The SaaS Podcast: Build, Launch & Scale Your SaaS

Adam Fard bootstrapped UX Pilot from a UX agency side project to $5 million ARR in under two years—growing from $3M to $5.3M in just five months—without VC funding, with 15,000 paying subscribers and a 30-person team.

In this episode, early-stage bootstrapped SaaS founders will learn how Adam discovered a wireframing opportunity by testing competitors and realizing they were all faking AI generation with templates. You'll hear why he spent 6-7 months solving the genuinely hard technical problem of AI wireframe generation, and how focusing exclusively on design (not no-code, not backend) became UX Pilot's biggest competitive advantage.

Adam also shares his biggest bootstrapped SaaS mistake: hiring too slowly. At $30K MRR, he questioned whether revenue might disappear and hired 1-2 people at a time, waiting months between hires. Looking back, he should have hired 5 people at once to gain velocity faster instead of prolonging the bootstrapped SaaS hiring process for months.

This episode is brought to you by:

🌎 ThreatLocker → Book a demo

💖 Gearheart → Book a free consult and get the first 20 hours free

🔑 Key Lessons

🎯 Test Competitor Claims Before Building Your Bootstrapped SaaS: Adam discovered other wireframing tools were faking AI generation by swapping templates, revealing a genuine technical opportunity.

💰 Bootstrap with Existing Revenue Streams: Adam used his UX agency income to fund UX Pilot development, removing pressure to raise VC funding or hit arbitrary bootstrapped SaaS revenue milestones.

🚀 Focus Beats Feature Bloat in Bootstrapped SaaS: While competitors built no-code tools that did everything, Adam focused exclusively on AI wireframe generation—no backend, no drag-and-drop, just design.

📈 SEO Still Works for Bootstrapped SaaS in 2024: Despite advice that "SEO is dead," Adam got significant traffic from high-intent keywords around "design, UX and AI generation" by being first to target them.

🧠 Hire Faster Than Feels Safe When Bootstrapping: Adam's biggest bootstrapped SaaS regret was hiring 1-2 people at $30K MRR instead of 5 at once—slow hiring cost months of velocity.

🛠️ Talk About Your Bootstrapped SaaS Product, Not Just Education: Adam got more newsletter engagement sharing UX Pilot updates than sending generic UX education—people want to know what you're building.

Chapters

Running a UX agency when ChatGPT launched

The user question that sparked the bootstrapped SaaS product idea

Testing competitors and discovering they were faking AI

Why creating wireframes with AI was technically hard

Exploring fine-tuning LLMs and component-based approaches

Building a 600K subscriber newsletter from product signups

Getting to the first million in ARR with LinkedIn, newsletter, and SEO

The bootstrapped SaaS mistake of hiring too slowly

The inflection point from $3M to $5.3M ARR in 5 months

Focusing on enterprise teams vs trying to target everyone

💌 Get weekly 5-minute SaaS insights: https://saasclub.io/email

SaaS Club Programs

Join the SaaS Club founder community: https://saasclub.co/plus

Build your $10K MRR SaaS: https://saasclub.io/launch

Scale from 6-figures to $1M ARR Faster: https://saasclub.io/mastermind

Get 1:1 async coaching from Omer: ⁠https://saasclub.io/accelerate

Resources

Full show notes: https://saasclub.io/469

Subscribe to the podcast: https://saasclub.io/subscribe

Two years. Almost no revenue. Tito Goldstein and his co-founder Arjun raised $3 million to build a scheduling tool for hourly workers. But when they took it to market, customers kept telling them the same thing: we need to stand out, not use cookie-cutter software. So they made a call that most founders would never risk - throw it all out and start over.

The rebuild took a year. But when they launched the new version built on composable Legos instead of fixed features, it outsold the previous two years in the first month. Then it 3x'd, and 3x'd again. That's when Tito knew they'd finally found product-market fit.

TeamBridge is now doing multiple seven figures with over 200 enterprise customers, including the San Francisco 49ers' Levi's Stadium and medical staffing agencies scaling to multimillion-dollar businesses with almost no admin staff.

This episode is brought to you by:

🌎 ThreatLocker → Book a demo

💖 Gearheart → Book a free consult and get the first 20 hours free

🔑 Key Lessons

🎯 Listen to what customers don't say about product-market fit: Buyers kept asking for features, but the real pain was "I need to stand out." Reading between the lines unlocked their product-market fit breakthrough.

📉 Throw out sunk cost when finding product-market fit: Two years of work became irrelevant when they realized connective tissue (automations, workflows) mattered more than scheduling.

🛠️ Composability wins in competitive markets: Off-the-shelf tools make you a commodity. Customizable workflows make you a differentiator in the race for product-market fit.

💰 Stay lean until product-market fit: TeamBridge kept a team of 5-6 with multiple years of runway, giving them freedom to pivot without investor pressure.

🚀 First products validate problems, not solutions: The scheduling tool failed but uncovered the real pain. Use early products to learn, not scale, on the path to product-market fit.

