The SaaS Podcast - AI, Growth & Product-Market Fit for SaaS Founders

Most SaaS founders think PR requires paying an agency $10,000 a month. Conrad Egusa built Publicize to offer the same service starting at $399. But in this episode, he gives away the entire B2B community building and startup PR playbook for free. Conrad is a former VentureBeat writer and global mentor at 500 Startups. He breaks down his 5-step process for getting press coverage, including why you should never combine announcements, how exclusives stand out in a journalist's inbox of 1,000 daily emails, and the follow-up tactic that turned a 1-out-of-15 response rate into near-universal coverage. His coworking space in Medellin got covered by TechCrunch, BBC, and the Financial Times - not because coworking is interesting, but because he pitched B2B community building as "turning this city into the Silicon Valley of Latin America." SaaS content marketing through startup PR works when you frame the vision bigger than the product. 🔑 Key Lessons 📣 B2B community building through PR starts with a specific announcement: Founders who said "cover my company" got ignored. Founders who said "we launch next Wednesday" got press coverage. 🎯 Lead with social proof when pitching for press coverage: Half of what makes a story interesting comes from the founding team, not the product. 🚀 Make the mission bigger than the product for B2B community building: Conrad pitched "turning Medellin into the Silicon Valley of Latin America" instead of a coworking space. 💰 Never combine announcements in startup PR campaigns: Separating a launch and funding round into two campaigns doubles coverage opportunities. ⚡ Use exclusives instead of embargoes for early-stage B2B community building: Journalists won't commit to restrictions for unknown startups. One exclusive creates urgency. 🔄 Always send one follow-up email to maximize SaaS content marketing PR response: Conrad went from 1-out-of-15 responses to near-universal coverage with a single follow-up. Chapters Introduction - why PR matters for B2B community building Step 1 - come up with a specific announcement Step 2 - identify and lead with social proof Step 3 - make the mission bigger than the product Example - coworking space on TechCrunch, BBC, Financial Times Step 4 - exclusive vs embargo approach How to find the right journalists at publications Step 5 - repeat the cycle every 8-10 weeks Why startup PR compounds over time through SEO backlinks Never combine announcements - double your press coverage Lightning round begins Passion - trying something new every six months Resources Full show notes: https://saasclub.io/99 Join 5,000+ SaaS founders: https://saasclub.io/email

Tom Leung, CEO of Anthology, shares the journey of transforming a failing startup to success. They discuss fundraising, pivots, and the value of startup experience. Learn how Anthology matches job opportunities with privacy, struggles faced, gaining traction, and the launch of Anthology Career Stories podcast.

Diego Oppenheimer spent five years building Microsoft Excel features used by a billion people. Then he discovered that even Microsoft's $7 billion research center couldn't get algorithms to the teams that needed them. So he set about launching a marketplace to fix that. Algorithmia connects academics building powerful algorithms with app developers who can use them - and hit 14,000 developers on the two-sided platform far faster than expected. Diego shares the journey of launching a marketplace from scratch, plus the systematic fundraising approach that raised $2.5 million by pitching worst-fit investors first. The real validation for this marketplace startup came from Microsoft. An algorithm Diego searched months for already existed inside Excel - nobody knew. He ranked 60 investors in a spreadsheet, flipped the list, and pitched bottom-up to polish his answers before reaching top targets for the algorithm marketplace. 🔑 Key Lessons 🎯 Validate demand before launching a marketplace by finding gaps in existing systems: If even Microsoft's $7 billion research center couldn't connect algorithms to product teams, the opportunity was real. 💰 Pitch worst-fit investors first when fundraising for launching a marketplace: Diego started from the bottom of his ranked list. By the time he reached top targets, he had polished answers to every hard question. 🛠️ Do things that don't scale to learn what customers need: First customers were essentially discounted consulting engagements that provided direct access to feedback. ⚡ Compress decision-making speed when leaving corporate for a marketplace startup: At Microsoft, decisions took months. At Algorithmia, you decide in days, be wrong, and never repeat the mistake. 🚀 Build the platform before scaling when launching a marketplace: Twelve months of stability work paid off when 14,000 developers joined months ahead of the multi-year target. 📉 Kill ideas quickly when they don't solve a business case: The first iteration was an algorithm competition two-sided platform. Being willing to kill it fast freed the team to build what worked. Chapters Introduction Diego's background at Microsoft building Excel What Algorithmia does and the problem it solves How the algorithm marketplace works for both sides The origin story - backpacking trip to idea Moonlighting at Microsoft while launching a marketplace Building the MVP and getting first customers Systematic fundraising - ranking 60 investors Growth to 14,000 developers and university partnerships Lightning round begins Passion for STEM education for girls Resources Full show notes: https://saasclub.io/97 Join 5,000+ SaaS founders: https://saasclub.io/email

