The SaaS Podcast: Build, Launch & Scale Your SaaS

• Pivoting from Consulting to $1M ARR (The AI Agent Strategy) | Cotera

  Ibby Syed accidentally built a consulting agency while trying to build software. Then, he executed a SaaS Pivot to AI Agents and hit $1M ARR. In this episode, Ibby (Co-founder of Cotera) reveals how to escape the "Service Trap." Learn why hitting $150k ARR in consulting revenue was actually a "local maxima" that nearly killed the startup, how his co-founder replaced months of data science work with 100 lines of code, and the specific LinkedIn Outbound Strategy (sending free leads) that books meetings with high-value buyers. He also breaks down why teaching customers to build their own AI Agents is the secret to scaling a horizontal platform. 🔑 Key Lessons 📉 The Consulting Trap: Why early revenue can trick you into building a service business instead of a product. 🤖 The AI Pivot: How 100 lines of OpenAI API code outperformed a massive data science stack. 📧 LinkedIn Outbound: The "Value-First" message script that books 25+ meetings a week. 🛠️ Horizontal vs. Vertical: Why broad tools (like Zapier/Cotera) will outlast niche AI wrappers. 💰 Pricing Strategy: Moving from custom enterprise contracts to a $20/mo usage model to fuel PLG. 📖 Chapters: Introduction & The "White Collar" Quote The Y Combinator Journey & The First Idea (Customer Analytics) Old Outbound vs. New Outbound (LinkedIn Strategy) The "Consulting Trap": Revenue vs. Scalability The Wake-Up Call: 100 Lines of Code vs. Data Science The Pivot: Building an AI Agent Platform (Cotera) The "Teach, Don't Do" Service Model Prompt-Based Workflows vs. Drag-and-Drop Pricing Evolution: From Enterprise Sales to PLG Why Vertical AI Startups Might Die Founder Advice: Focus & The "Local Maxima" 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 Resources: 🎧 Full Show Notes: saasclub.io/463 🎤 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

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• Building a 7-Figure SaaS on Slack (Surviving Platform Risk) | Polly

  Bilal Aijazi built a multi-million dollar SaaS on Slack despite competing features and clunky onboarding. Here is his 7-figure SaaS growth strategy. In this episode, Bilal Aijazi (Founder of Polly) breaks down how he navigated the treacherous waters of building a business on top of a major platform. You will learn how Polly achieved viral product-market fit with an 80% completion rate on a difficult 5-step installation process. Bilal reveals the evolution of their Freemium Pricing Model, how a fantasy football user led to enterprise HR contracts, and the critical playbook for surviving when platforms like Slack or Microsoft Teams launch features that compete directly with you. 🔑 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. 💡 Suriving "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 Scaling to Millions of Monthly Active Users Leveraging Product Hunt for Viral Growth The 5-Step Onboarding Nightmare (That Worked) Transitioning from Viral Bot to Real Company The Fantasy Football Customer: Early Pricing Experiments Freemium Secrets: Converting Free Users to Paid Platform Risk: What Happens When Slack Copies You? The Mistake of Slack Workflow Builder Horizontal vs. Vertical SaaS Strategies Advice: Why Technical Founders Must Sell The "Just Don't Die" Philosophy 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 Resources: 🎧 Full Show Notes: saasclub.io/462 🎤 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

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• Selling a Bootstrapped SaaS for 8-Figures (The Exit Strategy) | GoProposal

  James Ashford sold his bootstrapped B2B SaaS for an 8-figure exit to Sage. Learn his counter-intuitive SaaS Exit Strategy for founders. In this episode, James Ashford (Founder of GoProposal) shares the playbook for building a highly sellable asset with zero external funding. Discover his unique SaaS Marketing Strategy, how he used the PATH sales method, and why customer proximity was the secret weapon that allowed a bootstrapped SaaS to defeat competitors with $75M in funding. He breaks down the "Built to Sell" mindset required to achieve an 8-figure exit with just a 12-person team. 🔑 Key Lessons 🚀 MVP Secrets: Building an 8-figure business on a simple WordPress plugin. 💡 Proximity Edge: How speaking to an accountant every single day provided an unbeatable advantage. 💰 Built to Sell: Why systems, playbooks, and exit readiness must come first. 🧠 PATH Method: The 4-step content and sales formula (Pain, Aspiration, Traps, How). 🎁 Extreme Onboarding: The shock-and-awe customer success approach that impressed acquirers. 📖 Chapters: The GoProposal Problem & Market Overview Productizing Services: The Consulting MVP The 10% Deal: Gaining Instant Credibility Content Marketing: Building Trust Without Domain Expertise Customer Proximity: Why James Spoke to an Accountant Daily Built to Sell Mindset & Exit Readiness Bootstrapping Advantage: Resourcefulness over Resources The 8-Figure Acquisition Process Life After Exit: Preparing for the Second Half 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 Resources: 🎧 Full Show Notes: saasclub.io/461 🎤 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

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• SaaS Growth Strategy: From Zero Revenue to 8-Figures | Assembled

  Ryan Wang went from 8 months without revenue to building Assembled, an AI platform doing tens of millions in ARR. Here is his hard-won SaaS Growth Strategy. In this episode, Ryan Wang (CEO of Assembled) shares the gritty details of surviving a tough launch and scaling an enterprise platform. Learn the pivotal moment of finding Product Market Fit when he discovered the exact same color-coded scheduling spreadsheet at Stripe, Grammarly, and Casper. He explains the high-stakes risk of Usage Based Pricing with no minimums, how a data-driven ICP exercise unlocked growth from 10 to 50 customers, and the critical lessons on deciding which custom deals actually help versus those that generate unmanageable technical debt. 🔑 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 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 Resources: 🎧 Full Show Notes: saasclub.io/460 🎤 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

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• 459: Everflow: From Selling Just Screenshots to $30M ARR SaaS - with Sam Darawish

  Sam Darawish sold his first startup for $50M, then invested a few hundred thousand of his own money into Everflow. He didn't pay himself for two years. Most founders would never show screenshots at a trade show instead of a working product, but that's exactly what Sam did — and it landed his first customers. Today, Everflow generates nearly $30M ARR with 1,200 customers and a 120-person team across four continents. They've done it all without raising a single dollar of outside funding, proving that capital efficiency beats hypergrowth for building sustainable SaaS companies. You'll learn: Why showing screenshots at a trade show led to their first paying customers How narrowing to a tiny $70M TAM helped them reach $1M ARR faster What happened when they expanded to a bigger market that looked similar but wasn't Why spending only $400K to start forced them to focus on what really mattered How to maintain 25-30% growth while staying profitable from day one Full show notes → saasclub.io/459 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 Get weekly SaaS lessons and new founder stories → saasclub.io/email

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