Chapters

Introduction and favorite quotes

What TeamBridge does and who it serves

Why composability matters for workforce software

Size of the business: revenue, customers, team

Origin story: interviewing Uber drivers

Going door-to-door to understand hourly worker pain

Raising $3M seed with just a prototype

Why it took 2 years to find product-market fit

The pivot: from scheduling to composable Legos

First significant sale during COVID

Biggest objections: explaining composability

Finding the right messaging and storytelling

Downsides of casting too wide a net

Moving upmarket to enterprise customers

How COVID forced TeamBridge to mature go-to-market

Cold email lessons: honesty and relationship building

Discovery-first selling: hold the pitch until you know the pain

Learning the nuances of each vertical

Lightning round: grit, curiosity, and fitness

💌 Get weekly 5-minute SaaS insights: https://saasclub.io/email

SaaS Club Programs

Join the SaaS Club founder community: https://saasclub.co/plus

Build your $10K MRR SaaS: https://saasclub.io/launch

Scale from 6-figures to $1M ARR Faster: https://saasclub.io/mastermind

Get 1:1 async coaching from Omer: https://saasclub.io/accelerate

Resources

Full show notes: https://saasclub.io/468

Subscribe to the podcast: https://saasclub.io/subscribe

He lived in his first customer's basement for a year. Nate Baker found Qualia's first customer by wearing a Stanford sweatshirt to a conference. That customer, Barry Feingold, didn't just sign up—he taught them the industry, made intros to competitors, and let the team live in his basement. In this episode, founders will learn how to find their first customers through network-based selling and multi-year upfront contracts.

Nate shares the brutal early days: building for months without talking to customers, getting their first customer's software shut off overnight, and plateauing at $45K ARR because they didn't respect sales as a skill. Their VP of Sales told them: "I've never seen such a gap between great product and incompetent sales execution." Within 12 months, they went from $45K to $3.5M ARR.

Today, Qualia generates over $100 million in ARR with 600 employees and has raised more than $200 million to transform the home buying process.

This episode is brought to you by:

💖 Gearheart → Book a free consult and get the first 20 hours free

🔑 Key Lessons

🎯 First Customers Must Come From Your Network: Nate says your first 10 customers must come from in-network sales—cold outreach rarely closes when you're asking someone to trust an unproven system of record.

💰 Multi-Year Upfront Contracts Bring Cash Forward: Qualia offered 5-year contracts paid upfront at 80% discounts, aligning incentives and generating meaningful early revenue.

🏠 Embed Yourself With Your First Customer: The first 25 Qualia employees rotated through Barry's basement learning the industry—"you have to be so in it" to build great software.

🗺️ Geographic Focus Beats National Expansion Early: Qualia stayed focused on Massachusetts for the first year, building deep relationships before expanding state by state.

⚡ Crisis Creates Your Most Productive Moments: When Barry's vendor shut him off overnight, Qualia had to deliver—it became their most productive month ever.

🔧 Engineers Must Respect Sales as a Skill: At $45K ARR, the founders thought product would speak for itself. Hiring a VP of Sales unlocked $3.5M ARR in 12 months.

Chapters

Introduction and what Qualia does

How Nate picked the title software market at 21 with no experience

The academic approach to market selection (and why it was a mistake)

The real problem: coordination across multiple stakeholders

Finding first customer Barry Feingold at a conference

Living in Barry's basement for a year

When Barry's vendor shut him off overnight

How long it took to ship the first version

Why narrow geographic focus beats national expansion early

Early customer conversations and what they actually needed

How to get customers to pay before you've built the product

The multi-year upfront contract strategy

Network-based selling vs cold outreach for first customers

The wake-up call: "Great product, incompetent sales execution"

Moving upmarket and the "you don't understand Texas" objection

Strategy for geographic expansion state by state

When Nate realized they had real traction

How the opportunity looks today with AI

Lightning round

💌 Get weekly 5-minute SaaS insights: https://saasclub.io/email

SaaS Club Programs

Join the SaaS Club founder community: https://saasclub.co/plus

Build your $10K MRR SaaS: https://saasclub.io/launch

Scale from 6-figures to $1M ARR Faster: https://saasclub.io/mastermind

Get 1:1 async coaching from Omer: https://saasclub.io/accelerate

Resources

Full show notes: https://saasclub.io/467

Subscribe to the podcast: https://saasclub.io/subscribe

Nine months. Zero revenue. One cold text to a CMO. Yosef Peterseil landed McDonald's as Blings' first enterprise sales customer while bootstrapping—and learned why charging for POCs changes everything. In this episode, founders will learn how to close enterprise sales deals without a playbook, why free POCs kill your priority, and when you're actually ready to hire salespeople.

Yosef shares how he validated the wrong ICP for months before discovering customer success managers had no budget, why a 13-month contract structure eliminates double negotiations, and the $30,000 event mistake that taught him to build follow-up systems first.

Blings now serves McDonald's, Mercedes, Meta, and Rocket Mortgage—hitting $1M ARR in 2023 with just 19 people.

