How You’re Making This The Best SAAS Podcast Out There & Why You Should Start Your Own

Hello, hello everyone. Welcome back to a very special episode today. Today is episode number 50, and today on the SaaS District Show, we're going to do something a little bit different than we normally do. So for the last 49 episodes, it's all been about interviews where I interview other guests on my podcast who are experts in the SaaS industry. In today's episode, I want to— this is all going to be just me. It's going to be a shorter episode. I want to try something different because it's a A big milestone, number 50. So I want to share with you guys a few things that I've learned over the last couple months when we started this, why we started the podcast, what was the real reason why I started it, what were some of my favorite interviews that I really enjoyed. And I think if you guys haven't checked out, you should definitely check out. And there's a lot of things that— some unexpected things that I've learned over the last few months from building the podcast that I'll share with you guys, why this podcast is really, really important to me and the brand we're trying to build. And finally, what you guys can expect for the future of the SaaS District podcast show. So this is your host, Akeel Jubbar, and welcome back to another episode of the SaaS District. So if you're starting a business or you have a startup or starting a brand, And you're trying to grow your marketing channel, you're trying to evaluate some new channel, I think starting a podcast is probably one of the most underrated marketing channels out there. That's kind of my takeaway from these last 49 episodes. If you're thinking about it, if even just the thought is in your mind of starting a podcast, absolutely recommend starting it. However, a few things to keep in mind, because if you're going to start it, the number one thing you have to think about is that you need to commit to it. This isn't a short-term marketing play like PPC. If you're going to do it, I would say the ROI, you need at least 6 months to at least a year before you see the real benefits and the long-term results of investing your time into it. But one thing I want to share that I actually learned from one of the podcasts chatting with Rand Fishkin was that if you had the choice between creating a piece of article on your blog, for example, and you got 10,000 visitors who read that article, versus creating a podcast and having 20 people listen to you for an entire hour, I would take the 20 people any day of the week. And the reason for that is because the connection you get with people listening in to you, they're spending an hour of their day listening to your voice, the soothingness, I believe it must be that, or just really understanding who you are as a human being. I think you get a lot deeper connection and meaning and value versus just reading the words on a blog article. So that being said, if you're thinking about starting a podcast, highly recommend doing it, commit to it for the long term. And you'll see just the amount of attention, the amount of value you get out of it will be unreal. And I think you guys will enjoy it as long as you stick to it for the long term. Now, in terms of what I kind of learned from doing this podcast, you know, the 49 episodes, a few things. So when I first started SaaS District, my goal was to help SaaS founders, entrepreneurs, marketers, investors as well learn how to build, scale, manage, and ultimately give you guys all the right tools, you know, things where you guys are stuck, help you hit your goals. And as a result of that, we've had some amazing, amazing interviews where, you know, where we truly tried to cover every single challenge you guys face, questions that founders have reached out and asked us, and, you know, potential areas that we found that are repetitively problems that are encountered when starting your venture. Okay, so a couple of examples like episode 39 with Patrick Campbell from ProfitWell, you know, we got deep into pricing challenges, when you should be adjusting your prices, how often should you be increasing prices? How do you deal with churn? How do you calculate churn? You know, episode 21 with Neil Patel, we talked about starting a SaaS versus a marketing agency, how to optimize your marketing budget, where to spend your marketing budget, where to get the highest ROI. in marketing in the 20th century. And another episode I really liked was number 32 episode with Rand Fishkin. That was absolutely amazing. That was a blast. And if you guys don't know Rand, Rand launched his new startup. He used to be at Moz where he stepped down and he actually talks about that story and he launched SparkToro. So he launched SparkToro during COVID difficult times, difficult moment, but he talks about those challenges and I think he used an, you know, he's got a thing against VCs in terms of how they structure the financing. So he came up with a new structure of how you should look at maybe, you know, raising capital in the future. And I thought it was super interesting. Loved it. I probably definitely invest in something like that in the future if he ever opened up another round. And if you guys are looking to raise capital, highly suggest you guys check that out. Maybe something you guys can look at as well before you're going down the VC route. So if you guys didn't know, I may have mentioned this