The hottest SaaS Substack posts right now

And their main takeaways
Category
Top Business Topics

One avoidable mistake for SaaS sales

Router by Dmitry Pimenov • 0 implied HN points • 02 Mar 23
💼 Business SaaS
  1. Many startups struggle to gain traction because organizations prefer software that works well with their existing tools. Selling a standalone solution is often not enough.
  2. Bundled software solutions, like GSuite and Microsoft 365, attract users because they offer convenience and integration, even if some products aren't the best in their category.
  3. Startups can improve their chances by using Web APIs to connect with larger platforms or by creating their own APIs. This helps them integrate into existing workflows and keeps users engaged.

Join the Good Better Best subscriber chat

Good Better Best • 0 implied HN points • 07 Nov 24
💼 Business SaaS
  1. There is a new subscriber chat for people who follow the Good Better Best publication. It's a place to discuss SaaS pricing and share ideas.
  2. To join the chat, you need to download the Substack app and turn on notifications. This way, you won't miss any updates or questions.
  3. Once you're in the app, find the chat icon, and you can start participating in conversations right away. It's easy and a great way to connect with others.

#36 Navattic's PLG funnel with Natalie Marcotullio

Organic SaaS Growth • 0 implied HN points • 12 Nov 24
💼 Business SaaS
  1. Navattic creates interactive product demos that help marketing and sales teams showcase their products. This gives potential customers a hands-on experience before they decide to buy.
  2. Word of mouth is their best-performing channel. People love sharing tools that are free to try, and this has helped increase their referrals since launching a freemium plan.
  3. When hiring a marketer, it's crucial to know what role you really need. Understanding your specific marketing goals can help you find the right person for your team.

SaaS Funnels - What's holding you back?

Organic SaaS Growth • 0 implied HN points • 29 Oct 24
💼 Business SaaS
  1. Many SaaS funnels are underperforming, which is a common issue that needs attention.
  2. There's a need for guides that focus on practical and actionable steps to improve SaaS funnels.
  3. Understanding specific challenges and questions around funnel optimization can help create better resources.

MKT1 Newsletter - Active Discounts on Tools & Agencies for Marketers

MKT1 Newsletter • 0 implied HN points • 29 Nov 24
💼 Business SaaS
  1. Paid subscribers can access exclusive discounts on various products and services. It's a good way to save money while getting useful tools.
  2. Different software tools are available for marketers, like Fiverr Pro and Riverside.fm, each offering unique features and discounts. These can help with tasks like recording podcasts or managing marketing projects.
  3. Subscribers can reach out if they want to list their own discounts or sponsor the newsletter. This creates a community where everyone can benefit from shared resources.
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Why Look Around?

ciamweekly • 0 implied HN points • 23 Dec 24
🕹 Technology SaaS
  1. Cost issues can lead teams to look for new CIAM solutions, especially if a vendor raises prices or causes delays in other features.
  2. Availability problems with a vendor, like outages, can make companies reconsider their choice for CIAM, especially after multiple incidents.
  3. Sometimes teams seek new features or capabilities that their current CIAM solution doesn't offer, prompting a search for alternatives.

FortuneGPT: When AI Reads Your Future (and Your Slack Messages)

Phoenix Substack • 0 implied HN points • 25 Feb 25
🕹 Technology SaaS
  1. FortuneGPT mixes tarot reading with AI to predict your future based on your data and habits. It's like having a digital fortune teller who uses real information to give you insights.
  2. The app learns from each reading, becoming better at understanding your worries over time. It can adjust its advice based on your mood and past decisions.
  3. FortuneGPT offers a free version and multiple paid plans that upsell deeper insights and predictions. It's designed to keep users engaged and curious, almost like a subscription service for mystical insights.

#39 Free Tiers: A Backward Strategy

Organic SaaS Growth • 0 implied HN points • 20 Feb 25
💼 Business SaaS
  1. Free tiers can be more harmful than helpful for many SaaS companies. They often attract users who don’t convert to paying customers, which can drain resources.
  2. Instead of launching with a free tier, focus on getting a small group of paying users early on. This allows for valuable feedback and steady income.
  3. Only consider adding a free tier after establishing a solid product and user base. At that point, it can help expand your market without overwhelming your resources.

Issue #5: B2B SaaS Founder, Paying the Hidden AI Tax?

OSS.fund Newsletter • 0 implied HN points • 17 Apr 25
💼 Business SaaS
  1. Adding AI features to a SaaS product can lead to increased costs without improving sales, which is seen as the 'AI Tax'.
  2. Companies need to clarify the value of their AI features and ensure that pricing matches this value to encourage growth.
  3. It's essential to track how AI features are used and their associated costs to manage margins effectively and prevent losses.

Hyperscalers Are Quietly Taking Over Enterprise Tech Spend

OSS.fund Newsletter • 0 implied HN points • 06 Mar 25
💼 Business SaaS
  1. Big tech companies like AWS, Microsoft, and Google are changing how businesses buy tech. They're not just providing cloud services anymore; they're also influencing what tools and services companies use.
  2. Smaller IT and SaaS companies are now reliant on these big tech firms to reach customers. This means they might lose direct contact with their customers and end up paying high commissions to sell on these platforms.
  3. To stay competitive, companies must avoid relying too much on one tech giant. Diversifying their services and creating unique offerings can help them survive and thrive in this new landscape.

Quick follow-up on the "Content Moat Blueprint"

Organic SaaS Growth • 0 implied HN points • 03 Jul 25
💼 Business SaaS
  1. The Content Moat Blueprint is a detailed content strategy plan that helps businesses understand their competitive position and content gaps.
  2. It's specifically aimed at B2B SaaS founders and marketers who want to improve their content but need a clear plan to follow.
  3. There are limited spots available for this pilot program at a special price, offering a great opportunity for those ready to enhance their content strategy.

