SaaS Startups

Sellbreaker is a legal-tech SaaS platform founded by John Colgan that helps consumers cancel cell phone contracts without paying early termination fees by identifying carrier breaches in contracts. The company charges 35% of the savings (ETF amounts) and achieved a $13 million annual run rate by August 2015 with 13,000 users, maintaining a 100% success rate. Colgan raised just under $300,000 in convertible notes (partly from 500 Startups) and planned to expand to other consumer contracts under a new vertical-agnostic brand called Vito.

Amy Schmetawa built Savvy Sexy Social, a video content strategy platform, starting with YouTube videos in 2008 and growing a community of 2+ million views. She transitioned from hourly consulting to a membership model (Social Authority Membership, launched May 2015) at $59/month to work only with committed clients willing to execute. Within five months (October 2015), the membership was generating $5K/month with plans to phase out lower-tier offerings and focus on annual premium memberships.

Amy Porterfield launched her Profit Lab program in May 2017, a course teaching social media sales funnel creation, generating almost $1 million in revenue over a 20-day launch period. The success came from a strategic combination of 25% affiliate sales (from 8 carefully selected partners), cold traffic ads, retargeting, and email marketing to her 180,000-person list. Notably, 30% of sales came in the final two days, and one-third of customers never attended a webinar, purchasing directly from email sequences.

Matt Galant is a serial entrepreneur who has generated over 7 million leads across multiple industries (primarily guitar instruction and fitness supplements). His supplement company (Masszymes) grossed $280,000 in October with a net profit of $52,000, primarily through an affiliate model paying 30% commission for life. He built Gold Lantern, a SaaS tool that tracks lead value over specific time periods (30, 90, 180, 365 days) to help optimize marketing spend and identify break-even points.

Whiplash is an order fulfillment and shipping service for e-commerce companies founded by James Marks and two co-founders. The company generates approximately $100k in monthly recurring revenue from 157 customers, with October gross revenue of $330k including carrier fees. They are bootstrapped with three warehouses, recently joined 500 Startups, and are planning to raise $2M at an 8-10M cap valuation to scale their sales efforts.

Kimra Luna launched Be True Brand U, a $2,000 digital course program, in May 2014 and generated $880,000 in first-year revenue (May 2014-February 2015) through a combination of Facebook ads and webinars. She grew her email list from 5,000 to 10,000+ people and built a 20,000-member Facebook community, using a strategy of list-building with a free mini course, retargeting existing audience members through webinars, and aggressive email campaigns on launch closing days.

Batchbook is a SaaS CRM platform founded by Pam O'Hara in 2006 to help small businesses manage customer relationships. The company bootstrapped to over 10,000 paying customers with an average monthly spend of $42 per customer and above 95% retention rates, using word-of-mouth and targeted paid social as primary growth channels.

Troy Dean is a university dropout-turned-web developer who built two recurring revenue businesses: a $25k/month WordPress plugin called Video User Manuals (1,200 active subscribers at $24/month), and WP Elevation, a membership course for WordPress freelancers launching at $97/month that generated $500-600k in its first 12 months. He leveraged his existing plugin customer base and an email list of 27,000 to drive course sales through Facebook ads ($5k spent for 220 customers in one launch) and a scarcity-driven 7-day enrollment model, achieving a 98.5% retention rate among course members.

Jay Bean founded FreshLine in 2014 after leaving his Chief Strategy Officer role at Deluxe Corporation. FreshLine helps local service-based businesses attribute marketing spend to actual transactions and automatically re-engage past customers. With a couple hundred direct customers paying $150-400/month, FreshLine is projected to hit $250K in the first full year, with plans to scale to $4-5M through partner relationships.

Michael Devlin launched Profits Engine, a membership platform combining e-commerce software tools with education for Amazon sellers. He generated approximately $110,000 in upfront revenue from 104 customers through a single webinar to his LinkedIn network (10.5k followers), with customers paying $997 for the Amazoners Academy course and upgrading to recurring subscriptions ($99-$199/month) for the Profits Engine software and tools.

