Yesterday I introduced Keyplay and announced our $3M seed funding.
Today I will tell you what that means for PeerSignal and why we believe that building a media company and a SaaS company, in parallel, will help us pursue GTM excellence together.
In September 2021, I published the PLG List.
I noticed that PLG companies were dominating their categories.
They had great products, but much of their success came from differentiated sales & marketing.
They were making it better for buyers.
We all know what bad looks like in B2B.
Spray and pray, turn and burn, growth at all costs.
I've been building and selling B2B software since 2009.
I've gotten increasingly sick of the buyer-second playbook.
I don’t think that playbook will survive as buyers return to rigor.
With PeerSignal, I wanted to study GTM excellence.
GTM excellence is not just PLG.
It's not one "new way" tactic, channel, or motion.
It's not a platform that you need to buy.
There’s no silver bullet.
It's a pursuit.
Our focus on this pursuit has resonated…
**We’ve grown PeerSignal with your support.**
16 months later, 12,000+ sales & marketing people from 7,800+ companies now study go-to-market with PeerSignal.
That includes 72% of Cloud 100.
And members from Snowflake, Figma, Slack, Zapier, Qualtrics, Adobe, Gong, Salesforce, and Clickup to name a few.
This community’s feedback has driven our research.
You have also opened our eyes to sales and marketing problems that we can help solve with software…
**Keyplay is our SaaS company.**
We're starting with a very specific, very old problem — your ideal account list.
We believe it's a foundational problem.
We believe it's increasingly important as buyers return to rigor.
It won’t be a good fit for very many of you (by design), so I won’t make a hard sell.
If you are curious, check out the website.
If you request a demo, just mention you are a PeerSignal member!
The benefit for you: Investment in Keyplay makes PeerSignal better…
**We’ve discovered a flywheel between media and software.**
It’s a learning loop that works in two ways:
Source: Keyplay
**1.) SaaS Powers Media — How Keyplay makes PeerSignal better.**
* Keyplay software powers PeerSignal research. Camille and I do the curation and analysis, but automation and workflow unlock more/better insights.
* Keyplay customers help us build new capabilities. Each new signal or workflow in Keyplay unlocks new angles for research and insights for PeerSignal.
* By monetizing the underlying SaaS platform instead of the media company, PeerSignal research is paywall-free, ad-free, and independently minded.
**2.) Community Accelerates SaaS — How PeerSignal makes Keyplay better.**
* Community-driven development. We have received hundreds of email replies and comments with ideas, problems, and suggestions.
Many of these things lead to new capabilities within the Keyplay platform that benefit both our SaaS customers and media consumers.
* Credibility. Many SaaS vendors act like tourists selling a quick fix.
We want to do the opposite.
We want to be citizens of our community.
We spend time and money to create content and participate.
There is no way to measure credibility, but I’m certain that it will help our SaaS stand out.
* Distribution. By powering PeerSignal, Keyplay gains awareness.
Very few of you will ever buy Keyplay, but our relationship has already helped Keyplay gain reach and referrals.
Our 8 pre-launch customers came without a single outbound call or investor referral.
We didn’t even have a website for Keyplay.
100% were curious community members who engaged.
**We will practice this playbook in public.**
We have our own specific configuration of media, community, and SaaS, but we expect to see other versions of this playbook flourish in the next decade.
Tweet about new software companies embedding media companies Source: Twitter
We’ve seen examples of big SaaS companies acquiring media companies.
Zapier bought Makerpad, HubSpot bought the Hustle, Pendo bought Mind The Product.
But few have built both from the ground up.
We’re striving to discover and practice this playbook in public.
**The next chapter**
Getting Keyplay to market, getting the right investors onboard, and building our founding team has been an all-out effort for the last year.
None of this would not have been possible without your support.
I am beyond grateful for your attention, participation, and insights.
This is a big moment for our team, but a small step in the longer journey.
Our 2-year BHAG is to help 100K+ B2B sales and marketing professionals to study GTM excellence and get inspired to improve their craft.
We now have the team, capital, and platform in place to double down on PeerSignal.
Stick with us and you’ll see more datasets, more unique signals, deeper insights, and new research formats (podcasts, video, long-form, and more).
The next chapter starts now.
If you read this whole letter, I appreciate your attention.
I took care in these words and your support motivates me and our team.
🙏
*Are you in for the next chapter?*
—> Join the conversation on LinkedIn to help us spread the word.
—> Reply “yes” or “💯” to make my day.
I read all replies.
Best,
Adam
Easter egg
<https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1_HjE5CI8AogvBdaFryU5AScJzeBzvaYEI4kK3gjf5GM/edit#slide=id.g7d985d9271_0_16>
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