SEO
    
• Develop and implement new customer acquisition strategies
    
• Boost your SaaS and reduce churn with a community that grows itself
  
  
• Create an email marketing strategy
  
  
• Speak to conversion-driving emotions with your CRO strategy
    
• Use paid marketing to find early customers
    
• Optimize your process / workflow with automation for higher productivity (with less effort)
    
• Lead your sales team to focus on building long-term relationships over meeting quotas
    
• Determine how much a win really costs (win-cost analysis)
    

+ We’ll also have a final week to review everything and answer all of your questions.

And it will all happen with NICHOLE DEMERE- “The Queen of Customer Success & Community Engagement” & ALAURA WEAVER - “The Sorceress of SaaS Storytelling” as your constant guides.

Think of it as the Hogwarts of SaaS startups...  But on Slack and Zoom instead of in a haunted castle.

PRICING & LOGISTICS

Nichole charges clients at least $3K a month for one-on-one consulting.
Alaura's minimum monthly client retainer is $2500. 

YOU ARE
NOT A GOOD FIT FOR THIS IF:

WHERE IS IT?

The Mastermind will take place in Slack with weekly 60-minute training sessions in Zoom. We’ll choose a day and time that works for everyone.

HOW MUCH TIME DO I NEED TO DEVOTE TO THIS PER WEEK?

3-5 hours at minimum if you want to stay involved in daily group conversations, join all training sessions, and complete weekly challenges. Yes, real transformation and relationship building takes time and work, but it’s not too bad - just block off an hour a day.

• You're seeking quick hacks instead of long-term strategies
  
  
• You already have millions in revenue
  
  
• You don't have a few hours each week to commit to weekly challenges that will actively help your business grow
  
  
• You're just signing up to see if you'll get accepted
  
  
• You see your business as a way to get rich quick with "passive income"
  
  
• You think you've got it all figured out

Are you someone who would benefit from––and contribute to––the Customer Obsession Mastermind?
LET'S FIND OUT

HOW MUCH LIVE COACHING WILL I GET?

Let’s put it this way: your Slack group is always there, ready to respond to your requests for feedback or advice. Day or night (because chances are someone will be up at 2 am halfway across the world). 

That said, your mastermind hosts, Nichole & Alaura will be checking in daily (and sometimes nightly) to respond to any questions or requests.

We’ll conduct live group trainings each week to guide you step-by-step, using the customer success-driven frameworks we use with our SaaS clients.

You’ll be assigned 2 accountability partners each month to work on weekly challenges related to the training and to keep momentum.

We’re also bringing in some of the most innovative growth experts in the world of SaaS to lead monthly workshops full of actionable takeaways.

You’ll have at least one “hot seat” session with the entire group, focusing solely on helping you overcome your greatest challenges as you grow your SaaS.  

ALSO YOU'LL GET A 1:1 LIVE PROGRESS CALL WITH NICHOLE OR ALAURA EVERY MONTH

• You see failure as a loss instead of a way to learn and improve
  
  
• You're motivated more by winning than constantly improving
  
  
• You aren't open to and don't trust others to give you insights you may not have considered before
  
  
• You're only in idea stage and you haven't validated customer pain points or built a prototype
  
  
• You're a Death Eater
  
  
• You have no idea what these Harry Potter references mean.

• You’re committed to putting your customer and their needs at the center of all of your business decisions––from operations to product to sales
  
  
• You believe that tech should be made responsibly and is for making the world better for everyone
  
  
• You’re 100% passionate about the problem your product solves
  
  
• You see the value in cultivating the long-term rewards of building relationships over the temporary rush of high-pressure sales
  
  
• You’re eager to see your work through the eyes of people with diverse and underrepresented perspectives
  
  
• You have a way of paying for this program without going into massive debt

• You haven’t been able to find a group of like-minded SaaS peeps
  
  
• You want to get results - more good-fit customers, increased retention / decreased churn
  
  
• You agree that your customer’s transformation story > your story
  
  
• You have a problem worth solving and your solution rings a bell with potential customers
  
  
• You know you need to talk to customers but don’t know how to get started or have talked to customers but don’t know what to do next
  
  
• You are a member of Dumbledore’s Army (HE WILL BE AVENGED).

YOU ARE
PERFECT FOR THIS IF:

SO TAKE A MOMENT TO ASK YOURSELF »

• How will your life change if you have 24/7 access to the guidance  of some of the most influential and pioneering minds in Customer Success-driven SaaS growth?
  
  

• How many critical business issues will be solved by having a mentor who is passionate about your success to walk you step-by-step through building a SaaS growth strategy?

• How much more will you get done when you have an accountability partner to help you stick to your goals?

• What’s it going to feel like when you get 10, 100, 1,000, 1 million people you’ve never actually met pay for your product––and thank you for helping them?

