SaaS Growth Strategy: $0 to 8 Figures With Zero Ads
He spent two and a half years without a paycheck, nearly sold for $30M, and got to $5M ARR without a single ad. Kyle Hanslovan's SaaS growth strategy at Huntress defied every startup playbook. Founders will hear how education-led marketing, MSP channel partnerships, and a radically minimal MVP built a cybersecurity platform now generating $120M in ARR.
Kyle reveals his SaaS growth strategy for scaling through "watering holes" where IT outsourcers gather, why talking to strangers gave better market insights than his trusted network, and how a bridge round from existing angels beat a bad Series A term sheet. His approach to growing SaaS without paid acquisition holds lessons for any founder building a channel-driven business.
Huntress protects 150,000+ businesses from cyber threats and has raised over $300M in funding. Kyle grew the company from bootstrapped to nearly $2B valuation by scaling SaaS revenue through education instead of sales pitches.
🔑 Key Lessons
🚀 SaaS growth strategy starts with education, not ads: Huntress reached $5M ARR by doing keynotes and hacking demos at MSP trade shows, building credibility and organic demand instead of paid acquisition.
🎯 Validate with strangers, not your network: Kyle's trusted contacts were too kind to give honest feedback. Strangers outside his city told him bluntly when they wouldn't pay, helping him find the right customer segment faster.
🛠️ Go more minimal than you think possible: Huntress launched with no UI, no dashboard, and no automation - just an installer and email alerts. Customers cared about one reliable promise delivered consistently.
📉 Equity mistakes compound over a decade: Splitting equity equally among four co-founders without proper vesting cost Kyle dearly when one left at 13 months. A good legal team and 12-month cliff would have prevented years of painful dilution.
🤝 Channel partnerships multiply your SaaS growth strategy: By selling through MSPs who each managed hundreds of SMB clients, Kyle built a low-touch high-velocity flywheel that scaled far faster than direct enterprise sales.
Chapters
Introduction
Kyle's favorite quote and Huntress overview
From NSA hacker to cybersecurity founder
Spotting the SMB security gap
Validating the idea through customer conversations
Why strangers give better feedback than friendlies
Building the radically minimal first product
Getting the first 10 customers through MSPs
SaaS growth strategy through watering holes
Bootstrapping for 2.5 years before raising $750K
Co-founder equity mistakes and lessons learned
Education-led growth from $1M to $5M ARR
The VP of Sales title mistake
Revenue trajectory from $1.5M to $120M ARR
Lightning Round
Resources
Full show notes: https://saasclub.io/429
Join 5,000+ SaaS founders: https://saasclub.io/email
#210 CEO & Co-Founder Huntress Kyle Hanslovan w/ Ev Randle: Deep Roots
Guest: Kyle Hanslovan, CEO & co-founder of Huntress; and Ev Randle, partner at Kleiner Perkins
Talk is cheap, says Huntress CEO Kyle Hanslovan: “I learned real early on that integrity is like one of the very few things, if not the only thing, you can't buy.” En route to Huntress’ current status as a $1.5 billion firm with $100 million in ARR, he took a long time to hire new execs, or partner with VC firms.
Indeed, Kleiner Perkins partner Ev Randle recalls the deliberation Hanslovan underwent before signing KP’s term sheet. “It's pretty rare for a founder's diligence process on you to increase your conviction on them and the business that they're building,” he says. “You just saw that the effort extended across to so many different places and so many details that it's typically not.”
