Emily Ellis
Founder, FintastIQ
Emily Ellis is the Founder of FintastIQ. Emily has 20 years of experience leading pricing, value creation, and commercial transformation initiatives for PE portfolio companies and high-growth businesses. She has previous experience as a leader at McKinsey and BCG and is the Founder of FintastIQ and the Growth Operating System.
54 articles
marketing · social community b2b
Held Paid Flat, Tripled Organic: 61% More Demos in 90 Days
A $34M ARR cybersecurity team held paid flat at $27K a month, tripled organic to three posts a week from the CEO and three SMEs, and watched inbound demo requests rise 61% in 90 days. The next quarter they rebalanced to 42% paid, 58% organic, and total LinkedIn spend went down.
April 17, 2026
marketing · social community b2b
$6,400 ACV Communities Don't Pay. $30K-Plus With 4 Buyers Do.
A $22M ARR horizontal SaaS spent 18 months and $250K building community. Result: $90K in attributed revenue. Meanwhile a vertical software company at $47M ARR crossed 800 active members in year three and saw 20% of expansion attribute back to the community. The three conditions that decide which path you're on.
April 15, 2026
marketing · social community b2b
35% of Inbound From One LinkedIn Profile in 18 Months
A $12M ARR founder killed cold email and posted three times a week for 18 months. 35% of inbound now comes from a single LinkedIn profile. CPL dropped 4x. The playbook works when the founder takes a stance and replies to every comment in the first two hours, personally.
April 14, 2026
marketing · paid earned media
$280K on Positioning Didn't Fix 41% CAC Inflation. Channel Mix Did.
A $38M ARR SaaS spent $280K on positioning to fix 41% CAC inflation. The real cause was paid search CPL doubling over two years. Split CAC by channel across eight quarters, weight by volume, then shift 20% of saturated budget to an earned motion. Drift fixes inside two quarters.
April 10, 2026
marketing · paid earned media
$11M From PR That Attribution Counted as Zero: 40x Return
A $65M ARR infrastructure SaaS ran $264K of PR a year. Attribution showed zero pipeline. Three proxies, branded search, direct traffic, sales-reported influence, surfaced $11M in closed revenue, a 40x return. Last-click attribution undercounts earned by 60-80% and most boards don't know.
April 9, 2026
marketing · paid earned media
$3.2M Paid Search That Was Already Dead. Nobody Called It.
A Series B B2B SaaS spent $3.2M a year on paid search at 29-month CAC payback. We ran a 60-day wind-down. Direct traffic stayed flat, branded search stayed flat, pipeline recovered to baseline by month four. The four kill signals that mean the channel is already done.
April 7, 2026
marketing · paid earned media
$48M ARR at 78% Paid: CAC Payback Climbed 14 to 22 Months
A $34M ARR SaaS ran 72% paid for seven straight years. By year seven, paid CAC had climbed 180% while earned investment was zero. The 24-month rebuild took CAC payback from 21 to 11 months and earned to 58% of pipeline. The cost of waiting was roughly $8M in excess CAC.
April 3, 2026
marketing · content seo organic
26 Posts, $3.4M Pipeline: Why Founder-Written Beats Ghostwriting
A $42M ARR vertical SaaS spent $18K a month on a ghostwriting agency. Twelve months: 240 posts, 31,000 followers, six inbound meetings. We swapped to founder interviews. Six months: 26 posts, 41 meetings, $3.4M in pipeline. Position beats velocity.
April 2, 2026
marketing · content seo organic
Cited 3 Times in 120, Competitor 47: The B2B AEO Gap
A $65M ARR SaaS asked ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google AI Overviews 40 buyer questions. They got cited 3 times. Three competitors got 47, 38, and 29. Same category. The four-layer AEO checklist that closes the gap inside two quarters.
March 31, 2026
marketing · content seo organic
Same 48 Posts. One Hit $1.9M Pipeline, the Other $140K.
Two B2B SaaS companies published 48 posts. Eighteen months later one was at 74K visits and $1.9M pipeline, the other at 12K and $140K. The difference wasn't writing or cadence. It was pillar architecture, internal link discipline, and a 90-day refresh on the top 20%.
