David Cancel knows what it takes to grow a successful SaaS company. Why? He’s done it five times. After his fourth company, Performable, was acquired by HubSpot in 2011 he became Chief Product Officer. But in late 2014, with just one month to go until their IPO, David left HubSpot to set up Drift with his co-founder Elias Torres. They didn’t have an idea. They didn’t have a product. But what they did have, was an obsession to solve problems for their customer. With a contradictory, unconventional, and unscalable approach to growth, David and the Drift team have combined customer-centric strategies with counter-intuitive tactics to unlock hypergrowth and scale from 0-150K customers in just over four years. This episode explains how, including: – Why Drift jumped into a highly commoditised and competitive market – The evolution of SaaS and the three waves of software as a service — The Edison Wave — The Henry Ford Wave — The Procter & Gamble Wave – How to find your wedge and be focused in your early stage – The importance of investing in brand from day one – Why Drift created a brand new category, conversational marketing, and how it’s changing the way marketing & sales teams operate – The unconventional and unscalable things Drift have done to grow their business
