SaasRise Mastermind Recap - Nov 5, 2025

Come join us next Wednesday at 8am PT and 12pm PT on Zoom for the type of peer advice you can only get from other SaaS CEOs who are in the trenches.

Here’s what we discussed today.

Topic: Marketing and Sales Role Structure

• Challenge: A participant is restructuring their sales and marketing approach after previous unsuccessful attempts with hired groups, needing guidance on required roles and time commitments for implementation.
• Recommendations:
  • Consider existing internal resources before hiring entirely new people
  • For smaller organizations, combine roles: content person can handle email campaigns, digital ads manager can also create graphics using tools like Canva
  • One or Two quality marketing people plus one sales person can handle most needs
  • Hire someone with core competency in 1-2 areas rather than expecting equal expertise across all domains
  • Ads management and content creation are hardest skills to teach; project management and email platform management can be learned
  • Consider agency setup initially, then transition to in-house management once systems are established

Topic: Content Creation Strategy

• Challenge: Previous content writers lacked understanding of the business and created generic, unhelpful content.
• Recommendations:
  • Business owners should draft initial content, then have agency workers refine it
  • Promote existing support team members who understand the product to content roles
  • Use AI as augmentation tool with proper prompting and human oversight
  • Create authentic source material first, then use contractors to distribute across channels
  • Set up dedicated ChatGPT projects with company documentation uploaded for context

Topic: AI Implementation and Limitations

• Challenge: Mixed results with AI implementation, including negative customer responses to AI chatbots.
• Recommendations:
  • Use AI for content assistance and internal processes, not customer-facing automation as the tech isn't there yet.
  • Always disclose AI assistance in business communications
  • Focus on AI as productivity tool rather than replacement for human expertise
  • Be cautious with AI for legal/tax advice due to accuracy limitations

Topic: B2B Affiliate Networks

• Challenges: Seeking effective B2B affiliate networks and referral systems for a done-for-you local business platform with $600/month pricing. Need to find networks with existing publishers rather than just tracking software.
• Advice: Consider Rewardful, Reditus, Partner Stack, AWIN, and Impact.com. Use cold email campaigns to recruit potential partners directly. Build ABM lists of ideal partners (like marketing agencies) and proactively reach out with partnership invitations.

Topic: Lead Generation Funnel Optimization

• Challenges: $25 cost-per-lead from Google Ads checklist downloads aren't converting to customers. Struggling to move problem-aware prospects through the funnel to become solution-aware and purchase-ready.
• Advice: Try LinkedIn Message Ads targeting competitor users, Meta lookalike campaigns, and Bing Search. Enrich existing prospect lists with personal emails to improve ad platform match rates from 15% to 50%. Use LinkedIn outreach and automated sequences for direct engagement.

Topic: ABM List Building and Management

• Challenges: Managing and deduplicating prospect lists from multiple sources (Apollo, Instantly, custom lists) while organizing data efficiently.
• Advice: Deduplication happens automatically when uploading to ad platforms and email tools. Use Row Zero, Base Row, or Python scripts for manual deduplication if needed. Focus on list quality over manual management.

Topic: Competitor Customer Acquisition

• Challenges: Opportunity to acquire 28 customers ($250K MRR) from closing competitor. Need to structure competitive offer while maintaining profitable unit economics.
• Advice: Consider offering 50% of first-year revenue or 6 months of forecasted revenue per converted customer. Be cautious of upfront payments without guarantees, especially given the seller's urgency.

Topic: AI Adoption in Organizations

• Challenges: Only 25% employee participation in AI innovation initiatives despite 7 months of $500 incentive programs. Low engagement after 2.5 years of promoting AI transformation.
• Advice: Assign specific AI tools by department rather than generic "use AI" directives. Hire dedicated AI champions or external consultants. Create AI task forces led by younger employees. Consider making AI adoption mandatory rather than voluntary.
  

The following tools were recommended during the meeting:

B2B Affiliate Networks & Tracking

• Rewardful
• Reditus
• PartnerStack
• AWIN
• Impact.com
• Instantly (for cold email campaigns to recruit partners and email campaign management)

Lead Generation & Marketing

• LinkedIn Message Ads (for targeted B2B outreach)
• Meta lookalike ads and Advantage Plus ads
• Google Ads platform
• Bing Search (as alternative to Google Search)
• Clay.com (for email enrichment and LinkedIn profile matching)
• HeyReach (for automated LinkedIn connection requests)
• Canva (for graphic design and content creation)

‍‍ABM List Building & Management

• Row Zero (for large dataset deduplication)
• Base Row (for large dataset deduplication)
• LinkedIn Sales Navigator (for prospect identification)
• Wiza (for email extraction from LinkedIn)
• Find Email (for email extraction from LinkedIn)
• Apollo (for list building)

AI Tools by Department

• ChatGPT (with custom projects and uploaded documentation for multiple team use cases)
• Google AI Studio or Claude Code (for product managers)
• Claude Code or Codecs (for engineering teams)
• AI for cold outbound emails and ad creation (for marketing teams)
• AI SDR tools (for sales teams to automate follow-ups)

Data Management

• Python scripts (for technical deduplication tasks)
• HubSpot (for email sequences and lead scoring)
• Stripe (for payment processing and donation management)

Recruiting & Talent Sourcing

• Recruit (South Africa–based talent sourcing)