Selling as technical founders

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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🔑 Key Lessons

• 🚀 The "Pain Tolerance" Metric: Why 80% of users endured a nightmare install process (and what it proved).
• 💰 Pricing Evolution: Moving from $8/month fantasy football leagues to 5-figure Enterprise deals.
• 💡 Surviving "Sherlocking": How to pivot and thrive when the platform builds your core feature.
• 🔥 Viral Loops: Leveraging "Respondent to Creator" conversion to drive organic growth.
• ⚖️ 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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Resources

• Full show notes: https://saasclub.io/462
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