Copying competitors can feel like the fastest path to growth, but more often than not, it backfires.

In this episode of In Demand, Asia and Kim break down why copying other SaaS companies rarely works and what to do instead. They explore the difference between copying and inspiration, why context determines whether a strategy will succeed, and how to translate what you admire in another business into something that actually works for your own stage, market, and buyer.

If you’ve ever looked at a competitor or admired brand and thought “we should do that too,” this episode will help you think more strategically.

Got a question you’d like Asia to unpack on the podcast? Record a voicemail here.

Links:

• DemandMaven
• Switchyards Atlanta

• (00:01:00) - Copying competitors (and why it's not always a good idea).
• (00:02:30) - Why copying website design, branding elements, or campaign strategy is usually harmless.
• (00:07:35) - How to take inspiration vs. just copying.
• (00:10:00) - Where copying almost always fails: copying big strategic bets without context.
• (00:17:00) - Case study: Why so many SaaS founders tried to copy Intercom and why it didn't work for most people.
• (00:24:20) - What's the best way to take inspiration, keep track of it, but translate it into your own context.
• (00:26:00) - Another example: Why copying Notion’s community and ambassador model failed for a founder.
• (00:29:30) - The marathon analogy and how to adapt inspiration to your own stage of growth.

Research is one of the most valuable tools for unlocking growth in SaaS, but too often, research projects fail to create impact.

In this episode of In Demand, Asia and Kim explore why research projects fail from the consultant’s side and the client’s side. They unpack the most common failure modes, like treating research as an end in itself, failing to get buy-in, or conducting great studies that never translate into action.

If you’ve ever wondered how to make your customer research matter, or how to keep it from collecting dust, this episode will help you turn insights into progress.

Got a question you’d like Asia to unpack on the podcast? Record a voicemail here.

• (00:02:40) - The difference between delivery failure and impact failure.
• (00:04:00) - Clients do not hire research for the sake of research, they hire it to achieve outcomes.
• (00:10:00) - Why project success often depends on who hires you within a company and their level of influence.
• (00:18:20) - The consultant’s job as educator and guide, not just researcher.
• (00:22:40) - How to get buy-in for research work and why buy-in must extend beyond your main project contact.
• (00:26:10) - How to involve clients in interviews without biasing results.
• (00:32:45) - Why watching recordings isn't enough and how live debriefs after calls are where the magic happens.
• (00:39:30) - The client perspective and building internal research and insights habits.
• (00:49:00) - Known knowns, known unknowns, unknown unknowns and why good research reveals both.
• (00:53:00) - Thinking like a journalist to gather insights without resources.
• (00:55:00) - When should you do research? Anytime you face a high-impact decision.

Pricing is one of the most powerful yet least understood growth levers in SaaS. Most founders either ignore it for years or treat it like a guessing game.

In this episode of In Demand, Asia and Kim share their guide to pricing for busy founders. They cover the three phases of pricing, how to tell if it’s time to revisit your pricing, and how to run data-driven pricing experiments without wasting months or hiring a six-figure consultant.

If you’ve ever felt unsure about what to charge, how to test new prices, or when to hire expert help, this episode breaks it all down step by step.

Got a question you’d like Asia to unpack on the podcast? Record a voicemail here.

Links:

• DemandMaven
• The Motivation Code Assessment
• Irrational Labs Guide to Willingness to Pay
• Street Pricing by Marcos Rivera
• Pace Pricing

