Indie Board Session

Every founder dreams of an MVP that takes off right away.

But what happens when your first users love your idea… and still don’t use it?

In this episode of Indie Board Session, we’re joined by Quentin Decré, founder of Jarvi, an ATS and CRM built for recruiters.

After interviewing 100 recruiters, launching an MVP, and seeing usage drop to zero, Quentin made a bold move: he rebuilt everything from scratch.

The result? A complete pivot, a product recruiters truly adopted, and today a €120K MRR business with just five people, all fully bootstrapped.

In this episode, we cover:

✅ Why “it’s great” doesn’t mean “I’ll use it,” and how Jarvi turned feedback into real adoption.

✅ Why focusing on mental load (not time savings ) changed everything.

✅ The co-founder selection process that turned Jarvi into a 120K MRR machine.

✅ How a five-person team keeps 1,000 customers happy through radical ownership and shared support.

From idea validation to team building, this episode is a real-world playbook for founders who want to grow fast without losing focus.

Hosted on Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.

Most SaaS start with code. This one started with leadership training.

In this episode of Indie Board Session, we go behind the scenes of Discover Assessments, a company that grew from a simple workshop tool into a SaaS serving clients in 36 countries.

Along with my co-host Matt Hayes, we are joined by founder Dinup Mathew, who shares what it really takes to productize services, win global clients, and face the challenges of scaling sales beyond the founder’s hustle. Along the way, we uncover how referrals, partnerships, and even the limits of AI have shaped his growth journey.

In this episode, we dive into:

✅ How co-creating with clients shaped 25+ assessments and secured long-term loyalty.

✅ Why referrals and partnerships proved stronger growth engines than paid ads.

✅ The trade-offs of scaling sales beyond the founder’s hustle.

✅ What AI can (and cannot) do in behavioral assessment, and why trust is non-negotiable.

Whether you’re turning services into products, chasing global clients, or learning to scale sales beyond founder-led hustle, this episode is a blueprint worth saving.

Hosted on Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.

In this episode of Indie Board Session, two SaaS founders break down how AI is forcing a rethink in content creation, GTM, and marketing strategy:

Jonathan Anderson, CEO of Candu, a no-code UX editor
Riccardo Montis, Founder of Dealshake, a performance marketing agency

Here’s what we cover:

• How B2B tools can supercharge audience targeting

• Why and how Candu ditched self-serve and went sales-led

• How marketing teams are being restructured in today’s hyper-competitive landscape

If you are leading content, growth, or product, this episode is packed with practical insights and sharp founder takes from the front lines.

Hosted on Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.

In 2016, Gino Cateriano started Evalart, an online assessment platform for hiring. Initially, it was just a side project for his wife to earn a bit of extra income.

The early days were brutal:
→ First customer: a freelance recruiter
→ Sales pace: 1 per month (break-even required 2 per day)
→ After 18 months: finally hitting 1 per day → break-even
→ By 2019: profitable at $100K ARR
→ Pandemic tailwinds gave growth an extra push

Fast forward: Evalart became a trusted tool for recruiters and HR teams, and Gino sold the business in an international deal he describes as “stressful but worth it.”

In this episode of Indie Board Session's The Debrief, Gino and I unpack:
- How persistence through slow growth turned a hobby into a real SaaS business
- The key role of continuous product improvement in keeping customers engaged
- What the acquisition process was really like and what made it stressful
- How Noosa Labs is sustaining innovation to keep Evalart growing post-acquisition

For anyone bootstrapping, this is proof that slow beginnings don’t mean failure and that patience can lead to outcomes you never imagined.

Hosted on Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.

How do you bootstrap in one of SaaS’s most competitive spaces and still win big?

In 2019, Kevin Sahin co-founded ScrapingBee with a bold move: start creating value before you have a product to sell.

Kevin started publishing blog posts on Hacker News and Reddit to build an audience from day one.

Fast forward:
→ $5M+ ARR in a hyper-competitive market
→ Acquired for eight figures by Oxylabs, part of Tesonet, one of Lithuania’s largest tech companies

In this episode of Indie Board Session, Kevin and I break down the counterintuitive plays that took ScrapingBee from “two guys with a blog” to a high-growth SaaS.

We cover:
✅ How building & selling a quick side product created the runway to scale the main business
✅ Why saying no to low-value enterprise deals can unlock much bigger ones
✅ How small plans churned while enterprise customers kept expanding
✅ How content-led growth worked against deep-pocketed competitors

Whether you’re building in public, bootstrapping, or scaling in a crowded market, this episode contains a blueprint that you will want to bookmark.

Hosted on Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.

Want some essential strategies to turn early traction into lasting enterprise growth?

The first Indie Board Sessions are writing a clear playbook from scaling small side projects to closing enterprise deals.

In this episode, I unpack four timeless takeaways that keep coming up again and again:

✅ Start your indie project as a side hustle to avoid burnout.

