Growth Stage by FastSpring

There are few moments in an industry's history where a trend or emerging technology introduces a step function that unlocks an entirely new level of growth. With the rise of D2C and other web based experiences, game publishers are experiencing a rare opportunity to increase profits and establish better long term relationships with players. But how can an industry often reliant on gatekeepers and walled-garden ecosystems build out innovative web teams that quickly and effectively take advantage of this historic opportunity?In this episode of Growth Stage, we interview Caleb Brown of X-Team, a provider of technology talent as a service for top game publishers, about his thoughts around the drivers behind the rise of web experiences in gaming, the key challenges of building an innovative web team from scratch, and how top game publishers & studios are approaching building out their own innovative web teams.If you're wondering how you'll develop your own web strategy to take advantage of this historic opportunity, don't miss this episode of Growth Stage. Watch or listen now!00:00 Introduction to the Rise of Web in Gaming07:32 Understanding X-Team and Its Role14:18 The Shift Towards Direct-to-Consumer Models15:51 Building Innovative Web Teams27:43 The Product vs. Marketing DynamicThis podcast is brought to you by FastSpring. As the leading merchant of record payment platform for digital products, FastSpring delivers an all-in-one solution for payments, subscriptions, and automated tax compliance — enabling digital businesses to expand globally with reduced complexity and lower costs.

If you've recently launched a web store to take advantage of new steering rules on iOS in the US or even if you're an old pro at web store monetization, you may be wondering what is the best way to price and package my in-game items or subscriptions on my web store vs. what I offer in-game through app stores.In this episode of Growth Stage we interview Chip Thurston, Head of Gaming at FastSpring and former monetization leader at Scopely and SciPlay, about his thoughts around how pricing and packaging strategies differ in-game vs. on a web store, what are the top considerations, the role of creators in driving web store value, and how to strike the right balance in rewarding players and increasing your profits.If you're scratching your head wondering what the best pricing and packaging strategies are for your game and web store, don't miss this episode of Growth Stage. Watch or listen now!Transcript available on the FastSpring blog.00:00 Introduction to Pricing and Packaging Strategies05:12 Understanding Game Economy and Player Empathy09:54 Direct-to-Consumer: Web Store vs. App Store15:09 Balancing Player Choices and Monetization20:13 The Role of Creators in Driving Web Store Traffic25:07 Attribution and Incremental Purchases30:04 Key Takeaways for Web Store SuccessThis podcast is brought to you by FastSpring. As the leading merchant of record payment platform for digital products, FastSpring delivers an all-in-one solution for payments, subscriptions, and automated tax compliance — enabling digital businesses to expand globally with reduced complexity and lower costs.

Conversation with Kickbox Director of Operations Hank Hoffmeier about the science of email marketing.Email marketing is often hailed as the highest-ROI channel — especially for SaaS and digital product companies. But what happens when your emails don’t even make it to the inbox?In this episode of Growth Stage, we speak with Hank Hoffmeier, email deliverability evangelist at Kickbox, about how authentication, verification, and deliverability impact your bottom line. Listen to learn:Why deliverability is no longer a “set it and forget it” process.How to fix common mistakes that are silently killing your campaigns.Transcript available on the FastSpring blog.This podcast is brought to you by FastSpring. As the leading merchant of record payment platform for SaaS and software, FastSpring lets you reduce your payments, subscriptions, entitlements, fulfillment, and tax management stack down to one. We manage all the hard parts of transacting globally, allowing you to focus on moving your business farther, faster.(00:00) - Intro (03:07) - Recent major changes in email marketing (07:10) - Important email marketing terminology and tools (14:30) - Key times to reverify or reauthenticate your email settings and tools (16:28) - How open rate validity has changed (20:50) - List hygiene (24:47) - How mobile apps and AI are affecting opens (26:47) - Long-form content in emails (29:10) - Regulatory changes and “permission marketing” (34:26) - One thing Hank would fix for all SaaS and digital companies’ email programs (35:19) - Special offer from Kickbox for listeners

