Welcome to the latest instalment of SaaSlife SPOTLIGHT, where we shine a light on innovative SaaS companies and their leaders. Today, we are thrilled to feature Bethany Stachenfeld, CEO and Co-Founder of Sendspark.
Bethany shared insights into her founder journey, the challenges of building a startup, and the exciting future of Sendspark.
Welcome to SaaSlife Spotlight
Dan: Hey there, welcome to the latest edition of SaaSlife Spotlight. It is my pleasure to welcome today's guest, Bethany Stachenfeld, CEO and Co-founder of Sendspark. How are you today, Bethany?
Bethany: I'm good, thanks for having me here.
The Journey of Building Sendspark
Dan: Thank you for joining us. For anybody listening, I imagine the past five years have been an absolute whirlwind building Sendspark. Can you give us a little bit of a sense of that journey?
Bethany: Yeah, definitely a whirlwind. There was a lot of time where things weren't working the way you expect. I was just thinking about this yesterday, my co-founder and I now see good results from our work, but it took us a while to get here. Early on, you work really hard and get no positive reinforcement. Customers ask for features, you build them, and then they want something else. That was a couple of years where we kept building without seeing much progress. Now, it's so motivating because we see immediate results. But there was a lot of grinding and headwind.
What is Sendspark?
Dan: I believe everyone should know who Sendspark is and what you do. But for those who don't, can you give a simple overview, as though you're speaking to a 10-year-old, of what you do and its benefits?
Bethany: Yeah. Sendspark is a video platform to create personalized videos at scale for potential or existing customers. My co-founder and I worked at another startup where I was in marketing, and he was in product design. We were trying to grow and connect with customers through personalized videos. People responded well, but making personalized videos was time-consuming and repetitive. You know what you're saying and what people's problems are, so you're basically recording the same thing again and again. Sometimes, you don't feel like being on camera. It just seemed like an obvious opportunity to create a tool for personalized video marketing. So, we started building Sendspark. Now, we work with marketing, sales, customer success teams, and even recruiting to send out personalized communication at scale.
Adapting Sendspark Based on Feedback
Dan: Looking at your five-year journey, have there been changes within the product based on feedback?
Bethany: Definitely. The big thing is the AI revolution over the last year. When we started, it was all about the thumbnail with text saying "hi, first name." The same video played for everyone. Now, with powerful and accessible AI tech, we can personalize much more. It's been really cool for us and our customers, who can now create personalized content at scale that we wouldn't have dreamed of five years ago.
Success Stories with Sendspark
Dan: Amazing. Do you have an example of a perfect user case with great results that you'd like to replicate?
Bethany: I just spoke with a customer who said he made $60,000 from Sendspark in the last two months. He signed up for a low version, and an AI personalized video went out, telling them about the highest tier, leading to upgrades. It's powerful because you know things about the person that make the video relevant. They can go from $1,000 to $5,000 with one automated video. There are many use cases like that where you have a trigger, some data, and can send an automated, personalized video.
Dan: Brilliant, that works.
Looking Ahead: The Future of Sendspark
Dan: Where do you see the company in 12 months in terms of product, company, and your growth journey?
Bethany: There's the AI revolution, which is great, and we're building that into our product. Another is the automation revolution with tools like Clay for automation and RBTP for identifying visitors. These tools open up powerful use cases for personalized content at the right time. We're leaning into that space, figuring out the best use cases and ways to implement them. No one likes the spray-and-pray approach. We want to be smarter and do personalization at scale, and we're on the cutting edge of that.
Sendspark's Current Team
Dan: How do you see the company changing in the next 12 months?
Bethany: I think we can do a lot with our current team. More people can complicate things. We've worked hard to find the best people for each position. Our team is strong, so maybe we'll add a couple of roles. I'd love an operations person. I don't think we'll be a massive company, but we could have massive impact, revenue, and scale with a core team of awesome people, great software, and contractors for specific tasks. We aim to stay lean, collaborative, and high-performing.
Personal Growth as a Leader
Dan: In terms of personal growth, where would you like to see yourself as a leader in the next 12 months?
Bethany: I have a lot to learn. I think about how to unlock success within my employees. The best leaders hire good people and enable them to thrive. I'm learning to make my team feel empowered to build, change processes, and be their best. I also want to facilitate better communication. These are the two things I'm focusing on: building team collaboration and making sure everyone thrives.
Challenges in Customer Adoption
Dan: What have been the main challenges in customer adoption?
Bethany: We've been experimenting a lot. I'm a marketer, and I used to focus on free-to-paid conversion rates. About a month ago, I thought, why focus on free users with all the noise? Let's focus on paid users and work backward. We cut off the free plan to focus on real customers, and it's been refreshing. Free users often sign up before they're ready and don't activate. Now, we're ensuring every paid user is successful. We aim for 100% activation because they paid for it. We're focusing on pricing, the buyer journey, and scaling it. It always comes back to what paid customers want and then adding growth levers.
Dan: I imagine the feedback from paid customers is more comprehensive because they've already paid. You want to ensure they make the most of the platform.
Bethany: For sure. You don't know what went wrong with free users, but with paid users, even if they cancel, they'll tell you why. We haven't had cancellations since we made this change. It makes sense to learn from paid customers. Looking back, I wouldn't have had a free plan until we were really ready.
The Culture at Sendspark
Dan: How would you describe the culture at Sendspark?
Bethany: It's funny to describe culture. We're just Sendspark. I really like our team. We're remote but do off-sites every six months or at least yearly to build trust. I think everyone on the team likes and respects each other, and that's important. We also care deeply about our customers. Our team is active on LinkedIn because that's where our customers are. We work hard, and I tell interviewees that working at an early-stage startup is chaos. If you don't like chaos, this isn't the place for you. It's fun for the right people.
Advice for Aspiring SaaS Founders
Dan: What advice would you give to someone starting their journey as a SaaS founder?
Bethany: Choose your team well. You'll spend a lot of time with them. Your co-founder is like a marriage partner. Trust and motivate each other. I've seen companies fail due to co-founder conflict. I'm lucky to have an amazing co-founder. Also, choose your customers well. You'll troubleshoot with them, so work with people you enjoy. Enjoy the ride and celebrate wins. Keep going and enjoy the journey.
Dan: That's it for today. Thank you for your time, and I look forward to seeing amazing things from Sendspark.
Bethany: Thanks for the interview.
Dan: Thank you.
Conclusion
Bethany Stachenfeld's journey with Sendspark exemplifies how resilience and innovative thinking can transform startup challenges into triumphs.
With a keen focus on AI-driven personalization and strategic customer engagement, Sendspark is poised for significant growth, promising to revolutionize how businesses connect with their audiences.
To listen to the full interview - please check it out! *Coming Soon*
Stay tuned for more insights from SaaSlife SPOTLIGHT as we continue to shine a light on the brightest stars in the industry.