Bootstrapped SaaS: $200 Customer to $4M ARR Solo
Show notes
Joel Griffith's first customer paid $200 a month. His infrastructure cost $50. He was profitable from day one. But it took three years of nights and weekends before his bootstrapped SaaS hit $500K ARR. Then Google Cloud launched a competing product and a startup raised $60M to go after his market. His growth did not flinch - because eight years of content had built a bootstrapped SaaS moat that funding could not replicate. You will learn how to get first customers for a bootstrapped SaaS by teaching on GitHub and Stack Overflow, why a self-funded SaaS content engine that compounds over 8 years outlasts any viral spike, and how to scale a bootstrap operation beyond what you can handle solo by partnering instead of hiring. Joel Griffith is the founder of Browserless, a browser automation platform approaching $4M ARR with under 10 people. Joel is a jazz trumpet player turned engineer who went through five failed B2C ideas before building a profitable SaaS by solving his own pain as a developer. He has never raised a dollar. This episode is brought to you by: 🌎 ThreatLocker → Book a demo 🔑 Key Lessons 🎯 Solve your own pain for bootstrapped SaaS success: Joel failed at five B2C ideas before realizing the problems he understood best were engineering problems - leading to a business that was profitable from day one. 🤝 Get first customers by teaching, not pitching: Joel's first 10 customers came from answering GitHub issues and Stack Overflow questions about browser automation, building trust before mentioning his bootstrapped SaaS. 🚀 Build a content engine that compounds over years: Eight years of blog posts, forum answers, and open source contributions now drive almost all inbound for this self-funded SaaS at nearly $4M ARR. 🏢 Partner to fill skill gaps instead of struggling through them: At $60K MRR solo, Joel partnered with Polychrome for hiring, sales, and legal instead of trying to learn everything himself. 💰 Bootstrapped SaaS beats VC-backed competitors through relationships: When Google Cloud and a $60M-funded startup entered his space, Joel's growth did not change because customers valued direct access to a founder with domain expertise. Chapters Introduction What is Browserless and who is it for Business size: nearly $4M ARR, under 10 people Five failed B2C ideas before finding developer-market fit Three years as a side project before going full-time Running solo to $60K MRR as a one-person bootstrapped SaaS Getting the first 10 customers from GitHub and Stack Overflow First customer: $200/month, profitable from day one Content engine still driving almost all inbound at $4M ARR Partnering with Polychrome to handle operations Competing with a $60M-funded startup and Google Cloud How AI agents created new demand for browser automation Lightning round Resources Full show notes: https://saasclub.io/473 Join 5,000+ SaaS founders: https://saasclub.io/email
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