💹 Acquisition project | Hiver

💹

Acquisition project | Hiver

🙋🏻‍♀️ Hey there, I am Sharmishtha Sharma and I work as a Product Consultant with early stage start-ups helping them build their MVP and reaching their PMF.

For my GrowthX Acquisition project submission, I've picked up a B2B SaaS product Hiver.

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All about Hiver

What is Hiver?

Why did I pick Hiver?

What are Hiver's core features?

What differentiates Hiver from it's competitor?

Elevator Pitch

Understanding the market space

Diving deep into TAM, SAM, SOM

Hiver's competitors

All about Hiver's users

Knowing your customer

Identifying ICP

ICP Prioritisation

How does a potential customer discover Hiver?

Hiver's CAC to LTV ratio

Exploring Acquisition channels

What stage is Hiver in?

How do we know that Hiver is in the Early scaling stage?

Is Hiver ready for acquisition?

Choosing the acquisition channel

Detailing your Acquisition Channel

And it's a wrap

Questions for the Hiver's team

Hypothesis & Game Plan

Resources

All about Hiver

What is Hiver? 🤷‍♀️

Hiver is a help desk product for customer service teams built on top of your mailbox to save teams from training on another platform and help them streamline their multi-channel customer communication all in one place.

Website	https://hiverhq.com/
Founder, CEO	Niraj Ranjan Rout
Founding Year	2011
Total team size	120
Market Segement	B2B SaaS
Total Funding	$46.2M
Total customers	1700
Customer Locations	Worldwide

Total revenue	$10M
Price plans	$15 - $59 per seat per month
ARPU	$500 - $600

Why did I pick Hiver? 💭

I stumbled upon Hiver a couple of months back while interviewing with them. During my interview process I researched the product and was amazed by how beautifully they've designed their product. I believe it's easy to build a product from scratch than building one on top of an already existing product. It takes intricate detailing to fit everything together. it's like being a ~~craftsmen~~ craftsperson but for a product.

They identified a common problem but with a very niche requirement and while picking my GrowthX project I relalised I'd love to work on a product that comes with such a twist.

What are Hiver's core features?

Unlike traditional helpdesk products, Hiver users get onboarded on the product within a couple of hours of signing-up.
Makes collaboration easy with team members over shared inboxes
Automations to organise the inbox and balance work load.
Hiver is integrated with over 25 products for an end to end seamlingless customer experience.
Analytics to optimise effeciency and measure customer satisfaction.

What differentiates Hiver from it's competitor?

Simplicity - Hiver custmers don't need to learn another tool to manage their customer communication. Managing customer communication can be seamlessly done within their Inbox.

Accessibility - With your customer communications streamlined in your Inbox, you can manage work anytime, anywhere from your phone.

Elevator Pitch

Hola!!

Are you one of those teams that run a email heavy business, operate one or more shared mailboxes and need to co-ordinate with multiple teams and team members to resolve the issue all while managing email response rates?

Are you looking to solve the above problem but onboarding another product sounds daunting to you? If your answer is 'Yes' then Hiver is for you.

Hiver transforms your inbox into your customer helpdesk making email collaboration easy. It streamlines customer communication, enhances team productivity, and ensures no customer query falls through the cracks.

The escalation and approval workflows, automates most of the mundane tasks while the one click integration with over 25+ products make it seemless to push data from Hiver to other products. Assigning tasks and adding emails to a shared inbox makes Hiver the most attractive feature to it's customers. The recently released AI capabilites automates email responses just like a human would.

Hiver has helped teams save 100s of hours through their automation and faster assignments.

Understanding the market space by Porter's Five Forces

Threat of new entrants - Low! Hiver operates in a niche market making it harder for new entrants to attract these customers

Bargaining power of suppliers - Low! The nature of software development means suppliers have minimal direct influence over costs or operations.

