Episode Details

Adam Schoenfeld once charged $2.50 for 48 hours of access to his SaaS product. Within two years, his pricing strategy shifted to a $500/month minimum and enterprise brands like Pepsi and Microsoft were paying far more. That pricing strategy evolution changed everything for Simply Measured.

Adam reveals how he applied hard lessons from a failed startup to build an 8-figure social analytics business, why his founding team started as "Untitled Startup" with no product idea, and the exact moment he realized agencies would pay 50x more than his original pricing model.

🔑 Key Lessons

• 💰 Start with a paid pricing strategy from day one: Adam's first startup failed because nobody would pay. At Simply Measured, charging $2.50 from the start proved marketers would pay for social analytics and validated the subscription pricing approach.
• 📈 Raise prices when customers ask for more features: When agencies needed multi-channel tracking, Adam introduced a $500/month tier - a 50x jump. Willing customers signaled the market could bear a higher pricing strategy.
• 🎯 Let paying customers drive your roadmap: Simply Measured focused on expanding value for paying customers rather than building features free users requested. Paying customers describe real problems worth solving.
• 🚀 Use a team-first approach when you lack a product idea: Adam and his co-founders started as "Untitled Startup" and ran experiments until one stuck. Complementary skills mattered more than a perfect idea.
• 📉 Hire salespeople before the bottleneck breaks growth: Adam closed all deals himself and waited too long to hire. Simply Measured ended up with more leads than one person could handle.
• 🏢 Move upmarket by pricing around customer complexity: Simply Measured scaled its pricing model with social profile count and audience size. Enterprise brands naturally landed at higher contract values.

Chapters

• Introduction
• Adam's background and personal interests
• Success quotes from John Wooden
• Cheddar Media: the startup that failed
• When to pivot vs when to shut down
• Simply Measured's target customers and differentiation
• Founding as Untitled Startup with no product idea
• Why a team-first approach works
• How early agency customers shaped product direction
• RowFeeder: the weekend hack that became the product
• Early pricing strategy: from $2.50 to $500 a month
• Customer acquisition and the first year of growth
• Moving from $10/month to $500/month plans
• Biggest mistake: hiring salespeople too late
• Growing pains of transitioning the brand
• Drawing on lessons from a failed startup
• Discovering enterprise brands as the real market
• Co-founder roles and building the executive team
• 8-figure revenue and scaling to 125 people
• Lightning round

Resources

• Full show notes: https://saasclub.io/15
• Join 5,000+ SaaS founders: https://saasclub.io/email