Most founders fight SaaS churn by trying to save every customer. Caleb Avery fixed SaaS retention by firing 40% of them. After years in payments consulting, Caleb built Tilled and discovered that only 15-20 of his first 50 customers were succeeding. The rest were dragging the business down.
Caleb reveals how deliberate customer retention pruning triggered 500% year-over-year growth, why LinkedIn content drove 95% of lead flow with under 500 followers, and how a single podcast appearance brought 36 channel partners in 24 hours. You'll learn the counterintuitive SaaS retention strategy of reducing churn by letting the wrong customers go.
Tilled is a PayFac-as-a-Service platform that compressed customer onboarding from 6 months to 9 days. The company generates strong 7-figure revenue approaching 8 figures, serves around 100 customers, and has raised $40 million. Caleb grew his LinkedIn from 500 to 17,000 followers with personal founder content.
Key Lessons
- š Deliberate SaaS retention pruning accelerates growth: Caleb fired 40% of customers who consumed resources without scaling. After 60-90 days of uncertainty, focused customer retention triggered 500% growth.
- šÆ Use data to define ICP and improve SaaS retention: Caleb analyzed unit economics across 50 customers, found only 15-20 succeeding, and rejected every prospect outside the winning profile.
- š” Build your personal brand to drive inbound leads: With a ghostwriter at $800/month, Caleb grew from 500 to 17,000 LinkedIn followers, driving 95% of lead flow for reducing churn.
- š¤ Channel partnerships multiply your sales force: One podcast brought 36 reseller partners in 24 hours. These partners had 5% close rates - Tilled offered 60%.
- š ļø Developer experience is table stakes against Stripe: Rebuilding for white-label support and dev docs cut integration time from 6 months to 9 days.
Chapters
- Introduction
- What Tilled does and PayFac-as-a-Service explained
- From payments consulting to founding Tilled
- LinkedIn as the primary growth channel
- Personal content as the engagement inflection point
- Channel partnerships and the reseller model
- Firing customers to fix SaaS retention
- The 90-day transition and 500% growth
- Lightning round
Resources
