How Josh Ho Bootstrapped His SaaS from Zero to $70K MRR with Josh Ho, Founder and CEO of ReferralRock (GMT078)

Everyone knows how powerful word of mouth marketing can be for a business. So what’s the problem? Largely word of mouth is unpredictable. One week you can get a ton of new customers through referrals, the next is crickets. For most businesses, it’s like trying to catch lightning in a bottle. Enter Josh Ho, Founder and CEO of ReferralRock, a referral program software. In this episode, he talks about how he started, bootstrapped, and grew ReferralRock.

In episode 78, you’ll learn:

  1. How the company started focusing on SEO – targeting keywords and updating content regularly
  2. Josh mistake with hiring his first salesperson (and how you can avoid it)
  3. The importance of increasing your prices
Tweet Some Quotes from This Episode
I quickly figured out that it wasn't just blog and let it go. We doubled down on updating old content. – @jlogic from @GrowthToday podcast. Get the full podcast episode 👇 Click To Tweet All I built is what customers ask and end up with. If all I built was my vision, I probably wouldn’t have any customers left or only like maybe one person in the world sees exactly how I see it.. – @jlogic from @GrowthToday podcast. Get… Click To Tweet The most success I've had in hiring is when I do the job first myself so I know exactly what skills I need to hire for. – @jlogic from the @GrowthToday podcast. Get the full episode 👇 Click To Tweet
Our sponsor for this episode

Thank you for the sponsor of this episode, ReferralRock, a referral program software.

ReferralRock unlocks referrals waiting to happen by automating the ask for a referral, aligning rewards and incentives, integrating viral loops to line up the next advocate.

Your customers want to refer you. Make it easy for them.

Unlock new referrals with referral program software that helps you remove roadblocks that stop customers from referring you.

Make word of mouth happen instead of hoping and waiting.

ReferralRock is used by hundreds of companies to generate more referrals, including TripAdvisor, YMCA, AT&T, and more

Sign up for a free 14-day trial or a consultative demo at referralrock.com/growthtoday

 

My Takeaways from This Episode

  1. Update your old content. This is something I also learned from Derek Gleason, Content Lead at CXL. Updating old content helps website visitors know that you care about providing the latest information about a topic.
  2. Hire slowly. Josh learned this with the first salesperson he hired. One of the things Josh does now is to make sure he does the job first before he hired for the job. This way, he knows exactly what he’s hiring for.
  3. A higher price point gives some validation to the quality of your product. When Josh increased the price of ReferralRock, enterprise companies welcomed it. It helped validate the value of ReferralRock.
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About Josh Ho

Josh Ho is an entrepreneur and software engineer. He is currently the founder and CEO of ReferralRock. Josh believes that building a business isn’t that different from building software, except for the fact that people don’t behave quite as predictably as computers.

Show Notes
  • 8:09 – Josh’s journey from software consulting to founding ReferralRock
  • 13:16 – How ReferralRock started
  • 18:45 – Josh’s customer development process
  • 23:16 – How ReferralRock gained the first signups and customers
  • 28:14 – How the company started focusing on SEO – targeting keywords and updating content regularly
  • 38:10 – How the pricing changed with the addition of extra features that customers demanded.
  • 43:43 – Josh’s one piece of advice to marketers
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