The SaaS Podcast - SaaS, Startups, Growth Hacking & Entrepreneurship 446: Submagic: How a Scrappy MVP Hit $1M ARR with TikTok - with David Zitoun
Jun 5, 2025
David Zitoun, co-founder and CEO of Submagic, is passionate about revolutionizing video creation. He shares how Submagic quickly developed an MVP that leverages TikTok for marketing, helping creators make viral-ready shorts. The conversation dives into the importance of understanding customer needs, building traction through partnerships, and the challenges of scaling beyond $1 million in revenue. Zitoun emphasizes innovation in a competitive market and shares productivity hacks, leaving listeners inspired to pursue their own entrepreneurial dreams.
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Founder's Personal Pain Point
- David Zitoun personally experienced the pain of adding captions to short videos, finding it tedious and time-consuming even as an experienced video editor.
- This firsthand frustration led him to create Submagic to simplify captioning for creators and small businesses.
Fast MVP Experimentation Approach
- David and his co-founder agreed to try building and selling a new MVP each month for a year to find a product that works.
- Their first MVP, Submagic, was built in about six weeks, focusing on one core feature done well.
Viral TikTok Jumpstarts Sales
- David used TikTok videos showing rough demos and talking directly to potential users to get initial traction for Submagic.
- A viral video after about 10 days brought 40-50 paying customers, validating product-market fit early.