• (00:00:35) - Catching up on hobbies, motivation, and the “Motivation Code” assessment
• (00:13:50) - The Busy Founder’s Guide to Pricing
• (00:15:20) - The three phases of pricing maturity
• (00:18:30) - When and how to move from guessing to testing
• (00:21:40) - Pricing that drives net revenue retention and expansion
• (00:25:00) - Real examples: Intercom and Zendesk pricing overhauls
• (00:28:00) - Why pricing can be a hidden growth bottleneck
• (00:31:00) - Signs your pricing is broken and how to identify them
• (00:34:50) - The process for pricing research once you identify that pricing could be a problem
• (00:37:30) - Step 1: Pricing interviews and qualitative insights
• (00:39:00) - Step 2: Willingness-to-pay surveys and Van Westendorp questions
• (00:48:25) - Step 3: Product analytics and finding signal in usage data
• (00:53:00) - Turning insights into pricing hypotheses and running pricing experiments the right way
• (00:57:30) - DIY vs. hiring a pricing consultant
• (01:08:15) - Who should own pricing internally and how often to revisit it
• (01:17:10) - Closing thoughts: pricing as the easiest lever most founders ignore

Early-stage founders often claim they’ve reached product market fit, but when you look closer, it’s usually built on vibes, not data.

In this episode of In Demand, Asia and Kim unpack what real product market fit looks like, how to measure it quantitatively, and why most early-stage SaaS companies are too quick to assume they’ve found it.

If you’ve ever wondered how to know when you’ve actually hit product market fit, or if you might be fooling yourself, this episode gives you the frameworks and numbers to tell the difference.

Got a question you’d like Asia to unpack on the podcast? Record a voicemail here.

Links:

• DemandMaven
• Previous In Demand Episodes that discuss NRR: episode 46 and episode 37
• Superhuman Product Market Fit Survey
• ProfitWell
• Chart Mogul

• (00:02:20) - What is product market fit, and how was it historically measured?
• (00:07:00) - The product market fit survey and its limitations.
• (00:11:30) - Gross customer retention (GCR) as an underrated metric for measuring product market fit.
• (00:16:00) - Net Revenue Retention (NRR) as a deeper sign of product-market alignment.
• (00:20:10) - How GCR and NRR tell different parts of the story.
• (00:26:05) - Secondary indicators: churn rate, close rate, and trial-to-paid conversions.
• (00:28:05) - Why cohorting/segmenting reveals where PMF actually exists.
• (00:34:50) - You might have PMF for one segment but not another.
• (00:36:45) - The cautionary tale of assuming PMF too soon and how DemandMaven sets expectations with new clients.
• (00:44:30) - The reality check: if you’ve never charged customers, you don’t have PMF.

Most SaaS founders think about growth through the lenses of acquisition, activation, retention, or pricing. But few think about operations and how the way you work internally either unlocks or limits growth.

In this episode of In Demand, Asia and Kim dig into why operations is one of the most overlooked growth levers for bootstrapped SaaS companies. They explore how internal systems, structure, and decision-making shape your ability to execute on every other lever, from marketing to retention.

If you’ve ever felt like your company’s growth has stalled for reasons you can’t quite name, this episode will help you see how your internal operations might be the missing piece.

Got a question you’d like Asia to unpack on the podcast? Record a voicemail here.

• (00:00:50) - The top four growth levers that slow SaaS companies down and why Asia adds a fifth: operations.
• (00:06:00) - Operations is about how you deliver value, and how you structure your business to deliver value.
• (00:07:15) - Every company “does operations,” but intentional founders use it as a strength.
• (00:10:30) - How weak internal ops make it harder to pull other growth levers like acquisition and activation.
• (00:15:20) - A case study: how restructuring a marketing team’s meetings helped a company 2× its ARR.
• (00:23:15) - If you don't think about operations, it will eventually create chaos in your business.
• (00:27:00) - Why bootstrapped companies tend to be too slow in hiring key strategic leaders and how chasing the dream of only having a couple of employees holds founders back.
• (00:32:40) - Four areas to audit if ops might be holding you back: team, resources, processes, and decision-making.
• (00:38:00) - Why decision-making style is part of operations and how executive coaches can help with improving operations.

When it comes to growth channels, things are as straightforward as they seem. Attribution is as complex as ever, and if you move too fast, you risk wasting money on strategies that “don’t work”, not because they can’t, but because you’re too early.

In this episode of In Demand, Asia and Kim dig into how to understand which channels work (or don't). They unpack false positives and false negatives, the pitfalls of premature ad testing, and why channels should be evaluated as part of a larger system, not in isolation.

