Monthly Archives: August 2021

Business News, Healthcare News, Healthcare Tech, Investment News

SolasCure announces £15m Series A raise

Biotech start-up SolasCure has announced the completion of its Series A investment round, to support the development of their wound cleaning product, Aurase®.

The Cambridge based biotech company has successfully completed its Series A raise of £15m, with funding from industry veterans, institutional venture, and strategic investors.

SolasCure is developing proprietary technology leveraging biomimicry and evidence-based medicine to empower health care professionals to treat patients with chronic wounds. Their first investigational product, Aurase®, is a hydrogel containing an enzyme cloned from medical maggots that can be used to support healthcare professionals treating patients with chronic wounds.

Speaking upon the completion of the round, Dr Sam Bakri, Founder and CEO of SolasCure said:

“We are delighted to have completed our Series A round, which will help us to move onto the clinical trial stages of product development.  We are excited to be working with such knowledgeable and specialist investors, as they join us on our mission to support healthcare professionals with wound care products that significantly improve the health and wellbeing of patients with chronic wounds.”

The raise began with investment from BRAIN Biotech AG (Xetra:BNN), who are SolasCure’s largest shareholder.

Adriaan Moelker, CEO BRAIN Biotech AG, said:

“It has been an encouraging sign for all partners that SolasCure has been able to successfully close another financing round with rising pre-money valuation during the pandemic. We continue to be committed to support SolasCure on its way to market for the innovative wound debridement enzyme Aurase®.

The round was completed following investment by Seneca Partners, an investment management business based in the UK.

Speaking on their investment, Matt Currie, Investment Director at Seneca said:

“We are delighted to support SolasCure as part of this latest funding round. The team they have brought together are truly world-class, producing ground-breaking work in the wound care sector. Practitioners are crying out for a high-quality solution that can be transported, stored, and administered in an efficient and effective way, something severely lacking in the treatments available at present. We believe SolasCure’s Aurase product has the potential to become the go-to solution in this space”.

In addition to the investments from BRAIN Biotech AG and Seneca Partners, other notable investors to date include Bionova Capital, experienced entrepreneur and life sciences angel investor Jonathan Milner (founder of Abcam), strategic investor EVA Pharma, the Development Bank of Wales, as well as François Fournier (former lead of Smith & Nephew’s Advanced Wound Care division).    The GS Verde Group acted as advisors to the fundraise.

News, Recruitment

Firms are neglecting key parts of remote recruitment strategies that help attract and retain key talent, warns Omnipresent

  • Less than 1 in 8 organisations adjust pay differentials according to geographic location
  • Just 35% of employers consider the impact on compensation and benefits in their remote working policies
  • Two-thirds of firms state that a lack of market data is problematic when adjusting geographic differentials

According to Omnipresent, an Employer of Record that helps organisations employ people globally, firms are largely unprepared for the barriers they encounter when hiring employees in remote locations – particularly when hiring overseas.

The warning comes after research from Aon showed that companies focus on certain aspects of their remote location strategies but neglect others. For instance, 75% of organisations consider the eligibility of individuals to work remotely and 68% consider the technological requirements of remote work. Despite this, just over a third (35%) review the impact on compensation and benefits in their remote working policies and fewer than 1 in 8 UK organisations (12%) adjust pay differentials according to geographic location.

Consequently, Omnipresent states that failure to go beyond planning the technical logistics of remote work and remote hiring strategies means that organisations risk losing their competitive edge and as a result, could lose out on key talent and could even face retention issues among current workforces.

Matt Wilson, co-CEO and Founder at Omnipresent, advises:

“When creating remote hiring strategies, particularly in different countries, employers must consider benefits and compensation, pay brackets as well as cultural differences and communication methods to ensure every employee can work well and is part of the team.

“Remote offerings can be based on pure legal requirements of local laws and regulations but most employers understand the best strategy is to look after employees’ needs so each is motivated and productive. Overcoming key hiring barriers to attract and retain the best talent is often about putting employees first and understanding, culturally, what they expect from their employers in their particular location.”

