(2023) What to Look For in a SaaS Accelerator Camp
Denis Shatalin
Founder of SaaS Camp
According to Lightercapital, 92% of SaaS companies fail in just their first three years. This emphasizes just how tough it is to build a SaaS and succeed.
The good news is that there are steps you can take to get your SaaS off the ground and provide it with the momentum and planning needed to succeed. And this is where getting into a SaaS accelerator camp can prove especially helpful!
Today, I’ll discuss what you should look for in a SaaS accelerator and how my SaaS accelerator camp can help your SaaS thrive. Who knows, you might even someday become part of a highly successful SaaS ecosystem. Let’s dive in!
The good news is that there are steps you can take to get your SaaS off the ground and provide it with the momentum and planning needed to succeed. And this is where getting into a SaaS accelerator camp can prove especially helpful!
Today, I’ll discuss what you should look for in a SaaS accelerator and how my SaaS accelerator camp can help your SaaS thrive. Who knows, you might even someday become part of a highly successful SaaS ecosystem. Let’s dive in!
What is a SaaS accelerator?
A SaaS accelerator camp is a training program designed for SaaS startups/founders. It will generally cover a whole host of modules (ranging from user acquisition to product optimization).
As part of a SaaS accelerator program, you will learn in-depth how to run a successful SaaS business. As part of the SaaS camp, I teach SaaS founders about eight key areas needed to build a successful SaaS.
Ultimately, our plan will be (among other things) to:
As part of a SaaS accelerator program, you will learn in-depth how to run a successful SaaS business. As part of the SaaS camp, I teach SaaS founders about eight key areas needed to build a successful SaaS.
Ultimately, our plan will be (among other things) to:
- Create a niche for three test buyer personas relevant to your SaaS.
- Close 20 customers for the highest price ASAP.
- Find the best acquisition channels to easily market your product.
Different aspects of the SaaS business you can get help in an accelerator
Before discussing the five most important elements of a SaaS accelerato camp, let’s summarize what you will learn at the SaaS camp. Over an eight week period, I cover the following areas:
- User acquisition - This module teaches how to gain new users and build a sales funnel to your service.
- Marketing positioning - You’ll learn how to improve your position in the minds of potential customers.
- Running calls - Here you will overcome your fear of cold calling.
- Creating strong offers - This module teaches how to turn weak offers into a no-brainer.
- Building converting websites - Learn how high converting SaaS websites succeed.
- Product optimization - Increase your SaaS’ referral rate with steps like an improved UX.
- Analyzing metrics - You’ll learn how to make sense of your data in a way that will lead to increased profit.
- Finding new revenue streams - I’ll teach you how to unlock exponential growth and encourage big names to contact you!
What to look for in a SaaS accelerator camp
When evaluating different SaaS accelerators, there are a range of considerations to take on board. In this section, I’ll explore what are arguably the five most important benefits you’d want from SaaS acceleration.
1. User acquisition
User acquisition is the process of gaining new users for your service. You can also refer to it as one the key performance indicators (KPI) for running a SaaS (i.e., the specific number of users you acquire). However, for this subsection, I’ll focus on the process itself before discussing metrics more in ‘Analyzing metrics’.
When using a SaaS accelerator camp, you’ll want to start making money or increase your existing revenue asap. When it comes to the SaaS camp, I’ll help you with:
Finding the ideal lead generation tactics is a big part of getting user acquisition right for a SaaS. A lead generation tactic is any approach that results in someone giving you their permission to make contact with them or if they give you their approval to remarket to them.
2. Market positioning
Another area that you’d want a SaaS accelerator camp to help in is market positioning. But what is market positioning exactly? Essentially, it is the place that you occupy in the minds of customers and how you differentiate yourself from your rivals’ products.
Be careful not to confuse market positioning with brand awareness. The latter instead refers to how much consumers recognize your service’s image or/and qualities.
As for market positioning, not only do you want to find out who your ideal customers are, but you’ll want to learn how to find them at the best moment. Along with helping you to figure out the aforementioned aspects of market positioning, my camp will also help you:
All in all, it’s no surprise that dozens of entrepreneurs trust our program. If you’re interested in accelerating your SaaS to the stars, consider signing up today.
