March 15, 2024 • 22 mins
Meet Andy Karuza, Marketing Lead at NachoNacho, a SaaS management and marketplace app helping companies find, vet and hire industry experts.
Andy shares his Top 5 Ways to Market Your Business on a Budget with Tara Thurber as they discuss common challenges that businesses face today and how NachoNacho stays up-to-date on industry trends.
Top 5 Ways to Market Your Business on a Budget
- Partner led growth
- Product lead growth
- Automate
- Branding
- Experiment
About our speaker: As the Marketing Leader at NachoNacho, Andy Karuza is at the forefront of the B2B SaaS marketplace, powered by cutting-edge fintech. He's not just an innovator; he's also a startup investor, inventor, and serial entrepreneur. Andy's work in marketing the SaaS industry's top AI products and developing AI-powered features for the NachoNacho Marketplace has set new standards in the field. His achievements include being featured in over 100 top industry publications, appearances on national TV, having a product displayed in the Smithsonian National Museum of National History, and selling his products/services in over 100 countries.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Andy Karuza (00:00):
Hey everyone, welcome back to Top5 brought to
you by DefinedTalent. We are aresults driven service working
with clients to connect themwith quality talent as well as
working to make an impact withinthe recruiting industry. We talk
straight about today'sprofessional world with real
world professionals, experts inrecruitment, job seekers and
business owners alike. Have aquestion for us? Send it in, you
(00:24):
might spur our nextconversation. I'm Tara Thurber,
co founder and Director ofTalent Partnerships at
DefinedTalent.. And joining metoday is Andy karuah. marketing
lead at Nacho Nacho. Hey, Andy,how are you today?
Doing pretty good. It's good tobe back in New York.
Tara Thurber (00:42):
Awesome. Welcome.
Welcome back. So I want to justkind of dive in a little bit.
And let's just kick this offwith talk to me about the name.
Nacho Nacho.
Andy Karuza (00:54):
Yeah, so the name Nacho, Nacho. And I always like
to say in American means that'sa cool name. Where do you get it
from? Very memorable from abranding perspective. It's kind
of fun, inviting , if you will.
But the name actually means""Dance Dance" in Hindi. You
know, some people in the knowreally, you know, recognize
that. And they'll say, is thatthe same thing as the Hindi word
for dance dance? And we're like,Yep, it is.
Tara Thurber (01:18):
(laughs)
Andy Karuza (01:20):
In American means that's a cool name. Where do you
get it from?
Tara Thurber (01:22):
Right, right.
That's so awesome. Andy. Tell mea little bit about yourself and
explain a little bit about whatNacho Nacho does.
Andy Karuza (01:31):
Yeah. So a little bit about my past - I've been in
startups for about 20 years,I've been in tech for a long
time, as well, I built a varietyof different software products,
and even hardware products I'vedone like mobile apps, web apps,
I've even done an IoT productcompany called Fence Sense.
(01:52):
Design, these smart licenseplate frames, basically, that
can communicate to a smartphoneand live stream from behind your
car to a smartphone in your car.
Tara Thurber (02:02):
Wow.
Andy Karuza (02:02):
I've done some really cool, exciting things
over the years. I helped launcha company a couple years ago,
that's an eco friendly phone anda safe kid's phone as well. So
that company is still running,doing pretty well. And I'm the
Marketing Lead at Nacho Nacho.
So you know, I met Sanjay acouple years ago, and you know,
kind of see this as like thenext big Amazon, it's still
(02:23):
early stage enough to wherethere's a couple of ways that
could apply my you know, wearmultiple hats and insights and
experience, which I've learnedover the years, through trials
and tribulations, which I'm wonand I failed. So other people
don't have to go through allthat same, same stuff I did. So
we can take the product where itis today and make it a billion
(02:46):
dollar company, hopefully.
Tara Thurber (02:49):
Beautiful. Tell me a little bit about how Nacho
Nacho helps businesses withtheir marketing efforts.
Andy Karuza (02:57):
So you know we have a model, where, as we always
say, in our marketing deckactually is a rising tide raises
all boats, so for us by creatinga community and a marketplace
for helping create morevisibility for SAS sellers and
help tell their story. But we'realso providing them a low CAC
channel to acquire newcustomers. So the beauty of our
(03:19):
model is that they don't payanything until we actually refer
actual paying customers to them.
Which they love, of course, thegeneral cost per acquisition is
going up across the board. Thecost of advertising on Google,
social media, especiallyLinkedIn, I mean, you can be
paying $10 plus per click.
Tara Thurber (03:40):
Yeah.
Andy Karuza (03:41):
So it's, you know, it's not really affordable for a
lot of businesses. So ourpremise is that we'll bring you
paying customers and then whenwe do then you could you could
pay us from that. And kind ofthe backend magic that we
utilize is that we use someaffiliate links, but really the
the magic is the Nacho cards,which is a virtual card solution
that we offer all the buyers onthe buyer side of the business.
Tara Thurber (04:03):
Right.
Andy Karuza (04:04):
They can really use virtual cards is more of a
FinTech tool. So you can applyone card. I mean, there's
trillions of possibilities,right?
One card per vendorper employee. And what that
Tara Thurber (04:12):
Right.
becomes is like a very granulartracking and control tool over
all the expenses across theentire company. So you know what
you're spending, where you'respending it, who's spending, who
has which subscription. And ifthey ever leave, the company
could just cancel their cardswith one click and therefore
(04:32):
cancel the subscriptions withone click, too. So it's kind of
become a one win win platformfor both buyers and sellers.
That's awesome.
And then it was subscriptions.
