Episode 794 | From Struggling Side Project to Life-Changing SaaS Exit

Startups For the Rest of Us

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3d ago 56:04

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B2C, low price point, one-time payments… not the typical recipe for a life-changing exit.

In this episode, Rob Walling talks with longtime listener Zamir Khan, founder of VidHug (now Memento). Zamir’s story broke a lot of SaaS “rules”: B2C, low price point, one-time payments, and years of slow growth. He shares how he nearly gave up, the pandemic surge that changed everything, and the emotional ride that led to a life-changing exit.

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Topics we cover:

(3:47) — From podcast listener to SaaS founder
(7:59) — The role of luck, timing, and the pandemic in growth
(18:37) — A birthday gift becomes a product
(23:54) — Charging early and surviving slow growth
(30:47) — From $1k a month to 80k daily users
(39:58) — Support load, stress, and the edge of burnout
(48:58) — Deciding to sell (and why timing mattered)
(52:57) — Life after the exit: slowing down and finding balance

Links from the Show:

TinySeed – Applications close tonight!
MicroConf Connect – The community for SaaS founders
The SaaS Playbook
Memento (formerly VidHug)
Zamir Khan (@zam1rkhan) | X
Zamir Khan | LinkedIn

If you have questions about starting or scaling a software business that you’d like for us to cover, please submit your question for an upcoming episode. We’d love to hear from you!

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