SaaS Startups

Gift Starter is a consumer crowdfunding platform that allows people to break down expensive online purchases into affordable chunks that friends and family can co-purchase as gifts. Founded by Aerie Ewen in July 2014 after winning a hackathon, the company pivoted from a B2B e-commerce plugin model to a consumer-facing payments platform, raising $525,000 in angel capital and achieving $12K revenue in 2015 with plans to reach $50K in 2016.

John Bowen is a serial entrepreneur who built and sold multiple financial services businesses, including a $2 billion advisory firm and a company taken public on the Canadian market. He now runs CEG Worldwide, which coaches top financial advisors through a subscription model, and co-founded AESNation.com with thought leaders like Dan Sullivan and Joe Polish to research and educate entrepreneurs on wealth creation and best practices.

Loganics is a 6-year-old SEO fulfillment agency founded by 28-year-old serial entrepreneur Adam Steele that builds citations and acquires backlinks for digital marketing agencies. Operating with minimal founder involvement through a team of 50+ people in the Philippines, the company generated approximately $500K in revenue in 2015 and was on track for $750K in 2016 with 3,000+ clients across 70 countries and nearly 250,000 citations built.

AstroPrint is an IoT platform for the 3D printing industry, often called the "Android of 3D printing." Founded in 2013 and pivoted in 2014, the company makes 3D printers easy to operate and connects them to a cloud-based app store ecosystem. With $150,000 in 2015 revenue and $400,000 raised, they're pursuing a B2B licensing model targeting printer manufacturers and major brands, projecting $500,000 in 2016 revenue.

Map My Fitness (Map My Ride, Map My Run, Map My Walk, Map My Hike) was founded in 2006 by Robin Thurston after a cycling trip in Switzerland. The company grew to 20 million monthly active users by 2013 through purely organic, word-of-mouth growth with no paid customer acquisition. At exit, the company had $17 million in trailing 12-month revenue across multiple business lines (advertising, subscriptions, and SaaS API licensing) and was acquired by Under Armour for approximately $150 million.

DO is a bills and payments platform founded by John Rampton in 2015 that helps businesses get paid faster through invoicing, time tracking, and payroll features. Nine months after launch (as of the February 2016 interview), the platform had processed $4 million in transaction volume in February 2016 alone, generating approximately $40,000 in monthly revenue through credit card transaction fees. John leveraged his expertise in SEO and online marketing to drive tens of thousands of customer signups, with about 60,000 total users and 20,000-30,000 active users.

TransTutors is an AI-assisted tutoring platform that helps college students with homework and assignments through a $20/month subscription model. Founded in August 2014 by Aditya Singhal, the company achieved over $1 million in revenue in 2015 and was doing $60-80k MRR by early 2016 with approximately 3,000 active paying monthly subscribers. The company grew through organic search traffic from 2 billion monthly Google searches by college students seeking homework help, and was raising a $500k convertible note from 500 Startups at a $2.5M cap.

metadata.io automates demand generation for B2B companies by reverse engineering customer data to build ideal prospect profiles and find look-alike audiences across social platforms and networks. Launched in May 2015, the company reached $35,000 MRR in February 2016 with a dozen customers paying an average of $3,000/month, after raising $300,000 in seed capital from angels, 500 Startups, and Right Side Capital. Founder Gil Alush, a 33-year-old software engineer turned VP of marketing, is targeting mid-market and enterprise companies with a value-based pricing model and planning to raise a couple million in equity at a $5-6M pre-money valuation.

Lead Genius is an AI-powered SaaS platform that automates lead generation, enrichment, and email outreach for enterprise sales teams. Founded in 2011 by mathematician and Berkeley researcher Anand Kokkarni, the company has raised $8 million and achieved $8M ARR by 2015, with approximately 200 enterprise customers paying an average of $40,000 annually. The business demonstrates strong unit economics with a 10:1 LTV-to-CAC ratio and has achieved the coveted net negative churn by expanding existing accounts faster than customer losses.

Cool Leaf is a B2B SaaS platform that helps mid-sized businesses and Fortune 500 companies organize, communicate, and track employee engagement efforts. Founded in 2011 by Prem Bhatian and co-founder John, the company has evolved from an initial B2C focus to a successful B2B enterprise with 26 active customers paying an average of $25-30k annually. By March 2016, Cool Leaf had raised $800k in funding (including from 500 Startups), generated less than $500k in 2015 revenue, and was aiming to hit $1M ARR by end of 2016.

