SaaS Startups

John Fry is a 19-year-old founder who appeared on ABC's 'Startup You' reality show filmed at Draper University. He pivoted from his original idea 'Study Better' to launch Granted, a Netflix-style platform for nonprofits to discover and apply for grants. The company is currently in closed beta with free users, targeting 250 nonprofit customers within six months, focusing on mid-tier nonprofits rather than large or small organizations.

Mad Mimi was an email marketing platform launched in 2007 by Dean Levitt and his brother Gary that prioritized culture, simplicity, and organic growth over aggressive scaling. Built with a freemium model (2,500 free contacts with unlimited sending) and zero paid customer acquisition spend, the company grew to 250,000 total users (14,000-18,000 paying) generating approximately $500,000 MRR ($6M ARR) before being acquired by GoDaddy in 2014. The free accounts themselves became a profitable viral growth engine through branded referrals, demonstrating that sustainable, culture-first growth could rival venture-backed scaling.

Notable is a next-generation collaborative note-taking platform launched by Amal Sarva, an experienced founder and investor. The Chrome extension launched ~90 days before this interview achieved 15,000 free users, driven primarily by a LifeHacker feature obtained through strategic Twitter outreach to productivity journalists. The company raised $1M in seed funding from angels and early-stage investors including Bloomberg Beta and 500 Startups.

Grobotz, founded by serial entrepreneur Greg Peiatrusinski in May 2013, is an AI-powered SaaS platform that automates the top of the sales funnel by helping companies find and contact potential customers. After just three months of selling (August to October 2013), the company grew from $23k in first-month revenue to a $600k annual run rate with 50% month-over-month growth and zero churn after the first month, fueled by a rapidly scaling sales team and a $12k/year flat-rate pricing model.

Jason Zook is a creative entrepreneur who sold his last name twice (first for $45,000 to headsets.com) and is known for making over a million dollars wearing t-shirts for brands. His latest venture, Buy My Future, launched with a unique 60-day transparent journal on Medium documenting the entire project, followed by 44 customer interviews to craft messaging. In just two weeks, he sold 165 lifetime access units at $1,000 each, generating $165,000 in revenue with $120,000 in profit after $8,900 in expenses, building a community around guaranteed access to his future projects.

Neil Patel built Quicksprout into a content powerhouse generating 3.9 million monthly website visits, collecting approximately 1,000 email leads per day through educational marketing content. He is now building a SaaS product that automates the marketing optimization tasks he and his team have performed for hundreds of clients, offering a freemium model to help small businesses grow their web traffic without expensive consulting.

Junior Explorers is an edtech social enterprise founded by Wall Street veteran Anarog Agrawal that combines physical mission kits with gamified virtual adventures to inspire kids about wildlife and nature conservation. Launched in December 2014, the company reached $30,000 MRR with over 5,000 global subscribers across 3 countries within 10 months, growing 40-50% month-over-month organically through institutional partnerships with zoos, aquariums, and conservation nonprofits.

Scoop is a news discovery network and marketplace connecting journalists with newsmakers/companies. Founded by Bill Hanks, former VP of Corporate Communications at Real Networks and PR director at Microsoft, the platform has 630 registered journalists (6% of business journalism market) after 7 months and recently began generating revenue (~$1,000/month) by charging companies $250 to algorithmically match their news to relevant reporters.

Fizzle is a membership-based training platform for independent entrepreneurs launched by Corbett Barr in late 2012. With 2,000 active members paying $35/month, the company generates approximately $70,000 in monthly recurring revenue through content marketing (blog, free guides, and a weekly podcast that reaches 10,000 listeners) which accounts for over 60% of signups. The team of four maintains a 60-65% free trial to paid conversion rate and achieves steady growth by focusing on simplicity, transparency, and delivering genuine value to aspiring business builders.

Ankur Nagpal founded Teachable in late 2013 as an online course platform giving teachers ownership, unlike competitors like Udemy. Built on his prior success monetizing Facebook apps for $2M (2007-2011), he raised $2M in seed funding from notable founders and investors. Teachable grew to 1,500 paying customers with ~$120k MRR by November 2015, converting free-tier users through webinars at 25-30% rates, with plans to raise a Series A at a $30M valuation.

