Think SaaS businesses go up every month forever? Founder Laura Roeder shares why that expectation isn’t realistic.

When SureSwift acquired social media scheduling SaaS MeetEdgar from Laura Roeder, I had the chance to sit down with her and talk about her story. I knew going in that she would have some great thoughts to share (her blog is a must read if you don’t already subscribe — starting with her post about getting acquired! https://lauraroeder.com/exactly-how-i-cold-emailed-my-way-to-a-life-changing-exit-and-you-can-too-165d8eaf8306) but I was really blown away by her candor and willingness to talk about some of the realities of owning and running a SaaS business.

There’s a hesitancy to be open about anything perceived as a failure in the SaaS community. And I don’t mean big failures — I’m talking about the little ones, the couple of months where a product stops growing, or profits start to go down. It makes sense that Founders don’t want to publicize these (often panic-inducing) moments. But the result is reinforcing a false belief that SaaS businesses are supposed to trend up forever — and that’s just not the reality.

In early 2021, MeetEdgar was going through a period of stagnation that forced Laura to make some tough choices. And when she started reaching out to other Founders in her circle about what she was going through, it became apparent that this kind of downturn wasn’t uncommon — it was actually the norm:

I think it’s good to talk about because you often don’t hear about any kind of ups and downs with SaaS. People just act like every SaaS business just goes up every month, forever. And then when yours stops going up every month, you start talking to other people, and you’re like, wait a minute, a bunch of other people have been through this as well.

It can be easy to panic when things start trending down, especially when all you see on social media are crazy growth rates and other people’s “wins.” But the reality is that every business will go through ups and downs. It’s certainly something I’ve experienced acquiring and owning 40+ SaaS businesses. When things start to go sideways, it’s necessary to take a step back and reassess what’s working and not working for your business. That’s exactly what Laura did:

So now I know that just like other types of businesses, SaaS businesses can have flat periods. They can have periods where they’re losing revenue. And they can have super high growth periods. And you don’t need to panic when the flat or declining periods come, but you do need to evaluate what your next strategic move is going to be. And that doesn’t mean that the business has failed. The business isn’t over just because you’re not experiencing the growth that you once were.

Laura was able to make those strategic moves, get MeetEdgar back on track, and meet her end goal of selling the business. One of the most difficult parts of making that happen involved letting the team go. I think most business owners would agree that letting people go is one of the most difficult parts of running a business. I appreciated her take on it:
It’s something that just has to happen in a business sometimes. But I think as the owner, what you can do is look at things like severance and covering insurance for a period of time. And then obviously whatever you can do to help people find their next role. You don’t have to (and shouldn’t) try to put any kind of positive spin on it. It’s just a crappy thing for anyone to go through, so don’t pretend otherwise.

As Founders, a lot of us aren’t comfortable with the HR side of running a business. In fact, it’s a factor that pushes some Founders to sell. The process of getting a company from zero to one can take a totally different skill set than scaling and managing that company. This is where (honest) self-awareness is so important. If management makes you miserable, it’s probably time to do some serious delegating or think about selling your SaaS (https://www.sureswiftcapital.com/?gclid=CjwKCAjw7IeUBhBbEiwADhiEMaY3N7mVsuHGEVvcTufASTFWEvdKlWsFicUdPIhWSPDeQw4s46TzjRoCuEkQAvD_BwE).

For Laura, selling meant the freedom to focus fully on her newest venture, Paperbell https://paperbell.com/, a tool that helps coaches (“think life coaches, not sports coaches”) run their businesses. She’s bringing the perspective she gained through the ups and downs of founding MeetEdgar to her new project, and I know that I’m glad she’s so willing to share those lessons with the rest of us as well.

(P.S.– There’s a lot more great stuff from Laura in our interview [https://www.sureswiftcapital.com/interview-with-meetedgar-founder-laura-roeder/], from optimizing your business to run without you, to what she’s teaching her kids about entrepreneurship.)