The SaaS Podcast - Building SaaS in the AI Era
Omer Khan
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First Customers: From Free Reddit Demos to $1M ARR | Supademo
Cold outreach failed. Product-led growth stalled. Joseph Lee couldn't get his first customers to pay for Supademo. In this episode, founders will learn how creative, non-scalable tactics like free Reddit demos and personalized product update replies generated thousands of signups and led to $1M ARR. Joseph reveals why targeting early-stage founders as first customers didn't work, how shifting to 50+ headcount organizations unlocked stickier revenue, and the ungated free tools strategy that now drives over 50% of Supademo's traffic with 11-12% signup conversion. Previously, Joseph ran Freshline, a B2B seafood marketplace that hit $3M in revenue before losing 95% during COVID. Supademo grew from $100K to $1M ARR in just 12 months with a team of 10. ==================================== 💖 Gearheart → Book a free consult and get the first 20 hours free Book a free 1:1 consultation: https://saasclub.io/gearheart/book ==================================== 🔑 Key Lessons 🎯 Get first customers by leading with free value: Joseph created free demos for strangers on Reddit without expecting anything in return, generating Supademo's first several thousand signups and proving the product's value through action. 📉 Cold outreach fails without dedicated resources: Supademo tried outbound sales and it flopped. Doing outbound poorly is worse than not doing it - it requires deliverability, messaging, and full-time focus to work. 🛠️ Turn existing features into ungated free tools: Supademo repurposed built-in features like the screenshot editor as standalone SEO-optimized free tools pages, driving 50%+ of traffic with 11-12% signup conversion. 🔄 Shift your ICP when first customers don't stick: Early-stage founders loved Supademo but churned quickly. Moving to 50+ employee organizations delivered higher willingness to pay, stickier usage, and land-and-expand potential. 🚀 Model your SEO after proven playbooks: Joseph studied Zapier's programmatic SEO and adapted it for Supademo by embedding interactive demos in how-to content for high-volume keywords in adjacent categories. 🧠 Validate by feeling the pain yourself first: The Supademo idea came from Joseph's frustration at Freshline where product videos failed but live screen-sharing sessions converted immediately. 💰 Grow channel by channel, not all at once: Joseph focused on establishing one predictable channel at a time, building to 5-8 channels that run like clockwork. Chapters Introduction What Supademo does and who it's for Revenue, team size, and growth metrics The Freshline story - a B2B seafood marketplace Driving a truck to deliver fish to restaurants Learning the seafood industry from scratch Building the product and getting first customers manually Growing to $3M revenue and then losing 95% to COVID Micro-pivots to survive the pandemic Leaving Freshline and starting fresh Where the Supademo idea came from Choosing early-stage founders as the first ICP Why the ICP shifted to larger organizations Getting first customers through free Reddit demos Responding to product update emails with Supademos SEO strategy modeled after Zapier's programmatic approach The challenge of being product-led Why "build it and they will come" doesn't work Growing channel by channel Ungated free tools driving 50%+ of traffic The state of SEO and AI-powered search Why cold outreach failed Lightning round and book recommendation 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/443 Subscribe to the podcast: https://saasclub.io/subscribe
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