If these employees havesubscriptions, what happens if
their yearly subscriptions orlike does the business lose out
(04:53):
on money sometimes? Becauseindividuals join subscriptions
without realizing the terms.
Andy Karuza (05:00):
Yeah, sometimesso depends on the contract.
Tara Thurber (05:03):
Right.
Andy Karuza (05:03):
We recommend that anybody try to get around their
contract. So if they have a soulcontract with you, they could
still come after you for theamount owed.
Tara Thurber (05:11):
Right.
Andy Karuza (05:12):
And some of the more enterprise applications are
very aggressive about that. Sowe don't recommend that it's not
meant for to kind of get aroundthe sellers, terms and
conditions and everything. It'smore for the month to month
subscriptions that don't catchup those which the majority of
software as a service, don't tryto stick you to like a whole
year plan and everything. Butyeah, we don't recommend trying
(05:34):
to get around legal obligation.
Tara Thurber (05:35):
Yeah, yeah, definitely
Andy Karuza (05:37):
We could. But that's up to you.
Tara Thurber (05:41):
Right. Right. So when we're talking about
businesses, what are some of thecommon challenges right now that
businesses face when it comes tomarketing on a budget?
Andy Karuza (05:53):
Yeah, I think the biggest thing is like I
mentioned before, is that thecost per acquisition is getting
really extremely high.
Everybody's flooding intodigital channels. So it's
becoming hyper competitiveacross the board. So especially
for startups, and SMBs, it'svery hard to get the word out
there and get your businessnoticed. Because some enterprise
(06:14):
company, like I mentionedearlier, can pay 10 bucks, click
for LinkedIn, whatever, ifthey're selling their software
for $1,000 a pop makes sense forthem. But for an SMB, it's
really hard to play that game.
So, I think that's the biggestchallenge out there for
marketers today. Generally,there's just a lot of noise,
especially in the software as aservice space. There's over
(06:36):
200,000 software companies now.
And if we're looking at the newAI tools, which you can even
have non engineers launch a newweb app or, or mobile
application with zero knowledgeof building apps, it's just
gonna load over the next fewyears.
Tara Thurber (06:53):
It's crazy how fast everything is growing and
moving, right?
Andy Karuza (06:57):
Yeah. Yeah, it's business moves at a hyperspace.
Right.
Tara Thurber (07:02):
Right. (laughs) So for Nacho, Nacho, how do you
specifically address thesechallenges and help the
businesses in optimizing theirmarketing strategies?
Andy Karuza (07:14):
Yeah, for us. So, we do a lot of programs for
people, or marketing premise is,you know, rising tide raises all
boats. And you go far togetherif you go fast alone, kind of a
thing. So we've reallypositioned ourselves as like a
long term solution for SASsellers to be able to grow with
us, and for us to be a long termlead source for them. So a lot
(07:38):
of the stuff that we offer themis not only a free listing, we
only get paid when we generateactual real business for them.
We set up a lot ofreally exciting co marketing
Tara Thurber (07:44):
Right.
programs. So a lot of timeswe'll do a webinar where we
interview the CEO or founder ofthe company, trying to help
personify the brand a little bitand humanize it, which I think
is a more important elementthese days than ever in
marketing. A lot of people wantto know who's behind the scenes,
like, who are they buying fromactually? And that human element
(08:05):
really comes out in thoseinterviews. So that's really
important. We also do newsletterblasts, social media posts,
we'll do collaborative events,all sorts of things to really
promote our seller partners. Andall those programs are free to
sow. We're inherently tied toeach other success. So it
behooves us to promote them aswell.
(08:26):
Yeah, I love that.
It's playing with everybody inthe playground at the same time,
right? Love that. When we'retalking about the fast pace of
technology and trends out there,how is Nacho Nacho staying
updated with the latestmarketing trends and strategies,
just to make sure to ensurebusinesses are always ahead of
(08:48):
the curve?
Andy Karuza (08:51):
Yeah, so we're always you know, I'm a pretty,
I'm ADHD (laughs) so I'm alwayspretty fast thinking and trying
to do the next thing. Next thingtoday.
Tara Thurber (09:00):
Right.
Andy Karuza (09:02):
So I'm always trying to stay on top of all the
new trends and everything goingout there. You know, we get to
meet frankly, with a lot ofpeople as well, a lot of
industry leaders and thoughtleaders, which, you know, I'm
learning something new everyday, right? So I'm doing a lot
of interviews with thesefounders. And a lot of times I
might ask them questions to kindof pick their brain.
Tara Thurber (09:20):
Right?
Andy Karuza (09:20):
Kind of learn on my own right? So we have a pretty
good, you know, our fingersreally on the pulse for the
entire industry. So we kind oflearn about the greatest new
tools coming out, the newmethodologies and approaches
that people are going, but Ithink a lot of it comes down to
always like to provide a greatexperience for your customers.
Do you have a great storytellingand branding that really draws
(09:42):
people in and shows that youhave a really high quality brand
and then to back it up with theexperience that you offer? And
that's, I mean, that's alwaysMarketing 101 in my opinion is,
is having a good product to sellfirst and foremost.
Tara Thurber (09:55):
I love that. Now, I want to ask to just tip put
this out there. I hear a lotabout Nacho Nacho Tuesday. Am I
correct?
Andy Karuza (10:06):
(laughs) Nacho Tuesday? Yeah.
Tara Thurber (10:08):
Nacho Tuesday. So talk to me about what Nacho
Tuesday is.
