The SaaS Podcast: Build, Launch & Scale Your SaaS

Bassem Hamdy almost killed his company with an investor-forced pivot before finding the strategy that saved it. In this episode, early-stage B2B SaaS founders will learn the founder-led sales playbook Briq uses to close enterprise deals in just 9 days. Bassem breaks down the dangers of selling to "Innovation Teams" and why those deals often waste time and money. You will learn how to avoid building "Frankenstein products" from disparate feature requests, why revenue per employee is the efficiency metric that actually matters, and how to bypass long enterprise procurement cycles by delivering immediate, small-scale value. In this episode, Bassem also shares the reality of "building the plane in the air," why he pivoted from a construction data cloud idea to forecasting, and the specific sales tactics founders need to earn trust with CFOs without relying on traditional product demos. 🔑 Key Lessons 🐘 The “Elephant” Trap: Why building exactly what customers ask for creates “bandages on bullet holes” instead of a scalable product. ⚡ 9-Day Enterprise Close: The “Land and Expand” strategy that bypasses long procurement cycles by selling micro-value first. 📉 The Failed Pivot: How investor pressure for “Daily Active Users” led to a forecasting tool that nearly killed the company. 🚫 Innovation Teams: Why selling to the “VP of Innovation” is a trap and how to find the real economic buyer (the CFO). 📊 Revenue Per Employee: Why he stopped measuring success by headcount (300 employees) and focused on efficiency (100 employees). Chapters Why feature requests create “Frankenstein products” The Construction Data Cloud idea and why it failed Finding the right ICP and the experience-bias mistake Building the plane in the air vs. over-interviewing The investor-forced pivot to forecasting How to close Enterprise deals in 9 days with micro-value Vision and value selling vs. product demos Why CFOs buy and how to earn trust Pricing lessons from early mistakes Why revenue per employee beats headcount 💌 Get weekly 5-minute SaaS insights: https://saasclub.io/email SaaS Club Programs Join the SaaS Club founder community: https://saasclub.co/plus Build your $10K MRR SaaS: https://saasclub.io/launch Scale from 6-figures to $1M ARR Faster: https://saasclub.io/mastermind Resources Full show notes: https://saasclub.io/465 Subscribe to the podcast: https://saasclub.io/subscribe

Saket Saurabh defied standard SaaS advice by skipping SMBs and selling directly to enterprise giants like Instacart and LinkedIn from day one. In this episode, early-stage B2B SaaS founders will learn the "Enterprise First" strategy that helped Nexla become cash flow positive before raising a Series A. Saket breaks down exactly how to navigate complex corporate buy-cycles without a track record. You will learn how to overcome the "we can build this ourselves" objection from technical buyers, why a "Zero Salary" founder pivot was necessary to reach profitability, and the "Critical Path" leadership advice he learned directly from Jensen Huang at Nvidia. In this episode, Saket also shares the "Magic Moment" sales tactic where his co-founder live-coded a fix during a pitch meeting to close Instacart, and why consultative selling beats pitching when you are a technical founder. This episode is brought to you by: 💖 ⁠⁠Gearheart⁠⁠ → ⁠Book a call + get the first 20 hours of development free⁠ 🚨 ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠NordStellar⁠⁠⁠⁠ → ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Book a demo and get 20% off with code blackfriday20⁠ 📡 ⁠⁠⁠⁠Signal House⁠⁠ → ⁠⁠⁠⁠Learn more and get a demo⁠ 🔑 Key Lessons 🏢 The "Enterprise First" Bet: Why targeting SMBs would have failed and why he went straight for the Fortune 500. 🪄 The Magical Moment: How his co-founder live-coded a fix during a pitch meeting to close Instacart. 📉 The Hard Reset: Cutting founder salaries to $0 and downsizing to achieve cash flow positivity. 🤝 Founder-Led Sales: How to sell "Build vs. Buy" to technical buyers who think they can do it themselves. 🧠 Nvidia Lessons: The "Critical Path" advice from Jensen Huang that guides his leadership today. Chapters Why Nexla started with enterprise customers instead of SMBs Landing Instacart as the first customer Founder-led sales without a sales background Consultative selling vs. pitching Overcoming the “we can build this ourselves” objection The live-coding demo that closed Instacart Going zero salary to reach cash flow positivity Lessons from Nvidia and the critical path mindset 💌 Get weekly 5-minute SaaS insights: https://saasclub.io/email SaaS Club Programs Join the SaaS Club founder community: https://saasclub.co/plus Build your $10K MRR SaaS: https://saasclub.io/launch Scale from 6-figures to $1M ARR Faster: https://saasclub.io/mastermind Resources Full show notes: https://saasclub.io/464 Subscribe to the podcast: https://saasclub.io/subscribe

