Manuel Darcemont

Following the excellent example Rows.com, here's another from another hot company 🚀 folk (from renowned French studio Hexa, neé eFounders, with a $9M seed from Accel, Scott Belsky, Arash Ferdowsi, Nir Eyal, Nicolas Dessaigne and more) and their great UI... What I love about this one = smart empty states A lot of products are now using "cards" as a pattern when a user first lands into the product, to encourage them to take key actions But folk does a couple really smart things that I haven't always seen: 1️⃣ Sets priority Horizontally stacked cards often don't have this, and offer equally weighted CTAs for all the cards... but users want to make fewer decisions ⬇️ 👉 Folk makes the first CTA filled and contrasting with the others, so it's even easier to get started. 2️⃣ Generates data for me Often products require new users to do a bunch of work or commit to importing data before there is any reward or value. This creates friction and means more people miss the aha moment 🙈 👉 Folk offers "sample contacts" to use instead of my data, so I can get to see the value of a CRM without committing This reduces waiting time and prevents me bouncing Thanks Simo for the submission -- great example to other #founders to submit your user onboarding or in-app flows if you want some recognition 🔦 Even if you think its not the best, share an in-app flow to Chameleon's User Onboarding Olympics to earn cash and be in the pot for our 3 x $300 gold medals 🥇 We're all learning together 😇 Click here to upload a screenshot now: chameleon.io/go/olympics 🔵🟡⚫️🟢🔴 Or please repost ♻️ or comment 💬 to help your network find this great opportunity! I regularly share examples of good UI/UX and best practices for user onboarding and PLG, so follow me 🔔 (Pulkit) for more of that in your feed 👋

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What's THE best SaaS metric to follow user engagement ? 🤔 👉I can understand the best option will depend on each use case and objective. And a great inspiration for that is Equals' SaaS metrics guide which I highly receommend to check ! ➡️ https://lnkd.in/ewZK8Bei BUT what 𝗳𝗶𝗿𝘀𝘁 𝗽𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗰𝗶𝗽𝗹𝗲 can help find a metric that best fits our use case ? 👉We are developping an AI coach that guides startups' teams to maximise their growth efficiency. Daily usage means people express their best self, which turns into optimum performance for the startup. Maybe we could use 𝙨𝙩𝙞𝙘𝙠𝙞𝙣𝙚𝙨𝙨 (DAUY/MAU) or Equals' 𝘼3𝙭7 (https://lnkd.in/eDJ3GE8N) BUT how to go 𝗰𝗿𝗲𝗮𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗲 and develop a metric that specifically fit our use case ? Bobby, Ben ? 🙏 Ideas and comments welcomed ! Thanks ! #AI #saas #metrics #performance

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I'm building a SaaS with Notion and NotionApps 😊 It's going to be a coaching app. What do you think? Is it possible? 🙂 👷‍♂️ I want to build it 𝗟𝗜𝗩𝗘! I'll share everything—from design to production. 🎯 The objectives are to: 1. Verify if it's doable 2. Share the thought process 3. Talk about design, marketing, no-code, product management,… 4. Demonstrate best practices 5. Show what doesn't work too 6. Do what I love - Building digital products Consider it an experiment or minimum viable product Not a real business (yet 😉). Want to be part of this journey? Just follow me 🚀 and comment!

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Why does YC keep talking about "launch early, launch often"? By default.. people don't know that you exist. It's your job to be the squeaky wheel, and let people know "HEY I EXIST", "HEY I CAN SOLVE YOUR PROBLEM" You may have seen my many posts talking about Skyvern hitting star count numbers Those didn't happen out of the blue. We kept launching, and launching, and launching. Trying to spread the word about us. Trying to learn about which use-cases we're best suited for. Trying to solve anyone's problem! Not all of the launches were effective.. but if you're curious about all the launches we've done, get ready. 1. (Pre-idea) November: I cold emailed ~100 different founders that had talked about web-automation in random online forums -> Led to our first customers + 3 pilots (and tons of lessons) 2. (First launch) January: Launched with a barely functional API and a landing page to the YC Community -> Led to our second customer and a very important disqualification criteria: we don't automate tasks on LinkedIn 3. (Second launch) February: Did our first public launch via Launch YC with a slightly more featured API + landing page -> Led to a lot of prospects we couldn't serve (healthtech companies) -> Gave us conviction that we should open source 4. (Third launch) March: Open sourced + did a ShowHN (anyone can do a ShowHN) -> This is when we first felt market pull. Our product was still just an API (no UI) with a demo that disqualified anyone who didn't want to work with startups. This went viral -- we got to 3K Github stars + we got a handful of new customers 5. (Fourth launch) June: We shipped a MVP of Skyvern Cloud (with a UI) and launched on Product hunt -> We got a handful of inbound leads but ended up #10 on the day and didn't generate much interest 6. (Fifth launch) October: Launched Skyvern Cloud on Hackernews -> went viral again and went from 6K -> 9K github stars in 4 days. Made it to #1 on Github trending daily + weekly. You'll notice that as our product got more mature, we started launching less frequently. This is because the gaps in our product became more and more clear as we talked to more users. This meant that we had market fit, but not product market fit. We still needed to iterate on the product This was obvious before the launches though.. so why launch early? Well.. more often than not, our customers ended up caring about features we thought were unimportant (ie cancelling tasks), or some features (instant live-streaming) ended up being way more important than others (debugging workflows). How would we know precisely what to build without this feedback?

