The SaaS Podcast - Building SaaS in the AI Era
Omer Khan
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Bootstrapped SaaS to $82M Exit: No VC, No Sales Team, No Problem
No VC. No sales team. $82 million exit. Callum Mckeefery bootstrapped Reviews.io from a side project into one of the most capital-efficient SaaS exits in recent years. In this episode, founders will learn how to build a bootstrapped SaaS company that competes against funded rivals and wins. Callum shares how white-label partnerships drove 40% of customer acquisition, why founder-led sales outperformed hired reps, and the pricing strategy that let a bootstrapped SaaS undercut Trustpilot by 50-70%. He also reveals what finally made him say yes to an acquisition after 11 years of bootstrapping. Reviews.io grew to serve thousands of businesses globally before being acquired for $82M in 2024 - all built on reinvested revenue with a team of under 50 people. This episode is brought to you by: ❤️ Gearheart - Book a free 1:1 consultation 🔑 Key Lessons 🎯 Bootstrapped SaaS requires radical cost discipline: Callum kept Reviews.io profitable from year two by running a team of under 50 people and reinvesting revenue instead of raising capital. 📉 White-label partnerships beat paid acquisition for bootstrapped SaaS: Instead of spending on marketing, Callum built white-label integrations that let other platforms resell Reviews.io, driving 40% of new customers at near-zero cost. 🛠️ Founder-led sales can scale further than most founders think: Callum personally handled sales through the entire journey, proving that a founder who knows the product can outperform a sales team on close rates. 💡 Competing on price works when you are bootstrapped and they are not: Reviews.io undercut Trustpilot by 50-70% because they had no investor pressure to maximize revenue per customer. 🚀 The agency-to-SaaS path provides built-in customer development: Building Reviews.io as an agency side project meant Callum had a paying customer and real feedback before writing a single line of product code. 🤝 Staying small creates exit leverage for bootstrapped SaaS founders: With no VC on the cap table and strong margins, Callum had full control over timing and terms for the $82M acquisition. Chapters Introduction and what Reviews.io does The agency background and side project origin Teaching himself to code and building the MVP First customers and early product-market fit signals The decision to go all-in on Reviews.io Bootstrapping philosophy and staying capital-efficient White-label partnerships as a bootstrapped SaaS growth engine Competing against Trustpilot and VC-backed players Founder-led sales and why Callum never hired salespeople Building the team while staying lean Pricing strategy for bootstrapped SaaS Key inflection points in the growth journey The acquisition process and $82M exit Lessons learned from 11 years of bootstrapping What Callum would do differently Book recommendation and wrap-up 💌 Get weekly 5-minute SaaS insights: https://saasclub.io/email SaaS Club Programs Join the SaaS Club founder community: https://saasclub.co/plus Build your $10K MRR SaaS: https://saasclub.io/launch Scale from 6-figures to $1M ARR Faster: https://saasclub.io/mastermind Get 1:1 async coaching from Omer: https://saasclub.io/accelerate Resources Full show notes: https://saasclub.io/438 Subscribe to the podcast: https://saasclub.io/subscribe
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