In this episode of Growth Stage, we interview payments industry legend and VP of Payments at FastSpring, Jeremy Waxman about his thoughts on what the most common payment stack attacks are, why bad actors choose those particular types of attacks, and what you can do to make your payment stack more secure regardless of who your payment provider is.With 25+ years of experience spanning Comcast, Fiserv, and Digital River, Jeremy has seen it all — from brazen carding attacks to operationally overwhelming waves of chargebacks. In this discussion, he breaks down how fraudsters operate, the costly mistakes companies make, and what you can do to stay ahead.Listen for the full insights into:Why carding and account takeover attacks remain the most common (and expensive) threats to payment systems.How overlooking small data anomalies — like approval rates by BIN — can cost companies hundreds of thousands in decline fees.Why payment fraud isn’t just about fines, but also reputational risk, operational overload, and long-term damage to approval rates.Transcript available on the FastSpring blog.This podcast is brought to you by FastSpring. As the leading merchant of record payment platform for digital products, FastSpring delivers an all-in-one solution for payments, subscriptions, and automated tax compliance — enabling digital businesses to expand globally with reduced complexity and lower costs.

Building a lasting business isn’t easy. Knowing what really makes a company succeed long term can be even harder.That’s why it can be helpful to learn from companies that have stood the test of time.In this episode of Growth Stage, we celebrate FastSpring’s 20th anniversary with insights from its first CEO, Dan Engel, and current CEO, David Nachman. They share:What has helped FastSpring thrive for two decades.What mistakes to avoid when building your own business.What it really takes to build something that lasts.Whether you’re planning to exit in two years or fifty, take a moment to step back and think about the long term future of your business. Watch or listen now!Transcript available on the FastSpring blog.This podcast is brought to you by FastSpring. As the leading merchant of record payment platform for SaaS and software, FastSpring lets you reduce your payments, subscriptions, entitlements, fulfillment, and tax management stack down to one. We manage all the hard parts of transacting globally, allowing you to focus on moving your business farther, faster.

Conversation with Equalize Digital CEO Amber Hinds about making the web more accessible for people with disabilities.Amber Hinds is the founder and CEO of Equalize Digital, a mission-driven agency focused on digital accessibility. As the creator of the Accessibility Checker plugin for WordPress and lead organizer of the WordPress Accessibility Meetup, Amber is at the forefront of helping companies make their websites and SaaS products usable for everyone — including people who are blind, deaf, or have mobility or cognitive impairments.In this episode, Amber shares the real-world implications of accessibility, how it intersects with SEO and compliance, and what companies can do right now to improve usability for all.To learn more about how accessibility impacts business growth, listen for the full insights into: Why accessibility improvements often lead to better SEO, lower bounce rates, and higher conversions What global regulations like the European Accessibility Act mean for SaaS and ecommerce companies How to start testing your website or product today — using free tools, real users, or expert auditsTo hear all this and more about making the web work for everyone, listen now!Transcript available on the FastSpring blog.00:00 Introduction to Accessibility and Equalize Digital03:05 Understanding Website Accessibility05:58 The Importance of Accessibility08:56 Legal Implications of Accessibility11:45 Barriers to Implementing Accessibility14:55 Human Testing vs. Machine Testing17:48 User Testing and Accessibility Feedback24:57 Effective User Testing for Accessibility28:32 The Importance of Accessibility in Software Development32:29 Examples of Accessibility Best Practices38:42 Getting Started With Accessibility ImprovementsThis podcast is brought to you by FastSpring. As the leading merchant of record payment platform for digital products, FastSpring delivers an all-in-one solution for payments, subscriptions, and automated tax compliance—enabling digital businesses to expand globally with reduced complexity and lower costs.

