Pivoting from an agency to a $961k/yr
product
Chris Badgett built an agency in the niche of learning management systems, then noticed a gap in the market. So he used his agency to build the solution — LifterLMS. Since launch, it has brought in $6M.
Here's Chris on how he did it. 👇
Sled dogs and boot straps
Before building an eLearning software business, I used to run sled dogs in Alaska and manage a sled dog tour business on a glacier that was only accessible by helicopter.
After I left Alaska, I built online courses in the organic gardening and permaculture niche. I also started an agency building websites for clients, ultimately focusing on the learning management system (LMS) niche.
A solid WordPress-based solution for LMS did not exist, so I built LifterLMS — the leading LMS for WordPress. We are a bootstrapped company. We launched the software in 2014, and have seen steady growth ever since.
The challenge of pivoting to product
I started LifterLMS for a few reasons. I wanted to create location independence and a scalable income. I wanted to lift others up through education. And we needed an LMS for our clients.
So our agency bootstrapped the creation of the product. Transitioning from an agency to a product company when sales volume was low — that was a big challenge.
The key to tackling low sales volume was to continue running the agency simultaneously. We, as founders, also took pay cuts when fully transitioning out of agency work.
We built the initial LifterLMS product in 60 days by focusing one of our agency developers on it. It was built on WordPress, developed primarily with PHP, JavaScript, and React. It integrates modern web technologies like REST APIs, MySQL, and various third-party services to deliver a robust learning management system.
Presell your product
We presold the product with a generous early adopter discount from a landing page with a preset launch date. We drove traffic to the landing page through content marketing and social media marketing.
And we got 42 sales in the first week!
It literally sells itself
We practice freemium product-led growth, so the product literally sells itself.
The free core plugin is very powerful. But when free users need to move beyond the basics, there are more advanced features available to unlock more capabilities.
We also do a lot of education-based content marketing to educate users on what's possible with our premium tools.
30% of our users purchase premium plans that add additional functionality, like e-commerce, advanced quizzing, social learning, group learning, and more.
We've sold over $6,000,000 in premium add-on software on top of our free core plugin software.
Content marketing
Of course, we also do lots of marketing through content, paid advertising, and relationship-based marketing.
Content marketing is our most powerful asset. We have our blog, the LMScast podcast with over 500 episodes, and our YouTube channel with over 1,000 videos.
Our highest-impact content, which every software company should do, is our free quickstart course. It teaches users how to use the most important 5% of our software to achieve their goals. Some of the instructions reference our premium tools. This quickstart course doubles as a marketing and customer success asset. It's an onboarding asset that every software company should have, in addition to documentation and a help desk.
If I had to start over today, I would focus more on content marketing in the beginning and be slower to hire a team.
Build in a growing ecosystem
It was also advantageous to build in a growing ecosystem. WordPress powers 43% of websites on the internet, so when you have the best freemium solution on the market, the growth compounds.
MVPs, brands, and support
Here's my advice:
Get your MVP out ASAP without taking forever to build it. We pre-sold in the beginning, and that gave us validation and motivation.
Build personal brands around your company as people want to do business with real people. When you have a strong personal brand, it builds trust. Trust is a major factor in standing out in a competitive market and purchasing psychology.
And don't treat support as a cost center. Treat support as a feature of the product.
What's next?
Our goal is to continue leading the way and innovating as the best learning management system for WordPress. You'll see more AI tooling, creator tools, and student experience upgrades continue to roll out.
This is the best all-in-one learning management system that combines LMS, ecommerce, memberships, and engagement features. Our mission is to lift up others through online education. We will continue doing just that. It's really motivating to see all the impact LifterLMS has in the world.
Head on over to LifterLMS.com to learn more. And you can follow me on X, LinkedIn, and YouTube.
Leave a Comment
A unique lens on managing dual business models... Thanks for the deep insights!
➡️ Chris, this is a masterclass in pivoting from services to SaaS with precision.
Leveraging agency cash flow to build your MVP is a smart Go-to-Market Strategy — reduces risk while validating demand. (#GoToMarketStrategy #PMFAdvisor)
The freemium + content model is a powerful combo for SaaS Scaling — educating while converting. (#SaaSCoaching)
Preselling with urgency is underrated — it aligns perfectly with rapid validation and early Product-Market Fit. (#ScalingExpert #ProductMarketFit)
👏 LifterLMS is a prime example of how niche focus + consistency = compounding
Impressive. I am trying to do the exact same with our agency as we have a great product idea. We have put some development time behind it, but struggle to find the right developers to get a truly working product. I wish we could figure out the key to find the right developers.
Impressive pivot! Turning agency experience into a scalable product is no small feat. I love how you treated support and onboarding as growth levers—something many founders overlook. Looking back, what was the single biggest decision that pushed you toward $900k+ ARR?
