The SaaS Podcast: Build, Launch & Scale Your SaaS copertina

The SaaS Podcast: Build, Launch & Scale Your SaaS

The SaaS Podcast: Build, Launch & Scale Your SaaS

Di: Omer Khan
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A proposito di questo titolo

 The SaaS Podcast is the go-to resource for B2B SaaS founders and entrepreneurs who want to build, launch, and scale successful software businesses. Hosted by Omer Khan, we deliver honest, in-depth interviews with proven SaaS founders who share the specific strategies they used to generate recurring revenue and reach product-market fit. Whether you are bootstrapping a micro-SaaS, seeking venture capital funding, or scaling past $10M ARR, you will find actionable tactics here. We unpack the real stories behind the wins, failures, and pivots, covering essential topics like SaaS growth, enterprise sales, product-led growth (PLG), marketing, and customer acquisition. From early-stage startups getting their first 100 customers to established companies planning an exit, The SaaS Podcast provides the playbook you need to grow your MRR and build a product people love. Join the SaaS Club community and start leveling up your business today. New episodes weekly. Economia Gestione e leadership Leadership
Episodi
  • Product-Market Fit: From Edtech Vitamin to $100M Painkiller

    Product-Market Fit: From Edtech Vitamin to $100M Painkiller
    Feb 19 2026
    Seven years selling a nice-to-have. Then 1,000 customers in year one. Adam Markowitz spent nearly a decade grinding in edtech before finding product-market fit at Drata. In this episode, founders will learn how to tell the difference between a vitamin and a painkiller - and why that distinction changes everything. Adam shares how experiencing a compliance pain at his first startup became the foundation for Drata, why he refused to sell until his team used their own product to get SOC 2 compliant, and how a "give before you take" approach to AWS made Drata a top 5 ISV on Marketplace in under two years. Drata has over 8,000 customers across 60 countries, more than 600 employees, and crossed $100 million in ARR before its fourth birthday. The company has raised over $300 million. This episode is brought to you by: 🌎 ThreatLocker → Book a demo 🔑 Key Lessons 🎯 Product-market fit shows in buyer urgency, not just signups: Drata signed 100 customers in 6 weeks and 1,000 in year one - a stark contrast to Adam's edtech company where the first 5 university customers took years to close. 🛠️ Dogfood your product before selling it: Drata refused to accept customers until they used their own tool to get SOC 2 compliant, giving them instant credibility and proving the product worked under real conditions. 🔍 Validate by talking to every stakeholder, not just buyers: Adam spoke with dozens of companies and auditors before writing code, discovering identical pain patterns that made the initial product scope obvious. 🤝 Give before you take with strategic partners: Drata brought thousands of first-time customers to AWS Marketplace before asking for anything in return, becoming a top 5 global ISV in under two years. 📉 Selling a vitamin versus a painkiller changes everything: Seven years in edtech taught Adam what product-market fit feels like when you don't have it. At Drata, customers lined up because compliance wasn't optional. 🚀 Reassemble a proven team to compress execution time: Adam brought back the same co-founders, engineers, and go-to-market team from Portfolium. The muscle memory from working together for 7 years accelerated every phase of Drata's launch. 🏢 Keep partners independent to build a distribution moat: Drata's Auditor Alliance kept audit firms independent rather than competing with them. Two-thirds of Drata's pipeline is now sourced or influenced through partner channels. Chapters Introduction What Drata does and the trust problem it solves Revenue, customers, and team size From astronaut dreams to NASA's Space Shuttle program Building Portfolium after NASA retired the shuttle Teaching himself to code and finding a CTO Selling Portfolium for $43 million The long road to product-market fit in edtech The university sales cycle that changed everything How the Portfolium pain led to founding Drata Validating the problem before writing code Getting the band back together Using Drata to get their own SOC 2 before selling Signing 100 customers in six weeks How Drata differentiated in a crowded market What broke at 1,000 customers Building the Auditor Alliance partner program The AWS Marketplace strategy and give-before-you-take Why aggressive sales culture was intentional AI tailwinds for compliance and trust Lightning round Closing thoughts 💌 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 Get 1:1 async coaching from Omer: https://saasclub.io/accelerate Resources Full show notes: https://saasclub.io/471 Subscribe to the podcast: https://saasclub.io/subscribe
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    1 ora e 2 min
  • Product-Market Fit: From a School Project to $20M ARR

