The Breakdown

The Fastest Way To $10K MRR With SaaS

$10,000 in monthly revenue (MRR) is often a golden number for founders.

It’s the number most need to go full-time or start hiring.

So what’s the fastest way to get there?

Let’s break down the most common SaaS models and see which wins:

1) B2C with a free trial

B2C SaaS products usually fall into the following categories:

• Utilities (e.g. calculators, VPNs etc.)

• Entertainment (e.g. news or music products)

• Travel

• Health

• and many more…

Most of these operate the following model:

• Free trial limited by time or features

• Paid plan usually ~ $10/month

With 6,000 new customers each month, 30% converting to paid, and 60% sticking around after 30 days:

You’ll make $10,800 a month.

This is why B2C is hard.

It’s difficult to bring in 6,000 new customers every month.

Plus the 30% paid conversion rate here is optimistic, for many it can be a lot lower.

Luckily there’s one thing you can do to make this much easier…

2) B2C paid-only

Here I’ve simply removed the free trial from the equation.

With 1,700 new customers each month and the same 30-day retention of 60%:

You’ll make $10,200 a month.

That’s the same revenue as the previous example but with < 30% of the new customers each month.

Plus it means 30% less marketing effort and 30% less customer support.

It’s clear free trials are good at keeping you busy - but they don’t pay the bills!

3) Low-ticket B2B SaaS

Here we’re talking:

• Social media management - e.g. Pally

• HR - e.g. CharlieHR

• Product demo tools - e.g. Walnut

SaaS products in this category often solve a niche problem.

Ignoring a free plan like before, products generally follow a tiered model:

• 60% of users on a ‘basic’ plan: ~ $19/month

• 15% of users on a ‘middle of the road’ plan: ~ $49/month

• 5% of users on a ‘pro’ plan: ~ $99/month

With 450 new customers a month and 70% sticking around after 30 days:

You’ll make $10,665 a month.

Now we start to see the power of B2B SaaS.

Generating 450 new customers every month is still difficult, but it’s much easier than 6,000.

4) High-ticket B2B SaaS

Here I’m not thinking of Salesforce or Workday.

I’m more thinking of products that solve a niche problem really well.

Here are a few examples:

• ContractComplete - Construction contract management

• MangoMint - Salon & Spa management

Pricing models vary but often it’s 3 tiers:

• 60% of users on a ‘basic’ plan: ~ $99/month

• 15% of users on a ‘middle of the road’ plan: ~ $199/month

• 5% of users on an ‘enterprise’ plan: c. ~ $1K/month

With only 60 new customers a month and 80% sticking around after 30 days:

You’ll make $10,027 a month.

High-ticket B2B SaaS is the fastest way to reach $10K MRR.

And honestly, the pricing here is very conservative.

It’s not uncommon for SaaS products that solve a unique problem extremely well to command anywhere from $500 → $5K/month.

And customer retention is usually much higher.

B2B software is ‘sticky’ by nature and those that optimise for this will see customers being loyal for years.