Treat your community like a product (with Dave Gerhardt, Exit Five)

Every SaaS team wants a “community.”

Few actually turn one into a business. But Dave Gerhardt did.

As the founder of Exit Five, a thriving marketing community with thousands of paying members, he applied roadmaps, Net Promoter Score (NPS), and churn analysis to something most leaders still treat as a side project.

In a recent episode of Move the Needle, Dave shared how he turned a personal brand into a scalable product and what it teaches GTM leaders about loyalty, measurement, and the future of brand building.

Watch the full episode

From side project to SaaS-like success

When Exit Five began, it wasn’t meant to be a business.

“I was a CMO and started a private Patreon group called DGMG. I had no plans to turn it into a real company,” Dave said.

As the group grew, he realized he had product-market fit: a loyal base of marketers paying for insights, events, and connections. So he rebranded to Exit Five, hired a small team, and started running it like a SaaS product.

Today, Exit Five is a team of five, but operates with the rigor of a startup:

• A product owner leading the community roadmap.
  
• Feedback loops feeding directly into Slack.
  
• Net Promoter Score (NPS), churn, and usage metrics tracked like a subscription business.
  
• Sprints and goals to prioritize improvements.
  

“We have a roadmap, features, NPS, and things we want to build. We treat it like a real product, not a side project.”

Why most brands should not start a community

Despite running one of B2B’s most successful examples, Dave is quick to caution others.

With her own experience plus conversations from Pavilion’s huge network of GTM leaders, she’s seen this in action. 

“I don’t think every company should have a community. Most start strong, then turn into spam.”

Dave’s advice: Don’t start with the Slack group. Start with a story and an audience.

• For SaaS brands, that means:
• Steward meaningful conversations in your space.
• Build an audience around shared problems.
• Create content that helps your ICP do their jobs better.
  

“Community isn’t a login page,” Dave says. “It’s shared identity and belonging. If you do that well, maybe then you earn the right to build a private space.”

Measuring what can’t be measured perfectly

Community, brand, and content are hard to measure. But they are measurable in the right ways.

“People will tell you. A prospect says, ‘I listen to your podcast,’ or, ‘I found you through Exit Five.’ That’s data.”

Here’s how Dave’s team gauges performance:

• Net Promoter Score (NPS) for sentiment and retention
  
• Monthly active users and churn for engagement health
  
• Direct traffic & mentions as brand signals
  
• Sales call insights (“She listens to the podcast”)
  
• Qualitative feedback (DMs, comments, churn notes)

“Good marketing is like WD-40 on a rusty door. It makes everything else open more easily.”

Metrics that matter for community-led brands

While Exit Five doesn’t sell software, the same principles apply to SaaS GTM leaders:

1. Measure engagement, not vanity.
   MAUs, NPS, churn – those reveal real value.
   
2. Build feedback loops.
   Look beyond dashboards. Capture comments, exit reasons, and DMs to inform product direction.
   
3. Use community as brand fuel.
   Authentic discussions compound over time, driving inbound awareness and retention.
   
4. Educate your org on the “why.”
   Dave’s playbook at Drift: “Internal marketing was part of our job and it includes helping execs understand how the brand works.”

AI is reshaping how communities grow

Inevitably, almost every conversation in the Exit Five community leads to one topic: AI.

“It’s not just about AI tools,” Dave said. “It’s about rethinking the role and goals of marketing in this world.”

From efficiency to creativity, AI now drives almost every thread in the community. But the real conversation is about identity.

“This feels like when the internet first happened. It’s chaotic, but it’s an opportunity. You still need humans to take it to the finish line.”

For marketers, that means using AI to scale creativity, not replace it. Dave’s own approach: treat AI like a “super-intelligent brainstorm partner,” not an autopilot.

Key Takeaways

If you’re building a brand, audience, or community at a SaaS company:

• Start with value, not a platform. Build the conversations first.
• Operate like a product. Define roles, track NPS, set roadmaps.
• Measure signals, not just clicks. Feedback > dashboards.
• Play the long game. Community is a compounding asset.
• Adopt AI early—but critically. Use it to amplify human creativity.
  

Final Thought

As Dave put it, “I’m figuring it out every day.”

That humility is exactly what makes his approach resonate with SaaS leaders facing similar change – building community, brand, and business at the same time.