How to Launch a B2B SaaS Startup

I've bootstrapped two SaaS startups from $0 - $1,000,000 ARR in the Shopify ecosystem, making every mistake you can imagine. Here’s how I’d do it again if I started today: 1. PICK A LANE: - There are two lanes. Brands doing > $1M and brands doing < $1M. - The GTM motions for each are RADICALLY DIFFERENT. - Don't try to do both until you have mastered at least one. Let’s focus on building for brands > $1M, as this is where I’ve screwed up the most. 2. PRODUCT: - Don’t write a_single_line_of_code. - Spend 60-90 days talking with brands. - Refine the pitch/solution/value each time. - Look at their face for signs of interest, instead of their words. - Focus on where you are adding revenue for the lowest lift possible. - Brands will not switch providers or onboard a new tool otherwise. - See how many will commit to a 3-4 month free trial based on hardcoded screenshots of what the solution will look like. Super hard, but it's gonna be a tough first 18 months without this. 3. DISTRIBUTION: - Build in public on LinkedIn and X as a founder. 100x more effective than any paid ads you could run at this stage. - Build a TAM list in Hubspot (around 25,000 brands) to work from. Companies and Contacts. Enrich the data and work backwards. Track how much of the market you are penetrating as you grow. Study how Romain Lapeyre did this at Gorgias (his SaaStr videos are essential viewing) - GOOD cold email. Good, being the key. I’ve been fortunate to have some people in the ecosystem share their strategies in detail with me recently. Still works if done right vs spray and pray. - Invest in SEO early. I’m surprised at how much traffic we get from our blog and the people who show up through RB2B every day. - Buy a $299 Webflow template and hire a good designer to work on branding. Update the template. - Build best-in-class integrations for Klaviyo / Postscript / Gorgias / Skio/ etc. Use their latest tech/API's they want to promote. There’s a chance they could refer/promote to their customer base based on the strength of the integration. At the very least you'll make connections. Tech partnerships will be critical. - Do the same for agency partnerships. No one will take you seriously yet and that’s fine. We’re playing the long game. For every brand you onboard, identify if they’re currently looking for X,Y,Z solution if possible. Refer business to agencies whenever it makes actual sense. Start small, work up. This will come back to you eventually. Leads are the currency. - Show up to every event in your area and every event you can financially make it to. Meet people IRL, it goes a long way and most people in the ecosystem are happy to help. - As soon as you deliver over-the-top service for a brand, ask to put their logo on your site, and plaster over your social. Social proof is HEAVILY Weighted here. Ask for case studies once real results come through. Looks like we're going to the comments to continue 👇

Last week, another startup founder landed his first 10 B2B SaaS sales with our 9-step customer discovery playbook. I've battle-tested these steps across 70+ startups raising over $20M. They combine distilled wisdom from 'The Lean Startup', 'The Mom Test', and 20 other books on the topic. I suggest you get a coffee or whatever beverage you like before reading on. Let the 9 steps sink in: Stage 1: From customer prospects to solvable problems. a. Find your target customers on LinkedIn. Don't cast a wide net. Use specific filters to identify decision-makers in your niche. b. Connect authentically. Forget cold pitches. Lead with curiosity about their challenges. c. Discover their problems. Listen more than you talk. Your goal is to uncover their most pressing issues. Stage 2: From problems to B2B SaaS pilots. a. Validate your value proposition. Test multiple versions. Let data guide your direction. b. Create a pilot offer. Start manual. Prove value before building complex systems. c. Convert to a signed pilot. Be flexible, but don't compromise on learning opportunities. Stage 3: From product pilots to jumpstarting the SaaS business. a. Deliver value. This is your chance to deeply understand their workflow. b. Iterate based on feedback. Destroy what doesn't work. Double down on what does. c. Scale strategically. Only after validating with real, paying customers. This process isn't about shortcuts. It's about simplifying complexity through first principles. When you focus on customer discovery before product development, you don't just make sales. You build the right foundation for product-market fit. NOTE —> In your first round (give or take your first year), you're not YET selling a product. You're selling a vision and a solution to a hair-on-fire problem.

