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Why you need a partner program to grow your B2B SaaS

partner program to grow your B2B SaaS

In this webinar, the founder of Reditus, Joran Hofman, will speak with Christian Dina from Tekpon on why you need a partner program for your B2B SaaS.

SUMMARY KEYWORDS

affiliates, SaaS, people, B2B, clients, revenue, find, Netherlands, paying, network, founder, growing, marketplace, integrations,

https://youtu.be/gYwyaVFFnp4

Christian Dina  00:00

Hello, everyone; my name is Cristian, and welcome back to Tekpon. Today our guest is the founder of Reditus. Hello.

Joran Hofman  00:06

I appreciate it.

Intro to Reditus

Christian Dina  00:08

Very, very excited to finally have you on the podcast, please tell us what is Reditus?

Joran Hofman  00:13

Well, this is a b2b SaaS affiliate management platform. For people who don't know affiliate marketing, we help SaaS companies to grow by leveraging somebody else's network. And when they deliver you paying clients, you give them a kickback fee.

So, it's a revenue channel without high upfront costs and paid-for performance.

Which problem is Reditus solving?

Christian Dina  00:35

What is the problem that you're trying to solve?

Joran Hofman  00:38

Well, that's already the problem. I mean, advertising becomes more expensive. And people want to grow into different markets.

So what we do is we help them to find people who already have the network they're looking for, and then basically leverage those channels they have. So that could be bloggers, influencers, agencies or VCs.

Anybody who has the network they're looking for, we're going to help them to connect with them, and then make sure that everything's being tracked, whatever they are going to do for them. So if you're going to put any terms in here, we're going to help them to make sure that they keep a healthy LTV CAC ratio or a healthy payback period.

So not spending a lot of money front without knowing what the results will be.

Christian Dina  01:22

What are the top features of Reditus?

Joran Hofman  01:25

Okay, the top feature is we have a marketplace. So people can already check it out. You can go on to our site; you can see a marketplace. And the marketplace shows B2B SaaS affiliate programs. So like yourself, you have, of course, a huge following. So if you ever want to recommend a SaaS company, you can find out the programs you can join. And from there, you can see exactly how much you can earn, if you start referring Reditus to your network.

Reditus Pricing

Christian Dina  01:58

Okay, and then what is the pricing for this program?

Joran Hofman  02:02

Yeah, well, the pricing is good, I would say. I was head of CS, before I started my own company. So how we do things is we have a free plan, which is completely free, there's no catch. Basically, you have to invite your own network, if you want to be in a free plan. And then from there,  you can set your own affiliate program up. Like if you want to be in a marketplace, or you already hit 1k monthly recurring revenue generated by affiliates, then we'll ask you to upgrade and then our pricing starts at $39 per month.

How to get started with Reditus

Christian Dina  02:36

I have a lot of companies that are looking for an affiliate program and they're all asking, how long does it take to get started? So now I'm asking you, How long does it take to get started with Reditus?

Joran Hofman  02:45

To get started, technically 10 minutes, if you're not that tech savvy maybe 30. To get started technically is not that long, to really get started in drive revenue, that's a different topic, that will require time. The general rule of thumb here is that the more time you invest in it, the more you're going to get out of it. So if you're going to start with our free plan, it basically means you have to invite your own network, you have to invite your own affiliates, you can recruit affiliates from the competitor. And the more time you spend on that, the quicker you're gonna get results, basically.

Christian Dina  03:26

Yeah, so I have a lot of companies that want to get listed on our deals page (next to having a Tekpon review page), and I tell them, they have to have an affiliate program. And now I'll send them to Reditus and say it only takes 10 minutes, you have no excuse. 

Joran Hofman  03:38

Exactly, and for them, they can actually join multiple programs and see exactly how they're doing. Oh, sorry, you know, those are for affiliates. So, you're talking about SaaS companies, of course. They can quickly set things up. And then your advantages, you can quickly see how am I doing for reditus? How am I doing for SaaS company 2,3,4, etc. So you're going to be really happy as well.

Which Integrations does Reditus offer

Christian Dina  04:05

Can you share with us some of your integrations?

Joran Hofman  04:08

Yeah, the main integrations we have right now payment related. So we of course have to know who signed up for one of our clients and then who actually started paying them. So we integrate with Stripe and Federal at the moment. And the next integration we're going to build is with Zapier so basically making sure that you get the information where you want it without the use of  a developer.

Christian Dina  04:34

Yes. And can you show it as some successful use cases? So companies or affiliates that came to Reditus, and the results?