Bargaining power of buyers - High! Bussiness can switch to other products as and when they scale

Threat of substitues - High! It's an overly crowded industry with a bunch of other substitues available

Industry Rivarly - High! It's a highly comptitive market

Diving deep into TAM, SAM, SOM

TAM

Paying Google Workspace business = 8M

If each business has 15 users then we have = 120M users

ARPU = $600

TAM = 120 * 600 = $72 billion per year

SAM

SMBs in North America = 33M

Assuming 10% of them use paid Google Workspace (Outlook is more prominent in Enterprise businesses) = 3 M

If each business has 15 users then we have = 52M users

ARPU = $600

SAM = 52 * 600 = $31 billion per year

SOM
Going by 1% penetration in North America SMBs

SOM = 0.01 * 31 = $310M per year

Hiver's competitors

Amongst Hiver's direct competitors, Hiver leads the segment

But if we get into the indirect competitors in the help desk space and consider the entire umbrella, Hiver has a market share of less than 2%.

Factors	Hiver	Gmelius	HelpScout
Core Problem Being Solved	Simplifies customer support within Gmail, turning it into a collaborative helpdesk.	Enhances Gmail for team collaboration, project management, and customer support.	Provides an easy-to-use helpdesk solution for SMBs, focused on customer service.
Products/Features/Services	Shared Inboxes, Email Assignment, SLAs, Analytics, Automations, Multi-Channel Support	Shared Inbox, Kanban Boards, Task Management, Email Notes, Workflow Automation	Shared Inboxes, Customer Management, Workflow Automation, Reporting, Knowledge Base
Who are the Users?	SMBs, Customer Support Teams, Remote Teams	SMBs, Remote Teams, Project Managers, Customer Support Teams	SMBs, Customer Support Teams, Startups
GTM Strategy	Focused on Google Workspace users, emphasizing simplicity and seamless integration.	Targets Google Workspace users, emphasizing productivity and collaboration within Gmail.	Focused on small to medium-sized businesses with a strong emphasis on simplicity and ease of use.
What Channels Do They Use?	Inbound marketing, Google Workspace marketplace, partnerships.	Inbound marketing, Google Workspace marketplace, direct sales.	Content marketing, direct sales, customer referrals.
What Pricing Model Do They Operate On?	Per-user, tiered pricing.	Per-user, tiered pricing.	Per-user, tiered pricing.
How Have They Raised Funding?	Bootstrap with a focus on profitability and organic growth.	Venture-backed with a focus on growth and product development.	Venture-backed, focused on expanding in the SMB market.
Brand Positioning	A simple, powerful helpdesk for Gmail users, turning email into an efficient customer support tool.	A productivity suite for Gmail users that enhances collaboration and project management.	A simple, user-friendly helpdesk designed for small businesses and startups.
UX Evaluation	User-friendly with a clean interface, leveraging the familiar Gmail environment.	Intuitive, integrates seamlessly into Gmail, but can be complex with many features.	Simple and clean interface, with a focus on ease of use for small teams.
What is Your Product’s Right to Win?	Seamless integration with Gmail, making it easy for teams already using Google Workspace to adopt.	Versatile tool that combines email management, project management, and automation in Gmail.	Strong customer support focus, simplicity, and affordability for small teams.
What Can You Learn from Them?	Consider expanding product offerings to include more channels or integrations.	Gmelius’s approach to combining multiple tools into one can inspire broader feature development.	HelpScout’s focus on customer experience and simplicity can inform UX improvements and customer engagement strategies.

All about Hiver's users

Knowing your customer

After scanning 1,090 reviews on G2, SMBs have turned out to be the major section of Hiver's current ICP.