March 30, 2026
marketing · content seo organic
412K Organic Visits, $180K Pipeline: Why Programmatic SEO Misses
412,000 organic visits produced $180K in qualified pipeline at one $30M ARR SaaS, a 0.2% conversion rate. At another, 4% of programmatic pages drove 94% of pipeline lift. The intent test that separates compounding pipeline from vanity traffic before you scale spend.
March 26, 2026
marketing · brand positioning
The 4-Month PE Rebrand That Cost $7.4M in Pipeline
A $49M ARR PE portfolio company compressed a rebrand to four months and lost 51% of organic traffic and 29% of Q2 pipeline, an estimated $7.4M. Domain migration, sales enablement overlap, and customer comms all need to ship before launch, not after. The 90-day sequencing checklist.
March 24, 2026
marketing · brand positioning
Win Rate 19% to 27%: The Mask-the-Logo Test That Did It
Four CDP companies, one voice, zero differentiation. A $37M ARR revenue intelligence company sat at 19% competitive win rate until a single rewrite that named Gong and Clari moved them to 27% in two quarters. The mask-the-logo test, the skeptic test, and the compression test that get you there.
March 23, 2026
marketing · brand positioning
Win Rate 21% to 29%, Cycle 86 to 67 Days: A 28-Word Rewrite
A $41M ARR HR tech team rebuilt positioning over six weeks. Win rates moved from 21% to 29%. Sales cycle dropped from 86 days to 67. The product hadn't changed, the language had. Soft positioning at $68M ARR can compress exit multiples 0.5-1x, $34-68M of enterprise value left on the table.
March 19, 2026
marketing · brand positioning
$2.6M Spent Pushing 'Autonomous Procurement.' Win Rates Fell 9 Points.
A $52M ARR procurement SaaS spent $2.6M pushing 'autonomous procurement.' Sales cycles grew from 94 to 147 days, win rates dropped from 31% to 22%. The three-part test that separates real category creation from $2M of expensive renaming.
March 18, 2026
marketing · demand generation
11,400 MQLs, Pipeline at 73% of Plan, Revenue at 61%
$78M ARR vertical SaaS hit 11,400 MQLs against a 12K target. Pipeline came in at 73% of plan. Revenue at 61%. The MQL had stopped describing how 6.3-person buying committees actually evaluate. The fix runs through accounts, sourced and influenced pipeline, and one self-reported attribution question.
March 16, 2026
marketing · demand generation
$340K on Intent Data, $180K Closed: The Three Signals That Pay
A $54M ARR data platform spent $340K on intent subscriptions and closed under $180K in revenue from those plays. Most of the signals are theater. Three correlate with closed revenue, ten don't, and a $38M ARR security SaaS lifted meetings per BDR by 34% just by reordering them.
March 12, 2026
marketing · demand generation
82% of Budget on Capture. Pipeline Down 31% in Six Months.
A $47M ARR vertical SaaS spent 82% of marketing on capture. Paid CPL doubled to $620, pipeline fell 18% YoY. The 60/40 creation-capture split that protects the next four quarters when the category stops growing.
March 11, 2026
pricing · monetization ebitda
The Data-Driven Path to Durable EBITDA Improvement
February 24, 2026
pricing · discounting governance
The 27% Discount Hiding Behind Your CRM's 16%
February 18, 2026
sales · deal desk
Your Deal Desk Reviews 20% Discounts. The Leak Is in $25K-$60K Deals.
February 13, 2026
sales · customer retention
68% of Churned Accounts Showed a Usage Drop 75 Days Out
February 10, 2026
sales · gtm alignment
22% of Customers, 41% of Revenue: The GTM Misalignment Tax
December 23, 2025
product · product led growth
How Routing Trial Users Took $7K ACV Conversion 7.1% to 12.4%
Below $10K ACV, a sales rep in your onboarding flow breaks unit economics. One project SaaS at $7K ACV moved trial-to-paid from 7.1% to 12.4% by routing on three signup questions. Another took conversion 9.8% to 17.3% by cutting four onboarding steps.
