What You Need To Build a Two-Sided SaaS

About this video

Martell coaches Leon, founder of Handshaker, software connecting SMB technology companies with enterprise organisations, mainly in telco. Leon says Handshaker is just under $3k MRR, on track for about $5K in a few months and targeting $10K by year-end, with longer sales cycles and a two-sided marketplace problem. Sellers pay to be listed with an elevator-pitch video on an ‘innovation wall’ categorised for buyers; Leon says sellers pay $3K to $13K across four levels depending on size, and buyers pay around $25K a year for visibility and to send confidential requirements to the community. Martell argues the enterprise side is the demand to build first: if hundreds of enterprises are present, startups will pay. To find perfect-fit early adopters he uses the ’three Fs’ — fund, follow, frequent — for example companies at Mobile World Congress that have an innovation team and run their own cloud, checkable via tools like BuiltWith. On pricing, he says not to optimise early but to pattern-match / do ’napkin math’ against what enterprises already pay for events, consulting, or Gartner-type services, use early accounts to get case studies and liquidity, and expand via a bowling-pin / ‘close cousins’ strategy. For fundraising, he says venture investors need a credible path to $100 million in revenue in seven years.

Key takeaways

• Handshaker is a two-sided telco marketplace; build enterprise demand first
• Use the three Fs — fund, follow, frequent — to identify early-adopter buyers
• Filter prospects by event attendance, innovation team, and cloud adoption
• Pattern-match pricing to existing spend rather than optimising early pricing
• Expand by bowling-pin ‘close cousins’ and show a path to $100M for investors

Episode details: published April 26, 2021 · 24:23 long. Summary written by Self Growth Videos from the episode itself. Business results and any income figures mentioned are Dan Martell’s own claims, shared for education — they are not typical or guaranteed.

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