Pixie is an image optimization SaaS platform launched in 2014 by Holly Cardew that helps e-commerce merchants automatically edit and optimize product photos for multiple platforms within 24 hours. The company is self-funded with $150k in angel investment, operates with a distributed team of 16 (plus 100+ freelance designers), and is processing hundreds of thousands of images with over 7,000 customers. Holly grew the company to breakeven by 2015 and found the most explosive growth through an affiliate program that generated 1,000 signups and 70 paying customers in just three weeks.

GetResource.io is a recruiting automation SaaS founded by Troy Salton that automates outbound sourcing for growing technology companies, charging $5,000-$8,500/month. With three co-founders and $125K from 500 Startups accelerator, the company operates profitably with approximately 10 customers and generates around $50K in monthly revenue through word-of-mouth and network-based sales.

Yo Shirt is a mobile app enabling users to design and order custom on-demand apparel directly from their iOS device. Founded in 2014 by Ben Williamson (former senior-level Apple engineer), the company raised $1.1M in a priced equity round in early 2015 and reached $3M in revenue by end of 2015, with projections to hit $10M in 2016. Growth was driven primarily through strategic brand partnerships (notably Fallout Boy, which generated over 1,000 units in a single tour activation) and organic marketing including Apple App Store features.

Mojio is a connected car platform launched in 2012 and backed by Deutsche Telekom and Amazon that enables existing cars to connect to the internet. Kenny Hawke, who previously took iGo public in 1999, took over as CEO in fall 2015 and has landed major contracts including rollouts with Deutsche Telekom in Europe and a North American carrier. The company operates on a revenue-share model with telecom operators and projects to have millions of units installed within 2-3 years.

Carnivore Club is a subscription meat box service founded by serial entrepreneur Tim Ray in September 2013, launching via Indiegogo crowdfunding. By February 2016 (approximately 2.5 years after launch), the company was shipping over 5,500 boxes monthly and generated $1.3M in revenue in 2015, with projections of $2.2M for 2016. The company bootstrapped with $100K from Ray's previous exit and achieved profitability while maintaining 35% gross margins, primarily through podcast advertising to reach their core audience of down-to-earth, blue-collar customers.

Lisa Song Sutton is a multi-business entrepreneur who built a portfolio of companies including a real estate firm (Sutton and Chase) that generated $7 million in transactions over 11 months, Sin City Cupcakes which did nearly $1 million in revenue in 2015, and a television show called Live with Lisa. Her latest venture is Brand Bridge Org, a tech company that donates 100% of profits to entrepreneurship-focused entities.

DataNyze is a B2B sales intelligence platform founded by Ilya Semin in 2012 (officially launched January 2014) that helps enterprise software sales teams prepare for calls and identify high-potential leads. Starting from $50,000 in first-year revenue with mostly word-of-mouth growth, the company raised $1.8M in July 2014 from investors including Mark Cuban and Google Ventures, and grew to $6M ARR by end of 2015 with a 7% month-over-month revenue growth rate and less than 1% monthly churn.

Bitfusion is an enterprise SaaS company founded in January 2015 by three ex-Intel/Dell/Samsung engineers that pools idle compute resources in data centers to create supercomputer-level performance. After raising $1.5M in seed funding through Y Combinator's SAFE framework in April 2015, they launched their product in November 2015 and acquired 6 pilot customers and 2 signed contracts within 3 months by strategically targeting enterprises with short sales cycles. With 9 total employees and customers ranging from cloud service providers to Shell, they generate between $100k-$500k in annual revenue per customer.

Todd Tresetter is a hedge fund manager who retired at 35 and launched Financial Mentor (financialmentor.com) to teach unconventional investment and retirement planning strategies. Starting as a boutique coaching practice, the platform has grown significantly through word-of-mouth, with Todd now converting one-on-one coaching into scalable courses. The site offers free resources including an ebook and a 52-week financial freedom course to build community and provide value-based education.

We Love Numbers is a SaaS-based bookkeeping and financial advisory platform founded by Finn Kelly in March 2015. After one year, the company grew to 50 paying customers with $50,000 MRR at an average price of $1,000/month, targeting food & beverage, tech, and professional services sectors. Planning to raise $750K on a $6M pre-money valuation to accelerate growth.