Over the past year at York IE, we’ve helped more than a dozen founders launch real, growing SaaS companies. For founders, especially those without technical backgrounds, the path from vision to scalable business can feel confusing. Here’s the phased approach we use to help them go from genesis to scale 👇 Phase 1: Set the Foundation It starts with aligning your vision, product, and financials. Ruthless prioritization is critical, your MVP must focus on solving a core problem. We drive clarity through three key activities: - A messaging hierarchy to articulate who you are and why you matter - Clear, documented product requirements and user experience flows to define the how - A financial model that aligns with your roadmap and early revenue goals You don’t need perfection, 80-90% alignment is enough to move forward. The goal is to see the full shape of the MVP before investing heavily in development. Phase 2: Build and Validate With a strong foundation in place, it’s time to build and iterate. This is where design partners, early customers, and beta testers become invaluable. Make sure you have the right team resourcing in place, covering ongoing strategic oversight and the full stack of cross-functional skills: product management, user experience design, full-stack engineering, and quality assurance. Use mockups, staged releases, and structured feedback loops to validate and refine the MVP before scaling further. Phase 3: Launch, Learn, and Scale Once you start acquiring real users and generating revenue, iteration becomes a continuous process. Make sure you have a structured go-to-market (GTM) funnel in place. Everything from supporting marketing with content, collateral, and a consistent cadence, to building a clear sales process, managing pipelines, and building momentum for new business and future upsells. Establish structured feedback loops across both customers and internal teams to double down on what’s working and continuously test new ideas to fuel growth. 🚀 🚀 🚀 Considering these three phases as a whole is essential. You can't simply dive into Phase 1 without a clear understanding of the budget, timeline, and resources needed to make it all the way through to Phase 3. Founders who think holistically about the journey, from initial planning through scaling, position themselves for faster execution, stronger product-market fit, and more sustainable growth. A strong start is important, but a clear path to launch, learn, and scale is what ultimately builds a successful company.

𝐘𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐮𝐩 𝐰𝐨𝐧’𝐭 𝐟𝐚𝐢𝐥 𝐛𝐞𝐜𝐚𝐮𝐬𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐚 𝐛𝐚𝐝 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐝𝐮𝐜𝐭. It’ll fail because nobody knows it exists. You build something amazing, launch it… and then, nothing. No sales. No customers. Just you refreshing your dashboard, hoping for a miracle. Why? 𝐁𝐞𝐜𝐚𝐮𝐬𝐞 𝐥𝐚𝐮𝐧𝐜𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐢𝐬𝐧’𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐬𝐚𝐦𝐞 𝐚𝐬 𝐬𝐞𝐥𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐠. A startup doesn’t just need a great product, it needs a plan to get that product into customers’ hands. That’s what a Go-to-Market (GTM) strategy is all about. 𝐇𝐞𝐫𝐞’𝐬 𝐡𝐨𝐰 𝐭𝐨 𝐛𝐮𝐢𝐥𝐝 𝐨𝐧𝐞: 1. 𝐖𝐇𝐎 𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐬𝐞𝐥𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐨? “Everyone” is not an answer. Get painfully specific. ✔️ Don’t say, “We sell to startups.” ✔️ Say, “We sell to early-stage SaaS founders struggling with lead generation.” 2. 𝐖𝐇𝐘 𝐬𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐥𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐲 𝐜𝐚𝐫𝐞? People don’t buy products, they buy solutions to problems. Ask yourself: 👉 What’s the pain point that makes them say, “Take my money!”? 👉 What makes your product a must-have, not just a nice-to-have? 3. 𝐇𝐎𝐖 𝐰𝐢𝐥𝐥 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐜𝐡 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐦? No, “posting on LinkedIn” is not a strategy. it’s a tactic. Pick 1-2 scalable channels and go all in. ✔️ B2B? Cold email & LinkedIn. ✔️ Gen Z? TikTok & Instagram. 4. 𝐖𝐇𝐀𝐓 𝐦𝐚𝐤𝐞𝐬 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐝𝐢𝐟𝐟𝐞𝐫𝐞𝐧𝐭? Your competitors have features, case studies, and testimonials. Why YOU? Find your edge, the thing that makes you unforgettable. 5. 𝐖𝐇𝐄𝐍 𝐰𝐢𝐥𝐥 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐫𝐭 𝐬𝐞𝐥𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐠? (𝐇𝐢𝐧𝐭: 𝐀𝐒𝐀𝐏) Stop waiting for “perfect.” Sell before you build. Launch a waitlist, beta, or landing page, just start getting feedback NOW. Most startups don’t fail because of a bad product. They fail because of a bad GTM strategy. Before you tweak another landing page color… Before you add “one more feature”… Before you “wait until it’s perfect”… Ask yourself: Do I have a Go-to-Market strategy? Because if you don’t, you’re not launching a business. You’re launching a hope. And 𝐡𝐨𝐩𝐞 𝐢𝐬 𝐧𝐨𝐭 𝐚 𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐠𝐲. #startups #startupgrowth #Canada

