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456: Mailtrap: From 20,000 Email Disaster to 7-Figure SaaS - with Sergiy Korolov

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Manage episode 512562977 series 1710188
Content provided by Omer Khan. All podcast content including episodes, graphics, and podcast descriptions are uploaded and provided directly by Omer Khan or their podcast platform partner. If you believe someone is using your copyrighted work without your permission, you can follow the process outlined here https://podcastplayer.com/legal.

Back in 2011, Sergiy Korolov's team accidentally sent 20,000 test billing emails to real customers—a complete disaster. They built a simple internal tool to prevent it from happening again, shared it with the Ruby on Rails community, and it exploded. Fast forward to today: Mailtrap generates seven-figure ARR with 100,000+ monthly active users.

The journey wasn't easy. For five years, Mailtrap was just a free side project. When Sergiy finally monetized in 2016, growth was slow and methodical—it took four more years to hit $1M ARR. Then came the biggest challenge: pivoting from a tool that blocks emails to one that sends them in production. It meant rebuilding infrastructure, fighting brand confusion, and competing with giants like SendGrid and Mailgun.

You'll learn:

  • How making signup surveys required provided deep customer insights without hurting conversions
  • How a fake "Email Campaigns" button validated product demand before building anything
  • Why community trust and developer-first thinking beat flashy marketing every time
  • How they navigated the risky pivot from blocking emails to sending them reliably
  • Why running 100+ customer interviews shaped their entire pricing and roadmap strategy

Full show notes → saasclub.io/456

This episode is brought to you by:

💖 ⁠⁠Sprinto⁠⁠ → ⁠⁠Learn more and book a demo today

🚀 SaaS Club LaunchBuild your SaaS to $10K MRR

Get weekly SaaS lessons and new founder stories → saasclub.io/email

  continue reading

548 episodes

Artwork
iconShare
 
Manage episode 512562977 series 1710188
Content provided by Omer Khan. All podcast content including episodes, graphics, and podcast descriptions are uploaded and provided directly by Omer Khan or their podcast platform partner. If you believe someone is using your copyrighted work without your permission, you can follow the process outlined here https://podcastplayer.com/legal.

Back in 2011, Sergiy Korolov's team accidentally sent 20,000 test billing emails to real customers—a complete disaster. They built a simple internal tool to prevent it from happening again, shared it with the Ruby on Rails community, and it exploded. Fast forward to today: Mailtrap generates seven-figure ARR with 100,000+ monthly active users.

The journey wasn't easy. For five years, Mailtrap was just a free side project. When Sergiy finally monetized in 2016, growth was slow and methodical—it took four more years to hit $1M ARR. Then came the biggest challenge: pivoting from a tool that blocks emails to one that sends them in production. It meant rebuilding infrastructure, fighting brand confusion, and competing with giants like SendGrid and Mailgun.

You'll learn:

  • How making signup surveys required provided deep customer insights without hurting conversions
  • How a fake "Email Campaigns" button validated product demand before building anything
  • Why community trust and developer-first thinking beat flashy marketing every time
  • How they navigated the risky pivot from blocking emails to sending them reliably
  • Why running 100+ customer interviews shaped their entire pricing and roadmap strategy

Full show notes → saasclub.io/456

This episode is brought to you by:

💖 ⁠⁠Sprinto⁠⁠ → ⁠⁠Learn more and book a demo today

🚀 SaaS Club LaunchBuild your SaaS to $10K MRR

Get weekly SaaS lessons and new founder stories → saasclub.io/email

  continue reading

548 episodes

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