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YC Demo Day Survival Guide: What VCs Say vs. What They Actually Mean 👇 What VCs say: "Not aligned with our strategy" > What they mean: "We have no idea what our strategy is, but it's definitely not this, mate." What VCs say: "That's a fascinating idea." > What they mean: "I think Juicero was a better startup idea than this." What VCs say: "We need to see more traction." > What they mean: "Your graphs are as flat as Kansas. I don't see any graphs with the line going up. Line must go up. Line must go up." What VCs say: "Please keep us in the loop." > What they mean: "Forget that you have my email. In fact, forget that email exists. If you message me again, I will call the Sopranos." What VCs say: "It's not you, it’s us" > What they mean: "It’s absolutely, unquestionably, definitively you. But if I tell you, you'll write an exposé, I’ll go viral on LinkedIn, and my partner will send me to a spa in Novosibirsk, Siberia for 6 months." What VCs say: "We’re really excited about your vision" > What they mean: "Your vision is wonderful. It’s your current business model that reminds me of a horror movie. Frankly, I may need therapy after seeing your revenue and churn." Any others? What am I missing?

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Palantir stock is 🆙 Up 152% Year-to-Date (!) 📈 Trades at 34x ARR (!) and ⤴️ Is Growing New Customers +41% 🔥The Fire of the Fire in SaaS🔥 5 Interesting Learnings: #1. Growth Has Re-Accelerated tp 27%, from 13% a Year Ago Fueled by commercial and government contracts, and by AI-related demand in both, Palantir is seeing growth re-accelerate from 2023.  Pretty impressive, in a time when almost everyone else that is public is seeing slowing growth. #2.  Artificial Intelligence Platform (AIP) is a Year Old But Fueling $159m in Q2 Bookings Alone To some Cloud and SaaS leaders, AI is a table-stakes addition.  But for Palantir, it’s a true accelerant. #3.  Commercial (Non-Gov't and Defense) Customers Fueling Growth.  Up From Almost None in 2020 to 295 Today. Palantir is closing big, big deals and its roots are in government and defense.  When it IPO’d, commercial customers were a tiny bit of their business.  Fast forward to today, they are closing 300 of them.  And revenue is up +55%.  This potential for a decade of growth at scale here helps justify the high revenue multiple Palantir trades at. #4.  Closed 27 Deals Over $10,000,000 and 96 $1,000,000 Deals — Just Last Quarter Palantir is very enterprise. #5.  Profitability Has Increased Even as Growth Has Reaccelerated Do you have to do it all today, at least once you are at scale? Grow AND be more efficient?  Yes, you do.  And Palantir has risen to the challenge. It's pretty impressive to do both.

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🚨 Myth-busting alert! 🚨 We’ve teamed up with the legends at Microsoft to put an end to all those “marketplace myths” floating around! 💥 No, you don’t need a PhD in tech wizardry to join, and no, it’s NOT just for the “big guys”! Together, we’re making it easier (and way more fun) for partners to dive into the marketplace with confidence. Got doubts? Let’s bust ‘em! 💡 Ready to partner? Let’s rock the marketplace! 🎸 #PartnershipGoals #MarketplaceUnlocked #MicrosoftPartner #MythBusted #TechCollab

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Dear network, practicing what we preach... we're looking for your inputs! 📣 How do you work on pricing? Answer this quick survey and help us making our Pricing Clinics even better! Your help with this would be just... priceless!!