Identifying your ICP

Criteria	Single Business Owners/Micro Businesses	SMB Owners	Remote or Distributed Teams
Company Size	Micro Businesses (1-10 employees)	Small to Medium Businesses (10-500 employees)	Small to Medium Businesses (10-500 employees)
Role	Owner, Sole Proprietor	Business Owner, CEO, General Manager	Team Leads, Managers
Primary Goal	Manage customer communications efficiently with minimal resources	Streamline business operations, manage customer communications effectively	Enhance collaboration and transparency among team members
Pain Points	Limited resources, wearing multiple hats, cost constraints	Limited resources, need for cost-effective solutions, managing multiple roles	Managing communication across time zones, maintaining transparency
Preferred Tools	Google Workspace, QuickBooks, Trello	Google Workspace, Slack, QuickBooks, Trello	Google Workspace, Slack, Notion, Zoom
Key Decision Criteria	Cost-effectiveness, ease of use, minimal learning curve	Cost-effectiveness, ease of use, integration with existing tools	Ability to support remote work, enhance collaboration, easy access to information
Buying Process	Direct purchase, often self-implemented	Direct purchase or through referrals, often influenced by cost and ease of implementation	Often trials products, seeks feedback from team members
Customer Journey Stage	Awareness to Decision, typically looking for cost-effective, easy-to-use tools	Awareness to Decision, typically looking for efficient tools as the business grows	Awareness to Consideration, looking for tools to enhance remote collaboration
Product Benefits for ICP	Easy to use, integrates with Google Workspace, cost-effective	Turns Gmail into a helpdesk, cost-effective, integrates with Google Workspace	Supports asynchronous communication, easy collaboration within Gmail
Challenges Addressed	Managing all aspects of the business, limited budget	Managing multiple roles, limited resources	Communication across time zones, transparency
Decision Influencers	Cost, ease of use, minimal implementation effort	Cost, ease of use, recommendations from peers	Team feedback, product trials, ease of collaboration
Other Products Used	QuickBooks, Trello, Google Workspace	Slack, QuickBooks, Trello	Notion, Slack, Zoom, Dropbox
Adoption Curve	Early Majority	Early Majority	Early Adopters
Frequency of Use	Daily	Daily	Daily
Appetite to Pay	Low to Medium	Medium	Medium
TAM (in Numbers)	$300 million	$2.25 billion	$675 million
Distribution Potential	High (Many micro businesses use Google Workspace)	High (Many SMBs use Google Workspace)	Medium (Depends on remote work trends)
Decision Maker	Business Owner	Business Owner	Marketing or Sales Manager
Decision Blocker	Budget constraints	Cost, complexity of implementation	Integration with existing tools
Organisation Goals	Sustainable growth, profitability	Efficiency, growth, customer satisfaction	Growth, customer engagement, revenue
Preferred Outreach Channel	Email, Social Media, Referrals	Email, Referrals, Direct Sales	Email, Webinars, Content Marketing
Conversion Time	Short (1-2 weeks)	Medium (2-4 weeks)	Medium to Long (4-8 weeks)
GMV (Gross Merchandise Value)	Low (Varies greatly)	Medium to High	High
Growth of Company	Slow to Medium	Medium	High
Motivation	Efficiency, simplicity, cost savings	Efficiency, cost savings, growth	Growth, revenue, customer engagement
Organisational Influence	Low to Medium	Medium	High

ICP Prioritisation

Criteria	ICP 1	ICP 2	ICP 3
Adoption Curve	High	High	High
Appetite to Pay	Low	Medium	High
Frequency of Use Case	High	High	High
Distribution Potential	High	High	High
TAM	Low	High	Medium

Clearly, the main ICP for Hiver are the Small & Medium Business (SMBs)

How does a potential customer discover Hiver?

Keyword analysis was done on US VPN and in in-cognito

Keyword	Position	First search	First competitor
"Shared inbox in gmail"	Not on the first page	Helpscount	Helpscout
"Gmail helpdesk"	Not on the first page	Google	Hiver
"customer support for Gmail"	Not on the first page	Google	Hiver
"Google Workspace helpdesk tool”	Seventh	Google	Zoho
"email collaboration in Gmai"	Not on the first page	Google	Helpscout
"help desk"	Not on the first page	Helpdesk	Helpdesk

Hiver's CAC to LTV ratio

CAC = $1600

ARPU = $500

Average Revenue Per Customer = $500 * 12 = $6000

Customer retention years = 2 years (minimum life time assumption)

LTV = $12000

CAC to LTV should be less than 33%

CAC to LTV for Hiver is 13% 🔥

Exploring acquisition channels

What stage is Hiver currently in

How do we know that Hiver is in the Early scaling stage?