This episode is brought to you by:

💖 Gearheart → Book a free consult and get the first 20 hours free

🔑 Key Lessons

🎯 Always Charge for Enterprise Sales POCs: Even $3,000-$5,000 forces customers to prioritize you and starts vendor onboarding—free trials put you at the bottom of the list.

💰 Use 13-Month Contracts: Yosef lost months negotiating POC terms then negotiating again for commercial deals—a first-month exit clause eliminates double negotiations.

🚀 Validate ICP Budget First: Dozens of customer success interviews revealed they had no budget—pivot to where the money actually is before building.

🤝 Build Follow-Up Systems Before Events: 70 leads from a $30K event went cold because they had no HubSpot sequences or lead scoring in place.

🧠 Don't Hire Salespeople Without a Playbook: A great rep closing deals proves their skill, not your product—wait until a mediocre rep can follow your process.

📈 Scale Enterprise Sales with Channel Partners: Recruiting industry veterans to open doors for commission scaled Blings faster than direct sales.

Chapters

Introduction and Favorite Quote

What Blings Does - The MP5 Video Format

Company Metrics and Enterprise Customers

The Origin Story and Co-Founder Relationship

Validating the ICP Through Customer Interviews

Pivoting from Customer Success to Marketing

Landing McDonald's Through a Cold Text

Closing the First Enterprise Sales POC

Lessons from POC Agreements

Why You Should Always Charge for POCs

Event Marketing Mistakes - 70 Lost Leads

Building a Lead Follow-Up System

Hiring Salespeople Too Early

Building Channel Partner Relationships

Scaling with 19 People

Launching PLG Motion

Lightning Round

💌 Get weekly 5-minute SaaS insights: https://saasclub.io/email

SaaS Club Programs

Join the SaaS Club founder community: https://saasclub.co/plus

Build your $10K MRR SaaS: https://saasclub.io/launch

Scale from 6-figures to $1M ARR Faster: https://saasclub.io/mastermind

Get 1:1 async coaching from Omer: https://saasclub.io/accelerate

Resources

Full show notes: https://saasclub.io/466

Subscribe to the podcast: https://saasclub.io/subscribe

Bassem Hamdy closes enterprise sales deals in 9 days—not 6 months. After scaling Procore from $10M to $100M as EVP of Marketing, he built Briq to an 8-figure ARR by selling AI automation to CFOs in construction. In this episode, early-stage B2B SaaS founders will learn the enterprise sales playbook that bypasses long procurement cycles.

Bassem breaks down exactly how to close enterprise sales fast by focusing on "vision and value" instead of product demos. You will learn why you should never do free POCs, how to identify when you're wasting time with "Innovation Teams," and the land-and-expand strategy that grew Briq from $15K deals to $100K+ contracts.

In this episode, Bassem also shares why he made the controversial call to fire bad enterprise clients, and how partnering with industry associations gave Briq the social proof to earn trust with risk-averse CFOs before they had logos.

This episode is brought to you by:

💖 Gearheart → Book a free consult and get the first 20 hours free

🔑 Key Lessons

🎯 Sell Vision and Value, Not Features: Bassem closes enterprise sales in 9 days by confirming vision alignment and ROI before ever demoing the product.

💰 Never Do Free POCs: Free work attracts time-wasters from innovation teams. Even a dollar creates commitment and filters for real buyers.

🤝 Land and Expand for Enterprise Sales: Start with a small paid implementation that proves ROI, then expand across departments.

🏢 Target the Economic Buyer: CFOs write checks; innovation VPs waste your time. Always qualify whether your contact controls budget.

📉 Fire Bad Enterprise Clients: Large companies can drag you into dark alleys with endless requests. Cut them loose to protect your resources.

🛠️ Partner for Early Credibility: Before you have enterprise logos, partner with trade associations to earn the social proof CFOs need.

Chapters

Why SaaS Founders Should Ignore Feature Requests

Introduction & Welcome

Is AI "Human Replacement" Software?

The "Construction Data Cloud" Idea (And Why It Failed)

Finding the Wrong ICP

The "Agile" Trap: Why Most Product Teams Are Waterfall

The Investor-Forced Pivot to Forecasting

How to Close Enterprise Sales Deals in 9 Days

Selling on "Vision & Value" vs. Features

SaaS Pricing: Moving to Tokenization & Consumption

First Price Was $15K—And It Was Too Cheap

CFO Sales: Overcoming Risk Aversion

Building Trust with Industry Associations

Firing Bad Enterprise Clients

Land and Expand Strategy

Lightning Round

💌 Get weekly 5-minute SaaS insights: https://saasclub.io/email

SaaS Club Programs

Join the SaaS Club founder community: https://saasclub.co/plus

Build your $10K MRR SaaS: https://saasclub.io/launch

Scale from 6-figures to $1M ARR Faster: https://saasclub.io/mastermind

Get 1:1 async coaching from Omer: https://saasclub.io/accelerate

Resources

Full show notes: https://saasclub.io/465

Subscribe to the podcast: https://saasclub.io/subscribe