✅ Know your audience early and focus on one winning go-to-market channel.

✅ For enterprise, prioritize core needs and must-haves.

✅ Price your product higher.

If you want to take your indie project from early traction to enterprise adoption, these are the principles that keep working.

Hosted on Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.

How do you scale a viral, product-led platform without losing its simplicity?

Elston Baretto bootstrapped Tiiny Host, a no-code hosting tool used by over a million people, from a simple MVP into a business doing $500K+ ARR, with 60,000+ signups/month.

But most users only pay $9–$38/month.

In this episode of Indie Board Sessions, Elston Baretto, David Apple (ex-Notion, ex-Typeform), and I unpack the next stage of growth: Turning indie adoption into institutional contracts.

We cover:

✅ Why prosumer pricing can cap your growth and how to test appetite for more
✅ The real leverage in enterprise: internal champions and compliance workflows
✅ When to offer enterprise trials and what it reveals about pricing
✅ How SSO and security reviews become gatekeepers, not features
✅ The “20% rule” from Slack that helps secure org-wide buy-in
✅ Why staying horizontal may limit expansion (and how to niche without narrowing)

Whether you're moving from PLG to B2B, selling to both individuals and companies, or building your first enterprise motion, this one’s packed with tactical insights

Hosted on Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.

How do you grow a niche tool into a broader suite without losing what made it work?

Eric Pauley bootstrapped Sendtric, a countdown timer for email marketers, ranked it at the top of Google, and attracted Fortune 50 users all without paid marketing. But over time, platform risk and pricing challenges pushed him to sell. That’s where I came in.

In this episode of Indie Board Session, Eric and I unpack the full story, from launching a side project to selling it, and how I’ve scaled it since acquisition.

About Eric Pauley:

He’s not just a founder, he’s also a newly minted PhD and the CEO of DScope Security.

We cover:

✅ How Sendtric grew to the top of Google ranking without a dollar spent on marketing
✅ Why Eric chose to sell: the technical & systemic risk of building on Google’s algorithm
✅ Why trust, not price, was the deciding factor in the sale
✅ How we de-risked the business, evolving from a countdown timer to a full personalization suite
✅ The one simple change to the free tier that unlocked compounding revenue

Whether you’re building, selling, or acquiring a SaaS, this one’s full of real insights on product, pricing, and post-sale growth.

🔥 Thinking about selling your SaaS? Consider Noosa Labs! Check out our website or drop me a DM on LinkedIn.

Hosted on Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.

What does it take to grow a niche AI-powered SaaS internationally, while building in public, managing multiple projects, and staying focused?

In this episode of Indie Board Session, we dive deep with Pauline Clavelloux, who built IACrea, a $10K MRR SaaS that turns real estate photos into furnished, high-impact visuals using AI. She’s also testing a new model by leveraging her audience’s insights called Feedbask.

Joining me as guest host is Elisabeth Ling, Product Advisor & NED: Formerly at PayPal and Ebay, Elisabeth brings deep expertise in product-market fit, international strategy, and scaling tech products.

Together, we explore:

✅ Tools to identify fruitful international markets for your business 

✅ How to clearly position your vision and align your GTM
✅ Pauline’s playbook to leverage her community and grow her revenue

🎧 Whether you're growing a bootstrapped SaaS, scaling internationally, or figuring out how to make your audience part of your roadmap, this episode is for you.

🔥 Thinking about selling your SaaS? Consider Noosa Labs! Check out our website or drop me a DM on LinkedIn.

Hosted on Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.

What happens when your SaaS is scaling fast, but your business lives and dies by someone else’s rules?

In this episode of Indie Board Session, we share the behind-the-scenes story of WAMessages, a SaaS we grew 5x in just a few months… and then lost overnight.

I'm joined by Noosa Labs’ General Manager, Javier André, who was with me from day one of our first acquisition. Together, we rebuilt, redesigned, and scaled a scrappy product into something real—with hundreds of new users every day and paying customers across the globe.

But one email from a tech giant changed everything. WAMessages shut down in an instant, reminding us how fragile success can be when you build on top of someone else’s platform.

In this episode, we dive into:

✅ The emotional rollercoaster of rapid SaaS growth—and sudden failure
✅ What it takes to redesign and scale a fragile product
✅ How platform risk can destroy a business overnight
✅ The hard lessons we learned about compliance and the risks of “the grey zone”
✅ Real talk on how indie founders can protect themselves

If you’re building on APIs, browser extensions, or any third-party ecosystem, don’t miss this cautionary tale. Listen now to learn how to spot risks before it’s too late—and set your SaaS up for long-term resilience.

🔥 Thinking about selling your SaaS? Consider Noosa Labs! Check out our website or drop me a DM on LinkedIn.

Hosted on Ausha. See ausha.co/privacy-policy for more information.