Conversation with brandiD’s Founder and CEO Rachel Gogos about how SaaS leaders can build personal brands that drive connection, credibility, and growth.Your personal brand is more than a polished LinkedIn profile — it’s how you stand out, connect with customers, and build long-term credibility as a founder or executive. But how do you create an authentic personal brand that actually works?In this episode of Growth Stage, we talk with Rachel Gogos — Founder and CEO of brandiD — about her SOULiD framework and how digital business leaders can craft a brand that reflects who they truly are, while supporting their business goals.Rachel shares:What makes up a strong personal brand (and why every founder already has one).How personal branding boosts clarity, confidence, and even company resilience.Practical ways SaaS leaders can uncover and express their unique identity.Mistakes to avoid (like overusing AI or oversharing on social media).Why consistency matters more than perfection.If you're a founder, executive, or thought leader looking to stand out and connect with the right audience — without turning into a personal branding cliché — this episode is for you. Listen now!Transcript available on the FastSpring blog.This podcast is brought to you by FastSpring. As the leading merchant of record payment platform for digital products, FastSpring delivers an all-in-one solution for payments, subscriptions, and automated tax compliance—enabling digital businesses to expand globally with reduced complexity and lower costs.

Conversation with Nexus CEO Justin Sacks introducing the FastSpring and Nexus web shop integration.If you're looking for one of the fastest ways to launch your D2C channel, you may be interested in hearing more about the incredibly easy-to-implement solution offered through a partnership with D2C payment platform FastSpring and creator program in a box provider Nexus.In this episode of Growth Stage, we interview CEO of Nexus Justin Sacks about his thoughts on:The core challenges the partnership was established to address.How the integration works.Exactly how publishers can use FastSpring + Nexus to quickly launch a successful D2C channel.If you're sitting on your hands worried that launching D2C has to be a massively disruptive project, you may be surprised what is possible for you and your players. Listen now!Transcript available on the FastSpring blog.This podcast is brought to you by FastSpring. As the leading merchant of record payment platform for digital products, FastSpring delivers an all-in-one solution for payments, subscriptions, and automated tax compliance—enabling digital businesses to expand globally with reduced complexity and lower costs.

Conversation with oeksound CEO Hannes Andersson about taking an audio plugins business global.When the first oeksound plugin, Soothe, was created in 2016, creator Olli Keskinen and his friend Hannes Andersson were studying music technology to become recording engineers. And as Hannes puts it, they weren’t in the plugin industry or experienced with software ecommerce when Olli’s plugin quickly became popular, thanks to a simple post on a popular online audio forum. Today, oeksound is a global software company in the audio and video space, with their plugins used by some hugely recognizable names in the music industry.To learn more about how they did it, listen for the full insights into:How oeksound’s pricing and trial options make their products more accessible to more users.Why the user experience and user feedback is so important for improving and marketing plugins.Why a frictionless purchase process is such a key focus for oeksound to continue expanding their sales.To hear all this and more about oeksound’s experience with taking their plugin business global, listen now!Transcript available on the FastSpring blog.This podcast is brought to you by FastSpring. As the leading merchant of record payment platform for digital products, FastSpring delivers an all-in-one solution for payments, subscriptions, and automated tax compliance—enabling digital businesses to expand globally with reduced complexity and lower costs.

Conversation with Here’s Waldo Recruiting’s Founder and CEO Lizzie Mintus about how to compete with large brands to recruit the best talent.If you're running a smaller digital business, you may find it challenging to hire great talent. Larger technology companies can pay more, offer more benefits, and provide a more marketable brand on a candidate's resume. So how are smaller companies supposed to compete with large brands for the best talent?In this episode of Growth Stage, we interview Lizzie Mintus — Founder and CEO of Here's Waldo Recruiting and host of The Here’s Waldo Podcast — about her thoughts on:The most effective recruiting strategies for SMBs.How to leverage community involvement and content to punch above your weight.Insights on why the best candidates say “YES!” to working for smaller brands.If you're facing challenges winning the best candidates for your roles, or if you have a small number of roles and every hire really matters, then don't miss this episode of Growth Stage. Listen now!Transcript available on the FastSpring blog.This podcast is brought to you by FastSpring. As the leading merchant of record payment platform for digital products, FastSpring delivers an all-in-one solution for payments, subscriptions, and automated tax compliance—enabling digital businesses to expand globally with reduced complexity and lower costs.