Their Annual Recurring Revenue is over $10 million
Hiver is used by over 1500 businesses
Hiver has a rating of 4.6 by 1,090 reviewers on G2

Is Hiver ready for acquisition?

Is the product pulling the people?
Did they experience AHAA
Are they bragging about the product?

Choosing the acquisition channel

Channel Name	Cost	Flexibility	Effort	Speed	Scale	Notes
Organic	Low	High	Medium	Medium	Medium	Does make sense
Paid Ads	High	High	High	Medium	High	Does not make sense for them to do this at this scale.
Referral Program	Low	Medium	Medium	High	Medium	Does make sense
Product Integration	High	Medium	High	Medium	Medium	Hiver has 25+ integrations
Content Loops	High	Medium	High	Medium	Medium	Does not make sense
Partner Program	Low	Medium	Medium	High	Medium	Does make sense

Detailing your Acquisition Channel

Organic Channel

Overview
- Domain Authority
- - We will start with assessing Hiver's domain authority
  - Comparing it against Hiver's top competitor, Hiver has a significant scope of improvement.
- Hiver gets most of their website traffic from organic search which means they are discovering about the product from cold emails, referrals, Google workplace app etc.

- According to over 1000 G2 reviews, the main features that customers relate with are as in the screenshot.

Suggestions to improve Organic channel
- Hiver can increase their organic traffic on the following keywords so that the users looking to solve this job directly discover Hiver. Further cluster multiple similar keywords and categorise them.
- - Assigning emails
  - Email response time
  - Shared inbox collaboration
- Hiver blogs have a frequency of one post a month, this can be increased to one post per week, majorly focusing on the keywords and features the users most resonate with. (as listed above)
- Another differenciator that Hiver can explore is to come-up with a different approach of delivering blogs instead of the the text based format that takes over 6 minutes to read. With overloaded content on the internet, users prefer easy to absorb content options. Hiver can explore Youtube shorts, 60 words blog to create shorter and crisper content.

Referral Program

Overview - What is brag worthy in Hiver?
- Hiver is easy to use and has the lowest product onboarding time. Onboard team members within minutes and get cracking on customer queries within seconds. (From G2 reviews)
Existing set-up
- Hiver already has a Referral program in place but nowhere in the product journey are the customers nudged to give a referal.
- The existing referral program provides with referrals according to the number of referrals a customer gets.
What's missing in Hiver's referral program?
- Awareness: Most of the users aren't aware that a referral program exits, we can do the following to create awareness about it.
- Discoverability: The referral program is in the footer of their website which will require a user to scroll all the way down to find it.
- Rewards: The rewards aren't consistent, the reward milestones have been set at 1, 3, 5 and 10 giving little to no motivation to try further.
- Not targetting referrals at AHAA moment: The referral program is just another webpage on Hiver's website, they are not leveraging AHAA milestones of a customer.
What can be changed about Hiver's referral program?
- Place referral program at the right happy moments of the customer's journey:
- - Referral Touchpoint - 1
  - - Create a monthly report on how Hiver saved their team time with automations.
    - Give them a nudge to share Hiver referral link with their friends and earn a reward.
  - Referral Touchpoint - 2
  - - Create a monthly report on how Hiver increased the average response time.
    - Give them a nudge to share Hiver referral link with their friends and earn a reward.
  - Referral Ask Touchpoint - 3
  - - Ability to share automations and customisations with their referrals to encourage them to get onboard and making set-up easy for them.
- Other initiatives
- - Run a beta test of exploring the affiliate model of monthly commissions and educate Hiver customers on effectively converting their potential referrals into paid customers. Help them with content and how to share it.
New affiliate program
- Target Affiliates: Customers, bloggers, influencers, small business consultants, SaaS reviewers, and educators.
- Commission Strucuture: 20% of the revenue for each referred customer
- Affiliate assests: Provide the affiliates with content, banners, email templates, guides, easy to copy product customisation and integration.
- Payout: Payout your affiliate within 30 days of receiving the payment from the customer.