on a previous podcast as well. When I launched SaaS SaaS District podcast as a marketing channel, I said, I'm going to give this 6 months. That was my ROI hypothesis. Just like everything else in marketing, everything I do in business to grow, it's all about doing tests. And this was a test that I said, look, I'm going to commit for 6 months or 50 channels. And today's number 50. Based off those results, if we got one client out of this, it pays for itself. The ROI, you know, because of the size of the deals that we're working with, the magnitude of the investments we're working with, being 7 figures plus, that one business that is generated from the connections, from the people that we meet, if it leads to one good conversation or one lead and one client for us and one portfolio company, it's well worth it. And we're glad to say that we're happy with the results and we'll be continuing this for the future episodes. So you guys can stay tuned and don't unsubscribe because you can continue to expect more and more great episodes from SaaS District. And on top of that, a couple of really unexpected things happened as a result of this. So one side of it was let's just create a bunch of really, really good content. And maybe it'll drive some traffic to us, drive some leads, and maybe drive some business to Horizon Capital so we can do some more acquisitions. But a couple of things that actually happened that we didn't expect was, number one, we had a sponsorship opportunity with a partnership with Peldi at Balsamic. So you guys may have noticed in some of the old episodes, we had a couple of podcasts where we sponsored other entrepreneurs to promote their startups and their businesses through our podcast. And Balsamic was, you know, super generous for them to sponsor us and then also sponsor those startups instead of just, you know, promoting their own brand. So that was awesome. And that's something we like to continue to do. So if you guys are looking to possibly Get some sponsors. So if you're looking to sponsor your startup or your business, you know, we're always open and we'd be looking to do future partnership opportunities like that as well on future episodes and get you guys some more exposure. What else? So we had some amazing guests that showed up. You know, we only expected to have some, you know, early mid-stage founders, but we had some great investors such as Gary Swart, who was the future— the previous CEO of Upwork. We had, you know, Neil Patel, we had Patrick, we had Diego Gomez who's running Rock Content, which is a worldwide company. So a lot of amazing guests have come out of this and I never expected that coming into this. Number 3, the network. So, you know, what people don't realize is the interview is one part of it. That's about 30 to 45 minutes. But the real value and the real relationships are usually built offline after the interview or before the interview where we build those connections and relationships that leads to future opportunities. We've had a few guests who want to be investors. Some of them want to sell their business that they want to hire us in the future. And that's what we expect to— what we expected, right? That those— this is all— this is what podcasting is all about, building relationships. And it's been absolutely amazing. I can say that all the 49 guests we've had, I absolutely appreciate and I look forward to doing business with you in one way or another if I can refer you guys' business, that's what I'll do. And obviously, if you guys want to help out, we would always appreciate that as well. So that's the way I always look at it. You know, these guests that I have on my interview and podcast, it's a relationship, and I'm looking at it as a long-term play. So that was number 3. Number 4, you know, we also got our clients. So we had an M&A company that we're representing to help them find a strategic buyer. So that happens quite a bit. We're actually working with a couple of companies right now. So SaaS companies that have hit a certain point in their business, They feel that if they find the right strategic business, that their company will explode a lot quicker. They have the right resources around them, and they'll take their business to the next level. So they've hired us to help them in consulting and preparing their business for the proper exit and finding the right buyer for them. So that's been interesting as well, and we hope to find them a suitable home soon. And finally, another unexpected thing that came out of this is some interesting collaboration. So. Such as Nathan Latka's Deal or Bust show. So if you haven't checked that out on his YouTube channel, just go to Nathan Latka, have a look at Deal or Bust, or it's basically the Shark Tank for SaaS, where I was asked to come on as an investor and I was reviewing a bunch of businesses of people pitching to sell their business live every Thursday on their YouTube. So I was asked to join, I think, about 5 or 6 of those so far. Absolutely amazing. It's been super fun. And that's not something I expected. But it all started because of the podcast. And when I started the podcast, I created a Twitter account, which I shut down years ago. And because of that Twitter account, I got reached out to Nathan on a comment that led to him inviting me to his YouTube channel. One thing led to another. And that leads to a bunch of other opportunities as well. So you just never know what