SaaS Distribution Channel: Abandoned for 4 Years, Still Grew

Amir Salihefendic built Todoist as a student in 2007, launched it with a single blog post, then abandoned the SaaS distribution channel for four years to work on a social network. When he came back in 2012, it still had 200,000 users - and he grew it to over 4 million. Todoist became a SaaS distribution channel success story through pure product-led growth.

In Part 1 of this interview, Amir reveals why he walked away from a product people loved, how he set freemium SaaS pricing at $29/year without any market research, and why he believes founders should build products for themselves instead of letting user feedback design them. The organic growth during four years of neglect proves a real SaaS distribution channel survives without marketing.

Today Todoist is a freemium SaaS with over 4 million users, 40+ fully remote employees, and several million dollars in annual revenue. Competitors later copied Amir's pricing model exactly.

🔑 Key Lessons

• 🎯 Build your freemium SaaS for yourself first, not for customers: Amir used Todoist every day for 9 years and built features based on his own needs. The product attracted 4 million users because solving your own problem creates authentic product-led growth.
• 📉 A real SaaS distribution channel survives neglect: Todoist retained 200,000 users through four years of near-zero development. If your product loses all users the moment you stop marketing, the product itself may be the problem.
• 💰 Set pricing and ship fast instead of over-researching: Amir picked $29/year with no market research and launched the premium tier in weeks. The price worked well enough that every competitor copied it, proving speed matters more than precision for a SaaS distribution channel.
• 🧠 Filter user feedback instead of following it: Users often propose solutions that only work for their specific workflow. Amir's team evaluates what problem the feedback reveals, then designs a broader solution the user never imagined.

Chapters

• Introduction and Amir Salihefendic's background
• Why having a mission matters more than a great idea
• How great ideas look stupid at the start
• Born in Bosnia, built from Portugal - the global journey
• Why Doist has no headquarters
• Remote work philosophy and evaluating output over hours
• Building Todoist as a personal tool in 2007
• Why Amir builds for himself, not for users
• The danger of building for customers you do not resemble
• Launching Todoist with a single blog post
• Why Amir would not recommend the organic-only SaaS distribution channel today
• First revenue - covering server costs as a student
• Setting freemium pricing at $29/year without research
• Why the same pricing approach might not be optimal
• Competitors copying the freemium model
• Abandoning Todoist for a social network in 2008
• Four years of flat growth with zero active development
• Returning full time in 2012 driven by mission
• Mobile revolution triggers bigger vision for Todoist
• Generating salary-level revenue within months
• Hiring the first employee for support
• Managing passionate user feedback on the Todoist forum
• Filtering user feedback and not letting users design the product

Resources

• Full show notes: https://saasclub.io/84
• Join 5,000+ SaaS founders: https://saasclub.io/email