December 8, 2025
product · product strategy
When a $2.1M Rebuild Beats $800K of Feature Extension
A 14-month rebuild at a $15M ARR SaaS costs $2.1M direct, plus invisible ARR risk from stalled feature velocity. The commercial threshold: payback under 24 months. Over 36, extend. The framework that translates engineering debt into a P&L decision.
November 27, 2025
pricing · pricing strategy
When Prices Feel Expensive: Understanding the Behavioral Ceiling on Pricing Power
Customers don't evaluate prices rationally. Price is a signal, a social statement, and an implicit contract. When a price change violates psychological expectations, the backlash is swift and disproportionate. Four behavioral constraints shape what customers will actually accept, and models miss all of them.
November 19, 2025
pricing · pricing strategy
Value Based Pricing at Series B: $4.1M From One Repricing
September 24, 2025
pricing · monetization ebitda
Channel as a Choice Architect: Why Where We Buy Shapes What It's Worth
Where a customer buys shapes what they'll pay. The same product priced identically across a marketplace, a branded app, a kiosk, and a guided sales motion produces radically different willingness to pay. Channel is the frame. Pricing power starts with choosing which frame a customer sees.
September 15, 2025
marketing · demand generation
How $120K of Earned Media Cut a 127-Day Sales Cycle to 94
September 12, 2025
growth · growth operating system
How Real Scarcity Cut a 78-Day Sales Cycle to 54
September 10, 2025
sales · deal desk
Renewal Touchpoints That Drive Retention and Expansion
September 2, 2025
product · product led growth
Cut 19 SKUs, Move Win Rate from 27% to 38% in 12 Months
August 29, 2025
product · product led growth
Trial-to-Paid 4% to 11% by Surfacing Aha in the First Session
A $19M ARR SaaS shifted onboarding to surface the core value moment in the first session and trial-to-paid jumped from 4% to 11% in 90 days, roughly $2.7M of incremental ARR with no new sales hires. A $31M ARR workflow tool went 94% NRR to 108% on the same logic. Seven PLG design decisions.
August 21, 2025
product · product led growth
Trial-to-Paid 3.2% to 8.7%: Three In-Product Triggers Built It
A $9M ARR project management SaaS rebuilt upsell around three in-product triggers, fifth project, third collaborator, first export, and trial-to-paid conversion went 3.2% to 8.7% in 90 days. ARR reached $12.4M two quarters later without adding a single sales rep.
August 18, 2025
sales · deal desk
22% Discount, 41% Win Rate. Five Moves That Hold Price.
Customers acquired above 15% off list renew 8-12 points lower than list-price customers, $3M a year on a $30M ARR book. One mid-market team trained on value selling moved win rate from 41% to 54% and average discount from 22% to 13%, with new-customer churn falling from 18% to 9%.
August 11, 2025
marketing · demand generation
SMB-to-Enterprise Churn Cut From 34% to 11% by Aligning Four Channels
A $43M ARR infrastructure SaaS lost 34% of customers at the SMB-to-enterprise transition because pricing logic, packaging names, and contract terms didn't match across self-serve, direct, reseller, and marketplace. Aligning the four channels dropped transition churn to 11%. Six steps to align every touchpoint.
August 6, 2025
product · product strategy
28% of Licenses Never Activated: The B2B2C Renewal Killer
28% of deployed licenses never activated. Another 40% used once and abandoned. The HR director sees that dashboard 11 months in and the renewal conversation is over. Most B2B2C products fail because the team picked a side. The framework that decides which side is at risk this quarter.
July 23, 2025
marketing · demand generation
Compliance SaaS Lifted Content-to-Demo From 0.9% to 3.2% in 90 Days
July 16, 2025
product · product led growth
PayPal Spent $60M on Referrals to Get 4M Users. Here's Why It Worked.
PayPal burned $60M on referrals and reached 5 million users in six months. Dropbox went 100K to 4M in 15 months on storage rewards. The structural difference between a referral program and a viral loop, and which one your product can actually engineer.