Ibby Syed accidentally built a consulting agency while trying to build software. In this episode, early-stage B2B SaaS founders will learn how Cotera escaped the "services trap" and pivoted to AI agents to hit $1M ARR. Ibby breaks down why hitting $150k ARR in consulting revenue was actually a "local maxima" that nearly killed the startup. You will learn how his co-founder replaced months of data science work with a 100-line OpenAI API experiment, and the painful but necessary decision to fire legacy customers to focus on a scalable product. In this episode, Ibby also reveals his "value-first" LinkedIn outbound strategy that books 25+ meetings a week, why horizontal AI platforms (like Cotera) will outlast narrow vertical tools, and how they transitioned from custom enterprise contracts to a product-led growth model. This episode is brought to you by: 💖 ⁠Gearheart⁠ → Book a call + get the first 20 hours of development free 🚨 ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠NordStellar⁠⁠⁠ → ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Book a demo and get 20% off with code blackfriday20 📡 ⁠⁠⁠Signal House⁠ → ⁠⁠⁠Learn more and get a demo 🔑 Key Lessons 📉 The Consulting Trap: Why early service revenue can trick you into building an unscalable agency instead of a software product. 🤖 The AI Pivot: How 100 lines of OpenAI API code outperformed a massive data science stack and sparked the pivot. 📧 LinkedIn Outbound: The "Value-First" playbook (sending free leads, not pitches) that books 25+ meetings a week. 🛠️ Horizontal vs. Vertical: Why broad tools (like Zapier/Cotera) are more defensible than niche AI wrappers. 💰 Pricing Strategy: Moving from custom enterprise contracts to a $20/mo usage model to fuel PLG. Chapters The consulting trap and false traction Why $150K ARR nearly killed the company The 100-line OpenAI experiment that changed everything Firing customers and stopping services Pivoting to AI agents and prompt-based workflows Why deals became easier after the pivot LinkedIn outbound by sending free value Horizontal vs. vertical AI startups Pricing from enterprise contracts to PLG 💌 Get weekly 5-minute SaaS insights: https://saasclub.io/email SaaS Club Programs Join the SaaS Club founder community: https://saasclub.co/plus Build your $10K MRR SaaS: https://saasclub.io/launch Scale from 6-figures to $1M ARR Faster: https://saasclub.io/mastermind Resources Full show notes: https://saasclub.io/463 Subscribe to the podcast: https://saasclub.io/subscribe

Bilal Aijazi turned a casual Slack polling bot into a serious enterprise platform used by millions. In this episode, early-stage B2B SaaS founders will learn how Polly became a multi-million ARR business on top of Slack. Bilal breaks down the reality of building a multi-million dollar business on top of a major platform like Slack. You will learn the "Pain Tolerance" metric that validated his idea (80% completion on a 5-step install), how he pivoted from an $8/month fantasy football use case to 5-figure HR contracts, and the survival playbook for when a platform "Sherlocks" your core feature. In this episode, Bilal also shares the exact mechanics of his 12% "Respondent to Creator" viral loop, why he forced a horizontal product into vertical use cases to reduce churn, and his "Just Don't Die" philosophy for technical founders navigating sales. This episode is brought to you by: 💖 Gearheart → Book a call + get the first 20 hours of development free 🚨 NordStellar → Book a demo and get 20% off with code blackfriday20 📡 Signal House → Learn more and get a demo 🔑 Key Lessons 🚀 The "Pain Tolerance" Metric: Why 80% of users endured a nightmare install process (and what it proved). 💰 Pricing Evolution: Moving from $8/month fantasy football leagues to 5-figure Enterprise deals. 💡 Surviving "Sherlocking": How to pivot and thrive when the platform builds your core feature. 🔥 Viral Loops: Leveraging "Respondent to Creator" conversion to drive organic growth. ⚖️ The Platform Paradox: The risks and massive rewards of building on Slack, Teams, and Zoom. Chapters The "punch in the face" reality of startups Leveraging Product Hunt for viral growth loops Validating demand with a 5-step "nightmare" onboarding From $8/mo fantasy football to enterprise deals Freemium to paid: Converting free users to revenue Surviving "Sherlocking": When Slack copies your feature The mistake of betting on Slack Workflow Builder Horizontal vs. Vertical SaaS strategies Why technical founders must sell (and how to do it) The "Just Don't Die" philosophy 💌 Get weekly 5-minute SaaS insights: https://saasclub.io/email SaaS Club Programs Join the SaaS Club founder community: https://saasclub.co/plus Build your $10K MRR SaaS: https://saasclub.io/launch Scale from 6-figures to $1M ARR Faster: https://saasclub.io/mastermind Resources Full show notes: https://saasclub.io/462 Subscribe to the podcast: https://saasclub.io/subscribe

James Ashford sold his bootstrapped B2B SaaS for an 8-figure exit to Sage. In this episode, early-stage B2B SaaS founders will learn the exact exit strategy he used to outperform competitors with $75M in funding. James breaks down how he built a "sellable asset" from day one with zero external capital. You will learn how a $5,000 WordPress MVP beat enterprise-grade competitors, why "Customer Proximity" (speaking to an accountant every day) was his unfair advantage, and the "Extreme Onboarding" play that impressed acquirers. In this episode, James also details the PATH sales method (Pain, Aspiration, Traps, How) that drove predictable growth, and the specific playbooks he implemented to ensure the business could run—and sell—without him. This episode is brought to you by: 💖 Gearheart → Book a call + get the first 20 hours of development free 📡 Signal House → Learn more and get a demo 🚨 NordStellar → Book a demo and get 20% off with code blackfriday20 🔑 Key Lessons 🚀 MVP Leverage: How a simple WordPress-based MVP led to an 8-figure SaaS exit. 💡 Customer Proximity: Why speaking to a customer every day beat $75M-funded competitors. 💰 Built to Sell: Designing systems and playbooks with acquisition in mind from day one. 🧠 PATH Method: The sales framework (Pain, Aspiration, Traps, How) that drove predictable SaaS growth. 🎁 Extreme Onboarding: Creating a "Shock and Awe" customer experience that acquirers couldn’t ignore. Chapters The GoProposal problem and market opportunity Productizing services before building software Bootstrapping versus venture-funded competitors The PATH sales method explained Customer proximity as a growth advantage Building with acquisition in mind The 8-figure acquisition process Life after exit and preparing for the second act 💌 Get weekly 5-minute SaaS insights: https://saasclub.io/email SaaS Club Programs Join the SaaS Club founder community: https://saasclub.co/plus Build your $10K MRR SaaS: https://saasclub.io/launch Scale from 6-figures to $1M ARR Faster: https://saasclub.io/mastermind Resources Full show notes: https://saasclub.io/461 Subscribe to the podcast: https://saasclub.io/subscribe

