Zero to $10M ARR: Reflections on Helply’s first month being live + My 9 Step SEO Playbook (exactly what I would do if I needed SEO results in 60 days)

Zero to $10M ARR October 9th, 2024 Reflections on Helply’s first month being live + My 9 Step SEO Playbook ↓ ​ Welcome back to issue #15 of the Zero to $10M ARR Newsletter. Here's what we have on the docket for today: - Ep. 2 of the Alex and Tom Show: Helply is officially 1 month old! We’re recapping what we’ve learned and the results from Helplys first month being live (check out the [whole episode here](=) and let us know what you thought by leaving a comment on [today’s LinkedIn post](=)). - My 9 Step SEO Playbook—exactly what I'd do if I needed SEO results in 60 days (even if you’ve never done SEO before) - Why Vertical LLM Agents Are The New $1 Billion SaaS Opportunities according to Garry Tan (CEO, Y Combinator) ​ Alex and Tom Show Ep.2: Reflections on Helply’s first month being live --------------------------------------------------------------- In this second episode of the Alex and Tom show, we’re diving into Helply’s outbound strategy, rapid prototyping wins, and Knowledge Bridge—the core feature that’s shaping the future of Helply and Groove. Check out the full episode [here](=). Here's a full overview of what we cover: - Outbound strategy isn’t dead, it’s about the offer: - Launched a unique outbound campaign offering free knowledge base optimization - Early results show promising conversations and demos scheduled - Providing value upfront changes the game in outbound marketing - Rapid prototyping leads to unexpected wins: - Accidental demo of Helply’s AI agent during a Groove demo - Six successful demos in a week, all leading to next steps - Real-time training of AI agents with customer data during demos - Reactions from potential customers - Knowledge Bridge: The missing piece in AI customer service: - Analyzes support tickets to find gaps in knowledge bases - Became a standout feature during demos - Potential standalone product, but works best integrated with Helply - Solving the “unknown unknowns” problem for businesses - The power of moving fast in early-stage startups: - Demos and features launched weeks ahead of schedule - Rapid iteration based on real customer feedback - Importance of being flexible and responsive to market needs - Building a sales pipeline on the fly: - Creating a structured approach to handle incoming leads - Setting up a new CRM system to manage the flow - Organizing leads into buckets for targeted follow-ups - The “Our Journey” page: - Chronicling the Helply story in near real-time - Transparency as a marketing and trust-building tool - Set to launch in the coming week - Reflections on Helply’s first month being live: - Excitement about the rapid progress and market validation - The thrill of building something new and seeing immediate results - Importance of having fun while tackling challenges - Next steps and priorities: - Optimizing the sales funnel and lead management - Continuing to refine the outbound strategy - Preparing for the public release of the “Our Journey” page One of my favorite moments from this week's show? How an accidental Demo turned into a Helply customer "Had our first *unintended demo of Helply last Thursday.* Classic startup moment. We’d slapped the Helply widget on an internal demo page and forgot to take it down. Tony Gass is on a call (for Groove, no less), and boom—there’s our Helply AI widget, ready to chat. Instead of panicking, Tony rolls with it. He uses the widget right there on the spot. What happened next? The client loved it. Said it was exactly what they were looking for 😅. This was Helply in the wild, no safety net. And it worked. Lesson learned: sometimes your best feature is the one you didn’t plan to show. Maybe we should “accidentally” leave that widget up more often on Groove demos…"​ ​ My 9 Step SEO Playbook—exactly what I would do if I need SEO to results in 60 (even if you’ve never done SEO before) --------------------------------------------------------------- 1. Website Audit (Lay the foundation) Start by crawling your website using Screaming Frog. Connect it with data from Google Analytics (GA) and Google Search Console (GSC) for a complete picture. Steps: - Crawl your site using Screaming Frog - Combine this data with GA and GSC insights - Assign action items to each URL based on the findings Pro tip: This gives you a clear roadmap for fixing issues and optimizing your site right from the start. --------------------------------------------------------------- 2. Customer Research (Unlock insights for conversion-focused content) To understand your customers deeply, you need to ask the right questions. Survey and interview them to uncover key pain points and motivations. Questions to ask: - What problems did you have before using our product? - How does our product solve those problems? - What features did you buy for, and what do you actually use? - What other solutions did you consider, and why did you choose us? Pro tip: These insights help you target your customers’ pain points and guide them through the buying journey more effectively. --------------------------------------------------------------- 3. Topic Research (Find the right keywords to own your market) Start by exporting your competitors’ keywords. Then expand on this data by researching seed keywords. The goal is to define your Total Addressable Search Market (TASM)—the total number of relevant keywords you could rank for. Steps: - Export your competitors’ keyword data - Use seed keywords to do additional research - Identify your Total Addressable Search Market (TASM) Pro tip: This gives you a clear vision of where your biggest keyword opportunities lie. --------------------------------------------------------------- 4. Content Plan (Map out what to create and optimize) Use the findings from your audit and research to build your content roadmap. This should cover both new content creation and optimizing existing content. Steps: - Prioritize topics based on potential conversions, not just traffic - Create a roadmap that includes both new pages and