Influencer Marketing SaaS: 1 Podcast Ad to $9M ARR

Tim Broom ran brick and mortar IT training centers for 15 years. One course cost $2,000 to $3,000. Out of every 100 conversations, he enrolled one student. So he built an influencer marketing SaaS growth engine to reach the other 99. One podcast ad on Leo Laporte's network drove 70-80% of first-year revenue.

ITProTV's influencer marketing SaaS approach worked because Tim flew to meet Leo Laporte in person when calls and emails went unanswered. That personal relationship drove influencer growth through authentic endorsements, not scripted ads. His SaaS content strategy produces new training content daily across five studios with live streaming and interactive chat. Subscribers then told their bosses, creating an unexpected consumer-to-enterprise pipeline.

Tim Broom is the co-founder and CEO of ITProTV, a subscription-based learning platform for IT professionals. The company reached $9M ARR in four years, bootstrapped and profitable, with customers in over 170 countries.

🔑 Key Lessons

• 🎯 Build your influencer marketing SaaS strategy for the 99 who cannot afford premium: Tim enrolled 1 out of every 100 prospects at $2,000-$3,000 per course. ITProTV's $57/month subscription reached the other 99 who wanted to learn but could not afford brick and mortar pricing.
• 🤝 Meet your first influencer marketing SaaS distribution partner in person: Tim flew to California and took Leo Laporte to dinner when phone calls went unanswered. That personal relationship drove 70-80% of first-year revenue through podcast advertising SaaS endorsements.
• 🚀 Let consumers create your enterprise pipeline organically: ITProTV initially sold only B2C, but individual subscribers told their bosses about the product. Tim accidentally discovered B2B demand and now has a five-person sales team.
• 💰 Offer annual prepaid plans to boost cash flow in early SaaS stages: 85% of ITProTV's early subscribers chose $285 annual plans over $28.50 monthly. Prepaid revenue funded content production during the bootstrapped years.
• 🛠️ Ship before you are ready and fix problems as customers report them: ITProTV launched on Roku before the website could take payments. Shipping fast meant learning fast from real users instead of guessing.

Chapters

• Introduction
• What drives Tim Broom - helping others through learning
• What ITProTV does - Netflix for IT learning
• Making IT training entertaining with edutainers
• Creating new content every day at scale
• From brick and mortar training centers to SaaS
• Was the training center business struggling
• How ITProTV got started - camera against a wall
• Revenue trajectory - $1M, $3M, $5.7M, $9M
• The Leo Laporte breakthrough and first podcast ad
• Launching on Roku before the website could take payments
• The consumer-to-enterprise pipeline
• Starting with a subscription model from day one
• Year two influencer marketing SaaS growth
• Why most marketing channels failed
• What competitors are missing
• The edutainer format and engagement
• How content production works across five studios
• Full-time edutainers vs contractors
• Do you ever run out of content ideas
• Looking back at the growth trajectory
• Mistakes and lessons from 15 years of brick and mortar
• What Tim would do differently
• What is next for ITProTV
• Lightning round

Resources

• Full show notes: https://saasclub.io/150
• Join 5,000+ SaaS founders: https://saasclub.io/email