Some products just catch fire. One day they’re a niche tool, the next they’re everywhere. Webflow, Figma, Calendly — these companies definitely did not rely on "cool marketing" or ads or VC money or luck in order to spike their adoption curve; they built ubiquity into the product and business model. In this quick-hitter episode, I break down the mechanics of word-of-mouth growth: how to engineer visibility, build sharing into the product, and turn early adopters into distribution. This is a high-level playbook for forcing ubiquity (instead of hoping for it).

#SaaSGrowth #WordOfMouth #StartupPlaybook #B2BMarketing #GoToMarket

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📒 Resources

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📖 𝗚𝗘𝗧 𝗠𝗬 𝗕𝗢𝗢𝗞𝗦

🔗 CONTENT CAPITALIST: https://michaelbecker.org/product/content-capitalist-how-to-create-a-content-business-so-exclusive-customers-beg-to-buy-and-never-want-to-leave/

🔗 PRACTICES FOR SOVEREIGN LIVING: https://www.amazon.in/PRACTICES-SOVEREIGN-LIVING-Essays-Game-ebook

🎓 𝗛𝗜𝗥𝗘 𝗠𝗘

🔗 http://michaelbecker.org/services/

📌 𝗦𝗨𝗕𝗦𝗖𝗥𝗜𝗕𝗘 - 𝗕𝗟𝗢𝗚

🔗 http://www.michaelbecker.org

🌐 𝗖𝗢𝗡𝗡𝗘𝗖𝗧 - 𝗦𝗢𝗖𝗜𝗔𝗟

🔗 https://www.instagram.com/officialmbecker

🔗 https://www.linkedin.com/in/mjbecker

◉ Thanks for listening! Be sure to subscribe, share & comment!

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In 2019, SAP acquired lifecycle personalization provider Emarsys for $500M. At the time, Emarsys had grown from $135M ARR in 2017 (when I joined) to $175M ARR in 2019, a ~14% CAGR that valued the deal at roughly a 3x revenue multiple.

In this episode, I break down why SAP made the move, how Emarsys fit into the CX portfolio, and what perspective investors like Summit Partners and Vector Capital (likely) had in pushing for the exit. I’ll also explain why the price reflected Emarsys’ mid-market growth ceiling.

On a personal note, I share what it felt like inside the company — from the chatter about what might change, to the reality that almost nothing did — and how watching that exit firsthand sparked my obsession with M&A as the higher-level game behind SaaS.

Disclaimer: None of this is private or insider information. Everything shared can be found in, or reasonably inferred from, publicly available sources.

#SaaSExits #MarketingAutomation #SaaSInvestor #MandA #Tech

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📒 Resources

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📖 𝗚𝗘𝗧 𝗠𝗬 𝗕𝗢𝗢𝗞𝗦

🔗 CONTENT CAPITALIST: https://michaelbecker.org/product/content-capitalist-how-to-create-a-content-business-so-exclusive-customers-beg-to-buy-and-never-want-to-leave/

🔗 PRACTICES FOR SOVEREIGN LIVING: https://www.amazon.in/PRACTICES-SOVEREIGN-LIVING-Essays-Game-ebook

🎓 𝗛𝗜𝗥𝗘 𝗠𝗘

🔗 http://michaelbecker.org/services/

📌 𝗦𝗨𝗕𝗦𝗖𝗥𝗜𝗕𝗘 - 𝗕𝗟𝗢𝗚

🔗 http://www.michaelbecker.org

🌐 𝗖𝗢𝗡𝗡𝗘𝗖𝗧 - 𝗦𝗢𝗖𝗜𝗔𝗟

🔗 https://www.instagram.com/officialmbecker

🔗 https://www.linkedin.com/in/mjbecker

◉ Thanks for listening! Be sure to subscribe, share & comment!

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Twilio is one of the clearest examples of expansion revenue driving enterprise value. In this episode, I break down how Twilio’s developer-first GTM, usage-based pricing, and broad product catalog produced dollar-based net expansion rates of 170% in its early years, held 120–130% at scale, and sustained net negative churn for over a decade.

We’ll look at the mechanics behind usage-aligned billing, why a $20 free trial could scale into $10M+ accounts, how cross-sell into email and data shifted margins, and how Twilio’s valuation swung from $60B at peak to 3.5x forward revenue as net retention cooled.

If you’re building SaaS, this is a clear case study in how pricing models and retention metrics dictate growth and market cap.

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📒 Resources

========================

📖 𝗚𝗘𝗧 𝗠𝗬 𝗕𝗢𝗢𝗞𝗦

🔗 CONTENT CAPITALIST: https://michaelbecker.org/product/content-capitalist-how-to-create-a-content-business-so-exclusive-customers-beg-to-buy-and-never-want-to-leave/

🔗 PRACTICES FOR SOVEREIGN LIVING: https://www.amazon.in/PRACTICES-SOVEREIGN-LIVING-Essays-Game-ebook

🎓 𝗛𝗜𝗥𝗘 𝗠𝗘

🔗 http://michaelbecker.org/services/

📌 𝗦𝗨𝗕𝗦𝗖𝗥𝗜𝗕𝗘 - 𝗕𝗟𝗢𝗚

🔗 http://www.michaelbecker.org

🌐 𝗖𝗢𝗡𝗡𝗘𝗖𝗧 - 𝗦𝗢𝗖𝗜𝗔𝗟

🔗 https://www.instagram.com/officialmbecker

🔗 https://www.linkedin.com/in/mjbecker

◉ Thanks for listening! Be sure to subscribe, share & comment!

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.