optimized content - Use the Content Growth Pyramid to focus on content that drives conversions Pro tip: Prioritize content that targets your audience’s pain points, as this will lead to faster, more impactful results. --------------------------------------------------------------- 5. Technical Fixes (Get it right in 1 week) After completing your SEO audit, prioritize fixing all technical issues as quickly as possible. These are often “one-and-done” tasks that can have a significant impact on your site’s performance. Tasks to complete: - Noindex unnecessary pages - Fix canonical tags - Create and submit your sitemaps - 301 redirect any 404 error pages Pro tip: Aim to complete these within one week. Getting this done early means your SEO efforts start on the right foundation. --------------------------------------------------------------- 6. Optimize Existing Content (Faster results) Before diving into new content, focus on improving what’s already live. Updating pages can deliver results in weeks versus months for new content. Key steps: - Align content with search intent - Update and optimize headings - Add new sections or content to fill gaps - Incorporate conversion elements (CTAs, lead magnets) Pro tip: Prioritizing optimization gives you faster returns while improving your site’s overall relevance. --------------------------------------------------------------- 7. Repurpose Existing Content (Work smarter, not harder) Got content on other platforms (social media posts, newsletters, videos, podcasts)? Repurpose them into blog posts instead of starting from scratch. Steps: - Review past LinkedIn posts, emails, videos, and podcasts - Identify content that can be adapted into blog posts - Format, expand, and optimize for SEO Pro tip: If you’ve got nothing to repurpose, skip to the next step and start fresh. But always check first! --------------------------------------------------------------- 8. Create New Content (Target lower-funnel opportunities) Now’s the time to create brand new, lower-funnel content aimed at conversions. These pages often have higher conversion rates (3-15%). Types of pages to create: - Competitor alternatives - Product comparisons - Competitor vs. product pages - Pain-point focused ‘how to’ guides Pro tip: If using AI to create content, always have a human editor to fine-tune, provide unique insights, and improve conversion. --------------------------------------------------------------- 9. Programmatic Content (Scale up efficiently) For upper-funnel content, use tools like Byword to generate high-volume, programmatic content based on keyword frameworks with many variations. Example frameworks: - “Business Name Ideas” (Marketing, SaaS, Pet, etc.) - “How to Start a [Niche] Business” - “Best Tools for [Industry]” Pro tip: Input your frameworks and generate hundreds of pages to quickly build out your content library. --------------------------------------------------------------- 10. Repeat the above steps month over month and achieve ‘Scale’ And show your hockey stick growth chart to your family and stakeholders. TL;DR Breakdown: - Fix Technical Issues: Noindex pages, fix tags, create sitemaps, 301 redirects. Complete in 1 week. - Optimize Current Content: Update headings, match intent, add sections and CTAs. Results in weeks, not months. - Repurpose Content: Turn social posts, emails, and videos into blog posts before creating new content. - Create Lower-Funnel Content: Build high-converting pages like competitor alternatives and product comparisons. Focused solely on bottom of funnel keywords - Programmatic Content: Use frameworks to quickly scale content for top-of-funnel visibility with tools like Byword. - Website Audit: Crawl your site, connect data from GA/GSC, and assign action items. - Customer Research: Survey customers to find out their pain points, motivations, and why they chose your product. - Topic Research: Analyze competitors’ keywords and expand with seed keywords to build your Total Addressable Search Market (TASM). - Content Plan: Prioritize both new content and optimization efforts with a focus on conversions, not just traffic. - Execute & Optimize: Fix technical issues and optimize existing content for quick wins. BONUS How to structure an SEO blog post courtesy of BoringMarketing.com [Image] ​ Why Vertical LLM Agents Are The New $1 Billion SaaS Opportunities The Y Combinator Youtube Channel uploaded an hour long interview with Jake Heller, the co-founder and CEO of Casetext (sold to Thomson Reuters for $650 million in cash in 2023). And according to Garry Tan (CEO, Y Combinator) and Jake, LLM agents are the new $1B SaaS opportunity. As the founder of an AI Agent company, you can I imagine I was interested in hearing what they had to say. In short, this interview was packed with value. If you are building anything that has to do with LLMs or just interested in seeing how the future is taking shape faster than any of us could have thought, it’s a must watch. But, if you don’t have the time I went ahead an shared my notes below. For those of you short on time today, here’s the tl;dr of the tl;dr (longer form notes are below): - Vertical uses of LLMs are here today and exceeding expectations - The more mundane tasks of 6-figure jobs like engineering, legal, and entire CX teams are being automated - 100% reliability will be the standard, if it’s not working for you simplify and refine down the prompts - Treat your prompting like you would you would treat project mgmt for engineering: write evals, iterate and improve, keep change logs etc - If you are building anything that has to do with LLMs, this video had tons of insights. Also, check out the hour long video on Y Combinators Youtube page, it’s their most recent long form video). My long form notes for a deeper Tl;dr: 1. Building a Successful Vertical AI Company - Casetext was one of the first to adopt GPT-4, shifting its entire company focus in 48 hours. This rapid pivot, driven by AI’s transformative capabilities, led to their success in the legal tech space. - Jake Heller’s company, Casetext, successfully leveraged AI to revolutionize legal research, leading to a massive acquisition. - Heller had early access to GPT-4 and saw the potential before its public release, allowing his company to pivot quickly and gain a competitive edge. - The decision to shift the entire company’s focus in just 48 hours exemplifies how bold, rapid decisions can lead to massive rewards when seizing a unique opportunity. 