How I Built $15M Annual Revenue Vertical SaaS | Dan Uyemura, PushPress | EO

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Sep 12, 2025

Dan Uyemura, CEO and co-founder of PushPress, shares his remarkable journey from gym owner to SaaS entrepreneur. He emphasizes the need for tailored gym management software, having faced outdated solutions himself. Dan discusses overcoming VC rejection and how the pandemic became a pivotal moment for his company’s growth. Central to his philosophy is the belief that exceptional customer support drives success. Additionally, he highlights the importance of building a strong company culture rooted in understanding client needs and fostering community.

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INSIGHT

Free Trial Builds Trust

Offering free software at gym startup's most financially painful phase builds trust and future paying customers.
Customer-centric focus and empathy produce energy that fuels growth and loyalty.

INSIGHT

Vertical SaaS Expands TAM

Vertical SaaS can help gyms fully by integrating and simplifying all their business expenses.
The total addressable market is larger than software fees alone; it includes all gym expense lines.

INSIGHT

Modular Platform with Apps

PushPress aims to unify gym operations via a modular platform with payments, marketing, and branded apps.
Modular “app store” approach fixes issues of overly complex one-size-fits-all software.

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How I Built $15M Annual Revenue Vertical SaaS | Dan Uyemura, PushPress In this episode, we sit down with Dan Uyemura, CEO and cofounder of PushPress, a gym management software platform built by gym owners, for gym owners.

After a decade as a software engineer, Dan found himself overweight and going through a divorce-a personal crisis that led him to CrossFit and, eventually, to opening his own gym. But as a gym owner, he quickly realized that existing software solutions were outdated, overly complex, and not built with the needs of modern gym operators in mind. This led to his key insight:

👉 "When software tries to do too much for everyone, it ends up doing nothing for anyone."

Determined to create a better solution, Dan founded PushPress in 2011, bootstrapping the company for nine years before scaling it to a $15M ARR business with 100 employees today.

What truly sets PushPress apart is Dan’s customercentric philosophy. He believes that "customer support is not a cost, but a gotomarket strategy", a perspective that challenges industry standards. As a former gym owner turned SaaS CEO, he emphasizes their key differentiator:

👉 "Unlike our competitors, we truly understand the struggles of running a gym."

In this interview, Dan shares candid stories about: ✅ Overcoming repeated VC rejections and why investors failed to see the opportunity ✅ Navigating COVID19 and how the crisis became a turning point for PushPress ✅ Building a company culture rooted in deep customer understanding ✅ Scaling a niche SaaS business while staying true to its mission

From accidentally landing their first customer through a Twitter beef to becoming a major player in the gym management software space, Dan’s journey is packed with valuable insights for founders building in niche markets.

🎧 Tune in to hear how he turned frustration into innovation and built a thriving business by solving a problem he knew better than anyone else.

01:37 Founding Story of Pushpress 07:29 Why FirstTime Founders Fail Their Investment 14:01 How to Survive 9 Years Without Investment 16:56 Never Waste a Good Crisis 23:32 How I Built a $15M Vertical SaaS Product 31:57 Real Advice for FirstTime Founders

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