Dec 23, 2021
Our secret to building a software business from 0 to profitable (and getting married with my co-founder)
The internet is full of people promising you the secrets to making money, so yes, this title is a little clickbaity. Sorry about that, but I had to lure you in somehow!
I wanted to share what I’ve learned about building a successful SaaS (Software-as-a-Service) start-up because it’s not an easy ride for anyone. Even if you’ve been a founder before, growing a SaaS is different.
For me and my Leadsie co-founder Johannes, it took a good six months to figure out a problem that was worth solving AND that could make money.
One year on, our company Leadsie now has over 500 agencies who are paying subscribers, and we are now earning enough to live and eat (and not just pot noodles!).
Find the Right Co-Founder
How did our little company make it this far? One of the secrets to success, at least for us, is finding the right co-founder.
I first met Johannes in early 2019 when we were both mentors at 500 Global’s start-up accelerator in the Middle East. He’s a growth marketing expert, and I’m a developer. Some may say the perfect recipe for founding a digital business.
We thoroughly enjoyed working together at the accelerator program and knew we wanted to continue working together in some way. The question was what and when.
Fast forward almost a year to the first major lockdown in March 2020, and things started to get serious. We both had ideas, motivation and some time to create without distractions and started our first iterations of Leadsie.
Of course, we often went off track and got frustrated when looking for the right problem to solve. We built a tool for agencies to give audits of their Facebook Ad Accounts — e.g. how CPM, CAC and click through rates compare. Whether they have certain settings on, measuring the drop-off between ad clicks and page views etc…
We got great comments from potential customers, but no one wanted to pay for it. Annoyed at the lack of progress, we went back on the mantra “Talk to your customers” and set up lots of calls. It was pretty clear from this that one of the biggest problems for agencies was getting ACCESS to their clients’ Facebook Pages and Ad Accounts.
We encouraged each other to follow the customer, we pushed each other through when we were ready to give up.
Forget your idea, find a problem worth solving
Most entrepreneurs will start with some solution in their minds that could solve a problem for a specific audience.
The secret is to let go of this initial solution (this part can be painful).
Instead, focus on the audience you thought your solution could be for — and explore their problems.
Why? If we realise that this audience isn’t one to build a business for, you can move to another one, but at least you’ve got a starting point.
Our initial audience: medium size, digital marketing agencies who run Facebook adverts.
During the process of finding a problem worth solving’ we spoke to dozens of agency owners. This helped us to hone in on the problem to be solved.
Never underestimate the importance of talking to your customers BEFORE you develop your product. The number one mistake so many startups make is to build something they think the world wants without knowing whether they ACTUALLY want it. So yep, talk to the people you think will buy your thing before wasting time and resources making it.
Nurture Your Co-founder Relationship
The other secret to our success is our co-founder relationship. We may live 4,690km away from each other, but we have prioritised communication throughout this whole process.
We both bring completely different skills to the table and have quite different working styles, but through effective communication, we’ve made it work. Of course, we get annoyed with each other at times, but we talk it out to figure out our next steps. Don’t let differences in opinion affect your relationship with your co-founder — try to be as direct and honest as you can right from the beginning.
Many times we will message the other and say this is “not good enough”. We both know we are on the same team and so the response is always, “Ok, let’s make this better!”.
We are a team working together, not against each other. A lot of teams forget that!
There have been a few moments of anger from both sides and that happens in every relationship. Life tip: I have found that meeting (or at least having a video call) helps to solve miscommunications, whether it be in a work or even personal relationship. Texting and emails are NEVER the answer to conflict.
There is no space for politics and beating around the bush in a startup, especially when building a bootstrapped business.
Yes, you could build a SaaS business alone, but the benefits of a co-founder are not just a different skill set, it is motivational support as well. Know your strengths, and be able to ask for help when you need it. Understanding your limitations is so important if you want to grow a business in a short amount of time.
Johannes and I talk every day, and through building Leadsie, our relationship has thrived. We both want the same thing from the business — build something that people love while giving us the freedom to work when and where we want.
It’s feedback like this that makes it all worth it:
Live and Breathe the Business
Our significant others also know everything about the business, and as cringe as it might sound, we have become a little Leadsie family. It’s hard not to get everyone involved when you live and breathe something for a year and a half!
We took it further than most co-founders would do.
We got married TOGETHER.
No, not with each other. 😉
We had a double (Leadsie) wedding in August this year!
Johannes and his partner Sarah organized a small wedding in Gibraltar.
My partner Barbara and I knew we wanted to join…
…and then decided we would get married at the same time! The freedom Leadsie gives us made it easy to make all the arrangements at very short notice. Yay to working from anywhere!
A double Leadsie elopement! We had a lot of fun, and the whole event was a testament to how close we’ve become in the last two years.
On the day Johannes answered a customer support email 30 minutes before his ceremony, we even had a few high fives during our party as customers subscribed to Leadsie!
It’s pretty satisfying to have people signing up for your tool when you’re popping champagne on a beach!
A SaaS Story Summary
So, if you want to grow a SaaS business, you need to: Find the right co-founder, develop that relationship so you can communicate effectively, be aware of your limitations, and
ALWAYS speak to your customers.
Those seemingly simple elements are the stepping stones to a successful business.
What a year it’s been! I’m looking forward to 2022 and the new heights we can take the business to.
