Pinned Tweet
Today we raised $145m to fund bootstrappers here on Twitter!
Get up to $3m in non-dilutive capital overnight from @FounderpathHQ
Figured I'd prove it by wiring a bunch of you today.
Tag the bootstrapped SaaS founder you admire most below...
❤️My favorites:
🧵A thread 👇
Nathan Latka retweeted
if you're a founder looking to tell your story to other founders, there is no better spot than the TOP Founders podcast!
a VERY smart and sophisticated audience of founders/investors
if you're a founder looking to tell your story to other founders, there is no better spot than the TOP Founders podcast!
a VERY smart and sophisticated audience of founders/investors
👀
“ChatGPT SEO gurus? It’s bullshit," $200m ARR CEO of @airSlate
In Vadim's first ever public interview on Top Founders podcast, he shares:
Financial data
(03:40) DocHub $22M, pdfFiller $106M, signNow $35M
(03:52) “This page does $106M of revenue”
(03:57) 866,000 paying customers on one product
(04:35) 85,000 forms hand-built by lawyers
(07:16) 2x ARR but Valuation down $1b to $800m
(07:35) $100M revenue at last round. Now $200M
(08:19) 2015: GC money, bought signNow, hit $50M
(08:42) $18M revenue in 2013–2014
(09:10) “pdfFiller was a cash machine”
(10:51) 1.1M paying customers, 866,000 on pdfFiller
(11:04) 1.1M customers ÷ $200M = $180/year each
(18:30) $200M ARR on <$200M equity raised
Growth tactics
(01:23) No “AI” branding
(01:53) Why acquired brands keep their own names
(04:58) Unannounced AI product
(05:35) 85,000 lawyer-built forms. Why he’s not Harvey
(07:55) “Customers build their own software? Baloney.”
(08:54) Bought signNow at $3M. Now $35M
(11:26) 4.8 billion keywords managed
(11:30) 35 million SEO pages built
(12:33) Contextual relevance vs programmatic SEO
(12:50) 4.8B keywords. “Very few are productive.”
(13:07) Search influence drops from 80% to 30%
(13:30) Keyword-volume SEO dead in 9–12 months
(14:27) “ChatGPT SEO gurus? It’s bullshit.”
(14:55) “Our competition was not sophisticated”
(15:05) Superior PPC bidding math. Now everyone has it
(16:31) Vertical vs horizontal: the NDR fight
Fundraising, M&A
(06:43) $150M raised total, GE Capital, Morgan Stanley
(07:03) June 2022: $52M at a $1.25B valuation
(07:45) “My VC friends don’t understand”
(08:35) Raised first money at $8.5M revenue
(09:21) The no-board, no-VC golden years
(09:37) “Get money as late as you possibly can”
(17:26) Running the Bending Spoons playbook
(17:37) M&A rule: $1M products “not interesting.”
(17:56) How he handles a real board
(18:40) “Some raised $20 for every $1 of ARR. Not us.”
(18:46) “VC objectives and mine are slightly different”
Available today wherever you get your podcasts.
Nathan Latka retweeted
$200M ARR from SEO. The SEO-on-steroids playbook behind airSlate:
1/ They run one of the biggest SEO machines on the internet
-> 4.8B keywords tracked and 35M pages built over the years: a page for every form, tool and city, even "compress PNG from 17MB to 15MB", in 7+ languages
-> PDFfiller even ranks #1 on Google for "fake marriage certificate"
2/ They buy companies, put their SEO machine behind them and grow revenue 10x
-> signNow made ~$3M a year when they bought it, paying only $2M in cash. Now it makes $35M
-> Every company keeps its own name and team, and shares only marketing, payments and DevOps
3/ They sell to 31M tiny US businesses
-> The plumber, the baker, the bookstore owner. 1.1M of them pay ~$180 a year each
4/ One simple page makes $106M a year
-> PDFfiller, a site where you edit and sign PDFs, has ~860K paying customers on its own
5/ A free AI product built only to pull traffic
-> bizdraft . com writes a legal agreement in 90 seconds with no sign-up, then sends people to their paid tools
6/ Even they think mass SEO is about to end
-> The CEO gives keyword SEO 9-12 more months and expects search to drive 30% of new customers instead of 80%. On ChatGPT SEO gurus: "It's bullshit"
7/ They copy Google's search suggestions and make a page for each one
-> Type "rental agreement" into Google and it suggests "rental agreement for a room in Texas"
-> Their US Legal Forms site makes a page with that exact title, so it matches exactly what people search. They have ~120K of these pages
8/ 37,000 "DocHub vs X" comparison pages
-> One for almost every competitor on earth, even tools nobody has heard of
-> Plus 41 websites named after exact searches, like merge-pdf.dochub [.] com and chat-with-pdf.dochub [.] com
9/ They also run one of the most advanced Google Ads strategies out there
-> 60M keywords, zero salespeople, and bidding math so good that a new customer's first payment already covered what the ad cost
10/ One product paid for everything
-> PDFfiller was "a cash machine". They hit $18M revenue before raising, and reached $200M ARR on less than $200M raised
Prepared by growth hackers at Ryze AI, the AI agent for paid ads
“ChatGPT SEO gurus? It’s bullshit," $200m ARR CEO of @airSlate
In Vadim's first ever public interview on Top Founders podcast, he shares:
Financial data
(03:40) DocHub $22M, pdfFiller $106M, signNow $35M
(03:52) “This page does $106M of revenue”
(03:57) 866,000 paying customers on one product
(04:35) 85,000 forms hand-built by lawyers
(07:16) 2x ARR but Valuation down $1b to $800m
(07:35) $100M revenue at last round. Now $200M
(08:19) 2015: GC money, bought signNow, hit $50M
(08:42) $18M revenue in 2013–2014
(09:10) “pdfFiller was a cash machine”
(10:51) 1.1M paying customers, 866,000 on pdfFiller
(11:04) 1.1M customers ÷ $200M = $180/year each
(18:30) $200M ARR on <$200M equity raised
Growth tactics
(01:23) No “AI” branding
(01:53) Why acquired brands keep their own names
(04:58) Unannounced AI product
(05:35) 85,000 lawyer-built forms. Why he’s not Harvey
(07:55) “Customers build their own software? Baloney.”