Don’t be vague about who you sell to. Be SPICED about it. Because “we know our ICP” is usually code for... "we’re about to argue for 45 minutes." I’ve worked with enough founder-led B2B SaaS teams to see the pattern. You never hear “we know our ICP” just once. You hear it when: → Sales asks for better leads → Marketing asks for direction → Product asks who they’re building for → The founder is back in the system saying: “Ok, hand it over, I’ll do it.” (again) And here’s the reality most people won’t admit: Most teams have 4–5 ICPs depending on who you ask Most founders scale to €3–5M without a clear ICP strategy Most agencies jump into ads/content/SEO without ever asking who the hell you’re actually selling to Nothing fails dramatically. It just never comes together into something coherent. Your ICP isn’t a persona slide. It’s a scoring system. My clients are usually founder–CEOs of B2B SaaS around €1–5M ARR. Profitable. Small team. Lots of output. Very little conviction. They sell into boring, operationally heavy worlds: hospitals, municipalities, infrastructure, regulated HR, industrial supply chains. Their buyers aren’t excited buyers. They’re responsible buyers. They don’t wake up wanting new software. They wake up wanting fewer fires than yesterday. So if you keep talking about “we help teams streamline workflows”… you’ll keep attracting noise. And you won’t get growth that compounds. Here’s how to get a SPICED ICP (system > brainstorm) 1) Score your best customers Revenue × Sales Velocity × Time to Impact × Feature Depth × Impact Experience (1–5 each, then multiply) 2) Map 20 dream accounts Challenge → Expected Impact → Critical Event → Look-a-like score 3) Build a TAM list Best customers + dream look-a-likes 4) Mine reality, not vibes Pull CRM notes, calls, RFIs, emails Use AI to extract: Situation, Pain, Impact, Critical Events, Decision Then tier: T1 / T2 / T3 5) Build the SPICED ICP matrix Selection Criteria (firmo/techno/signals) × Qualification Criteria (SPICED) 6) Build SPICED personas per buying role Champion / Decision Maker / Influencer / User A few honorable mentions (from the trenches): → Your best customers already hold the answers. → Customers succeed almost by accident when no one defined what “impact” means. → The hard part isn’t the work. It’s the choices piling up into one big ball of twine. Generic ICPs attract a Marketing, Sales, and CS nightmare. SPICED ICPs attract pipeline you can actually close. PS. You don’t need five ICPs. You need one that the whole team can run with. If you want a simple version of my templates, comment “SPICED SPICED BABY” and I’ll DM it. PS CONNECT first if you haven't. Yours truly, Douwe Wester

