Funding Won’t Save You Without Real Customer Demand
A founder DM'd me last week: "I just raised $8M. What should I do first?" Me: "Give it back." He laughed, but I wasn't joking. When you have money, you spend it. You hire 15 people in 60 days. You burn $300K on trade shows. You build features nobody asked for. I’ve bootstrapped every business I’ve built. My friend raised $100M and shut down. The difference came down to pressure. He had a board telling him to 10x. I had customers telling me what to build. If you can't get to $1M ARR without funding, funding won't fix that. It'll just make the failure more expensive.
Ignore Generic Advice; Trust Your Own Startup Journey
So far I’ve built two SaaS companies, and this advice almost killed both of them: “Your TAM is too small, it’ll never be a unicorn” “Drop your tiny startup and join this rocket ship” “Build a full go-to-market platform” Every person who gave me...
Cancel Fees Are Hostage Tactics, Not Retention Solutions
$105 to cancel a SaaS subscription is a hostage negotiation and I guarantee nobody understood that when they signed up. The answer to churn is NOT entrapment. If you're not delivering on your promises and someone wants to stop using your service,...
Get 100 Customers in 90 Days with RB2B
If I had zero customers and just signed up for RB2B, this is exactly how I'd get to 100 in 90 days: https://t.co/2a10Hfmnj0
Simplify GTM: One Goal, One Audience, One Offer
If your GTM feels stuck, run this experiment. It will take you 30 days: 1. Pick ONE growth goal. Pipeline, activation, or expansion. Not all three. 2. Pick ONE audience. Not "SMB + mid-market + enterprise." One. 3. Pick ONE...
7 Proven Tactics to Launch SaaS From Scratch
For the 2,300+ of you who bookmarked the full playbook. We both know you’re not reading all that. So I turned it into a list of the 7 things I see actually working right now for launching a SaaS from...
Delay Hiring; Automate First to Avoid Drowning
Greg Isenberg thinks 2026 is about to create 10x the number of entrepreneurs. Massive SaaS layoff wave, everyone starts building. He's probably right, but most of these new founders are going to make the same mistake I made for 4 years... They're...
Embrace the Cringiest Platform, Scale to $7.3M ARR
4 years stuck at $2.5M ARR. I had no idea if this was my retirement plan or the thing that broke me. Then I built a $7.3M ARR company in 18 months with 3 employees and zero funding. The weapon turned out to...
Simplify Offer, Get Free 10k Leads, 5x Demos
These 3 changes to our cold email copy 5x’d demos booked last week. OLD VERSION: Subj: $18 per lead is a lot Body: You’re paying ~$18 per lead or more on Meta right now. And, some more if they don’t...
Zero to $1M ARR: Hunt Whales, Share Journey,
I’ve bootstrapped $0 to $1M ARR three times. If I had to start over with no money and no personal brand, this is exactly how I’d hit $1M ARR in under 12 months: 1. Hunt whales in their natural habitat. Alina Vandenberghe...
Bootstrapping Beats VC Hype for Lasting Wealth
Worst ways to build wealth - thinking a $100M valuation means you have $100M - raising money. period - adding features for 5 years instead of admitting your product sucks - telling yourself "we just need more time" at year 7 - calling yourself a...
Bootstrapped Growth Beats VC Hype for True Freedom
I want to be crystal clear: the advice I give on LinkedIn is NOT for founders who think they're creating unicorns, decacorns, or the next Anthropic. If you believe you're building a unicorn or decacorn and you're sitting here reading...
LinkedIn Education and Webinars Drive Warm B
Lara Acosta 's 1-person business is about to cross $200k/mo. 0 outbound. 0 cold emails. Here's the breakdown: 1. Education-focused content on Linkedin (positioning) • 2x specific breakdowns (like this one) • 2x broad education on business tips 2. Lead-magnet...
AI‑First, Word‑of‑Mouth, Personal Brand: SaaS Survival 2026
It's 2026. If you're a SaaS founder, you're probably screwed. Anything you do that works gets copied, CAC is up, LTV is down. Here are the 7 things I see that ARE working - in a world where most things...
Bootstrapped $28M ARR with 33‑person Org Chart
$28M ARR with 33 people… $0 in funding. This is the org chart that made it possible: https://t.co/wYZX8rJB2v
Bootstrapped SaaS Beats VC Rivals, Sparks Envy
The VP Marketing of a $20M ARR SaaS told 3 coworkers she was doing a Zoom with me. Two said “awesome.” One said, “I HATE that guy.” So why do people hate me so much? Them: “You didn't actually bootstrap $7M ARR with 3...
