The SaaS Podcast: Build, Launch & Scale Your SaaS

• Founder-Led Sales: Landing Instacart & LinkedIn Without a Sales Team | Nexla

  Saket Saurabh defied standard SaaS advice by skipping SMBs and selling directly to Enterprise giants like Instacart and LinkedIn from day one. Here is the "Enterprise First" strategy that allowed Nexla to become cash flow positive with multiple 7-figures in revenue before their Series A. In this episode, Saket (Co-founder & CEO of Nexla) breaks down exactly how to navigate complex corporate buy-cycles without a track record. Learn how he used "consultative selling" to close 6-figure contracts, the "Magic Moment" live-coding tactic that won Instacart, and the painful "Zero Salary" pivot the founders took to save the company and hit profitability. 🔑 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 Introduction & The "Profit" Quote What is Nexla? (Solving the Data Fragmentation Problem) The Origin: From Ad Tech to Data Infrastructure The Contrarian Strategy: Why "Enterprise First"? Landing the First Customer (Instacart) The "Live Code" Sales Demo Strategy Figuring out Enterprise Pricing & POs Founder-Led Sales: Closing the First 15 Customers Overcoming the "We Can Build It Ourselves" Objection The Pivot: Going "Zero Salary" to Hit Cash Flow Positive The Impact of AI on Data Engineering Lightning Round: Best Advice & Productivity Tools 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/464 🎤 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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• 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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