In the meeting room a year ago, I stood in front of the team holding a pen and writing numbers on the glass from a sample of 10x
Isn't this everything a startup dreams of!
Growth and expansion in the product
All the possibilities are here before me
A creative team capable of turning dreams into reality (literally)
A tech product serving hundreds of clients
A promising emerging market
All doors open for you with a clear vision from the visionary to make this city (Riyadh) the capital of technology.
A magic recipe for success!
On the other hand
We hear from time to time about investment in a tech company in the tens of millions
Tech companies being listed on the stock market
I won't hide it from you
My soul always talks to me
That the coming one is us (Masaaq)
All you have to do is endure, keep working, reach the successful marketing equation to attract more clients
Days and weeks pass
I watch the numbers daily
The number of subscribers suddenly rises
And after a short while, this growth disappears
In some months, the number of subscribers increases, but the increase is not sufficient for expansion and spread
This phase specifically feels like swimming alone in the ocean
There is no compass or guide to define your direction
If you stop swimming, you might drown
And if you continue swimming in the wrong direction
You will certainly wear out and drown
Not to mention the question, am I really good at swimming? Or am I just moving my hands in place (staying put)
And on the other hand, you must raise the victory flag for anyone who sees you from a distance
Or even from close
Everything is fine
Don't worry
I am good at swimming
I have a lot of energy
And the shore is near
Don't worry
I am fine
I remember during my master's studies, my research supervisor suggested that I read the book Blue Ocean Strategy
Literally, the year 2024 was the year of swimming in the ocean (with distinction)
Damn
The author of The Blue Ocean didn't do us any good!
I almost drowned and sank the ship with me!
You continue to swim
You might hold your breath for a few seconds and dive a bit; perhaps you will learn how to swim better when you see how the fish move their fins?
Last year, I assert that we (I and my struggle companions) Hossam, Saad, Marwa, and some of the team read most of the books related to pricing SaaS products..
And positioning
We heard many podcast episodes about positioning
A lot of discussions with friends who are going through similar experiences
Oh, I forgot to tell you that we tried many marketing methods
And after much effort, we discovered that our problem wasn't specifically in marketing
But rather in positioning!
Never mind..
A year of experiments
And research
And investigation
Nights and days in the office and on Google Meet
Many startups fall into the problem of not having a clear presence in the market, and we fell into the same issue. Do we serve content creators? Individuals? Small and medium enterprises? Companies? Government entities?
We have clients from all of them!
The problem is that they have different needs, making it difficult to develop the product and expand it to serve a wide range of customers
It also complicates the marketing process and directly targeting customers
The strength of the product lies in the integrated training system; most organizations offering training use primitive methods for managing and practicing the training process or use multiple systems, for example, a training system, an examination system, and a certification system
And many of them use "all-purpose" WhatsApp for conducting the training process
This makes the continuity and growth of work extremely difficult
The reason is the complexity of most products or the difficulty of transitioning to a technical solution
On the other hand, we assumed that most clients had the ability to create their own platforms and manage them completely with minimal technical support
But it seems that reality is different from that.
We hired a technical account manager who works closely with clients, takes their requirements, and assists them throughout the journey, even in obtaining the necessary licenses to conduct training
The result was fantastic
The client is very satisfied
We now have a clear approach to clients' requests for product development
Focusing on a limited number of clients and providing high-quality service (choose your clients)
However, this topic entails providing the service at a higher price due to the extra effort in onboarding and assisting clients
But when we compared the proposed prices with the cost of developing a platform through a company for the client, the financial cost was much lower, saving time and effort for the client and transferring expertise after quite a few experiences
Recently, we worked with several organizations on developing platforms
Today, Masaaq is your technical partner in the training journey; we no longer just offer you the platform; we are journey partners
We will swim with you to the end; we know the way and the directions and are good at swimming; just ask to connect, and you will be pleasantly surprised!
Here is the result
Masaaq in its new form
We assert that our positioning is now in the right place
That we have created a product that simplifies human life
Making training and education an enjoyable journey
Chapter three of Masaaq revolves around training the individual!