Joran Hofman  04:43

Okay. I can't really share any any numbers  or what we did for that customer but what I can say is I started full time with Reditus this February. So a little less than a year and from that point, we really started working on our sales and we have the free plan so people can set up an affiliate program without actually starting to pay us. And we now just had our first clients who reached the threshold of 1k monthly recurring revenue, and they have to upgrade to the paid package show. They invited their own network, they started generating money, and now they actually have to start paying us. But in the end, they're already earning more than $1,000 per month. So they don't care about that.

05:28

Yeah, yeah, it makes sense. And I guess this is a competitive market, how do you plan to differentiate it, you make it only for B2B SaaS, but any other ideas?

Why is Reditus better than its competitors?

Joran Hofman  05:39

Yeah, so we do indeed. Already we are really niche, we purely focus on B2B SaaS, which is really appreciated because on the other side, you would only find B2B SaaS affiliates. So it's really relevant. On the other side, I love data, and I trust a lot of people, but then again, I don't want to trust them that much, either.

So what we're going to do is we're going to make sure if you want to become an affiliate of one of our clients, that you are going to let us know that you own the website, tekpon.com, that you have the amount of traffic that you say you have, things like that.

So if we take that step, we can see, okay, well, what are the programs you've been joining? Could we recommend the programs you should be joining proactively? So at the moment, it's pretty reactive. And we want to make it in a way that we can let you know, hey, Christian, we now have a program we joined and it's probably relevant for you because you joined programs X,Y,Z. So, from there, everything is data related, we have a lot of data, so we know how much money a SaaS company is already generating.

Leveraging data

We can let you know what are the best programs to join. Like, who has the best conversion rate? What is the average revenue per account if you generate a client for one of these companies? So, providing both sides not just the SaaS companies, but also the affiliates?

The information they need to figure out. Okay, if I'm going to divert traffic to Reditus, are they going to convert into paying clients? And how much are they paying them? So what can I earn if I deliver Reditus paying clients?

How did you get your first marketplace traction?

Christian Dina  07:26

So being a marketplace, how did you solve the problem of gaining the first filleting the first companies? And how did you find your first customers?

Joran Hofman  07:36

Yeah, the typical chicken egg story. How we did it is with an AppSumo. So, AppSumo is basically selling your SaaS software against a one-time code. So it's basically killing your business model. But we only did it once. So basically, this is where we got our offering from, from SaaS companies.

SaaS companies purchased the code, and then they got their selves listed in the marketplace. And then from there, we had, I think, we started to recruit affiliates when we had around 25 companies in the marketplace. And then we decided to focus on recruiting affiliates.

But for us, affiliates come from the companies themselves plus us recruiting them in general. So the more SaaS companies we get, the more they invite their own network, and the bigger the pool on the other side becomes as well. So this kind of a growth model by itself already.

Is Affiliate Marketing Growing?

Christian Dina  08:32

But do you see affiliate marketing growing in the future? Or do you think it's already picked?

Joran Hofman  08:39

Oh, no, it's definitely growing. I mean, the SaaS industry is growing fast, right? I don't have the numbers on hand. But it's one industry, which is growing fast. And then affiliate marketing is growing fast as well. Especially on B2C, and we're putting it to B2B and specifically for for SaaS.

Reditus General Questions

Reditus Team

Christian Dina  08:57

Okay, and how big is your team right now?

Joran Hofman  09:00

Early, we're at five people. So two developers, myself a growth hacker, and then I have an advisor. We work full remote. So it means that I'm based in Utrecht, the Netherlands, my growth hacker is in Malaysia, two developers in Romania, and then my advisor is in Barcelona. And that's how I wanted to start the company. Independent on location, basically just hiring people for the qualities and not for where they are living at the moment.

Is Reditus raising funds?

Christian Dina  09:32

Yeah, that's awesome. And are you looking to raise any funds?

Joran Hofman  09:35

I mean, if somebody has a bag of money, then I might say yes, but at the moment, not actively. We had a small period where I tried to raise funds, but it just takes so much time and all of the investors are gonna ask what is your growth rate? What's your MRR etc, where it took me so much time to prepare all those slides and everything for the meeting that I decided this is probably not the best use of my time at the moment. So we're purely focusing on growing revenue. And then if something comes along, then we might do it. But at the moment, happily still bootstrapping.

Christian Dina  10:14

And is Reditus your first time being the founder.

Joran Hofman  10:19

I mean, for such a big project, yes. I used to have a pie business about 15 years ago. A lot of people knew about drop shipping. I did it with a pie business. It wasn't as successful as Reditus is at the moment. So I guess as a real founder of a SaaS company, then, yes.

Christian Dina 10:43

And what do you think was your biggest challenge in founding Reditus?