1. User acquisition
User acquisition is the process of gaining new users for your service. You can also refer to it as one the key performance indicators (KPI) for running a SaaS (i.e., the specific number of users you acquire). However, for this subsection, I’ll focus on the process itself before discussing metrics more in ‘Analyzing metrics’.
When using a SaaS accelerator camp, you’ll want to start making money or increase your existing revenue asap. When it comes to the SaaS camp, I’ll help you with:
- Developing your user acquisition strategy.
- Clarifying the ideal customer profile for your SaaS.
- Setting up outreach messages that get replies and ultimately lead to a sales funnel for your service.
Finding the ideal lead generation tactics is a big part of getting user acquisition right for a SaaS. A lead generation tactic is any approach that results in someone giving you their permission to make contact with them or if they give you their approval to remarket to them.
2. Market positioning
Another area that you’d want a SaaS accelerator camp to help in is market positioning. But what is market positioning exactly? Essentially, it is the place that you occupy in the minds of customers and how you differentiate yourself from your rivals’ products.
Be careful not to confuse market positioning with brand awareness. The latter instead refers to how much consumers recognize your service’s image or/and qualities.
As for market positioning, not only do you want to find out who your ideal customers are, but you’ll want to learn how to find them at the best moment. Along with helping you to figure out the aforementioned aspects of market positioning, my camp will also help you:
- Learn how to charge more than competitors even when 20% of features are missing.
- Benefit from experiments that we run to help you find the niche in which your revenue will grow the fastest.
All in all, it’s no surprise that dozens of entrepreneurs trust our program. If you’re interested in accelerating your SaaS to the stars, consider signing up today.
3. Creating strong offers
You’ll also want a SaaS accelerator to help you create strong offers. After all, without particularly appealing offers, you may not attract nearly as many customers as you otherwise can.
There are three things that get companies to $1 million in sales, namely:
As part of the SaaS accelerator camp, you will learn how to turn weak offers into no-brainers. This is what makes people pay. It’s the difference between “I’ll pass” and “I must”. And, ultimately this may make or break your SaaS’ success.
Beyond that, I will teach you how to increase revenue without any effort by playing with human nature. You’ll practice offer-creating in exercises as part of our ‘creating strong offers’ module, and finally, we will apply everything to your startup.
4. Product optimization
Next, we have product optimization. A good SaaS accelerator will help you optimize your service. In the case of the SaaS camp, I’ll teach you how to design a flawless user experience so you can increase your referral rate.
A referral rate is the percentage of your service’s total purchases that resulted from referral (i.e., when one customer refers your service to another individual, and they also become a customer in turn). To give you an example, if 1 in 50 sign-ups to your SaaS result referrals, your referral rate will be 2%.
Through the SaaS camp, aside from creating the perfect UX, I will teach you the principles employed by the product teams of $146 million ARR SaaS companies. Ultimately, we’ll supercharge your product using these very principles.
5. Analyzing metrics
Last but not least, a good SaaS accelerator will help you understand the process of analyzing your metrics.
To generate sustainable cash flow, you must make intelligent use of your data. An optimized SaaS knows what to track and how to track it. As part of the SaaS camp, you’ll learn how to structure onboarding so that you can double your subscription numbers every month!
We’ll also identify the North Star Metric for your Saas, that being the measurement that is most telling of your long-term success. A North Star Metric must relate to customer value, result in revenue and measure progress. By knowing this metric, you will then know which statistic to focus on the most since its growth will almost guarantee the growth of your startup.
With that said, you don’t want to overlook other key SaaS metrics, such as:
You’ll also want a SaaS accelerator to help you create strong offers. After all, without particularly appealing offers, you may not attract nearly as many customers as you otherwise can.
There are three things that get companies to $1 million in sales, namely:
- A good product.
- Good traffic.
- An incredible offer.
As part of the SaaS accelerator camp, you will learn how to turn weak offers into no-brainers. This is what makes people pay. It’s the difference between “I’ll pass” and “I must”. And, ultimately this may make or break your SaaS’ success.
Beyond that, I will teach you how to increase revenue without any effort by playing with human nature. You’ll practice offer-creating in exercises as part of our ‘creating strong offers’ module, and finally, we will apply everything to your startup.
