Beyond the MVP: How SaaS Grid Evolved Their Product Strategy Based on Market Feedback
Most startups overcomplicate their initial product. In a recent episode of Category Visionaries, Ethan Ruby revealed how SaaS Grid took the opposite approach, starting with an almost laughably simple solution before methodically expanding based on customer needs.
Starting With Extreme Simplicity
SaaS Grid’s initial product was deliberately basic. As Ethan explains, “What if instead of being a spreadsheet template, we hired a few contract developers and turned this into a really simple product? And I’m talking incredibly simple, that you literally, you just upload, you upload an Excel spreadsheet and we pop out a few charts for you.”
This minimalist approach had two benefits:
- It validated market demand without significant investment
- It forced clarity about the core value proposition
Identifying the Real Problem
Through early customer interactions, they discovered a universal pain point: “My company’s starting to take off. I have all this data spread across HubSpot, stripe, salesforce, QuickBooks, whatever platform they use. And I need metrics to both pitch investors, but more importantly, to make good decisions about my business.”
This insight shifted their product strategy from simple spreadsheet conversion to comprehensive data integration and analysis.
Evolution Based on Customer Needs
The platform’s evolution was guided by understanding different user personas. As Ethan notes, they discovered “two very different Personas. When I’m talking to seed to sometimes series a companies, I’m normally interfacing with another Founder who knows their business intimately… when I sell to more enterprise customers, I’m interacting mostly with this operations and finance teams.”
These distinct personas helped prioritize feature development:
- Early-stage companies needed investor-ready metrics
- Larger organizations required better data integration and collaboration tools
Building the Technical Foundation
A crucial decision was bringing on dedicated technical leadership. As Ethan describes, “I actually brought my brother on as my technical Co-Founder… He’s rerun the whole app, he’s recruited a great engineering team, set a great engineering culture.”
This technical investment enabled them to expand beyond their initial simple offering while maintaining product quality.
The Path to Platform
Today, SaaS Grid is evolving toward a broader vision. As Ethan explains, “Right now, SaaS grid is the analytics layer for SaaS companies. I want SaaS Grid to be the all in one operating hub for SaaS companies.” This includes expanding into:
- Sales pipeline analytics
- Marketing pipeline analysis
- Invoicing and receivables
- FP&A modeling
- Product analytics
Framework for Feature Prioritization
Their approach to feature development follows a simple principle Ethan articulates: “If you find a really amazing pain point, if you find a business user that’s being absolutely driven crazy by a problem and you could solve it elegantly and get them to pay even a little bit for it, I think you have the basis of being successful.”
This framework prioritizes:
- Clear pain points that customers will pay to solve
- Features that maintain product simplicity
- Capabilities that support their platform vision
Results and Validation
The effectiveness of this approach is evident in their early traction. Four months after launching their paid product, they’ve signed dozens of customers with an average contract value approaching $10,000.
The key lesson for founders? Start simpler than you think necessary, but build a strong technical foundation that can support expansion. As SaaS Grid’s experience shows, customers will guide you toward the right features if you listen carefully to their needs.