• How much will it boost  your business growth to have customers who are selling your product for you?

• Where will you go when you can finally take a vacation because you’ve created a self-sustaining lead machine?

“I worked with Nichole on GrowthHackers.com and she helped spur early growth for the platform with a clear understanding of engagement, retention and key metrics to improve and grow a community. Her passion for whatever project she is working on is her biggest strength.”

“Alaura doesn’t just give the same old advice you hear from marketers to “tell a story” – she goes into great depth and detail into the various aspects of how to actually do this and do it effectively. It’s especially great for someone like me who is NOT a natural storyteller. It’s explained in a way that even I can get it, and start to work into my marketing.”

DAN SHURE
Founder at Evolving SEO

A QUICK RUNDOWN OF WHAT YOU'LL GET WHEN YOU'RE ACCEPTED INTO THE CUSTOMER OBSESSION MASTERMIND PROGRAM

• Access to the exclusive Slack group, with 14 other early-stage SaaS founders

• Weekly coaching sessions with customer success-driven marketing pros, Nichole Elizabeth DeMeré & Alaura Weaver

• Weekly SaaS growth assignments you can plug into your business immediately

• Two assigned accountability partners to help you stick to your goals

• Monthly live workshops with SaaS growth superstars

• Dozens of downloadable worksheets, ebooks, templates and tools to keep you focused and productive 

• Unlimited access to video recordings of expert workshops & training sessions 

• Lifelong connections with people who are learning, struggling, growing alongside you.

THE CUSTOMER OBSESSION MASTERMIND IS YOUR SaaS GROWTH SECRET WEAPON

CUSTOMER OBSESSION MASTERMIND STARTS IN AUGUST

YOU ARE NOT A GOOD FIT FOR THIS IF:

THE CUSTOMER OBSESSION MASTERMIND CLASS IS YOUR SaaS GROWTH SECRET WEAPON

HOW MUCH LIVE COACHING WILL I GET?

Doing it by yourself makes you feel

OVERWHELMED

As the founder of a company, you have ginormous shoes to fill. You’re in charge of everything from operations to finance to sales to marketing and strategy. All the weight lies upon your shoulders. 

And it’s not like you have a tribe of fellow founders to grab a beer with after work to let off some steam. Let’s be real–you’re probably reading this web page from your home office or from a cubicle at your "real" job that pays the bills, but doesn't feed your soul.

Is that your supervisor behind you? Just kidding! ...or are we?

We sooooo very get it. 
Not only have we been there as we grow our own businesses, we’ve also witnessed promising startup founders in our networks crash and burn.

But we’re not going to let that happen to you. 

So...would you say that’s more than enough to get your SaaS a-growing?
(The correct answer is: HELL YEAH!)
So now we need to bring it all home: 

We get it. We've been stuck in pre-launch limbo, too.

Not only have we been there as we grow our own businesses, we’ve also witnessed promising startup founders in our networks crash and burn from the stress of it all. 

But we’re not going to let that happen to you. 

If this sounds like exactly the kind of clarity, guidance and accountability you need to take your SaaS from “side project” to “something awesome,” join the waitlist for the Customer Obsession Mastermind.

 SaaS Founders: You have 6 months to go from half-baked to hyper-growth:
GO!

Master the same customer-obsessed methods driving wildly successful companies like Drift, Hotjar, AutoPilot and InVision, with the people who helped them grow.

MEET YOUR EXPERT WORKSHOP LEADERS

Before you join the waitlist for the program, you should know that your monthly fee doesn’t just give you access to the Slack group and guidance from Nichole and Alaura: 

You will also participate in live workshops with some major players in the world of SaaS growth and digital marketing. 

We’re talking about people like...

CRO Goddess

Talia Wolf

Talia is the founder of GetUplift and a conversion optimization specialist, using emotional targeting and data to generate more revenues, leads and sales for her clients. 

Talia’s taught on stages such as Google, MozCon, CTAconf, Search Love and many more and was recently listed as one of the most influential experts in the world for conversion optimization.

Carol Luong

Marcel Folaron

Marcel is a Program Manager at Google and Founder of Leantime. He has over ten years experience leading teams and startups through different growth phases.

He understands the struggle between corporate drive and customer focus and through these experiences has honed in on refining the balance between the two.

Project Management Aficianado

Val Geisler

The Einstein of Email Onboarding

Sue Duris

Customer Experience Diva

Startup Skyrocket Scientist

Get personal mentorship on how to:

Carol has over 10 years of experience in marketing and sales within the B2B tech space and now runs Operational Growth at sales intelligence SaaS startup Leadfeeder. 

As the 15th employee and the first U.S.-based hire (now at 45 employees) at Leadfeeder, Carol had the opportunity and challenge of scaling operations from the ground up to expand marketing, sales, and customer success teams. 

