BoSUSA25 | Jason Cohen | Escaping the Growth Ceiling: The Hidden Forces Capping Your Growth and How to Break Past Them

Jason will show why your growth slows and share proven approaches to consider when growth tapers including:

- A conscious shift in focus from explore to execute
- Ruthless Prioritization
- Multi-channel risk mitigation
- Customer concentration control
- Expand into adjacencies

Jason will celebrate with you as you shift from hero-driven scrappy beginnings to a disciplined, process-oriented scale machine.

1. Escaping the Growth Ceiling Jason Cohen / asmartbear.com Business of Software, Fall 2025 Breaking through the hidden forces that cap your growth

2. “If you’re not growing, you’re dying.”

3. Growth is (actually) value

4. Growth is often mysterious ???

5. Jon Started Growth isn’t mysterious? ???

6. Growth is hard to get

7. Growth always slows

8. Growth always slows

9. Growth always slows

10. Growth always slows… but can return Customers

11. Growth Checklist Logo retention New from existing More from existing Channel saturated Market saturated Switch to profit

12. Growth Checklist Logo retention New from existing More from existing Channel saturated Market saturated Switch to profit

13. Cancellation is personal

14. After all that…

15. …they cancelled!

16. Cancellation wins

17. Marketing grows with spend & channel Marketing grows linearly

18. Marketing grows with spend & channel Marketing grows linearly

19. Lifecycle of a marketing channel cracked it! maximized inventory continuous optimization

20. Lifecycle of a marketing channel fatigue competition saturation channel decline

21. Example: WP Engine affiliates

22. Stacking marketing channels

23. Marketing channels are limited

24. Marketing grows with spend & channel Marketing grows linearly

25. Marketing vs Cancellation at scale Company Size Marketing Contribution Cancellation at 5% 1000 customers +100 customers / mo – 50 customers / mo 3000 customers +100 customers / mo – 150 customers / mo

26. Marketing vs Cancellation at scale Marketing grows linearly

27. Cancellation grows with company size Cancellation grows exponentially

28. Cancellation wins Cancellation grows exponentially

29. Cancellation wins: Growth Ceiling Cancellation grows exponentially

30. Cancellation wins at “Max MRR” [Cancel $] = [New $] c = Cancellation % MRR x c = [New $] [New $] c MRR =

31. $3M = Cancellation wins at the Max MRR growth ceiling [New $] c MRR = $150k 0.05 $3M

32. Cancellation won at Buffer

33. Buffer’s cancellation remained at 5% 5%

34. Cancellation won at Buffer

35. Kit avoided the ceiling

36. Kit avoided the ceiling

37. Max MRR at Buffer

38. Marketing grows with spend & channel Marketing grows linearly

39. Growth always slows Marketing grows linearly Cancellation grows exponentially

40. Diagnosing cancellation

41. “Why did you cancel?” • Too expensive • Couldn't figure out how to use it • Bad experience with customer service • Didn't have the feature I wanted • Didn't have the integration I needed • Too many bugs • My project ended

42. Useable response rate: 10% Source: Groove blog: https://www.groovehq.com/blog/exit-surveys What made you cancel? 20%

43. “Too expensive”

44. Proximate cause, “root” causes “Stopped Breathing” Undiagnosed Illness

45. “Too expensive”

46. Root causes while they’re happening • Going “dark” — not using the product • Never completing onboarding • Too much tech support • Too much time to complete tasks • Not adding enough data • Sudden change of behavior • Requests for special discounts • Switching from annual to monthly • Not adding external integrations • Not fixing broken integrations • Exporting all account data • Unsubscribing from notifications • Abandoning a workflow midway • Fewer teammates logging in • Ignoring error alerts • Failed invoice payments

47. Over-invest in onboarding

48. Over-invest in onboarding

49. Growth Checklist Logo retention New from existing More from existing Channel saturated Market saturated Switch to profit

50. Growth Checklist Logo retention New from existing More from existing Channel saturated Market saturated Switch to profit

51. What if marketing grew at scale?

52. Growth always slows? Marketing grows linearly (on spend) Cancellation grows exponentially (% existing) exponentially (% existing)

53. Sources of new customers Proportional to spend / channel size • Advertising • SEO • Retargeting • Outbound • Conferences • Affiliates • Influencers Proportional to your size • Social media • UGC • Referrals • Customer advocacy • Partner programs

54. Referrals

55. Traditional referral program

56. “Give and get” referral program Dropbox went from 100,000 to 200,000 users in 10 days. We were blown away on just how successful the referral program was. We doubled our growth rate overnight.” — Drew Houston, founder of Dropbox “

57. Ask for advocacy

58. Ask

59. When to ask for advocacy?

60. When to ask for advocacy? • First major success / value • Milestone moment • Highly-rated support experience • Upgrade • Opts into survey or beta program • When they get external recognition • At the referral trigger point

61. Growth Checklist Logo retention New from existing More from existing Channel saturated Market saturated Switch to profit

62. Growth Checklist Logo retention New from existing More from existing Channel saturated Market saturated Switch to profit

63. What if existing customers grew?

64. Do upgrades defeat cancels? 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 7 8 6 5 4 3 2 1 9 8 6 5 4 3 2 1 7 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 6 5 4 3 2 1 5 4 3 2 1 4 3 2 1 3 2 1 2 1 1

65. Upgrades can win, if cancels are rare 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 6 5 4 3 2 1 2 1 5 4 7 3 6 5 4 2 1 3 4 2 1 3 2 1 3 2 1 1

66. NRR: Net Revenue Retention MRR at end of year MRR at start of year NRR = = How customers change

67. NRR: Net Revenue Retention MRR at end of year MRR at start of year NRR = = +$20k upgrade - $10k downgrade - $35k cancel -> $75k $100k = 75%

68. NRR: Net Revenue Retention MRR at end of year MRR at start of year NRR = = +$50k upgrade - $10k downgrade - $15k cancel -> $125k $100k = 125%

69. NRR: Ceiling vs Acceleration $5M 0.25 = $20M

70. NRR: Ceiling vs Acceleration

71. NRR: Ceiling vs Acceleration

72. NRR: Ceiling vs Acceleration

73. NRR of SaaS companies at IPO 119% median

74. Dropbox: Growth saved by NRR Dropbox New Customers Dropbox Cohort Growth

75. Dropbox: Growth saved by NRR

76. Justifying NRR

77. Justifying NRR • Improving the current product • Pricing tier × usage • Show the value • Creating additional products • Reselling additional products

78. Justifying NRR • Improving the current product • Pricing tier × usage • Show the value • Creating additional products • Reselling additional products • Features • Integration • Security • Governance Adding features… …that customers will pay for

79. Justifying NRR • Improving the current product • Pricing tier × usage • Show the value • Creating additional products • Reselling additional products

80. Justifying NRR • Improving the current product • Pricing tier × usage • Target by segment • Show the value • Creating additional products • Reselling additional products

81. Justifying NRR • Improving the current product • Pricing tier × usage • Show the value • Creating additional products • Reselling additional products

82. Justifying NRR • Improving the current product • Pricing tier × usage • Show the value • Creating additional products • Reselling additional products