Andy Karuza (10:12):
Yeah, so Nacho Tuesday is a webinar series
where we interview founders andCEOs from the companies. And
we'll dive deep into theirindustry expertise. So we have
one coming up, for instance,about top five cybersecurity
trends. We're interviewing afounder at a cybersecurity
company and, you know, perfectguy to pick his brain about it
(laughs)
Tara Thurber (10:31):
Right (laughs).
Andy Karuza (10:32):
I hope he does right. Pretty sure he does
really well. You probably talkto me for hours about it. But
yeah, so now Tuesday reallycovers all these different SAS
topics from like industryleaders and the people that are
doing it in the trenches. Wealso launched the in person
event portion of that calledNacho Tuesday as well.
Tara Thurber (10:51):
Okay.
Andy Karuza (10:52):
And for that we're we've been doing yet New York
Tech Week. So last year, we didit at New York Tech Week, we had
a couple 100 people show up.
This year, we're going to aimfor at least 500 people maybe
more. And we'll probably expandthat motion with Nacho Tuesdays
to other other tech weeks,probably la in San Francisco,
then we'll look to expand itfurther into like Sastre and
(11:12):
other types of software,Industry Focus events from
there.
Tara Thurber (11:17):
That's really exciting.
Andy Karuza (11:19):
But yeah, we like to keep it fun. So yeah.
Tara Thurber (11:20):
(laughs) Yeah, that I do know that I do know,
just from meeting you, I it'salways been fun conversations.
And you all look like you have alot of fun when I've seen you
out at events.
Andy Karuza (11:30):
Yeah, I mean, if you were if you love what you do
you never work a day in yourlife (laughs). And I just put in
15 hours yesterday but we'refine.
Tara Thurber (11:40):
Exactly. Looking ahead, what are some upcoming
developments or features thatNacho Nacho is working on to
further assist businesses withtheir marketing efforts?
Andy Karuza (11:52):
So we have three core tenets, one is around
discovery. The other is aroundmanaging your software, the
other one's around saving, wastrying to do more in those three
areas, helping you know,businesses get the best deals,
by direct negotiations withvendors. Also, price comparisons
is another thing we're gonnahave coming out soon. Discovery
(12:14):
is another area that we'reinvesting heavily into. So we
just launched a tool calledSherlock, which is pairs with
our Chrome extension tool, whichwe called Sidekick. And
basically, it'll identify anysoftware subscriptions that your
team is using, and even the onesyou didn't even know about. So
with the Chrome extension, youcan use it as like a research
(12:36):
tool, as you're going arounddifferent websites, see the
price what people are sayingabout our reviews, buy it if
there's a discount available.
But then we can also you know,if you want enable browser
tracking, so we can see whichyou know, sites you're visiting.
And then compare that data withusing Sherlock with QuickBooks
information, bank accountinformation, website stack
(12:57):
information, Google loginhistory, as well too, all option
of course. But with Googlelogin, you can log in to see
what sites like actual SaaSsubscriptions your team is
logging into.
Tara Thurber (13:12):
Okay.
Andy Karuza (13:12):
A lot of people use SSO these days, single sign on,
Tara Thurber (13:13):
Wow.
Andy Karuza (13:13):
So if I'm looking for an email marketing tool, I
you can see which apps are usinga lot of times like we've had
can see what like marketingpeople like me with the same
our early users really identifya ton of subscriptions they
didn't even know they werepaying for, and they're able to
cancel those right away. Sothere's a lot of value in that,
being able to bring in that SASpro problem as a company first,
by using those discovery tools.
And then second from that tojust creating a better AI
(13:36):
recommendation engine. So wecollect a lot of buyer data. You
know, a lot of it's optional aswell, you can provide your name,
title, industry information, astitle and the same size company
in the same geographic area,we track the stuff that you're
buying, we could also, you know,utilize that data. And make it
anonymous, of course, and thenuse that with all the other
software that all the otherbuyers in our ecosystem are
(13:58):
buying. And then eventually, aswe collect more data, we could
get very, very accurate with themaybe even what type of software
that they're using. That mighttype of software that we
recommend for people.
be like the name brand software,but maybe 50% the price, but
(14:25):
it's got all the same features.
So, you might as well go withthat choice. So we're doing a
lot in that regard, too. So,very excited about those
features that continue todevelop.
Tara Thurber (14:36):
It's very awesome the way that that works out too
because a lot of companies don'tknow what they don't know, in
regards to what's out there. Soto have something like that and
access to that to see what'sbeing used most, what's cheapest
or not cheapest, but what willbring more value to each
(14:57):
individual business.
Andy Karuza (14:58):
Yeah, totally. You I think that goes for life in
general, too (laughs). Nobodyknows what they don't know,
right? But the more perspectiveyou have, and the more angles
you could look at a problemfrom, the more you can
triangulate what's the bestchoice is. And for us that those
perspectives is data from otherbuyers like you being able to
accurately predict what youshould be using as well.
Tara Thurber (15:21):
Super awesome. So Andy, let me ask you, what are
your Top5 Ways to Market yourBusiness on a Budget?
Andy Karuza (15:30):
I love this, Yeah, because I've always been a
shoestring budget kind of guy(laughs) even if you have to
have a budget. So I started offmy FBI career sleeping in my
car. So when I was in a, I wasin Bellingham, Washington, I
would drive down to Seattle, andit would take about an hour and
a half trip. So I'd go downthere, and I'd run my company
(15:51):
from there, drive back to go toschool at Western Washington
University, go to class, andthen at the end of the day,
drive back to Seattle, so I wasprobably doing that five/six
times a week, sometimes, right?
So didn't have a lot of money towork with. But always thought
from the creative angle of like,how you can make things happen
with little to no money.
