Episode Details

Roxanne Petraeus had never worked in compliance or HR. But a single TechCrunch article about her customer acquisition startup approach landed Netflix as a customer - and kicked off a word of mouth SaaS engine that signed 250 companies including Zendesk, Figma, and Notion.

If you are looking for customer acquisition startup strategies beyond paid ads and cold outreach, this episode delivers. Roxanne shares how she partnered with a VC fund's HR leader to distribute a free beta to 50 portfolio companies, why SaaS go-to-market through press-driven growth can be more powerful than outbound sales, and how Ethena maintained 95%+ renewal rates during tech layoffs.

Roxanne Petraeus is the co-founder and CEO of Ethena, a compliance training platform serving 100,000 employees across 250 customers. Ethena has raised over $50 million.

🔑 Key Lessons

• Use press as a customer acquisition startup weapon, not a vanity play - one TechCrunch article reached Netflix's CEO, who shared it with his legal team and became a customer.
• Turn VC networks into distribution channels for early customer acquisition startup traction - one email to a VC fund's HR leader generated the first 10 beta customers.
• Discover buyer pain points by going from general complaints to specific costs - HR buyers spent 10 hours per week on manual CSV tracking and faced regulatory risk.
• SaaS go-to-market through word of mouth SaaS scales when employees switch jobs - satisfied users recommended Ethena at their next employer, creating an organic referral loop.
• Build on legally required demand for recession-resistant press-driven growth - compliance training is mandated by law, maintaining 95%+ renewal rates through layoffs.

Chapters

• Introduction
• Favorite quote and leadership philosophy
• What Ethena does and the compliance training problem
• Roxanne's background - army officer to McKinsey
• Where the idea for Ethena came from
• Meeting co-founder Ann through serendipity
• Building the MVP in three weeks
• Customer discovery - structured interviews with HR leaders
• Launching the beta and the free-to-paid transition
• Landing the first paying customer in four months
• Customer acquisition startup fundraising lessons
• Learning to sell compliance software without domain expertise
• How press landed Netflix and other big-name customers
• Why word of mouth became the biggest growth channel
• Challenges women founders face raising venture capital
• Navigating tech layoffs and revenue contraction
• Lightning round

Resources

• Full show notes: https://saasclub.io/344
• Join 5,000+ SaaS founders: https://saasclub.io/email