I Built A $1M SaaS In 87 Days

Andre Heckle Jr

• Background and origin story
  • Entrepreneur since age 16–17, starting with service-based lead generation.
  • Built an agency with co-founders Dan and Christian, scaling to $100K/month.
  • Hit a scaling ceiling and partnered with Daniel Fio (C Wizard) to launch a coaching program (Client Ascension) teaching cold email lead generation.
  • Launched a productized service (manual lead fulfillment) to validate demand, pricing, and turnaround time before building software.
  • After burning tens of thousands of dollars on developers and designers with no shipped product, nearly gave up.
  • Connected with a student, Oliver, who joined as a co-founder and helped rebuild and relaunch.
• Pivotal moments and turning points
  • Shifted from manual productized service to a self-serve SaaS (ListKit) to solve verification and usability gaps in cold email lead tools.
  • Rebuilt the product in 87 days and relaunched, leveraging an existing list of paying customers from coaching, agency, and productized service.
  • Shared the full company story publicly (tweets, calls, emails), creating momentum that drove rapid early adoption.
• Business growth, current status, or exit details (only if discussed)
  • Reached $1M ARR within 87 days of launch.
  • Approaching $200K MRR as of June 2024, on track to surpass $2.4M ARR.
  • Grew to over 1,500 paying customers within almost a year (first 1,000 in six months).

Products and Offerings

• Core product(s) and what each one does
  • ListKit: a cold email SaaS that lets users find email addresses and send pitches to sell services, book podcasts, or generate leads.
  • Designed for salespeople, business owners, freelancers, and solopreneurs.
  • Pricing starts at $97/month, with higher tiers for enterprise users based on credits.
• Supporting tools, side projects, or experiments mentioned
  • Client Ascension: coaching program teaching cold email lead generation.
  • Agency services: manual lead generation and fulfillment.
  • Productized service: manual lead delivery with fast turnaround to validate the idea before building software.

Metrics and Financials

• Revenue figures, user counts, and financial milestones
  • $1M ARR achieved in 87 days post-launch.
  • Over 1,500 paying customers within the first year.
  • Approaching $200K MRR as of June 2024.
• Software costs and resource efficiency
  • Team cost over $100K/month total.
  • Total spend on ads, marketing, and acquisition ranges from $150K to $175K/month.
• Exit or acquisition specifics (if explicitly stated)
  • No exit or acquisition discussed.

Strategy and Growth

• Overall vision and positioning
  • Build SaaS only after validating demand and pricing via productized service.
  • Compete by identifying proven incumbents (e.g., Apollo, ZoomInfo), then fixing key pain points (e.g., unverified leads).
• Primary growth engine or method
  • Cold email to target customers who need leads.
  • Paid ads to scale after reaching initial traction.
  • Content marketing, affiliates, and leveraging existing ecosystem (coaching, agency).
• Key tactics, channels, or strategic steps
  • Offer 50 free leads via cold email as a lead magnet to demonstrate value before selling the product.
  • Use a setup offer with ads to onboard customers into a working cold email system.
  • Test ~20 ad creatives weekly (static images and video variants).
  • Avoid free trials; use a money-back guarantee to filter buyers and collect payment upfront.
  • Conduct 1:1 onboarding calls with every new customer to understand needs, reduce churn, and guide product improvements.

Tech Stack and Infrastructure

• Tools, platforms, and technical approaches referenced
  • No specific tools or platforms named in the transcript.
• Notable technical decisions, trade-offs, or architecture choices
  • Chose manual fulfillment for the productized service to validate the idea and preserve cash before building.
  • Prioritized speed and cost efficiency in early development by reusing existing agency processes.

Lessons and Advice

• Direct advice given to other founders
  • Validate demand and pricing with a productized service before building SaaS.
  • Build a co-founder team with complementary skills (marketing, sales, technology, leadership).
  • Align on vision and core values with co-founders; expect and resolve debates like any relationship.
  • Talk to customers consistently to keep churn low and guide product and support improvements.
• Hard-won insights and key takeaways
  • Entrepreneurship is a long consistency game; keep inputs high regardless of short-term outputs.
  • Invest daily in personal development and learn from those who have already achieved results.
  • Hire cost-efficient global talent for roles like development and customer success to maintain profitability.