(16:11):
It's kind of stuckwith me my whole life. So for
Tara Thurber (16:12):
Right.
me, I'm always thinking in termsof which, frankly, the best ways
to market are usually freeanyway, ironically (laughs). So
I will look at a couple of keyareas for people things that
I've, you know, really noticedover the years and including
things that are really trendynow. So there's two forms of
PLG. So one is partner ledgrowth, which is kind of what
(16:34):
(laughs)we're doing here doing these
podcasts. A lot of the COmarketing stuff we do with our
partners, we'll put them in ourblog posts, they'll put us in
theirs, we'll do a webinar wherethey share with their audience
and vice versa, together workingwith other businesses, we can
help introduce each other'snetworks to each other, and
therefore, we can grow together.
(16:54):
So that's the power ofpartnerships. And a lot of that
stuff's free. So I definitelyrecommend anybody get really
good at building partnerships,making Win Win relationships
too, a lot of people fail inthis regard, because they try to
make it about what they're gonnaget out of the partnership they
don't think about in terms ofwhat the other person gets, and
(17:14):
a lot of times how you establishthose bigger relationships, even
as you pitch them somethingthat's going to speak to them,
like, what can you do to benefitthose people? And that'll get
their attention. The second isproduct lead growth. So building
viral loops in your product,designing your product to have,
natural areas where people wantto share or invite team members.
(17:35):
There's a lot of ways you can doit. You could also have maybe
Andy Karuza (17:39):
Maybe you're paying them. I hope you're paying them
even a community on your web appor platform where people can go
and ask questions and getanswers. And that creates like a
artists should get paid. But agood branding draws people in
sense of community, it getspeople to want to go to you for
answers. And we have that too,in the form of mastermind for
Software Advice. Yeah, sothere's a lot of product led
right. So like Nacho Nacho, forinstance, one of the things I
growth initiatives, once again,you just have to build it, but
(17:59):
they're technically free to haveto pay for them ongoing. Social
noticed with it right away whenI met Sanjay was that it was a
media is another big one,obviously, if you're SMB or
bootstrapped, you probably don'thave a lot of money to spend,
you got time, right time ismoney. Spend that time maybe
great brand. There's a lot Icould do with this. Nacho Nacho,
reaching out to people onLinkedIn. There's also a lot of
tools that could automate it.
But be careful with that.
you know, it's a great name, inmy opinion. I'm speaking more
Obviously everybody else can dothat stuff these days. So it's
(18:22):
becoming very disingenuous. Soautomation is good, but try to
for him, not on my behalf. Butthey had some branding going
personalize it as much aspossible. And if you really,
really want that sale, or reallyconnect with somebody, write a
personal message like reach outto them on LinkedIn and connect
before I stepped into andthere's a lot to work with that
with them directly. But if youdidn't want to go some form of
automation route, we haveplatforms like demand cloud
it becomes a natural draw forpeople to want to work with you.
(18:42):
chat, holons platform is reallygreat for that you can automate
email marketing paired withLinkedIn messaging, and some
LinkedIn engagement tools likeviewing their profiles, stuff
So definitely invest in brandingand telling your story, the
like that to kind of get grabtheir attention. Once again,
it's very affordable. Branding,branding is technically free,
right ways to really connectwith your audience. That's
but you should have a gooddesigner on board.
(19:04):
really key there. And thenlastly, I'd say experiment. So a
lot of times the bestopportunities or new channels
that a lot of people might bewary of trying so you could try.
(19:27):
For instance, tick tock adsmight be, you know, kind of an
interesting channel to trytoday, even from a B2B
perspective, right, right. A lotof b2b people think it's just
(19:49):
Somebody's use social mediaconsumer app. But you know what
business people are on, they'reconsuming as well. And you know,
they also have a very datadriven approach. So you can
(20:12):
target those people looking forbusiness content. And it's not
super competitive yet foradvertising. It's getting up
there, but not like theFacebook's and LinkedIn's of
I mean pennies perclick sometimes was insane. And
(20:35):
this world. So don't be afraidto try new channels as they come
same with the Amazon ads, too.
So I was running a consumerelectronics company for many
years. And a lot of the businesswe did was on Amazon. And when
they launched Amazon ads we wereout, and be kind of one of the
first to go to market withall over that right away,
because we're getting traffic -high intent traffic from search
engine results related to ourthose, because a lot of times,
they're going to be reallyproducts for like five cents a
click even (laughs) it wasinsane. So the sales and the cop
(20:57):
the ROI as the return on adspendaffordable. A great example that
when Facebook ads firstwas, was very high for that now
it's getting more competitive,but it's still, you know,
relatively very affordablelaunched, I was all over that.
compared to other channels.
Tara Thurber (21:11):
Wow, I love all five I think what great ways for
businesses to be able to getthemselves out there on a budget
and not have to break the bankjust to to grow. Right? I think
that's most important to growand get themselves out there and
make a mark make an impact.
Andy Karuza (21:32):
Yep. Yeah. And a lot of times people think
because it's a business it'sokay to spend money and frankly,
waste money. But I've seen alot, a lot of companies fail
because it's death by 1000 cuts,usually, it's not a big deal
that sinks, you. It's in allthese subscription expenses, you
didn't even know about which,hence, Nacho Nacho, it's,
choosing this platform whenthere's this similar platform,
(21:54):
that's 50% the cost, right?
Paying 10 bucks a click forLinkedIn ads, when maybe there's
a hyperfocused community thatwould love to have your business
and maybe it's a couple cents aclick, and it's, but it's very,
a very targeted audience. Sodon't be afraid to experiment,
try new things and, go againstthe flow (laughs).