Problematically, however, Omnipresent says that many organisations are not getting the relevant guidance to understand how to tailor offerings to different locations. Aon’s global HR pulse survey emphasises this issue, highlighting that organisations struggle to adjust geographical differentials due to a variety of factors.

For example, over two-thirds of organisations (68%) feel that internal communication is a barrier, two-thirds (66%) state that a lack of market data is problematic, 58% state that employment related regulations and compliance is a barrier and 56% feel that tax related regulations is an issue when modifying geographic differentials.

Matt Wilson summarised:

“How organisations set their benefits and salary benchmarks is key to promoting fairness and transparency within an organisation – ultimately showing the right level of care here helps attract and retain the right employees. While most employers understand how to set benchmarks based on roles, we can see that more struggle to adjust this based on location – especially when the location is in a different region with different pay and benefits expectations. Should you pay equally for equal work regardless of location, pay local rates, or something in between? Should you offer the same benefits package globally, or tailor benefits packages to local expectations and needs? These are difficult questions that organisations must think carefully about how they build a fair, competitive and sustainable global compensation strategy that aligns with their values. 

“There are a few more key steps that can be taken to ensure that remote recruitment strategies and benchmarks are planned effectively. Firstly, don’t simply put ‘remote’ on a job description aimed at anyone – target specific markets so that remote job descriptions, their translations, as well as the pay and benefits advertised are tailored to the candidates the company is hoping to find. Localisation is key. Seek guidance, too, on local job markets, employment laws and employment related costs as information is available to help adjust strategies.

“Ultimately, the benefit of remote recruitment for employers is that they can find the best talent to suit their requirements, so putting time into developing a remote strategy that caters for logistics and peoples’ needs is essential.”

HR Software, News

Sona raises $2.2m for its next-generation employee app for frontline workers

Workforce technology startup Sona has raised a $2.2 million (£1.6m) pre-seed round to accelerate the development and adoption of its app for employees that don’t typically work at a desk.

The round was led by early stage specialist venture capital firm Speedinvest, with participation from experienced angel investors including Andy Leaver from Notion Capital, Lorenzo Franzi from Flash Ventures and several partners from Novator Partners LLP.

Founded by serial entrepreneurs Ben Dixon, Oli Johnson and Steffen Wulff Petersen, the company’s mission is to put technology in the hands of frontline staff that transforms the way they manage their work and engage with their employer.

Many day-to-day people management tasks in sectors like healthcare, retail and hospitality and leisure are still either paper-based or haven’t been fully digitised. These manual processes are a daily source of lost productivity and frustration for employees and place a huge administrative strain on HR departments and site managers.

By putting features including live schedule view, shift and holiday booking, and team messaging into a dedicated mobile app, Sona takes the friction out of these processes. Making these common tasks extremely easy and convenient for employees to complete autonomously so they feel more empowered and valued at work. Then, as more workflows can be automated, managers are freed up to focus on mission critical work.

The platform has been developed and deployed in partnership with a range of founder customers across the care, retail and voluntary sectors, including Colten Care and MHI UK (Shout 85258) ahead of a full product launch next month.

Markus Lang, Partner at Speedinvest, said: “When a world class team of repeat founders builds a well differentiated product in a huge, under-digitized market, it’s a no brainer to partner with them. We’re beyond excited to be on board and look forward to supporting them in building a category leader.”

Sona Co-founder Oli Johnson added: “80% of us don’t work at desks, but technology for deskless workers only attracts 1% of all enterprise software investment. On top of that, the software that is available is for companies to manage their frontline workforces. Hardly anything has been specifically designed to benefit the frontline. We started Sona because we want every frontline employee to feel valued and have more flexibility and control at work. We’ve seen first hand how the right technology can be a huge lever to achieve that. We couldn’t be more grateful for the support we’ve had from an amazing group of investors, customers and team members who share our vision and our excitement for the opportunity that lies ahead.”

