SaaS Startups

Less Doing is a SaaS-based virtual assistant and on-demand project management service founded by Ari Maizel in August 2015. The company grew from zero to ~$46,000 MRR in less than a year through a combination of Ari's bestselling productivity book, podcast (30,000 monthly downloads), and speaking engagements. With 170 customers paying $149/month plus $50/hour for services, Less Doing achieved hockey-stick growth while remaining completely bootstrapped and profitable from day one.

Burst IQ is a blockchain-based intelligent data grid platform that helps healthcare organizations securely connect and manage health data. Founded in April 2015 by Frank Ricotta and two co-founders with $375K in seed capital, the company has grown to 10 customers with 4 major ecosystem partners, generating $75K MRR ($900K ARR) through enterprise contracts ranging from $250K to $1M annually. They're targeting a Series A raise of $5M at a $20M pre-money valuation.

Game Changers Academy, founded by Peter Vugh in 2013, is an exclusive membership platform for young entrepreneurs offering mastermind calls, guest speakers, and networking with successful business figures. By 2016, the academy had approximately 600 platinum members paying $297/month and 700 rookie members at $47/month, generating approximately $750,000 in 2015 revenue. The platform leverages referral-based growth and positioning through content, speaking engagements, and social media rather than paid advertising.

Travel Flan is an AI-powered travel advisory service founded by Kenneth Lee that generates revenue through three streams: consumer subscriptions ($10/month), airline commissions (up to 30%), and data sales to airlines and OTAs ($60k/year). As of June 2016, the company had 2,000 paying customers, was generating approximately $50,000 MRR, and had raised $125,000 from 500 Startups with plans to raise $1.5M at a $5M pre-money valuation.

Pear 3D is an augmented reality app that lets consumers visualize home furnishings in their actual spaces before purchasing. Founded by Andrew Commendoni in 2015, the company pivoted from a B2B architecture model to a B2C consumer model with manufacturer partnerships, generating revenue through CPM and CPC advertising. With over 2,000 products in their catalog from 15 major manufacturers and ~20,000 monthly object placements, they project $1.5M in annual revenue.

Prospect.io is a SaaS platform for sales prospecting automation launched in January 2016. In just 6-7 months, Vincenzo Ruggiero and his 3-person team grew to 400 paying customers generating $17,000 MRR ($45 average per customer) primarily through word-of-mouth and partnerships with CRM platforms. The company is bootstrap-funded with only a $60k small investment, maintains a 6% monthly customer churn rate, and is growing profitably by reinvesting revenue back into hiring and product development.

Carissa Hill built a Facebook marketing course teaching small businesses how to acquire customers through Facebook. After launching in February 2015 with $100k annual revenue, she discovered Facebook Live in June 2016 and dramatically accelerated growth, generating $105k in sales in one week and $180k in June 2016 alone. She now replicates her Facebook Live model across multiple partner groups, converting warm audiences at 50% rates.

Corey McGregor is a 37-year-old fitness entrepreneur who co-founded Muscle Farm, which went public and reached $168 million in revenue before he left to pursue his personal brand. He launched CoreyGFitness.com in December 2015, generating $34,000 in first-month revenue with a $9/month membership model offering fitness programming, diet plans, and exclusive content to thousands of members across 50+ countries. His traction comes from his personal credibility as an 11-time magazine cover model, powerlifter, and fitness content creator with nearly 200k Instagram followers.

Truebill is a free subscription management tool launched in January 2016 that helps users track, manage, and cancel recurring payments by connecting to their bank accounts. The company monetizes through affiliate partnerships and commission deals with companies like Spotify and Plated, earning money when users click recommendations or sign up for offers. By the time of this interview, Truebill had reached 50,000 total users with 10-15,000 new signups monthly, raised $1.75M in funding, and grew from $500 in first-month revenue to $4,000 in the second month.

Steve Chu runs a profitable online education business through his blog mywifequitterjob.com, which launched in 2011 and now generates seven-figure annual revenue. He drives sales through a systematic funnel combining organic SEO traffic, email nurturing sequences, monthly webinars, and Facebook retargeting ads, converting 10-13% of live attendees at $1,100 per lifetime course membership. His approach demonstrates the power of content-driven, list-based businesses with minimal ad spend ($500/week for webinar promotion) yielding $40-70K per webinar.