Tara Thurber (22:14):
I love that. Andy, thank you so much for taking
time today to speak with us andbe on our podcast. Really
appreciate it.
Andy Karuza (22:22):
Thank you. That's been great. Good to see you
again. And hopefully I'll seeyou in New York Tech Week.
Definitely. Thanks, Andy.
Tara Thurber (22:30):
We are DefinedTalent, but DefinedLogic
service coming to you at Top5.
Make it a great day.
Hey everyone, welcome back to Top5 brought to
you by DefinedTalent. We are aresults driven service working
with clients to connect themwith quality talent as well as
working to make an impact withinthe recruiting industry. We talk
straight about today'sprofessional world with real
world professionals, experts inrecruitment, job seekers and
business owners alike. Have aquestion for us? Send it in, you
(00:24):
might spur our nextconversation. I'm Tara Thurber,
co founder and Director ofTalent Partnerships at
DefinedTalent.. And joining metoday is Andy karuah. marketing
lead at Nacho Nacho. Hey, Andy,how are you today?
Doing pretty good. It's good tobe back in New York.
Tara Thurber (00:42):
Awesome. Welcome.
Welcome back. So I want to justkind of dive in a little bit.
And let's just kick this offwith talk to me about the name.
Nacho Nacho.
Andy Karuza (00:54):
Yeah, so the name Nacho, Nacho. And I always like
to say in American means that'sa cool name. Where do you get it
from? Very memorable from abranding perspective. It's kind
of fun, inviting , if you will.
But the name actually means""Dance Dance" in Hindi. You
know, some people in the knowreally, you know, recognize
that. And they'll say, is thatthe same thing as the Hindi word
for dance dance? And we're like,Yep, it is.
Tara Thurber (01:18):
(laughs)
Andy Karuza (01:20):
In American means that's a cool name. Where do you
get it from?
Tara Thurber (01:22):
Right, right.
That's so awesome. Andy. Tell mea little bit about yourself and
explain a little bit about whatNacho Nacho does.
Andy Karuza (01:31):
Yeah. So a little bit about my past - I've been in
startups for about 20 years,I've been in tech for a long
time, as well, I built a varietyof different software products,
and even hardware products I'vedone like mobile apps, web apps,
I've even done an IoT productcompany called Fence Sense.
(01:52):
Design, these smart licenseplate frames, basically, that
can communicate to a smartphoneand live stream from behind your
car to a smartphone in your car.
Tara Thurber (02:02):
Wow.
Andy Karuza (02:02):
I've done some really cool, exciting things
over the years. I helped launcha company a couple years ago,
that's an eco friendly phone anda safe kid's phone as well. So
that company is still running,doing pretty well. And I'm the
Marketing Lead at Nacho Nacho.
So you know, I met Sanjay acouple years ago, and you know,
kind of see this as like thenext big Amazon, it's still
(02:23):
early stage enough to wherethere's a couple of ways that
could apply my you know, wearmultiple hats and insights and
experience, which I've learnedover the years, through trials
and tribulations, which I'm wonand I failed. So other people
don't have to go through allthat same, same stuff I did. So
we can take the product where itis today and make it a billion
(02:46):
dollar company, hopefully.
Tara Thurber (02:49):
Beautiful. Tell me a little bit about how Nacho
Nacho helps businesses withtheir marketing efforts.
Andy Karuza (02:57):
So you know we have a model, where, as we always
say, in our marketing deckactually is a rising tide raises
all boats, so for us by creatinga community and a marketplace
for helping create morevisibility for SAS sellers and
help tell their story. But we'realso providing them a low CAC
channel to acquire newcustomers. So the beauty of our
(03:19):
model is that they don't payanything until we actually refer
actual paying customers to them.
Which they love, of course, thegeneral cost per acquisition is
going up across the board. Thecost of advertising on Google,
social media, especiallyLinkedIn, I mean, you can be
paying $10 plus per click.
Tara Thurber (03:40):
Yeah.
Andy Karuza (03:41):
So it's, you know, it's not really affordable for a
lot of businesses. So ourpremise is that we'll bring you
paying customers and then whenwe do then you could you could
pay us from that. And kind ofthe backend magic that we
utilize is that we use someaffiliate links, but really the
the magic is the Nacho cards,which is a virtual card solution
that we offer all the buyers onthe buyer side of the business.
Tara Thurber (04:03):
Right.
Andy Karuza (04:04):
They can really use virtual cards is more of a
FinTech tool. So you can applyone card. I mean, there's
trillions of possibilities,right?
One card per vendorper employee. And what that
Tara Thurber (04:12):
Right.
becomes is like a very granulartracking and control tool over
all the expenses across theentire company. So you know what
you're spending, where you'respending it, who's spending, who
has which subscription. And ifthey ever leave, the company
could just cancel their cardswith one click and therefore
(04:32):
cancel the subscriptions withone click, too. So it's kind of
become a one win win platformfor both buyers and sellers.
That's awesome.
And then it was subscriptions.
If these employees havesubscriptions, what happens if
their yearly subscriptions orlike does the business lose out
(04:53):
on money sometimes? Becauseindividuals join subscriptions
without realizing the terms.
Andy Karuza (05:00):
Yeah, sometimesso depends on the contract.
Tara Thurber (05:03):
Right.
Andy Karuza (05:03):
We recommend that anybody try to get around their
contract. So if they have a soulcontract with you, they could
still come after you for theamount owed.
Tara Thurber (05:11):
Right.
