Startup Reality Check: Churn, Change & The Quality Game

0:00[Music]

0:05[Applause]

0:05[Music]

0:15Morning all. It's 6:00 here in the UK

0:20and uh we're just getting the day

0:22started and I thought it was time to

0:25give a bit of an update on where we are

0:29at as a business because it's good, it's

0:32exciting, and it's Got it.

0:43[Music]

0:47So, what is the bad? Well, it's churn,

0:51right? I've discussed it before and I'll

0:54discuss it again. Churn is an issue for

0:58us. I think churn's an issue for a lot

1:00of um startup PLG companies. There's a

1:04lot of effort and time that goes into

1:06trying to work out how to make the

1:07product sticky. I think fundamentally

1:10the way that our marketing through to

1:14product is kind of shaped right now is

1:17totally flawed. Now I will caveat it's

1:19not all that bad. We are still positive

1:22growth roughly about 10% on average

1:25month-on-month growth right now. counts

1:26dropped a little bit down from 15% given

1:29the churn even though we're hitting

1:31record high new biz months. And let me

1:34explain why. I give you an example. A

1:36client came on the other day, purchased

1:38day one, they started tracking multiple

1:42profiles. They pulled close to 1 million

1:45leads, which is wild, right? They've

1:49done that in less than 24 hours. And

1:51these are leads that are engaging with

1:55thought leaders that are relevant to

1:59these individuals. So this company helps

2:00startups and they're tracking these uh

2:02prolific um thought leaders that works

2:05with a lot of startups, right? And so

2:06they're basically finding founders who

2:08are engaging with these people. So it's

2:10great like level of relevancy there from

2:12like a signal perspective. The challenge

2:14is, you know, if someone comes on and

2:16gets that amount of leads in that amount

2:19of time, you're not you're not spacing

2:21any value out. By the way, they've also

2:23got that amount of value for $270.

2:26So, this kind of like unlimited all you

2:29can eat buffet that we kind of do is not

2:32good and it's a little bit flawed. The

2:35good things is this is totally going to

2:37change. We have a complete revamp into

2:40how everything is being done with

2:42triggery and it's going to be an

2:44entirely different platform in September

2:48and question is what are those changes

2:51and how do we think about addressing

2:54the churn which is coming through you

2:56know improper usage of the platform and

3:00incorrect ICP using us as well.

3:06[Music]

3:11growth at the moment is sitting roughly

3:14at around 10% month on month for gross

3:16churn is also sitting at around 10 to 10

3:19to sometimes 12% month on month which is

3:21way too high like I said it's improper

3:23use of the platform it's the incorrect

3:25ICP so with the introduction of new

3:28socials that we're tracking with the

3:30introduction of these agentic social

3:32flows that we're also introducing we're

3:34also changing the motion, right? I've

3:36spoken about this before. We're going

3:37from PLG to more service assisted,

3:40salesass assisted. We're putting value

3:43back in the human. And I believe that

3:46there is going to be no moat with PLG.

3:48And the value lies with the person.

3:51Think about it like this, right? If

3:53everyone can make the same spaghetti,

3:54like is spaghetti good? Is your

3:56spaghetti good or bad? Right? But like

3:58not everyone would make their own pasta,

4:00cook their own sauce, go to the local

4:03market to get the local produce. And

4:05that's the difference with what we're

4:06trying to do here. You're probably

4:07asking me local produce bolognese. What

4:10the hell does that actually mean? Well,

4:11basically what I mean by that is

4:13everyone can have the same tools, but

4:15not everyone can put these tools

4:16together in a way that actually provides

4:19value for an organization. Everyone can

4:21have triggery, but no one can actually

4:23really use triggery in a way that gets

4:25value. We want to help every single user

4:27extract every inch, every ounce of value

4:30from Triggery. And that's why I believe

4:32that the value going forward for the

4:34rest of the year and into 2026 is going

4:36to be on the person. And therefore, that

4:39coupled with if we get people on larger

4:41contracts, the value is going to be

4:43there more so than PLG. Ironically, it's

4:47so much harder closing a $140 deal a

4:50month than it is a 40 grand annual deal.

4:53Let that sink in. It's wild, but it is

4:56actually true. And those customers, by

4:58the way, are going to be a lot less

5:00difficult.

5:02[Music]

5:05Here's how I'm thinking that we change

5:07the strategy. First of all, we need to

5:09think about cold outbound. That's going

5:10to have to start to increase. We're

5:12going to have to fire up that to make

5:13sure that we get the right ICP. Second

5:15of all, we need to start to think about

5:17the website and everything along with

5:19that, which is all completely being

5:21revamped and cold email is being fired

5:23up to go after the right ICP at the

5:25right time using some of the signals

5:26that we've been harvesting for a while

5:28now. Once we have the right ICP and

5:30we're going after the right people

5:32through a combination of marketing, ad

5:34email, it's then a question of how does

5:37the process work? And so the first step

5:38of the process effectively is obviously

5:41going to be me speaking to them, right?

