If you can master this one skill as a SaaS founder, your business will grow as others get roasted.

Is it being a software architect? Is it learning to code in Python, Java, and React?

Nope.

As a matter of fact, the idea that you need to be “technical” in order to succeed as a SaaS founder is a lie.

Ali Tamaseb, partner at DCVC, explains:

“50.5% of founding CEOs of Billion-Dollar Startups were non-technical. Comparing the unicorns group with the random group (a randomly selected group of startups that raised $3m+ in VC funding), the billion-dollar founding CEOs were slightly more likely to be technical, but still, half the founding CEOs of unicorns were non-technical. Of course, the second-ranking person in the company, who is often the CTO was more likely to be technical.” 

Okay, enough teasing. Here is the #1 skillset both marketers, product managers, and SaaS CEOs need to be successful:

Empathy.

Claude Hopkins, one of the founding fathers of direct marketing, talked about “walking a mile in your prospect’s shoes”-that’s empathy

Now, some might roll their eyes at such a “basic” insight but lots of businesspeople understand empathy at a very shallow level.

But few understand empathy well enough to be profitable.

All of your tech stack, expensive advertising , and carefully crafted roadmaps won’t do squat for you if you ignore the fundamentals of good marketing .

I tell founders to stop fixating on the market as “data points” and start focusing on the small percentage of prospects who will actually buy.

If your marketing can dial in on the pain, traumas, disappointments, and dreams of your target customers, 80% of the battle is already won-even if your product doesn’t have as many features as your competitor.

This doesn’t mean neglecting the technical aspects, of course.

It’s never a good thing to accrue technical debt and produce buggy software.

But technical excellence cannot replace empathy with your prospects.

Your code can be bug-free, but if you don’t establish a relationship with your market, what good is the code?

I like the way former boxer, Ed Latimore, put it: “ You make your money either pimping the problem or selling the solution. But money is made when things are wrong, one way or the other.”

P.S. My book shows business owners and entrepreneurs the exact steps for using creativity to make lots of money. It costs around $30 everywhere else, but if you join my daily email list by clicking the link below, you can have a digital copy for free.

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