SaaS Startups

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.

James Hickey built an internet marketing consulting business serving 6-8 retail and local service clients at $750-$5,000/month, then scaled into a digital course business in 2011 after his mentor suggested he train people nationally. The 12-module course with 45-50 training videos has enrolled approximately 300 people, generating significant revenue through a tiered funnel of $295 digital products, $1,000 group coaching, and $2,000 one-on-one coaching.

Vinny Fisher is the co-founder of Fully Accountable and founder of multiple businesses including Leading Health Supplements, which does $1.3 million in gross monthly revenue. His approach focuses on building quarterback/project manager operators within businesses to scale without being trapped in day-to-day operations, allowing him to maintain majority or senior minority interests across three operating businesses while also maintaining a personal coaching practice generating $5-10k monthly per client with 10-20 active clients.

Brandon Epstein built Zendude Fitness as an anti-establishment fitness brand focused on simplifying fat loss and moving beyond physical transformation to life fulfillment. He generates revenue through three streams: a $10/month mastermind community (just launched), $500/month high-level coaching clients, and an Instagram consulting agency charging $300-$1,000/month for clients like Athletic Greens and FitLife TV. His most effective growth channel is Instagram, where he leverages direct messaging and creator collaboration networks.

BuildGrowScale is a digital publishing and software company co-founded by Tanner Larson that sells e-commerce training courses (Ecom Masters) and membership products primarily through webinars. They generate over $500K monthly through a sophisticated funnel: 9,000 registered attendees → 3,000 live attendees at $3-4 CAC → 20% conversion on a $1,000 course → 50% conversion on a $100/month membership with 6.5-month average lifetime. Their official May 2024 launch generated $1.5M+ and they continue running evergreen webinars with exceptional retention and conversion metrics.

Panna is an on-demand travel concierge service founded by 23-year-old Devin Tavona that handles flight, hotel, car, and restaurant bookings through a white-glove service model powered by AI-trained concierges. The company raised a $200K angel round and $1.3-1.35M seed round, and grew from zero to 5,000 beta users in 90 days almost entirely through referral and word-of-mouth marketing. With about half of beta users on paid plans at $25-$50/month ARPU, the company is approaching $40-50K in monthly recurring revenue.

Ambitious Advisor is a done-for-you marketing system for high-end financial advisors, offering themed monthly campaigns including direct mail, radio scripts, video content, and email marketing. Greg Rollette discovered the niche at a financial marketing conference and has built the product to over $1M in total revenue in two years with exceptional retention—customers stay 12-24+ months. His acquisition strategy relies on full-page magazine ads ($3,500 per ad) that drive leads to a funnel with a 65% form completion rate, converting at roughly 4.7% to paying customers at $1,450/month.

Jim Fowler is a serial entrepreneur who built Jigsaw, a business data company, from 2003 and sold it to Salesforce in 2010 for $175 million (with a $25 million earnout). The company had $17-18 million in annual revenue the prior year with a $25 million run rate at the time of sale and was already cash flow positive. He is now the founder of Owler, a free competitive intelligence tool that tracks over 13 million companies using a crowdsourced model.