George Palmer spent less than $50 to launch SendOwl, a self-funded SaaS for selling digital products. Two months later, it was profitable. He found first customers by searching Twitter every morning for people complaining about competitors. George has experience building multiple businesses, from freelance Rails work to digital product platforms. In this episode, he shares how he validated SendOwl with a $100 AdWords test before writing code, why he turned down VC funding to keep his bootstrapped startup lean, and how a game studio's $18 million launch nearly crashed his servers - then became his biggest growth engine. When Introversion Software chose SendOwl for the Prison Architect launch, the near-downtime crisis turned into word-of-mouth marketing. George's approach to building multiple businesses centers on marginal gains - staying lean, staying profitable, and turning every side project to business insight into a competitive advantage. 🔑 Key Lessons 💰 Validate your self-funded SaaS idea before building: George spent $100 on AdWords with a fake sign-up page. A 1.5% click-through rate gave him confidence to invest three months of development. 🎯 Find first customers where competitors fail: George searched Twitter daily for complaints about competing products, converting his first two paying customers within a month. 🚀 Turn a crisis into a growth engine when building multiple businesses: Prison Architect's launch nearly crashed SendOwl's server. The studio's founder became his biggest advocate at indie game conferences. 🧠 Stay bootstrapped to build on your terms: George turned down VC offers. Staying self-funded meant steady profitability with four employees and full control over his bootstrapped startup. 📉 Watch for the feature rat race in competitive markets: E-commerce customers will not use a product missing the one feature they need, regardless of design quality. ⚡ Structure your day around energy, not hours: George codes in the early morning, takes a 2.5-hour midday gym break, then handles support and admin. Chapters Introduction George's background and how SendOwl started Finding the first customers through Twitter Total startup costs - under $50 Prison Architect launch and $18M in sales Turning a server crash into a growth opportunity Why George turned down VC funding for building multiple businesses A typical day at SendOwl Lightning round begins Passion for fitness and marginal gains Where to find George and SendOwl Resources Full show notes: https://saasclub.io/96 Join 5,000+ SaaS founders: https://saasclub.io/email

Vincent Cassar sent cold emails to people who had never heard of his product and got a 40% response rate. His secret SaaS growth tactic was embarrassingly simple: follow up three to four times instead of once. In this episode, Vincent walks through three specific SaaS growth hacks from his Growth Hacking Experiment, including how Quora became his best-converting lead generation source at 35% signup rate, why his cold email follow-up generates 4x the responses of a single email, and how pre-launch outreach created paying customers on day one. Vincent published the Growth Hacking Experiment as transparent documentation of every startup growth tactic he tried with Keeping - including failures. The resource attracted the exact audience who also needed a helpdesk product: small businesses interested in SaaS growth. 🔑 Key Lessons 🚀 Follow up 3-4 times to triple SaaS growth from cold email: Vincent increased response rates from 10-15% to 40% by sending short follow-ups one to two days apart. Non-response usually means busy, not uninterested. 🎯 Place URLs near the top of Quora answers for SaaS growth: Five-to-six line answers with URLs placed high converted 35% of Quora visitors into free trial signups. 📉 Automated Twitter outreach destroys credibility faster than it builds it: Vincent's bot angered users and created infinite reply loops. The traffic was not worth the reputation damage. 🛠️ Add product screenshots below Quora answers to drive more lead generation clicks: Visual proof of the product gives readers a reason to click through. 🤝 Pre-launch cold outreach builds a customer pool before day one: Cold-emailing to validate the pain point created rapport with future customers who converted on launch day. 🧠 Growth hacking is marketing without media buying: The fundamentals - cold outreach, content marketing, and Quora - are proven startup growth tactics. 💰 Document your SaaS growth experiments publicly to attract ideal customers: Transparent documentation of results built credibility and drove qualified traffic. Chapters Introduction How the idea for Keeping was born from personal frustration The Growth Hacking Experiment - why share SaaS growth tactics publicly Hack 1 - Cold email follow-up that reaches 40% response rate Following up 20-30 times - lessons from Steli Efti Hack 2 - Quora marketing with 35% conversion rate Always include a link and image in Quora answers Hack 3 - Pre-launch customer feedback for validation Failed hack - automating Twitter replies with a bot Lightning round Where to find Vincent Cassar and Keeping Resources Full show notes: https://saasclub.io/95 Join 5,000+ SaaS founders: https://saasclub.io/email

