EPISODE · May 21, 2025 · 48 MIN
Gia Laudi: Why B2B SaaS Leaders Must “Forget The Funnel” and Embrace Customer-Led Growth
from Scouting for Growth · host Sabine VdL
On this episode of the Scouting For Growth podcast, Sabine VdL talks to Georgiana ‘Gia’ Laudi, a strategic advisor, keynote speaker, and co-founder of Forget The Funnel, a consultancy focused on helping B2B SaaS companies drive predictable, recurring revenue through a truly customer-led approach. In this episode, Gia and I will explore why so many companies get stuck throwing “spaghetti at the wall,” instead of researching who their best customers really are. We’ll look at the common pitfalls teams face when relying solely on funnel-based thinking—plus the steps any organization can take to cultivate a thriving, customer-centric culture. Gia will also share highlights from the remarkable work she’s done with various SaaS brands, as well as tips you can put into practice right away. KEY TAKEAWAYS Two years after drafting up a customer experience map for our company, through the lens of the customer, we grew revenue by 900%. We’d aligned the team and the company, and it facilitated more streamlined conversation, more alignment, more understanding cross-departmentally making things much easier. It gave us a tool and a shared language for operationalising around customer experience. A big reason for forgetting the funnel and leveraging a more customer-led approach is through the lens of recurring revenue businesses. Even if you don’t have a recurring revenue business model most businesses agree that customer retention, expanding existing accounts vs finding new customers contains a lot of value. This serves all kinds of businesses very well. Customer research is often equated with long, drawn-out projects that are very costly and leave you with more questions than answers. There’s a lot of resistance when we use the term ‘customer research’, we tend to use the term ‘customer insights’. We use targeted, streamlined and intentional research via ‘jobs to be done’ which reveal meaningful patterns from as little as 10-12 people which can identify what leads people to seek your business out. Not all customers are created equally, you shouldn’t try to serve every customer, narrow your focus on who really, really cares about the problem that you solve, has a high willingness to pay, deeply understands the value in what you provide and would sing your praises from the mountain tops. BEST MOMENTS ‘If you orient your operations around the customer experience it becomes easy to make all kinds of decisions.’ ‘Existing customers are worth more and are less costly to us as a business vs finding new customers.’ ‘Your relationship with your customer does not end with the purchase, it begins with the purchase.’ ‘Early stage companies should focus on one customer and do a really good job, later stage companies shouldn’t conflate all customers into a homogenous group but think of segmentation in a meaningful way so you can still provide high-converting and resonating experiences even for multiple segments.’ ABOUT THE GUEST Georgiana (“Gia”) Laudi is a strategic advisor, keynote speaker, and co-founder of Forget The Funnel, a consultancy specializing in customer-led growth for B2B SaaS companies. With over 20 years of experience in marketing and product strategy, she’s helped high-growth businesses such as Unbounce, Calendly, and Sprout Social deepen customer insights, align teams around customer value, and drive predictable, recurring revenue. As co-author of the book “Forget The Funnel,” Gia advocates a practical, step-by-step approach to uncovering why the best customers buy—and how to ensure more of them succeed post-purchase. Based in Montreal, Gia is passionate about turning real customer needs into clear messaging, frictionless onboarding, and expansion strategies that empower businesses to scale sustainably. She joins Scouting for Growth to share her journey, discuss common growth pitfalls, and offer actionable tactics any organization can use to become truly customer-led. LinkedIn ABOUT THE HOST Sabine VanderLinden is a corporate strategist turned entrepreneur and the CEO of Alchemy Crew Ventures. She leads venture-client labs that help Fortune 500 companies adopt and scale cutting-edge technologies from global tech ventures. A builder of accelerators, investor, and co-editor of the bestseller The INSURTECH Book, Sabine is known for asking the uncomfortable questions—about AI governance, risk, and trust. On Scouting for Growth, she decodes how real growth happens—where capital, collaboration, and courage meet. If this episode sparked your thinking, follow Sabine VanderLinden on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram for more insights. And if you’re interested in sponsoring the podcast, reach out to the team at [email protected]
What this episode covers
On this episode of Scouting For Growth, Sabine VdL is joined by Georgiana “Gia” Laudi — strategic advisor, keynote speaker, and co-founder of Forget The Funnel — for a masterclass on one of the most underestimated growth levers in B2B SaaS: stop chasing leads… and start designing for the customers who actually stay. If your go-to-market strategy currently feels like “throw spaghetti at the wall and hope something sticks,” Gia delivers the cure: a truly customer-led approach that turns recurring revenue into something predictable (instead of panic-fuelled). Forget the funnel. Follow the customer. Gia explains why funnel-first thinking often traps teams in constant acquisition mode, while ignoring the real engine of sustainable growth: retention and expansion. Even if you’re not a pure recurring revenue business, the principle holds: existing customers are worth more, cost less to keep, and grow faster when the experience works. Or as Gia puts it perfectly: your relationship with the customer doesn’t end at purchase — it begins there. The 900% growth lesson: customer experience as an operating system One of the standout stories in the episode: after mapping the customer experience end-to-end through the customer’s lens, Gia’s company grew revenue by 900% over two years. Why? Because the map created something most teams don’t have: a shared language across departments. It aligned product, marketing, sales, and customer success around the same goal — making decisions faster, reducing internal friction, and operationalising around what customers actually need to succeed. Customer research doesn’t have to be painful (or expensive) Gia reframes “customer research” into something far more usable: customer insights. Instead of massive, slow projects that leave teams overwhelmed, she recommends targeted, intentional research using the Jobs To Be Done approach. The magic is in the pattern recognition: you can learn a shocking amount from just 10–12 conversations — enough to identify why customers seek you out, what triggers buying decisions, and what value they’re really hiring your product for. Not all customers are created equal Gia’s advice for scaling companies is refreshingly blunt: don’t try to serve everyone. Focus on your best-fit customers — the ones who: deeply care about the problem you solve have high willingness to pay understand your value quickly and would recommend you loudly Those are the customers worth building around. Early-stage? Nail one customer segment perfectly. Later-stage? Don’t flatten customers into one generic group — segment meaningfully so experiences still convert and resonate. Why this episode matters For founders, growth leaders, and enterprise innovators, this conversation is a blueprint for durable growth: orient operations around customer experience prioritise retention and expansion over constant acquisition use lightweight insight loops to drive clarity focus on the customers who value you most Because the fastest way to grow isn’t always more leads. It’s more customers who stay, succeed, and tell everyone else to follow.
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Gia Laudi: Why B2B SaaS Leaders Must “Forget The Funnel” and Embrace Customer-Led Growth
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