"I assume no one wants to hear anything I have to say."

Surprising words from an ace storyteller who's a 60-time Moth StorySLAM champion, 9-time GrandSLAM champion, and author of the bestselling book on telling stories.

Yet, this counterintuitive approach is exactly what makes @MatthewDicks's stories unforgettable.

A year ago, @lennysan interviewed @MatthewDicks in what might be the most important podcast episode you haven't heard yet.

In this week's edition of Updating Your Priors, I'm breaking down his storytelling frameworks that will transform any presentation from forgettable to fascinating.

Follow along. 🧵

First up: Put the elephant upfront.

The Elephant technique is Matthew's most powerful opening move.

Instead of easing in, hit them with something big right away to get them to have a 'stake' in your story. 


I've been using this technique especially when telling the stories of Blume's portfolio companies. Take a look.

• Purplle: An 18-year old girl's dream of elevating her lifestyle 
• Intrcity: A mother's anxiety about her night travel with two kids
• Ultrahuman: A beach, a mountain, and Thailand

Every great story comes down to a 5-second moment.

Not the whole presentation. Not your credentials. Not even your main points.

Just that one moment where everything changes.


Most storytellers start at the beginning.

Matthew says that's exactly wrong.

Start with your transformation moment and work backwards. When you do this, something magical happens.


Here's a counterintuitive gem: Stop talking about your actual topic.

A scientist trying to sell medical tubes told a story about buying apples instead. He closed the deal.

This technique is called 'speaking with adjacency.


Finally - personal details matter, but not in the way you think.

Matthew has a fascinating framework for deciding which personal details to share and when.


That's it!

Want the complete breakdown of Matthew's storytelling framework?

Read the latest edition of Updating Your Priors here: https://updating-your-priors.ghost.io/updating-your-priors-edition-4-nobody-wants-to-hear-your-story-and-other-brutal-truths-ft-matthew-dicks-author-of-the-best-selling-book-storyworthy/

Unforgettable Storytelling

SaaSturday Issue #9 with 5 of my favorite SaaS links feat @ttunguz, @TheSaaSCFO, @NextBigTeng, @omerkhan and @bennstancil. Let's go.

If you find this useful, you can get SaaSturday emails in your inbox every weekend by joining the mailing list here:
https://saasturday.ck.page/4f1ecb4a30


#1) Question: Is the market valuing SaaS companies by growth or by profitability?
Answer: It depends.

@ttunguz of @Theoryvc looks at the public SaaS companies and uncovers a narrative violation.

https://tomtunguz.com/how-markets-value-saas-in-mid-2023/

#2) If you don't want your potential investors to tell you that your MRR schedule is wrong, this is a good post to read right now.

Ben Murray (@TheSaaSCFO) shows the right way to build an MRR schedule and throws in free templates to get you started.

https://www.thesaascfo.com/how-to-create-your-mrr-schedule/

#3) Coatue recently hosted founders and investors at the East Meets West conference. While the conference was closed doors, Coatue open-sourced the keynote slides. Check them out here.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1DYL8jvuE49fN3bGVfFydesJdxKMaBBvh/view

#4) As new logo acquisition continues to get harder, @NextBigTeng gives us a glimpse into how cloud companies are balancing growth through land and expand vs. new customers.

https://readwise.io/reader/shared/01h55577vt2mjk894dvdzaxh4s

#5) I found this conversation between @saasclubio's @omerkhan & @bennstancil exceptionally useful. They talk about how writing is a superpower for SaaS founders, narrowly positioning a product between existing categories, and acquiring first 10 customers.

https://saasclub.io/podcast/mode-benn-stancil-307/

SaaSturday Issue #9

Welcome to issue #8 of SaaSturday: 5 of my favorite SaaS links feat @themelissakwan, @jasonlk, @Kellblog, @patrickachase, @jacobeffron, and @asmartbear. Let's dive in.

#1) The founder of @ewebinarlabs, @themelissakwan, shared five pricing mistakes to avoid for SaaS founders, which I found immensely relevant and on point. In my conversations with founders, many of these come up regularly.
https://www.linkedin.com/posts/melissakwan_we-made-5-pricing-decisions-that-turned-out-activity-7082343044640841728--gjv/

#2) What should be your ultimate criteria for choosing between two VP hires, both of whom you find on equal footing in terms of their experience and expertise?

Love!

