SaaS Interviews with CEOs, Startups, Founders

How he spun his software out of a corporation and hit first 5 paying customers

They've spent $225k building the MVP. If burn stays this high, they need to raise $500k in Dec. They only want to sell 20% of the company implying a 40x multiple. Can he get it done?

This SaaS For Fund Manager's Just Hit $40k of MRR charing a % of AUM Managed

100 fund managers pay Avestorinc.com 400 per month and 30 to 50 bips of $60m AUM. With $40k in MRR today, can he scale to a $1m run rate by december before he tests the equity markets?

Learn from Organice: How to get free customers from the Slack App Exchange

Genius 24 year old launches agency. Now does $3m+ per year in revenue and is spinning out SaaS tools. Only a matter of time before one hits $1m. Will it happen this year with Organice - his slack tool for org charts?

AI Tool Profited $70k Last Month on $195k of Revenue. Plans to hit $3m ARR By December then Raise $5m.

Rayban and 800 other customers use Wordlift to write meta-descriptions with AI to boost SEO. The company did $195k in revenue last month up from $103k in Sept 2022. He profited $70k and is targeting a $4m raise on a $20m valuation in Q1 of 2024. Can Wordlift hit $3m in revenue by December?

He's Spent $2m to Build a Better Quickbooks, Can he hit $1m ARR by Dec?

He owned 3 franchises of the Estonian based ride sharing company Bolt which he sold. Using that money, he starting building Binderr in 2020 and just landed his first customer in March 2023. He still owns 50% of the company and as invested over $2m of his own money. Can he hit $1m in ARR this year building a better Quickbooks for Accountants in Malta?

Economics of a $37,500 Pre Seed Uncapped Convertible Note

Crazy years: from $60M in secondaries to layoffs & back to cash positive

How We Bootstrapped Backblaze from $0 to IPO and $87m in ARR

How to Convince High-Performers to Take a Pay Cut & Work for You

9 Lessons from Building Marketing Teams at HubSpot, Drift, and Airmeet

SaaStock Starts Oct 16th in Dublin, 5000 SaaS Founders and Big Bootstrap Stage

October 16th in Dublin. Meet 5000 SaaS founders in a week or so. Aircall Co-Founder will share how he hit $130m ARR. Muck Rack founder will share why he did $180m Series A and secondary after bootstrapping to $50m. 

Can this company leverage 250 engineer beta testers for bug testing tool to close $3m pre seed round?

Mobile bug testing company got 20 companies and 250 engineers using their platform to identify 50 bugs per week. Question is, can they convert these users into real paying customers? They quit their full time jobs in June and hope to have revenue by this December. 

Ukrainian Volunteer Group Uses This App to Raise $200k/mo, Now Available to Western Customers

24 year old hits $30k MRR in 6 months with unique SaaS cold email scripts

Zero to $30k in MRR in 8 months. Yash reveals the scripts he used to cold email and linkedin message his first 5 paying customers. He profits $10k/mo and things a valuation of $2.5m is too low. How long will it take him to hit $60k in MRR for his influencer marketing search tool?

HR Tech Exec Invested $200k into his own HR SaaS, Raising $200k on $3m Valuation Now

Ex Corporate HR Exec builds nest egg to launch HR tech SaaS in 2019. Today he's doing just $10k in MRR but says pipeline is biggest it's ever been. Can he use that data to close his $200k seed round next week?

This Hotel Tech SaaS Just Exited to Constellation Group After Hitting 30% EBITDA Margin and sharing 25% of profits with employees

Constellation software just bought this company after the bootstrapped CEO hit 60% yoy growth and over 200 paying customers. The company did 30% EBITA margin last year and is now part of Constellation Software Juniper Group. 

Behind The Term Sheet: How this $76m Seed Stage Fund Really Works

3 questions every smart founder asks this VC. How much follow on capital for a $1.5m initial check? How many deals does he look at each year? How long will his current $76m last?

How this Hotel SaaS Hit $1.3m ARR and 1400 Customers

This father and son SaaS team turned down a $7m all cash offer - a 6x multiple. They serve 1400 small hostels and vacation homes to help them manage bookings. Should the bootstrapped team have taken the $7m?

How He Built a $10m Revenue Company Around Camp Ticket Software, Bootstrapped!

His largest customer pays him over $150,000 per year to manage after school camps. This 3 pronged revenue model has allowed founder Asaf Darash to hit $10,000,000 in total revenue. 40% comes from SaaS, 40% comes from payment processing where he takes a 1% fee, and 20% is an insurance like product - if your kid gets sick and can't make the camp you paid $2k for, they'll refund. 

His First Exit Was for $200m, His Next Startup Hit $1m Then Almost Failed, Now 100% YoY Growth at Customer.ai with unique LLM model

Are you smarter than everyone else or did you just get lucky? Larry Kim sold his first company for $200m. His second company got down to $500k cash in the bank before he leveraged non-dilutive funding from Founderpath to extend runway. The runway enabled a big pivot and revenue doubled to $3.7m. Can Customers.ai hit $6m ARR this year?

I smell a $10m ARR SaaS Company. Why this 22 year old is smart to start with an Agency!

22 year old convinces 4 customers to pay $5k/mo. None of the have churned over the last 8 months. Will he use this "recurring professional services" model to eventually get into SaaS?

UserTesting Competitor Has 40 Beta Users, Here's How She's Gonna Convert them to Paid

She makes lots of money consulting. Is it possible to run a successful SaaS gig with such a big safety net? 

How 3 University Grads Plan to Take on Buffer with AI Social Media SaaS

3 university graduates launch their no code SaaS on Bubble. How'd they get 15 paying customers in 3 weeks? Why'd they split equity 33% each? How did they get Linkedin Navigator for free?

