loader from loading.io

From $5K to $10M ARR: The ArcAds Founder’s Playbook

SaaS Interviews with CEOs, Startups, Founders

Release Date: 12/10/2025

From $500K to $1.5M ARR: Bootstrapping VR SaaS for Trade Skills show art From $500K to $1.5M ARR: Bootstrapping VR SaaS for Trade Skills

SaaS Interviews with CEOs, Startups, Founders

Sabari Nair, co-founder and CEO of Skillveri, joins Nathan to break down how he’s scaling a VR-powered vocational training platform to $1.5M ARR today, serving 100+ schools in the U.S., with $350K enterprise contracts — and why he believes immersive training plus SaaS pricing is the future of skilled labor education. In this episode, Sabari explains how Skillveri combines VR software subscriptions, hardware add-ons, and a reseller-led GTM motion to win in a category traditionally dominated by $30K+ one-time simulation vendors.   You’ll learn: — How Skillveri sells VR training...

info_outline Founder uses Genius Playbook to hit $1M revenue with no employees show art Founder uses Genius Playbook to hit $1M revenue with no employees

SaaS Interviews with CEOs, Startups, Founders

In this episode, we sit down with Andrew Fennell, founder of Standout CV, to unpack how he built and scaled a resume-builder SaaS to over 18 million organic visitors, $30K MRR, and $1M+ in lifetime revenue — without venture funding. Andrew walks through his SEO-first go-to-market strategy, pricing evolution, churn reduction, and the exact content and link-building tactics that helped him win in an ultra-competitive space. This episode is a masterclass in bootstrapped SaaS growth, monetization, and acquisition efficiency....

info_outline Bootstrapping Through War to $6M ARR: A SaaS Founder Story show art Bootstrapping Through War to $6M ARR: A SaaS Founder Story

SaaS Interviews with CEOs, Startups, Founders

Vlad Malanin, MD, PhD and co-founder of SpeedSize, shares how he scaled an AI-powered media optimization SaaS from $400K to $6M ARR with just 25 employees. SpeedSize helps enterprise and mid-market brands deliver high-quality images and video without sacrificing site performance, serving over 200 global customers. In this episode, Vlad breaks down SpeedSize’s capital-efficient growth strategy, enterprise pricing model, partnership-led GTM motion, and the hard founder decisions required to survive near-zero runway during wartime—while maintaining low churn, strong expansion revenue, and...

info_outline From $5K to $10M ARR: The ArcAds Founder’s Playbook show art From $5K to $10M ARR: The ArcAds Founder’s Playbook

SaaS Interviews with CEOs, Startups, Founders

Romain Torres is the founder of ArcAds.ai, an AI-powered video ad platform that helps marketers create and scale ad creatives with zero production overhead. In just 20 months, he scaled the company from $5K to over $10M in ARR—completely bootstrapped. In this episode, Romain shares how he validated demand without even having a dashboard, the growth playbook that drove viral traction, and the three channels fueling ArcAds’ revenue engine today: paid ads, sales, and influencer marketing. He also dives into usage-based pricing, churn recovery, and what’s next for the company.   Notes:...

info_outline From $450K to $9M ARR in 5 Years: Club Caddie’s Vertical SaaS Playbook show art From $450K to $9M ARR in 5 Years: Club Caddie’s Vertical SaaS Playbook

SaaS Interviews with CEOs, Startups, Founders

Golf course SaaS founder Jason Pearsall shares how Club Caddie scaled from $450K to $9M ARR in 5 years, sold to Constellation Software (CSI), and keeps growing with 600+ golf courses paying ~$15K ACV. If you’re building vertical B2B SaaS, this is a masterclass in niche focus, capital efficiency, and smart deal-making. Jason breaks down why he built an end-to-end ERP for golf courses, how he used data-driven outbound, review sites, SEO and “answer engine optimization” (AEO) to win market share, and what really happened during his CSI acquisition and long-term earnout. We cover pricing,...

info_outline Bootstrapped to $82M: How Callum Mckeefery Built Reviews.io from His Kitchen Table show art Bootstrapped to $82M: How Callum Mckeefery Built Reviews.io from His Kitchen Table

SaaS Interviews with CEOs, Startups, Founders

Callum Mckeefery built Reviews.io from scratch with his wife—no funding, no equity dilution, and no fluff. In this episode, he shares how they scaled to $12M ARR, outpaced VC-backed competitors, and exited for $82M in an all-cash deal. He breaks down the exact viral loop that created SEO-fueled growth, how they hit $240K revenue per employee, and why he chose not to give employees equity—but still made many millionaires. Callum also opens up about the emotional driver behind the exit: his son’s rare genetic condition, and the cutting-edge research he’s now funding. Finally, Callum...

info_outline He Used AI to Generate $6m Revenue at Dreamstories by Selling Childrens Books show art He Used AI to Generate $6m Revenue at Dreamstories by Selling Childrens Books