YouMake is a 3D sketching app for iPad that allows users to design intuitively without prior 3D training. Founded in April 2014 by Evie Meyer and partners who left Autodesk, the team bootstrapped for nearly two years before raising $5.2 million in seed funding. One month after launching on the App Store, they had approximately 800 paying customers generating around $8,000 in monthly recurring revenue.

Nick Sonnenberg is a former Wall Street high-frequency trader who gave up a seven-figure salary to launch Calvin App, a productivity tool that helps users store 'someday' events and simplifies scheduling by showing overlapping free time without exposing full calendar details. Launched in public beta with ~400 monthly active users after being featured at Twitter's developer conference for innovative API integration, Calvin is pursuing a $750K funding round at a $6-8M pre-money valuation with plans to monetize through affiliate partnerships and brand integrations.

iSideWith is a political information platform that uses an engaging quiz format to match voters with political candidates and issues. Founded by Taylor Peck and an engineer co-founder, the platform went viral on Facebook, reaching over 25 million quiz takers in four years through organic sharing, with 1.5 million new completed quizzes per month. While currently generating modest revenue (~$10k/month from Google AdSense), Taylor is building toward monetization through sponsored candidate communication tools and email-based campaign offerings.

PrepDish is a meal planning SaaS founded by Allison Schaaf, who pivoted from a time-intensive personal chef business to a scalable subscription model offering weekly downloadable meal plans. With 1,100 paying subscribers (60% annual, 40% monthly) generating approximately $10,000 MRR, the company grew primarily through influencer partnerships, most notably earning $25,000 in two days from a single 100 Days of Real Food collaboration. The business is highly seasonal with peaks in January and August.

SeamlessDocs is a SaaS platform that transforms static PDFs into smart, interactive online forms for government and enterprise clients. Founded in 2013 by Jonathan Endin, the company struggled for the first year trying to serve small businesses before pivoting to local and state governments as their ideal customer. With over 300+ government customers across 40 states, a 99% annual retention rate, and $17,000 average annual contract value, they were projected to reach $2M in 2015 revenue and $20M in 2016.

Jen Scalea is a visibility strategist and business coach who built a multi-six-figure coaching and membership business. She generates approximately $50,000 per month on average (reaching six figures in some months) through a combination of one-on-one mentorship ($10,000 for four months, scaling to $15,000), a membership site with ~200 members ($30-47/month), and periodic course launches. Her growth came primarily through organic social media and word-of-mouth before adding paid advertising in April.

Ashley Bridget is an e-commerce jewelry brand founded by Scott Hutchison in 2013 that scaled to $8.2 million in annual revenue by 2015 through Instagram influencer partnerships and viral promotional campaigns. The company grew from $1.5 million in 2013 to $4.5 million in 2014 (the year they raised $800K for 10% equity) and $8.2 million in 2015, moving approximately 25,000 orders per month with strong customer retention focus. Scott's model emphasized acquiring customers through discounted offers on Instagram and deal sites, then converting them into repeat purchasers through product quality and customer experience.

Edgar is a social media scheduling SaaS founded by Laura Roeder in mid-2014 that automatically cycles through a library of content instead of requiring manual one-off posting. Launched with bootstrapped $100k investment and an 80,000-person email list, Edgar grew to nearly 4,000 customers by January 2016 with $2.2M ARR ($180k MRR) at $49/month average, using Facebook ads ($30k/month) and content marketing as primary growth channels while maintaining a healthy 95% monthly retention rate.

Aunchport is a 10-year-old SaaS platform founded by Landon Ray that helps entrepreneurs remove the burden of technology to focus on building their businesses. Starting from hundreds of thousands of dollars invested over 5 years of failure from 2004-2009, the company exploded in 2009 and has grown to serve 6,000+ paying customers with approximately $14-20 million in annual recurring revenue, 100 employees, and profitability—all while maintaining very limited external investment.

Hay-O is a Facebook app SaaS platform built by Nathan Lacka that grew to over 10,000 paying customers and $5 million in sales over five years. The company raised $2.5 million in venture capital and received an acquisition offer from a major competitor, prompting Lacka to transparently involve the entire team in the exit decision-making process as a learning experience.