September 25, 2024 | Read Online
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The Middle from GrowthCurve.io
Three ideas to level up your week.
Hey Reader,
Welcome to The Middle, your midweek rundown of the most interesting things we've read this week.
I'm about ten days from my wife's due date and decided to golf for three days. Is this a good idea?
Please respond and tell me if this is a really, really bad idea...
Jeff
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MARKET Klarna's PR stunts
About a month ago, Klarna "fired" Salesforce and Workday as SaaS providers.
On the one hand, what a flex to announce this publicly (brilliant PR move—of course, this story would be picked up by a bunch of outlets).
But is it all a PR stunt?
Think back to February when they announced their AI-powered assistant:
In February, Klarna unveiled an AI-powered assistant for customer service. The firm lauded its product, writing that it performed the work of 700 customer service agents and handled 2.3 million interactions in its first month of operation. The assistant was made in collaboration with OpenAI. Klarna was one of the first clients for OpenAI's enterprise ChatGPT package and claims that 90 percent of its workforce consults the tool every day to automate various processes on the job.
For a business that lost $230m last year, that seems significant.
Firing your SaaS providers doesn't seem crazy if you can create even 1/10 of the same impact. Heck, the cost savings across 5,000 employees alone could be significant.
I wonder how many other companies might follow this same trend...
Seems like leaning into AI in a meaningful way can really impact the bottom line.
BUSINESS OPS Are you making your buyers say "HELL YES"?
UserEvidence released a study coining the term "evidence gap" between buyers and sellers. Of course, it's an excellent narrative that helps UserEvidence position its product.
But, I also found myself nodding along with the study, so it's worth a read.
One thought kept ringing in my head: Everyone knows customer testimonials and case studies aren't very authentic.
Then, how do we authentically provide evidence to our customers?
User-generated content might be the next best thing.
Check out Clay.com and how it's become the belle of the ball—mostly because people are sharing content organically. That's trust.
CULTURE Do Things That Don't Scale
This Paul Graham essay is a classic. Much better than Founder Mode IMO.
There's a difference between scaling and mass production.
To me, scale should be about finding thoughtful, relational ways to grow that keep the heart of what you’re doing intact. The best growth strategies don’t rush to automate; they build on authentic interactions that evolve with each customer touchpoint.
A stark example is NPS surveys. The results go nowhere, there rarely is any action, yet every SaaS company ships it to the customer. Is sending a mass survey really the best way to capture this feedback?
The goal isn’t always critical mass and speed; it’s building something that scales with purpose, relevance, and connection.
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