#21: Frank Barry, COO of Tithe.ly, on building SaaS for a non-traditional industry

11/12/19 • 36 min

Tithe.ly is a SaaS business that’s going after a huge, but underserved market: churches and religious institutions.

And for the past several years, the business has been growing like crazy, with over 700 religious institutions signing up per month. But that’s not even the crazy part!

Tithe.ly wants to make sure customers really love them. When a new prospect or customer signs up for the software, they get a personal welcome call from someone on the Tithe.ly team.

In this episode, Frank talks with Dave about delivering delightful customer experiences, investing in content, and how to creatively scale a business.

In this episode you’ll learn:

0:00 Introduction

2:11 Learn about Tithe.ly’s business model

4:08 Insights into growth channels

11:00 Creating exceptional touchpoints with customers

24:34 Lessons learned about SaaS over the last 4 years

30:28 The Salty Six

This is an actionable episode — we hope you enjoy! Get ready to #ScaleOrDie...

We're excited to have you along for Season 1 of #ScaleOrDie. Before you leave, be sure to leave a ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ review, post a comment, or share with your friends! Tune into more episodes at useproof.com/scaleordie and read more stories at blog.useproof.com. Follow Dave & Proof on Twitter — @DaveRogemoser and @UseProof. We publish episodes every week so be sure to check back often for more interviews with the internet’s best minds in growth!

Tithe.ly is a SaaS business that’s going after a huge, but underserved market: churches and religious institutions.

And for the past several years, the business has been growing like crazy, with over 700 religious institutions signing up per month. But that’s not even the crazy part!

Tithe.ly wants to make sure customers really love them. When a new prospect or customer signs up for the software, they get a personal welcome call from someone on the Tithe.ly team.

In this episode, Frank talks with Dave about delivering delightful customer experiences, investing in content, and how to creatively scale a business.

In this episode you’ll learn:

0:00 Introduction

2:11 Learn about Tithe.ly’s business model

4:08 Insights into growth channels

11:00 Creating exceptional touchpoints with customers

24:34 Lessons learned about SaaS over the last 4 years

30:28 The Salty Six

This is an actionable episode — we hope you enjoy! Get ready to #ScaleOrDie...

Previous Episode

#20 Jonathan Kim, CEO @ Appuces, on leaving Hubspot to build the product-led growth platform

5 years ago, Jonathan Kim started Appcues to help product and growth teams create more relevant onboarding flows. Today, Appcues serves over 1000 customers and has grown to nearly 70 employees.

Jonathan’s idea all started at the end of his career at Hubspot, as he was having a conversation with his boss, the future founder of Drift, David Cancel.

In his words: “David Cancel comes over to my desk and he's like, ‘Hey man, like I've been seeing you and you're either at 110% and you're super passionate about something, or you're just not passionate at all.

We caught up a little later and you know I started talking about this thing. I was like, oh man, how about we crack this huge problem around user onboarding — and check out this landing page I built and it could be like a real product.”

And he said, "The way you light up about that, ‘that's what you're really passionate about.’”

He was like, "You should go do that." And I said, “Okay I guess you're right. I just kinda quit on the spot because I was so passionate about the problem.”

In this episode you’ll learn:

0:00 Introduction

1:28 What exactly is Appcues? How would you describe the business?

2:43 What allows you to build a great company with great products?

7:38 A growth strategy built on inbound marketing

14:59 How to approach pricing as you move up-market

20:48 Jonathan's thoughts on how companies should be thinking about on-boarding

29: 03 The Salty Six

Next Episode

#22: Kirsten Newbold-Knipp, on aligning sales & marketing

Kirsten Newbold-Knipp, an original member of the Hubspot mafia (listen in for details), shares her in-depth knowledge of how to better unite sales and marketing teams. She’ll share her insights from years in leadership at some wildly successful B2B brands: BigCommerce, Gartner, Hubspot, and Convey.

Our conversation covers how to host great user events that drive intimacy with your customers (she started Inbound) as well as some indicators of when exactly your business is at the point to host a customer event. We’ll also help you think about how to measure marketing success and create an inter-channel connectivity as you grow your brand.