The Blueprint for Mirroring Billion-Dollar SaaS

The best way to build a successful SaaS with product-market fit is to clone an existing billion-dollar company.

1. Mailchimp vs. EmailOctopus

Mailchimp is a marketing automation and email marketing platform acquired by Intuit for $12 billion.

An alternative is EmailOctopus, a bootstrapped email marketing tool with over $3 million in annual revenue.

2. Intercom vs. Crisp

Intercom is a customer service platform that offers real-time chat support for businesses, valued at $1.3 billion.

Crisp is a bootstrapped competitor with $565,000 in monthly recurring revenue.

3. Docusign vs. CocoSign

Docusign is a platform for electronically creating, signing, and tracking documents. It earned $2.7 billion in 2024.

CocoSign is a smaller, bootstrapped alternative, making $20,000 in monthly recurring revenue.

4. Canva vs. Playground

Canva is an online graphic design tool, generating $2 billion in revenue in 2023.

A similar AI-powered platform is Playground, which provides AI-generated design tools.

5. Adobe Premiere Pro vs. Captions AI

Adobe Premiere Pro is a professional video editing software. The entire Adobe ecosystem earned around $19 billion.

Captions AI is an AI-powered video editing alternative valued at $500 million.

You don’t need to reinvent the wheel. Cloning an established SaaS with proven success is a better path.

Pro-tip: Do the same but rethink the whole experience with AI like Captions did so you can build a generational company.

A tool to Discover The World's Best Short-Form Content

Typecast curates videos from top brands and creators. Use it as inspiration for improving your organic social media strategy.

One recommended video on Why Micro-Influencers Deliver the Best ROI for Your Marketing

This video explains how micro-influencers provide better returns than mega-influencers. It's a short watch.

Top Tweets of the day

1/

So many founders work on the wrong idea and waste their prime years. And when they don't see enough progress, they start doubting themselves and that's the end of their entrepreneurial career.

Spend more time on the idea. You don't need to fail 100s of times before you see 1 success.

2/

Ditch your free plan unless its used for marketing.

3/

Real sauce gets shared in the DMs or in private groups. Very rarely anyone shares the thing that's printing money.

Rabbit Holes

1. I automated 95% of my hiring process - Better candidates and less headache for just $250 to screen for the right applicant. Definitely an interesting process.

2. Everything OpenAI Launched at DevDay - Great summary of OpenAI's DevDay. You can launch even more OpenAI wrappers now that Realtime Voice API is available. Pick the right niche, build an app around it, and make millions. Easier said than done.

3. How to hire better talent - "The most talented people are rarely looking for jobs." Truer words have never been spoken. Pro-tip: You can poach them from their competitors.

Until next time!

If you enjoyed this, please consider sharing it with a friend. If a friend sent you this, get the next newsletter by signing up here.

Read all the old case studies here.

And don't forget to follow me on X.

More Startup Spells 🪄

1. Paddle's 'Credit Card Fees' Hack To Increase Bottom Line (LINK)

2. AI Ads: 300x Conversion Rate (LINK)

3. Peak End Rule (with Real Life Examples) (LINK)