… how we’re competing with just $1m raised, less resources
Ari Salafia · Taxtaker
Published September 1, 2022Ari Salafia, CEO and Co-Founder of TaxTaker, is a real life David and Goliath story: with just $1m raised, they’ve taken on competitors with $100m + in funding (and they’re winning).
In 20 minutes, you’ll learn:
- Playbook for building a product machine
- TaxTaker’s 5-part customer journey map
- How to build a customer machine to acquire customers cheaply
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Ari Salafia explains how TaxTaker competed with far better-funded rivals through direct acquisition, affiliate partnerships, network education, disciplined product investment, and operational data collection.
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“um so please welcome to the stage Ari salafia [Applause] so much um it's a pleasure to be with you all today what a great event so far um It's My Hope for you today that you're gonna hear my story I'm Gonna Keep it really real with you and I hope that you find me afterwards we talk about what's working in your business what's not maybe and we all just make”
“around to sell our product for us we're just not going to make it so that's why we had to make make that shift just going to the companies directly um so one way to acquire customers on the Fly and cheaply is through affiliate agreements and revenue share Partnerships this has been key to tax takers growth overall growth plan and by Design we've built out Channel”
“some of the things they're doing like those things pay off over time um and that's been a huge kind of a huge thing for us um shine educating the referrer it's a lot easier for someone to talk about what you do if you remind them what you think you do right so consistently providing a blurb making it stupid simple for them to refer you to their client base is everything like you”
“so that's been huge for us and then just the way our business model runs we have to collect data financial data and project data about the team and what the company does annually and build out calculations and a report for their annual tax filing again I over engineered the hack out of this at first especially working with accountants because they're so detail-oriented and we started talking to our customers and”
“it's my cell if you have any if you have employees and you experienced either a revenue reduction in the last couple of years or if you're a brand new startup you started in 2020 you could get up to seven thousand dollars per employee per quarter it's pretty huge it's a big refund check from the IRS so we launched ERC in a r d and we're really excited actually this week we just made the announcement that we are offering tax”
“Ari Salafia CEO, Co-Founder of TaxTaker Our Competitors Raised $100m … how we’re competing with just $1m raised, less resources Founder500, Sept 2022”
“Acquire Customers Cheaply But share in the wealth”
“Nurture Your Network”
“Staying Disciplined Always weighing process vs. engineering Easy to overspend on bpth Easy to slip into “next feature” will get us to x. - build it they will come myth What can you automate …2x, 5x, 10x What can you afford to say yes to?”
“Build a Company Machine (Org Health) Be intentional (remember vision) No egos Authenticity wins- people remember people not logos”
Video
Our Competitors Raised $100m - Slide Deck
Ari Salafia is the CEO and Co-founder of TaxTaker. Over the course of her career, Ari has helped Startups to Fortune 500 companies nationwide fuel their growth through specialty government programs.
Becca Kay · Dingus and Zazzy
Ben Carpel · Galleon
Brad Miller · AwarenessTech
Bridget Harris · YouCanBookMe
Chris Vandersluis · Timecontrol
Cody McLain · SupportNinja
Find a passage in the slides and open the original deck.
26 passages
Ari Salafia CEO, Co-Founder of TaxTaker Our Competitors Raised $100m … how we’re competing with just $1m raised, less resources Founder500, Sept 2022
Over the next 20 minutes: Know your customer I’m going to show you CUSTOMER MACHINE PRODUCT MACHINE COMPANY MACHINE Acquire customers cheaply Nurture your network Invest in process White-glove customer service wins Do one thing first Be intentional No egos Authenticity wins
TaxTaker Revenue Growth
Let’s start with Section 1 Know your customer and get to ICP I’m going to show you how we built our Customer machine KYC ACQUIRE NURTURE Acquire customers cheaply, but share in the wealth Nurture your network, by doing many activities consistently
The Early Days Building Buzz /Getting Clients ASAP
The Early Days Building Buzz /Getting Clients ASAP
Acquire Customers Cheaply But share in the wealth
Acquire Customers Cheaply But share in the wealth
Acquire Customers Cheaply But share in the wealth
Acquire Customers Cheaply But share in the wealth
Acquire Customers Cheaply But share in the wealth
Nurture Your Network
Nurture Your Network
Let’s jump in to Section 2 Engineer for the business sake Make sure overengineer does not mean overspend I’m going to show you how we built a product machine INVEST IN PROCESS CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE DO ONE THING White-glove customer service is key How our people are a winning differentiator And be wildly disciplined Get used to saying no a lot
Customer Journey Map Discovery & Qualification Preliminary discovery to pre-qualify prospective customer for tax credits Awareness Awareness of R&D and ERC Tax Credits & discovery of TaxTaker Deeper Project Review & Document Collection Collection of documents required for IRS submission, Project review call for final qualification. Advocacy Annual “renewal” to process current years credit, Referrals Tax Filing & Credit Receipt Formal filing of annual return, amendment etc. Receipt of credit. TaxTaker Customer Journey
TaxTaker Revenue Growth
TaxTaker Revenue Growth
TaxTaker Revenue Growth
TaxTaker Revenue Growth
Staying Disciplined Always weighing process vs. engineering Easy to overspend on bpth Easy to slip into “next feature” will get us to x. - build it they will come myth What can you automate …2x, 5x, 10x What can you afford to say yes to?
Taxtaker Revenue Growth 2007 2010 2013 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 Org Charts Technology Intelligence Added to App Exchange Intent by Category Ideal Customer Profile, ReachOut Extension Enrich Launch, RainKing Integrated Corporate Hierarchy, Intent by Topic Combined Platform, Form Complete, Workflows 2022 We got asked “what else” all the time How we kept one thing long enough to offer more than one thing Now in 2022 we offer R&D, ERC, launching Tax Credit lending, and have more lines slated.
Build a Company Machine (Org Health) Be intentional (remember vision) No egos Authenticity wins- people remember people not logos
Our team today:
6 keys to Competing In any industry Be strategically cheapBut share in the wealth Nurture your network At every stage Stay laser-focusedOn the one thing first When you can’t “build”what can you 2x, 10x instead? Be intentionalAnd deliberate about the customers you want Be authenticPeople connect with people not logos
Over the last 20 minutes: Know your customer I showed you How to build three machines to compete CUSTOMER MACHINE PRODUCT MACHINE COMPANY MACHINE Acquire customers cheaply Nurture your network Invest in process White-glove customer service wins Do one thing first Be intentional No egos Authenticity wins
September 2022 Ari Salafia CEO, Co-Founder of TaxTaker