Conversation with Flippa CEO Blake Hutchison about Flippa and selling a SaaS or digital product business.If you own a SaaS or other digital product business — such as a Slack plugin, Chrome extension, online publishing business, mobile app, or even a blog — and you’re looking to exit, you may have a lot of questions about how best to go about it.In this episode of Growth Stage, we interview Flippa CEO Blake Hutchison about how Flippa works, as well as insights on what you should know if you're a digital business owner looking to sell your business.Listen for the full insights into:How Flippa.com works to connect for-sale businesses with buyers while managing the complexities of valuation and seller expectations.Advice on how SaaS or digital product company owners can prepare for a successful exit, including financial hygiene and knowing what the right time to sell looks like for themselves.How selling an investment business is very different from getting VC funding.If it’s time to sell your SaaS, app, or other digital product business, listen to this episode of Growth Stage now!Transcript available on the FastSpring blog.This podcast is brought to you by FastSpring. As the leading merchant of record payment platform for digital products, FastSpring delivers an all-in-one solution for payments, subscriptions, and automated tax compliance—enabling digital businesses to expand globally with reduced complexity and lower costs.

Conversation with Nexus CEO Justin Sacks about earning 50% or more of your game’s revenue via D2C sales.With changes to legislation in the EU and lawsuits in the U.S., the future of monetizing your game direct to consumer looks brighter than ever. That said, you might be wondering what strategies work within the confines of today's rules and if it's even possible to earn 50% or more of your game's revenue through D2C.In this episode of Growth Stage, we interview gaming D2C and creator marketing expert Justin Sacks of Nexus about his thoughts on:What winning strategies AAA and AA publishers use for D2C in mobile.Why these strategies actually can result in >50% revenue coming from D2C.How you can pursue these strategies to drive more profitability for your games, while developing a more meaningful relationship with your players.If you're wondering how to exponentially grow your profits and deliver a better experience for your players, listen to this episode of Growth Stage now!Transcript available on the FastSpring blog.This podcast is brought to you by FastSpring. As the leading merchant of record payment platform for digital products, FastSpring delivers an all-in-one solution for payments, subscriptions, and automated tax compliance—enabling digital businesses to expand globally with reduced complexity and lower costs.

Conversation with FastSpring Product Manager Sudipto Manna about using targeted payment methods to achieve global growth.As you work to expand your SaaS, software, mobile games, or other digital product business worldwide, having the right payment methods available to global customers is key to ensuring they all feel comfortable purchasing. But just knowing which payment methods you need to offer in each region can get really complicated really quickly, let alone how to implement them. In this episode of Growth Stage, we interview Sudipto Manna of FastSpring about: How to unlock global growth by leveraging payment methods.Some of the payment methods that are important for key geographies, and why those payment methods are so important to local shoppers.How FastSpring is supporting digital product and gaming companies with these methods.If you want to offer more payment methods around the world, don’t miss this episode of Growth Stage. Listen now!Transcript available on the FastSpring blog.This podcast is brought to you by FastSpring. As the leading merchant of record payment platform for digital products, FastSpring delivers an all-in-one solution for payments, subscriptions, and automated tax compliance—enabling digital businesses to expand globally with reduced complexity and lower costs.