 

About Sona: Sona’s mission is to put technology in the hands of frontline staff that transforms how they manage their work and engage with their employer. Designed for the specific needs of modern frontline workplaces, Sona’s employee app combines powerful productivity tools with a sleek, simple and intuitive user experience. Features include live schedule view, absence management, instant messaging, and Open Shifts, an innovative shift booking platform matching shift vacancies with employees willing to take on more hours. Trailblazing organisations across health and social care, retail, and the third sector are revolutionising the way they manage, engage and retain their staff. sona.is

About Speedinvest: Speedinvest is a European venture capital fund with more than €400M AUM and 40 investors working from Berlin, London, Munich, Paris, Vienna and San Francisco. Employing a focused investment team structure, we fund innovative early-stage technology startups in the areas of Deep Tech, Fintech, Industrial Tech, Network Effects, Digital Health and Subscriptions. Speedinvest actively deploys its global network and in-house Platform+ operational experts to support our portfolio of nearly 200 companies, including with US market expansion. speedinvest.com

Charity & CSR, Healthcare, Hospice News, News

City Hospice appoints new business ambassadors

Leading figures in the South Wales business community have joined City Hospice as the charity’s newest ambassadors.

City Hospice is Cardiff’s local hospice, providing care to people with terminal and life limiting illnesses such as cancer, dementia, motor neurone disease and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

The only provider of home-based specialist palliative care in the capital, City Hospice provides care and compassion to 550 patients at any one time, in addition to essential counselling and support services for the families of their patients.

The newly appointed ambassadors will champion and spread the word about the charity’s work within their communities, in addition to supporting events and fundraising campaigns.

Joining Spiro Borg, Managing Director of Spiro’s Fine Dining, and Chris Macnamara, Managing Director of The Brogue Trader as business ambassadors are Kim Bird, CEO of Before You Go; Catherine Brannigan, The Waterloo Foundation; Sarah Clifford, Commercial and Sales Expert; Terry Edgell, CEO of Premier Forest Group; Sarah Hughes, Communications Officer at South Wales Police; Sarah Lister-Sims, Managing Director of Hospital Innovations; Alastair Milburn, Managing Director of Effective Communication; Sara Nurse, SLC Consultancy; Clive Thomas, Managing Partner at Watkins and Gunn; and Andrew Walker, Business Development Director at Resource Ltd.

Speaking about his new role, Andrew Walker said: “I have helped to raise funds for City Hospice over a number of years now, and the more I learn about their work and their impact on our capital city, the more I realise it’s a charity that is often overshadowed by others locally in the charitable health sector.

“Covid-19 has brought the reality of end-of-life-care into sharp focus. Indeed, having lost my own father to this dreadful disease and then waited over a year to hold a service for him, I realise how vital it is for those who are terminally ill to have the chance to die at home if that’s what they want. The team at City Hospice help this to happen, supporting the people of Cardiff facing terminal and life-limiting illnesses and their families, at the most difficult time of their lives. I am really keen to help spread the message about City Hospice, what it does for our city, and how valuable its work is for each of the 500 or so Cardiff citizens in its care every month.

“City Hospice is one of the hidden jewels within the crown of Cardiff’s healthcare provision. A lot of business people know the name but don’t have a clue what it is or what it does. I hope that I, and the other City Hospice Business Ambassadors, will help raise its profile amongst the South Wales business community, understand its role as a ‘non-residential hospice’ and encourage other business people to support its work.”

Liz Andrews, Chief Executive of City Hospice said: “We are thrilled to welcome this wonderful cohort of industry leading professionals as our new business ambassadors. Their support will be invaluable in raising awareness of our work and will help us to continue to provide care and compassion to patients and families in the community.”

Benefits, News, Wellbeing at Work

How should companies re-imagine their benefits strategy for a post-covid business environment? Howden explains

Howden Employee Benefits & Wellbeing (Howden) says many businesses will need to review and re-imagine their benefits and wellbeing strategy, in light of the impact and changing work environment created by the pandemic.

