On today’s episode of Automate, Delegate, Eliminate we chat with Andy Lambert of ContentCal!

Andy has over 10 years of experience in creating markets, building profitable businesses, and leadership roles in industry-leading SaaS organizations. He is one of the Founding Team of ContentCal, an award-winning social media marketing technology software that has gone international since launching in January 2017.  

Tell us about what your software does for people?

• It simplifies how businesses do content marketing
• Most businesses’ content marketing is very fragmented
• ContentCal brings all content marketing together into one sphere

How does ContentCal differ from competitors?

• They are multi-channel
• Built by non-tech marketers

How did you help found ContentCal?

• It was originally a content marketing agency under a different name
• He wanted to simplify their content creation and scheduling process
• Andy was introduced to the founder of the agency by a mutual connection
• Andy had some concerns because the content app market was crowded, but ultimately decided to join the team.

What did the team look like when you joined to start work on the software?

• The agency was about 10 people.
• They got some guys in Russia to do coding of the software, based on some designs the product manager had done.
• Andy was employee number 2 on the software.

What made you ultimately decide that joining the ContentCal team was the right idea?

• He knew that an investor was making  a commitment that would make it financially sound for the company to hire employees and offer them a salary

How did the idea of the software come to be and become a reality?

• Alex had the initial idea
• Colin bought into Alex’ idea and invested in him

Any advice to entrepreneurs about investors?

• The challenge comes in drawing a line so that your investors don’t meddle too much in your business
• Some investors may not have relevant views
• Have a good board chairman who is on your side and understands that the product and marketing teams know better than your investors and can advocate for you
• Pay attention to who's money you are taking, not all money is good money to take

What were some moments when you realized exactly what ContentCal needed?

• What they originally made had very good feedback from users
• They are still on the journey of making ContentCal into the final product
• They realized that the marketing team can’t be the only ones working on content
• They are connecting all the dots on the ideas that they gain from users to take them on the journey of creating ContentCal

What difficulties did you face when starting the company and how did you overcome them?

• The hardest thing at the start is to find paying customers. 
• They learned they had to find their customers themselves, mostly by annoying people on LinkedIn.
• They bought an email list and sent out emails, and found that they got a lot of feedback but it took a while to figure out what was good feedback.
• They found it was best to find their minimum viable audience

What advice would you give other SaaS entrepreneurs?

• An idea is worth nothing without people to execute on it and invest in it
• Customers are harder to sell to than investors.
• An idea is just a research project.
• Don’t forget to own your growth. Don’t rely on ads on places like Facebook, it’s building your business on rented land.

Resources:

Websites: 

ContentCal

Data Automation

Books mentioned: 

The Lean Startup

The Startup Owner's Manual

Suggest a SaaS founder for the Automate, Delegate, Eliminate show at:

podcast@dataautomation.com