James Swanwick, a former ESPN sports anchor, launched the 30-Day No Alcohol Challenge in late June 2015, a membership community helping social drinkers reduce or quit alcohol. Four months post-launch, he had 215 active members paying $67/month with a closed Facebook group serving as the primary retention engine. He also created a $1,000 upsell, the 90-Day Healthy Habits Challenge, which converted 12 customers in its first week.

Tweet Jukebox is a content distribution system launched by Tim Fargo in February 2015 to solve his own pain point of managing frequent tweets for marketing purposes. The product grew to 16,000 users by the time of this interview, with approximately 150,000 tweets distributed daily, operating on a free model before planned paid tiers launching in 2016 at $9.99/month entry level.

Pro Sky is a SaaS marketplace that connects companies with qualified college students for recruitment and project-based testing before hiring. Founded by Crystal Huang and accepted into 500 Startups in October 2014, the company grew from $21k MRR with 400 students to $171k MRR by July 2015 with 60+ paying companies. The platform generates 75% revenue from companies paying $500-$5,000/month and 25% from students paying $249 per training course.

Yuri Elkaim built a digital health and nutrition business centered around the Super Nutrition Academy membership ($49/month) and the Defeating Diabetes Kit ($37 one-time offer). By offering a free 1-month academy trial with the diabetes kit, he achieved a 60% upsell conversion rate and ~$237 average customer lifetime value, enabling him to profitably acquire customers through paid media at $50-55 CPA, generating approximately $65,000 monthly from the academy alone (1,300 members) plus additional revenue from nine other product brands and consumable products.

Lewis Lautman founded Supreme Outsourcing after going broke funding 'The Yes Movie' in 2007, spending over $200,000 and realizing the pain of paying $80-120/hour for U.S.-based freelancers. Between 2008-2010, while building his entrepreneur training business, he began outsourcing overseas and discovered he was making more money fulfilling outsourcing work for other entrepreneurs than from his training business itself. He launched Supreme Outsourcing full-time in 2010 with a tiered pricing model ranging from $15/hour pay-as-you-go to $1,000/month for full-time virtual assistants, using customer financing to fund operations.

Intently is a browser plugin platform that replaces online ads with user-selected inspirational content, addressing the $6.7 billion ad blocker problem. Founded by serial entrepreneur Misha Mikalian (37, 8 prior startups), the company has raised $500k in seed funding via SAFE notes and grew to less than 10,000 beta users organically through word-of-mouth. Launching in September with plans to reach 100,000+ users by year-end and raise a $10M Series A.

Sujin Patel built Content Marketer, a SaaS tool to automate the manual outreach process he was using to get featured in major publications like Forbes and Entrepreneur. Launched in June 2015 after 6 months of development and 3 months of private beta, the tool reached 150 paying customers ($49/month) just 45 days after launch, generating approximately $7,500 in monthly recurring revenue. His growth strategy centered on a genius pre-launch tactic: asking beta access requesters why they should get early access, which generated a 25% response rate and led to organic coverage from companies like HubSpot.

Los co-founded BuildGrowScale.com, a digital education company, and launched two mastermind groups targeting high-revenue entrepreneurs. The Black Label mastermind (for media/product businesses) started in December 2014 with a $500 live event that converted 5 attendees into $18,000/year members; it now has 37 members paying $24,000 annually, generating ~$888k ARR. He built the initial 25,000-person email list through webinars, achieving a breakeven model that qualified leads while building audience.

Stephanie Nicolich founded Success Society in August 2015 as a free community platform for women entrepreneurs, offering resources, tools, training, and mentoring from seven expert CEOs. The platform has grown to tens of thousands of active members with over 500 fully profiled members, generating revenue through a $97/month e-course offering and an $1,997 eight-week intensive bootcamp that runs quarterly with attendance doubling each iteration. She's built a team of eight and leveraged email marketing (4,000 opt-ins in a four-week period from a free lead magnet) to drive growth.

Bundlepost is a patented social content management system co-founded by Robert Caruso, a Forbes-listed top 40 social media marketer. The platform uniquely aggregates RSS feeds and content sources to enable users to curate, schedule, and manage social content 80% more efficiently than traditional methods. After building the company to scale over several years while working 80-hour weeks, Caruso promoted his CTO to CEO and transitioned to focus on building his personal brand in the digital marketing space.