This was the subject of its latest webinar, ‘Our Ultimate Guide to Re-imagining your Benefits Strategy’ where host Matthew Gregson, Head of Corporate at Howden looked at why companies often leave it too long to do a review and the challenges that subsequently arise.

This follows a recent study by Group Risk Development (GRiD)[i] which found that 73% of employers think the pandemic will result in long term changes to how they support the health and wellbeing of their staff. The report revealed that employers expect to increase support for physical wellbeing (57%), social wellbeing (54%), financial wellbeing (52%), improve the choice of benefits (49%) and provide support for dependants (48%).

Matthew Gregson says, “For many businesses, changing their employee benefits can be problematic, and, as such, many benefits offerings continue to look the way they have always looked. For other companies, changing business circumstances such as through an acquisition can give rise to the need to fundamentally re-assess their benefits. The big question for HR is why and how the business should do a review, even if not compelled to do so?

Matthew highlights four common challenges for companies when evaluating their benefits strategy and how to address them.

The first is engagement – this is perhaps the main return on investment from an effective benefits programme and organisations should have a measure of the level of engagement with their offer.

The second is cost – the investment in benefits and wellbeing can be too high, too low or directed to the wrong people or the wrong products and services. Having all costs to hand is the first step.

Thirdly, there are risks – financial, operational, and reputational risk to the business. Companies need to take a more systematic approach to understanding where their exposures lie.

And lastly, administrative challenges – the burden could be too high, with too much manual intervention and not provide a good employee experience. Look to where you are wasting effort within the HR team and where processes and experience breakdown for your employees.

Overcoming these challenges is essential for the benefits strategy to meet the needs of the business and its people – but this can only be done by understanding the problems it is trying to solve. That requires data, analysis and understanding at a level many HR teams don’t get to.

Matthew Gregson says, “Companies should strategically review their benefits every three to five years. Most challenges are likely to sit within one of these four areas, with engagement being the most fundamental to a successful programme. Starting a review could begin with an employee survey to understand what employees like, do not like about the current benefits and what they would value going forward.

“Evaluating cost, risk and admin are necessary too. Once they have a clear idea of where they are at, organisations can look forward and align benefits to the business and the people agenda over the next five years. They will have evidence as to where changes are needed, so they can develop the business case to secure funding or the commitment to undertake a significant review.

“As businesses emerge from the pandemic and perhaps are looking at new markets or changes in operations, it’s an opportune time to conduct a review to ensure benefits match where the business is heading. Only by evaluating existing benefits, can companies make informed decisions to build a great benefits programme that offers value to both employer and employees.”

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News, News for HRDs

Can employers cut workers’ salaries if they continue to work from home?

An unnamed Cabinet minister has suggested that civil servants who refuse to return to the office should be paid less than those who are back at their desks, telling the Daily Mail “’People who have been working from home aren’t paying their commuting costs, so they have had a de facto pay rise, so that is unfair on those who are going into work. If people aren’t going into work, they don’t deserve the terms and conditions they get if they are going into work.’

Can employers cut workers’ salaries if they continue to work from home? Alan Price, CEO at BrightHR, explains:

“It may seem logical to pay staff differently if their place of work changes, especially if there are no added concerns around commuting. However, the way this issue should be approached depends heavily on the work that will be undertaken by the employee and if they will be working full-time or part-time.

“It is not advisable that employers pay staff less for working from home permanently, even on a hybrid basis, if their role will remain the same as when they were fully office-based – unless the employee agrees to it or their employment contract stipulates that such a thing can be done.

“This is because reducing pay due to a change in where an employee’s work is being carried out may be classed as unlawful deduction from wages if the individual is:

  • Working the same number of hours
  • Receiving the same amount of workload, and
  • Held under the same obligations as when they were in the office.

“Even if the employee agrees to receive a reduction in pay, employers might end up with an indirect sex discrimination claim if it can be shown that more women work from home than men, so employers should be careful. Further claims of constructive dismissal can be brought if an employer has reduced an employee’s pay with no justification for doing so and the employee is forced to resign.

