Introduction
One small step for SaaS, one giant leap for SaaS Weekly
It’s easy to lose sight of your growth when you only focus on your goals. You miss how small steps become large strides on your journey.
Like stacking a single sheet of paper on top of another, tiny actions eventually compound into outsized outcomes. For SaaS Weekly, 2023’s chapter folded into one theme: “consistency.”
Throughout the year, a small set of consistent actions helped pencil in our accomplishments:
- 52 newsletters were sent (we didn’t miss a Friday!)
- Over 350 articles were curated
- Around 500 SaaS companies were sourced in our GenAI database
And we’re just getting started. Continuing the habit of setting a theme for the year, 2024’s focus is simple: “move with conviction.”
What does this mean to us? It’s a reminder to execute without hesitation and to give us permission to “move fast and write things” (quickly) in the new year.
But before we turn the final page to focus on 2024, we did one last look back to recount the progress we made. So here’s a review of the roundups, round-numbers, and roundabouts of 2023.
Table of Contents
The Big Rocks in 2023
Carving out a section of the internet
SaaS Weekly’s goal has always been to inform your next growth strategy. From growth roundups to growth stories, we’ve been there to sift out the signal from the noise and deliver the impactful content you need.
But in 2023, we took that one step further. The big rocks that we shipped laid the foundation for SaaS Weekly’s journey ahead. And now we have a clearer vision forward. It goes something like this…
While some are in pursuit of putting a dent in the universe, we’re here to carve out a section of the internet.
Here’s a recap of the rocks we shipped.
Overview
Throughout 2023, we’ve been closely monitoring the wave of generative AI releases by SaaS companies. As a result of tracking over 2K press releases, we put together this report: The State of Generative AI in SaaS.
This unique perspective highlights the potential evolution of SaaS as an industry. A transition from systems of records and engagement to intelligent applications.
Last year, this data highlighted how more and more SaaS companies were extending their platforms with GenAI capabilities. And we see this trend continuing in 2024. Pretty cool!
Impact
What was unexpected was the initial engagement the report received. You can’t really plan for spikes in traffic, but you sure can welcome them.
Right after publishing the article, it was featured in Ben’s Bites and the Superhuman newsletter. Between the two publications, there are over 600K subscribers.
In the first three days, the article got over 750 page views, and by a week, it got close to a thousand views. Crazy!
Up next
We’re cooking with gas now! To continue with the momentum, we’re posting weekly roundups of new SaaS companies building with GenAI, plus monthly updates featured in the roundups.
Overview
Riding the RAGs wave, we built our very own “Chat with SaaS Weekly” site.
The idea was simple: searching for information across articles is a real pain. To solve that, we built a chatbot using Flask, Pinecone, and OpenAI that allowed readers to ask questions across the 1,000+ curated articles from the newsletter.
By nature, newsletters are a one-way communication channel: you write and the audience reads. But by adding a chat functionality, you can elevate the relationship to become bidirectional.
Once content is published and embedded, readers can ask questions and engage with your content in a way that feels like a conversation. You can then take their input and adjust your content to fit their needs.
Impact
One of our tweets about it got insane traction: it was the closest thing to “going viral” for us.
While gaining impressions on social was fun, the most significant impact of launching this chatbot was less quantifiable.
Along with learnings around how to structure data, chunk it, and embed it in a vectorDB, we made some pretty cool connections with folks writing about and building with GenAI.
Up next
The chat site seemed like a natural evolution for our articles search page, but an even bigger unlock is around how we curate content.
By using data from the chat queries, our click rates, and other inputs around how we filter out articles, we can start building an internal system to automatically surface, summarize, and send content. More to come!
Overview
Embedded throughout our content, you’ll find our mantra: we’re not in the business of bringing you news, we’re in the business of guiding your growth.
To fulfill that goal, we started writing about the growth stories of SaaS founders. These articles highlighted a company’s unique take on its go-to-market strategies. From partnerships to grassroots marketing, we shared how some companies found their footing in their market.
Last year, we told the stories of Advocat AI’s path to $1M in ARR, Humanly’s partnership approach, and how Benepass builds credibility in its market.
Impact
Aside from connecting with amazing founders, these writeups helped establish us as a resource for unique content. It helped extend our brand from content curator to content creator.
Plus, one of our growth stories was a top SaaS read in 2023 based on clicks. We’ll take our wins where we can get them.
Up next
As you can imagine, scheduling interviews, hosting them, transcribing them, and then writing an article was a huge lift. (I’m writing this in the third person, but really it’s just me – sorry to break the fourth wall here.)
But we want to publish more of these! We’re looking to streamline this process this year by having the writeups be async and a bit more templatized. The stories will remain unique but the structure will be consistent. More to come!
Our Growth and Engagement Numbers
The numbers follow the story
It’s a common saying that “numbers tell the story.” While this is true, this statement is slightly misworded. In our view, the numbers always “follow the story.”
Data is the sawdust from events that occurred within a given timeframe. And when structured properly, the data forms a snapshot we can review and form a picture.
Our rocks section helps to put these numbers into perspective. With all that being said, we can dive into SaaS Weekly’s growth performance and engagement last year!
Net subscriber growth in 2023
Number of opens week-over-week
Top clicks by category in 2023
The top 5 personas that read SaaS Weekly
The Top 25 Creator List
Forbes has a list, why don't we?
Can we get a drum roll, please?
Last but not least! We’re excited to announce the SaaS Weekly Top 25 list. Here’s our ranking of content creators that were engaged with the most in 2023.
Today, the ‘score’ is purely based on clicks, but going forward, we’re expanding the variables.
All your favorite sources of content…one simple view. Which creators did you read the most last year?
Looking for more SaaS growth stories?
Stay up-to-date with the latest growth stories and curated SaaS content by subscribing to SaaS Weekly. Every Friday, we send you the best articles and case studies to inform your next growth strategy.
The Power of Partnership: How Humanly.io Builds a Product Moat in a Crowded Market
In this SaaS Weekly Growth Story, discover how Humanly.io uses an extensive partnership channel to scale its pipeline generation and strengthen its product moat.
Building A $1M ARR Legal Tech Platform: The Advocat AI Growth Story
In this SaaS Weekly Growth Story, learn about how Advocat AI built a $1M ARR legal-tech platform by spending 12 months on customer discovery.
How Potion Used “Building in Public” to Gain Its First 100 Paying Customers
In this SaaS Weekly Growth Story, learn about how Potion.so used “building in public” to gain its first 100 paying customers.