Chapters:
(01:03) - Learning how things work
(03:31) - Default trusting
(05:07) - Over-sharing
(10:50) - Kyle’s leadership style
(15:44) - Hiring for conflict
(19:24) - Scaling execs
(22:52) - Evaluating VCs
(28:55) - Pattern-matching
(32:13) - Why Huntress is worth $1.5 billion
(38:34) - Kyle’s childhood and early career
(42:00) - The 99 percent
(47:49) - Bootstrapping
(51:14) - Deep roots
(57:47) - Customer love
(01:01:14) - “Nothing will stop us”
(01:05:50) - Who Huntress is hiring
(01:07:22) - What “grit” means to Kyle
Mentioned in this episode: Sony, Sam Altman, Nike, Elad Gil and High Growth Handbook, Kim Scott and Radical Candor, JMI Equity, Vinod Khosla, Todd Park, Capterra, Reddit, FUBU, Rippling, the NSA, QuickBooks, Amazon AWS, and South Park.
Links:
Connect with Kyle
Twitter
LinkedIn
Connect with Ev
Twitter
LinkedIn
Connect with Joubin
Twitter
LinkedIn
Email: grit@kleinerperkins.com
Learn more about Kleiner Perkins
This episode was edited by Eric Johnson from LightningPod.fm
TWiST 500! Huntress, TollBit & Cyera | E1989
This Week in Startups is brought to you by…
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Todays show:
We are kicking off our coverage of the TWiST500 with three fantastic founders: Kyle Hanslovan of Huntress (11:44), Olivia Joslin and Toshit Panigrahi of TollBit (36:40), and Tamar Bar-Ilan of Cyera (56:44).
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Timestamps:
(0:00) Introducing three founder interviews from our TWiST500!
(1:23) Huntress CEO, Kyle Hanslovan joins Alex.
(2:04) Celebrating a milestone in ARR and discussing growth strategies
(4:19) Impact of cybersecurity incidents on Huntress
(10:30) Oracle - Try OCI and save up to 50% on your cloud bill at
at https://www.oracle.com/twist
(11:44) Huntress's services for SMBs and endpoint detection and response
(20:09) Intercom - TWIST listeners can get 90% off Intercom’s platform at https://www.intercom.com/twist
(21:46) Selling to SMBs: Challenges, strategies, and early lessons
(29:05) Addressing internal IT departments and IPO considerations
(35:12) Lemon.io - Get 15% off your first 4 weeks of developer time at https://www.Lemon.io/twist
(36:40) TollBit’s Olivia Joslin and Toshit Panigrahi join Alex.
(37:38) Tollbit's early development and fundraising journey
(41:03) Media readiness and increasing publisher onboarding
(50:31) Flexible pricing models and expanding data types for AI partners
(56:44) Tamar Bar-Ilan of Cyera joins Alex.
(57:23) Cyera and its data security mission
(1:04:07) Overview of Cyera’s data platform and recent funding
(1:08:53) Company growth, AI adoption, and demand drivers
(1:17:52) Encryption's role in data security and future IPO plans
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Check out Huntress: https://www.huntress.com/
Check out TollBit: https://tollbit.com/
Check out Cyera: https://www.cyera.io/
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Follow Olivia from TollBit:
X: https://x.com/oliviajoslin
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/olivia-joslin-13a9a4a2/
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Follow Toshit from TollBit:
X: https://x.com/tollbitofficial
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/toshit-panigrahi-a6496076/
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Follow Kyle from Huntress:
X: https://x.com/KyleHanslovan
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kylehanslovan/
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Follow Tamar from Cyera:
X: https://x.com/cyera_io
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tamar-bar-ilan-67bb481a7
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Follow Alex:
X: https://x.com/alex
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexwilhelm
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Thank you to our partners:
(10:30) Oracle - Try OCI and save up to 50% on your cloud bill at https://www.oracle.com/twist
(20:09) Intercom - TWIST listeners can get 90% off Intercom’s platform at https://www.intercom.com/twist
(35:12) Lemon.io - Get 15% off your first 4 weeks of developer time at https://www.Lemon.io/twist
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Great TWIST interviews: Will Guidara, Eoghan McCabe, Steve Huffman, Brian Chesky, Bob Moesta, Aaron Levie, Sophia Amoruso, Reid Hoffman, Frank Slootman, Billy McFarland
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