“It is important that employers check their employees’ contracts before making any changes. For example, if a person works in a London based office but lives outside of the city, can an employer reduce/remove London weighting? If the contract stipulates that the employer can change pay if the employee is living outside of London, then perhaps removing London weighting could be possible. Even then, employers should be careful. If staff normally based out of London are paid the same as those in London doing the same work, it wouldn’t be advisable for an employer to enforce a pay reduction.

“This could lead to constructive dismissal claims and perhaps other claims too, depending on the procedure the employer uses and other factors, including whether this affects women more than men or vice versa. Other claims could include discrimination and/or breach of contract.

“On a similar note, if employers give some contractual perks with a financial value to those working in the office which are then removed because of homeworking, they may need to think about offering some compensation for this.

Hospitality, News

Jo Stevens MP visits Cardiff restaurant business as part of Coca-Cola business recovery campaign

Jo Stevens MP recently visited Pitch Bar & Eatery, a traditional Welsh restaurant and cocktail bar in Mill Lane, to hear about the company’s participation in Coca-Cola’s innovative ‘Project Open’ business accelerator programme – designed to help cafés, pubs and restaurants mitigate the long-term impact of the pandemic on their business and support their recovery.

Pitch Bar & Eatery was one of several small, independent customers who received cutting-edge expertise and provided exclusive access to senior experts at Coca-Cola Great Britain, Coca-Cola Europacific Partners, Costa Coffee and innocent, to gain a rare look under the bonnet of a world-leading brand and discuss how its own business can respond to the challenges presented by Covid-19.

As part of the programme, Pitch Bar & Eatery was also visited by Influence at Work – a renowned team of behavioural scientists – where it received tailored insight in behavioural trends and discovered how straight-forward changes could transform the customer experience and business after lockdown.

Some of the advice included:

  • Redesigning the restaurant’s first floor to celebrate Cardiff and Mill Lane’s heritage and Pitch Bar & Eatery’s passion for local ingredients
  • Implementing an A-board messaging and utilising exterior walls to promote the restaurant’s rapid service to commuters
  • Reducing the cocktail menu to help unsure customers in their decision making and limit the possibility of ‘choice overload’

Ben Browne, owner of Pitch Bar & Eatery said:

“We really appreciated the visit from Jo and we had a fantastic discussion. She was genuinely interested in what we had to say, and it was great to be able to explain how we had benefitted from the programme.

“Being an independent business can sometimes leave one feeling quite exposed. Covid-19 has really levelled the playing field across the hospitality industry, so any additional support is gratefully received. The whole programme has been so beneficial and a good exercise to relook at the business from a strategic point of view. I’ve been in the restaurant industry my whole life and some of the advice we received I never would have thought of!”

 

Jon Woods, General Manager, Coca-Cola Great Britain said:

“Last year was the toughest in memory for hospitality businesses and we know it’s our smallest customers who have been, and continue to be, the worst affected. With many of these important Coca-Cola customers struggling to navigate the challenges of the pandemic and concerned about their futures, we knew that our business expertise could play a vital role in preparing them for recovery – together with insights from external experts in human behaviour and psychology. Through this programme, we have provided some of our valued high street partners with the tools to address industry issues and survive the aftermath of the pandemic.”

 

With further businesses offered access to exclusive content, video tutorials and insights from the programme, the business accelerator programme is the latest in a series of initiatives launched by Coca-Cola to support its smaller customers in the hospitality sector over the past year.

 

Marketing, PR and SEO, News

Birmingham creative agency takes a giant leap forward during lockdown

Three European awards, international client wins and two new appointments sees Giants & Titans emerge from lockdown stronger than ever.

Creative agency Giants & Titans is celebrating their successes after securing a hat-trick of European awards, eight new client wins and three new appointments.

The Birmingham-based firm won three Lovie awards for its global Defenders of Digital campaign, beating off stiff competition from major international organisations including Al Jazeera in one category.

A total of eight additional new client and project wins have seen the company increase its turnover by more than 20 per cent in the last 18 months.

