From Zero to $10M ARR: Meet Helply’s New Growth Marketer (+ breaking down the only 5 team members you need to scale a SaaS to $10M ARR)

Welcome back to issue #8 of the Zero to $10M ARR newsletter. It's an exciting week at Helply. We've officially hired our Growth Marketer. Please meet Tom Morkes! You will all be getting to know Tom quite well. This is our first major outside hire and a mission critical step toward taking Helply from Zero to $10M ARR in three years. Over the next 2 weeks I'll be focusing on onboarding Tom, and as we hit September this newsletter will become all about the brass tacks... We are literally going to be reporting every strategy, experiment, test, win, setback, pivot and the real time results directly from the trenches of building Helply. All I can say is buckle your seatbelts. My goal is to make this the most valuable and educational newsletter in the world for SaaS founders. So, without further ado. Here is what we have on the docket for today's newsletter: - Introducing Tom Morkes and his background - What roles a Growth Marketer should fulfill in a B2B SaaS startup - Breaking down the only 5 essential team members you need to scale a new B2B SaaS to $5M ARR - How employees and founders can think about company culture and rising through the ranks of an org (with some tried and true strategies for employees and managers looking to rise through the ranks in their current orgs) ​ Alright! Let's dive in... Meet Tom Morkes Firth things first, who is Tom Morkes (and why is he the right person for the job)? Well, he is a West Point grad, Iraq war veteran, founder and CEO of Insurgent Publishing, and author of [The Art of Instigating,]() [The Complete Guide to Pay What You Want Pricing](=) and [Collaborate](. He also hosts a podcast called [In The Trenches](), where he interview modern marketers, entrepreneurs, writers, creators, inventors and leaders, including Dr. Jordan Peterson, Seth Godin, and John Jantsch among many others. Basically, Tom is a powerhouse. And he lives the founder led, in the trenches (no pun intended) approach to marketing I scream about from the hilltops. Tom has been described as a “Launch Architect” and has helped hundreds of brands and businesses grow their traffic, leads, and sales over the last 10 years. Some of the projects he’s worked on include: - A record-setting Kickstarter campaign that grossed $453k in 33 days - Book launches that have landed authors on the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and USA Today bestseller lists - Dozens of product launches that have generated a full year of revenue in less than 30 days - Helped power high-profile influencers like Neil Patel and fast-growth startups like Teachable. ​ In short, Tom delivers results and I’m beyond excited to welcome him onto the team. Bonus content: Here is an article where Tom breaks down the strategy that got Jeff Goins’ book “The Art of Work” onto the USA Today bestseller list. This is a masterclass on in the trenches, scrappy marketing at it’s finest ([here’s the article](=)). You’ll want to bookmark this one. So, what will Tom specifically be spearheading at Helply (and what should a Growth Marketer be responsible for at a new B2B SaaS)? - Lead Intent-Based Selling Efforts: - Develop and execute strategies to track and analyze intent signals. - Identify high-potential leads based on their interactions with our website and content. - Drive De-Anonymization: - Utilize our advanced tools to de-anonymize website visitors. - Match anonymous visitors with their LinkedIn profiles and business emails for precise targeting. - Ensure our sales reps get timely, actionable lead information via Slack or other channels. - Design Multichannel Campaigns: - Create and manage hyper-personalized, automated multichannel campaigns. (RevOps) - Engage leads across multiple platforms to ensure consistent and comprehensive outreach. - Build a Founder-Brand Driven Strategy: - Work with me to strengthen my founder brand. (Founder-Led Marketing) - Develop content strategies that attract and engage inbound traffic. - Seamlessly integrate inbound interest with outbound efforts to create a cohesive growth loop. The only 5 essential team members you need to reach $5M ARR as a B2B SaaS I believe a bootstrapped SaaS startup only needs 5 essential team members to reach $1M ARR in year 1. Those 5 team members are: 1x Versatile designer who can quickly create prototypes in Figma, design marketing sites, and build the app’s front end. 2x Senior full-stack developers who can execute end-to-end, own product specs, and iterate rapidly based on customer feedback. The name of the game here is speed. Learn, iterate, improve. 1x Involved founder who is personally engaging with customers, closing initial deals, and gathering early product feedback. 1x Growth marketer who excels in demand generation, content creation, and strategic scaling to drive significant results. This is how we did at Groove, and how we are doing it today at Helpy. To date, I’ve sourced Helply’s designer and developers directly from the Groove team. Simple enough. And now, Tom fills out this team as the Growth Marketer. Onward! Now the fun begins :) A tried and true playbook for rising through the ranks in an organization Want to level up and raise through the ranks in your org? There’s a playbook and it’s tried and true. As a CEO and founder, here is my advice to anyone (founders included), who want to understand the fundamentals of modern company culture and how to navigate it. It includes 3 phases and some set in stone tactics for each phase. Here they are: p.s This is not for the cynical. This is no-nonsense advice for people who are actually interested in understanding dynamics within an org. So, for those interested in learning more about the reality of culture within orgs, let’s dive in :) Developmental Phase: You’re a new hire and ready to prove yourself. Your main job? Managing up. How do you do this? -Keep your manager informed. -Meet (or exceed) expectations. -Ensure your results are visible. It’s about more than doing the work. You need to make sure your manager knows you’re reliable and capable. The better you manage this, the faster you’ll progress. Operational Phase: Congratulations, you’ve been promoted, you’re now managing others. But, you still need to manage up. Your success is now determined by the output of your team. This means you now have 2 roles: To read the read the rest of this TL;DR guide, head on over to [today’s LinkedIn post]() where I break down phases 2 and 3, and how to progress through them. Would love to hear your thoughts in the comments. Alright, that does it for issue #8 of the Zero to $10M ARR newsletter! Things are really about to pick up around here as we enter the growth phase at Helply. Can't wait to share everything with you all. See you next week! Alex CEO & Founder, [Groove](=) & [Helply]()​ P.S. 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