Val is ridiculously obsessed with email. An Email Marketing Conversion Copywriter and Strategist, Val spent over a decade on the inside of companies from non-profits to 7-figure businesses to tech startups. She brings her background in content creation, customer experience, and digital strategy to her incredible clients every day. Email isn't dead, and Val is here to help you bring yours back to life. 

Sue is Co-Founder/Director of Marketing and Customer Experience of M4 Communications, a marketing and customer experience consulting firm that helps organizations build and grow their brands by coaching them how to be customer-centric, advising them on their digital transformation initiatives and collaborating with them to design omni-channel experiences that engage employees and deliver customer value. 

There you have it: either you’re Customer Obsession Mastermind material, 
or you’re a Death Eater. You decide.

Trevor Hatfield, Founder & CEO of Inturact

"Alaura isn't just a copywriter, she's a creative and business development partner who understands the unique needs of startup founders and the importance of content to establishing a brand. She made the decision to hire her as my go-to copywriter and content strategist effortless."

"Nichole is one of the most intelligent, dedicated and trustworthy people I have ever worked with. She has an innate ability to be ahead of the curve in the digital world and has set new standards in my book as a marketer and consultant. She is a connector and anyone around her will be instantly better connected being around her for a short time. I can’t recommend Nichole enough for almost any type of marketing consulting."

Joshua Bretag, Growth Marketer at Canva

EVERETTE TAYLOR
Entrepreneur & Marketing Executive

About the workshop:

Let's talk landing pages. In this 60 min workshop we'll dive into the most important elements of a successful, high-converting landing page. We'll talk strategy, copy, images and psychology tips. Then we'll jump straight into live landing page reviews and give you the tools and ideas for optimizing your pages for higher conversions. 

About the workshop:

During the last 2 years, Carol has helped to 5x Leadfeeder’s ARR from $500k to $2.5M+. She'll walk us through the reality of their 15 month journey, from how they discovered their target customer to leveraging internal and external partnerships and the ins and outs of their operational growth. We'll talk growing pains and the unexpected lessons of rapid, sustainable growth.

About the workshop:

You can't have growth without productivity. By the end of this 90-minute activity-packed session, you'll be able to identify, plan and track product goals and communicate those effectively to stakeholders. You'll also have a base understanding of best practices and tools to use to effectively apply design thinking, lean and agile into your SaaS practices.

About the workshop:

Does anyone actually *need* more email? (Rhetorical question) We all know that inboxes are getting more and more crowded by the minute. And yet, email marketing is still the highest converting form of digital marketing around. Higher than social. Higher than paid campaigns. Certainly higher than doing nothing at all.

You might already have an email list for your business, or maybe you've been too overwhelmed to get one up and running. No matter where you are in your journey to the inbox, this workshop is sure to have something for you. 

About the workshop:

What if you could enable your sales team to create more valuable, frictionless interactions with prospects and customers? Enter Win/Loss Analysis. Win/Loss improves win rates by as much as 50% and drives more successful user adoption by reducing time-to-conversion and time-to-value intervals. Sue will guide us on how to apply Win/Loss to aligning sales with marketing, aligning the business to what customers need and want, and creating an experience that differentiates itself from the competition.  

Getting lost in the weeds is all too easy to do, which is why you need someone to help clear a path and guide you back to the trail. Problem is, who?

You could seek the help of a free online community on Facebook or Slack to keep you motivated––but they can be large and anonymous. 

You’re just one of many, and sometimes your requests for advice or feedback can go unanswered, or worse--you have to deal with “Ned the 4chan MRA Troll.”

You could invest in the guidance of consultants, coaches or strategists like us, but let’s face it: not everyone can afford us. 

Especially when you’re just starting out and haven’t acquired a significant customer base yet.

You know what? That’s unfair. And it needs to change.

(You'll be charged a refundable application fee of $95)

Space is limited! Only 15 customer-obsessed SaaS founders will be invited to join!

AS TRUSTED BY

Amy Hebdon

Paid Traffic Magician

Amy is the founder of Paid Search Magic. Since 2004, she's been managing Google Ads for her clients, including SaaS brands like Ancestry, SquareTrade, and Vidpresso. 

Amy uses human-driven and data-driven techniques to improve ROI and hit aggressive goals, and has increased a client's monthly recurring revenue from $30K to $2.3MM.

About the workshop:

Paid traffic can lead to rapid growth and customer acquisition...or it can lead to huge ad spend with nothing to show for it. In this 90 min workshop, Amy will teach customer-driven marketing strategies that will fool-proof your launch and maximize your returns.

Nail your targeting, messaging & optimization plan. Learn the psychology of the buying experience as it applies to paid traffic, and why  customer-focused campaigns drive the best results. Avoid local maximum problems and common founder pitfalls that sabotage growth efforts.

BRING ON THE FAQ'S