Nivea owner Beiersdorf appointed Giants & Titans as lead UK social media agency for the launch of its first new skincare brand in 20 years, with responsibility for Instagram, YouTube, Facebook & Pinterest.

Cybersecurity experts Kaspersky, based out of Switzerland, tasked the firm to create, launch and provide ongoing management support for its first ever online training platform.

Building on that success, the agency has also been engaged to create and manage social media content & develop a new global media website for Kaspersky’s flagship content hub, Tomorrow Unlocked, as part of a new 3-year partnership.

In response to growing demand for its creative services Giants & Titans has appointed Kieran Quinn as Head of Social Media and Laura Watkins as Digital Manager to bolster the senior team, with further recruitment planned later in the year.

Dave Reed, Giants & Titans co-founder, said: “The last 18 months has produced a series of challenges for growing business like ourselves, but also a number of new and exciting opportunities. We’ve successfully established ourselves as agile creative experts, providing world-class thinking and execution that delivers results for our clients. This latest international recognition from the Lovies, Beiersdorf and Kaspersky to name a few is testament to that.”

To find out more about Giants & Titans visit: www.giantsandtitans.com

News

Marked expansion in Welsh business activity in July, higher than the UK average

The headline NatWest Wales Business Activity Index – a seasonally adjusted index that measures the month-on-month change in the combined output of the region’s manufacturing and service sectors – registered 61.4 in July, down from 64.7 in June, but nonetheless signalled the third-fastest rise in activity on record. The rate of expansion was quicker than the UK average, as Welsh firms linked the upturn in output to a sustained rise in client demand and the relaxation of some COVID-19 restrictions.

Private sector firms in Wales signalled a marked expansion in new business at the start of the third quarter. Anecdotal evidence suggested the rise in new orders was due to the relaxation of some COVID-19 restrictions and a boost to client demand. The rate of increase softened, however, to the slowest for three months despite being the quickest of the 12 monitored UK areas.

July data indicated continued upbeat expectations among Welsh private sector firms regarding the outlook for output over the coming year. Optimism reportedly stemmed from hopes that the final easing of lockdown measures will be the end of restrictions, and a further boost to sales. The degree of confidence slipped to the lowest since October 2020 amid some concerns regarding labour shortages.

The level of positive sentiment was below the UK average, however, Welsh private sector firms signalled a sharp rise in workforce numbers during July. Although the pace of job creation softened from that seen in June, it was the second-fastest since February 2017. A number of firms suggested that additional employment stemmed from a further marked increase in new business.

Private sector firms in Wales registered a fifth successive monthly rise in outstanding business at the start of the third quarter. The rate of backlog accumulation was the second-fastest on record and marked overall. Moreover, the rise in incomplete business was the quickest of the 12 monitored UK areas. Some companies noted that greater backlogs of work were due to staff and material shortages, which added pressure to capacity.

Welsh private sector firms indicated another acceleration in cost inflation during July. The rate of increase was the fastest on record (since January 2001) and one of the quickest of the 12 monitored UK regions. Higher cost burdens were commonly attributed to greater material prices and wage bills amid shortages.

July data signalled a substantial increase in output charges across the Welsh private sector. The rate of inflation accelerated again to the fastest since data collection for the series began in January 2001. Welsh firms registered the third-fastest rise in selling prices of the 12 monitored UK areas.

Where increases were reported, companies linked this to the pass-through of higher costs to clients.

Kevin Morgan, NatWest Wales Regional Board, explains:

“Welsh firms recorded another marked expansion in business activity during July, as the relaxation of some COVID-19 restrictions supported demand. Although the rate of output growth slowed slightly, it exceeded the record prior to May 2021. In fact, firms hope that sales will be boosted again when all restrictions are eased. That said, substantial increases in demand also put greater pressure on capacity, as reports of labour shortages exacerbated material delivery delays.

“Concerns regarding inflationary pressures remained in July, as the rate of increase in costs soared once again to hit a fresh record pace. Higher input prices were partly passed on to clients, where possible, as firms sought to protect margins.”