Andy Karuza (05:12):
And some of the more enterprise applications are
very aggressive about that. Sowe don't recommend that it's not
meant for to kind of get aroundthe sellers, terms and
conditions and everything. It'smore for the month to month
subscriptions that don't catchup those which the majority of
software as a service, don't tryto stick you to like a whole
year plan and everything. Butyeah, we don't recommend trying
(05:34):
to get around legal obligation.
Tara Thurber (05:35):
Yeah, yeah, definitely
Andy Karuza (05:37):
We could. But that's up to you.
Tara Thurber (05:41):
Right. Right. So when we're talking about
businesses, what are some of thecommon challenges right now that
businesses face when it comes tomarketing on a budget?
Andy Karuza (05:53):
Yeah, I think the biggest thing is like I
mentioned before, is that thecost per acquisition is getting
really extremely high.
Everybody's flooding intodigital channels. So it's
becoming hyper competitiveacross the board. So especially
for startups, and SMBs, it'svery hard to get the word out
there and get your businessnoticed. Because some enterprise
(06:14):
company, like I mentionedearlier, can pay 10 bucks, click
for LinkedIn, whatever, ifthey're selling their software
for $1,000 a pop makes sense forthem. But for an SMB, it's
really hard to play that game.
So, I think that's the biggestchallenge out there for
marketers today. Generally,there's just a lot of noise,
especially in the software as aservice space. There's over
(06:36):
200,000 software companies now.
And if we're looking at the newAI tools, which you can even
have non engineers launch a newweb app or, or mobile
application with zero knowledgeof building apps, it's just
gonna load over the next fewyears.
Tara Thurber (06:53):
It's crazy how fast everything is growing and
moving, right?
Andy Karuza (06:57):
Yeah. Yeah, it's business moves at a hyperspace.
Right.
Tara Thurber (07:02):
Right. (laughs) So for Nacho, Nacho, how do you
specifically address thesechallenges and help the
businesses in optimizing theirmarketing strategies?
Andy Karuza (07:14):
Yeah, for us. So, we do a lot of programs for
people, or marketing premise is,you know, rising tide raises all
boats. And you go far togetherif you go fast alone, kind of a
thing. So we've reallypositioned ourselves as like a
long term solution for SASsellers to be able to grow with
us, and for us to be a long termlead source for them. So a lot
(07:38):
of the stuff that we offer themis not only a free listing, we
only get paid when we generateactual real business for them.
We set up a lot ofreally exciting co marketing
Tara Thurber (07:44):
Right.
programs. So a lot of timeswe'll do a webinar where we
interview the CEO or founder ofthe company, trying to help
personify the brand a little bitand humanize it, which I think
is a more important elementthese days than ever in
marketing. A lot of people wantto know who's behind the scenes,
like, who are they buying fromactually? And that human element
(08:05):
really comes out in thoseinterviews. So that's really
important. We also do newsletterblasts, social media posts,
we'll do collaborative events,all sorts of things to really
promote our seller partners. Andall those programs are free to
sow. We're inherently tied toeach other success. So it
behooves us to promote them aswell.
(08:26):
Yeah, I love that.
It's playing with everybody inthe playground at the same time,
right? Love that. When we'retalking about the fast pace of
technology and trends out there,how is Nacho Nacho staying
updated with the latestmarketing trends and strategies,
just to make sure to ensurebusinesses are always ahead of
(08:48):
the curve?
Andy Karuza (08:51):
Yeah, so we're always you know, I'm a pretty,
I'm ADHD (laughs) so I'm alwayspretty fast thinking and trying
to do the next thing. Next thingtoday.
Tara Thurber (09:00):
Right.
Andy Karuza (09:02):
So I'm always trying to stay on top of all the
new trends and everything goingout there. You know, we get to
meet frankly, with a lot ofpeople as well, a lot of
industry leaders and thoughtleaders, which, you know, I'm
learning something new everyday, right? So I'm doing a lot
of interviews with thesefounders. And a lot of times I
might ask them questions to kindof pick their brain.
Tara Thurber (09:20):
Right?
Andy Karuza (09:20):
Kind of learn on my own right? So we have a pretty
good, you know, our fingersreally on the pulse for the
entire industry. So we kind oflearn about the greatest new
tools coming out, the newmethodologies and approaches
that people are going, but Ithink a lot of it comes down to
always like to provide a greatexperience for your customers.
Do you have a great storytellingand branding that really draws
(09:42):
people in and shows that youhave a really high quality brand
and then to back it up with theexperience that you offer? And
that's, I mean, that's alwaysMarketing 101 in my opinion is,
is having a good product to sellfirst and foremost.
Tara Thurber (09:55):
I love that. Now, I want to ask to just tip put
this out there. I hear a lotabout Nacho Nacho Tuesday. Am I
correct?
Andy Karuza (10:06):
(laughs) Nacho Tuesday? Yeah.
Tara Thurber (10:08):
Nacho Tuesday. So talk to me about what Nacho
Tuesday is.
Andy Karuza (10:12):
Yeah, so Nacho Tuesday is a webinar series
where we interview founders andCEOs from the companies. And
we'll dive deep into theirindustry expertise. So we have
one coming up, for instance,about top five cybersecurity
trends. We're interviewing afounder at a cybersecurity
company and, you know, perfectguy to pick his brain about it
(laughs)
Tara Thurber (10:31):
Right (laughs).
Andy Karuza (10:32):
I hope he does right. Pretty sure he does
really well. You probably talkto me for hours about it. But
yeah, so now Tuesday reallycovers all these different SAS
topics from like industryleaders and the people that are
doing it in the trenches. Wealso launched the in person
event portion of that calledNacho Tuesday as well.
