Why expansion revenue is the growth engine for B2B SaaS
In today’s AI-driven SaaS market, mid-sized B2B software companies face intense pressure from AI-native startups and multi-product giants. The fastest path to sustainable growth is expansion revenue, which involves selling more to existing customers while boosting retention.
Launchpad makes it possible to launch new complementary products faster, cheaper, and with less risk than ever before. This checklist is designed for Founders, CEOs, and Heads of Product ready to thrive in the AI era.
Transform how you grow your software business
Audit your retention and expansion metrics: Start by examining your customer churn and expansion revenue. If net retention is stagnant or below 100%, it’s a clear signal to act. Remember that retaining and expanding existing customers is far more cost-effective than chasing new ones [1] – strong expansion revenue usually indicates happy customers and a healthy product fit.
Identify complementary product opportunities: Engage with your customer success and sales teams to uncover adjacent problems you could solve for your current clients. What related challenges or workflows do your customers face that aren’t addressed by your core product? Offering complementary products or add-on services that align with customer needs is a proven way to drive upsells and cross-sells [2]. For example, HubSpot started with marketing tools, then smartly expanded into sales CRM and other areas – defying the “one product focus” advice and building a $32 billion multi-product company in the process [3].
Assess your competitive positioning (point solution vs. platform): Take a hard look at the market landscape. Are emerging startups or big-suite providers encroaching on your space with broader offerings? Many buyers today prefer to consolidate vendors and choose integrated platforms over isolated point solutions [4]. If a larger platform can do 80% of what your product does at a lower cost (or as part of an existing bundle), your position is at risk [5]. Identify gaps in your portfolio where adding a new module or product could prevent customers from looking elsewhere and strengthen your all-in-one value proposition.
Focus on outcomes, not just features: Re-imagine your value through the lens of customer outcomes. What business result does (or could) your product guarantee for clients (e.g. time saved, revenue gained, risk reduced)? Prioritize building capabilities that deliver that result end-to-end, even if it means going beyond traditional feature sets. This might also mean evolving your pricing model – for instance, tying pricing to the achieved outcome or KPI, so customers clearly see the ROI. A compelling outcome-driven offering can justify expansion into new budgets and deepen customer loyalty (as seen when a fintech offered dispute resolutions “as a service” and secured a $300 million investment by proving its savings per dispute) [6][7].
Leverage AI to perform work, not just support it: Pinpoint repetitive, labor-intensive tasks in your users’ workflow that your software can automate or handle with AI agents. The next generation of SaaS products will not just track tasks, but will actually complete them. For example, Klarna’s AI customer-service assistant handled 2.3 million conversations in one month – doing the work of 700 agents and matching human-level customer satisfaction [8]. Likewise, think about how you could build an AI-driven module that, say, processes mortgage applications or nurtures leads autonomously. These kinds of agentic AI enhancements turn your product from a passive tool into an active service, delivering real outcomes for customers with less human effort.
Break the “full-stack” habit – use platforms to move faster: Stop reinventing the wheel on undifferentiated infrastructure. Audit your development pipeline and identify components that do not set you apart (UI frameworks, integrations, basic CRUD features, etc.). Instead of building everything from scratch (and accumulating technical debt), leverage modern low-code and runtime platforms to handle the heavy lifting [9]. This frees up your top engineers to focus on the unique innovations that truly matter to customers. As Jeff Bezos said, “there is nothing quite so useless as doing with great efficiency what should not be done at all.” In practice, software companies adopting this mindset have drastically accelerated innovation. For instance, Fielo abandoned a do-it-all-yourself approach and replatformed on Launchpad; they cut development cycles by over 50%, turning multi-sprint projects into half-sprint tasks [10]. The right platform can eliminate bottlenecks, reduce costs, and let you deliver new products faster than previously possible.
Accelerate new product development with Launchpad (or similar): Once you’ve identified a promising complementary product or major new feature, build it fast to seize the window of opportunity. Consider using an AI-powered low-code platform like Launchpad to speed up development. These platforms come with pre-built components (security, workflows, UI, integrations) and scalable cloud infrastructure, allowing your team to assemble a robust app in a fraction of the time. Early adopters see dramatically faster go-to-market: in one case, tasks that used to take multiple 2-week sprints were finished in under a week using Launchpad [10]. Faster iteration means you can pilot the new offering with customers sooner, gather feedback, and iterate without the usual lengthy engineering cycles or exorbitant costs. (Bonus: Launchpad is a fully managed runtime, so you also save on DevOps and get enterprise-grade compliance out of the box [11][12]).