Conversation with FastSpring Senior Account Executive Jay Jia about expanding a digital goods company in Asia.If your business is based in the APAC region and you’re focused on expanding into new areas, there are a lot of common challenges to face and questions to ask about the best way to do that. On this episode of Growth Stage, we interview Jay Jia, FastSpring Senior Account Executive, about his insights into:Tips on expanding a digital goods company in Asia.Current market trends in Asia that can affect expansion and the challenges associated with those market trends.The payments landscape and how it affects businesses trying to grow in Asia.If you’re not sure how to kickstart growth for your digital products or software business in Asia, listen now!Transcript available on the FastSpring blog.This podcast is brought to you by FastSpring. As the leading merchant of record payment platform for digital products, FastSpring delivers an all-in-one solution for payments, subscriptions, and automated tax compliance—enabling digital businesses to expand globally with reduced complexity and lower costs.

Conversation with Sr. Product Marketing Manager Braden Steel of FastSpring.Is your product marketing team struggling to coordinate marketing resources to support an endless stream of product launches, with vague release dates and a chorus of product managers demanding tons of marketing attention for each release? What if there were a better way?In this episode of Growth Stage, we interview Braden Steel, Sr. Product Marketing Manager at FastSpring, to discuss his thoughts on what is wrong with traditional product marketing and how FastSpring is using quarterly thematic product launches to:Give the best best attention to all product releases.Tell an overarching product story where the whole is more valuable than the sum of its parts.Help marketing be planful and thoughtful so they can provide their best work for product releases.If you’re running yourself ragged with over-active product roadmaps, endless “t-shirt” sizing for agile project estimations, slipping product release dates, or being worried about letting your product managers down, it may be time to consider thematic product releases. Learn how in this episode of Growth Stage. Listen now!Transcript available on the FastSpring blog.This podcast is brought to you by FastSpring. As the leading merchant of record payment platform for digital products, FastSpring delivers an all-in-one solution for payments, subscriptions, and automated tax compliance—enabling digital businesses to expand globally with reduced complexity and lower costs.

Conversation with Gamesight Founder and CEO Adam Lieb about developing a winning KPI strategy for video game marketing.With so many marketing channels to manage to promote your game, combined with the complexity of monetizing your games on multiple platforms, in PC marketplaces, or even D2C via your own webshop, your head might be spinning keeping up with where to focus your efforts.In this episode of Growth Stage, we interview Adam Lieb of Gamesight about his thoughts on:Why video game marketing is so complex.What KPI can help you cut through the noise.Key strategies for interpreting your KPI over time.If you're wondering how to focus your team where it matters the most, don't miss this episode of Growth Stage. Listen now!Transcript available on the FastSpring blog.This podcast is brought to you by FastSpring. As the leading merchant of record payment platform for digital products, FastSpring delivers an all-in-one solution for payments, subscriptions, and automated tax compliance—enabling digital businesses to expand globally with reduced complexity and lower costs.

Conversation with Sahil Patel, CEO of Spiralyze, about B2B CRO and A/B testing. The most common examples of successful CRO tactics provided at many conferences tend to focus on B2C ecommerce, but what are the proven winning tactics you can use in your B2B CRO strategy?In this episode of Growth Stage, we interview Sahil Patel of Spiralyze about his thoughts on: Special considerations for B2B CRO.The best way to think about your B2B test data approach.Winning strategies Sahil has found helping clients like BambooHR, Okta, and Harvest with their B2B CRO. If you're scratching your head wondering what you'll test next with your B2B CRO strategy, don't miss this episode. Listen now!Transcript available on the FastSpring blog.This podcast is brought to you by FastSpring. As the leading merchant of record payment platform for digital products, FastSpring delivers an all-in-one solution for payments, subscriptions, and automated tax compliance—enabling digital businesses to expand globally with reduced complexity and lower costs.