#42 Content moat in the AI world

Organic SaaS Growth • 0 implied HN points • 01 Jul 25
💼 Business SaaS
  1. As AI-generated content becomes common, it's important for businesses to find ways to stand out and be memorable. This means creating unique content that can't be easily replicated.
  2. With AI tools providing direct answers to questions, businesses need to think of new ways to draw visitors to their websites. It's all about attracting people even when answers are just a click away.
  3. A well-planned content strategy can help businesses create a 'content moat.' This means building a strong foundation now so that they can thrive in the changing landscape of online content.

#41 Inside the NitroPack Flywheel

Organic SaaS Growth • 0 implied HN points • 24 Jun 25
💼 Business SaaS
  1. NitroPack started as a small plugin and grew quickly, showing that a simple idea can lead to big success. They eventually got bought by a larger company, which shows their impressive growth.
  2. The company built a strong reputation before offering a free version, helping them attract more users. They also took advantage of important changes in technology like Google's Core Web Vitals.
  3. Even with some criticism from the community about their product, NitroPack kept pushing forward and found ways to grow. Their journey offers valuable lessons for new business founders.

#44 Reviving a dead YouTube channel from 30 to 1000 subscribers

Organic SaaS Growth • 0 implied HN points • 22 Aug 25
💼 Business SaaS
  1. If a YouTube channel isn't growing, it might just need a fresh strategy. Sometimes slow progress gives valuable insights for improvement.
  2. Using short, engaging videos can really help attract viewers and subscribers. It's about creating content that people find easy to watch and share.
  3. Balancing reach and resonance is key to success. You want your videos to reach lots of people while also connecting with your target audience.

26 Predictions for 2026

Digital Native • 0 implied HN points • 11 Dec 25
🕹 Technology SaaS
  1. Generative media goes mainstream — expect a big share of social feeds and startups to use AI for video, audio, avatars, and personalized content, plus cultural and legal shocks like hit songs made with AI.
  2. Big tech and AI firms focus on monetization and consolidation: ChatGPT will adopt ads, companies like Anthropic and Stripe will make major acquisitions (with Anthropic likely to IPO), and incumbents will buy up smaller teams and products.
  3. Work and business models shift: autonomous agents will negotiate with each other and power new AI-enabled services that can scale into billion-dollar firms, pricing will move from per-seat to platform+usage, and there will be renewed demand for real-world experiences and ticketing reform.

Account Linking

ciamweekly • 0 implied HN points • 08 Dec 25
🕹 Technology SaaS
  1. Account linking is essential in CIAM to unify customer identities across multiple federated login methods so you avoid duplicate records, fragmented experiences, and weaker security.
  2. Linking is technically hard because provider IDs differ and emails can change over time. Store provider-specific IDs and use email verification or user-managed merging to resolve identities safely.
  3. Don’t always link every account — allow intentional identity fragmentation when users want separate data, and reduce friction by surfacing the user’s preferred login method on return.

The Growth Desert (and how to cross it)

Organic SaaS Growth • 0 implied HN points • 02 Dec 25
💼 Business SaaS
  1. Many early-stage SaaS founders hit a "growth desert" around $1k–$15k MRR where early hacks stop working, churn rises, and revenue stalls.
  2. Fixing it requires a repeatable system instead of random marketing — focus on three engines: retention (a Shadow Concierge protocol), pricing that targets a "Level 3 Niche", and building one scalable acquisition channel.
  3. There’s a limited founding-member option offering a discounted price and 1-on-1 email support for a small cohort in exchange for honest feedback.

I’m not doing a Black Friday sale

Organic SaaS Growth • 0 implied HN points • 28 Nov 25
💼 Business SaaS
  1. Black Friday-style discounts are being avoided because they turn serious products into cheap commodities.
  2. A hands-on SaaS Growth OS is being offered for founders stuck at $1k–$15k MRR to diagnose bottlenecks, plug retention leaks, and build one scalable acquisition channel — it’s not a video course or a swipe file.
  3. A Founding Member cohort opens Tuesday, December 2 at 10 AM EST with only 15 spots, lower pricing, and personal email support; reply "Interested" for first access.

ARR is dead. Long live VRR

Experiments with NLP and GPT-3 • 0 implied HN points • 27 Dec 25
💼 Business SaaS
  1. ARR can overstate the value of AI products because it counts one-off or novelty-driven payments; VRR measures sustainable revenue by applying a Utility Decay Coefficient based on workflow integration, model independence, and churn.
  2. Investors should run cohort utility audits and calculate a VRR gap using metrics like boring-day ratio, month-5 retention, integration depth, and model independence to separate ‘vibe’ revenue from durable revenue.
  3. VRR changes valuation logic by penalizing short-lived, novelty revenue to avoid inflated paper valuations and focus on products that create real habits and deep integrations.

‼️☎️ Reminder: Chat with Substack Sam!

The Cosmopolitan Globalist • 0 implied HN points • 16 Feb 26
🕹 Technology SaaS
  1. A live Zoom Q&A with Substack Sam starts at 8:30 pm Paris time in under an hour, so be ready to join.
  2. You can ask any question about Substack—big or small—and the session will start promptly, so arrive on time and be courteous.
  3. The join link is placed below the paywall; you can claim the free post or subscribe to get access.

why finding real problems is everything

Organic SaaS Growth • 0 implied HN points • 25 Feb 26
💼 Business SaaS
  1. Most growth problems in early-stage SaaS aren't what they first look like; surface symptoms often hide the real issue.
  2. Founders often keep trying new tactics and channels because they haven't diagnosed where growth is actually breaking.
  3. The right move is to find the root cause of the slowdown and fix that instead of constantly experimenting with new growth hacks.