SaaSSaaS Pulse

EP54: Why You Can't Copy Competitors / DemandMaven

Asia Orangio
Asia Orangio•Dec 9, 2025

Original Description

Asia and Kim tackle a common traps in SaaS growth: copying competitors and successful companies without understanding context. From website design to major strategic bets, they break down what's safe to copy, what's dangerous, and why context is everything.
Key Highlights
* The spectrum of copying: From benign to dangerous
* Why brand is more than just visual aesthetics
* The difference between copying and being inspired by another company
* Context is king: Why your unique situation determines what strategies will work
* The Intercom effect: When everyone wanted to copy a market leader's playbook
* Why successful companies' current strategies won't work for early-stage companies
* Copying tactics without understanding buyer behavior
* Strategic choices are contextual - What worked for them at their stage won't work for you at yours
* How to build an inspiration board that translates to actionable strategy
Timestamps
0:00 Introduction: The trap of copying competitors
1:03 When founders make choices based on what competitors are doing
1:54 What are the ways you can copy other SaaS businesses?
2:16 Website design and visual aesthetics - Relatively benign
3:42 Brand inspiration: Visuals vs. core values
4:44 The difference between inspiration and copying
5:15 Copying positioning, messaging, and copywriting - Dangerous territory
7:38 Channel strategies and campaign ideas - Mostly benign
9:06 Big strategic bets - Where copying becomes truly harmful
11:27 Why context is everything in determining success
12:31 What "context" actually means: Market, stage, capital, team strengths
13:02 If your context is unique, everyone else's is too
14:41 The Walmart vs. Target example: Similar competitors, different contexts
15:11 When copying works: Similar contexts + clear differentiators
16:44 When everyone's zigging, should you zag?
17:16 Stay true to yourself AND understand their truth
17:54 The Intercom obsession: When everyone wanted to copy the market leader
19:18 Why Intercom's playbook worked for them but not for you
22:49 The danger of copying without understanding product differences
26:32 How to build an inspiration board the right way
28:27 The critical question: What about their context makes this work?
31:54 Translating inspiration to what actually makes sense for your buyers
32:22 Strategic choices are made within context - Remember this
33:43 Don't look at billion-dollar companies and copy what they're doing now
34:22 The marathon runner analogy: You can't run a marathon tomorrow
35:02 Training for your first marathon vs. qualifying for Boston
36:14 Closing thoughts on translation vs. copying
Who Should Listen
- SaaS founders tempted to copy what successful competitors are doing
- CEOs wondering why strategies that worked for others aren't working for them
- Anyone who's ever said "our competitor is doing X, so we should too"
- Founders building inspiration boards but unsure how to translate ideas to their context
#SaaS #CompetitiveStrategy #SaaSGrowth #GTMStrategy #MarketStrategy #Positioning #SaaSMarketing #CompetitiveAnalysis #B2BSaaS #GrowthStrategy #SaaSBusiness #ProductMarketing #BrandStrategy
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/ ABOUT ASIA
Asia Orangio helps SaaS founders and growth teams reach their growth goals through tried-and-true go-to-market strategy, customer research, positioning and messaging, and growth practices. Asia also previously served on the board of directors at Moz before it was successfully acquired in 2021. In early 2018, Asia founded DemandMaven — a growth consultancy that helps SaaS, software, and internet-based companies troubleshoot their growth, identify new growth opportunities, and successfully go-to-market. Previously, Asia served in a number of marketing roles, but most notably as head of marketing at Hull where she helped the team 10.5x in growth, and #FlipMyFunnel / Terminus as demand generation manager.
/ ABOUT DEMANDMAVEN
DemandMaven helps SaaS and internet-based companies find growth opportunities, troubleshoot their growth, and successfully GTM. We get founders and CEOs — both VC-funded and bootstrapped — to the next growth stage by helping them identify their biggest strategic growth blockers, focus their efforts on their best paying customers through customer research, and build growth engines that actually work for years, not weeks.
DemandMaven was founded in early 2018 by Asia Orangio — SaaS marketing and growth expert.

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