Scale or Die - #23: Ed Fry, Growth at Paddle, on the future of data & personalized experiences

#23: Ed Fry, Growth at Paddle, on the future of data & personalized experiences

12/03/19 • 37 min

For the past 6 years, Ed Fry has been working in B2B companies such as Hubspot, Hull.io, and Inbound.org. Shortly after our interview, Ed started working as a SaaS growth consultant and now works as Head of Growth at Paddle, a UK-based SaaS for subscription and E-commerce.

Our conversation with Ed covers the role of data in 2019. While data is becoming ever more available, the sheer volume of data at your disposal can also be frustrating. Where do you start? What do you do with all this data? How does data impact important growth metrics?

In January 2016, Ed went on a journey to really get into data and data strategy to create more personalized experiences for customers. In this episode, Dave talks with Ed about how to use data to scale your startup, how to use data to personalize experiences for users, and what some B2B startups are doing wrong with data.

Listen in and get some free growth consulting from Ed!

In this episode you’ll learn:

0:00 Introduction

3:57 Ed’s 2016 deep dive into data

11:56 Where most B2B startups are getting it wrong or getting stuck when it comes to data

14:06 Ed describes his time at Hull.io

24:07 Listens to Ed’s advice on the practice of using personalized data to scale your startup

26:14 If every piece of data was available — what would we do?

31:28 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!

Listen in and get some free growth consulting from Ed!

In this episode you’ll learn:

0:00 Introduction

3:57 Ed’s 2016 deep dive into data

11:56 Where most B2B startups are getting it wrong or getting stuck when it comes to data

14:06 Ed describes his time at Hull.io

24:07 Listens to Ed’s advice on the practice of using personalized data to scale your startup

26:14 If every piece of data was available — what would we do?

31:28 The Salty Six

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

Previous 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.

In this episode you’ll learn:

0:00 An introduction with Kirsten

5:00 How to use events to create intimacy with customers (and how we ended up creating Inbound)

12:10 When your business should start hosting events for customers

26:20 How to coordinate your marketing and sales efforts

33:53 Where sales and marketing commonly break down

40:59 The Salty Six

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

Next Episode

#24: Bryn Jones, CEO @ PartnerStack, on how to build a profitable partner program

On average, 30% of revenue for SaaS companies comes from partner programs. And huge publicly traded companies such as HubSpot and Shopify rely on their partner channels for nearly 40% of their revenue! Early on with your program, you might feel like a partner channel is growing painfully slow, but in reality, the long-term value of this channel is huge.

In this episode, Bryn Jones, founder of PartnerStack, breaks down the ins and outs of how to build a great partner program for your company. Dave talks with Bryn about what investors think of partner programs, how to pitch investors on the idea, what percentage of sales should you give out in order to attract the right partners, and how to build your partner program in a responsible way.

In this episode you’ll learn:

0:00 Introduction

3:18 Bryn talks about his experience at YCombinator

8:40 Bryn breaks down the 3 main factors of a partner channel

12:22 What does a really great partner program look like?

15:02 What percentage do you see most SaaS companies giving up to their partners in order to make a sale?

19:27 What do investors think about the revenue stream that is partner revenue?

28:35 What has that growth journey been like at PartnerStack?

35:25 What have been the mistakes that you've made along the way?

44:36 The Salty Six

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