will happen when as long as you take that first step, the snowball effect kicks in and the real returns are seen in a couple of months after you put in You know, take that first step. It's all about that first step, then 2, then 3, then 4. So you don't know what 4, 5, and 6 looks like until you take number 1. And as a result of that, I mean, it's been awesome. You know, at initial stages, we were reaching out to our network, to different marketers and people in the SaaS space to be on our podcast. Now, I think every week we're getting people reaching out to us asking to be interviewed. They would love to be on our podcast. So That's been great. And, you know, we hope to continue to increase the quality. I'm not saying the quality wasn't there. I think our quality was actually really good, but I expect it to continue to keep at that level, or if not even higher going forward, if I can even match that. Now you might be wondering, okay, so there's the business side, the marketing side of starting a podcast, which is great. But something even more important to me, to be honest, is actually why I started the podcast was to build my own community. I think the community is important. And the network. So you say, you know, your net worth is your net worth. And I 100%, 100% truly believe in that. So if you guys are building your relationships, real relationships, that's where your real growth is going to come from. And so building that community of entrepreneurs, operators, more investors, where the goal is really to have access to experts in the business, you know, you can look at them as mentors for your venture, and also providing that for our listeners as well. I think that's the real value is That by learning from these experts, you guys can apply it in your own business. And they're questions that I can ask whatever I want. Nobody kind of can filter what questions I ask other than if the guest doesn't want to answer it. But you're getting experience that they're not sharing in their books. They're very rarely shared on their own channels. These are stories that they probably never revealed before because these are things I'm genuinely interested about. These are things that our listeners want to hear. And things maybe that I'm struggling with or somebody in my network is struggling with. So I ask them those questions and they're transparent and they're willing to share that. So I think that's awesome that they're willing to do that. And hopefully by having that multipurpose mentorship and advice, so while you're running your business, you have those network opportunities, you also get that reassurance when you hear it from experts, right? Sometimes you're struggling with a problem. And you think you know the solution, but you just listen to that one podcast that just resonates with you at that day and at that moment of what you're dealing with during your startup. And it just gives you, ah, you're right, I'm doing the right thing. Or, you know what, you just gave me a great idea. I was doing this wrong. Boom, it's so much clearer now what I need to do. So that's what I hope that you get out of it. And obviously other things like, you know, what does successful personal habits look like? What are their values when, you know, building their startups or hiring or firing or dealing with people? any productivity hacks. Those are kind of always interesting things to learn from successful people. And I think it hope— my hope is that it gives encouragement to other entrepreneurs who are thinking to become entrepreneurs to take that step because there's a bunch of people out there, lots of resources, lots of mentors, lots of smart people who are there to support you and give you advice whenever you need. And it's all free. And I hope to continue to keep this for free forever if I can. But one thing to keep in mind, this wouldn't have been possible without you guys. So I genuinely mean this from the bottom of my heart. Thank you guys so much for supporting this podcast. We've reached these great milestones because of you. We've got super great feedback from everybody that's been listening to us. The quality is getting better and better every single week. I hope so. And if you guys have any suggestions, I want to hear from you. What was your favorite podcast from the last 49 episodes, if you heard any of them? Please email me directly, akeel@horizoncapital.com. What was your favorite episode and why? You know, that's gonna be really helpful for me in terms of feedback of what I can do to, you know, adjust my content, adjust the quality of the guests to continue bringing the right stuff for you guys and skip the stuff that maybe isn't as helpful. So please email me, akeel@horizoncapital.com, and I'll do my best to work with you guys as much as possible. All right. So final kind of note here before I wrap things up, just want to share with you guys, what does the future look like for SaaS District? What does the next 50 episodes and more look like? So a couple of things that we're working on, we're trying to do a lot more in-person interviews. So now that it's October-ish 2020, and COVID is slowly kind of starting, slowing down, people are really to come out of their houses and meet in person. We are hoping to do a few in-person interviews. So we've met with a couple of really, really good entrepreneurs. I'm actually here in Mexico at the moment, if you guys are curious, still here right now. And