SaasRise Mastermind Recap - September 30, 2026

🔍 Topic: Website Rebrand & Traffic Drop

Challenges:

• A major rebrand launched ~2 months ago caused a significant drop across all metrics — impressions down ~66%, clicks down ~48%, and near-zero conversions.
• Root causes identified include: missing 301 redirects for old blog content, a broken main menu on every page, six solution pages invisible to Google (pointing to a Webflow staging URL), only 10 pages in the sitemap, and multiple 404 errors.
• The website was launched prematurely without blogs/solutions pages, which are expected to take up to 3 more months.
• A Cloudflare/Meta in-app browser conflict was also found to affect ~39% of users.

Advice:

• Immediately redirect the old blog subdomain to the homepage as a patch.
• Fix 301 redirects, repair broken menu links, and update the sitemap.
• Consider replacing the current agency with a dedicated Webflow expert who could resolve issues faster.
• Be transparent with investors about the cause and timeline of recovery, and plan for 6+ months of steady growth post-fix before pursuing a Series A.

🎯 Topic: ABM Campaign & LinkedIn/Meta Advertising

Challenges:

• LinkedIn advertising has been expensive with low ROI.
• The ad manager was running boosted posts instead of the correct "thought leader ads."
• Outbound sequences from the prior quarter were poorly executed.
• Concern about European accents affecting US outbound sales effectiveness.

Advice:

• Switch to LinkedIn thought leader ads (~$50/day for an 800-person list).
• For broader reach, expand the contact list to ~5,000 with personal emails/mobile numbers and use Meta for better conversion rates (40–50% match rates).
• Always keep Meta retargeting running, even at $10/day.
• On the accent issue, impact varies by industry/region; testing different demographics for ad creative is recommended.

🤝 Topic: Customer Onboarding & Activation (SocialGlow)

Challenges: Acquiring church customers is easy, but ~90%+ of sign-ups never activate — they download the app and stop there, not inviting members or creating content.

Advice:

• Study what successful users did and recreate that experience for new users.
• Try gamification (progress bars, achievement rewards) to encourage feature exploration.
• Hire a UX researcher (via Upwork or boot camp programs) to conduct user testing and identify friction points.
• Sign up for a competitor's free trial to observe their onboarding flow.
• Use AI agents alongside tracking data to simulate customer behavior at each step and run A/B tests.
• Consider calling prospects directly rather than requiring video calls, given the tech-unsavvy audience.

🌍 Topic: Building an Implementation Partner Program (Rigger / Oil & Gas)

Challenges: Expanding globally (Europe, Middle East) requires local partners, but no formal partner program exists yet.

Advice:

• Formalize a partner program with clear criteria (market size, sales team, customer base) to be taken seriously.
• Run pilot projects before committing to full partnerships.
• Focus on UK/Norway offshore oil and gas, which links globally to Africa and Middle East.
• Attend industry conferences (e.g., Aberdeen) to meet serious vendor partners.
• Note that local presence matters — some organizations strongly prefer buying from local companies.

🤖 Topic: Future of Frontier AI Models & Startup Positioning

Challenges: Large AI companies keep releasing features that overlap with startup offerings, threatening differentiation.

Advice:

• Build strong MCPs and APIs now, as agents — not humans — will be the majority SaaS users within a few years.
• Pricing will shift from per-seat toward usage/outcome-based models.
• Avoid being a pure AI wrapper; differentiate with custom data, workflows, and deep integrations.
• Combine technology with human expertise/service — the service layer will remain critical.
• Focus on analytics and observability as MCPs proliferate, since consistent reporting will become harder.

🔗 Topic: AI-Native CRM Transition

Challenges: Ryan mentioned being mid-transition from GoHighLevel to a new CRM called Lightfield, which recently closed its Series A.

Advice: Ryan flagged this as a topic to explore time-permitting, but the group did not dive into it during the session.

🎙️ Topic: Voice/Conversational Interfaces in SaaS Apps

Challenges: As AI trains users to interact via voice, how should SaaS founders adapt their products to match those expectations?

Advice:

• Audio-to-text combined with LLMs is technically straightforward to implement.
• Watch for data leakage across users when using shared LLM backends.
• Set token limits to control backend querying costs when users issue open-ended requests.
• Account for linguistic variation (slang, accents, regional language) as the product scales.

Tools Recommended

Here are the tools and resources recommended during the meeting:

For Onboarding & Activation

• Product Led Growth resources (West Bush / Product Led) — content on onboarding sequences to get users to value faster
• Clearstream — a competitor targeting churches via SMS and email; recommended to sign up for their free trial to observe their onboarding flow
• UX researchers via Upwork — for affordable user testing and friction identification
• UX researcher boot camp programs (e.g., Code Academy-style) — students looking for projects can conduct user interviews and app testing
• Gamification / progress bars — awarding users for trying features, similar to sports apps
• AI-assisted UX research — connecting tracking platforms to AI agents (e.g., Claude Code, Codex) to analyze data and simulate customer behavior at each step
• A/B testing — recommended alongside AI reports to identify small but impactful improvements

For AI & Integration

• MCPs (Model Context Protocols) — building these out so agents can interact with SaaS products
• Claude / ChatGPT / Codex — referenced as platforms to integrate with for AI-native features
• Victor — an AI agent referenced for building landing pages via voice/conversation

For Marketing & Lead Generation

• ExtraHuman (ExtraMan) — a performance marketing company credited with generating a consistent stream of daily demos after a 4–5 month ramp-up

Best Advice

After a rebrand, fix the basics first — redirects, menu links, and the sitemap — and be transparent with investors about the cause and recovery timeline. For advertising, switch to LinkedIn thought leader ads and keep Meta retargeting running, even at $10/day. To improve activation, study what successful users did, try gamification, and hire a UX researcher. Build strong MCPs and APIs now, since agents will be the majority SaaS users within a few years.