How a Founder Went From a Failed SaaS Business to $250K MRR
Dave Rogenmoser is the co-founder and CEO of Proof, a SaaS product that helps build social proof and increase conversion rates by displaying recent customer activity on your website.
Dave started as an entrepreneur about 5 years ago. He paid a developer on Upwork $10,000 to build a software product, but he didn't know how to get customers and so the business quickly failed.
He started learning as much as he could about marketing. And as he developed those skills, he was able help local businesses get more customers. So he started an agency. But he quickly realized how much he hated the agency life.
Next he and his co-founders launched an information publishing business and sold courses and coaching. But deep down, he still longed to have a software business with recurring revenue.
One weekend, Dave and his co-founders built a widget for their website to help them sell more courses. The widget showed you names of people who had just purchased the course. It was social proof and it doubled their sales almost overnight.
Dave started testing this widget on his friends websites. And they all reported back positive results and improved sales conversion rates. And that's how Proof was born.
In this episode we talk about how Dave and his co-founders turned that widget which they built in a weekend, into a SaaS business doing $250K in monthly recurring revenue.
We talk about how they've grown, how they've dealt with competitors and some of the biggest mistakes they've made along the way and what they learned from them.
Book Recommendation
- “Delivering Happiness: A Path to Profits, Passion, and Purpose” by Tony Hsieh