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On every $1 ARR, monday.com Market Value is 5.13 times that of Similarweb. 😵 𝗛𝗼𝘄 𝗰𝗮𝗻 𝗶𝘁 𝗯𝗲? Both Monday and SimilarWeb are: 1. Public 2. Growing 3. Profitable! 4. B2B SaaS 5. Market Leaders 6. Rocking an amazing culture 💙 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝘀𝗵𝗼𝗿𝘁 𝗮𝗻𝘀𝘄𝗲𝗿: How effectively a startup generates ARR is just as important as how much ARR it generates. 💛 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗹𝗼𝗻𝗴 𝗮𝗻𝘀𝘄𝗲𝗿: In this blog post, I explore why Monday.com’s market value per $1 in ARR is 5.13 times that of SimilarWeb’ by analyzing the following metrics and benchmarks using public IR (investor relations) data from Q2FY24: 1. Gross Margin (Non-GAAP) 2. Operating Margin (Non-GAAP) 3. Free Cash Flow (FCF) 4. CAC Payback 5. Net Revenue Retention (NRR) 6. ARR Growth (%) 7. Rule of 40 (Ro40) 🩷 𝗪𝗵𝘆 𝘀𝗵𝗼𝘂𝗹𝗱 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗰𝗮𝗿𝗲? 1. To truly call yourself the ‘CEO of the product,’ you need to think like one. This involves approaching ARR through the lens of Product and wearing the VC/CFO hat to ensure you spin the revenue flywheel effectively and sustainably.  2. The insights from this exploration are applicable to any B2B SaaS startup. 👉 P.S 1. The blog post is free (check out the comments section). 2. Repost to help my blog grow. #ARR #ProductManagement #VC #Growth

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Sam Altman was the President of YC. Startup advice given at YC: - Launch right away - Launch 1st version you’re embarrassed about - Raise very little capital up front - Don’t take big R&D risk - Find PMF quickly, with ‘something’ Versus how he launched OpenAI: - Raised 1B dollars of capital before any PMF - Took 4 to 5 years after launch to release - Didn’t talk to users upon release Moral of the story? Be careful of textbook advice, no matter who it came from. Prioritise finding smart people with solid analytical skills, instead. Then, make educated bets together.

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This time last year, we hosted the first-ever Ecosystem-Led Growth (#ELG) event in Europe alongside our friends and ELG Alliance member, Stripe. As the inaugural event of its kind, we were uncertain about the demand, so we kept it fairly small. 😳 Little did we know, it sold out shortly after we announced it. 🤝 Fast forward to today, and we are thrilled to be hosting another ELG event in London, once again in partnership with Stripe. A lot has changed since last year: 🔺ELG has exploded in popularity 🚀 Everyone is talking about it, and we see this reflected in the numbers every day—from the growth of the ELG Index to the fact that the banner in the picture below now reads "20k customers" (43% ⬆️). 🔺 In response to this growth, we've adjusted the format accordingly. What started as a couple of hours' meetup has evolved into a full-day conference, following our successful event in Austin, TX last month 🇺🇸 Don't miss out on this incredible opportunity to be part of the ELG movement. With only a few tickets left, now is the time to secure your spot and join other SaaS industry leaders and GTM operators for a day of insightful discussions, networking, and growth. Book your tickets today before they sell out 👉 https://bit.ly/3RKLGft

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A very good read on management tips here (not necessarily data) from BlaBlaCar - with 2 takeaways I have experienced as well: - a management position is not an IC promotion, it’s a different job - managers & ICs have different responsibilities so that most day-to-day decision making should be at the IC level https://lnkd.in/etujNKJ4

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A woman co-founder built one of the most successful apps in Europe, without millions in VC money. Here’s how: Julie Chapon, along with François MARTIN and Benoit MARTIN, launched Yuka in January 2017. From day one, Julie knew they weren’t going to be just another startup chasing big fundraising. Yuka was about impact and value, helping people make healthier choices by scanning barcodes to see the real health impact of food and cosmetics. They grew fast, but on their own terms. By January 2018, they hit over 1 million users, far beyond their expectations. They raised a small round in June 2018, not from VCs but from business angels who aligned with their mission. It was just enough to grow the team and add cosmetics analysis, all while staying true to their values. Since then, Yuka has grown organically with their business model, proving that profitability and purpose can go hand in hand. Fast forward to today: Yuka has over 40 million users worldwide, including millions in the U.S., where it’s quickly become a favorite for conscious consumers. This is a success story about focus, transparency, and doing it without chasing the biggest checks. Know other women founders who’ve built successful startups without VC money? Tag them below. 👇 _____________________ 👋🏻 Hi there, welcome! ✨ I'm Sarah. I help women founders develop winning business models, gain market traction, and secure funding through my FundHER accelerator program. As a woman founder, follow me here on LinkedIn for insights and support to help you launch, grow and fund your startup.

