Sell your tool to agencies, not brands, so one sale covers 10-30 brands

Pat WallsSo, the main reason why I wanted to bring you onto the channel is to talk about this sort of unique business model that you have. So, can you give me an overview of what this is and how it works?

ZacSo, there are a lot of analytics applications in the kind of like Shopify e-commerce space, but all of them go to individual brands, right? So, every time I need to make a sale, I would have to go to brand A, brand B, brand C to sell one subscription to each of them to get to three subscriptions. With agencies, each of the agencies have 10, 20, 30 brands as customers. And so, in effect, I'm getting 30 brands onto the platform by going through one agency. And then the agencies have 10 users or 20 users, so I'm selling seats to each of the users. They can give seats to their customers. So, imagine the agency has 10 strategists, they're paying $10 a month for each of those seats. And then they have 20 customers, and each customer wants a seat, that's another $200 a month in seats. And so you're just getting a lot of access to users through one customer. And I think the reason it's easy and like why I think this concept of selling to agencies is like a really good angle is agencies are really easy to find. You can go to the Shopify agency partner page directory, the Klaviyo partner page directory, and they basically give you a forced rank list …

Pat WallsOkay, I just think this is super, super smart. Instead of having to go, again, to the end consumer and try to sell a $10 per month subscription, you're going to the agency that serves hundreds of those, and it just makes so much more sense. And it reminds me of two softwares that I pay for as a business, which is Gusto and QuickBooks. I didn't actually just go buy these on the website, my bookkeeper recommended them to me and actually sold them …

Pat WallsI think that's a great answer and a good point. Let's talk about how to replicate this. What would be your advice for anyone watching this that wants to build a SaaS and potentially take some things from this model and implement it?

ZacWe had specific experience in this industry, so we knew the platforms, we knew the players, we knew what mattered, so I think I would kind of take a step back in whatever industry I'm currently working in and say like, "Oh, is there an agency layer here that I could do this with?" Think of restaurants, for example. Restaurants have agencies who are managing their DoorDash and Uber Eats ads, and they have to report to the client on how that's performing. So, now that you've picked your industry, you kind of have a sense of what the key platforms are, like most of those platforms are going to have a page on their site that is like agency directory or partner directory. Those directories kind of give you that access right off the bat. And I think the key with agencies is they're all experiencing the same problem. Every agency owner is trying to take on more clients without hiring more people. And the second most impactful thing is how much time can you save the agency. And so in selling a product to agencies, you can just hit on those key points, and that's really how you get an agency owner to be like, "Okay, yeah, I'll take you seriously. …

Pat WallsAll right, well, thanks for sharing that. I think it's just super cool model that you've come up with. I think people are going to love it. Last question that we ask all founders who come onto the channel, what would be your advice to a younger Zac or for anyone watching this, maybe they're an agency operator or just anyone who wants to build a SaaS that can make a million dollars a year, what would be your advice?