Can a small team really bootstrap to $8M ARR in a crowded SaaS market?

In this episode, Rob Walling chats with Philippe Lehoux about how he and his co-founders bootstrapped Missive, a collaborative email and team inbox tool. They deep dive into landing early customers, unique horizontal positioning, content-driven growth, enterprise sales, and how to compete with VC-backed competition. 

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 Topics we cover: 

• (2:05 ) – Missive’s $8M ARR journey and email pivot





• (6:02 ) – Early idea and first customers





• (11:16 ) – Unique positioning: horizontal vs. vertical





• (13:41 ) – How they prioritize features





• (15:39 ) – Why they stayed bootstrapped and decline funding





• (20:25 ) – Content strategy and “vs” pages





• (21:39 ) – Affiliate program driving 30% of growth





• (25:24 ) – Challenges and benefits of being horizontal





• (30:28 ) – Enterprise sales and pricing





• (32:06 ) – Scaling with SOC 2 compliance

Links from the Show: 

• SaaS Institute 





• MicroConf YouTube channel





• Missive





• Philippe Lehoux | LinkedIn





• Philippe Lehoux (@plehoux) | X

If you have questions about starting or scaling a software business that you’d like for us to cover, please submit your question for an upcoming episode. We’d love to hear from you!

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