Mike Muhney had $15,000 left from a $100,000 angel investment when his first software product failed. Over a four-hour brainstorm breakfast, he and his co-founder sketched a menu structure on a napkin that would become ACT! Contact Management - the product that created the CRM industry and sold for $47 million. In this episode, Mike reveals how losing product-market fit on his first product led to a startup pivot that changed everything, why he turned down his actor son's request for a million-dollar trust fund, and how a celebrity software company with Michael Jordan collapsed overnight. The story of losing product-market fit is also about finding product-market fit through desperation. With $15,000 remaining, they asked what they needed themselves - a digital Daytimer organizer. After the $47M exit, Mike's VIPOrbit moment 23 years later proved that losing product-market fit once does not mean you cannot find it again. 🔑 Key Lessons 🎯 Finding product-market fit starts with solving your own problem: The Daytimer organizer was on the table. That personal frustration became ACT! CRM, which sold for $47 million. 📉 Desperation after losing product-market fit can accelerate clarity: With only $15,000 left, there was no room for abstract ideas. The constraint forced focus on what would work. 💰 Success after an exit can create emotional emptiness: The identity tied to building something disappeared, and it took years to find motivation to start again. 🧠 Entrepreneurial fear exists at every stage, even after a $47M exit: Mike calls this the "back office" that every entrepreneur hides behind the "front office" of enthusiasm. 🔄 Failed ventures do not make you a failure: Mike's Celebrity Soft collapsed and his first product failed before ACT!. He refuses to let setbacks define identity. 🤝 Building a business is not the same as building a product: ACT! became category-defining because the focus was on creating an industry, not just shipping software. 🚀 Massive markets can hide in plain sight: CRM had fewer than 14 million users while billions owned smartphones - a startup pivot opportunity hiding in the open. 🎯 Product-market fit can happen twice in one career: Mike's VIPOrbit moment mirrored his ACT! brainstorm 23 years apart - both started with personal frustration. Chapters Introduction The day everything changed - brainstorm breakfast story How ACT! CRM was born from a napkin sketch Seven years from brainstorm to $47M exit Life after the exit and losing product-market fit purpose Celebrity Soft - the Michael Jordan venture that collapsed Why CRM has failed to reach the mass market Entrepreneurial fear - the front office vs back office Lightning round Where to find Mike Muhney and VIPOrbit Resources Full show notes: https://saasclub.io/94 Join 5,000+ SaaS founders: https://saasclub.io/email

