This week we hosted four SaasRise masterminds -- all with CEOs & founders of SaaS firms with $1M to $100M in ARR.

Here are the topics we covered this week...

1. Small Business Acquisitions
2. Advisory Boards & Non-Performing Advisors
3. Team Growth & Change Management
4. Recruiting & Talent Models
5. AI Development & Prototyping
6. AI Commercialization & Adoption
7. Billing & Monetization Models
8. Market Expansion & Partnerships
9. Marketing, Content & Distribution
10. Customer Support & Success

⬇️ Here is a recap of what we talked about this week in the SaasRise Mastermind Calls and recommended SaaS tools from our members, hope it's helpful!

All the best,
Ryan Allis at SaasRise
The Community for Experience SaaS CEOs & Founders

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Topic 1. Small Business Acquisitions

Challenge: Figuring out how to buy tiny companies (like a 2-person shop) without drowning in complexity.

Advice: Don’t overcomplicate it. Keep the LOI simple, spell out revenue share in plain terms (what counts, not what doesn’t), check the tech stack, and lock in seller transition support.

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Topic 2. Advisory Boards & Non-Performing Advisors

Challenge: Advisor taking cash + equity but adding zero value.

Advice: Be straight. Tell them you’re changing direction, not critiquing performance. Keep it cool, maybe toss them a finder’s fee option down the road.

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Topic 3. Team Growth & Change Management

Challenge: Hypergrowth spooks long-timers and makes them dig in against change.

Advice: Don’t try to flip the whole team at once. Find change champions inside the group, lead visibly, and connect on an emotional level. Coaching or outside support can help smooth the ride.

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Topic 4. Recruiting & Talent Models

Challenge: Choosing between flat-fee recruiters vs. traditional percentage-based, plus hiring overseas.

Advice: Flat-fee often kills recruiter motivation. Judge recruiters on individual hustle, not firm brand. Use trusted networks to find the right people in markets like India.

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Topic 5. AI Development & Prototyping

Challenge: Building working prototypes without wasting months of dev cycles.

Advice: Hack together MVPs fast with tools like Google AI Studio, Claude, Lovable, and Replit. Hand real prototypes to your devs later instead of wasting their time on half-baked ideas.

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Topic 6. AI Commercialization & Adoption

Challenge: Selling “too good to be true” AI tech and facing adoption pushback around trust and security.

Advice: Slow down the hype — prove stability, show proof-of-concepts, and lean on partnerships with giants like AWS or Microsoft for credibility.

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Topic 7. Billing & Monetization Models

Challenge: Moving beyond flat subscriptions to feature-based or usage-based billing that customers actually trust.

Advice: Bake in metering that’s transparent enough for customers to audit. Frame it as helping them control costs, not just squeezing more revenue.

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Topic 8. Market Expansion & Partnerships

Challenge: Expanding into new verticals or upmarket without wrecking your SEO or diluting brand.

Advice: Don’t mess with what’s already working. Protect core content, spin up subdomains or separate brands to test new markets, and partner with heavy-hitters for credibility.

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Topic 9. Marketing, Content & Distribution

Challenge: Staying visible in a crowded market while keeping content quality high.

Advice: Forget spraying weak posts everywhere. Create one strong piece each week, then slice and repurpose it across channels. Automate the grunt work, track performance, and double down on what sticks.

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Topic 10. Customer Support & Success

Challenge: Legacy support tools can’t keep up, and support staff aren’t scaling with product complexity.

Advice: Upgrade to AI-first support (like Intercom FIN) and build a proper knowledge base. Shift support staff toward success roles so customers actually grow with you.

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Tools Recommended This Week by Members

Recruiting & Talent

• Betts Recruiting (U.S. sales)
• Clay + LeadMagic: High-quality enrichment
• Apollo: Broad reach, but crowded
   

AI Prototyping

• Google AI Studio, Claude (coding)
• Lovable (UI)
• Replit (functional tools, backend infra)
   

Project & Team Ops

• Slack Lists, ClickUp, Monday.com (PM)
   

Marketing & Content

• Canva, Designer (visuals)
• AdCreative.ai (ads)
• Jasper.ai + Zapier (automation)
• HubSpot, Hootsuite, Mailchimp, Beehiiv, Brevo, Transpond (distribution)
   

Customer Support & Success

• Intercom FIN (AI agent)
   

Partnerships & Billing

• Rewardful (affiliate/partner mgmt)
   

Books

• Topgrading (for hiring & team optimization)

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Growth Tools We Often Recommend:‍

‍Clay, Instantly, Apollo, ListKit,Cometly, Amplemarket

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Join The Community

We’ll be back in touch in a few days with another article on rapid SaaS scaling and exit prep. In the mean time, check out our SaaS CEO & Founder Mastermind community, SaasRise.

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About the Author

Ryan Allis built iContact as CEO/Co-Founder from startup to $50M in ARR, 70,000 paying customers, #81 on the INC 500 list, and an exit for $169M to a publicly traded company. 

 At iContact, he raised over $45M in venture capital (including $15M in founder liquidity). Today, Ryan is the CEO of SaasRise, the #1 community for experienced SaaS CEOs and Founders with $1M to $100m in ARR.

Ryan focuses on helping tech and SaaS firms achieve 9 and 10 figure exits. He has coached the CEOs of Instantly, Clearstream, Seamless.ai, Tatango, Fuse, Pipeline, RNL, Retreaver, YouCanBookMe, Noteefy, RXNT, and many more growing SaaS firms from $5M to $160M in ARR. Ryan holds an MBA from Harvard Business School.
 

Apply to join our three mastermind communities.

• SaasRise - For SaaS CEOs & Founders with $1M+ to $100M in ARR
• GrowthRise - For B2B Marketing Leaders
• VentureRise - For CEOs with $5M+ in VC Raised

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SaasRise Hall of Fame

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Congrats to the SaasRise members who have successfully exited or achieved a liquidity event for their company. View the Hall of Fame here.

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