First Customers·Oscar Rubio, Lodgerin

First Customers: 850 Rejections Before the First Yes

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Oscar Rubio powered through 850 meetings before landing his first customers. He flew from Spain to the US, drove college to college without appointments, and slept in motels and his car - all to prove that his SaaS idea was worth paying for.

In this episode, Oscar reveals how he pivoted from a traditional relocation services business to a SaaS platform during COVID, taught himself how software works as a non-technical founder, and grew Lodgerin from zero to $1.3M in revenue by doing things most founders refuse to do.

Oscar Rubio is the founder and CEO of Lodgerin, a SaaS platform helping organizations manage housing and relocation services for students and employees moving abroad.

For nearly a decade, Oscar bootstrapped a traditional relocation services business, solving complex problems manually for universities and corporations. The business grew steadily, but scaling was impossible since everything depended on people and physical presence.

Then COVID hit. Overnight, his entire business collapsed. Mobility stopped, borders closed, and revenue vanished.

With no investors and no co-founder, Oscar made a critical decision: pivot from services to software. He spent months in an empty office, taping paper to walls and transforming eight years of operational know-how into digital processes. As a non-technical founder, he taught himself how SaaS products worked, built a small team, and launched a barebones MVP.

Then came the hardest part - getting his first customers. Oscar powered through 850 meetings before anyone said yes. He flew from Spain to the US, drove from college to college, knocked on doors without appointments, and slept in cheap motels and his car.

Oscar Rubio grew Lodgerin from zero to $1.3M in revenue using three strategies:

Validate through years of service delivery before building software
Go direct to customers with extreme persistence - 850 meetings to close the first deal
Let early customers define the product roadmap by solving their specific problems first

Today, Lodgerin serves organizations across Spain, Italy, Portugal, France, the UK, Dubai, and the US, and has raised 400,000 euros to accelerate expansion.

This episode is part of our First Customers series.

Key Insight

Oscar Rubio landed Lodgerin's first customers after 850 cold meetings by flying from Spain to the US and knocking on university doors without appointments. Eight years of service delivery gave him deep problem knowledge, while extreme persistence in direct outreach - sleeping in motels and his car - turned that knowledge into $1.3M in SaaS revenue.

Key Ideas

Validate through service delivery first: 8 years of manual relocation work revealed exactly which problems customers would pay to automate
850 meetings before the first yes - fly to the US, drive college to college, knock on doors with no appointment
First customer came inbound 4 months after a cold visit when the university hit a pain point Oscar had already pitched
Simple mistakes kill early revenue: missing an availability calendar cost thousands in cancelled bookings during the first quarter
Referrals drove the next 10 customers because the relocation sector is small and organizations talk to each other

Key Lessons

🏋️ 850 rejections to get first customers is normal, not extreme: Oscar powered through 850 cold meetings before landing his first paying customer. Most founders quit after 50 nos - the ones who win treat rejection as a signal to keep going, not stop.
🛠️ Validate through service delivery before building software: Oscar ran a manual relocation business for eight years before building Lodgerin's SaaS. That deep operational knowledge meant he knew exactly which problems customers would pay to automate.
🚗 Show up in person when digital outreach fails: When universities and corporations ignored emails and calls, Oscar flew from Spain to the US, drove college to college, and knocked on doors without appointments. Physical presence breaks through noise that digital never will.
📉 Simple product mistakes can destroy early revenue: Lodgerin's MVP launched without an availability calendar, causing thousands of cancelled bookings in the first quarter. Test the boring operational details, not just the exciting features.
🔄 Let your first customers define the product roadmap: Oscar's first customer did not buy what he was selling. They came back months later with a different problem. Building what customers ask for beats building what you planned.
💰 Bootstrap to validation before raising money: Oscar grew Lodgerin to $1.3M with positive EBITDA before raising 400,000 euros. Investors said yes because he had three years of growing revenue, not just a pitch deck.
🤝 Referrals scale in tight-knit industries: After closing the first customer, word-of-mouth drove the next 10. In niche markets where organizations know each other, one successful deployment becomes your best sales channel.

Watch the Episode

Chapters

00:00Introduction

00:21What Lodgerin does and who it serves

01:43The multi-sided marketplace for mobility services

02:31Running a relocation services business since 2013

04:09How customer-centric expansion shaped the product

06:04Sponsor: Gearheart

07:08COVID hits and everything collapses overnight

09:15Bootstrapping alone with no co-founder or investors

11:52Revenue growth: 171K to 420K to 1.2M euros

13:46Surviving the dark period of COVID

15:40Building software as a non-technical founder

18:17Validating constantly with customers

20:24The MVP: an Airbnb for students that nobody could use

22:16The availability calendar mistake that killed early revenue

24:40Getting first customers through direct sales

27:19850 meetings before the first yes

29:01What kept Oscar going through constant rejection

31:19The first customer says yes

33:29Fundraising: 955 investor meetings for 400K euros

36:06Lightning round and book recommendations

38:57Where to find Oscar and Lodgerin

Episode Q&A

How did Oscar Rubio get Lodgerin's first customers after 850 rejections?

Oscar flew from Spain to the US, drove from college to college, knocked on doors without appointments, and slept in motels and his car. His first customer came inbound four months after a cold visit when the university hit a specific pain point he had pitched.

Why did Oscar Rubio pivot Lodgerin from a services business to SaaS during COVID?

COVID shut down international mobility overnight, destroying his revenue. Oscar realized the only way to scale without depending on physical presence was to digitize eight years of operational processes into software.

How did Lodgerin grow from zero to $1.3M in revenue in three years?

Lodgerin grew from 171,000 euros in 2022 to 420,000 in 2023 to 1.2 million in 2024, each year with positive EBITDA around 14%, fueled by direct sales, referrals, and international expansion.

What was the biggest early mistake Oscar Rubio made building Lodgerin's MVP?

The team forgot to build an availability calendar for property owners. Housing appeared available when it was not, causing thousands of cancellations in the first quarter and nearly destroying early revenue.

How did Oscar Rubio build SaaS software as a non-technical founder at Lodgerin?

Oscar taught himself how SaaS products work, studied the technical landscape, then hired a small team to execute. He focused on understanding processes deeply enough to direct development without writing code.

How did Lodgerin validate its product before building software?

Oscar ran a traditional relocation services business for eight years, manually solving housing, legal, banking, and insurance problems for universities and corporations. This gave him deep knowledge of exactly which processes to automate.

Why did Oscar Rubio fly to the US to find first customers for Lodgerin instead of selling remotely?

Universities and corporations were not responding to emails or phone calls. Oscar decided the only way to break through was to show up in person, knock on doors, and demonstrate the product face-to-face.

How did Lodgerin raise 400,000 euros after bootstrapping to seven figures?

Oscar held 955 meetings with potential investors over four months, from August to December 2023, to close four investors. He waited until the business had validated traction and three years of growing revenue before raising.

What role did referrals play in Lodgerin getting its first customers?

After closing the first customer, referrals became the primary growth channel. The international mobility sector is small, and universities and corporations recommend vendors to each other, which accelerated Lodgerin's next 10 customers.

Book Recommendations

Zero to One

by Peter Thiel

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