5 Things You Need To Know To Create a Successful App or SaaS Solution 1. Make sure you understand your customer’s business. I’ve seen too many SaaS solutions solve some pain points, but don’t really connect to a customer’s overall strategy. If you’ve identified a pain and you think you have a solution, start from the top down. Find out that customer’s business strategy and priorities, and then see if you can pitch your solution-- not just solving a pain point-- but as accelerating their strategy. 2. Small improvements aren’t good enough. A lot of SaaS providers underestimate the cost of change. Improving something by 5, 10, or 15% usually isn’t good enough because the time and cost of change management isn’t worth the upside. I still get SPAM emails to this day offering SaaS solutions to improve my customer satisfaction by 10% or reduce my OPEX by 5%. Truth be told, I can do 100 things to improve by 10%, and most of them will be easier than adopting a new SaaS solution. If you can help me improve something I care about by 30% or more, then we’ll talk. 3. It takes more than just a great product. Provide solutions that people are willing to pay for, translate a customer’s pain into dollars — increased revenue or saving costs. The road is littered with apps that were a great or a novel idea, but don’t really solve a significant pain or wouldn’t ever have a big enough impact to get the blessing of a CFO. For B2B SaaS, a good test is to speak with CFOs early and often. If you can’t convince a CFO of the value of your SaaS solution, then don’t bother building the product. 4. Don’t dismiss sales and marketing. Yes, it still happens. There are founders who believe their SaaS product will sell itself. In the B2B world, it turns out most employees don’t know how to buy software. So, you might win over a user with a free trial, but is that worth anything to your business? It’s critical to view your revenue engine as a system: Product to Marketing to Sales. Once you have a great product, there’s real magic in marketing it to the right audience and more magic still in a sales team that can translate a product into a business solution companies are willing to pay for. The Product/Sales/Marketing engine powers high growth SaaS companies. 5. Constantly revisit #1. As businesses grow and bring on more customers, it’s easy to let those customers dictate your roadmap. Many SaaS companies fall into the trap of prioritizing the wrong items because “customers asked for them.” I’m all for listening to customers, but we have to make sure we never lose sight of their overall business priorities. Fixing a feature here or there may improve customer satisfaction in the short term, but far too often, those features didn’t really improve the business value you were providing. The most successful SaaS companies solve this by constantly innovating, clearly communicating a vision of where you’re taking your solution so that your customers can buy in for the long haul.

Everyone said we needed to raise capital for ListKit. But we got to $1M+ ARR without funding. Because we chose a different path: Instead of chasing investors, we focused on: 1) Product quality first 2) Community building second 3) Sales team development third Most B2B SaaS companies: → Raise capital first → Build fancy features → Hope customers come We did the opposite: → Built what users needed → Proved it worked → Then scaled sales Our approach to SaaS is different. And we hit 100k MRR in 87 days. Now we're building a massive SaaS sales team. Why share this? Because there's no "right" way to build. The bootstrapped path might be harder. But it keeps you focused on what matters: Building something users actually want. Your path might look different. That's the point. Build it your way.

I worked with 100+ early-stage startups. Here's what the winners did differently: ✅ Message market fit first (many of you skip this) Find message-market fit before product-market fit. Most startups burn cash on ads without knowing if their message resonates. Here's the smarter approach: Identify your segments. Run cold outbound tests. Send emails with different messages. See which ones stick. Once you find the message that resonates, then apply it to ads, copy, and all marketing materials. Cold outbound is your best R&D. Here are my other observations: 1. Start doing marketing activities that will bring short-term results but don't forget to set yourself up for scale. Start investing in one of the major growth engines (content/seo, virality, paid, sales) 2. If you position yourself in a specific category, make sure that your tool has the basic functionalities that every customer would expect when they hear the category name. 3. For B2B SaaS don't try to position yourself as the best tool in the category. Better to best for a certain niche and charge a premium than be a commodity product. 4. Don't build your empire on rented land. Invest in owned channels. 5. If you are going to start content and SEO from day one, do it only if you believe that your product won't pivot next 6-12 months and you have the in-house expertise or a deep budget to outsource the work 6. Don't act like an enterprise. Leave PR and brand marketing for later, and focus on product marketing first to understand who loves your product. If you don't know who loves your product, how can you build a brand for them? 7. Leave the ego aside, admit you don't know, and get mentorship. Just because you are a leader doesn't mean that you know everything. Get mentors, and ask your friends or communities. 8. No one cares about how awesome your product is, so stop making everything about yourself when trying to create messaging. 9. Early marketing hire is important. Get a generalist and builder, not a specialist or a generalist but a thinker. You need both ideas and execution at this stage 10. Onboarding is essential. Invest in it. Onboarding is not about giving a product tour. It's about understanding when the user receives value for the first time and creating the shortest way there 11. Don't try to create the best product for everyone. Go after one segment, make them happy and move on to others. Don't create a product roadmap for everyone because you won't 12. Don't jus focus on numbers and distribution. Many founders focus blindly on leads and distributing half-baked marketing assets. Give you marketers time to build great marketing assets and then focus on distribution