July 11, 2025
pricing · willingness to pay
Behavioral Signals That Reveal Willingness to Pay
July 8, 2025
pricing · pricing strategy
23% Hike, $3.8M ARR Lost: When High-Affinity Customers Churn 2x
July 1, 2025
pricing · pricing strategy
$92M ARR Portco: 10% Increase, $6.8M of ARR Suddenly At Risk
June 5, 2025
product · product led growth
Freemium Conversion: How B2C and B2B Design Decisions Differ
A B2B project tool ported its freemium tier to consumers and watched 6.2% conversion crater to 0.8%. Removing the collaboration gate, dropping the 3-project cap, and adding a $3.99 student tier moved it back to 2.6% in 90 days. The numbers behind B2C versus B2B free-tier design.
May 14, 2025
product · product strategy
What 1 Point of Logo Retention Is Worth on Your $10M ARR Roadmap
A 1-point lift in logo retention at $10M ARR is worth $100K in avoided erosion. Power users dominate request queues but rarely represent the median customer. The three-dimensional scoring framework that puts a P&L dollar on every roadmap candidate.
May 13, 2025
product · product led growth
How a B2B2C Rebuild Moved Trial-to-Paid from 12% to 31%
One marketplace burned $2.1M and 18 months acquiring buyers while supply churned at 40%. A B2B2C health platform moved trial-to-paid from 12% to 31% by cutting time-to-first-proof from six weeks to 90 minutes. The mechanics behind two-sided PLG that compounds.
March 26, 2025
pricing · packaging tiering
$280K Packaging Project Reverted to Original Tiers in Six Months
March 19, 2025
pricing · price increase
The blanket notice tax: 5 signals that predict how accounts respond
A $22M ARR business sending a 12% increase but granting exceptions to 38% of accounts realizes 7.4% and burns $140K in deal desk time. A $34M ARR SaaS lost $4.1M of at-risk ARR within 45 days from one undifferentiated notice. Score every account on five signals before drafting a word.
March 7, 2025
product · product strategy
Bundling and Packaging Across Business Models: Where Revenue Gaps Live
Same product, same gates, two segments. B2C solo users converted at 14%. B2B teams of 5+ at 2.3%. The gating logic was optimized for individual motivation while procurement needed admin and reporting access to make a case. Half the market churned from the free tier.
February 24, 2025
growth · growth operating system
$3.5M a Year on Three Moonshots: The Stage Gate That Saves It
At $30M ARR, 15% of engineering capacity on three unvetted moonshots is $3.5M a year, and two of three will be dead inside 18 months. Eight steps with kill criteria at 90-day gates separate the bets worth doubling down on from the ones quietly draining gross margin.
January 29, 2025
product · product led growth
Why 18% Day-7 Retention Costs B2C Apps $3.2M a Year
A fitness app with 400K downloads sat at 18% Day-7 retention against a 35-45% category benchmark. That gap was worth $3.2M a year. B2C PLG runs on habit thresholds and viral loops, not feature gates. Here's the playbook.
January 15, 2025
product · product strategy
The 40% Threshold That Reveals Product-Market Fit
NPS is a sentiment trap. B2B engagement metrics often measure contractual compliance, not fit. A 10-point lift in year-2 logo retention is worth $500K at $5M ARR. The retention curves and behavioral signals that actually predict PMF in B2B, B2C, and B2B2C.
December 12, 2024
pricing · willingness to pay
$310K in Credits, 3 Months of Trust Repair: Skipped Phase 3.
November 29, 2024
pricing · discounting governance
Price waterfall analysis: how to build one
August 19, 2024
growth · growth operating system
40 A/B Tests, 6-10 False Positives: The Discipline Most Skip
Run 40 A/B tests a year and 6-10 of them ship as false positives. Real growth wins stay invisible because the experiment design can't detect them. The hypothesis, sample-size, and 90-day post-ship audit discipline that separates 15-25% incremental growth from organizational noise.
July 19, 2024