we're going to do a couple more. So we'll publish that, those in-person interviews to make them more, I think, more personal and more interesting where, you know, you're just having in-person conversation, more fire chat style, fireside. chat style. And yeah, we'll be posting that on our YouTube channel. So if you're not already subscribed to our YouTube, uh, SaaS District, Akeel Jabbar SaaS District, please check that out. You can see those videos as they get released over the next couple of months. What else? Uh, we're also looking to do better quality questions. You know, the questions I think is one of the most important parts. If you're looking to start a podcast, really take the time because we do a lot of research to make sure, you know, The questions are really thought out because I think you only have about 10 questions to ask in about 40 minutes, but make sure every single one counts and the quality is there that you get a really good answer and it's helpful and beneficial to you and your audience. And on top of that, we want to also increase and keep the quality of our guests as high as possible as well. So one thing to look forward to, if you guys stick around, look forward to episode number 100. We already actually have that one booked in because we've committed to at least the next 50. where we have a special guest. You guys may have heard of him, Mr. Dan Martell from, you know, he's a very successful entrepreneur in the SaaS space. So he's already booked in for number 100. So you guys can expect that. And we're also creating a lot more video content. So if you haven't checked out, like I said, our YouTube channel, we've actually invested a lot of time, effort, and, you know, team members and resources to build our YouTube channel. So that'll include a lot of content that I create or we co-create with other other experts, and we'll be posting it on video format on our YouTube channels. And we'll also be doing more collaboration. So just like the one with Nathan at Shark Tank or the Deal or Bust, we'll be doing a lot more of that. So look forward to that. To some of the people we've interviewed in the past, we built those relationships, and now we're actually in talks right now of doing some interesting collaboration content. I think this one will be more around the investment side. So this will be stories about sellers, and also buyers after they've made an acquisition. What was their story like? Why did they buy? How much did they value it for? What went right? What went wrong? What was the result of it? You know, so there's a lot of learnings around there that I don't think there's anything out there that teaches people, you know, the before and after of an acquisition, especially in the SaaS space. And I think we're going to create some pretty cool content there for you guys. A couple more things. So a community, that's one thing I'm— like I said, it's all about the community. We're going to be building more community events. So whether that's online or in person, trying to bring together a lot of smart people within the technology space. My thinking is, if you bring enough smart people in a room, magic will happen, some smart ideas will come together, and I think some interesting business will happen as a result of it. So looking to do a lot more of that in-person community events and possibly some online stuff. So if there's some online stuff, I'll let you guys know. Make sure to subscribe on, on the email side and we'll update you guys if you guys want to join virtually as well. And finally, a lot more partnership opportunities, sponsorships. Like I mentioned, we did that once. We'd like to promote and give more exposure to more startups out there that are looking to get more reach to audience like you and promote good stuff. I only obviously promote things I believe in. So just make sure it's a good product because if you try to reach out and say, can you please promote our business or our product and it's junk or it's not something I believe it's adding value to this world, I will have to refuse you. So make sure you have a good business product or business service or tech company and I'm happy to promote you guys. Just reach out directly and we'll look what we can chat about sponsoring your business on our upcoming podcast episodes. All right. So that's it from my side. Akeel here from the SaaS District podcast. I hope you guys enjoyed this episode. I know it was different. Just wanted to celebrate. Cheers to you guys all. Big number 50 here. And, you know, it's been a roller coaster of a 2020 for everybody, as I can imagine. And I hope that this year ends off great for everybody. And we go into next year with better results. And, you know, isn't as much as a roller coaster and you guys can hit your goals and focus on your business and do big things out there, guys, because I want you guys to kill it. I want you guys to crush it and do well with your business. And that's all what the SaaS District podcast is about. So if you guys get any value out of this, if it's helping you in your business, please let me know. The more feedback I get, the more fueled I get to create even better content. So reach out to me directly, akeel@horizoncapital.com or on Twitter @akeeljabbar or even on LinkedIn. You guys know where to find me and happy to chat anytime and gather your feedback. All right, guys, thanks again. Cheers. And here's to another 50 episodes. Cheers.