EP37: Why SaaS founders shouldn’t accept growth problems as unsolvable
Most SaaS companies hit growth plateaus, and too many founders assume the problem is either unsolvable or too complex to fix. In reality, that’s rarely true.
In this episode of In Demand, Asia and Kim unpack how to shift your mindset from “This can’t be solved” to “Who’s already solved this, and how can I learn from them?”
The “Unsolvable Problem” mindset
As growth consultants for SaaS companies, we’ve noticed a concerning pattern with founders—particularly bootstrapped ones. When facing challenges like poor activation or retention rates, there’s often an underlying assumption that these problems are simply “unsolvable mysteries” that everyone struggles with.
This mindset manifests in a few ways:
- “All my founder friends struggle with this too, so it must be normal”
- “We know it’s a problem, but we have no idea how to fix it”
- “It’s easier to focus elsewhere than tackle this complex issue”
This passive acceptance is particularly common among technical founders who are more comfortable with product and engineering challenges than growth, marketing, or sales problems.
The Reality: Someone has already solved your problem
Here’s the reality we want every founder to understand: It doesn’t matter what challenge you’re facing in your business—someone else has already figured it out and absolutely crushed it.
Whether you’re struggling with:
- Activation rates
- Customer retention
- Revenue expansion
- Pricing optimization
- User acquisition
- Product experience issues
Someone has not only solved this problem but has developed frameworks, methodologies, and processes to handle it systematically.
Why knowledge isn’t being transferred
Why do founders feel like they’re reinventing the wheel? As Hiten Shah once noted during the pandemic years, “As a sector, we’ve lost so much progress because there’s a lot of business knowledge and founder knowledge that didn’t get preserved well enough and distributed well enough.”
The tech sector has seen a significant influx of new founders who may not realize there’s a vast library of existing knowledge on building successful businesses. Even newer concepts like Product-Led Growth (PLG) have been practiced for decades—we just didn’t have terminology for them until recently.
How to find solutions
Where should you look for solutions? Here are the resources we recommend:
1. Books
Books are well-packaged knowledge tomes, especially valuable for busy executives who don’t have time for courses. They’re often our starting point.
2. Expert Content
Look for consultants and specialists who publicly share their expertise. For example, Asia learned activation fundamentals from Samuel Hulick and Ramli John through their books and websites.
3. Courses
While not ideal for every founder, courses can provide structured learning for those who enjoy the format.
Understanding concepts versus having expertise
It’s important to distinguish between understanding a concept and having expertise. You may read about Jobs-to-be-Done theory, but actually implementing it effectively requires practical experience.
For founders, the goal isn’t necessarily to become an expert but to:
- Learn enough to know the problem is solvable
- Understand key concepts and trade-offs
- Either apply solutions yourself or hire someone who can implement them effectively
A framework for prioritizing solutions: CUES
Once you understand that your problems are solvable, how do you prioritize what to work on? Asia recommends the CUES framework instead of the common ICE (Impact, Confidence, Ease) approach.
CUES stands for:
- Confidence: How confident are you that this will make a meaningful difference?
- Understanding: How well do you understand what you’re trying to do?
- Ease: How difficult will this be to implement?
- Speed: How quickly can you get this done?
The Understanding component is particularly valuable because it forces you to confront knowledge gaps before diving into implementation. If your understanding is low, that’s a signal to learn more before proceeding.
Case study: Solving pricing problems
One client we worked with had experienced flat growth for two years. By examining their Net Revenue Retention (NRR) data—a critical metric showing how much revenue is retained from cohorts over time—we discovered significant drops in months following pricing changes.
The company didn’t initially realize pricing was their core issue. After implementing a new pricing strategy based on a “good, better, best” model aligned with customer segments, they experienced positive growth for the first time in years.
This highlights an important point: pricing may seem mysterious, but it’s rooted in commerce fundamentals that have existed for centuries. The principles aren’t new, even if the SaaS implementation has unique aspects.
Key metric to watch: NRR
For SaaS businesses, Net Revenue Retention (NRR) is one of the most critical health indicators. It shows what percentage of revenue from a customer cohort remains after a specific period (typically 12 months).
- Healthy NRR: 80-100%+ at 12 months
- Below 80%: You need to replace that percentage of revenue annually just to stay flat
- Ideal NRR: 100-120%+ (indicating both retention and expansion)
By segmenting NRR by plans or customer types, you can identify which customers are most valuable for sustainable growth.
Remember: Growth is compoundable, not a silver bullet
There’s rarely one single problem holding back your growth. Instead, several interrelated factors compound together—from targeting the right customers to product experience to monetization strategy.
The key is acknowledging that each element is solvable, then systematically addressing the highest-leverage points first.
Conclusion
The next time you face a seemingly “unsolvable” growth problem, remember:
- Someone else has already solved this exact challenge
- Resources and experts exist to help you understand the solution
- You need to be committed to making changes (which is often the hardest part)
- Use frameworks like CUES to prioritize your approach
Don’t accept flat growth or poor metrics as inevitable. With the right approach, every growth challenge is ‘figureoutable’. If you’re experiencing growth problems in your SaaS business, contact us for a free 45-minute growth audit today.