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My First MillionMy First Million

Saas Companies that Anyone Can Start with Rob Walling

No more small boy spreadsheets, build your business on the free HubSpot CRM: https://mfmpod.link/hrd - Sam Parr (@theSamParr) and Ben Wilson (@BenWilsonTweets) discuss Sam's article defending Theranos, airport houses, and conducting an end of year family review. They are then joined by Rob Walling (@RobWalling) who talks about great SaaS business that anyone could start. — Check Out Shaan's Stuff: • Shaan's weekly email - https://www.shaanpuri.com • Visit https://www.somewhere.com/mfm to hire global talent (like Shaan does) and get $500 off for being an MFM listener. Hire developers, assistants, marketing pros, sales teams and more for 80% less than their US equivalents. — Check Out Sam's Stuff: • Hampton - https://www.joinhampton.com/ • Ideation Bootcamp - https://www.ideationbootcamp.co/ • Copy That - https://copythat.com • Hampton Wealth Survey - https://joinhampton.com/wealth 💰 Pitch your startup for a shot at a $1M investment with Sam Parr as the MC https://clickhubspot.com/pitch _____ Show Notes: (00:00) - Airline neighborhood with houses and hotels (06:45) - Sam on the front page of HackerNews for defending Elizabeth Holmes (12:20) - The family board meeting (18:30) - Rob Walling joins the show. About Rob. (30:30) - Why you should or shouldn't sell your business (42:30) - Rob's favorite Saas businesses that he's working with (50:50) - Rob's ideas for new SaaS companies that anyone could start (01:10:10) - Founding a company as a non-technical founder ----- Check out our website for more business ideas: https://mfmpod.link/i1z Subscribe to the podcast if you’d like to listen instead: https://mfmpod.link/1tv

Sam ParrhostBen WilsonhostRob Wallingguest
Jan 12, 20221h 18mWatch on YouTube ↗

Summaries, chapters, transcripts, and FAQs on this page are made by uListen, not YouTube.

At a glance

WHAT IT’S REALLY ABOUT

Rob Walling Shares Bootstrapped SaaS Ideas Anyone Can Start

  1. Before the interview, Sam Parr and Ben Wilson talk about a private airstrip neighborhood, Sam's old Hacker News article defending Elizabeth Holmes, and Ben's family board meeting tradition.
  2. Rob Walling explains why he sold Drip after growing it to about $3 million in revenue with 10 employees, citing burnout, cash strain from growth, and a lifelong goal of financial freedom.
  3. Rob describes TinySeed, his accelerator for bootstrapped SaaS founders, and highlights portfolio companies like Builder Prime, ScrapingBee, and Castos as examples of niche software that works.
  4. Rob and Sam brainstorm opportunities, including a bundled podcast production stack and an Examine.com-style trusted information site for crypto, and debate how big those markets are.
  5. Rob answers how non-technical founders can build SaaS by acquiring a business, hiring developers, prototyping with no-code tools, or starting with a productized service and a smaller stairstep product.

IDEAS WORTH REMEMBERING

5 ideas

Bootstrapping is viable for most tech companies

Rob says he is not anti-funding but rejects the narrative that you must raise money, estimating only about 1% of tech companies need funding.

Growth consumes cash, even in profitable-looking SaaS

Rob says Drip's revenue went into hiring, AWS, and SendGrid bills, leaving him with a lot of paper wealth but little liquid cash before he sold.

Boring vertical SaaS can be a strong opportunity

Rob points to Builder Prime, Client Hub, and Gymdesk as CRM-style tools built for specific niches, saying anything done through Excel, email, or texts could be a product.

Price enterprise customers far higher based on value and headaches

Rob says requests like single sign-on, redlined terms, or purchase orders should trigger roughly 100x higher pricing, because the software isn't better but the sales and support burden is greater.

Metrics matter more than market size

Rob says most markets are big enough, and what decides outcomes is churn and pricing; with $100-$500 monthly revenue per user and 2-3% churn, a multi-million-dollar business is likely.

WORDS WORTH SAVING

5 quotes

There are so few people who've not only run in-person events, but who do them well. And if you can do that, it is an incredible competitive advantage.

— Rob Walling

I am anti the narrative that in order to start a startup, you have to raise funding, because that is just not the case. I think 1% of tech companies need funding, and the other 99% really shouldn't do it.

— Rob Walling

If I'm gonna take swings, I gotta let people see the misses too.

— Sam Parr

The truth is that growth just destroys cash. Like no matter how much cash we made, I was spending it on AWS bills.

— Rob Walling

It's not that the software is better, it's that the time and the headache and the pain of making that sale and maintaining that customer is where the money's spent.

— Rob Walling

Bootstrapping versus venture fundingSelling Drip and financial freedomTinySeed accelerator and portfolio companiesVertical CRM and niche B2B SaaSPodcast software market and dual funnelsExamine.com-style trusted info sitesNon-technical founders and hiring developers

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