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The most important fundraising KPI: 1st pitch → 2nd meeting conversion rate Is yours low? (< 30-50%) Something is wrong. Here's how to diagnose your issue and fix it: There are two types of potential problems... 1️⃣ Investor targeting 2️⃣ Pitching 𝐈𝐍𝐕𝐄𝐒𝐓𝐎𝐑 𝐓𝐀𝐑𝐆𝐄𝐓𝐈𝐍𝐆: The most common issue is targeting the wrong investors. Usually you're reaching out to investors that focus on a different stage or industry. Do some research on the investors that didn't convert to a second meeting. The most important resource: their portfolio page. Ignore the "about" section, or their blog. That's mostly about marketing to potential investors in their fund. Instead, look at what they've actually invested in and the stage at which they invested (Pre-Seed, Seed, Series A, etc.) Remember: trust the portfolio, not the thesis. __ The other main issue is unclear outbound messaging. Investors think you do one thing (industry, business model, tech, etc.) but you actually do something else. I recommend sending your outbound email template to 5+ friends that don't know anything about your startup. Ask them: • What kinds of customers do you think we serve? • What benefits do you think we provide for them? • What product features do you think we have? • What technologies do you think we use? If more 20% of your friends answer these questions incorrectly, you need to write new outreach emails. 𝐏𝐈𝐓𝐂𝐇𝐈𝐍𝐆: The most common issue is just that your pitch is weak. Usually because you aren't telling a story. You're just sharing disconnected data. The best pitches are stories that foreshadow the only possible outcome: your startup's tremendous success. It feels inevitable. The easiest test to figure out if you're telling a story: try connecting the main idea of each of your slides with "but," "so" or one of their synonyms. If the natural link between slides is "and" or if you can move the order around, you don't have a story. Chronology matters in storytelling. Go back to the drawing board and try to write your inevitable success story. __ Maybe your overall pitch isn't weak. But VCs may still be spotting a red flag when you pitch. It turns them off right away. If you think this might be your issue, it's important to start asking questions. Most pitches have time for you to ask questions at the end. Here's my go-to to diagnose this issue: "What would you need to see in order to get excited about investing in <<STARTUP>>?" If they tell you a primary KPI that you need to improve, then you've probably identified the issue. The other possibility: They try to avoid giving you a specific answer. If they're evading your question, you NEED to dig in to get to the bottom of it. Your fundraising success may depend on it. —— Was this helpful? 👍 like and ♻️ repost it to help other founders!

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Guillaume "𝑮" Cabane is the "Mad Scientist" of Growth Hacking. But most people don’t know how he got there. After binging hours of his interviews, talks and articles to study how, here’s what I learned: Some quick stats on Guillaume Cabane if you're unfamiliar: - Former VP of Growth at Segment and Drift, a Salesloft company - Helped Segment grow from $0 to $30 million in ARR - Advisor to over 20 startups, including Ramp, Workstream and others - Co-founder of HyperGrowth Partners So... what can we learn? He creates growth strategies with this simple, 3-part framework: 1) Data-Driven Decision Making 2) Hyper-Personalization 3) Constant Experimentation Let's dig in: For Guillaume, everything begins with Data-Driven Decision Making. The reason is because data provides objective insights that drive effective growth strategies. To do this, he does the following: - Implements robust tracking and analytics systems - Regularly analyzes customer behavior and feedback - Utilizes advanced tools for data visualization and insights Simple, but highly effective. The next thing Guillaume focuses on is Hyper-Personalization. He does this by leveraging user data to create tailored experiences, and sometimes even automating personalization at scale. Which leads us to… The real reason Guillaume Cabane is so successful at driving exponential growth is because he is obsessive about: - A/B testing every aspect of the user experience - Iterating quickly based on test results - Continuously learning and adapting to new growth tactics This, combined with Data-Driven Decision Making and Hyper-Personalization is what makes him so successful. So, let's recap what we've learned: - First, study Data-Driven Decision Making. And remember to implement comprehensive tracking and regularly analyze your data. - Second, study the art of Hyper-Personalization. Do this by: 1) Leveraging user data 2) Creating tailored experiences 3) Automating personalization at scale (e.g Intellimize) And lastly, don't neglect experimentation. Instead, constantly test and iterate. And don’t forget to adapt quickly based on your findings. Consider ♻️ resharing if this was useful.

