A quick chat in the hallway
Founder: We shipped the app. People like it. Why is revenue flat?
Me: Because likes do not pay the AWS bill. Signups are not the same thing as customers. How many hit a first win in the first session?
Founder: We were on the front page of Hacker News. Traffic spiked.
Me: That is attention. Software as a business needs activation, retention, and a way to get paid. Think of it like Pokémon Go this week. The hook is clear. You catch one creature fast. Then it nudges you outside. That is a crisp first win and a loop. Do we have that?
Founder: We have a tutorial. It is six steps.
Me: Six steps is not a first win. It is homework.
Evidence from the trenches
I keep a notebook across products. Different markets, same patterns. When a team treats it like a craft, they stack small wins. Here are the ones that move the needle over and over.
Activation beats raw traffic. One client moved from a long checklist to a single guided action and a three line welcome email. Activation from signup to first key action jumped from 22 percent to 37 percent. Trial to paid climbed by a third.
Price anchors matter. Moving the entry plan from 9 to 19 raised revenue per signup by 78 percent. Trial to paid dipped a little, but the higher average kept net revenue up. Support tickets did not spike. The buyers who stayed were clearer about the value.
Annual plans calm the pulse. Offering yearly with two months off brought in cash up front and cut churn on those cohorts. It also changed the tone of support. People who commit for a year lean in.
Measure what feeds the loop. The stack that shows up a lot: Stripe for payments, Baremetrics or ChartMogul for MRR and churn, Mixpanel or Amplitude for events, Intercom or Customer.io for messages. Keep the core dashboard boring: MRR, new trials, trial to paid, active users, net churn, average revenue per account, LTV and CAC with payback in months.
Benchmarks that set guardrails. For small account B2B, monthly logo churn under 4 percent is healthy. A LTV to CAC ratio near three to one keeps breathing room. Payback within a year feels good. If you are doing sales calls, aim to cover the ad or outreach cost by month three or four.
Content compounds. A steady stream of helpful posts brings the right people. Think problem first. Titles like how to migrate off spreadsheets for X or the simple checklist to audit Y draw buyers. One post ranking on a head term fed a product for months, while paid traffic was a faucet that punished any sloppy landing page.
Paid traffic cuts both ways. AdWords on crowded terms like project management or CRM runs at 8 to 15 dollars per click. You need tight targeting, a strong landing page, and a clear follow up to make that pay. Facebook can work for consumer apps with clear loops and invites. For B2B, LinkedIn clicks are pricier but can be laser focused on roles.
Short feedback loops win. In app chat during trial lifted conversion by 15 percent. A two minute screen share beats a ten email back and forth. People buy speed to value.
Current tides help too. Apple just opened the door wider on subscriptions for apps, which is a tailwind for recurring revenue. Slack keeps growing inside teams and its invite dynamic is a great lesson in low friction distribution. Learn from what is working in plain sight.
How to put this in place
- Pick one segment and one job. Write a single sentence: We help role do job so they get result. Everything else is a distraction for now.
- Map the first win. From landing page to account to first result. Cut steps. If you can, import sample data or create a starter project so the screen is not empty.
- Instrument the journey. Name five events you care about: signup, first key action, second session, invited teammate, payment. Do not track a hundred things you will never read.
- Build a weekly review. One doc. Paste screenshots from Stripe and your product analytics. Write a paragraph on what changed and what you will try next.
- Tune pricing once a month. Add a higher plan that removes pain for power users. Offer yearly on the checkout. Add a simple guarantee to reduce fear.
- Be human in support. Set a target response time. Use plain language. Publish a short status page. When you ship a fix, tell the person.
- Lightweight onboarding messages. Day 0: welcome and one action. Day 2: helpful tip. Day 5: case study. Keep every email short with one button.
- Pick two channels and commit. Content and partnerships make a reliable pair. Integrate with Slack or Zapier and tell their audiences. Post a real guide every week for eight weeks before judging results.
- Do fast demos for higher tiers. Add a calendar link to book a 15 minute call. Use Hangouts or Zoom. Show the first win live.
- Watch cash like a hawk. Runway equals cash in bank divided by monthly burn. Look at it every Monday.
Risks to keep in view
- Vanity metrics. Traffic spikes feel great and do not pay the rent. Track the few numbers that tie to revenue.
- Platform changes. Rules shift. An API limit or a store policy tweak can cut a channel overnight. Spread your bets.
- One channel addiction. If all signups come from one source, you do not have a business, you have a dependency.
- Support drag. Growth without docs and guardrails turns your inbox into quicksand. Document the top ten questions and link them in app.
- Free plan abuse. If a free tier is swamped, cap usage and require a card on file for trials that touch costly features.
- Price backlash. When you raise prices, grandfather old customers or give a clear path to switch. A fair note goes a long way.
- Team burnout. Long weeks stack up. Protect one day with zero meetings and a real stop time.
A graceful exit
Turning software as a business into something steady is not magic. It is a set of habits. Know your first win. Guide people to it fast. Charge in a way that matches the value. Keep the loop tight between what you ship and what customers say. Use the tools, but keep your eyes on the simple scoreboard.
The noise online is loud. The work is quiet. Ship, listen, adjust, repeat. If you keep at it, the Stripe graph starts to look less like a heartbeat and more like a slow climb. That is the win.