Bilal Aijazi turned a casual Slack polling bot into a serious enterprise platform used by millions. In this episode, early-stage B2B SaaS founders will learn how Polly became a multi-million ARR business on top of Slack.
Bilal breaks down the reality of building a multi-million dollar business on top of a major platform like Slack. You will learn the "Pain Tolerance" metric that validated his idea (80% completion on a 5-step install), how he pivoted from an $8/month fantasy football use case to 5-figure HR contracts, and the survival playbook for when a platform "Sherlocks" your core feature.
In this episode, Bilal also shares the exact mechanics of his 12% "Respondent to Creator" viral loop, why he forced a horizontal product into vertical use cases to reduce churn, and his "Just Don't Die" philosophy for technical founders navigating sales.
This episode is brought to you by:
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๐ Key Lessons
- ๐ The "Pain Tolerance" Metric: Why 80% of users endured a nightmare install process (and what it proved).
- ๐ฐ Pricing Evolution: Moving from $8/month fantasy football leagues to 5-figure Enterprise deals.
- ๐ก Surviving "Sherlocking": How to pivot and thrive when the platform builds your core feature.
- ๐ฅ Viral Loops: Leveraging "Respondent to Creator" conversion to drive organic growth.
- โ๏ธ The Platform Paradox: The risks and massive rewards of building on Slack, Teams, and Zoom.
Chapters
- The "punch in the face" reality of startups
- Leveraging Product Hunt for viral growth loops
- Validating demand with a 5-step "nightmare" onboarding
- From $8/mo fantasy football to enterprise deals
- Freemium to paid: Converting free users to revenue
- Surviving "Sherlocking": When Slack copies your feature
- The mistake of betting on Slack Workflow Builder
- Horizontal vs. Vertical SaaS strategies
- Why technical founders must sell (and how to do it)
- The "Just Don't Die" philosophy
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