You're building B2B SaaS or an AI solution. You know the market demands real value. Bootstrapping isn't just an option; it's a strategic advantage. It forces focus, customer validation, and sustainable growth from day one. Build a robust, profitable company without immediate reliance on external capital. How do you turn innovation into repeatable revenue? Leverage the 1Mby1M virtual accelerator's Bootstrapping Playbook for B2B SaaS and AI Founders. 1Mby1M's core maxim: bootstrap to repeatability, then blitzscale. For B2B SaaS and AI, validate your Minimum Viable Product (MVP), achieve initial adoption, and prove a consistent, predictable sales cycle. Your goal is a repeatable acquisition model generating consistent revenue. Achieve this, and you've earned the right to bootstrap first, and raise money to blitzscale later. This puts you in control, attracting capital on your terms. Phase 1: Deep Validation & Market Fit Problem-Solution Fit No-Code/Low-Code MVP Customer Immersion Strategic Positioning with Sramana Market & Competitive Analysis Phase 2: Repeatable Sales & Growth First Customers & Case Studies Define Your Sales Process Metrics that Matter Expand and Optimize As a bootstrapped B2B SaaS or AI founder, your proven product-market fit, repeatable sales, and positive unit economics are your strongest assets. You're building a valuable company from the ground up. If you're ready for this strategic, disciplined approach, join 1Mby1M Premium. We’re an equity-free accelerator. You build on your own terms. https://lnkd.in/gB69hhqK What specific B2B pain are you solving? Who is your ICP and what's your ICP segmentation? What are your core product features that solve the pain? What is your customer acquisition channel and cost (CAC)? What is your current MRR/ARR and churn rate? You can get started with Sramana’s Digital Mind AI Mentor right now. https://lnkd.in/gSTTasgN

Most failed launches happen for one reason: The offer was built before the demand. I learned this the hard way. My first 3 launches failed. The fourth finally worked. Same audience. Same expertise. Different approach. Most entrepreneurs create offers backwards. They build something first, then try to sell it. Winners do the opposite. They discover what people already want to buy, then build that. The infographic below shows the exact 5-step process I use before building. Here's the process: ✓ Step 1: Find 3 people already paying for a similar solution Go to G2 or Capterra. Filter 4-5 star reviews from last 30 days. Find reviewers with public LinkedIn profiles. DM them: "What were you doing the day before you bought?" Copy their response word-for-word. You'll discover the pain point that made them buy. ✓ Step 2: Identify the specific outcome they bought Ask: "What specific result did you need in what timeframe?" Real answer: "I needed 10 qualified sales calls in 2 weeks." Not "more leads." Not "better outreach." 10 calls. 2 weeks. Use that exact language in your offer. It's already sold once. ✓ Step 3: Map their biggest obstacle to getting that outcome Ask: "What stopped you from doing this yourself?" Real obstacles I heard: → "I tried for 3 months and got zero results" → "I don't know which tools actually work" → "I need this done by Q2 and can't afford to test" These exact phrases become your positioning. They tell you what feature to lead with. ✓ Step 4: Package it as a transformation with a timeline and price point Use this formula: "I help [who] go from [pain] to [outcome] in [time] for [$X]." Example: "I help B2B founders get 10 qualified calls in 14 days for $2,500." Test 3 versions at $1,997, $2,997, and $4,997. Send each to 2 people. The one that gets the most "yes" responses wins. ✓ Step 5: Validate before you build anything Find 6 people who match your ideal buyer. Send them your one-sentence offer. Ask: "If I deliver [outcome] in [time], would you pay $X?" If 4+ say "yes" or "when can we start?" → Build it. If not → Go back to step 2 and make the outcome more specific. Don't build until you have pre-validated demand. Be a research-first entrepreneur. Guessing can work once. Research works every time. Comment "templates" below and I'll send the exact DM scripts I use. 🔔 Follow Eric Melillo for more on building revenue generating offers.