    Product-Market Fit: From a School Project to $20M ARR
    Feb 12 2026
    $2M to $9M ARR in one year. Then it nearly fell apart. Gilles Bertaux expanded Livestorm into meetings and sales demos after COVID, turning it into a smaller Zoom with no clear differentiator. In this episode, founders will learn how he rebuilt product-market fit by narrowing to a niche most would run from. Gilles shares why 85% of customers on monthly plans was a ticking time bomb, how a failed Series C forced the right strategic shift, and why targeting marketers instead of IT buyers let Livestorm avoid competing with Zoom on budget. Livestorm generates nearly $20 million in ARR with 3,500 customers and has raised $35 million. Gilles co-founded the company in 2016 as a university project and has led it through explosive COVID growth, a near-collapse in positioning, and a rebuild to product-market fit with enterprise buyers. This episode is brought to you by: 🌎 ThreatLocker → Book a demo 💖 Gearheart → Book a free consult and get the first 20 hours free 🔑 Key Lessons 🎯 Product-market fit can be lost by expanding too broadly: Livestorm added meetings and sales demos after COVID, turning into a smaller Zoom with no clear differentiator. The longer the sales conversation, the lower the conversion rate. 📉 Explosive growth can mask a fragile customer base: Going from $2M to $9M ARR in one year felt like traction, but 85% of customers were on monthly self-serve plans. One button click and that revenue disappears overnight. 🏢 Narrow positioning wins against giants: Livestorm stopped competing feature-for-feature with Zoom and differentiated on three dimensions - European company for security-conscious buyers, marketers only to avoid IT budgets, and specific industries like banking and pharma. 🔄 Selling to enterprise requires rebuilding the sales team, not retraining it: Reps who closed inbound leads from a CRM could not cold-call 10,000-person companies. Gilles had to replace almost the entire original sales team with people experienced in enterprise outbound. 💰 A failed fundraise can force the right strategic shift: When Series C investors said no in 2022, Livestorm had to become profitable. That constraint pushed them toward enterprise customers on annual contracts who pay more and stick longer. 🛠️ Target the buyer with a separate budget: By positioning Livestorm as a marketing tool instead of an IT tool, Gilles avoided budget wars with Zoom and Teams. Marketers control their own spend and do not need IT approval to buy. Chapters Introduction What Livestorm does and who it serves Revenue, customers, and funding Building Livestorm as a university project The disastrous first webinar launch Why a product launch is a timeline, not a day Finding the first 10 customers through inbound SEO, Quora, and co-marketing as early growth engines Competing with GoToWebinar and Zoom How product-market fit shifted after COVID Going from $2M to $9M ARR in one year Support tickets from 200 to 20,000 and servers crashing Post-COVID churn and the virtual event collapse Why webinars survived but virtual events died Losing product-market fit by becoming a smaller Zoom Rebuilding positioning around Europe, marketers, and industries Why video is a commodity and experience is the differentiator How Livestorm processes 4,000+ feedback items per quarter The painful shift from PLG to enterprise sales Rebuilding the sales team for outbound From tech nerd to startup CEO 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 Get 1:1 async coaching from Omer: https://saasclub.io/accelerate Resources Full show notes: https://saasclub.io/470 Subscribe to the podcast: https://saasclub.io/subscribe
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    1 ora e 2 min
  • Bootstrapped SaaS: From Agency to $5M ARR in 2 Years

    Bootstrapped SaaS: From Agency to $5M ARR in 2 Years
    Feb 5 2026
    Adam Fard bootstrapped UX Pilot from a UX agency side project to $5 million ARR in under two years—growing from $3M to $5.3M in just five months—without VC funding, with 15,000 paying subscribers and a 30-person team. In this episode, early-stage bootstrapped SaaS founders will learn how Adam discovered a wireframing opportunity by testing competitors and realizing they were all faking AI generation with templates. You'll hear why he spent 6-7 months solving the genuinely hard technical problem of AI wireframe generation, and how focusing exclusively on design (not no-code, not backend) became UX Pilot's biggest competitive advantage. Adam also shares his biggest bootstrapped SaaS mistake: hiring too slowly. At $30K MRR, he questioned whether revenue might disappear and hired 1-2 people at a time, waiting months between hires. Looking back, he should have hired 5 people at once to gain velocity faster instead of prolonging the bootstrapped SaaS hiring process for months. This episode is brought to you by: 🌎 ThreatLocker → Book a demo 💖 Gearheart → Book a free consult and get the first 20 hours free 🔑 Key Lessons 🎯 Test Competitor Claims Before Building Your Bootstrapped SaaS: Adam discovered other wireframing tools were faking AI generation by swapping templates, revealing a genuine technical opportunity. 💰 Bootstrap with Existing Revenue Streams: Adam used his UX agency income to fund UX Pilot development, removing pressure to raise VC funding or hit arbitrary bootstrapped SaaS revenue milestones. 🚀 Focus Beats Feature Bloat in Bootstrapped SaaS: While competitors built no-code tools that did everything, Adam focused exclusively on AI wireframe generation—no backend, no drag-and-drop, just design. 📈 SEO Still Works for Bootstrapped SaaS in 2024: Despite advice that "SEO is dead," Adam got significant traffic from high-intent keywords around "design, UX and AI generation" by being first to target them. 🧠 Hire Faster Than Feels Safe When Bootstrapping: Adam's biggest bootstrapped SaaS regret was hiring 1-2 people at $30K MRR instead of 5 at once—slow hiring cost months of velocity. 🛠️ Talk About Your Bootstrapped SaaS Product, Not Just Education: Adam got more newsletter engagement sharing UX Pilot updates than sending generic UX education—people want to know what you're building. Chapters Running a UX agency when ChatGPT launched The user question that sparked the bootstrapped SaaS product idea Testing competitors and discovering they were faking AI Why creating wireframes with AI was technically hard Exploring fine-tuning LLMs and component-based approaches Building a 600K subscriber newsletter from product signups Getting to the first million in ARR with LinkedIn, newsletter, and SEO The bootstrapped SaaS mistake of hiring too slowly The inflection point from $3M to $5.3M ARR in 5 months Focusing on enterprise teams vs trying to target everyone 💌 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 Get 1:1 async coaching from Omer: ⁠https://saasclub.io/accelerate Resources Full show notes: https://saasclub.io/469 Subscribe to the podcast: https://saasclub.io/subscribe
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    51 min
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