Hello to Canada’s SaaS and AI Community,
Jason Smith, CEO & Co-Founder of Klue, has built and scaled five startups over the past 25 years. From the dot-com era to the SaaS boom and now the AI age, he’s seen how markets evolve and how quickly competitive dynamics shift.
At SAAS NORTH, Jason warned founders about a risk that cuts across every cycle: the competitive revenue gap (the share of pipeline lost directly to competitors). Too few SaaS companies track it, and the result is millions in lost revenue that could otherwise be won.
Key takeaways:
- 30% of your pipeline is being lost to competitors’ budget-approved deals that should have been yours.
- Market categories are saturated, and bundling is crushing standalone SaaS.
- Founders must track why they lose, know competitor claims, and enable their GTM teams with competitive differentiation.
Co-Founder/Producer, SAAS NORTH Conference Editor, SAAS NORTH NOW
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When Sarah first shared these insights at SAAS NORTH in 2023, they felt like a wake-up call. Two years later, they’ve become even more relevant. In an era where AI is generating endless content, dashboards are harder to trust, and customers are overwhelmed with noise, the companies that thrive will be the ones bold enough to give their customers something to whisper about.
The Great Attribution Apocalypse
Sarah was clear about the challenge:
“Only 4% of iOS users opted in to be tracked… Rest in peace to our marketing attribution. We do not know how people are making their way to us.”
Traditional attribution models have collapsed under privacy regulations and platform changes. And now, AI-driven search and recommendation engines are adding another layer of opacity, customers discover products through AI summaries, assistants, and recommendations that rarely show up cleanly in analytics.
The opportunity, Sarah said, is to stop micromanaging spreadsheets and start focusing on relationships you can’t measure but absolutely feel:
“We have to take off our blue fuzzy Patagonia vests, close the Excel spreadsheet and think about marketing a little bit differently.”
Community-Driven Commerce
Sarah pointed to her own experience on parental leave. Exhausted and overwhelmed, she ignored paid ads and influencers entirely. Instead, she trusted her group chat.
“I was literally getting all of my information from the group chat… anything you need, group chat.”
She noticed the same pattern in her Growclass community of 800+ marketers. SaaS buyers weren’t scrolling ads or white papers. They were asking peers: “Just tell me what you use and if you like it.”
AI may change how information flows, but it hasn’t replaced community. In fact, the more impersonal AI-driven interactions become, the more people turn to trusted peers for recommendations.
Micro-Niche Domination
Sarah was clear about the opportunity:
“I want you to think about the smallest segment of the population for whom your product is actually remarkable… something good enough that someone has to remark.”
This is even more critical in 2025.
In a world where AI can churn out endless generic blog posts, ads, and campaigns, being “remarkable” is the only moat. The cheapest content is no longer scarce but authentic advocacy still is.
Experience Over Acquisition
The ultimate test, according to Sarah, is emotional:
“Would they miss us if we were gone tomorrow?”
She recalled her time at Tilt, a payments company she scaled internationally before it was acquired by Airbnb. When Tilt shut down, a student wrote a eulogy for the app. That devotion came from building something beloved, not just useful.
AI is raising customer expectations across industries, instant answers, personalized recommendations, faster service. But meeting expectations isn’t enough. Sarah’s advice remains timeless:
“Word of mouth growth doesn’t work if they don’t have anything to talk about… build something they’d actually miss.”
Actionable Strategies
Sarah left the audience with practical approaches:
- The 100 Conversations Rule
“We’re having a hundred conversations, not 90, not 10. We’re having a hundred conversations with people who could be in our customer demographic before we do anything.”
- Optimize for Conversations, Not Just Conversions
“If you are in the background kind of solving problems for them, but they never really think about you… you are not going to be top of mind when they’re having conversations with their colleagues.”
- Get Weird (Strategically)
Sarah praised Smile’s guerrilla campaign: “People notice you’re doing that after a minute, and they get nervous. And so, they take a picture, and they send it to their friends and they post it on social media… that’s weird enough that a lot of people are going to be talking about it.”
- Build Something They’d Miss
“How does the experience of using the product and interacting with our team make this person feel? And would they miss us if we went away?”
The Bottom Line
Sarah’s closing words in 2023 ring louder today:
“I want you to leave today and release yourself of this micromanaging, pinching-pennies style of marketing. That era is dying, and I want you to be ahead of what’s coming next. I want you to give them something to whisper about.”
AI has accelerated the collapse of old marketing systems, attribution is murkier, generic content is everywhere, and customers expect more but it hasn’t changed the fundamentals. The companies that thrive are those that:
- Build genuine relationships instead of relying on broken funnels
- Focus on hyper-specific audiences they can truly delight
- Spark conversations in communities they can’t measure
- Create experiences people would miss if they disappeared
SAAS NORTH is Canada’s hub for scaling SaaS and AI companies. Founders, teams, and investors come to learn, connect, and grow with the country’s largest in-person tech community.