What was the biggest challenge in founding Reditus?

Joran Hofman  10:50

For me, it was the beginning part or sometimes thinking that you know, everything. I guess that's always been my challenge. Where I see a lot of things I want to do and just having the time or prioritizing things is always tricky. You can spend a lot of time on something. So that has been my biggest challenge. My background is in sales. So when the product was ready, it was straightforward for me to sell.

I built a product that was driving revenue for clients. So, the value prop was pretty straightforward. But there were many new things I'd never experienced before myself. So I used to work at a company that I joined when they were 18 people. I left when they were 130. So I met, or I know the growth from a particular MRR perspective, but not from the beginning part. So the absolute hustle phase.

Christian Dina 11:48

Okay, it makes sense. And what's your main vision for Reditus?

What is the Reditus vision?

Joran Hofman  11:54

Well, our main vision is just to help SaaS companies to grow. That's super simple, I guess, and then providing them with the information they need. So if a B2B SaaS company comes to us, and they're looking to expand in a specific region or are looking to find certain affiliates, our goal is to match them with them. But we are going to put the leverage on the affiliate side because otherwise they will get bombarded with a lot of companies requesting them to join.

Our vision is to give all the affiliates the information, they need to decide if they want to become an affiliate of a SaaS company, yes or no. And then when a SaaS company, of course, makes sure that they don't pay too much, or avoid any fraud.

SaaStock

Christian Dina  12:41

How was SaaStock for you?

Joran Hofman  12:44

SaaStock was fun. I mean, we met of course, that was fun.

Christian Dina  12:50

Yes, you also had a stand.

SaaStock Dublin Experience

Joran Hofman  12:52

Exactly. For us, that's an excellent way to talk to current clients, it's excellent way to talk to potential new clients. But purely for me, it's nice to also find people who are in the same phase as myself. I do struggle sometimes to find people who are doing the exact same thing here in the Netherlands or are in the same stage like bootstrapping, growing B2B SaaS companies.

It's hard to find sometimes and they're basically in the same boat as yourself. So that was nice. And especially with the drinks, with the dinners, then you hear the fun stories. So, the event was good for business. And the after events were really good for finding out about personal stories and successes and not-so-successes.

Christian Dina  13:48

And fun fact, we stayed at the same hotel, but only found out on the last day.

Joran Hofman  13:54

I mean, I was pleased with you guys. You made sure that were on time on the second day. Right, so thanks again.

SaaStock Founder Membership

Christian Dina  14:04

And you also joined as a member of SFM, right? I guess before SaaStock?

Joran Hofman  14:11

Yeah, so as a SaaStock founder membership. And that's kind of like what I mentioned just now it's that's the reason why I joined to find people who are trying to do the same thing as myself. So to grow a SaaS company. I do think there are a lot of bootstrappers in that group. I didn't have too many chats with them, but I shared knowledge without worrying about a stack where the information goes through. So, nice, like, I like to give, but it's also nice to sometimes receive information from somebody else.

Christian Dina  14:46

Yeah, that's important. And you also organize SaaStock local, right in Amsterdam?

SaaStock Local Amsterdam

Joran Hofman  14:51

Yeah, there's almost nothing SaaStock related that I'm not involved in. So SaaStock local Amsterdam is, for me a great way to do something back to the SaaStock environment in the Netherlands. So I do say, I can't find like minded people, but we do have them. But still finding, Bootstrap companies in the same phases myself is hard. But that's why I do help to organize the event to make sure like we stimulate that as much as we can. So not just complaining about things, but also making sure we're gonna try to fix things, I guess, as well. When was the first one? The first one was two months ago, I think. And the next one, with all the holidays coming up, we're probably planning it for February, again, to make sure that everybody is able to join because December is going to be a terrible month to do. January, probably as well with all the planning. So most likely, it's going to be the second or third week of February.

Christian Dina  15:58

And you already mentioned that you have a background in sales. But I'd love to hear your whole story, starting with your career. 

Background Joran Hofman

Joran Hofman  16:07

Yeah, from the beginning, when I was in high school, when I was doing my Bachelor's my English was really terrible. I think I got a five or something like that. So I decided I needed to do something about it. And the five out of 10 that's the system. So I decided to go to Australia do my internship there. So purely talking English, so things will improve.

After my internship in Australia, I went back to the Netherlands to do half a year of school there again, and I decided, well, I'm gonna go away again. So I went to the US did my fourth-year internship in Indianapolis, and when I returned to the Netherlands. I had no network whatsoever in the Netherlands because I was doing my internships abroad.

