How Social Signals Quietly Became the Most Valuable Data | Trigify (Hugo Millington)

Sponsored By RevyOps (The #1 GTM Data Management Platform): https://tinyurl.com/revyops-hugo-m-d

Episode Summary:

In this episode of the Next Gen Sales Leaders Podcast, Ben Reed sits down with Hugo Millington Drake, Founder of Trigify, to unpack the real journey of building a SaaS company in today’s crowded GTM landscape. Hugo shares how Trigify evolved from an accidental automation agency into a social intent platform, why interest-based signals outperform traditional triggers, and the hidden challenges of selling software to cost-sensitive agencies. The conversation dives deep into PLG vs. sales-led growth, churn, pricing pressure, LinkedIn outbound, the rise of GTM engineers, and why most founders underestimate how hard software really is.

What you’ll learn:

• How Trigify pivoted from an agency into a SaaS product
• Why social engagement data beats traditional trigger-based signals
• The real differences between selling services vs. selling software
• Why PLG is harder than it looks in complex GTM tools
• The challenges of churn when selling to agencies
• LinkedIn outbound vs. cold email at scale
• Influencers, micro-creators, and early SaaS distribution strategies
• The truth about “GTM engineers” and no-code/AI hype
• Why founder stress is often self-inflicted and how to manage it

Episode Highlights:

[00:00:48] What Trigify does and how it evolved

[00:04:43] Interest-based targeting vs. traditional triggers

[00:07:27] From automation agency to SaaS, selling $149 software vs. $3k retainers

[00:18:41] Churn, pricing pressure, and agency customers

[00:27:17] PLG, onboarding, and customer confusion

[00:40:00] GTM engineers, Clay, and AI tool hype

[00:54:13] LinkedIn outbound, fake accounts, and scale limits

[01:11:10] Founder stress, perspective, and long-term thinking

Featured Guest:

Hugo Millington Drake – Founder, Trigify

Host:

Ben Reed, Host of the Next Gen Sales Leaders Podcast

Connect with Hugo:

Website: https://www.trigify.io/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hugomdrake/

Follow Ben on Social:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/benjamin-aaron-reed/

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Sponsored By RevyOps (The #1 GTM Data Management Platform): https://tinyurl.com/revyops-hugo-m-d