Is it really necessary to build a personal brand for SaaS products?
By: Macharia Mwangi
Tags: Siliconsavanna, Bootstrapping, Saas Marketing, SaaS, Startupkenya

I remember having this long phone call a few months back with my lawyer. I had just launched Roko and was trying to get my first customers. Her advice on the approach was that I share stories about the huge idea I had when I first thought of it, wanting to start an online mitumba (thrift) selling business. Her idea was for me to get to my socials and start to make videos to create a personal brand about being a typical 20-year-old Kenyan dude sharing his journey in building a start-up which I thought wasn’t really me.

I felt like there were more effective ways to create sales and get customers to buy my idea, sell it, and actually make revenue. Blocking and tackling without starting a youtube channel or being a huge personality, cause personally I love anonymity not trying to be famous.

Research

So a two months ago I started reading and researching brands, sales, and marketing. Reading about the start and development of branding in the ’50s, 60’s up to the ’90s. I intentionally want to push my product still maintaining anonymity in terms of me being the personal brand of the product without self-promoting. A lot of people say that if you are popular /celebrity your product will grow big really quickly. It is true, but I find a lot of Joy in building products but not having to be known or rather self-promoting myself huge. I mean you can obviously do a lot of things in your career and whatever you build, just having that personal brand and an audience can get you started so much faster. But at the end of the day, it’s not just me. I like to work on a business hopefully drive revenue,(plans) and bring value to customers. I don’t want to just run on a speaking circuit. I’m happy to do it if people find it helpful and if I get an invite, but it’s just a game that is not good for me.

Should I build an audience before I launch a product?

Well, it's a great idea but then it depends.

There is a famous saying “Build an audience before you build your product” It’s great but it depends on the product, this mostly works for info products, things like a book, a course, a blog, or something with a personal audience. But I don’t think it’s worth the time with different kinds of products. They build a launch list. But you build an interest list. I think it’s not always about the story but it’s about blocking and tackling sales, cold emails, in-person meetings that I want to start doing with my product. You can still build a successful product without the need to be a big personality or starting a podcast or a youtube channel.

I have seen and read about businesses that chose to go with the personal brand route with courses, books such products, they tend to sell and are almost required. But for other businesses, they get to later learn a lot of bad habits and that route is probably not congruent with what the business model will need for the long term.

Is building a personal brand for a SAAS product important?

Like SAAS doesn’t need all that personal brand stuff. I feel that there are more effective ways to getting your first customers, get the ball rolling, and the most interesting part is getting the raw data about your market and your product, what the business needs, and healthier foundations. Leaning more on a personal brand might as well backfire because the audience loves too much and you might end up delaying co-fundamental problems they might face later.

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