Episode Details

Kreg Peeler built a website and his wife manually curated the content. One day they checked analytics and discovered 80% of traffic went to the local events section. That single SaaS go-to-market insight turned into SpinGo - a platform serving 200,000 event makers connected to $8 billion in ticket sales.

Kreg's go-to-market strategy evolved through three phases. He turned down an acquisition, countered with a licensing deal, then moved from licensing to promotions to Event Master - a full GTM SaaS platform that signed 254 events in its first months. The launch strategy was built on 200,000 existing users who already knew SpinGo.

Kreg brought professional stage lighting and 80-inch TVs to trade shows where competitors used pop-up banners. His SaaS go-to-market message to newspapers - "own local, don't try to be national" - positioned SpinGo as an ally rather than a competitor.

🔑 Key Lessons

• 🎯 Let website metrics reveal your SaaS go-to-market opportunity: 80% of traffic went to the events section. Instead of ignoring the data, Kreg built an entire company around it, letting user behavior dictate product direction.
• 💰 Counter acquisition offers with licensing for SaaS go-to-market control: When newspapers wanted to buy Spin Local, Kreg proposed licensing instead. This preserved ownership and created recurring revenue without giving up the business.
• 🚀 Dominate trade shows for SaaS go-to-market wins: Kreg brought stage lighting and event production expertise to newspaper conferences. The visual contrast with competitors earned attention and positioned SpinGo as a thought leader.
• 📉 Evolve through multiple revenue models: SpinGo moved from licensing (80% of early revenue) to promotions to Event Master SaaS (projected 80% of 2016 revenue), each model building on relationships from the previous one.
• 🤝 Convert existing users into SaaS customers for faster growth: SpinGo had 200,000 registered event makers before launching Event Master. Selling to users who already knew the brand shortened sales cycles and produced 254 signups fast.

Chapters

• Introduction
• Meet Kreg Peeler and the William Gibson quote
• What is SpinGo and the problem it solves
• From DVD with 6,000 menus to a website
• How the events section became 80% of traffic
• Turning down acquisition and proposing a licensing deal
• Building the content aggregation from scratch
• Amanda's manual curation and scaling to 70 people
• Funding SpinGo with consulting revenue and angel investment
• First business model: licensing event content to media companies
• Current business model: licensing, promotions, and Event Master SaaS
• Event Master projected to generate 80% of 2016 revenue
• The iPhone and VCR analogy for innovation journeys
• Trade shows as the most effective growth channel
• Building Event Master from 200,000 event makers
• Converting existing users into SaaS product customers
• You can't steer a parked car
• Lightning round

Resources

• Full show notes: https://saasclub.io/115
• Join 5,000+ SaaS founders: https://saasclub.io/email