Finally! How to move from consultant to SaaS CEO (from a consultant who did $800k revenue last year)

Bsolve agency did $800k revenue in 2022. 50/50 Co-founders decided to take a pay cut to invest $150k in their new SaaS tool SPRobot to help with document management. Will they hit $1m ARR in their first 12 months?

Startup Hits $3k MRR by selling through podcasts. $2.5m Valuation on $255k Pre-Seed too expensive?

They have $125k cash left in bank, burning $7k/mo and revenues just hit $3k MRR. Will this team of 8 have enough runway to hit $1m  ARR by helping customers turn their employees into marketing machines?

How this SaaS For Music Venues Survived Covid Then hit $3m ARR

COVID should have killed this SaaS tool for live music venues. Instead, he's grown ARR 3x to $3m+ and has investors knocking down his door. With 300 customers paying $7k+/mo his team of 27 is considering embedded finance next. 

The King of India Workspaces: How he Logged 20k Bookings Last Month and Took Home $30,000

This marketplace processed over 20k bookings in India last month helping workers find quick co-working space. They take 20-30% of bookings generating $30k in MRR. Now that they've been acquired, the question is, can they grow the value of the parent companies stock to make the exit a big win for everyone?

Non Tech Founder Quickly Gives Up 50% To Tech Co-Founder To Scale Revenue Faster

Non-Engineer launches SaaS using no code. Realizes he needs a co-founder to compete and gives up 50%. Now at $2k in MRR across 30 customers helping them repurpose podcast content. His goal is $20k MRR by December 2023. 

The Ultimate Challenge: Selling a SaaS to Universities, he hated what his Daughter went through

This father hated watching his daughter struggle with college admissions. His SaaS for Colleges has its first 12 customers and $120k of ARR. Can he sustain the revenue growth to $1m+ or will he have to kill it before it gets a real chance?

How He Doubled Revenue To $2.4m Using a 5 Page Google Doc over the past 12 months

His sales team uses a unique 5 page google drive Doc. It helped him hit $2.4m in revenue up from $400k in his first year in business (2021). Today he's bootstrapped serving 160 customers with his buyer collaboration platform. Is a big 2024 fundraise next?

The $30m ARR Battle: How 1 VC Forced a 5x Exit When Restaurant SaaS CEO Wanted to Keep Building

CEO, "I'm not happy with VC ArrowRoot who forced us to sell for 5x when I thought we could have gotten 8x". How this experienced SaaS CEO led his company through multiple debt and equity rounds since 2008 to $35m ARR today. 

Nigerian Founder Uses WhatsApp Group to Go $0 to $60k in 5 Months for Testing Tool

This Nigerian SaaS founder used a secret WhatsApp group to get his first $60k in sales. His new SaaS helps companies automate their code testing so they can release faster. $45k invested in the MVP so far. He owns 51% of the company, bootstrapped. 

22 yo Launches B2B Fraud Prevention SaaS That Will Tell you if the China Steel Company is Real or Not

Why He Spent $5m on Fintech API MVP, 20 Customers Today and $20k in MRR

6 Oil Drilling Companies Pay Him to Map Hard to Quantify Oil Well Pay Zone's

Smith AI Breaks $22m ARR Helping Companies Manage Voice, Chat Support, $100m Cap, Burning $300k per Month

Team of 12 Hits $2.5m in ARR, $64m Valuation for Customer Success Tool. Can they beat Gainsight?

$90k Burned Last Month: $2.2m SaaS founder is “ok” with $90k net burn since they have “$10m cash in bank today” and plenty of runway. Here’s how they scaled to $2.2m after almost running out of money in 2017 (down to $16k cash balance).

eCommerce SaaS hits $13m 2021 GMV, How He's Hedged Chile Interest Rates, Macroeconomic Headwinds

When $200k Monthly Burn Kills You: He has 110 FTE’s but monetary policy in central america is killing his SaaS customers. Revenue drooped from $13m in 2021 to $6m in 2022 and he made the tough call to fire 85 FTE’s (80% of his team) for a shot at sustainability. How he did it. How to survive when you’re burning $200k per month and your revenue drops from $13m to $6m in 18 months.

Proof you don't need a new idea, just better execution. Firm hits 160 customers, $25k MRR

Taregeting $2m raise at a $12m valuation to take on data tool Apollo.ai. Will they be able to justify the valuation considering $25k in MRR from 163 paying customers?

Zero to $1m in 12 Months, how he used personal brand to scale SaaS Fast

Workforce communication SaaS spent $800k on MVP before 1st paying customer. Today they have 400 customers paying $700/mo for $100k in MRR. They relied on a volume seat based pricing approach to scale fast ($3-6/seat).

How He hit $12k monthly revenue building the Zapier for Data

18 year olds quit $30k jobs to launch software, get first $10k customer

How he grew $1k to $23k SaaS MRR for HR Tech over last 12 months

Airtory Did $120k Last Month, Profitable with ad creation and management tool

Candidate Review Platform Convinced First 5 Customers to Pay $250 Each

ECommerce SaaS Hits $1.5m after Co-Founder Replaced Herself

From running a female clothing line, to becoming CEO of the SaaS they relied on. Here’s how Elliott vertifcally integrated to hit $1.5m ARR with a team of just 4 ($375k revenue per employee!) 

Can this new AI tool grow into their $10m valuation?

How Cyber SaaS Hit $2m ARR and 190 Customers So Fast

20,000 AI Lip Sync Vids Created, Now Raising $2m on $10m Valuation

How Hirize Hit $14k MRR in 60 Days