Simplicity Beats Automation Fatigue in Outbound GTM
Everyone doing outbound should read Gene 's post. 👇 As a Founder in GTM tech, it's terrifying the best GTM organizations in the world are experiencing “outbound fatigue” and shutting down automation teams as the ROI of automation plateaus. Highly...
Start Small, Master Basics, Then Scale for Real Growth
If I were a 22-year-old Stanford grad who wanted to work 9-9-6 for the hopes of making life-changing money, I wouldn't go to Y Combinator and try to create the next OpenAI. I would do the opposite. —- Get a job at a...
Early Public Builders Gain Massive Edge and Revenue
I've made more money building in public than most people have made building in private. Let's talk about it. I think building in public worked for me to the extent that it did because nobody at my level was doing it...
Bootstrapped Growth: $28‑33M Run Rate, 25% Profit Rise
My predictions for Retention.com and RB2B for 2026: TOP LINE: $28m run rate to $33m run rate (+17%) PROFIT: $12m run rate to $15m run rate (+25%) CHURN: Stays horrible. TEAM SIZE: Flat at 33 FTE. This would be considered...
SaaS Built on One Platform Faces Existential Risk
I'm trying to build a billion-dollar SaaS, but the only problem with that is 100% of our business depends on a company that could kill us tomorrow. We make it possible for brands to email people who never opted in. Every...
Micro‑lists & AI Boost Cold Outreach Reply Rates
CEO Friend: Is cold outreach working for you guys? Me: It wasn't until mid-November. CEO Friend: What? How? Ours dried up. Me: We closed 50 customers from cold email over the past 60 days. CEO Friend: TELL ME HOW Me:...
Avoid the $50M ARR Plateau with Early Scaling Wisdom
I’ve talked about my CEO friend who raised $100M and got stuck at $50M ARR a lot. But if I could go back to 2019 when he was at $20M, and rockets were still firing, this is exactly what I...
Founders: Content Is Your Ultimate Business Landing Page
Every founder should be creating content and that’s a hill I’ll die on. Your content is a landing page for literally everyone. - Investors - Agencies - Partners - People you want to hire They are all going to your profile to figure out what...
Launching a Billion‑Dollar SaaS: Episode One Begins
I’m building the next billion-dollar SaaS. (At least that’s the goal) I’m documenting the whole thing so you might be able replicate it. Welcome to episode 1.
Scale Visitor Tracking: Simple Monitoring Until $5M ARR
The way you use website visitor data changes at each revenue stage: $0-1M ARR: Just monitor your traffic $1-5M ARR: LinkedIn and email outreach $5M+ ARR: Lead scoring and workflows I’ve seen early-stage founders trying to build complex workflows when they don’t need to...
Minimalist SaaS with Precise ICP Wins
Contrarian take: Several simpler-than-ever-before, stupidly minimalist apps designed for an incredibly well-defined ICP will experience insane product-market fit in 2026. These apps will be met with total lack of understanding by the “vibe-coding” community, who in disbelief say: “That’s stupid,...
Founders Overraise, Ignoring YC’s “Default Alive” Wisdom
YC’s best advice is “default alive” - have enough cash to survive without the next raise. Great advice… nobody f*cking does it. Paul Graham (the founder of YC) once said he’d raise $500K, get ramen profitable, and probably never raise...
Our $6M ARR Stack: 20 Tools & Expert Consultants
Here's every tool RB2B used to get to $6M ARR: Tolt (affiliate) Salesforce (CRM) Webflow (website) GSuite (everything) Slack (daily comms) Riverside (LI videos) Zoom (weekly show) ChatGPT (biz coach) Ramp (corporate cards) Wynter (messaging help) Calendly (calendar mgmt) Notion...
Most Series A Founders Overestimate Their $50M Worth
I talk to delusional Series A founders every day. I now just send them this post. If your company does under $10m ARR, burns over $200k/mo and has low Gross Retention, you are not worth $50-100m dollars to ANYONE despite...
RB2B Works Only for Established Outbound B2B SaaS
RB2B will be a waste of time and money for you IF: 1. You’ve never done outbound successfully We get people who come in super excited with big inbound machines. “This is going to be my next growth channel.” If you don’t...
Simple 10‑Slide Deck Drove $13M ARR in 26 Months
I bootstrapped my first startup to $13m ARR in 26 months with only one sales rep doing OUTBOUND sales. The crazy part? Diana Ross did the same demo over 2,000 times using the same 10-slide deck. 👇 I just re-discovered...
AI SEO: The Must‑Invest Play at $1M ARR
I just spoke to Godard Abel - UNICORN Founder of G2 - about the ONE THING he would invest in if he were at $1m ARR. His answer... AI SEO. I was so confused about the details and whether or...
