The SaaS Club Newsletter

Hey Reader

Happy New Year! It's 2025 and time to get back to business! :-)

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

 In this week's newsletter:

• 🎙️ How a SaaS in a crowded market hit $1M ARR in 2 years

• 🤝 See why Notion-lovers are switching to this CRM

• 🚀 Get 50% off enterprise-grade auth infrastructure

• 🤔 Explore 7 'boring' paths to hitting $1M in revenue

• 📗 An entertaining data-driven read to unlock new insights

• 🎯 Get guidance to hit $10K MRR faster

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🎧 Podcast: New Episode

Vista Social: Building a Million-Dollar SaaS in a Crowded Market

Vitaly Veksler is the founder and CEO of Vista Social, a social media management platform for brands and agencies.

In 2010, while working in corporate tech, Vitaly decided to build a social media management tool. It was his first entrepreneurial venture and over the next 9 years he learned some tough lessons about building a startup.

The biggest lesson?

He spent years building advanced analytics features when his customers really needed a complete social media management solution.

It took him years to realize that and finally start getting some traction.

Vitaly had to also learn everything – marketing, sales, customer support, you name it.

His persistence eventually paid off when he sold the business in 2019.

In 2020, he decided to take another shot with Vista Social, but this time in a much more competitive market.

He and his small team faced a huge challenge – they had to build a product that could compete with the big players out there.

Creating all the core features customers expected was a massive undertaking, but remarkably, they got it done in about 12 months.

The bet paid off – Vista Social reached $1M in ARR in less than 2 years. Today, the company has over 10,000 customers and a team of 15 people.

In this episode, you'll learn:

• How Vitaly's experiences and mistakes from his first startup helped him make better strategic decisions with Vista Social

• What specific strategies and tactics Vitaly used to successfully enter and compete in an established market with lots of competitors

• How targeting customers who hated their existing tools became a key growth strategy for Vista Social in a crowded market

• The key differences in how Vitaly built customer relationships and support systems the second time around with Vista Social

• Why focusing on a specific customer segment early on helped Vista Social gain traction faster than their established competitors

I hope you enjoy it!

Check out the full episode on:

Apple Podcasts | Spotify | YouTube | Web

🤝 Attio: The Next Generation of CRM

Attio is the CRM for teams who love products like Notion and Figma. It's powerful, configurable, and takes minutes to set up.

Attio delivers value faster than any other product out there - with a simple tactic during onboarding: they sync your work email & calendar, instantly mapping all your interactions and enriching them with valuable insights.

The result? In less than a minute, you're looking at a comprehensive view of all your email relationships, enriched with additional data. This gives you time back to focus on what truly matters.

Join companies like ElevenLabs, Replicate, Modal and more in scaling your startup to the next level.

Try Attio for free today

🚀 PropelAuth: Authentication for B2B SaaS

PropelAuth is authentication your whole company will love. 

If you're tired of your dev team getting bogged down with authentication issues instead of building your core product, it's time to use PropelAuth.

They take care of all the complex auth stuff - from Enterprise SSO to user analytics - so you can focus on what really matters: your product.

PropelAuth integrates quickly for devs and provides built-in tools for your customer-facing teams. It's the full package.

Sign up for free (no credit required). And when you're reading to upgrade use code SAAS24 for 50% off the Growth plan for 6 months!

Sign up for a free account

🤔 SaaS Insights

7 Boring Paths to $1 Million ARR

Want to hit $1M ARR, but can't crack the growth code?

Here are 7 proven strategies to help...

1. Run "Inefficient" Customer Deep-Dives

• Spend 2 hours weekly talking to and observing early customers

• Find out what frustrates them (they'll tell you if you just listen)

• Pay attention to clever ways they work around product limitations

2. Piggyback on Existing Customer Bases

• Identify tools your customers use in addition to yours

• Make your product work perfectly with these tools

• Create co-marketing that drives benefits both companies
  

3. Become the Face in Your Space

• Document weekly decisions and why they failed or worked

• Package your best processes into shareable frameworks

• Host monthly sessions showing how you solve real problems
  

4. Find Your Back-Door To Growth

• Survey customers using your product in unintended ways

• Test pricing in markets where incumbents charge too much

• Double down on niches where you see unexpected traction
  

5. Create Category "FOMO"

• Position your product as the first [X] for [Y], not a better [Z]

• Show how existing categories solve the wrong problem

• Create content about where the industry’s heading, not where it is
  

6. Pay Attention to Your Money Triggers

• Find which feature combinations lead to bigger deals

• Map the exact journey your best-paying customers took

• Guide your new customers down these proven paths
  

7. Build Micro-Communities

• Start private Slack channels for different customer segments

• Launch a Circle or Skool space for your power or best customers

• Host weekly customer-led learning sessions
  

Want to join a group of like-minded six-figure SaaS founders supporting each other to $1 Million ARR and beyond?

Apply for my Mastermind here.

 📗 Book of the Week

This week's book recommendation from Vitaly:

Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner

🚀 Early-Stage SaaS Founder? Hit $10K MRR Faster

Struggling to scale your early-stage SaaS? Most founders waste precious time and money making rookie mistakes without a clear path forward. 

SaaS Club Launch is a 12-week group coaching program that connects you with a close-knit community of early-stage SaaS founders. 

Get personalized guidance, weekly group coaching, and grow alongside fellow founders also on the path to $10K MRR.

Apply now to join

🌟 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.