2. The Unique Challenges of Law and AI - Lawyers are resistant to incremental improvements, as they fear disrupting their workflow. However, the substantial shift brought by AI, particularly GPT, forced the legal market to pay attention. - The legal industry is slow to adopt new technology due to its complexity and risk aversion. - Lawyers historically relied on outdated, inefficient tools like stacks of documents and physical books, making them hesitant to embrace new tech. - Early attempts to innovate in legal tech failed because many lawyers bill by the hour and did not see the value in contributing to platforms like user-generated content. 3. The Turning Point for Lawyers with ChatGPT - Lawyers, initially resistant, saw AI’s potential to change their work substantially. This marked a shift in their openness to adopting AI solutions, creating new opportunities for AI-driven legal tools. - The introduction of ChatGPT made lawyers realize the profound impact AI could have on their profession. - Lawyers began to call Casetext, realizing the potential of AI to transform their workflow after initially resisting smaller changes. - The ability of GPT models to dramatically speed up tasks like document review shifted the perception of AI from a novelty to an essential tool in legal work. 4. Finding Product Market Fit in Legal - Achieving product-market fit in legal AI took years of trial and error, but GPT-4 was the catalyst for true success. - Early iterations of Casetext failed because they relied on user-generated content from busy, billable-hour-driven lawyers, highlighting the challenge of building in legal tech. - The launch of CoCounsel, their AI-powered legal assistant, created a product that not only solved real problems but was adopted widely, validating the product-market fit they had been seeking for years. 5. Entering Deep Founder Mode - Heller led by example, building the first version of their AI tool himself. Despite initial skepticism from employees and stakeholders, early customer feedback validated the decision and shifted internal support. - When GPT-4’s potential became clear, Heller had to convince his entire company to pivot fully into AI. - Convincing employees and even board members, some of whom were initially skeptical, required significant effort, but Heller’s hands-on leadership made the difference. - Early customer reactions to the product were instrumental in winning over the internal team, as seeing clients’ transformative reactions helped build trust in the pivot. 6. Approaching Prompt Engineering Step by Step - Casetext built their AI assistant by breaking complex legal tasks into smaller, manageable steps (prompts), each rigorously tested. This method ensured accuracy, making the AI suitable for critical legal tasks. - Effective use of GPT requires a methodical, step-by-step approach to prompt engineering. - They reverse-engineered legal workflows, breaking them down into a series of individual prompts, each mimicking the steps a top attorney would take in solving a problem. - The process was driven by rigorous testing. They built thousands of tests for each stage of the legal research process, ensuring the AI delivered accurate results every time. 7. Going Beyond GPT Wrappers - Casetext’s success was built on layers of custom-built integrations, proprietary datasets, and specialized document handling systems. This made their AI tool far more than just a GPT wrapper, transforming it into a full-fledged application. - True innovation in AI requires going beyond simple GPT integration. - Casetext created custom integrations with proprietary legal datasets and document management systems, making their solution highly specialized for legal use. - The team had to solve complex document handling challenges (like skewed or handwritten documents) before even reaching the AI model, showing the depth of their technological solutions beyond GPT. 8. Aiming for 100% Accuracy - Through rigorous testing and prompt engineering, Casetext was able to reach levels of accuracy that lawyers could trust. This approach is essential in mission-critical industries like law, where AI’s early mistakes could erode trust. - Achieving near-perfect accuracy was essential for legal AI, where mistakes have high consequences. - Their approach to test-driven development, typically used in software engineering, was crucial for achieving a level of accuracy that met legal industry standards. - The team learned that passing a set of rigorous tests virtually guaranteed accuracy across a wide range of real-world scenarios, which built trust with their clients. 9. Thoughts on O1’s Capabilities - O1’s ability to handle complex tasks with high precision, such as identifying subtle legal errors, indicates a new level of AI intelligence. It represents a shift toward AI performing higher-level executive functions and thinking processes. - GPT-4.5 (O1) represents a major leap in AI capabilities, especially in areas requiring detailed thinking and reasoning. - O1 performed well on complex tests that required precision, such as identifying small but critical legal misquotes, demonstrating its ability to handle high-stakes tasks. - The AI’s ability to “think” more slowly and carefully, rather than just provide fast, surface-level answers, makes it suitable for tasks that require executive-level decision-making. Alright, that does it for issue #15 of the Zero to $10M ARR Newsletter! Let us know what you thought by leaving a comment on [today’s LinkedIn post](=). See you next week! Alex CEO & Founder, [Groove]() & [Helply](=)​ P.S. I’ll also be posting on LinkedIn seven days a week, 365 days a year. I’d love to hear your feedback on the new newsletter in the comments of my latest post. 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