Episode Details

Ian Brodie and his co-founder quit their jobs in March 2020, got laughed out of every VC meeting, and built a services business instead. After selling it for a mid-7-figure deal, they launched Levanta and hit $230K MRR in 9 months through SaaS partnerships with affiliate agencies - without a dollar in paid marketing.

Learn how SaaS partnerships drove 650 brands and 2,500 affiliates to one platform, why validating on Fiverr works, and how partner-led growth replaced traditional acquisition channels entirely.

🔑 Key Lessons

• 🤝 SaaS partnerships can replace paid acquisition entirely: Levanta hit $230K MRR in 9 months without spending on paid marketing by partnering with affiliate agencies who brought sellers and affiliates to the platform.
• 🎯 Validate demand on Fiverr before building any SaaS partnerships product: Ian posted affiliate recruitment services on Fiverr and got 100+ inquiries within days, proving market demand without a product or website.
• 📉 A failed SaaS product can be a lucky escape: Grovia's self-service tool flopped because customers wanted managed service. Raising VC to build it would have wasted millions.
• 🏢 Close aggregators to load your SaaS partnerships marketplace: Levanta partnered with Amazon aggregators owning 100+ brands each, loading the two-sided marketplace quickly through channel partners.
• 🚀 Co-create content with SaaS partnerships to scale awareness: Levanta co-authored ebooks and case studies with agency partnerships, then partners distributed content to their own networks.

Chapters

• Introduction
• Ian's favorite quote from Rand Fishkin
• What Levanta does and who it serves
• Current metrics: $230K MRR, 650 brands, 2,500 affiliates
• The backstory begins: wanting to build a SaaS company
• How Ian and Rob met and quit their jobs in March 2020
• Using Fiverr to validate the agency business idea
• Why Fiverr works for demand validation
• Moving upmarket from SMB clients
• Building SaaS partnerships with affiliate tracking platforms
• Funding the SaaS dream from services revenue
• Why the first SaaS product failed as self-service
• Realizing Grovia was a services company, not SaaS
• Selling Grovia: acquisition offers and the mid-7-figure deal
• Bootstrapping Grovia with almost no outside capital
• Transitioning out of Grovia after the acquisition
• The genesis of Levanta and Amazon's Attribution API
• Validating Levanta through months of customer calls
• Building the product with a technical co-founder
• Raising a $430K pre-seed round in two weeks
• From incorporation to beta in three months
• First customers: targeting Amazon aggregators
• Selling to affiliate agencies as channel partners
• Scaling content through co-marketing with agency partners
• Why the partner-led growth model worked for both sides
• Challenges of finding the right level of funding
• Choosing a boutique VC over traditional growth rounds
• Lightning round
• Wrap up

Resources

• Full show notes: https://saasclub.io/387
• Join 5,000+ SaaS founders: https://saasclub.io/email