Think bigger and bolder in your product vision: Finally, cultivate a mindset that challenges incremental thinking. If all your roadmap ideas fit neatly into your existing product, you might be thinking too small. Take inspiration from companies like HubSpot or Salesforce, which didn’t stop at one solution but built an entire ecosystem around their customers’ broader needs. Ask yourself: “What other jobs-to-be-done can we solve for our customers? Where else can we deliver value that we’re not addressing today?” Don’t be afraid to step beyond your original niche – especially if you have industry expertise or data that gives you an advantage in a new arena. Expanding your product universe (whether through new modules, add-ons, or standalone products) not only unlocks new revenue streams but also makes your platform stickier, increasing customer lifetime value and setting you apart from one-trick competitors [4]. In the age of AI and fast-moving startups, the biggest risk is being too cautious. Use the disruption as a catalyst to reinvent and expand. With the right strategy and tools in place, even a mid-sized B2B software company can punch above its weight and thrive through continuous innovation.
8-step B2B SaaS growth checklist
1. Audit retention & expansion metrics. Track NRR and churn rates—if NRR is under 100%, your base is shrinking. This is your signal to prioritize expansion.
2. Identify complementary product opportunities. Leverage customer feedback and trust to find adjacent problems you can solve. Prioritize offerings that align with your expertise.
3. Evaluate your competitive positioning. Assess if you’re a point solution in a platform world. Identify product gaps that could lead customers to competitors.
4. Focus product vision on outcomes, not features. Tie your roadmap to measurable results—time saved, revenue gained, or cost reduced—not just features.
5. Leverage AI to perform work, not just track it. Deploy AI agents that complete workflows end-to-end, delivering tangible outcomes without manual intervention.
6. Eliminate undifferentiated full-stack work. Offload generic, non-core development to proven platforms so your team can focus on innovation.
7. Accelerate development with Launchpad. Use AI-powered low-code to design, build, and launch products in weeks instead of months.
8. Think bigger in your product roadmap. Expand your product universe. Explore bold moves into adjacent markets and services to boost wallet share.
Why this works in the AI era
The barriers to multi-product SaaS growth have never been lower. AI-powered platforms like Launchpad let you turn ideas into revenue faster while minimizing cost and risk. Companies like HubSpot and Rippling have leveraged this approach to achieve enviable NRR and market dominance.
The bottom line
Use this checklist to guide your leadership team, identify your next complementary product, and bring it to market fast with Launchpad. The AI era rewards speed, adaptability, and relentless value creation.
Looking to build complementary products or enhance your existing software with AI or workflow automation? Try out Launchpad Explore for free and use our AI-powered Blueprint tool to design or reimagine your software product.
Sources
[1] [2] Expansion Revenue: Strategies for Growth through Customer Success
https://www.june.so/blog/expansion-revenue
[3] How Hubspot became a $32B marketing & sales behemoth
https://www.command.ai/blog/how-hubspot-became-a-32b-behemoth/
[4] [5] 20 Marketing Predictions for 2023 (That Don't Suck) | Chili Piper
https://www.chilipiper.com/post/marketing-predictions
[6] [7] Quavo Fraud & Disputes Secures $300 Million Growth Investment from Spectrum Equity | Quavo Fraud & Disputes
[8] Klarna Automates Two-Thirds of Customer Service with AI Assistant | Fini Labs
https://www.usefini.com/blog/klarna-automates-two-thirds-of-customer-service-with-ai-assistant
[9] [10] Fielo: Accelerating SaaS growth with Launchpad | Launchpad
https://launchpad.io/blog/fielo-accelerating-saas-growth-launchpad
[11] [12] Pega Introduces Pega Launchpad to Empower Users to Build and Monetize New B2B SaaS Apps | Pega
About the Author
Jason Masciarelli (VP, Launchpad Go-To-Market & Ventures) helps companies build new revenue streams by bringing powerful SaaS apps to market and leads the strategic investment into early-stage companies to accelerate growth and innovation.