The original podcast for bootstrapped and mostly bootstrapped startups, this show follow the stories of founders as they start, acquire, and grow SaaS companies. Hear when they fail, struggle, succeed, and take you with them through the tumultuous life of a SaaS founder. If you like Mixergy, This Week in Startups, or SaaStr, you’ll enjoy Startup for the Rest of Us.
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The original podcast for bootstrapped and mostly bootstrapped startups, this show follow the stories of founders as they start, acquire, and grow SaaS companies. Hear when they fail, struggle, succeed, and take you with them through the tumultuous life of a SaaS founder. If you like Mixergy, This Week in Startups, or SaaStr, you’ll enjoy Startup for the Rest of Us.
Episode 806 | Bootstrapping Missive to $8M ARR Over 10 Years
Startups For the Rest of Us
33 minutes 54 seconds
6 days ago
Episode 806 | Bootstrapping Missive to $8M ARR Over 10 Years
Hi {{ subscriber.first_name | capitalize | default: "there"}},
Can a small team really bootstrap to $8M ARR in a crowded SaaS market?
In this episode, Rob Walling chats with Philippe Lehoux about how he and his co-founders bootstrapped Missive, a collaborative email and team inbox tool. They deep dive into landing early customers, unique horizontal positioning, content-driven growth, enterprise sales, and how to compete with VC-backed competition.
Episode Sponsor:
Are you a non-technical founder with solid revenue and real traction, but your technology is holding you back? You should check out today's sponsor, Designli.
They specialize in helping founders like you who are stuck with messy code, unclear roadmaps, or a dev team that just doesn’t get it.
And for listeners of the pod, Designli is offering their Impact Week completely free. That’s a one-week, no-obligation audit where their team dives into your code, your design system, and your product roadmap to show you exactly what’s working, what’s broken, and what needs to happen next.
If it’s a fit, you can move on to SolutionLab, a three-week sprint where Designli takes over your codebase and architects a real roadmap for growth, led by a full-time, cross-functional team.
If your tech is the bottleneck to your next stage of growth, check them out at https://designli.co/fortherestofus.
Topics we cover:
(2:05) – Missive’s $8M ARR journey and email pivot
(6:02) – Early idea and first customers
(11:16) – Unique positioning: horizontal vs. vertical
(13:41) – How they prioritize features
(15:39) – Why they stayed bootstrapped and decline funding
(20:25) – Content strategy and “vs” pages
(21:39) – Affiliate program driving 30% of growth
(25:24) – Challenges and benefits of being horizontal
(30:28) – Enterprise sales and pricing
(32:06) – Scaling with SOC 2 compliance
Links from the Show:
SaaS Institute
MicroConf YouTube channel
Missive
Philippe Lehoux | LinkedIn
Philippe Lehoux (@plehoux) | X
If you have questions about starting or scaling a software business that you’d like for us to cover, please submit your question for an upcoming episode. We’d love to hear from you!
Subscribe & Review: iTunes | Spotify
Startups For the Rest of Us
The original podcast for bootstrapped and mostly bootstrapped startups, this show follow the stories of founders as they start, acquire, and grow SaaS companies. Hear when they fail, struggle, succeed, and take you with them through the tumultuous life of a SaaS founder. If you like Mixergy, This Week in Startups, or SaaStr, you’ll enjoy Startup for the Rest of Us.