4. Product optimization
Next, we have product optimization. A good SaaS accelerator will help you optimize your service. In the case of the SaaS camp, I’ll teach you how to design a flawless user experience so you can increase your referral rate.
A referral rate is the percentage of your service’s total purchases that resulted from referral (i.e., when one customer refers your service to another individual, and they also become a customer in turn). To give you an example, if 1 in 50 sign-ups to your SaaS result referrals, your referral rate will be 2%.
Through the SaaS camp, aside from creating the perfect UX, I will teach you the principles employed by the product teams of $146 million ARR SaaS companies. Ultimately, we’ll supercharge your product using these very principles.
5. Analyzing metrics
Last but not least, a good SaaS accelerator will help you understand the process of analyzing your metrics.
To generate sustainable cash flow, you must make intelligent use of your data. An optimized SaaS knows what to track and how to track it. As part of the SaaS camp, you’ll learn how to structure onboarding so that you can double your subscription numbers every month!
We’ll also identify the North Star Metric for your Saas, that being the measurement that is most telling of your long-term success. A North Star Metric must relate to customer value, result in revenue and measure progress. By knowing this metric, you will then know which statistic to focus on the most since its growth will almost guarantee the growth of your startup.
With that said, you don’t want to overlook other key SaaS metrics, such as:
- Customer Churn - This is the percentage of customers who unsubscribed from your SaaS during a given time period.
- Revenue Churn - This statistic is somewhat similar to customer churn. However, revenue churn focuses on the percentage of subscription dollars that are not renewed when the initial subscription period comes to an end. In other words, it measures how capable your SaaS is at maintaining the value of existing customers. Revenue churn does not factor in new revenue. Instead, it focuses solely on revenue coming from customers at the start of the time period in question and, ultimately, how much of that revenue actually gets renewed.
- Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) - Your CAC is an estimate of how much your SaaS spends on costs related to acquiring customers divided by the total number of customers your SaaS obtains. In other words, a CAC is how much you spend on acquiring the average customer.
- Customer Lifetime Value (LTV) - The lifetime value of a customer is an estimate of how much profit you will net from them over the entire course of your relationship with them. Of course, this is an estimate if there ever was one but one worth making.
- CAC-LTV ratio - As you might figure out, this ratio is the customer acquisition cost for a given customer divided by the lifetime value of said customer.
What else does the SaaS camp over?
Aside from the five points raised above, the SaaS camp explores several other key areas. They are as follows:
Sign up for the SaaS camp
Today I’ve looked at what I believe are the five most important aspects of a SaaS accelerator. I’ve also discussed how my SaaS camp can help with these areas and more.
Sign up for the SaaS camp today or if you have any more questions, check out my FAQ, where I answer questions like ‘Is this program right for my SaaS?’ and the guarantee I provide.
- Running calls - In this module, I’ll take you from the fear of calling randoms to closing in a breezer. You’ll learn which questions to ask and how to manage objections. You’ll also learn how to get people to buy on the first meeting (even if your SaaS has only three working features).
- Building converting websites - On the fifth week of the SaaS camp, you’ll learn the best practices of high converting SaaS websites as well as the elements you should and shouldn’t include. I’ll also teach you how to sell benefits rather than features. All in all, strong copy can help you acquire more users with less effort!
- Finding new revenue streams - The last module of the SaaS camp involves discovering additional revenue streams. Of course, you will want to utilize every revenue stream possible and in module 8, I’ll teach you how to use affiliates to unlock exponential growth. This approach can also lead to big names reaching out. To provide an example, Feedbucket (a SaaS that used the SaaS camp) received an inquiry from the Swedish marketing agency N1 with thanks to this module. Beyond that, we’ll use this module to optimize your journey to convert free users into buyers.
Sign up for the SaaS camp
Today I’ve looked at what I believe are the five most important aspects of a SaaS accelerator. I’ve also discussed how my SaaS camp can help with these areas and more.
Sign up for the SaaS camp today or if you have any more questions, check out my FAQ, where I answer questions like ‘Is this program right for my SaaS?’ and the guarantee I provide.
+240K ARR Playbook
How you can add $240K ARR to your B2B SaaS in less than 6 months using a Hybrid Customer Acquisition System (without increasing your marketing budget)
*Currently still available for download; file access may be restricted at any time