Robert Coorey spent a year working double full-time hours on a video production business - and made $32,000 in revenue with $32,500 in costs. He lost $500. That taught him the most important SaaS go-to-market lesson: if you are not feeding a starving crowd, no amount of marketing will save your business. In this episode, Robert breaks down his 4-step SaaS go-to-market framework for finding hungry buyers, building a converting funnel, and knowing when to scale with paid advertising. He also reveals why it takes 9.1 website visits before someone buys and how Amazon three-star reviews expose competitor gaps. His go-to-market strategy starts with validating $10,000 in revenue before any customer acquisition spend. Businesses were not willing to pay $5,000 for a video when their website cost $2,000 - he was educating the market instead of selling what people already wanted. 🔑 Key Lessons 🎯 Validate your SaaS go-to-market with $10K in revenue first: No marketing tactic matters until customers have paid. Get $10,000 through phone calls or personal outreach before building funnels. 📉 Educating the market is not a go-to-market strategy: Finding hungry buyers means selling what people already want, not convincing them they need it. 💰 Use Amazon 3-star reviews to find competitor gaps: Common complaints reveal what customers wish existed - and what your product should deliver. 🚀 Scale paid ads only after cold traffic converts through your funnel: Robert's clients spent up to $500K/month on ads because they knew exact conversion numbers first. 🤝 Make time-limited offers and never break the deadline: Breaking a deadline destroys credibility for every future offer. 🧠 Your existing network is your first customer acquisition channel: Business cards, contacts, and social followers add up to 500-1,000 people ready for a personal invite. 🛠️ Expect 9+ visits before a SaaS go-to-market conversion: Without email follow-up sequences, most potential customers disappear forever. Chapters Introduction What is a starving crowd and why it matters Video production business failure - $500 loss in a year Step 1 - Finding your starving crowd and first $10K The SaaS go-to-market 4-step framework overview Using Amazon 3-star reviews to find market gaps Step 2 - Building a sales funnel that converts Why it takes 9.1 visits before someone buys Step 3 - Paying for ads and scaling the funnel Step 4 - All you can eat marketing tactics Lightning round Where to find Robert Coorey Resources Full show notes: https://saasclub.io/93 Join 5,000+ SaaS founders: https://saasclub.io/email

Nick Kellet sold his SaaS business to Business Objects for over $8 million in 1999 - then walked away from enterprise software to create a board game. Gift Trap sold nearly 100,000 copies and won 20+ awards worldwide. In this episode, Nick reveals the strategy behind his SaaS exit that started when his product was only six weeks old, how he ordered 10,000 board games without knowing anything about the industry, and how he grew Listly to 200,000 users through unexpected early adopters in the church blogging community. The startup acquisition happened fast. Nick exhibited at the Business Objects user conference when AnswerSets was barely a prototype. The CTO noticed the product, and a licensing conversation turned into a full SaaS acquisition in two and a half years. After selling a SaaS business, Nick applied those lessons to build Listly, where 50% of traffic came from embedded content on other blogs. 🔑 Key Lessons 💰 Position your product where acquirers already sell for a SaaS exit: Nick exhibited at the Business Objects conference when AnswerSets was six weeks old. That turned into an $8M+ startup acquisition. 🎯 Find unexpected niches after selling a SaaS business: Listly found early traction through church conference organizers who pulled their entire community along. 📉 Underpromise on network effects for early-stage products: Claiming engagement multiplication backfired when users with no audience expected dramatic results. Focus on personal utility first. 🚀 Build infrastructure before features for embeddable content: If embedded content slows down a blogger's site, they remove it immediately and warn others. 🧠 Play-test obsessively before committing to inventory: Nick tested Gift Trap with 500+ people. Unlike software, 10,000 board games in your garage cannot be patched after shipping. 🤝 Use the 1% rule to interpret customer feedback: When one person complains, assume 99 others silently left. 🔄 Offer three options, not two, to signal product flexibility: Two options feel like either/or. Three signal extensibility and invite more feedback. Chapters Introduction Gift Trap board game origin story Building AnswerSets and visual Venn diagram tool The SaaS exit - selling AnswerSets to Business Objects for $8M+ Post-acquisition life at Business Objects How Listly got started with structured data Getting early traction with 200,000 users Church blogger use case and influencer adoption Scaling embeddable content for 15,000 blogs Lightning round Where to find Nick Kellet and Listly Resources Full show notes: https://saasclub.io/92 Join 5,000+ SaaS founders: https://saasclub.io/email