Conversation with Adam Riemer, President of Adam Riemer Marketing, about advanced affiliate marketing and SEO.Affiliate marketing can be a great growth lever to scale your digital product business, but how can you drive meaningful growth with the right affiliates without losing out to fraud or shady attribution schemes?In this episode of Growth Stage, we interview affiliate marketing veteran and attribution animal Adam Riemer of Adam Riemer Marketing about his thoughts on: What proper affiliate marketing looks like.How to weed out fraudsters & shady attribution affiliates.How to go about recruiting the RIGHT affiliates to help drive meaningful growth in your business.If you've set up an affiliate program and don't know what to do next, or you're looking for tips on how to tame your existing affiliate program, don't miss this episode of Growth Stage. Listen now!Transcript available on the FastSpring blog.This podcast is brought to you by FastSpring. As the leading merchant of record payment platform for digital products, FastSpring delivers an all-in-one solution for payments, subscriptions, and automated tax compliance—enabling digital businesses to expand globally with reduced complexity and lower costs.

Conversation with Podia Senior Growth Marketer Marc Thomas about how to de-risk trying new, more innovative marketing strategies.Traditional marketing playbooks are falling short in the SaaS world, but while many marketers privately acknowledge the ineffectiveness of these playbooks, they are still hesitant to discuss it publicly. Far too often, too much time is spent implementing copy-and-paste versions of existing marketing playbooks, and not enough time is spent on creating new playbooks that are unique to your company and fueled by research that makes you stand out.Analytics and attribution are becoming harder and harder.It’s easy to look at competition and do the same thing they’ve done, but then you’re always playing catchup.Large companies are eating up the majority of the consideration data set, with high intent, in traditional channels.The landscape is getting more and more crowded, and great marketing is really hard and takes time.Plus, while many marketing leaders have the career stability and influencer clout to try risky things without risking their jobs, the people at the bottom who are actually doing the work don’t have that advantage — and they’re the ones who are often held responsible for metrics and success numbers. So how do marketers break out of the cycle of always sticking to the safest playbooks when if they aren’t working as well as they used to?In this episode of Growth Stage, Fred Linfjärd interviews Podia Senior Growth Marketer Marc Thomas about:Why not enough marketers are talking about the failure of the same old playbooks.Why it’s become so hard to market (and measure marketing efforts) for software and SaaS products.Marc’s RINse and Repeat framework that helps marketers Relate to customers, Ideate novel and innovative marketing strategies, and Narrate the impact of their marketing to leadership.Examples of innovative, unique marketing strategies that Marc and his team have had success with. And so much more!Transcript available on the FastSpring blog.This podcast is brought to you by FastSpring. As the leading merchant of record payment platform for digital products, FastSpring delivers an all-in-one solution for payments, subscriptions, and automated tax compliance—enabling digital businesses to expand globally with reduced complexity and lower costs.

Conversation with Fred Linfjärd, Director of Growth at Planday, about switching from a one-time fees model to a subscription billing model.If you're selling your software, plugin, add-on, or other digital product for a one-time fee, you’re likely thinking about switching to a recurring subscription model. While the financial reasons are strong to switch to subscriptions, your path to roll out this massive change to your business is filled with peril. Will your existing users revolt to the change and switch to a new product? Will your subscriptions renew at a high enough rate to counteract a reduction in one-time sales? How do you even roll this out?In this episode of Growth Stage, we interview Fred Linfjärd of Planday about his experiences switching from a one-time billing model to subscriptions. Fred shares his thoughts on: Why digital product companies should embrace subscriptions.How to justify the switch to your customer base.Avoiding the worst of community blowback.Must-do tactics for your rollout plan.As a bonus, our host David Vogelpohl also has experience moving massively popular digital products from one-time fees to subscriptions, so this interview is full of hard-learned insights you can use to find success in your own rollout of subscriptions.Whether you're considering switching to subscriptions or are in the middle of switching, don't miss this chance to learn insider tips on how to make this transition successful for your business. Listen or watch now!Transcript available on the FastSpring blog.This podcast is brought to you by FastSpring. As the leading merchant of record payment platform for digital products, FastSpring delivers an all-in-one solution for payments, subscriptions, and automated tax compliance—enabling digital businesses to expand globally with reduced complexity and lower costs.