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Finding Product-Market Fit: $200M ARR After 2 Failures | Pendo

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Manage episode 504313316 series 61396
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.

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:

💖 GearheartBook a free strategy session + get 20% off select services

📫 MailtrapGet 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

Resources

  continue reading

629 episodes

Artwork
iconShare
 
Manage episode 504313316 series 61396
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.

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:

💖 GearheartBook a free strategy session + get 20% off select services

📫 MailtrapGet 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

Resources

  continue reading

629 episodes

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