Stowaway Cosmetics is a venture-backed direct-to-consumer cosmetics brand founded by Julie Frederick that creates right-sized makeup products (half the size and half the price of prestige cosmetics) targeting women who don't finish traditional full-size products. Launched in February 2015 after raising $1.5M in seed funding led by Gary Vaynerchuk and Metamorphic Ventures, the company has sold over 100,000 units in 18 months with impressive 40% repeat purchase rates and 80-90% gross margins through their DTC model.

Danavir Sariya, 22, launched Copymonk to teach direct response copywriting through online courses after gaining 5 years of freelance copywriting experience. In his first two months, he generated $6,000 in course sales, with a standout 4-day promotional campaign earning $4,000 from 12 emails to a 1,700-person email list, resulting in 40 course sales at $99 (50% off from $200).

Blurbiz is a SaaS platform that helps media companies create and distribute mobile-optimized video content for Snapchat, Facebook, and other social platforms. Founded by Hamza Amir in March 2016, the company quickly reached $50K MRR across 20 enterprise clients (including Cheeky Magazine, Team Wobe, Allure) by July 2016. The company was raising a $2M Series A round at an $10M post-money valuation on the back of strong growth and a clear enterprise market need.

ProsperWorks is a Google Apps-integrated CRM platform founded in 2011 by John Lee that automates data entry by pulling conversations directly from email, phone, and calendar. The company serves over 40,000 customers with approximately $2 million in MRR and has raised $10 million in funding, achieving negative revenue churn and a healthy LTV to CAC ratio of 6:1 through primarily inbound, product-led growth channels.

iCharts is a cloud-based business intelligence and analytics platform founded by Seymour Dunker in 2010 that embeds analytics into SaaS platforms like NetSuite. The company serves 200 customers with an average contract value of $15,000 annually, and has raised $23 million while maintaining healthy 5-7% annual churn and a 6-month payback period.

Simplify Inc. is a HIPAA-compliant SaaS platform founded by orthodontist Ryan and tech M&A veteran Zach Hungate that helps healthcare providers communicate securely and improve patient experience. Accepted into Angelpad in 2015 after both founders gave up six-figure salaries, they've raised approximately $3.5M and grown to serve over 1,000 healthcare provider offices with 98% annual retention and customers paying between $150-$200 per month.

Sherry Atwood founded Support Pay in 2011 to solve the complex problem of managing child support payments and shared parenting expenses. The platform transforms child support management by providing transparent, documented expense tracking similar to corporate expense reports. With 2,000 paying customers, $20k MRR from subscriptions, plus $80k monthly from setup fees, Support Pay has raised $7.1M including a $4M Series A, boasting a 3% annual churn rate and 12% visitor-to-paid conversion.

Shoppable is a SaaS platform that enables purchases from anywhere consumers discover products online by bringing checkout experiences to social media, blogs, videos, and other digital channels. Founded by Heather Marie in 2011 and officially launched in 2012, the company has grown to 20 employees in New York, 438 merchants, 2,000+ brands, and generates well over $500k per month in revenue with customers paying $10k-$90k annually.

Chuzel is a digital advertising platform founded by Andrew Fisher in fall 2012 that serves agencies with a hybrid SaaS and rev-share model. The company generates $75k/month from 250 SaaS customers at an average of $300/month, plus significant revenue from taking 40% of ad spend through their platform. With $8.5M raised, they achieved $10M in revenue in 2016 and were on track to hit $20M in 2017 while becoming profitable.

Riskalyze is a SaaS platform launched in 2011 by Aaron Klein that helps financial advisors align client portfolios with their actual risk tolerance using a quantitative "risk number" score. The company achieved $24M in total capital raised (mostly bootstrapped until late-stage institutional funding), serves 19,000+ paying financial advisors at $145/month base pricing, and maintains industry-leading 90%+ annual retention by focusing on solving the behavioral finance problem of investors making poor short-term decisions driven by fear and greed.