Adam Dicker built a $500,000-per-month online business using the same SaaS marketing plan and lead generation tactics he teaches to other entrepreneurs. With a portfolio of over 30,000 domains - including one he sold for eight figures - he knows how to turn search traffic into revenue. In this episode, Adam reveals how he ranks any website on Google's front page within two weeks, why long-tail keywords outperform broad terms for lead generation, and how he grew DNForum from 40 members to over 500,000. Adam walks through the complete SaaS SEO approach: dashes beat underscores in URLs, SpyFu and Google Keyword Planner find keywords where advertisers already spend money, and YouTube search engine optimization through keyword-named files and closed captions creates additional ranking opportunities most founders overlook in their SaaS marketing plan. 🔑 Key Lessons 🎯 SaaS SEO starts with on-page fundamentals: Use dashes in URLs, bold target keywords, add image alt tags, and match page titles to content. 💰 Target long-tail keywords with high advertiser spend: Keywords with 6-8+ advertisers spending $3-4+ per click signal proven commercial value. 🚀 Build lead generation assets you own permanently: Adam keeps ownership of domains and forwards leads to businesses. If one client leaves, he redirects leads to a competitor. 🎯 Use search engine optimization on YouTube for extra visibility: Name video files with keywords before upload, enable closed captions, and tag specific keywords first. 🤝 Charge per converted lead, not per impression: Pay-per-conversion pricing removes risk for clients, making the pitch nearly impossible to refuse. 📉 Validate demand before investing in a domain or site: Adam tried building on some domains eight times before selling at a loss. Check search volume first. 🧠 Pay experts to compress your learning curve: $500 for two hours of expert time saved two and a half years of self-taught learning. 🚀 Social media amplifies your SaaS marketing plan results: Facebook, Pinterest, and Twitter all send traffic signals back to your site. Chapters Introduction Reputation repair as a $500K/month business How to rank on Google's front page in two weeks Domain portfolio and eight-figure domain sale Lead generation business model explained Keyword research and long-tail keyword strategy How DNForum grew from 40 to 500,000 members YouTube SEO tactics for traffic and rankings Daily routine and time management Lightning round Where to find Adam Dicker Resources Full show notes: https://saasclub.io/91 Join 5,000+ SaaS founders: https://saasclub.io/email

At 2:30 in the morning, lying on an air mattress in his mother's spare bedroom, Benji Rogers had an idea that would not let him go. He spent his last seven pounds buying the domain PledgeMusic.com. Six years later, the company had 50 employees and released over 1,000 albums. In this episode, Benji reveals how achieving SaaS product-market fit in the music industry meant overcoming years of being told no by every major label, bank, and payment processor - and why the idea that grabs you by the throat is the one you have to pursue. PledgeMusic artists averaged $55 per transaction versus $9.99 for a CD because fans were buying the journey. But finding product-market fit proved far harder than expected. For three months, no payment processor would handle it. Validating demand took six years in an industry Benji describes as technologically on par with the Amish. 🔑 Key Lessons 🎯 SaaS product-market fit requires living the problem yourself: Benji was a musician who could not get a record deal. PledgeMusic solved his own pain, which is why he could answer every question critics threw at him. 📉 Expect product-market fit to take far longer than you think: Benji expected rapid adoption but spent six years convincing a resistant industry. 🧠 Meditation clears the path to finding product-market fit: Benji meditates daily and credits it with producing his best ideas. Panic is a choice. 🤝 When everyone says no, distinguish between solid feedback and ignorance: Benji learned to separate the no that means "listen" from the no that means "they don't understand yet." 💰 Increase transaction value by selling the experience: Artists averaged $55 versus $9.99 by letting fans pay for the journey of making an album. 🚀 An idea that grabs you by the throat signals SaaS product-market fit potential: Benji bought the domain at 2:30am with his last seven pounds. Ideas that obsess you are worth validating demand for. Chapters Introduction Quote - good enough never is Why so many founders meditate The 2:30am air mattress idea for PledgeMusic Why people said only Benji could build PledgeMusic The first no - banks would not open an account Three months without a payment processor Common mistakes founders make Why passion sustains you through the hard years Lightning round begins Book recommendation - Meditations by Marcus Aurelius Wrap up and where to find Benji Resources Full show notes: https://saasclub.io/90 Join 5,000+ SaaS founders: https://saasclub.io/email