Great Resource
This is an inspiring example of how niche expertise and client insights can evolve into a scalable SaaS product. Leveraging agency insights to build LifterLMS and then smartly using freemium + education-first content to grow—textbook Product-Led Growth execution.
What stands out most is how you’ve treated support and onboarding as true growth levers—something many early-stage SaaS founders overlook while chasing features.
Content compounding through your podcast, YouTube, and quickstart course is powerful—especially in a market as broad (and competitive) as WordPress.
Question for you:
Looking back, what single marketing or product decision most accelerated the jump from early traction to crossing $900k ARR?
Thanks for sharing your journey—founders building bootstrapped SaaS can learn a ton from this playbook.
That transition from agency work to product always fascinates me. I’m currently building out a service + product hybrid myself, and this post hits close to home — especially the part about stepping back from high-effort, low-leverage work.
Did you have a moment that pushed you to pivot, or was it more of a slow realization?
Really appreciate the way you broke this down — super helpful.
Really smart how you used freemium and deep content (podcast, YouTube, quickstart course) to build trust and scale without a big sales team. That 5% feature-focused onboarding lesson is gold .....more SaaS teams should copy that.
Super inspiring story...
When converting from an agency to a $961k/year product, it is necessary to identify scalable solutions, validate market demand, build strong branding, and leverage existing client insights to create a product with recurring revenue potential.
what an inspiring journey of grit, code, and community.
wow it turned out it's all about distrubition . great !
Such a unique idea turned into a full product.
Using his agency experience, James Fleischmann successfully transitioned from running an agency to building a $961k/year product.
Huge respect for the bootstrapped leap from agency to product. It’s tough to shift gears like that, but clearly worth it. Content and ecosystem plays are such underrated growth levers — awesome to see them used so intentionally here.
Really admire how you bootstrapped the entire transition. Takes serious grit to go from client work to product-led growth.
Love this story - really inspiring to see how you transitioned from agency to product and bootstrapped something so impactful. Totally agree that content marketing and building in a growing ecosystem like WordPress are massive levers.
We’ve had a similar experience at darvideo, where we help edtech and SaaS companies grow through animated explainer videos. A good onboarding or quickstart video can make all the difference in user engagement and retention - especially in the LMS space.
Appreciate the insights, Chris!
Wildly inspiring. That blend of real-world grit (sled dogs?!), agency experience, and intentional product thinking is a combo you rarely see , and it clearly worked.
Totally agree on the "support is a feature" mindset. Too many SaaS founders treat it like an afterthought, when in reality it’s a massive trust-builder and retention lever.
Also, your point on content marketing being the highest-leverage asset really stuck with me. It’s not fast, but it’s insanely compounding if you stay consistent.
Thanks for the transparency, Chris, this is the kind of story that keeps indie founders moving forward on rough days.
That’s an incredible journey—from sled dogs in Alaska to pioneering online education with LifterLMS! It’s inspiring to see how diverse experiences can shape successful tech ventures. Your focus on WordPress-based LMS reminds me of how important secure infrastructure is behind the scenes—especially as more educational platforms rely on connected systems. In industrial sectors, companies like Industrial Defender are doing similar work by securing operational technology (OT) environments. As LMS platforms grow, cybersecurity—especially for data-rich environments—becomes as critical as user experience.
Great!
Love how you bootstrapped smart, presold early, and let content + freemium do the heavy lifting. Inspiring path for indie founders!
Super inspiring, Chris. I’m part of a Deaf-led nonprofit building AI infrastructure for sign languages (glossed video datasets, avatar tools, etc.), and this really hit home:
Quick question: did you face any pushback from early adopters when shifting from agency to product? We’re still straddling that line and wondering when/how to make the leap without breaking everything...
Thanks for sharing all this in detail!
new to this platform, exploring...
Can definitely relate! Thanks for sharing your story, Chris!
damn, good stuff
its great story!
Inspiring!
Thanks for sharing your story, Chris! Out of curiosity, which advertising platform offers the best return on investment for you right now?
Going from sled dogs to $6M in LMS revenue — that’s quite a pivot. Love the focus on education and content as the main growth levers. Makes me wonder, for new SaaS founders, is content still the most underrated growth channel?
What a journey from the Alaskan glaciers to building a $6M+ software business!
Quick question: When you pre-sold those first 42 copies, what was the biggest lesson you learned between what customers said they wanted vs. what they actually used once they got access?
From sled dogs to SaaS - what a journey! 🚀
Love how you bootstrapped smart, presold early, and let content + freemium do the heavy lifting. Inspiring path for indie founders!
“It literally sells itself” — that stuck with me. I’ve been thinking a lot about product-led growth for my own tool. Freemium is tough to balance though. How long did it take before you felt the free tier was driving upgrades?