Hey there, It's mariano š§
Times are shiftingāfast.
SaaS is not dead. But it's gonna be transformed.
Thatās why Iām shifting gears with this newsletter: more real stories. more insights from the real builders.
Iāve been digging into the subscriber list, and I know there are a lot of great people here. People whoāve built, scaled, and learned the hard wayāwithout being loud about it.
Hereās where we take it next:
What Iāll be doing
š¢ building in public ā sharing the journey of our saas products with iterate.so
š¢ growing in public ā scaling this newsletter & our saas products.
š¢ breaking down real saas growth cases ā from my work & beyond.
Whatās next for you
ā iāll be reaching out ā to feature founders and share real-world lessons from this community.
ā bringing you the best findsā real lessons from founders and valuable finds as usual.
If youāve got a story, a win, or even a painful lesson, hit reply.
let's dive in on todays edition!
āāACQUISITIONāāāā from my blog š§
1) The Sales Triangle: 80/20 and why your best customers matter most
80% of your SaaS growth comes from just 20% of your efforts.
The problem? Most teams get this wrong.
Not all customers are created equal. In SaaS, a small percentage of accounts generate the majority of revenue. This reflects Pareto's principle (80/20 rule):

20% of your customers generate 80% of your revenue.
The other 80% contribute far less and often require more effort.
Customer selection is a critical part of growth.
Instead of trying to sell to everyone, focus onĀ high-value customers who can generate long-term revenue.
Traditional GTM died last year. But nobody noticed because they were too busy building funnels.
In this post I share my thoughts on how to re-focus your growth efforts, and take the most of your budget.
by mariano martene š§
āāACQUISITIONāāāā
2) High-touch SaaS is taking over the AI world
Old Teams:
- Build automated onboarding flows
- Create product tutorials no one watches
- Design fancy activation sequences
- Push for self-serve scaling
- Marketing blasts mass content
- Sales sends automated sequences
- Support relies on help centers
- "We need more automation!"
New Teams:
- We're building a concierge-first AI business
- We won't need mass automation
- We'll grow deeper not wider
- Direct Slack channels with every VIP
- Personally train their AI agents
- Daily customer contact and support
- Growth through expertise and trust
- Everyone focused on 25 perfect customers
In a world of AI automation, PLG motions will struggle to get the job done.
Human connection and expertise is the path to real growth.
by Alex Turnbull
āāPOSITIONINGāāāā
3) Every startup should have a section like this on their landing page.
Itās clever because it addresses one of the biggest objections people have when theyāre on the fence.
You donāt know how hard it is to use the product and you donāt have time to figure it out.
This is the kind of insight that comes from having many conversations with potential customers.
Uncover their fears and find a way to counter them in your messaging.

āāGROWTHāāāā
4) Growth at all costs is out; now it's profitability first.
The next questions that go through many CEO's heads, are about reducing expenses. More specifically in our case:
ā How do I reduce the cost of our engineering team?
The problem with reducing costs is that there's a hard limit. It's often not sufficient in order to reach profitability.
Open up your mind to this more interesting question, which has no associated hard limit:
ā How can I make Engineering more profitable?
Most engineering departments I see are not optimised to generate PROFITS for their companies.
Product departments are more attuned to this, but for many reasons they often end up as overworked order-takers.
Are you a CTO, VP or Dir. of Engineering?
ā Can you imagine delivering High Impact Business Outcomes, every sprint?
by Itzchak Sabo
āāGROW IN PUBLIC (new section!)āāāā
Iām introducing a new section in the SaaS-HQ newsletter to track its growth. Every edition will include an update with three key insights.
this is the first issue of 2025.
I enriched all my subscribers using nrich.email
next: understand my audience and talk with them.

what happens when you enrich every subscriber? letās find out.
thanks for reading. have a great week!
best
ā mariano martene š§

linkedin
š§marianomartene.com (blog): personal notes on SaaS growth, tech & whatās next.
++ iterate.so (growth studio): building SaaS growth engines. for ourselves & others.