Tara Thurber (10:51):
Okay.
Andy Karuza (10:52):
And for that we're we've been doing yet New York
Tech Week. So last year, we didit at New York Tech Week, we had
a couple 100 people show up.
This year, we're going to aimfor at least 500 people maybe
more. And we'll probably expandthat motion with Nacho Tuesdays
to other other tech weeks,probably la in San Francisco,
then we'll look to expand itfurther into like Sastre and
(11:12):
other types of software,Industry Focus events from
there.
Tara Thurber (11:17):
That's really exciting.
Andy Karuza (11:19):
But yeah, we like to keep it fun. So yeah.
Tara Thurber (11:20):
(laughs) Yeah, that I do know that I do know,
just from meeting you, I it'salways been fun conversations.
And you all look like you have alot of fun when I've seen you
out at events.
Andy Karuza (11:30):
Yeah, I mean, if you were if you love what you do
you never work a day in yourlife (laughs). And I just put in
15 hours yesterday but we'refine.
Tara Thurber (11:40):
Exactly. Looking ahead, what are some upcoming
developments or features thatNacho Nacho is working on to
further assist businesses withtheir marketing efforts?
Andy Karuza (11:52):
So we have three core tenets, one is around
discovery. The other is aroundmanaging your software, the
other one's around saving, wastrying to do more in those three
areas, helping you know,businesses get the best deals,
by direct negotiations withvendors. Also, price comparisons
is another thing we're gonnahave coming out soon. Discovery
(12:14):
is another area that we'reinvesting heavily into. So we
just launched a tool calledSherlock, which is pairs with
our Chrome extension tool, whichwe called Sidekick. And
basically, it'll identify anysoftware subscriptions that your
team is using, and even the onesyou didn't even know about. So
with the Chrome extension, youcan use it as like a research
(12:36):
tool, as you're going arounddifferent websites, see the
price what people are sayingabout our reviews, buy it if
there's a discount available.
But then we can also you know,if you want enable browser
tracking, so we can see whichyou know, sites you're visiting.
And then compare that data withusing Sherlock with QuickBooks
information, bank accountinformation, website stack
(12:57):
information, Google loginhistory, as well too, all option
of course. But with Googlelogin, you can log in to see
what sites like actual SaaSsubscriptions your team is
logging into.
Tara Thurber (13:12):
Okay.
Andy Karuza (13:12):
A lot of people use SSO these days, single sign on,
Tara Thurber (13:13):
Wow.
Andy Karuza (13:13):
So if I'm looking for an email marketing tool, I
you can see which apps are usinga lot of times like we've had
can see what like marketingpeople like me with the same
our early users really identifya ton of subscriptions they
didn't even know they werepaying for, and they're able to
cancel those right away. Sothere's a lot of value in that,
being able to bring in that SASpro problem as a company first,
by using those discovery tools.
And then second from that tojust creating a better AI
(13:36):
recommendation engine. So wecollect a lot of buyer data. You
know, a lot of it's optional aswell, you can provide your name,
title, industry information, astitle and the same size company
in the same geographic area,we track the stuff that you're
buying, we could also, you know,utilize that data. And make it
anonymous, of course, and thenuse that with all the other
software that all the otherbuyers in our ecosystem are
(13:58):
buying. And then eventually, aswe collect more data, we could
get very, very accurate with themaybe even what type of software
that they're using. That mighttype of software that we
recommend for people.
be like the name brand software,but maybe 50% the price, but
(14:25):
it's got all the same features.
So, you might as well go withthat choice. So we're doing a
lot in that regard, too. So,very excited about those
features that continue todevelop.
Tara Thurber (14:36):
It's very awesome the way that that works out too
because a lot of companies don'tknow what they don't know, in
regards to what's out there. Soto have something like that and
access to that to see what'sbeing used most, what's cheapest
or not cheapest, but what willbring more value to each
(14:57):
individual business.
Andy Karuza (14:58):
Yeah, totally. You I think that goes for life in
general, too (laughs). Nobodyknows what they don't know,
right? But the more perspectiveyou have, and the more angles
you could look at a problemfrom, the more you can
triangulate what's the bestchoice is. And for us that those
perspectives is data from otherbuyers like you being able to
accurately predict what youshould be using as well.
Tara Thurber (15:21):
Super awesome. So Andy, let me ask you, what are
your Top5 Ways to Market yourBusiness on a Budget?
Andy Karuza (15:30):
I love this, Yeah, because I've always been a
shoestring budget kind of guy(laughs) even if you have to
have a budget. So I started offmy FBI career sleeping in my
car. So when I was in a, I wasin Bellingham, Washington, I
would drive down to Seattle, andit would take about an hour and
a half trip. So I'd go downthere, and I'd run my company
(15:51):
from there, drive back to go toschool at Western Washington
University, go to class, andthen at the end of the day,
drive back to Seattle, so I wasprobably doing that five/six
times a week, sometimes, right?
So didn't have a lot of money towork with. But always thought
from the creative angle of like,how you can make things happen
with little to no money.
(16:11):
It's kind of stuckwith me my whole life. So for
Tara Thurber (16:12):
Right.
me, I'm always thinking in termsof which, frankly, the best ways
to market are usually freeanyway, ironically (laughs). So
I will look at a couple of keyareas for people things that
I've, you know, really noticedover the years and including
things that are really trendynow. So there's two forms of
PLG. So one is partner ledgrowth, which is kind of what
(16:34):
(laughs)we're doing here doing these
podcasts. A lot of the COmarketing stuff we do with our
partners, we'll put them in ourblog posts, they'll put us in
theirs, we'll do a webinar wherethey share with their audience
and vice versa, together workingwith other businesses, we can
help introduce each other'snetworks to each other, and
therefore, we can grow together.