5:43It's going to be an initial demo where

5:44I'm going to basically be consultative

5:46sale. Nothing new, nothing

5:48groundbreaking there. Every individual

5:50that we take a demo with will have a PC

5:53if they're qualified. That PC will uh

5:56have a shared Slack channel and we will

5:58basically create social flows for these

6:01individuals and we'll track you know

6:03maybe three, four, five signals and get

6:05value within that first kind of 7 to 14

6:08days.

6:12[Music]

6:20Now the PC is going to be handled by me

6:23and by my CS team, Hugo in this case.

6:26Once we get the value from them,

6:27hopefully move them to a closed one

6:28where they'll then transfer permanently

6:30into Hugo's care. This then means that I

6:33need to also think about some key hires.

6:35that key hire that I need to think about

6:37for the end of Q3 into Q4 is going to be

6:41a head of customer success. I need to

6:43find someone who's been in the industry,

6:45both social and sales, so marketing and

6:47sales based, and can provide an

6:49unbelievable amount of value to a

6:51customer beyond Triggery. I don't want

6:54the value to be only in Triggery. I want

6:57this person to be able to provide value

6:59and consult with them to a point that

7:00gets them past the value of Triggery.

7:03And then I want them to be able to

7:04reproduce that value and teach that into

7:06new reps that we bringing on board. And

7:08that's where I'm going to put a lot of

7:09attention and focus. Once we start

7:12showing repeatable behavior there and we

7:14bring on enough clients, that's when

7:15I'll start then investing in new biz.

7:17But I'm going to do it I think like a

7:19way that a lot of people don't do. I'm

7:21going to invest more into CS before I

7:23invest more into CA. So more into client

7:25success more than into client

7:27acquisition. And that's going to be my

7:29strategy. And that's where I think the

7:31value is in a day and age where there's

7:33a billion different AI models coming out

7:36every single day and there's

7:37fear-mongering going on between what is

7:39good and what is bad. That I believe is

7:41the answer which is people. People will

7:44get the value and that will get you the

7:46NR that will get you the retention that

7:48you need. That will get word of mouth

7:49spreading and then we'll go from there.

7:51So let's summarize. [ __ ] churn right

7:54now. Yes, strategy is about to change.

7:56We need to hold tight, not get too

7:57scared, and start thinking about these

8:00new tactics that we're going to deploy

8:01as time goes on. Let me know in the

8:03comments. I want to know your thoughts.

8:04Do you think this is a good strategy? Do

8:06you think I'm being [ __ ] an idiot? I

8:07don't know. Also, what do we think about

8:09my playground in the morning? Every day,

8:10we go for a swim. Uh, well, it's either

8:12a swim or gym. It's kind of like I

8:14alternate, basically. This is the

8:16beauties about being in a startup. Just

8:18work wherever you want. I guess my

8:20biggest fear with this entire thing is

8:24we're going from a PLG motion where you

8:27know we're signing up on average about

8:30600 people a month to the platform and

8:32when I say signing up I mean trials I

8:34don't mean close deals and you would

8:36think and this would be interesting to

8:38report back on if you gate it right and

8:40you say you got to take a demo how many

8:43people are actually going to come in

8:45probably

8:46about 40% less less 50% less maybe even

8:52more somewhere between 40 to 60% I would

8:54say which I guess you know when you

8:56think about it is a decent number but

8:58then when you minus how many of those

9:01aren't ICP that is an equation that I

9:04haven't properly done and I'm curious to

9:06see what that would come out at because

9:08that could be you know you know your

9:10numbers could get quite low and I think

9:11that's the scary part for me is going

9:14from a place of power of like volume

9:16down to to to little to none but the the

9:19reality is if you know and they're not I

9:21would say about 20 to 30% of that 500

9:24that people 5 600 people that we get on

9:26average per month is ICP. So sometimes I

9:30guess the moral of this story when I'm

9:32kind of saying it out loud and this is

9:34why I quite like doing these vlogs is

9:36numbers doesn't always mean everything.

9:38And it just goes back to the age old

9:40saying quality over quantity. If we only

9:44did 10 demos and all 10 closed at a

9:45higher ACV, that's a bigger month than

9:48probably what we would have ever have

9:49done. So, it's optics, it's semantics

9:53really, you know, it's all of those

9:54things. Um, we just got to make sure

9:56that the quality is there and we got to

9:58make sure that our marketing and our

10:00outbound is driving that quality. Um,

10:03and so that's kind of what we got to

10:05work through. And we've actually got a

10:07chat today to go over content pillar

10:10themes and what we should talk about

10:12with our marketing and what the focus

10:13point should be going forward.

10:24Look at this marvelous. The Avengers

10:26marketing team assembles