Founder Playbook · Starter Story
9 tactics from Ivan
I Built a $10K/Month SaaS Using Other People's Customers
Watch the full episode“we're offering now three plans which is the pay as you go which you for $79 you get 30 proposals and then you pay $2 for each extra proposal send then you have a light plan which is $300 for $250 proposals and then an unlimited plan which was initially the launch offer for $500 a month”
Structure Three Pricing Tiers to Capture Freelancers and Agencies
Lancer's three-tier structure — pay-as-you-go, a mid-tier seat, and an unlimited plan — lets freelancers try the product at low commitment while giving high-volume agencies a predictable all-in price. Structuring pricing around usage volume naturally segments customers by willingness to pay without requiring complex sales conversations.
“we initially built as an internal tool and it crushed for us Then we did a beta test where I invited several friends which are also agency owners as well And when they both closed like between them three five figure clients within two weeks of using the tool I really thought we really had something here”
Build an Internal Tool First to Validate Before Going Public
Ivan validated Lancer by using it inside his own agency before showing it to anyone else. A small beta with trusted peers who quickly landed real clients gave him undeniable proof of value, removing the guesswork before committing to a full product launch.
“On Upwork you can find your ICP very perfectly because it's all public you know like it's a public marketplace for talent And I would say every platform which has a huge user base is something that you can automate and build something on top of”
Target Platforms Where Your ICP Is Already Publicly Identifiable
Public platforms like Upwork make audience targeting extremely precise because the ideal customer profile is visible and searchable without any paid acquisition. Building a product on top of an existing platform lets you sidestep the cold-start problem by tapping into an already-aggregated, self-selecting audience.
“instead of like going out to them directly using paid ads or cold email at scale I identify the layer above them basically a profile of user who has access to them So basically I call them connectors and essentially convince them to be affiliates in that way”
Find Customers by Targeting the People Who Already Own Your Audience
Rather than spending years growing a social following or burning budget on ads, Ivan found people who already had trust and access to his ideal customers. Converting a single connector into an affiliate was one high-leverage sales call instead of hundreds of individual ones. Two Upwork coaches alone drove Lancer to $10K/month.
“most of our growth came from actually just two upper coaches For the first one one of our beta users had actually worked with one of them and he made the recommendation and intro and all I had to do was just demo the product He was blown away basically at what we've built and he started referring every client since then”
Lock In Affiliate Distribution Partners Before Going Wide at Launch
Lancer hit $10K MRR within its fourth month largely because two Upwork coaches were already primed to refer customers at launch. Having distribution partners locked in before going wide meant revenue came in immediately rather than waiting for organic discovery to kick in.
“If they completely sign a client they onboard them and they set them up on online s uh they get 30% commission for a lifetime and if they just refer them then that's 20%”
Pay Connectors Lifetime Commissions to Align Their Incentives With Yours
By giving Upwork coaches a lifetime financial incentive to fully onboard new customers, Ivan aligned the affiliate's economic interest with proper user setup. A customer who's correctly configured from day one is far less likely to churn, and tiering commissions by onboarding depth turns distribution partners into de-facto customer success reps.
“define an ICP for a SAS product is essentially one that onboards very easily So there's very low friction hopefully self onboards and then like they stay very long time or they don't really churn and in our case this has turned out to be an agency user more than a freelancer”
Define Your ICP as Whoever Onboards Easiest and Stays Longest
Ivan discovered that his assumed ICP (freelancers) was not his best customer — agencies doing high volumes of proposals churned far less and needed less hand-holding. Letting real usage data reveal your true ICP, rather than assumptions, is the difference between a leaky funnel and a sticky product.
“write and send a pitch or an offer to the connectors Go very personalized Do a lot of research about them Reference things about them and essentially do even like a long Loom video or reference again like some of their work closing one affiliate you get a lot of value”
Use Deep Personalization When Recruiting High-Value Connector Affiliates
When the target is a connector with hundreds of warm leads behind them, the ROI on deeply personalized outreach — custom Loom videos, references to their specific work — is massive compared to generic cold email. Treating affiliate recruitment like a high-ticket sale unlocks distribution that no SEO or ad spend could match at the same cost.
“I delayed jumping into the what I call arena to optimize for income and financial security the problems you get to solve when building and growing a software product these days are so highly leveraged and applicable to almost any online business Mastering them would be worth more than any income you can generate in a year or two”
Choose Skill Leverage Over Income When Deciding What to Build Next
Ivan spent years running a profitable dev agency but recognized he was trading time for money with a hard ceiling on growth. He argues that the compounding value of learning to build and distribute software products outweighs the short-term safety of a high salary or service business. Choosing leverage over income — especially early — unlocks asymmetric upside.