iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

mariano martene 🧉 @marianomartene.com · 11/03/2025

i just added a #buildinpublic section to my newsletter SaaS-HQ.com at the end of each issue, i’ll share: ➝ key metrics from the previous edition ➝ a 3-bullet update on what i’m working on the newsletter is all about growing SaaS, so tracking its own growth just makes sense.

030

mariano martene 🧉 @marianomartene.com · 11/02/2025

We put pricing on our landing page from day one. Smart move or mistake? Early on, we priced at ~$150 to land our first customers. Later, we 10x’d it for a high-value offer. ✅ Qualifies leads ✅ Allows PLG ❌ Scares off leads ❌ Prevents talking Do you publish pricing upfront? #saas #buildinpublic

5110

mariano martene 🧉 @marianomartene.com · 07/02/2025

We’ve sent 1,037 emails to validate our product, here is what we learned: 1️⃣ Open Rates: From 28% → 48% → 75% At first, our emails had lame results. By tweaking the subject line, we pushed it to 48%… then 75%. #saas #buildinpublic #growth (1/3)

A dark-themed dashboard showing email campaign performance data. The title reads “My Email campaigns.” The dashboard includes filters for status and email type, as well as a search bar. Below, three campaigns are listed:
1. Paused campaign created on January 16, 2025, sent 225 emails, with 28% openings and 0% replies.
2. Running campaign created on January 20, 2025, sent 777 emails, with 44.02% openings and 2.98% replies.
3. Finished campaign created on January 29, 2025, sent 35 emails, with 70.59% openings and 0% replies.

340

mariano martene 🧉 @marianomartene.com · 12/12/2024

Sell first, build later - no waitlist - no landing page - no MVP With nothing but a mockup, email, and a call, we offered our solution 1/10 cheaper, but 𝗶𝗻𝘀𝗶𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗱 on payment. Emails Sent: 71 Replies: 13 Sales: $347 Real validation? Getting paid. #buildinpublic #indiehackers #saas

Stripe screenshot displaying a financial report titled “Reports overview” against an orange background. It features a “4W” view selected in blue, showcasing a graph of “Gross volume” which details earnings of €322.62 from 15 Nov to today, with notable spikes in transactions. The graph reflects a 100% growth from €0.00, indicating successful early sales following a strategy of selling before building. This highlights the real-time financial validation of new strategies, emphasizing the practical outcomes of early customer payments.

11311

mariano martene 🧉 @marianomartene.com · 10/12/2024

go to SC > Indexing > Pages. Your pages are indexed via your sitemap. (you can also submit manually). You want to make sure your content pages are in status "indexed". If not, they will never rank. You can start with small batches and see the speed of success indexing and errors.

120

mariano martene 🧉 @marianomartene.com · 05/12/2024

Distribution > Product A great product without a distribution system is a waste. Slack is great, but Microsoft Teams won by leveraging their ecosystem. Great founders focus on both: building a great product and a system to distribute it. This chart is your reminder. #SaaS #BuildInPublic

Microsoft Teams users growth versus Slack

240

mariano martene 🧉 @marianomartene.com · 03/12/2024

Here is example in hospitality: write a bit about it at: marianomartene.com/the-big-shif...

000

mariano martene 🧉 @marianomartene.com · 02/12/2024

2/ Growth is happening in waves 🌊 🇧🇷 Aug ’24 → X banned in Brazil → +4M users 🇺🇸 Nov ’24 → US elections → +8M users These -𝗯𝗹𝗮𝗰𝗸𝘀𝘄𝗮𝗻- events were impossible to predict. Yet Bluesky keeps winning. Why? They’ve been quietly building, ready for moments like these.

000

mariano martene 🧉 @marianomartene.com · 28/11/2024

idealista feels kind of right. I would say similar to lisbon

010

mariano martene 🧉 @marianomartene.com · 22/11/2024

Google’s top SEO strategy is now… reddit?! Here is my conspiracy theory: #saas #reddit #growth

641

mariano martene 🧉 @marianomartene.com · 20/11/2024

Newsletters market is on fire 🔥 And each platform has a #growth story to tell: 1/4🧵

310