First Sales Job

I started working at a company called the Jaarbeurs, which is like a big exhibition center. And I just did cold calling for about one and a half years. So I had to do like 60 Call attempts per day, like 23 qualitative calls per day, which was talking for one and a half minutes or something like that. And then of course, your revenue goes at the end of the month. So that was my start.

And that's how I got a plate in front of my face. As we always say in Dutch, where it doesn't matter. Like if you need to sell anything, or you need to call somebody like if you do that amount of calls for X amount of period, you don't mind that anymore.

I can sustain with you. You're doing so many podcasts; you're not going to be nervous anymore about doing podcasts because you already did so many. When I thought I got what I wanted, I wanted to become an account manager when I got what I wanted. I was like, okay, what is this actually it? So, I mean, it was a traditional company. I think I did it for six months. And then I decided, well, this is not how I want to spend my life.

First Startup

So I went through startups did a couple in Amsterdam, which didn't have that much money, I worked for them. And then when I became a freelancer in sales, I found out about Leadfeeder, I used them in these consulting gigs I did to generate leads really love their tool, then back in the day, you still had a one-click apply button on LinkedIn.

I applied and a couple of video calls later I was in Helsinki, and that went pretty quickly. I joined them as employee number 18. So, basically, I took the Dutch market first, and we expanded I think to DACH, so I speak a little bit of German. But then, when I got a lot of clients, somebody had to take care of them in their native language. So I also started doing the CS part of it. When we had more clients, it was kind of in between Sales & CS. Okay, which road Do I go? I went to CS.

Customer Success Background

CS stands for customer success, basically making sure that the clients receive value-added products. And I mean, fast forward a little bit. I ended up being like the head of CS, leading a team of 25 people, which included the customer success managers worldwide, support, and consultancy which we still had at that point. Well, so basically making sure that the revenue stayed with us and ideally expanded by selling other services to them.

Christian Dina  19:40

And do you have any idea how many members they had at Leadfeeder when you left? 

Joran Hofman  19:47

when I left 130, I think they're now at 300, but they did a merger last year, so they came together with Echobot. So they are now combining two companies into one.

What is your favorite Software?

Christian Dina  20:06

Yeah, I usually ask people, what's their favorite software, but you have a lot of experience with the software. So I'll ask you for the top three.

Joran Hofman  20:18

Yeah, that's a good one. I mean, we use Notion ourselves a lot, internally and externally. So I built our help center in Notion. I think it's a great tool, I don't think you're going to hear any surprises. I love Loom just because it's straightforward to create a quick video without jumping with somebody on a call. And for my SaaS metrics, and I think people will love this is I use Founderpath; you know them as well. We don't actually get any money from them as in, we're not doing the revenue-based financing just yet. But I purely use it to check, what is your growth? What are the metrics, etc? So if we talk to an investor I don't have to make them up, go to Founderpath and I can show them exactly

Christian Dina  21:08

With the statistics and the other stuff?

Joran Hofman  21:11

Yeah, so even though if you're not looking for revenue-based financing, or you want to get a bit more insight into your metrics, I will recommend connecting your payment platform with them.

Advice for starting founders

Christian Dina  21:24

And I have one last question. What's your one piece of advice for starting founders?

Joran Hofman  21:31

Start. That's I guess, number one. And I would say get a mentor, get an advisor, get somebody who can help you. Maybe early stage, find people who can help you with specific things. It doesn't have to be expensive. Okay. Let me give an example.

I'm a mentor at Growthmentor. I think you pay $100 per month and you can book unlimited calls with mentors. And a mentor could be a growth mentor, it could be an ad specialist, it could be an affiliate specialist, it could be a CS specialist, basically anything you need, you can you can talk to someone, you can find somebody and talk to them.

I would recommend doing that if you're really trying to validate your company trying to do certain things, but you just don't have the knowledge. And a bit more later stage, I would probably find a mentor who can keep you accountable or an advisor who can do so because if you're bootstrapped, you don't have a VC keep asking you all these questions to ask about progress. So if your app was dropped like myself, it is nice to have somebody look after your company.

Christian Dina  22:46

Okay, that's awesome. Thank you very much for being here. And thank you very much for helping the community.

Joran Hofman  22:51

No worries. Thank you, Christian, for having me.

Joran Hofman
Meet the author
Joran Hofman
Back in 2020 I was an affiliate for 80+ SaaS tools and I was generating an average of 30k in organic visits each month with my site. Due to the issues I experienced with the current affiliate management software tools, it never resulted in the passive income I was hoping for. Many clunky affiliate management tools lost me probably more than $20,000+ in affiliate revenue. So I decided to build my own software with a high focus on the affiliates, as in the end, they generate more money for SaaS companies.
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