Ryan Wang launched Assembled on the exact day the WHO declared COVID-19 a pandemic. Momentum vanished, 25% of demos no-showed, and it took 8 months to earn their first dollar. In this episode, early-stage B2B SaaS founders will learn the growth strategy that turned a stalled launch into an AI platform doing tens of millions in ARR. Ryan breaks down the pivotal "Eureka" moment of finding Product-Market Fit when he discovered the exact same color-coded scheduling spreadsheet at Stripe, Grammarly, and Casper. You will learn why usage-based pricing with no minimums nearly killed the company, and the data-driven ICP exercise that finally unlocked growth from 10 to 50 customers. In this episode, Ryan also shares his framework for judging custom enterprise deals (the "Generalization Filter"), how to fix broken onboarding to scale, and the "Seeds vs. Harvest" mindset that helped him survive the zero-revenue desert. This episode is brought to you by: 🔐 ⁠Sprinto⁠⁠⁠ → ⁠Learn more and book a demo today⁠ 💖 ⁠Gearheart⁠ → Book a call + get the first 20 hours of development free 📡 ⁠⁠⁠Signal House⁠ → ⁠⁠⁠Learn more and get a demo 🚨 ⁠⁠⁠⁠NordStellar⁠⁠ → ⁠⁠⁠⁠Book a demo and get 20% off with code blackfriday20 🔑 Key Lessons 💡 Product Market Fit Eureka: The common, messy spreadsheet that revealed a huge pain point. 💰 Pricing Risk: Why usage-based pricing with zero minimums nearly killed the company. 📈 Scaling Leap: The data-driven ICP exercise that unlocked growth from 10 to 50 customers. ✈️ The Custom Deal Filter: How to judge which custom integrations generalize versus those that hamstring the roadmap. 🌱 Founder Mindset: How to keep sowing seeds when there is no immediate harvest (surviving 8 months with $0 revenue). 📖 Chapters Seeds vs. Harvest: The Founder Mindset Founding Story: Stripe Origins & Support Ethos The Workforce Management Problem (WFM) Landing First Customers & Common Pain The Color-Coded Spreadsheet Discovery (PMF) Pandemic Launch Challenges & Slow Growth Surviving 8 Months Without Revenue Custom vs. Configurable: The Judgment on Deals Scaling Past 10 to 50 Customers Fixing Onboarding & Technical Debt Growth Through Communities & Mindshare Defining ICP with Data 💌 Get weekly 5-minute SaaS insights: ⁠https://saasclub.io/email⁠ SaaS Club Programs Join the SaaS Club founder community: ⁠https://saasclub.co/plus⁠ Build your $10K MRR SaaS: ⁠https://saasclub.io/launch⁠ Scale from 6-figures to $1M ARR Faster: ⁠https://saasclub.io/mastermind⁠ Resources Full show notes: ⁠https://saasclub.io/460⁠ Subscribe to the podcast: ⁠https://saasclub.io/subscribe

Sam Darawish sold his first company for $50M and then bootstrapped Everflow to $30M ARR with zero outside funding. In this episode, early-stage B2B SaaS founders will learn his rare playbook for capital-efficient growth. Sam breaks down the philosophy of SaaS Capital Efficiency and how six months of rigorous prospect validation allowed him to sell screenshots before building the product. You will learn why focusing on a tiny TAM first helped them hit $1M ARR quickly, and the major product challenges that arise when executing a "Niche to Mainstream" strategy by expanding from affiliate networks to serving major brands. In this episode, Sam also details the financial discipline needed to scale without venture capital, why engineers hate selling "janky" products (and why you should do it anyway), and the core founder mindset required to live with uncertainty. This episode is brought to you by: 💖 ⁠⁠⁠Sprinto⁠⁠⁠ → ⁠⁠⁠Learn more and book a demo today⁠ 📡 ⁠⁠⁠Signal House⁠ → ⁠⁠⁠Learn more and get a demo⁠ 🚀 ⁠SaaS Club Launch⁠ → ⁠Build your SaaS to $10K MRR 🔑 Key Lessons 💡 Validation Strategy: Selling screenshots for 6 months—how to confirm PMF before writing code. 💰 Capital Efficiency: The financial discipline needed to hit $30M ARR without taking a single dollar of funding. 📈 Niche to Mainstream: The specific product differences (payments, resources) needed to expand TAM. 🎯 Targeted TAM: Why focusing on a small niche market first accelerated their time to $1M ARR. 🧠 Persistence vs Perfection: The core founder mindset required to live with uncertainty and achieve an exit. 📖 Chapters Bootstrapping & The Opera Acquisition Idea Validation: Six Months Before Building Early Product Development & Selling Screenshots The Philosophy of Bootstrapping & Capital Scarcity Defining the First Tiny ICP (Mobile Affiliate Networks) Customer Feedback & Iteration (Why Engineers Hate Janky Products) Reaching $1M ARR with Niche Customers The Challenge of Expanding from Niche to Mainstream Product Challenges: Why Brands Need Different Features Capital Efficiency Philosophy & ARR per Employee 💌 Get weekly 5-minute SaaS insights: ⁠https://saasclub.io/email⁠ SaaS Club Programs Join the SaaS Club founder community: ⁠https://saasclub.co/plus⁠ Build your $10K MRR SaaS: ⁠https://saasclub.io/launch⁠ Scale from 6-figures to $1M ARR Faster: ⁠https://saasclub.io/mastermind⁠ Resources Full show notes: ⁠https://saasclub.io/459⁠ Subscribe to the podcast: ⁠https://saasclub.io/subscribe