SaaS Interviews with CEOs, Startups, Founders

How do you scale a consumer AI company to 100,000+ paying customers… without raising VC and while staying profitable? Ricardo, founder of DreamStories.ai, joins Nathan to break down how he built an AI-powered personalized children’s book studio that’s already done $3M+ in lifetime sales, with average order value around $60 — and why most people misunderstand how to scale paid acquisition for an AI startup. You’ll learn: — How he used Facebook ads to profitably acquire 100,000+ customers — Why his CAC target equals his AOV (and why that works) — The onboarding funnel that...

info_outline Lemlist Revenue Hits $40M: CEO Charles Breaks Down $25M Claap Acquisition Deal show art Lemlist Revenue Hits $40M: CEO Charles Breaks Down $25M Claap Acquisition Deal

SaaS Interviews with CEOs, Startups, Founders

Lemlist revenue has passed $40M revenue with strong profit margins as CEO Charles Tenot breaks down their $25M Claap acquisition and Lemlist’s path to $100M revenue by 2028. He explains how Claap reached $2M ARR with a 7-person team and why Lemlist used a mix of cash, vendor loans, and convertible bonds to structure the deal.  

info_outline Woah! Unicorn Founder Quits Unicorn During $213M Raise, Launches Something Bigger show art Woah! Unicorn Founder Quits Unicorn During $213M Raise, Launches Something Bigger

SaaS Interviews with CEOs, Startups, Founders

Ry Walker, serial entrepreneur and founder of Tembo.io, walked away from his first company, Astronomer.io (yes the Coldplay one) during their $213 million Series C in 2022. The company was doing tens of millions in revenue. Now, he's building Tembo.io, an AI developer teammate that's already processing 1,000+ merged pull requests for 200 organizations just 2 months after pivoting. He previously co-founded Astronomer in 2015, which has raised $380-390 million total and is now estimated at $80-100 million ARR, but took a rare secondary exit in 2022 to return to his true passion: early-stage...

info_outline He Makes $20m/Yr Selling Digital Robots to Companies show art He Makes $20m/Yr Selling Digital Robots to Companies

SaaS Interviews with CEOs, Startups, Founders

Bassem Handy, CEO of Briq.com, survived the VC apocalypse by firing 215 humans and replacing them with robots, growing from burning $1M/month to hitting $25M ARR with just 135 employees. After raising $50M including a peak-bubble Tiger Global round, he took a flat $150M valuation in 2024 and used his own robot technology to automate 80% of his sales team, achieving the lowest customer acquisition costs in company history. In this episode, he reveals exactly how he got 600 companies to pay him $2,000-$5,000/month for robots that process 2.6 million automation minutes monthly, and his plan to...

info_outline
 
More Episodes

Romain Torres is the founder of ArcAds.ai, an AI-powered video ad platform that helps marketers create and scale ad creatives with zero production overhead. In just 20 months, he scaled the company from $5K to over $10M in ARR—completely bootstrapped.

In this episode, Romain shares how he validated demand without even having a dashboard, the growth playbook that drove viral traction, and the three channels fueling ArcAds’ revenue engine today: paid ads, sales, and influencer marketing. He also dives into usage-based pricing, churn recovery, and what’s next for the company.

 


Notes:

  • Growth Levers

    • Reached $10M ARR in under 2 years

    • From $5K to $64K MRR in 1 month after a viral tweet

    • Paid ads, influencer virality, and enterprise sales are main levers

  • GTM Strategy

    • Started with direct outreach and manual fulfillment

    • Product-led motion with a transition into high-touch enterprise sales

    • Events and conferences (Affiliate World, App Growth Summit) for pipeline

  • Revenue & Pricing

    • Usage-based pricing (number of generated ads, actors, etc.)

    • Highest ACV in the six figures

    • Profitably bootstrapped despite heavy infrastructure/API costs

  • Churn & Retention

    • Early churn spike due to product breaking after viral growth

    • Rebuilt platform in one month post-refunds

    • Retention improved with onboarding and product stability

  • Scaling Operations

    • 8-person lean team managing 210+ live ads

    • Internal use of ArcAds platform to generate their own creatives

    • Strong rev-per-employee metrics

  • Data & Tech Stack

    • Sits on top of GenAI models from OpenAI, Google, ByteDance

    • Auto-selects best model per prompt based on use case

    • Internal feedback loops using ad performance data to improve UX and features

  • Founder Insight

    • Tested market fit without a product UI

    • Hired sales after passing $5M ARR

    • SEO and enterprise sales are next big focus areas

 

 

What you’ll learn:

Founder Story

  • How Romain validated the idea with no product

  • Why ArcAds went viral and what broke

  • Bootstrapping vs VC-backed strategy

 

Pricing & Revenue

  • Usage-based monetization and six-figure ACVs

  • Profit margins despite high API costs

  • Leveraging viral growth to fund product rebuild

 

GTM & Outbound

  • Transition from product-led to outbound sales

  • Scaling via events, outreach, and Twitter content

  • Building a two-person sales team to close big brands

 

SEO & AEO

  • Organic strategy and plans for future growth

  • Why they’ve done no SEO so far—and why that’s changing

  • How content virality and influencer posts fueled spikes

 

Acquisition & Scaling

  • Managing churn during hypergrowth

  • Operating a multi-million ARR business with 8 people

  • Systems for testing, tracking, and scaling 200+ ad creatives