J.Y. Delmotte co-founded six startups, went through YC, and is now running BuddiesHR — a suite of Slack apps doing $56K MRR. In this one he gets unusually specific about what's working, what flopped, and what could kill the business.

We get into the Slack Marketplace SEO play that captured 90%+ of inbound (and why it's nearly impossible to replicate now), what happened when he doubled the price twice, the existential risk of building on Slack, and the co-founder split that got lawyers involved.

For SaaS founders thinking about growth channels, pricing leverage, and building a business that can actually be sold.

In this episode:

→ The Slack Marketplace SEO play that captured 90%+ of inbound

→ Why doubling the price twice barely lost any customers

→ The platform risk of building on Slack — and the escape plan

→ Why 40 founder interviews shaped the roadmap before any code

→ The co-founder split that got lawyers involved

→ Selling KarmaLinks and TalkFluence: two acquisitions, smooth handoffs

----------- Episode's Chapters -----------

0:05 — Introduction & Guest Background

1:18 — Why J.Y Built Buddies HR

2:00 — What Is Buddies HR?

4:14 — Platform Risk & Slack Dependency

14:18 — Growth Channels & Acquisition Strategy

22:32 — Building in Public — Does It Backfire?

27:42 — Revenue, Pricing & Predictability

34:06 — Selling Car Links & Acquisition Lessons

43:57 — Biggest Win, Biggest Failure & Lessons Learned

54:31 — Founder Hack: Monthly Self-Reflection

🎙️ J.Y. Delmotte - https://www.linkedin.com/in/jydelmotte

🌐 BuddiesHR - buddieshr.com

Subscribe to our channel to be the first to see the interviews that we publish - https://www.youtube.com/@saas-group

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LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/14790796

Adnan Malik bootstrapped Software Finder from two people in 2019 to 340 employees with 100%+ growth every year — without ever taking outside funding.

The engine: a human matchmaking layer between confused software buyers and overwhelmed vendors. We get into why 70-80% of B2B software buyers end up unhappy, how a 120-person content team drove 300% organic growth while competitors collapsed, and the mid-market sales mistake costing SaaS founders their margin.

For SaaS founders, operators, and marketers who want to understand how marketplaces actually scale.

In this episode:

→ Why most B2B software buyers end up dissatisfied

→ The chicken-and-egg problem and the first-mover edge of starting in health IT

→ How content scaled to 300% organic growth while competitors dropped

→ Why 90% sales / 10% marketing is the costly default for mid-size SaaS

→ AEO in practice — and why Adnan calls it "glorified SEO"

→ The personal cost of scaling from 100 to 340 employees

----------- Episode's Chapters -----------

0:05 — Introduction & Guest Welcome

0:49 — What Software Finder Does & How It Started

2:01 — The Business Model: Free for Buyers, Paid by Vendors

5:58 — Solving the Chicken & Egg Problem

9:21 — 5 Years of 100% Growth — What's Driving It

14:43 — SEO Investment & Organic Traffic Wins

17:04 — AEO & How LLMs Are Changing Buyer Search

20:48 — Biggest Mistakes Vendors Make with Buyers

25:22 — Why Brand & Reviews Matter Before the Sale

26:32 — Review Manipulation & How to Build Trust

30:49 — Founder Burnout & Managing Rapid Growth

33:49 — Biggest Win, Biggest Failure & Lessons Learned

36:38 — Advice for Bootstrapped Founders Today

Adnan Malik - linkedin.com/in/adnanmalik1

Software Finder - https://softwarefinder.com

Subscribe to our channel to be the first to see the interviews that we publish - https://www.youtube.com/@saas-group

Stay up to date:

Twitter: https://twitter.com/SaaS_group

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/14790796

saas.unbound is a podcast for and about founders who are working on scaling inspiring products that people love, brought to you by https://saas.group/, a serial acquirer of B2B SaaS companies.

In episode #17 of season 6, Anna Nadeina talks with Aaron Gibson has exited two companies, turned down VC funding, and built Hurree — a data analytics platform — by obsessing over one thing: showing users value before they quit.

In this episode:

→ Why Aaron thinks moats are "a lot slimmer than they used to be" in the AI era

→ How anonymous pulse surveys exposed a culture problem he didn't know he had

→ Initiatives that changed team retention

→ His framework for knowing when to double down on a growth channel — and when to kill it

→ Why he doesn't expect his team to love their jobs, and what he expects instead

→ What serial founders actually build toward when they're "not building for acquisition"

For bootstrapped founders, operators, and anyone building a team-first SaaS business in a crowded market.

----------- Episode's Chapters -----------

0:05 — Introduction & What Hurry Solves

3:20 — Aaron's Background & Journey into Tech

4:45 — The Origin Story of Hurry

6:38 — Showing Monster Value Before Users Churn

10:12 — Using AI Internally & in the Product

11:55 — Measuring AI Success

14:04 — AI & Hiring: Is It Changing the Team?

17:20 — Building a Strong Culture as a Startup

29:22 — Growth Strategy: Bootstrapped & Customer-Obsessed

30:37 — Account-Based Marketing & Go-to-Market Strategy

34:30 — Building for an Exit — Lessons from Two Acquisitions

37:50 — Biggest Win, Biggest Failure & Founder Hacks

🎙️ Aaron Gibson - https://www.linkedin.com/in/aaronhurree/

Huree - https://www.hurree.co/

Subscribe to our channel to be the first to see the interviews that we publish - https://www.youtube.com/@saas-group

Stay up to date:

Twitter: https://twitter.com/SaaS_group

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/14790796