Privy

Ben Jiboie and his team didn't start with Privy. They spent two years and $2 million building a different product—a SaaS platform for brick-and-mortar retailers to track which of their online audience was walking into physical stores using offers. It was a cool idea that got techies excited, but the attribution was nearly impossible and selling into retail was a brutal slog. The company's bank account dwindled to nearly zero as two M&A deals fell apart. "You know, the bank account was basically zero, we had about $1,000 in the account and the deal fell apart," Ben recalls. With revenue at just $150,000 annually and no clear path forward, they made the hard decision to pivot entirely.

In January 2015, Ben and his small team launched Privy with a laser focus: help e-commerce brands solve the biggest conversion problem they face. While everyone else obsessed over driving traffic to websites, Ben noticed that 98% of traffic wasn't converting. "There was really a gap. So much of those marketers are focused on driving traffic to the site and then on automatic, nurturing campaigns after conversion. But if 98% of the traffic's not converting, that was the opportunity," he explains. They built a freemium SaaS platform with a simple value prop—exit-intent offers to convert browsers into leads and customers—and priced it at roughly $50/month for self-serve users.

The team kept the original cap table intact even after the pivot, honoring their early believers. They had raised $4 million total across both company attempts, and those same investors largely backed the new vision.

Privy's breakthrough came through platform partnerships, particularly Shopify. By integrating directly into Shopify's ecosystem and providing genuine value to merchants, Privy earned trust the old-fashioned way: product quality and customer support. Ben's team built onboarding flows that walked users through setting up their first campaign, and then after customers experienced value, they'd ask for app store reviews—not through manipulation, but through genuine gratitude. "It's not required, but we certainly see a lot of people doing that," Ben notes.

The numbers speak for themselves: 15,478 reviews on Shopify, making Privy the #1 marketing app in the ecosystem and often the #2 app overall. "We're the number one app in marketing. But I think we're also like the number two app in the entire app store, depending on the day," Ben says without hesitation when asked which channel drove the most new customers.

Privy proved that platform parasitism, when done right, is a growth machine. By sitting between storefronts and email platforms, providing clear value and deep integrations, Privy tapped into Shopify's growth and billions in merchant attention. The company maintained 3-4% gross revenue churn in the SMB segment, but achieved net negative churn through expansion revenue—customers upgrading as their sites grew. "On a net basis, it's actually trending close to negative, zero negative with some of the upsell stuff we have going on," Ben confirms.

What didn't work: paid marketing. Ben's team never ran ads. Instead, they invested obsessively in product-qualified support and onboarding. Their CAC was roughly $100 for inside-sales customers with a 2-3 month payback period. They didn't spend heavily on digital advertising or traditional marketing; they let the product sell itself through reviews, integrations, and exceptional free support.

By the time of this interview, Privy had grown to 5,000+ paying customers with $250k in monthly recurring revenue—more than double from the prior year's $100k MRR run rate. Annualized revenue stood at $3.1 million, up from $1.3 million a year earlier. The team had grown to 20 people in Boston, with plans to reach 30 by year-end: 11 engineers, several customer support reps, a small 3-person marketing team, and one salesperson who was already driving 20% of MRR.

Ben rejected the notion of selling to Shopify despite its obvious acquisition appeal. "We see a very clear path from four to eight to 10 next year," he said, confident in their ability to expand beyond Shopify into other e-commerce platforms while rolling out lifecycle automation, abandoned cart emails, post-purchase flows, and win-back campaigns. Privy was no longer just an exit-intent tool; it was evolving into a comprehensive e-commerce marketing platform for SMBs who needed friendly, well-supported alternatives to MailChimp. With 100%+ net revenue retention, no paid marketing spend, and a team obsessed with customer success, Privy had built something rare: a truly viral, platform-native SaaS business.