SaaS Customer Discovery: 400 Calls to $25K MRR

Gary Vanbutsele spent 18 months building a product nobody paid for. His second attempt at SaaS customer discovery worked - he pre-sold to 5 customers at $5K each. Then SaaS partnerships delivered the real breakthrough. Learn how Gary ran SaaS customer discovery by contacting 400 consultants for SaaS partnerships, converting 10 into active partners who drove partner-led growth delivering 120 customers. Gary is the co-founder of Whale. His SaaS customer discovery journey included pre-selling SaaS to 5 businesses, then using SaaS partnerships with consultants for partner-led growth to $25K MRR. 🔑 Key Lessons 🤝 SaaS customer discovery through SaaS partnerships outperformed inbound: 10 consultant partnerships delivered the majority of 120 customers via partner-led growth in 12 months. 🎯 Pre-selling SaaS at $5K validates SaaS customer discovery: After wasting 18 months, Gary pre-sold Whale to 5 businesses to prove willingness to pay. 🤝 SaaS partnerships need a different pitch for partner-led growth: Partners want to hear how the tool helps them differentiate, not just how it helps end users. 🛠️ Push knowledge to users contextually: Whale delivered training inside Salesforce rather than building another static knowledge silo. 📉 Hiring junior people after raising cost six months: Gary hired on personality and budget, then rebuilt with experienced hires. Chapters Introduction What Whale does SaaS customer discovery metrics: $25K MRR The first failed product Pre-selling SaaS to 5 customers Differentiating in a crowded market Building the MVP Growing through SaaS partnerships Finding 400 partners for SaaS customer discovery Partner-led growth conversion rates Why the partner pitch differs from sales SaaS partnerships deal structure Hiring mistakes after the seed round Why inbound marketing hasn't clicked Lightning round Resources Full show notes: https://saasclub.io/316 Join 5,000+ SaaS founders: https://saasclub.io/email