@jasonlk at his very candid.

https://app.saastruniversity.com/posts/saastru-scale-1m-10m-arr-lesson-6-you-cant-hire-a-vp-you-dont-love

#3) Has there been a change in SaaS metrics that founders and investors want to measure? Or are they still the same. Found this webinar from @Kellblog really insightful on all things SaaS metrics.


https://twitter.com/Kellblog/status/1676302859158056965

Here are the slides from the webinar: https://www.balderton.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/The-SaaS-metrics-that-matters-in-2023_Balderton-Capital-1.pdf

#4) The avalanche of large AI acquisitions has started, with Databricks acquiring Mosaic. In this insightful post, @patrickachase and @jacobeffron of @redpoint tell us why now and why this matters.

http://archive.today/70vHk


#5) I'd already shared the link to @asmartbear's AMA with the @go_relay community. But this particular snippet on staying with SMBs vs. moving upmarket stands out.

https://gorelay.co/t/im-a-smart-bear-jason-cohen-founder-of-2-unicorns-both-bootstrapped-funded-bought-sold-and-invested-in-startups-ama/909/25

Starting this week, I am adding a section, 'Bytes for Burns.' These are hyper-practical advice on burning issues from the various SaaS communities where I participate.

These bytes go only to the mail subs. You can sign up for the mail here.
https://saasturday.ck.page/4f1ecb4a30

SaaSturday: Issue #8

SaaSturday #7: 5 best SaaS links from the web, feat @mattwensing, @asmartbear, @hhhypergrowth, @jasonlk, @MariaGilfoyle, @VivekRamaswami.

Join the free mailing list to get SaaSturday in your inbox every weekend.
https://saasturday.ck.page/4f1ecb4a30


#1) A good piece of content will either move you or educate you. Very rarely do I come across something that can do both. This crisp post by @mattwensing comes very close to it. A compelling read if you are looking for a reality check on your positioning.

https://mattwensing.com/posts/are-you-wrestling-with-words

#2) A crowd-sourced tweet thread by @asmartbear on the very real problem of "I want to talk to customers more, but they don't respond to requests for meetings, nor to surveys. What do I do?" There are some very smart answers here.

https://twitter.com/asmartbear/status/1674795028441616386

#3) DBT. Snowflake. Kafka. Streaming. Data Lakehouse.

If these look more than alphabet soup to you, then you'll truly enjoy this long read on the modern data stack by @hhhypergrowth

https://hhhypergrowth.com/the-modern-data-stack/

#4) @jasonlk gets straight to some hard-earned truths about growing a SaaS business - It's never too early to have customer conferences, how much cash you should have in your account, and hopping onto more jets to meet customers

https://app.saastruniversity.com/posts/saastru-scale-1m-10m-arr-lesson-1-10-ways-to-grow-faster-with-less-stress

#5) What will vertical SaaS look like in the age of generative AI?

@MariaGilfoyle and @VivekRamaswami of @madronaventures take a shot at answering this vexing question.

https://twitter.com/MariaGilfoyle/status/1672275052623187968

If you like what you see, like and share for it to reach more people. If you like SaaSturday, join the free mailing list to get it in your inbox every weekend.
https://saasturday.ck.page/4f1ecb4a30


SaaSturday #7

SaaSturday Issue #6: 5 super interesting SaaS things I saw this week feat  @asmartbear, @go_relay, @poyark, @bader_stefan, @vladblagi, @Kellblog and @Patticus. Let's go!


#1 The good folks at @go_relay hosted the OG SaaS founder @asmartbear for an AMA. Needless to say, everything here is pure gold.
https://gorelay.co/t/im-a-smart-bear-jason-cohen-founder-of-2-unicorns-both-bootstrapped-funded-bought-sold-and-invested-in-startups-ama/909/14

#2 What's a bigger issue for SaaS founders than packaging their pricing tiers?

Pricing their add-ons.

Here @Patticus provides a framework to help SaaS companies price their add-ons that can drive a 12% to 22% bump in ARR (so what are you waiting for?)
https://www.linkedin.com/posts/patrickccampbell_add-ons-a-framework-for-12-22-more-revenue-ugcPost-7077626274654875648-n-sQ/

#3 In this super interesting post, @vladblagi breaks down the 8 stages of executive buy-in. It's a good way to self-audit to find where is your business stuck right now.
https://www.linkedin.com/posts/vladimirblagojevic_eight-stages-of-executive-buy-in-into-demand-activity-7075441905223761923-lf8d/

#4 You've heard about the T2D3 heuristic for SaaS companies. In this insightful post, @Kellblog presents the 56789 rule-of-thumb in the context of 'how quickly should your ARR grow to $100M."
https://kellblog.com/2022/08/21/how-quickly-should-you-grow-to-key-arr-milestones-the-rule-of-56789/?s=09


#5 Any edition of SaaSturday will not be complete without a post from @poyark. This time he goes deep into the B2B Referrals space, demystifying it with @bader_stefan, co-founder of @joincello.
https://www.linkedin.com/posts/kyle-poyar_b2b-referrals-activity-7077264079450447875-8EuB/

If you like what you see, please like and RT for more people to discover it.