If you’ve ever wondered whether a channel failed because of timing or execution, this episode will help you separate signal from noise.

Got a question you’d like Asia to unpack on the podcast? Record a voicemail here.

• (00:01:00) - How false positives and false negatives can mislead your marketing strategy.
• (00:03:30) - Why it's possible to be too early into a marketing channel and how channels stack.
• (00:07:30) - How to do attribution by channel correctly.
• (00:10:15) - Customer interviews give a more complex picture of attribution.
• (00:13:00) - How to uncover your customer journey using interviews and jobs-to-be-done.
• (00:16:30) - When ads look like they’re working, but conversions tell another story.
• (00:26:00) - The product’s role in growth: if your PLG SaaS product can’t close, your ads can’t save you.
• (00:32:50) - How to tell if your company is too early for a channel or program.
• (00:35:30) - When it can be too early to go to a sales-led strategy.

When you’ve built a successful service or consulting company, the idea that building your own SaaS product can sound very attractive: scalable revenue, recurring customers, and product-led growth. But the reality is often far more complex.

In this episode of In Demand, Asia and Kim explore why non-SaaS companies struggle when attempting to spin off software products. They cover what makes SaaS such a different business model, the hidden costs and pitfalls of under-committing, and what it really takes to make a spin-off succeed.

If you’ve ever wondered whether your company should build its own SaaS product, or you’re already in the middle of one, this episode will help you avoid the most common mistakes and wasted investment.

Got a question you’d like Asia to unpack on the podcast? Record a voicemail here.

• (00:01:00) - Why non-SaaS companies get drawn to the “siren song” of SaaS
• (00:03:00) - How building internal tools triggers the idea of selling a software product.
• (00:09:45) - Why SaaS is hard and why spinning off a SaaS product often doesn't work out.
• (00:14:30) - Why parent-company reputation doesn't transfer to a SaaS spin-off as often as you'd think.
• (00:18:30) - What are the most common pitfalls to avoid if you're thinking about creating a SaaS spin-off product?
• (00:23:15) - Most SaaS spin-offs require $200K–$800K of investment before they start making money.
• (00:28:30) - Understanding go-to-market for a SaaS product and the mistakes that parent companies often make.
• (00:41:30) - The problems that come up with the parent company isn't fully committed to the new product.
• (00:44:20) - What made Moz and SearchPilot successful when others failed.
• (00:47:45) - Final advice: hire experienced contributors and treat the spin-off like a true startup.

When you’re in the early go-to-market stage, every dollar counts, but founders can feel pressure to move fast and start considering hiring a big agency before they're ready.

In this episode of In Demand, Asia and Kim unpack the trade-offs of hiring an agency too early. They explore what signals actually show you’re ready, how to avoid wasting precious cash, and alternative paths like freelancers or contractors.

If you’ve ever wondered whether now is the right time to pull the trigger on agency help, this episode is for you.

Got a question you’d like Asia to unpack on the podcast? Record a voicemail here.

• (00:00:57) - The risks of hiring an agency too early and why you might just be setting cash on fire.
• (00:04:35) - Key indicators of being ready to bring in an agency: customer volume, software category maturity, and retention.
• (00:07:25) - Why the best agencies are cautious about early-stage clients.
• (00:09:30) - Retention as a core indicator: if you’re losing half your customers after 3 months, pause.
• (00:14:30) - Why most companies don’t truly know product-market fit until at least 12 months.
• (00:17:05) - Why early-stage founders tend to think they need help from an agency or consulting firm.
• (00:18:20) - Lessons from Superhuman: taking time to refine before a big splash.
• (00:20:40) - Why remaining flexible in execution matters and where bringing on contractors or freelancers makes sense.
• (00:27:30) - The more cost-effective ways to test aquisition strategies.
• (00:31:10) - DemandMaven’s role in helping founders de-risk early go-to-market strategy.
• (00:34:54) - Final checklist: what to validate before spending on agency help.