[SaaS Club] Bootstrapping a SaaS to $13M ARR

Hey Reader

I hope you're doing well.

Here's a quick round up of what's been going on at SaaS Club:

🎧 Podcast

Bootstrapping a SaaS to $13 Million ARR

Daniel Wikberg is the founder & CEO of Upsales, a CRM that helps B2B sales teams uncover new opportunities and secure more deals.

In 2001, Daniel took a sabbatical year before going to university.

During that year, he worked as a sales rep and quickly realized that there was a lack of user-friendly software for salespeople.

He was curious if he could solve the problem. Since he knew how to code, he quickly built a simple customer database and to-do list.

Even though he was a bit embarrassed about the software, he got it in front of a prospective customer and managed to close his first sale.

That's when Daniel had a lightbulb moment.

He decided to ditch his university plans and launch Upsales instead.

Fast forward to today, Upsales is a 70-person team, pulling in around $13M in ARR with 1,800 customers, all while being bootstrapped.

In this episode, you will learn:

• The outbound sales strategy Daniel and his team used to drive the majority of their growth and close large deals.

• How Upsales went the extra mile during trials to provide value and were able to significantly increase trial conversions.

• How Daniel and his team used a 'land & expand' sales approach to accelerate growth and simplify decision-making for customers.

• The challenges and lessons Daniel learned from competing in a market with some very established and well-funded companies.

I hope you enjoy it.

Listen to the full podcast episode

🤖 Automate Your Busywork

Get more done in less time with "Automate Your Busywork" the latest book by Aytekin Tank, CEO of Jotform and a no-code expert.

This comprehensive guide to automation and no-code tools will help you reduce manual work, and streamline your workflows.

By adopting an automation-first mindset, you can increase your productivity, save time, and focus on the important things.

Pre-order your copy now and start simplifying your life.

🚀 Oaza

Thanks to Oaza for sponsoring this newsletter.

Drive explosive growth for your B2B SaaS in 90 days

Ready to take your B2B SaaS from 0 visits to 100+ conversions per month in just 90 days? Oaza is a content marketing agency that helps B2B SaaS companies drive explosive growth by using an innovative sprint-based content marketing approach.

Learn more and book a free consultation

📗 Book of the Week

This week's book recommendation from Daniel is:

The Hard Thing About Hard Things: Building a Business When There Are No Easy Answers by Ben Horowitz

🌐 Around the Web

YouTube Channel

Here's a link to the full video interview.

Check out our YouTube channel here. 

😍 Let's Get Social
Want to get more social? Follow me on Twitter or LinkedIn.

Have a great week!

- Omer

Interested in sponsoring The SaaS Podcast? Learn more here.


P.S. whenever you're ready, here are 3 ways I can help you:

1. SaaS Club Plus: We're re-launching a brand new paid community for SaaS founders with an exciting new offering. Join the waitlist!

2. SaaS Club Launch: A 12-week coaching program to help you launch your SaaS and/or get to $10K MRR faster. 

3. SaaS Accelerate:  A private coaching program to help SaaS founders get breakthrough results.