Casebook

Tristan Luisi, a serial entrepreneur with five exits and executive roles at HSBC and Deutsche Bank, was searching for technology work with genuine social impact after the 2016 election. He connected with an EKC Foundation, one of the largest child welfare foundations in the country, which had developed technology to manage systems for one state but lacked commercial expertise. Luisi recognized a massive market gap: $24 billion was being spent annually on software in the human services space (child welfare, justice, domestic violence, anti-recidivism programs), yet no standardized software platform existed to serve these organizations. Instead, most relied on pen and paper or expensive custom system integrator contracts.

Luisi's strategy was unconventional but brilliant. Rather than bootstrapping or raising venture capital immediately, he took the foundation's underperforming $7 million system integration contract, restructured it as a profitable service delivery vehicle, and used the cash flow to fund SaaS product development. "We've been basically bootstrapping off that profitable contract to help us build out" the core platform. By 2019, Casebook was officially launched as a SaaS company targeting both government agencies and nonprofits in the human services sector—a market of approximately 40,000 organizations employing 312 million people.

Casebook validated product-market fit by December of the previous year with $11,000 in MRR. The founding insight was that government and nonprofit customers had nearly identical problems, data requirements, and pain points. Luisi priced aggressively ($29, $49, $69 per seat per month, averaging $50) to lock out competition and ensure operational viability at scale. With an average customer size of 15-20 seats, typical contracts were $1,000/month on 24-month terms—a retention goldmine. By the interview date, Casebook had reached approximately 200 customers, generating $200,000 in MRR.

The explosive growth from $11,000 to $200,000 MRR in roughly one year was driven by identifying the right product-market fit, targeting underserved markets with minimal competition, and pricing correctly. "The interesting thing is that the market is mostly dominated by system integrators. There hasn't [been] a software package that's really doing what we're doing," Luisi explained. Net revenue retention was "way over 100%," and churn was negligible—only one customer had churned due to organizational insolvency. Customers were even requesting mid-contract seat expansions unprompted, validating strong product adoption.

However, growth required investment. With 36 employees (20+ engineers/PMs and 16 sales), Casebook was burning $600,000-$700,000 monthly—still profitable on SaaS revenue alone but heavy for a $2.4M ARR company. The legacy $7 million contract funded the gap until Casebook could scale to profitability. Luisi prepared to raise $6-8 million on a $14M pre-money valuation ($20M post-money) to accelerate growth and reduce dependence on the legacy contract.

Casebook had transitioned from a services-first to SaaS-first business model while maintaining 100% founder ownership. The company was on the verge of raising institutional capital and expanding its 36-person team to scale into a $12-24 billion greenfield market opportunity. With two-year contracts providing revenue stability and minimal churn, Casebook demonstrated the viability of SaaS in highly regulated, traditionally under-served government and nonprofit sectors.