David Shim sold his first startup for $200M, but when he started Read AI in 2021, he built something that failed spectacularly — 5% retention after 30 days. In this episode, early-stage B2B SaaS founders will learn the Product-Led Growth playbook that turned that failure into 8-figure ARR. David breaks down how he increased retention from 5% to 81% by focusing obsessively on "Day-One ROI" instead of chasing revenue. You will learn the $0 ad spend strategy behind acquiring 1 million new accounts monthly, and why building "bridges" between platforms like Zoom and Microsoft is the secret to competing with tech giants. In this episode, David also reveals how to design viral loops into your product (like auto-shared meeting notes), why analyzing body language gave them the edge over generic AI wrappers, and the "Multiplayer Mode" tactic that turns every user into a salesperson. This episode is brought to you by: 💖 ⁠⁠Sprinto⁠⁠ → ⁠⁠Learn more and book a demo today 🚀 SaaS Club Launch → Build your SaaS to $10K MRR 🔑 Key Lessons 📉 From Failure to Fit: Why the first product failed with 5% retention and how focusing on actionable insights jumped it to 81%. 🚀 The $0 Ad Spend Model: How to build viral loops (like auto-shared meeting notes) that drive 1M+ signups without paid ads. 💡 Day-One ROI: Why prioritizing immediate value over revenue is the secret to PLG success in a crowded market. 🤖 The Multimodal Edge: How analyzing tone and body language (not just text) differentiated Read AI from generic GPT wrappers. ⚔️ Competing with Giants: How to survive when Microsoft, Google, and Zoom launch features that compete with you. 📖 Chapters Intro & The $200M Placed Acquisition The Read AI Origin Story (The ESPN Glasses Moment) Why Our First Product Failed (5% Retention Mistake) The Pivot: How Multimodal AI Beat Simple Summarizers The 81% Retention Strategy (The Key to Day-One ROI) The $0 Ad Spend PLG Playbook & Viral Loops Competing with Platform Features (Microsoft, Google, Zoom) Land and Expand without Salespeople The Future of AI Agents and Decision-Making Resources: Full Show Notes: saasclub.io/458 Subscribe to the Podcast: saasclub.io/subscribe Get weekly 5-minute SaaS insights: saasclub.io/email Join the SaaS Club founder community: saasclub.co/plus

Kevin Wagstaff and his brother Michael turned a $5,000 investment into a $27 million ARR home inspection software business—without raising venture capital for the first six years. In this episode, early-stage B2B SaaS founders will learn the "Serve Before Selling" strategy that beat well-funded incumbents. Kevin breaks down how he spent 12 months building an SEO moat before launching, creating an "unfair advantage" in a skeptical market. You will learn his "Agency Wedge" tactic (building websites manually to sell software), the specific pricing psychology needed to move an old-school industry to SaaS subscriptions, and why he stepped down as CEO at the peak of growth. In this episode, Kevin also reveals the "6 AM Sunday Demo" that unlocked their biggest growth wave, how to use community engagement to sell without pitching, and the "Secondary Offering" exit path that lets founders take money off the table while staying in the game. This episode is brought to you by: 💖 ⁠⁠Sprinto⁠⁠ → ⁠⁠Learn more and book a demo today 🚀 SaaS Club Launch → Build your SaaS to $10K MRR 🔑 Key Lessons 🚀 The SEO Head Start: Why writing content 12 months before launch created an unfair advantage. 🛠️ The Agency Wedge: How building 200+ websites manually became a critical wedge to sell software. 💰 Pricing Wars: How to convince an old-school industry to switch from one-time fees to monthly subscriptions. 🤝 Community Growth: The strategy of being the "first to comment" in Facebook groups for 12 hours a day. 🛑 Founder Transition: Recognizing when you are the bottleneck and how to exit gracefully to Private Equity. 📖 Chapters The "Zero to 10" Founder Mindset The $5k Bootstrap Origin Story 9 Months of Customer Interviews (That Actually Worked) The MVP: Focusing on Workflow vs. Features The "Smart Home Inspector" SEO Strategy The Agency Wedge: Building Websites to Sell Software Serving vs. Selling: The 10-Year Trust Game The 6 AM Sunday Demo: Doing Things That Don't Scale The Failed $10k Ad Experiment Raising Capital via Private Equity (Secondary Offering) Stepping Down as CEO 💌 Get weekly 5-minute SaaS insights: https://saasclub.io/email SaaS Club Programs Join the SaaS Club founder community: https://saasclub.co/plus Build your $10K MRR SaaS: https://saasclub.io/launch Scale from 6-figures to $1M ARR Faster: https://saasclub.io/mastermind Resources Full show notes: https://saasclub.io/457 Subscribe to the podcast: https://saasclub.io/subscribe

Back in 2011, Sergiy Korolov's team accidentally sent 20,000 test billing emails to real customers—a complete disaster. They built a simple internal tool to prevent it from happening again, shared it with the Ruby on Rails community, and it exploded. Fast forward to today: Mailtrap generates seven-figure ARR with 100,000+ monthly active users. In this episode, Sergiy Korolov (Co-founder of Mailtrap) reveals the SaaS Pricing Strategy behind converting a massive free user base into paid customers. Learn his controversial "Mandatory Survey" tactic that unlocked deep customer insights without hurting conversion, how he used a "Fake Door" test to validate a massive product pivot before writing code, and the specific challenges of expanding from a simple testing sandbox into a full-scale Email API platform. In this episode, Sergiy also explains why simplifying onboarding didn't increase conversions (and what that revealed about developers), the "Eat Your Own Dog Food" strategy that fueled their initial growth, and how to compete with giants like SendGrid by focusing on developer experience. This episode is brought to you by: 💖 ⁠⁠Sprinto⁠⁠ → ⁠⁠Learn more and book a demo today 🚀 SaaS Club Launch → Build your SaaS to $10K MRR 🔑 Key Lessons 📊 The Mandatory Survey: Why forcing users to answer questions during signup actually helped growth without hurting conversion. 🚪 The "Fake Door" Test: Validating a major feature (Email Campaigns) with a dummy button before building it. 💰 Monetization: Transitioning a free community tool into a profitable recurring revenue business using data-driven pricing. 🛠️ Developer Marketing: How to build a product that developers naturally share (PLG) without a sales team. 🔄 The Pivot: How they navigated the risky shift from blocking emails to sending them reliably in production. 📖 Chapters The 20,000 Email Disaster (Origin Story) Building Internal Tools: The "Eat Your Own Dog Food" Strategy The Decision to Monetize a Free Tool Pricing Strategy: Using Data & Interviews to Find the Price The Onboarding Myth: Why Fewer Clicks Didn't Increase Conversions The Mandatory Signup Survey (That Didn't Kill Growth) The "Fake Door" Test: Validating Email Campaigns Before Building The Pivot: Expanding from Email Testing to Email Sending Competing with Giants (SendGrid, Mailgun) AI for Developers: Hype vs. Reality 💌 Get weekly 5-minute SaaS insights: https://saasclub.io/email SaaS Club Programs Join the SaaS Club founder community: https://saasclub.co/plus Build your $10K MRR SaaS: https://saasclub.io/launch Scale from 6-figures to $1M ARR Faster: https://saasclub.io/mastermind Resources Full show notes: https://saasclub.io/456 Subscribe to the podcast: https://saasclub.io/subscribe

