I interviewed 50 SaaS leaders about competition.
- how they differentiate
- how they approach competitive intel
- how they think about category creation
- how they create competitive advantages
Here are the tips that stood out to me ๐
the Apollo app in ChatGPT is now live. ๐
now you can search prospects, enrich contacts, then add them to
sequences in one conversation, zero tab switching.
this is what AI-native outbound actually looks like โ https://t.co/iMviZ1DOpf
Your @claudeai conversation just became an Apollo workspace.
Search prospects. Enrich contacts. Add to sequences. All without leaving the chat.
Apollo is now available as a connector in Claude. No API keys, no tab switching, no excuses.
Connect it here โ https://t.co/OqL3giNps7
Ps. For power users, we also shipped a Claude Code/Cowork plugin that bundles multiple Apollo actions into end-to-end workflows. Demo coming soon!
@TheRealCorpBro roasted my mullet on stage in front of hundreds of people.
Then my team lost Pipeline Feud (sales version of Family Feud).
.....So!! Hopefully I can turn things around for my session with Anthropic later this afternoon ๐ค ๐ค
#ApolloNEXT
@mattyp trying to do this with @useapolloio and its AI suite ๐ you almost need to encourage people think just one level deeper from where they're at, otherwise it just goes way over their heads.
Modern GTM is broken: too many tools, too much manual work, too long to get to value.
Today, weโre fixing that with the worldโs first GTM AI Assistant that actually works โ what used to take hours now takes minutes.
See it in action from our founder & CEO @timatapollo ๐
Most reps arenโt prompt engineers.
Welcome to the era of โจ vibe selling โจ
Apolloโs Prompt Assistant takes whatever you type, rewrites it like a GTM pro, and runs it with the right AI model.
No wasted credits. No pressure. Just clean insights.
๐ Watch the magic
@peeplaja@MadeWithCapsule@doyouknowchamp The difference I noticed is they're doing this not just thru emails and tickets, but also 1:1 via a user Slack community.
Not sure what else they've done to scale this out. I'm sure @doyouknowchamp can speak to that.
@peeplaja@MadeWithCapsule@doyouknowchamp Hyper responsiveness directly from founders / leaders.
"It sounds so simple, but in my opinion this is what the race is all about: shortening the time between hearing a customer's problem and shipping an elegant solution.
[...] I think weโre doing it faster than anyone else."
But Puzzle is laser-focused on addressing problems that can't be solved with traditional whiteboards.
They're niching down on serving process and system builders in ways that go beyond what any general-purpose whiteboard can offer.
I asked Brian if he had any parting advice for revenue leaders competing in crowded markets and this is what he told me:
"Go experience the problem first hand. It's crucial to feel the pain points your users face as they rely on the next-best alternative to do their job." ๐ฅ
Read more about their competitive strategy here: https://t.co/XkfjDaD0iv
Imagine experiencing a "pain point" so badly that it lands you in the hospital.
That's what happened to @b_ragone back in 2017.
He was leading ops for a 15-person startup, and the pure chaos of the role gave him an anxiety attack.
Over the next few years, he tried using tools like @LucidSoftware and @MiroHQ to make his job easier and keep systems organized. But they didn't work like he wanted them to...
So he started @puzzleapp_ioโa tool for operators to plan, visualize, monitor, and collaborate on their processes and manage the big picture.
Today, they remain a single-founder, 100% bootstrapped company building software in an incredibly crowded space.
Competitors are valued at multiple billions of dollars, e.g... LucidChart: $3B, Miro: $17B, Figjam: $12.5B...
So I'm trying something a little different.
Affiliates in my community get 100% of the first year's membership cost ($190). But it doesn't recur.
Reasons:
1. I don't have enough $$$ to pay for software to handle recurring affiliate payments.
2. Feel like one bigger payout has more draw than multiple smaller ones.
Just rolled it out a few weeks ago though, so can't back it up with any success metrics yet!
The reason?
"It's way easier to explain why we're different and better rather than try to explain in the abstract what we are and why people should care." ๐ฅ
Here's more of Jacob's thoughts on competition and strategy: https://t.co/1Ktet14KE7
"Run towards competition, not away from it."
@jebank shared this take with me from his experience building @relay, a Zapier competitor.
His first startup got acquired by Google. Now he's looking to disrupt the automation space.
He didn't always think this way though...
During their beta, they struggled to find product-market fit.
They tried:
โ jamming in more features
โ improving their sales process
โ hundreds of meetings with customers
But things still didn't feel right!
So they pivoted their product to compete directly with Zapier, and added a couple big differentiators.
And their numbers REALLY started to take off.