Growing a SaaS by Launching a Service - with Boast AI’s Lloyed Lobo

How to Win podcast with Peep Laja

Summary
This week on How To Win: Lloyed Lobo, founder of Boast AI, which helps companies find and claim tax credits from their R&D investments. LLoyed launched two different software companies, which failed. He followed it up with a service business, Boast, which took off.

You’ll hear why he thinks services are a better way to launch a company than software. We’ll dive into how he got his first customers by cold calling and we’ll discuss how he grew his company by publishing articles and organizing an event.

I’ll share how I used similar methods to grow my businesses.

Key points:

1. Start by selling a service to learn what to build and get good at customer success (00:36)
2. Pick an unsexy market that's not chased by trends (04:26)
3. Validate the ideal customer profile and problem through paid consulting work (04:55)
4. Product-market fit is when customers get an outcome and don't cancel (05:09)
5. Build the first product iteration with no-code tools (05:50)
6. Double down on what's working from 1 million to 10 million ARR (14:18)
7. Owned media like newsletters and events builds real relationships (15:35)
8. Alignment with co-founders and investors on values avoids issues (20:29)
9. Communication + creation + consistency drives success (21:33)
10. Boast won by starting as a service, focusing on one market, and building owned media (21:43)

Mentioned:

Boast.ai

From Grassroots to Greatness

Lloyed’s personal site

My Links:

Twitter

LinkedIn

Website

Wynter

Speero

CXL