Madhav Bhandari

Thoughts from a remote marketer

About Me

I’m a marketer with 10+ years experience in SaaS. I’ve helped many SaaS companies drive millions traffic, signups and ARR.

My Results

  • As Hubstaff’s first marketer, grew revenue from $200K to $5M ARR (now $15M) in 4 years.
  • As Bonsai’s Head of Marketing, tripled ARR in 2 years.
  • As Close.io’s marketer, broke through revenue plateau.
Hubstaff’s revenue growth from 2015 to 2020

My Background

  1. Experience: 10+ years in SaaS & working with 100% remote teams since 2013.
  2. Track Record: Grew ARR for 9 companies, including 3 to $5M+ ARR and 2 to $15M+ ARR.
  3. Strategic with hands-on execution: I make plans and I convert them into action – no matter the resources.
  4. Adaptability: From the first marketing hire to the Head of Marketing, I’ve grown and adapted.
  5. Bootstrapped + VC-backed background: I bring the best of both to the table.

My Growth Strategy

I have a deep expertise in demand capture and broad experience across demand creation and conversion.

My go-to growth strategy is focused on SEO, complemented by content, affiliates, and ads for growth.

My Working Style

Since 2013, I’ve worked with 100% remote teams. Generally, I enjoy:

  • Remote work
  • Async & meeting light work culture
  • Occasional work travel to spend in-person time with the team
close team retreat
At Close’s team retreat in Lisbon

My Side Projects

  1. Early Stage Marketing: Passive income blog where I do software reviews and comparisons.
  2. Remote Marketing Podcast: Started in 2019 to increase popularity of remote marketing teams.
  3. ESM YouTube Channel: To try my hand at video SEO and generate passive side income.
  4. How Much To Spend On Marketing Calculator: Created using ChatGPT.

In the past, I used to run a popular bi-weekly email newsletter to grow my professional network.

Current Status

Since the last year, I’ve been consulting with companies like ProProfs, Writesonic, Weflow, Continu, TestBox and Timeero, helping them overcome specific demand gen challenges on their journey from $500k to $5M ARR.

Depending on my availability, I’m pretty flexible with my working engagement (advisor, part-time or contractor). If the right opportunity comes my way, I’m open to go back to full-time roles again.

If this resonates, let’s talk.

Anything else?

I’ve documented a lot of my learnings from my experiences. If you’re interested to read them, here they are:

  1. How we grew Hubstaff from $200k to $2M ARR
  2. How we grew Hubstaff from $2M to $4M ARR in 1 year
  3. How I planned my marketing budget as a first-time Head of Marketing
  4. 12 lessons I learnt as a Head of Marketing
  5. How I tackle loneliness as a remote worker
  6. How I find & hire great freelance writers
  7. My industry reports: freelancing trends and how Covid-19 affected freelancing
  8. My Year-in-Reviews (2017 – present)

I also enjoy writing about Bottom of the Funnel (BOFU) topics. Here are some samples:

  1. Product Comparison Post
  2. Product Review Post
  3. Product Alternatives Post
  4. Best Apps Post