The SaaS Podcast: Build, Launch & Scale Your SaaS

• 460: Assembled: From 8 Months Without a Dollar to 8-Figures - with Ryan Wang

  Ryan Wang is the co-founder and CEO of Assembled, an AI platform for customer support that helps companies manage both human and AI agents more efficiently. Today, Assembled is an 8-figure ARR company with about 120 people, serves several hundred customers, and has raised $71 million. But getting there was brutal. Ryan and his co-founders spent two years building before launching in March 2020—the same day the WHO declared COVID a global pandemic. About 25% of demos didn't show up. It took them 8 months to earn their first dollar of revenue. When they finally got customers on usage-based pricing with no minimums, usage flatlined during the pandemic. They thought it was their fault before realizing it was macro-related. So they stopped chasing growth and focused on the customers getting value, meeting them in person and building what actually mattered. You'll learn: How Ryan knew he had a real business when he discovered that Stripe, Casper, and Grammarly had all built similar color-coded spreadsheets What Ryan learned the hard way about usage-based pricing with no minimums and how they fixed it How Ryan's team decided which early deals requiring custom work would help them grow versus become distractions Why Assembled focused on one Slack community instead of trying to be everywhere at once The simple method Ryan used to create a detailed ICP by looking at patterns in the customers he already had Full show notes → saasclub.io/460 This episode is brought to you by: 🔐 ⁠⁠⁠Sprinto⁠⁠⁠ → ⁠⁠⁠Learn more and book a demo today⁠ 💖 ⁠Gearheart⁠ → ⁠Book a call + get the first 20 hours of development free 📡 ⁠⁠⁠Signal House⁠ → ⁠⁠⁠Learn more and get a demo 🚨 ⁠⁠⁠⁠NordStellar⁠⁠ → ⁠⁠⁠⁠Book a demo and get 20% off with code blackfriday20 Get weekly SaaS lessons and new founder stories → saasclub.io/email

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• 459: Everflow: From Selling Just Screenshots to $30M ARR SaaS - with Sam Darawish

  Sam Darawish sold his first startup for $50M, then invested a few hundred thousand of his own money into Everflow. He didn't pay himself for two years. Most founders would never show screenshots at a trade show instead of a working product, but that's exactly what Sam did — and it landed his first customers. Today, Everflow generates nearly $30M ARR with 1,200 customers and a 120-person team across four continents. They've done it all without raising a single dollar of outside funding, proving that capital efficiency beats hypergrowth for building sustainable SaaS companies. You'll learn: Why showing screenshots at a trade show led to their first paying customers How narrowing to a tiny $70M TAM helped them reach $1M ARR faster What happened when they expanded to a bigger market that looked similar but wasn't Why spending only $400K to start forced them to focus on what really mattered How to maintain 25-30% growth while staying profitable from day one Full show notes → saasclub.io/459 This episode is brought to you by: 💖 ⁠⁠Sprinto⁠⁠ → ⁠⁠Learn more and book a demo today 📡 ⁠⁠Signal House → ⁠⁠Learn more and get a demo 🚀 SaaS Club Launch → Build your SaaS to $10K MRR Get weekly SaaS lessons and new founder stories → saasclub.io/email

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• 458: Read AI: The 8-Figure Playbook for Product-Led Growth - with David Shim

  David Shim sold his first startup for $200M, but when he started Read AI in 2021, he built something that failed spectacularly — 5% retention after 30 days. Instead of pivoting to chase revenue, he focused obsessively on fixing one metric: day-one ROI. Today, Read AI generates 8-figures in ARR, adds a million accounts monthly, and spends virtually nothing on marketing. David discovered that in the age of AI, the companies that win aren't the ones with the biggest models — they're the ones that solve real problems instantly. You'll learn: How David validated his idea by calling Zoom's founder directly and getting instant clarity Why focusing on day-one ROI instead of revenue led to 81% retention How to build viral loops that drive 1M+ monthly signups without marketing spend Why giving away your product for free can be your best growth strategy How to compete when Microsoft, Google, and Zoom enter your market Full show notes → saasclub.io/458 This episode is brought to you by: 💖 ⁠⁠Sprinto⁠⁠ → ⁠⁠Learn more and book a demo today 🚀 SaaS Club Launch → Build your SaaS to $10K MRR Get weekly SaaS lessons and new founder stories → saasclub.io/email

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• 457: Spectora: Bootstrapping to $27M ARR by Serving vs Selling - with Kevin Wagstaff

  Kevin Wagstaff and his brother Michael turned a $5,000 investment into a $27 million ARR home inspection software business—without raising venture capital for the first six years. After nine months of customer research, they built Spectora by focusing on one philosophy: serve before selling. Kevin answered every support message within 60 seconds for five years, showed up daily in online communities without pitching, and even took a 6AM Sunday demo that unlocked their biggest growth wave. Today, Spectora serves 12,000+ inspectors while Kevin has stepped back from the CEO role, recognizing he was best suited for the zero-to-10 journey. You'll learn: How 9 months of field research revealed the workflow problem worth solving Why starting SEO content 12 months before launch created an unfair advantage The 6AM Sunday demo that opened doors to an exclusive mastermind group How building 200+ websites became an unexpected 10% revenue stream When to recognize you're a "zero-to-10 founder" and step aside gracefully Full show notes → saasclub.io/457 This episode is brought to you by: 💖 ⁠⁠Sprinto⁠⁠ → ⁠⁠Learn more and book a demo today 🚀 SaaS Club Launch → Build your SaaS to $10K MRR Get weekly SaaS lessons and new founder stories → saasclub.io/email

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• 456: Mailtrap: From 20,000 Email Disaster to 7-Figure SaaS - with Sergiy Korolov

  Back in 2011, Sergiy Korolov's team accidentally sent 20,000 test billing emails to real customers—a complete disaster. They built a simple internal tool to prevent it from happening again, shared it with the Ruby on Rails community, and it exploded. Fast forward to today: Mailtrap generates seven-figure ARR with 100,000+ monthly active users. The journey wasn't easy. For five years, Mailtrap was just a free side project. When Sergiy finally monetized in 2016, growth was slow and methodical—it took four more years to hit $1M ARR. Then came the biggest challenge: pivoting from a tool that blocks emails to one that sends them in production. It meant rebuilding infrastructure, fighting brand confusion, and competing with giants like SendGrid and Mailgun. You'll learn: How making signup surveys required provided deep customer insights without hurting conversions How a fake "Email Campaigns" button validated product demand before building anything Why community trust and developer-first thinking beat flashy marketing every time How they navigated the risky pivot from blocking emails to sending them reliably Why running 100+ customer interviews shaped their entire pricing and roadmap strategy Full show notes → saasclub.io/456 This episode is brought to you by: 💖 ⁠⁠Sprinto⁠⁠ → ⁠⁠Learn more and book a demo today 🚀 SaaS Club Launch → Build your SaaS to $10K MRR Get weekly SaaS lessons and new founder stories → saasclub.io/email

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