(16:54):
So that's the power ofpartnerships. And a lot of that
stuff's free. So I definitelyrecommend anybody get really
good at building partnerships,making Win Win relationships
too, a lot of people fail inthis regard, because they try to
make it about what they're gonnaget out of the partnership they
don't think about in terms ofwhat the other person gets, and
(17:14):
a lot of times how you establishthose bigger relationships, even
as you pitch them somethingthat's going to speak to them,
like, what can you do to benefitthose people? And that'll get
their attention. The second isproduct lead growth. So building
viral loops in your product,designing your product to have,
natural areas where people wantto share or invite team members.
(17:35):
There's a lot of ways you can doit. You could also have maybe
Andy Karuza (17:39):
Maybe you're paying them. I hope you're paying them
even a community on your web appor platform where people can go
and ask questions and getanswers. And that creates like a
artists should get paid. But agood branding draws people in
sense of community, it getspeople to want to go to you for
answers. And we have that too,in the form of mastermind for
Software Advice. Yeah, sothere's a lot of product led
right. So like Nacho Nacho, forinstance, one of the things I
growth initiatives, once again,you just have to build it, but
(17:59):
they're technically free to haveto pay for them ongoing. Social
noticed with it right away whenI met Sanjay was that it was a
media is another big one,obviously, if you're SMB or
bootstrapped, you probably don'thave a lot of money to spend,
you got time, right time ismoney. Spend that time maybe
great brand. There's a lot Icould do with this. Nacho Nacho,
reaching out to people onLinkedIn. There's also a lot of
tools that could automate it.
But be careful with that.
you know, it's a great name, inmy opinion. I'm speaking more
Obviously everybody else can dothat stuff these days. So it's
(18:22):
becoming very disingenuous. Soautomation is good, but try to
for him, not on my behalf. Butthey had some branding going
personalize it as much aspossible. And if you really,
really want that sale, or reallyconnect with somebody, write a
personal message like reach outto them on LinkedIn and connect
before I stepped into andthere's a lot to work with that
with them directly. But if youdidn't want to go some form of
automation route, we haveplatforms like demand cloud
it becomes a natural draw forpeople to want to work with you.
(18:42):
chat, holons platform is reallygreat for that you can automate
email marketing paired withLinkedIn messaging, and some
LinkedIn engagement tools likeviewing their profiles, stuff
So definitely invest in brandingand telling your story, the
like that to kind of get grabtheir attention. Once again,
it's very affordable. Branding,branding is technically free,
right ways to really connectwith your audience. That's
but you should have a gooddesigner on board.
(19:04):
really key there. And thenlastly, I'd say experiment. So a
lot of times the bestopportunities or new channels
that a lot of people might bewary of trying so you could try.
(19:27):
For instance, tick tock adsmight be, you know, kind of an
interesting channel to trytoday, even from a B2B
perspective, right, right. A lotof b2b people think it's just
(19:49):
Somebody's use social mediaconsumer app. But you know what
business people are on, they'reconsuming as well. And you know,
they also have a very datadriven approach. So you can
(20:12):
target those people looking forbusiness content. And it's not
super competitive yet foradvertising. It's getting up
there, but not like theFacebook's and LinkedIn's of
I mean pennies perclick sometimes was insane. And
(20:35):
this world. So don't be afraidto try new channels as they come
same with the Amazon ads, too.
So I was running a consumerelectronics company for many
years. And a lot of the businesswe did was on Amazon. And when
they launched Amazon ads we wereout, and be kind of one of the
first to go to market withall over that right away,
because we're getting traffic -high intent traffic from search
engine results related to ourthose, because a lot of times,
they're going to be reallyproducts for like five cents a
click even (laughs) it wasinsane. So the sales and the cop
(20:57):
the ROI as the return on adspendaffordable. A great example that
when Facebook ads firstwas, was very high for that now
it's getting more competitive,but it's still, you know,
relatively very affordablelaunched, I was all over that.
compared to other channels.
Tara Thurber (21:11):
Wow, I love all five I think what great ways for
businesses to be able to getthemselves out there on a budget
and not have to break the bankjust to to grow. Right? I think
that's most important to growand get themselves out there and
make a mark make an impact.
Andy Karuza (21:32):
Yep. Yeah. And a lot of times people think
because it's a business it'sokay to spend money and frankly,
waste money. But I've seen alot, a lot of companies fail
because it's death by 1000 cuts,usually, it's not a big deal
that sinks, you. It's in allthese subscription expenses, you
didn't even know about which,hence, Nacho Nacho, it's,
choosing this platform whenthere's this similar platform,
(21:54):
that's 50% the cost, right?
Paying 10 bucks a click forLinkedIn ads, when maybe there's
a hyperfocused community thatwould love to have your business
and maybe it's a couple cents aclick, and it's, but it's very,
a very targeted audience. Sodon't be afraid to experiment,
try new things and, go againstthe flow (laughs).
Tara Thurber (22:14):
I love that. Andy, thank you so much for taking
time today to speak with us andbe on our podcast. Really
appreciate it.
Andy Karuza (22:22):
Thank you. That's been great. Good to see you
again. And hopefully I'll seeyou in New York Tech Week.
Definitely. Thanks, Andy.
Tara Thurber (22:30):
We are DefinedTalent, but DefinedLogic
service coming to you at Top5.
Make it a great day.
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