Hey - Marc here.

Happy Saturday morning, motivated B2B SaaS Founders!

Here's at least one tip to keep in mind as you grow your B2B SaaS company:

Today's issue takes about 5 minutes to read.

_______________________________________________

In today's issue, I share some key takeaways from a recent interview between Nathan Latka, the host of Daily Interviews with SaaS Founders, and Andrea Volpini, the CEO and Founder of WordLift. They discussed how their bootstrapped SEO SaaS hit $1.8m ARR and 28% profits.

Last year, Andrea broke a million-dollar run rate. He and his partner still own more than 80% of the business, and at the same time, they're in control, passed a million in revenue, and are very profitable. In a span of 18 months, they rocketed from $87k to $155k monthly revenue, and now have 28% profit in this quarter.

About WordLift.io

Andrea Volpini’s unique spin in this very competitive space is to build knowledge graphs to automate SEO at various levels. WordLift.io lets you create your own knowledge graph, similar to the one that Google has. But where it really comes in handy is its ability to interact with Google. This way, your entries are more likely to get into Google's knowledge graph. And once they're in there, you can reuse that information for other SEO or digital marketing tasks.

In just under two years, they went from serving 705 customers to 1,166 active subscriptions. Enterprise clients make up 70% of their revenues, and their biggest customer pays $300k+ per year. Their growth is accelerating, and they're well on their way to becoming the SEO go-to platform.

Challenges:

The customer acquisition cost is still quite low compared to the lifetime value.

They need to have more cash available in order to grow. They needed to invest more in acquiring clients. And because it’s a competitive space, they needed to have resources to get the best theme they wanted. Raising 800k against a $5.5M valuation, they decided to sell about 15% equity to their investor.

They declined an M&A offer of $5M.

They decided to raise a small amount of capital, and the deal was closed at the start of this year. WordLift.io is now valued at $5M, the same as the M&A offer he received. And the best part is that he still gets to keep control, grow the business, and increase profits. He now has more money to spend on expanding their sales, marketing, and technology.

Advice to Other Founders:

Use a combination of activities.

To sign up new customers, they utilized inbound and events marketing. They leveraged their initiatives from SEO and got good returns from participating and partnering with TNW (The Next Web).

Leave something on the table than deal with debt.

It’s not just about the cash — it’s also about your network and your business structure. If you’re profitable, you will not spend much in any case that the cost of money hasn't been high. Going to the bank is an option, but there’s more than just the cash.

Seek help.

Trying to go alone as a bootstrapper might work in the early stages, but at a certain point, you're going to need help if you want to scale. This is why Andrea thinks a strategic partner can bring them forward to a longer journey while they’re here. They can help with things like connections and structure — two things that are essential for any successful business.

Bonus

Kurt Vonnegut’s Mattatoio 5 is Andrea’s favorite Italian book.
Andrea’s favorite online tools: Trello, Zapier, and Azure (cloud infrastructure)
If Andrea was still in his 20s, he wishes he knew life was easy. Once you set a goal and have fun with what you’re doing, you’re going to achieve that goal and don’t need all the troubles.

TL:DR

Andrea Volpini, the CEO and founder of WordLift.io, plays in the SEO space. Their big competitive advantages are knowledge graphs and SEO optimization. Has over 1,166 active subscriptions today, broke $155k dollars a month in revenue, up from $87k a month just a year ago, and healthy growth of 28% profit margin. Raised $800k from a strategic partner at a $5.5M valuation and sold 14.5% of the business, but most of the cash is still in the bank today. 20 people strong on the team, growing nicely without spending a bunch of capital.

P.S. Here is a link to the full interview if you are interested in listening to the full episode: Bootstrapped SEO SaaS hits $1.8m ARR, 28% profits!

_________

See you again next week.

Whenever you're ready, there are 2 ways I can help you:

1. 1:1 SOPs Call (Consultation Call for Guidance)

2. Work 1:1 with me to create customized Sales SOPs to remove yourself from the sales process and virtually guarantee that your investment in your next salesperson ensures they will hit their number? (Done for your Service). Click here to see if you qualify.