 

News, SaaS

How to bootstrap your SaaS startup to $10M in ARR

Written by Jack Underwood, CEO and co-founder of Circuit

It’s a SaaS world – we’re just living in it. From accessing emails and online documents to hosting video calls, individuals, businesses and governments interact with SaaS on a minute-to-minute basis. The expansion of cloud technology since the early 2000s and the move to remote working has led to the sector’s rapid development.

But the rise in SaaS tools isn’t just useful for businesses looking for accessible, flexible software solutions, or consumers wanting to move through the world with greater ease. It’s a massive opportunity for entrepreneurs.

Unlike prior business models, with SaaS, you don’t need a huge amount of capital to build and launch your v1, nor do you have to survive a 6-month sales cycle to get your first drop  of revenue. I’m speaking from first-hand experience. At the age of 23, I founded a SaaS company that bootstrapped to $10M in ARR without traditional venture capital and now have 50,000 paying users worldwide.

Here are my tips for other SaaS startups looking to bootstrap their businesses.

 

  1. Quantitative isn’t always king

 Data is often lauded as the  foundation of every good decision, but stats and figures shouldn’t be your only guide. In fact, it’s more productive in the early stages to look at qualitative, rather than quantitative data when building your SaaS product.

In the early days, usage volume is typically so low that it’s impossible to derive significant, actionable results from user data. For example, it may take months to discern the material impact of two different layouts of the same feature. The solution? Leaning on qualitative data – which means speaking directly to your users. Their honest feedback will show if you’re on the right track, point to where you should pivot and help you build a user-friendly, intuitive product that will see subscriptions rise.

 

  1. You don’t need to be sector experts

Yes, trying to fix a problem you’ve personally had lets you know there’s a problem that needs solving. But the beauty of the SaaS model is that entrepreneurs can find great success in sectors they have limited or no experience in, because the learning cycle times are just so much shorter. You can build, learn and iterate your way towards the insights you’ll need to build a successful product, even if you know nothing about the sector.

With a product that solves an issue,  the software users will need to get closer to the solution and the humility to learn from others, you have all that’s necessary to build a lucrative product. Of course, an initial lack of understanding may lead you to make wrong product decisions along the way, contributing to slower growth. But ultimately, these mistakes don’t matter if you can realize the issue and learn from the process.

Again, this relies on speaking to your users to work out what’s going wrong and what needs to be refined.

 

  1. Let competition tip you off

Many entrepreneurs are scared of entering a space where there’s competition. But it’s almost impossible to find a niche with zero competitors and, if you do, there might be a very good reason.

The existence of competition indicates that a market exists. If there’s someone else solving problems for customers, there’s a good chance you can build a business in this space too.

The comparison should end here, however. If you’re trying to achieve market dominance, simply following in your competition’s footsteps won’t get you anywhere, you’ll always be behind. More importantly, you won’t be learning what works and what doesn’t, so when it does eventually come time for you to move forward with your own roadmap, you’ll have to start the learning process from scratch.

 

  1. Pay-per-click advertising is perfect for bootstrapping

PPC advertising and SaaS is an incredible combination. It’s a great way for startups to drive early customers.

PPC is very cheap at a low volume, which means you can get a fair amount of app installs for as low as $0.30 each. The next stage is to focus on breaking even, not making a profit: as soon as you can raise average revenue per install (ARPI) higher than cost per acquisition (CPA), you can kickstart a growth cycle.

Increased spending will result in more installs. These installs give you more opportunities to test, learn and make product improvements. These improvements will lead to higher ARPI, and this higher ARPI allows you to pay a higher CPA. It’s a cycle that can run and run, with each turn fueling further product improvements, revenue and learnings.

Of course, the ultimate goal is to make a profit on every customer. Still, in the early days, SaaS businesses should focus on driving as many customers as possible to iterate quickly and find product-market fit.

To learn more about Circuit, visit www.getcircuit.com