Jonathan Kazarian built Accelevents to $10 million ARR working nights and weekends for five years while keeping his hedge fund day job. But when COVID hit just as he went full-time, every event worldwide got canceled and revenue dropped to zero – forcing him to borrow $75,000 from his father's retirement to survive. In this episode, Jonathan reveals the reality of bootstrapping a global platform without quitting your day job. He shares the brutal truth about hiring remote developers (firing 21 Upwork contractors to find one good one), the "19-Second Support" strategy that wins enterprise deals, and how they survived their entire revenue stream vanishing overnight during COVID by pivoting to virtual events. This episode is brought to you by: 💖 ⁠⁠Gearheart⁠⁠ → ⁠⁠Book a free strategy session + get 20% off select services⁠ 🚀 SaaS Club Launch → Build your SaaS to $10K MRR 🔑 Key Lessons ⏰ The 5-Year Grind: Balancing a hedge fund job with a growing SaaS (and why he didn't quit sooner). 📉 The COVID Crisis: Losing 100% of revenue in March 2020 and 10X'ing it by December. 🛠️ Hiring Mistakes: Why he had to fire 21 remote developers to build a stable product. 🍽️ Event-Led Growth: Hosting intimate dinners to close high-value customers without pitching. ⚡ 19-Second Support: The customer success metric that beats competitors with bigger budgets. 📖 Chapters Introduction & The Charlie Munger Quote The Origin Story: A Cancer Fundraiser Event The 5-Year Grind: Nights & Weekends Hiring Disasters: Going Through 21 Upwork Contractors The COVID Crisis: Revenue Going to Zero The Pivot: Pre-Selling Virtual Features Before Building Them Event-Led Growth: Hosting Dinners to Win Customers B2B Sales Strategy & Consolidating Tech Stacks The "19-Second" Customer Support Standard Advice for Founders on Focus 💌 Get weekly 5-minute SaaS insights: https://saasclub.io/email SaaS Club Programs Join the SaaS Club founder community: https://saasclub.co/plus Build your $10K MRR SaaS: https://saasclub.io/launch Scale from 6-figures to $1M ARR Faster: https://saasclub.io/mastermind Resources Full show notes: https://saasclub.io/455 Subscribe to the podcast: https://saasclub.io/subscribe

Richard Hollingsworth bootstrapped an executive assistant agency to $5M ARR before pivoting to an AI SaaS. In this episode, early-stage B2B SaaS founders will learn the "Agency to SaaS" playbook that drove Fyxer from $1M to $18M ARR in just 9 months. Richard breaks down their "Data Moat"—how they used six years of manual agency logs to train GPT-3, creating a product far superior to generic wrappers. You will learn how a single Facebook ad led to a $1.2M enterprise deal closed in just 7 days, and why targeting "Professional Services" instead of tech companies unlocked massive growth. In this episode, Richard also shares the brutal reality of hypergrowth (like when support response times collapsed), the "Unreasonable Effort" mantra that aligns his team, and how living in a hacker house in San Francisco shifted their ambition from "What if Google builds this?" to "This will be huge." This episode is brought to you by: 💖 Gearheart → Book a call + get the first 20 hours of development free 🔑 Key Lessons 💡 The Data Moat: How they used 6 years of manual agency data to train GPT-3, creating a product better than generic AI wrappers. 📈 Hypergrowth Reality: Scaling from $1M to $18M ARR in under a year and the specific things that broke (like support response times). 🏢 The $1.2M Deal: How they turned a single Facebook Ad signup into a 5,000-seat enterprise contract in just 7 days. 🎯 Contrarian Targeting: Why they explicitly ignore the "Tech" market to target Real Estate and Professional Services instead. 🧠 Culture of Intensity: The "Unreasonable Effort" mantra used to align a team during a period of extreme scaling. 📖 Chapters Introduction & The "Unreasonable Effort" Mantra Rich's Background: From Farming to Tech Transition to SaaS: Bootstrapping an Agency to $5M Early Product Lessons: Why Tech-Enabled Services Failed Launching the First Product with GPT-3 Building the Team: Pitching Technical Co-Founders Scaling Challenges: The "Build or Talk to Customers" Rule Product-Market Fit: Leveraging LinkedIn Influencers Sales & Customer Acquisition: The Move to San Francisco Partnerships: The $1.2M Real Estate Deal Key SaaS Metrics: Moving from Single Player to Multiplayer Tough Lessons: When Support Broke During Hypergrowth Company Culture: Hiring for Intensity SaaS Trends: AI Agents & Future of Work 💌 Get weekly 5-minute SaaS insights: https://saasclub.io/email SaaS Club Programs Join the SaaS Club founder community: https://saasclub.co/plus Build your $10K MRR SaaS: https://saasclub.io/launch Scale from 6-figures to $1M ARR Faster: https://saasclub.io/mastermind Resources Full show notes: https://saasclub.io/454 Subscribe to the podcast: https://saasclub.io/subscribe

