Multi-Product Growth Flywheel
The strategy behind Saily’s growth and Nord’s multi-product play
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Recently I had a chat with a friend.
He attended a tech conference in the Baltics.
One of the speakers was working for a company called Saily.
“It’s founded by NordVPN,” my friend told me.
“That’s interesting,” I thought.
“NordVPN launched an eSim service? I have to check this.”
I decided to check the website and use the service on my trip to Bulgaria a few weeks ago.
And with that, I came up with a new framework.
Context
NordVPN is part of Nord Security, a cybersecurity suite of products.
Take a look at the ‘Products’ section on NordVPN’s website:
You’ll find a product called ‘Saily’ at the bottom of the list.
Last year, towards the end of March, Nord Security introduced a new eSim provider called Saily.
The relationship between the two companies is also displayed on Saily’s website:
NordVPN’s access to publications and media allowed them to go big on the launch.
But the launch wasn’t just a flashlight.
Because Saily has built itself into a global brand name in its category.
As of today, Wednesday, April 2nd, Saily is the first organic search result on Google (right below the unbearable clutter of ads and AI Overviews) for the term ‘esim’ comes from Saily:
It is also the second app recommended by ChatGPT for the question, ‘What are the best eSim providers?’:
In isolation, that doesn’t mean much.
But, putting Saily side-by-side with its competitors and understanding the eSim market, you can see that what the company has achieved since its inception is impressive.
The market
Even though I couldn’t find reliable user data for the company, we can examine some other data points that paint a somewhat clear picture of Saily’s growth trajectory relative to its competitors.
First, here’s a table showing the launch data for each of the most prominent players in this category.
As you can see, Saily is the youngest company on this list.
The difference between Saily and the next youngest company is ~2 years.
This means that Saily didn’t have a first-mover advantage here.
(It had another big advantage, but more on that later.)
Next, let’s take a look at traffic data.
Saily isn’t the first company in terms of its organic visibility and traffic.
But it’s doing well, given how long it’s been in the game.
According to SEMrush, Saily brings in over 200K visits per month.
I’d expect a big chunk of these to be branded since, as we saw earlier, they’ve built themselves into a significant player in the eSim space within such a short timeframe.
All that aside, the timing for the launch of the service by Nord Security was ideal:
“According to Juniper Research, there are 986 million eSIM-capable smartphones in 2023, which is predicted to reach 3.5 billion by 2027. Apple’s eSIM-only iPhones mainly drive the growth.”
To build on that, following the COVID-19 pandemic—during which travel was limited in most parts of the world—interest in the topic of ‘eSim’ seems to be rising.
So, besides having a large user base of over 14 million users to promote the product, Nord Security read the market well here.
The eSim category may not be new (some of the oldest players have existed for over 8 years), but it’s growing and has room for new players.
To sum it up:
No First-Mover Advantage: The category has existed for several years
Red Ocean Market: Many players competing in a price-elastic market
Mature Category: Established players and table-stakes features
Upward Trend: More people need reliable eSim services
Not bad for a 1-year old app, right?
The Multi-Product Growth Flywheel
According to Vykintas Maknickas, CEO at Saily:
"After receiving extensive user feedback, we have noticed that many of our customers prefer using NordVPN while traveling. At Nord Security, we understand the value of affordable, user-friendly, and reliable technology, so we decided to make traveling even more convenient. That's why we're thrilled to present Saily — an app that can save time and money, making any travel carefree,"
To put it simply:
Nord Security identified traveling as one of the core use cases for its NordVPN product.
People want privacy and security while traveling. At the same time, they don’t want to worry about password resets for their services just because they use a different IP than the one they usually access the internet.
But a VPN isn’t the only service people use (or need) when they travel.
This brings us to the Multi-Product Growth Flywheel.
How does the Multi-Product Value Growth work?
Nord Security identified traveling as a core use case for NordVPN. Guess what else people who travel for leisure or business need? An eSim.
A strong capability overlap—between the core product, NordVPN, and the potential product based on the identified use case—supplemented the core use case (traveling) and a highly relevant product (eSim provider) really nicely.
Saily integrates some VPN-like features, such as virtual location settings, ad-blocking, and malware protection, which align with NordVPN’s focus on privacy and security.
While it does not encrypt data like a traditional VPN, it routes cellular internet traffic through NordVPN servers to enhance security against malicious sites and ads.
However, even though Saily has some VPN-like features, it is a separate product since the core use case (eSim) couldn’t be integrated into NordVPN.
What are the benefits of the Multi-Product Growth Flywheel?
Product Growth: Saily grows by being introduced to NordVPN’s user base, and NordVPN grows by being introduced to Saily’s user case (where there’s no overlap).
Revenue Growth: Nord Security opens a new revenue stream and diversifies its revenue sources.
Brand Growth: Saily builds a well-known brand, while NordVPN (already a strong brand) grows its brand even further by accessing Saily’s non-overlapping audience.
Additional Use Cases: Saily identifies a new use case (or market segment) and launches a feature to target this use case (Saily for Business).
No one knows how this will go, but Nord Security picked up the Multi-Product Growth Flywheel playbook and ran with it.
I’m sure there have been and will be growth hurdles and obstacles, but the level of execution here is something I rarely see in tech companies.
That’s why I felt that I needed to write about this.
Let’s wrap things up.
Final thoughts
You may rightly argue that Nord Security is a company of abundant resources.
And so, it makes sense that they made Saily a success.
There’s some truth to that.
But that doesn’t take away from the fact that they hit the nail on the head with Saily.
Judging from NordVPN's success, I’m pretty sure Saily will quickly become a market leader in its category.
Well done, Nord Security.
See you next week!
Disclaimer: Although my other company, Minuttia, has worked with NordVPN in the past, I am not affiliated with them for writing this note.
Very interesting on how a company expands with relevant products in other niches.
One core advantage of course, is that NordVPN already had access to all those clients, and could use it's core product to sell a new product line!