SaaSturday #6: 5 Super Interesting SaaS Things

SaaSturday Issue #5: five super interesting SaaS things I saw this week, feat @varunshoor, @ArvindParthiban, @poyark, @jakestein, @saasboomi, @OnlyCFO, @brunovfestrella, @cjgustafson222, and @go_relay.

#1) Super-insightful conversation between @ArvindParthiban and @varunshoor on SaaS pricing. I particularly enjoyed this mini-argument about grandfathering customers when you increase your price.


Here's the link:

https://share.snipd.com/episode/fd535f63-65db-4bd7-a29b-79b7150b775a

#2) @OnlyCFO dives deep into how churn has changed into something different post the zero interest rate go-go days. Instead of thinking of churn as a leaky bucket, think of it as a snowball.

https://www.onlycfo.io/p/2023-year-of-customer-success-and


#3) @brunovfestrella, growth leader @webflow on what should the first growth-hire in a SaaS company do, the challenges of scaling paid marketing in SaaS, and the SEO sweetspot for Webflow. In this insightful post from @poyark
https://www.linkedin.com/posts/kyle-poyar_marketing-growth-plg-activity-7069652865270571008-dKI_?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop


#4) How do vertical SaaS companies grow?

Land and expand is a typical way for horizontal SaaS companies to grow but for vertical SaaS companies, the TAM is usually much smaller. So they follow a cake layer strategy. Here's a deep post by @cjgustafson222 on what it means.

https://twitter.com/cjgustafson222/status/1665712189171179521

#5) Team @go_relay talks to @jakestein, co-founder and CEO of @UseCommonPaper, on selling to customers who cannot pay, going deep into a narrow market as a point of differentiation, and YC as a channel for customer acquisition.

https://gorelay.co/t/why-it-s-ok-if-your-icp-can-t-pay-yet-investor-pitch-vs-customer-pitch-and-doing-yc-after-2-major-exits-with-common-paper-s-co-founder-jake-stein/917

If you enjoyed reading this, please do like and share.

You can check the past issues of SaaSturday here: https://typefully.com/SeekingN0rth

SaaSturday Issue #5

SaaSturday Issue #4: 5 super interesting SaaS things I saw this week, feat @poyark, @ErikNewtonMedia, @jasonlk, @rahulvohra, @themelissakwan, @jeremykingjk, @Growth_Corner, and more. Follow along.


#1) 5 SaaS founders share their growth journey from 0 to $1M ARR by Omer Khan on the @saasclubio podcast, featuring Trevor Kaufman of  @piano_io, @rahulvohra of @Superhuman, Christian Owens of Paddle, @themelissakwan of @ewebinarlabs and @jeremykingjk of
@askattest.


Here's the link: https://saasclub.io/podcast/from-zero-to-a-million-357/?vgo_ee=lwp+EKWvpXyIBLShtBJdI/j79bKTY3D9vZqVKjg5O9s%3D

#2) Insights on lead nurturing by @ErikNewtonMedia CMO, @hublio on the SaaS Sessions podcast with @SNeurgaonkar
- Only 1% of your leads are in the market and you need to nurture the rest
- Lead scoring and improving the quality of low-score leads
- How to increase retention rates

Here's the link: https://share.snipd.com/episode/aa6751a0-6445-4dd1-b4c3-6af1c8265dad


#3) Importance of micro-product lead magnets (like Hubspot's website grader) for lead gen by @Growth_Corner.

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/caseyhill_hubspots-website-grader-got-over-5000000-activity-7070067072604499968-3aGH/

#4) If Your VP Hasn’t Done Some Key Part of the Job by Day 90. They Never Will. by @jasonlk

https://www.saastr.com/if-your-vp-hasnt-done-some-key-part-of-the-job-by-day-90-he-never-will/

#5) What's happening to usage-based pricing in the current SaaS downturn by @poyark

https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7070032492736483328/

If you find this useful, please like and RT.

SaaS Saturday Issue #4

SaaSturday Issue #3: 5 super interesting SaaS things I saw this week, feat: @poyark, @bigredbabz, @ThomasKunjappu, @jasonlk, @WidawskiJ, and @bennstancil.


#1) Kyle Poyar (@poyark), operating partner at @OpenViewVenture  talks to Ken Babcock (@bigredbabz), co-founder of @Tango_HQ, on thier journey from being founded by three HBS dropouts to growing to 200,000 users in 14 months & securing a $14M Series A funding.

