The Real Cost of Lost Customers with Nick Fogle and Baird Hall, Founders of Churnkey

In this episode Nick Fogle and Baird Hall, the founders of Churnkey, tackle the critical issue of customer churn in SaaS businesses. Drawing from their personal experiences as founders of subscription-based platforms, they shed light on the financial, operational, and cultural costs of churn. They also share actionable strategies, tools, and case studies that can help SaaS operators reduce churn, improve retention, and drive growth. Whether you’re battling involuntary payment failures or voluntary cancellations, this episode offers valuable insights into navigating churn challenges effectively.

About Nick Fogle:

Nick is a lawyer turned SaaS Founder and software engineer who works all across the stack. He pioneered the Churnkey prototype to help one of his SaaS companies vanquish churn and reach $140k+ in MRR. When founding Casa with Scott, he co-authored the Wealth Security Protocol and built an industry-leading Bitcoin security application. Ping him on Twitter if you ever want to nerd out about personal finance, investments, or Bitcoin.

About  Baird Hall:

Baird is a 4x SaaS founder based in Charleston, SC. His background is in sales, marketing, and support. He bootstrapped and grew two SaaS companies to over $1M in ARR. When he isn't working on Churnkey's sales and marketing, he is on the water with his wife and daughter. If you want to talk NBA basketball with someone at Churnkey, he is the one.

Here is what we cover:

The Pain of Churn

• Churn stifles SaaS growth, requiring constant customer acquisition. Small reductions (2-3%) significantly boost revenue and valuation.

Lessons and Costs

• Neglecting churn led to stagnant growth for Nick and Baird; reducing churn by 2% increased MRR.
• High churn inflates acquisition costs, reduces lifetime value, and strains operations.

Strategies to Combat Churn

1. Voluntary Churn: Use feedback, personalized cancel flows, targeted offers, and A/B testing.
2. Involuntary Churn: Automate payment recovery with SMS, email, and incentives.

Advanced Tactics

• Apply segmentation, pause offers, and usage-based discounts.
• Ensure compliance with FTC guidelines for transparent cancellation flows.

Case Studies and Trends

• Companies like Veed reduced churn with tailored retention offers.
• Transparency, automation, and customer-friendly policies are key to long-term retention.