Bernard Aceituno went from PhD research at MIT to founding Stack AI, a no-code AI platform that's now generating 7-figures in ARR with over 100 enterprise customers and $16M raised. In this episode, early-stage B2B SaaS founders will learn the enterprise AI strategy that turned a scrappy MVP into a market leader. Bernard shares how a perfectly-timed launch on Hacker News generated 20 enterprise meetings in 48 hours. You will learn why chasing too many customer segments (SMBs vs. Enterprise) nearly derailed the company, and the data-driven framework he used to fire small customers and double down on IT teams. In this episode, Bernard also explains the "Monte Carlo" approach to testing sales channels without wasting time, why early reseller partnerships failed, and the "Maker vs. Manager" schedule that allows founders to code and sell simultaneously. This episode is brought to you by: 💖 Gearheart → Book a call + get the first 20 hours of development free 🔑 Key Lessons 🚀 The Hacker News Launch: How a simple "Show HN" post for a scrappy MVP generated 20 enterprise meetings in just 48 hours. 🎯 Finding Focus: Why chasing too many ICPs (SMBs, Startups, Enterprise) nearly derailed the company and why they fired their small customers. 💡 The MVP Pivot: What signals showed Bernard it was time to move from "Dataset Management" to "Workflow Automation." 🧪 The Experiment Framework: How to use a "Monte Carlo" approach to test sales channels without wasting time on mediocre experiments. 🛑 Channel Mistakes: Why attempts at reseller channels failed early on and what Bernard learned about timing partnerships. 📖 Chapters Introduction & The "Risk" Mindset From MIT PhD to YC Founder What is Stack AI? (Enterprise AI Toolkit) The MVP Launch: 20 Meetings in 48 Hours Early Traction: Finding the First $100k ARR Discovering the ICP: Why SMBs were the Wrong Customer The Enterprise Pivot: Selling to IT & Compliance Teams Founder-Led Sales: Closing the First 12 Enterprise Deals Hiring Sales Teams: When is the Right Time? The "Mediocre Experiment" Trap 💌 Get weekly 5-minute SaaS insights: https://saasclub.io/email SaaS Club Programs Join the SaaS Club founder community: https://saasclub.co/plus Build your $10K MRR SaaS: https://saasclub.io/launch Scale from 6-figures to $1M ARR Faster: https://saasclub.io/mastermind Resources Full show notes: https://saasclub.io/453 Subscribe to the podcast: https://saasclub.io/subscribe

Pat Kinsel went from years of painful struggle at Notarize to building Proof, a SaaS platform approaching $100M ARR with 230 employees and $260M raised. In this episode, early-stage B2B SaaS founders will learn the growth strategy that turned a notary error into a market-defining company. Pat explains how he validated demand with a simple landing page before writing a line of code, how he endured years of negative margins, and the specific "Regulatory Moat" strategy of lobbying to change state laws. You will also learn why the 100x COVID demand spike was actually a "false signal" that nearly killed the company, and how he pivoted from a point solution to a full transaction security platform. In this episode, Pat also shares the "Sunday Night" habit that keeps him connected to the product, why he rebranded to expand his TAM, and the reality of firing non-strategic customers to save the business. This episode is brought to you by: 💖 Gearheart → Book a free strategy session + get 20% off select services 📫 Mailtrap → Get 20% off with code THESAASPODCAST 🔑 Key Lessons 💡 Validation Strategy: How Pat validated demand with a simple landing page and Google ads before writing code. 💰 Surviving Negative Margins: Why losing money on every transaction nearly killed the company and how they fixed unit economics. 📈 The COVID Spike: What really happened when demand spiked 100x overnight and why many of those customers churned later. 🏛️ Regulatory Moat: How he spent years lobbying to change state laws, turning red tape into a massive competitive advantage. 🔄 The Pivot: Why he rebranded from "Notarize" to "Proof" to expand TAM beyond just digital notary services. 📖 Chapters Introduction & About Pat Kinsel Validating Demand: Landing Page & Google Ads Losing Money, Struggling for Profitability Lobbying to Change Notary Laws Origin Story: Where the Idea Came From Early Investment Experience & Industry Connections Initial Research & Testing (Unbounce Landing Page) Building the MVP: Mobile App for Online Notary Early B2C Go-to-Market Strategy Recruiting the First Notaries Educating and Acquiring Consumers Marketing Tactics: Google Ads, SEO, Channel Partners Long, Slow Early Growth and Doubts Breaking Even & Gross Margin Challenges Lobbying Strategy & Industry Support COVID-19 Impact: Exploding Demand Shift to Enterprise Customers During COVID Post-COVID Reality Check & Refocusing Expanding Beyond Notarization: The Proof Platform Enterprise Transaction Security & Deepfakes Technical/Engineering Moat & Compliance Lightning Round 💌 Get weekly 5-minute SaaS insights: https://saasclub.io/email SaaS Club Programs Join the SaaS Club founder community: https://saasclub.co/plus Build your $10K MRR SaaS: https://saasclub.io/launch Scale from 6-figures to $1M ARR Faster: https://saasclub.io/mastermind Resources Full show notes: https://saasclub.io/452 Subscribe to the podcast: https://saasclub.io/subscribe