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We got +100 NPS for our recent SaaStock Founder Membership (SFM) retreat. Based on feedback and on reflection, here are a few reasons why: 1. Magic 🪄: We sourced a magical location in the Agafay Desert, Les Terrasses D'Agafay. It created the base for the first wow moment. Also as we were in the middle of the desert, it kept the group together (as no one could leave). 2. Grounding ⛺️: Glamping instead of 5* resorts. Kind of an unexpected one but a good learning. The previous retreats had been in 5* resorts which we could go to any time on holiday with family/friends. Glamping I think resulted in us feeling a bit more grounded which helped with the openness and transparency of the group. 3. Fire 🔥: We had a campfire which every evening created a central space for us to congregate and we ran roundtable discussions for the whole group with a level of transparency not seen before. 4: Ice 🧊: We broke the Ice the night before the retreat started with a dinner in Marrakech. Allowed everyone to connect and familiarise if they were new to the group. 5. Space 🛸: The agenda allowed for lots of space for people to just talk and relax 6: Power of 40 🔋: Not that one, but we cap the size at 40 people. Just the right amount for everyone to connect and bond. With this, i think we found the recipe for the perfect Founder retreat. Already planning next years and wish the NPS scale could go above +100 #saastockfoundermembership #retreat #events #saas #founders #community

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Just two thoughts: 1. As soon as you reach something, it becomes obvious how to get there (again). For example, if you've built a company with 1M ARR, you can be pretty confident you can repeat it. 2. Each new level is challenging because you have to learn. You could have built 3 companies with 1M ARR each, but getting from 1M to 3/5/10 is something you have not done, so it requires new knowledge gained either through learning or trying and failing. I personally feel that learning from other agency founders is a faster and less stressful way of learning than spending time & money on failures.

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Doing what you did in your early stage phase for too long will kill 💀 your startup. 𝐇𝐞𝐫𝐞 𝐢𝐬 𝐰𝐡𝐲: In the early stage, you fuel hyper through acquisition. You rock a low CAC Payback and reinvest the $ in more growth. With scale, your ARR composition changes. Most of the ARR comes from existing customers. 𝐄𝐱𝐚𝐦𝐩𝐥𝐞: ARR = $100M ($50M New, $50M Existing) To maintain a 3X growth ($300M) on this composition through acquisition, you need to 5X your New ARR ($250M). It’s not doable, especially while maintaining a low CAC Payback. Hence, relying mainly on acquisition is no longer a viable option. 𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐭𝐨 𝐝𝐨? The game has changed. It’s about monetizing and expanding ($) your base (NRR / GRR). AND maintaining the efficient acquisition engine. You have to do both. How do you expand ($) your base? More value! The second product add-ons, new services, and additional monetization layers. Value! Value! Value! It’s a mindset and a strategy shift. People tend to keep doing what’s working. But in this case, your startup will stagnate if the switch is made too late. #Growth #PLG #SaaS #B2B #Scaleup #Product

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⌛ 44 minutes. That's how long it took Proofs to build a Shopify Hydrogen store and integrate it with Contentful. Here's what our Proofs AI Agents have worked through in that time: 🏗️ Preparing dev environment - Bootstrapped current version of the Shopify Hydrogen - Connected to Shopify store - Verified local dev server responds correctly 📰 Researched the IKEA brand - Extracted the logotype - Obtained brand colors and language - Researched products and categories 🎨 Made storefront more relevant - Applied logotype and brand colors to frontend code - Generated relevant products, categories and images - Installed new product catalog in Shopify platform 🖼️ Contentful integration - Installed dependencies - Created relevant content model - Generated and uploaded images and marketing copy conforming to the schema and relevant for IKEA - Made frontend code pull additional pages and their content from Contentful Building something interesting on Shopify Hydrogen? We'd love to run a proof of concept with you. Drop a 🛠️ below or DM me if you want to geek out about the technical architecture.

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