AI Multiplies Productivity, Creates Jobs, Not Layoffs
“AI is the new boogeyman” - every single person after seeing Cowork. Respectfully, that is the dumbest thing I’ve heard. I let AI run my $6.6M ARR business for a week, and we grew faster than we did in MONTHS. And...
Even Churned Customers Keep Watching; Notice Their Return
Churned customers don’t disappear. They always come back to check on you. The question is whether you notice… https://t.co/2uqVT1n4Q9
SaaS Becomes Water: Brand, Not Product, Wins
The 2026 SaaS market will be like the market for selling water. But what’s the difference between Dasani, Evian, and the tap in your kitchen? Brand. Nothing else. “Having a product” is no longer the most challenging part of selling software. Everything...
Profit Focus and Strong Team Fuel Founder Happiness
I’ve talked to over 20 founders the past 4 weeks and every one of them is miserable. They want me to be miserable too … but I’m NOT. 11 years in, I’m more excited than ever. Here’s the top 5...
Focus on Product-Market Fit, Buyers Come Naturally
“Businesses get bought, not sold.” - A random private equity fund bossman. I sold Robly in 2021, and I didn't go looking for a buyer. Robly was a grind. Only got to $3M ARR. Tiny company in a super-saturated space (didn't have...
No Excitement, Wrong Product—Learned After $1M Loss
If you don’t see the excitement in people’s eyes, you’re building the wrong product… (spent $1M, wasted 1 year, been there, done that (NEVER AGAIN)) https://t.co/aL0rguGFxJ
Stop Chasing Fame; Focus on Customers to Scale
I have to get something off my chest… In 2024, I completely butchered the year and nearly killed RB2B. For 15 months, I didn't have a single conversation with a customer. Was too busy trying to be an "influencer." I became everything I...
Weekly MRR Growth Is All You Need Until $5M
The only metrics that matter at each stage of SaaS: $0-500K ARR: Weekly MRR growth rate $1-5M ARR: Weekly MRR growth rate $5-10M ARR: Churn + Top of funnel growth Yes, it’s the same metric twice, but weekly MRR growth rate is the ONLY...
Over‑hiring Sales Reps Stalls Growth, Warns Founders
A CEO friend raised $40M at a $400M valuation. Two years later, ARR is flat. The biggest mistake was how he scaled his sales team. Another founder buddy just did a PE round. His investors were pushing him to grow from 5 to...
YouTube Beats LinkedIn for SaaS Lead Generation
Most B2B founders feel trapped on LinkedIn. This won't be popular to say, but Josh Aharonoff, CPA just proved YouTube outperforms LinkedIn for SaaS lead gen... and he's got 475K LinkedIn followers. And I'm starting to see something similar with...
From $6M ARR to Paid Growth Using Proven Playbook
I built RB2B to $6M ARR through organic content. Then I recorded 20 video ads in 2 days and went all in on paid. Why? Because I used this exact playbook in 2020 to launch GetEmails. 🧵
Bootstrapped $22M SaaS Founder Rejects VC Funding
I spoke to 50+ top-tier VC firms about investing in my bootstrapped $22M ARR SaaS. Then I walked away from all of them. Here's why I never took VC money: https://t.co/04XxSsWtXY
Bootstrapped $10M ARR: The SaaS Freedom Milestone
$10M ARR is the FU MONEY of SaaS. At $10M ARR bootstrapped, you and your co-founder clear $1M+/year in salary and dividends easily. You can sell instantly for $30-40M. There are hundreds of EBITDA buyers at this level vs. a handful...
Profitability Beats VC Hype: Small Wins Outlast Billion Dreams
In 2017, a CEO friend told me I was "wasting my life" on my tiny startup. He had raised $30M in VC. His co-founders' families had put in $2M. They were supposed to be on their way to $1B. He tried to...
Churn Wins Over Ecosystem Hype: Deliver Real Results
Last week a founder friend was in town and I had him over for coffee. He's been stuck at $2.5-$3m ARR for 9 months, is burning $400k/mo, closing a TON of new business, but can’t get ahead of churn. He...
Bootstrapped Founders Must Build, Not Buy, Growth
Don’t have money? Good. Neither do the Cubans and they find creative solutions for everything. That should be you. When you’re bootstrapped, you are forced to make a better product because it has to be so good that it distributes...
Build AI Startup for $10M ARR, Not $1B Exit
If I were starting an AI company, I would not aim for a $1B exit. VCs will hate this, but I think the new startup model looks like this: In this 1,000 word post I’m going to cover: 1. Bootstrap...