Todd Olson went from two failed startups to building Pendo, a SaaS platform now generating $200M ARR with 880 employees and nearly $500M raised. In this episode, early-stage B2B SaaS founders will learn how an obsession with product-market fit turned past failures into a unicorn. Todd reveals why he refused to hire salespeople until he validated the sales motion himself (at $500k ARR), how he used manual outreach instead of inbound to create a new category, and the controversial pricing decision—raising the minimum from $99 to $1,000 overnight—that changed the company's trajectory forever. In this episode, Todd also explains how building "Auto-Track" gave them an unfair advantage over competitors like Segment, why "Product-Led Growth" failed them early on, and the specific metrics he used to validate fit before scaling. This episode is brought to you by: 💖 Gearheart → Book a free strategy session + get 20% off select services 📫 Mailtrap → Get 20% off with code THESAASPODCAST 🔑 Key Lessons 💡 Finding Product-Market Fit: Why Todd refused to scale until he had undeniable fit, unlike his first two startups. 💰 The 10x Price Hike: How raising the minimum price from $99/mo to $1,000/mo filtered out bad customers and accelerated growth. 🤝 Founder-Led Sales: Why Todd personally sold the first $500k in ARR before hiring a single salesperson. 🏗️ Building the MVP: How Pendo launched with critical features (Auto-Track) that competitors like Segment ignored for years. 🚀 Category Creation: The challenge of selling a product nobody was searching for and why "Product-Led Growth" didn't work early on. 📖 Chapters Introduction & Favorite Quote What is Pendo? Product Overview Company Metrics Todd’s Early Coding Career First Startup Failure & Lessons Missing Product-Market Fit Inspiration for Pendo Building the First Product Landing First Customers First Paying Customer Pricing Evolution Hardest Challenges Scaling Lightning Round 💌 Get weekly 5-minute SaaS insights: https://saasclub.io/email SaaS Club Programs Join the SaaS Club founder community: https://saasclub.co/plus Build your $10K MRR SaaS: https://saasclub.io/launch Scale from 6-figures to $1M ARR Faster: https://saasclub.io/mastermind Resources Full show notes: https://saasclub.io/451 Subscribe to the podcast: https://saasclub.io/subscribe

Flo Crivello is the founder and CEO of Lindy, a no-code platform for building AI agents to automate workflows. Before Lindy, Flo built Teamflow, a virtual office platform that raised $50M but ultimately failed when the pandemic ended and remote work habits shifted. In this episode, early-stage B2B SaaS founders will learn the "Pivoting to AI Agents" playbook that took Lindy from zero to 100K users. Flo reveals his controversial "Build in Public" strategy on Twitter that generated a 70,000-person waitlist before a single line of code was written, why he fired his entire go-to-market team to restart from scratch, and how a single YouTube review catalyzed their growth from "middling" to exponential. In this episode, Flo also explains why positioning Lindy as "The Zapier of AI" worked better than "AI Employee," the signal (Lindy 2.0) that finally shifted them from pushing uphill to chasing growth downhill, and the reality of shipping an ugly product that sends emails to the wrong people. This episode is brought to you by: 👉 This episode is sponsored by Mailtrap. Try it at ⁠⁠Mailtrap.io⁠⁠ — use code THESAASPODCAST for 20% off 🔑 Key Lessons 📉 The Hard Pivot: How to recognize when your startup is dead (Teamflow) and make the painful decision to pivot, including laying off 50+ people. 🚀 The 70K Waitlist: How Flo used a "Build in Public" strategy on Twitter to generate massive demand before the product existed. 💡 Positioning Strategy: Why positioning Lindy as "The Zapier of AI" (a familiar anchor) worked better than "AI Employee" (a scary new concept). 🛠️ Shipping Ugly: Why you must launch before you are ready (even if the product sends emails to the wrong people) to get true feedback. 🔄 The "Boulder Downhill" Moment: Recognizing the specific signal (Lindy 2.0 launch) that shifted them from pushing uphill to chasing growth downhill. 📖 Chapters Introduction and Favorite Quotes Overview of Lindy: No-Code AI Platform Business Metrics and Team Size Flo's Background and Team Flow The Birth of Lindy Building a Twitter Following Launching Lindy and Initial Challenges Iterating and Improving the Product Advice for Founders: Shipping Early and Making Noise Customer Reactions to Early Product Issues Vision vs. Reality: The Gap in Expectations Positioning the Product in the AI Market The Turning Point: Lindy 2.0 Navigating Rapid Growth and Competition Lightning Round: Insights and Advice 💌 Get weekly 5-minute SaaS insights: https://saasclub.io/email SaaS Club Programs Join the SaaS Club founder community: https://saasclub.co/plus Build your $10K MRR SaaS: https://saasclub.io/launch Scale from 6-figures to $1M ARR Faster: https://saasclub.io/mastermind Resources Full show notes: https://saasclub.io/450 Subscribe to the podcast: https://saasclub.io/subscribe

In this episode, you will learn how to prioritize user retention over early revenue to build a high-velocity PLG flywheel that scales to $1M ARR. Richard White (Founder, Fathom) explains why he ignored monetization until his activation rate was fixed and how he turned a disastrous churn event into an 8-figure business. Many founders rush to charge their first customers, but Richard argues that until you have "stable users," revenue is a vanity metric. 🔑 Key Lessons 📉 Retention First: Why you must refuse to monetize until you have a cohort of users who refuse to churn. 🛠️ Fixing the Trust Gap: How to use "fake" environments to help users test your product without risking their reputation. 💰 Monetizing Vaporware: How to sell a B2B Team Plan using only a slide deck before the features are actually built. 🔄 The Free-Forever Flywheel: How to use free individual users as a marketing engine to drive enterprise sales. 📖 Chapters The "Cheat Codes" origin story Why speed was the only MVP feature that mattered The Zoom Marketplace launch: 100k signups, 99% churn Fixing the "Empty Calendar" problem Monetizing during the funding crash Selling the Team Plan before it was built How AI integration 10x'd revenue in 6 months 💌 Get weekly 5-minute SaaS insights: https://saasclub.io/email SaaS Club Programs Join the SaaS Club founder community: https://saasclub.co/plus Build your $10K MRR SaaS: https://saasclub.io/launch Scale from 6-figures to $1M ARR Faster: https://saasclub.io/mastermind Resources Full show notes: https://saasclub.io/449 Subscribe to the podcast: https://saasclub.io/subscribe

