The SaaS Club Newsletter

Hey Reader

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

 In this week's newsletter:

• 🎧 How a forum post sparked a $5M+ SaaS idea
  

• 🗓️ Exclusive webinar: What SMBs want from SaaS startups
  

• 💡 From zero to $1M ARR in just 7.5 months
  

• 📚 Inside scoop on scaling like Stripe

Received this email from a friend? Subscribe here to get your own.

🎧 Podcast

OnTheClock: Bootstrap a $5M+ SaaS Without Talking to Customers

Dean Mathews is the founder and CEO of OnTheClock, a time tracking software that helps small businesses manage their employees' hours.

In 2004, Dean was sitting at his kitchen table with his laptop one day, browsing through small business and accounting forums.

As he scrolled, he noticed a trend: people were constantly complaining about not being able to find reliable, easy-to-use time tracking systems for their companies.

Dean, who was working as a software consultant at the time, had a lightbulb moment. He thought to himself, "You know, I can build that for them."

Dean spent the next few months building the first version of OnTheClock. He launched it in June 2004, while still maintaining his consulting work.

For the next decade, OnTheClock remained Dean's passion project. He'd dedicate about 20 hours a week to it, squeezing in time between client projects to improve the product and learn about marketing.

Despite the limited attention, the business grew steadily through SEO and word-of-mouth referrals. By 2015, OnTheClock had hit a major milestone - $1 million in annual recurring revenue (ARR).

The following year, Dean took the plunge. He handed off his consulting clients and brought his brother on board to develop a mobile app for OnTheClock.

Focusing full-time on the business accelerated growth, but it also brought new challenges. Dean had to shift from being a hands-on developer to leading a team - something he was initially reluctant to do.

Along the way, Dean faced other hurdles. Paid advertising didn't work well for them, and he had to learn how to be an effective leader. But he persevered.
 
Today, OnTheClock serves about 18,000 customers. The company generates well beyond $5M in annual recurring revenue and has a team of 22 people. And Dean’s business is fully bootstrapped — he’s never raised any external funding.

In this episode you'll learn:

• How Dean validated his product idea and acquired his first customers without talking directly to them.

• What strategies Dean used to grow OnTheClock as a side project for over a decade before going all-in.

• How Dean overcame his initial reluctance to hire employees and built a strong team culture.

• Why Dean believes making your product easy to use can be a key differentiator in a competitive market.

• How Dean transitioned from a solo founder to a team leader and the lessons he learned along the way.

I hope you enjoy it.

Listen to the full podcast episode

🌟 Duda Webinar on July 25th

What SMBs Really Want From Their SaaS Providers

Get an exclusive first look at research that taps into the minds of 300 SMB owners, exploring what they expect from their software providers. They’ll deep dive into findings like:

• Why SMBs buy more from existing vendors

• Why SMBs switch vendors (and how to keep them)

• Why integration matters to SMBs

• The value of tailored vertical-specific solutions

• The importance of a strong digital presence to an SMB’s business

🗓️  July 25th

⏰  10 AM PT / 6 PM BST

🌏  Online - Join from anywhere!

Join industry experts from Localogy, CCC (Nasdaq: CCCS), and Duda as they provide first-hand strategies for increasing product adoption, driving stickiness, and growing your SaaS revenue.

Save Your Spot + Get the Report

🤔 Getting to the First $1M ARR in 7.5 Months

In 2015, Jeremy King left his 9-year stint at McKinsey to revolutionize market research for B2C companies.

He saw a gap. Companies were guessing consumer needs instead of using data. He decided to fix this.

His wife had given him a six-month deadline to get his business off the ground, so he was racing against time. 

He had to validate his idea, develop a product, and secure paying customers fast.

But, Jeremy started by doing something unexpected.

He walked into two retail stores at Waterloo station in London. He asked the managers what customer data they wished they had to boost their sales.

For two weeks, he interviewed 200 passers-by at the station. He gathered data, analyzed it, and shared his insights with the managers.

His fundraising approach was equally clever.

He got his potential customers so excited about his idea that they reached out to investors and asked them to invest so they could use his product.

Jeremy's creativity and relentless effort paid off.

He went from zero to $1M in ARR in under 8 months. 

Today, his SaaS company Attest:

• Generates 8 figures in ARR

• Employs over 100 people

• Raised $84M in funding

What can founders learn from Jeremy's story?

1. Learn to think differently

2. Do what others aren't willing to

3. Put your customers at the heart of everything

You can listen or watch my interview with Jeremy here.

Let me know your thoughts here.

 📗 Book of the Week

This week's book recommendation is from Dean:

Scaling People: Tactics for Management and Company Building  by Claire Hughes Johnson

"Claire Hughes was the COO of Stripe. And she really gives like a playbook of how Stripe grew and scaled over the last 10 years or so. So that was really awesome. So you get to kind of see inside the company. It was entertaining and also very informative." - Dean

🌟 Help Spread the Word

Enjoyed this week's newsletter? Please do me a favor and forward this email to someone who would benefit from it as much as you did. 

Sharing is caring, and it helps us grow! ❤️

😍 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 or this newsletter?

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

1. Join SaaS Club Plus: Get early access to our new community for early-stage SaaS founders. Join the waitlist now!

2. Apply for SaaS Club Launch: Designed to accelerate your journey to $10K MRR for new and early-stage founders.

3. Apply for SaaS Club Mastermind: Scale from six to seven figures with our focused mastermind group.