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Finding Product-Market Fit: $200M ARR After 2 Failures | Pendo
Manage episode 504313316 series 61396
Todd Olson went from two failed startups to building Pendo, a SaaS platform now generating $200M ARR with 880 employees and nearly $500M raised. In this episode, early-stage B2B SaaS founders will learn how an obsession with product-market fit turned past failures into a unicorn.
Todd reveals why he refused to hire salespeople until he validated the sales motion himself (at $500k ARR), how he used manual outreach instead of inbound to create a new category, and the controversial pricing decision—raising the minimum from $99 to $1,000 overnight—that changed the company's trajectory forever.
In this episode, Todd also explains how building "Auto-Track" gave them an unfair advantage over competitors like Segment, why "Product-Led Growth" failed them early on, and the specific metrics he used to validate fit before scaling.
This episode is brought to you by:
💖 Gearheart → Book a free strategy session + get 20% off select services
📫 Mailtrap → Get 20% off with code THESAASPODCAST
🔑 Key Lessons
- 💡 Finding Product-Market Fit: Why Todd refused to scale until he had undeniable fit, unlike his first two startups.
- 💰 The 10x Price Hike: How raising the minimum price from $99/mo to $1,000/mo filtered out bad customers and accelerated growth.
- 🤝 Founder-Led Sales: Why Todd personally sold the first $500k in ARR before hiring a single salesperson.
- 🏗️ Building the MVP: How Pendo launched with critical features (Auto-Track) that competitors like Segment ignored for years.
- 🚀 Category Creation: The challenge of selling a product nobody was searching for and why "Product-Led Growth" didn't work early on.
📖 Chapters
- Introduction & Favorite Quote
- What is Pendo? Product Overview
- Company Metrics
- Todd’s Early Coding Career
- First Startup Failure & Lessons
- Missing Product-Market Fit
- Inspiration for Pendo
- Building the First Product
- Landing First Customers
- First Paying Customer
- Pricing Evolution
- Hardest Challenges Scaling
- Lightning Round
💌 Get weekly 5-minute SaaS insights: https://saasclub.io/email
SaaS Club Programs
- Join the SaaS Club founder community: https://saasclub.co/plus
- Build your $10K MRR SaaS: https://saasclub.io/launch
- Scale from 6-figures to $1M ARR Faster: https://saasclub.io/mastermind
Resources
- Full show notes: https://saasclub.io/451
- Subscribe to the podcast: https://saasclub.io/subscribe
629 episodes
Manage episode 504313316 series 61396
Todd Olson went from two failed startups to building Pendo, a SaaS platform now generating $200M ARR with 880 employees and nearly $500M raised. In this episode, early-stage B2B SaaS founders will learn how an obsession with product-market fit turned past failures into a unicorn.
Todd reveals why he refused to hire salespeople until he validated the sales motion himself (at $500k ARR), how he used manual outreach instead of inbound to create a new category, and the controversial pricing decision—raising the minimum from $99 to $1,000 overnight—that changed the company's trajectory forever.
In this episode, Todd also explains how building "Auto-Track" gave them an unfair advantage over competitors like Segment, why "Product-Led Growth" failed them early on, and the specific metrics he used to validate fit before scaling.
This episode is brought to you by:
💖 Gearheart → Book a free strategy session + get 20% off select services
📫 Mailtrap → Get 20% off with code THESAASPODCAST
🔑 Key Lessons
- 💡 Finding Product-Market Fit: Why Todd refused to scale until he had undeniable fit, unlike his first two startups.
- 💰 The 10x Price Hike: How raising the minimum price from $99/mo to $1,000/mo filtered out bad customers and accelerated growth.
- 🤝 Founder-Led Sales: Why Todd personally sold the first $500k in ARR before hiring a single salesperson.
- 🏗️ Building the MVP: How Pendo launched with critical features (Auto-Track) that competitors like Segment ignored for years.
- 🚀 Category Creation: The challenge of selling a product nobody was searching for and why "Product-Led Growth" didn't work early on.
📖 Chapters
- Introduction & Favorite Quote
- What is Pendo? Product Overview
- Company Metrics
- Todd’s Early Coding Career
- First Startup Failure & Lessons
- Missing Product-Market Fit
- Inspiration for Pendo
- Building the First Product
- Landing First Customers
- First Paying Customer
- Pricing Evolution
- Hardest Challenges Scaling
- Lightning Round
💌 Get weekly 5-minute SaaS insights: https://saasclub.io/email
SaaS Club Programs
- Join the SaaS Club founder community: https://saasclub.co/plus
- Build your $10K MRR SaaS: https://saasclub.io/launch
- Scale from 6-figures to $1M ARR Faster: https://saasclub.io/mastermind
Resources
- Full show notes: https://saasclub.io/451
- Subscribe to the podcast: https://saasclub.io/subscribe
629 episodes
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