Rob Woollen founded Sigma Computing with $8M in funding and a massive vision, but for the first seven years, the company generated almost zero revenue. They built products that failed, lost early team members, and struggled to find a working interface. In this episode, Rob (Co-founder & CTO) reveals how they survived the "Valley of Death" to eventually hit product-market fit so hard they grew from $0 to $100M ARR in just 3.5 years. He breaks down why their early "AI Suggestions" product failed, how a lunch with Snowflake's CEO changed their trajectory, and the specific "Spreadsheet Interface" insight that finally unlocked the enterprise market. 🔑 Key Lessons 📉 The "Tale of Two Companies": How Sigma survived 7 years of stagnation before finding the fit that led to $100M ARR. 💡 The Interface Pivot: Why their initial "AI Auto-Analysis" product failed and why returning to a "Spreadsheet" interface won the market. 🤝 Strategic Partnerships: How piggybacking on Snowflake's growth (and solving their biggest user gap) fueled Sigma's explosion. 🧠 Founder Resilience: Rob's mindset during the "dark years" when the team shrank to 3 people and the office was empty. 🏢 Enterprise Sales: How they transitioned from founder-led sales (giving out personal cell numbers) to a scalable enterprise motion. 📖 Chapters Introduction and Favorite Quote Overview of Sigma Computing Company Growth and Milestones Founding Story and Background Early Challenges and Iterations Securing Funding and Initial Team Product Development and Prototypes First Startup Failure & Lessons Missing Product-Market Fit Inspiration for Pendo Building the First Product Landing First Customers First Paying Customer Achieving Product-Market Fit Rebuilding the Product for Broader Appeal Leveraging Strategic Partnerships Reflecting on the Journey and Key Milestones Lightning Round: Insights and Personal Reflections This episode is brought to you by: 💖 Gearheart → Book a free strategy session + get 20% off select services 📫 Mailtrap → Get 20% off with code THESAASPODCAST Resources: 🎧 Full Show Notes: saasclub.io/448 🎤 Subscribe to the Podcast: saasclub.io/subscribe 💌 Get weekly 5-minute SaaS insights: saasclub.io/email 💡 Join the SaaS Club founder community: saasclub.co/plus

In this episode, you will learn how to leverage high-touch consulting to fund and build a scalable SaaS product without raising early venture capital. Jared Siegal (Founder, Aditude) bootstrapped his ad-tech platform to $5M ARR by doing everything the "wrong" way. He wrote code in text files, borrowed engineers from clients, and gave his product away for free. He reveals how he converted 30 consulting clients into SaaS subscribers overnight and why he eventually raised $15M despite being highly profitable. 🔑 Key Lessons 🔄 The Service-to-SaaS Bridge: How to use high-margin consulting revenue to fund product development without giving up equity. 🎁 The "Free Tech" Strategy: Why giving your SaaS product away for free initially can be the fastest way to lock in enterprise clients. 🤝 Borrowed Resources: How Jared convinced a client to give him an engineer for six weeks to build his MVP. 🛑 Founder Bottlenecks: The painful realization that micromanaging payroll and invoicing was literally costing the company growth. 🌴 The Disney Strategy: Why taking clients on vacation to Disney World closed more deals than any pitch deck. 📖 Chapters From Employee to Scrappy Consultant The Pivot: Turning Down Acquisition Offers Borrowing a Client's Engineer to Build the MVP Flipping the Switch: Converting Consulting to SaaS The Pain of Bootstrapping & Personal Risk Why You Should Be Profitable Before Raising VC Growing Without Sales or Marketing The "Disney World" Client Retention Strategy Letting Go: How a Forced Vacation Saved the CEO This episode is brought to you by: 💖 Gearheart → Book a free strategy session + get 20% off select services 📫 Mailtrap → Get 20% off with code THESAASPODCAST 💌 Get weekly 5-minute SaaS insights: https://saasclub.io/email SaaS Club Programs Join the SaaS Club founder community: https://saasclub.co/plus Build your $10K MRR SaaS: https://saasclub.io/launch Scale from 6-figures to $1M ARR Faster: https://saasclub.io/mastermind Resources Full show notes: https://saasclub.io/447 Subscribe to the podcast: https://saasclub.io/subscribe

David Zitoun and his co-founder bootstrapped Submagic from zero to $1M ARR in just 90 days—and hit $8M ARR within two years. They did it with no funding, no ads, and a team of just 14 people. In this episode, David reveals the scrappy playbook behind their hyper-growth. He shares how they used "Y Combinator Co-Founder Match" to start 12 startups in 12 months (Submagic was the winner), how he recruited 50 TikTok affiliates in one week to drive massive traffic, and why they intentionally built an "ugly" MVP that did only one thing perfectly. 🔑 Key Lessons 🚀 The 90-Day Sprint: How they went from $0 to $1M ARR in 3 months using a viral TikTok strategy. 👯 The "Affiliate Army": How David recruited 50 young content creators to post daily videos on TikTok, generating massive organic reach for free. 🛠️ The "Ugly MVP" Rule: Why they launched a product that only did one thing (captions) with one template, and why perfectionism kills growth. 📉 Breaking the $5M Plateau: What happened when growth stalled at $5M ARR and the counter-intuitive pricing change that fixed it. 🤝 Customer Obsession: How creating a WhatsApp group with early customers turned them into "Product Managers" who built the roadmap for free. 📖 Chapters Introduction & The "Opportunity" Quote The Origin: Solving the "Alex Hormozi Caption" Problem The YC Co-Founder Match Strategy The First Viral TikTok Video (Zero Followers) The Affiliate Army: How to Get 50 People Posting Daily Timing the Market: Why Being Early Matters The $5M Plateau: Fixing Churn to Keep Growing Launching "Magic Clips" (Repurposing Long Form Content) Lightning Round This episode is brought to you by: 💖 Gearheart → Book a free strategy session + get 20% off select services Resources: 🎧 Full Show Notes: saasclub.io/446 🎤 Subscribe to the Podcast: saasclub.io/subscribe 💌 Get weekly 5-minute SaaS insights: saasclub.io/email 💡 Join the SaaS Club founder community: saasclub.co/plus