Here's the link to the post: https://kylepoyar.substack.com/p/from-0-to-200k-users-in-14-months

#2) @omerkhan's insight-packed chat with @ThomasKunjappu on the @saasclubio podcast. They speak about
- How for 2 years Cleary had only 1 customer (and why it was ok)
- Having logos on your sales deck is not enough
- Selling to enterprises
- Running big meetings
My fav excerpts

Here's the link to the podcast:

https://share.snipd.com/episode/3cb8ca20-84cb-4155-a14e-bb1291d724b4

#3) Sales Reps Really Do Have to Close 4x-5x What They Take Home, and  more interesting data points in this tweet thread (+ report)

https://twitter.com/jasonlk/status/1661103633973534720

#4) The kind of churn you don't want to improve by @WidawskiJ, founder and CEO of @mazedesignhq (source: @go_relay)


Here's the link to the podcast https://www.churn.fm/episode/how-maze-segments-churn


#5) How DBT fails by @bennstancil (written in Oct 2022, but I rediscovered it while reading about the modern data stack last weekend).
Not that DBT is in danger, but by looking at the failure scenarios, Benn provides a deep dive into the transformation of the modern data stack

here's the link: https://benn.substack.com/p/how-dbt-fails?utm_medium=email#:~:text=At%20its%20core%2C%20dbt%20is%20a%20relatively%20thin%20piece%20of%20technology%20(and%20an%20open%2Dsource%20one%20at%20that)

If you like this, please do share the thread.

SaaSturday Issue #3: 5 super-interesting SaaS things I saw this week

5 super-interesting SaaS things issue #2, feat: @PickensAllison's chat with @contentful's Steve Sloan, @mattwensing on self-serve vs. sales motion, @ArdaCapital on GitLab's AI/ML bets, @mkhandel and Meera Clark on vertical SaaS & @grainhq's Mike Adams on staying longer in beta.

@cbkrish, founder and CEO of @chargebee asks @mattwensing,
Founder of @usesummit, the ultimate GTM motion question - What is your advice for founders who're making a switch from self-serve to sales-led GTM? Matt's answer is deep and instructive.

Thanks to the good folks of @go_relay (@AsthaRattan and @MrAkashSharma) for this. You can find the full post here: https://gorelay.co/t/when-to-switch-on-the-customer-led-mode-pivoting-4-times-towards-pmf-and-other-discerning-realizations-with-summit-s-founder-matt-wensing/886

@PickensAllison (fmr COO at @GainsightHQ) asks Steve Sloan, founder and CEO of @contentful, how to run a company differently at $10M, $30M, and $100M in ARR and how to grow the sales team with it.
https://allisonpickens.substack.com/p/scaling-from-10m-to-100m-arr-lessons

Unlike GitHub's CoPilot, @gitlab's AI projects are under-the-hood, which means that they improve the product, but people cannot see them. @ArdaCapital dissects GitLab's approach to AI in this super engaging post.
https://newsletter.tidalwaveresearch.com/p/gitlab-ai-eating-software-and-is


@mkhandel and Meera Clark go deep into what separates a good vertical SaaS business from a great one.

https://makecents.substack.com/p/the-billion-dollar-question-differentiating


@omerkhan of @saasclubio asks @GrainHQ's Mike Adams about the benefits for an app to stay longer in the beta phase.

Here's the video snippet courtesy @snipd_app

That's all for this week. If you enjoyed it, do share it with your friends and colleagues.

5 super-interesting SaaS things: Issue #2

5 super-interesting SaaS things I saw on the web, this week- Featuring David Hart of @screencloud, @readwise's @deadly_onion, @CanduLabs's Jonathan Anderson, @poyark of @OpenViewVenture, @Calendly's Annie Pearl, @lennysan and @vimcal's @jaylbird11 (guest appearance by @snipd_app)

#1: David Hart, co-founder and COO of @screencloud, on the SaaS metrics to worry about during $100k to $1M ARR
https://gorelay.co/t/im-david-hart-co-founder-and-coo-of-screencloud-and-other-tech-businesses-ama/225/19

#2: This amazing thread by @deadly_onion, co-founder of @readwise, on the invisible asymptotes of consumer SaaS and how they put a local maxima on how much you can scale your company.
PS: This is pure gold. Please bookmark and read when churn is giving you sleepless nights

https://twitter.com/deadly_onion/status/1578831165561049089

#3: A 9-step process to audit and optimize free trial set-up for your PLG-led sales motion from Jonathan Anderson, CEO of @CanduLabs, on @poyark's newsletter.

https://kylepoyar.substack.com/p/how-to-optimize-your-free-trial

#4: @vimcal's founder @jaylbird11 on the right way to build a waitlist, how to filter people in and the questions to ask in the waitlist form on the
@saasclubio podcast by @omerkhan.

#5: The CPO of @Calendly, Annie Pearl, on @lennysan's podcast talking about how Calendly got its first 1000 customers.


If you find these useful, like/RT or share directly with your friends 👍