(08:54) Bought signNow at $3M. Now $35M
(11:26) 4.8 billion keywords managed
(11:30) 35 million SEO pages built
(12:33) Contextual relevance vs programmatic SEO
(12:50) 4.8B keywords. “Very few are productive.”
(13:07) Search influence drops from 80% to 30%
(13:30) Keyword-volume SEO dead in 9–12 months
(14:27) “ChatGPT SEO gurus? It’s bullshit.”
(14:55) “Our competition was not sophisticated”
(15:05) Superior PPC bidding math. Now everyone has it
(16:31) Vertical vs horizontal: the NDR fight
Fundraising, M&A
(06:43) $150M raised total, GE Capital, Morgan Stanley
(07:03) June 2022: $52M at a $1.25B valuation
(07:45) “My VC friends don’t understand”
(08:35) Raised first money at $8.5M revenue
(09:21) The no-board, no-VC golden years
(09:37) “Get money as late as you possibly can”
(17:26) Running the Bending Spoons playbook
(17:37) M&A rule: $1M products “not interesting.”
(17:56) How he handles a real board
(18:40) “Some raised $20 for every $1 of ARR. Not us.”
(18:46) “VC objectives and mine are slightly different”
Available today wherever you get your podcasts.
hard to grow 100% on such a huge base ($100m ARR)
“ChatGPT SEO gurus? It’s bullshit," $200m ARR CEO of @airSlate
In Vadim's first ever public interview on Top Founders podcast, he shares:
Financial data
(03:40) DocHub $22M, pdfFiller $106M, signNow $35M
(03:52) “This page does $106M of revenue”
(03:57) 866,000 paying customers on one product
(04:35) 85,000 forms hand-built by lawyers
(07:16) 2x ARR but Valuation down $1b to $800m
(07:35) $100M revenue at last round. Now $200M
(08:19) 2015: GC money, bought signNow, hit $50M
(08:42) $18M revenue in 2013–2014
(09:10) “pdfFiller was a cash machine”
(10:51) 1.1M paying customers, 866,000 on pdfFiller
(11:04) 1.1M customers ÷ $200M = $180/year each
(18:30) $200M ARR on <$200M equity raised
Growth tactics
(01:23) No “AI” branding
(01:53) Why acquired brands keep their own names
(04:58) Unannounced AI product
(05:35) 85,000 lawyer-built forms. Why he’s not Harvey
(07:55) “Customers build their own software? Baloney.”
(08:54) Bought signNow at $3M. Now $35M
(11:26) 4.8 billion keywords managed
(11:30) 35 million SEO pages built
(12:33) Contextual relevance vs programmatic SEO
(12:50) 4.8B keywords. “Very few are productive.”
(13:07) Search influence drops from 80% to 30%
(13:30) Keyword-volume SEO dead in 9–12 months
(14:27) “ChatGPT SEO gurus? It’s bullshit.”
(14:55) “Our competition was not sophisticated”
(15:05) Superior PPC bidding math. Now everyone has it
(16:31) Vertical vs horizontal: the NDR fight
Fundraising, M&A
(06:43) $150M raised total, GE Capital, Morgan Stanley
(07:03) June 2022: $52M at a $1.25B valuation
(07:45) “My VC friends don’t understand”
(08:35) Raised first money at $8.5M revenue
(09:21) The no-board, no-VC golden years
(09:37) “Get money as late as you possibly can”
(17:26) Running the Bending Spoons playbook
(17:37) M&A rule: $1M products “not interesting.”
(17:56) How he handles a real board
(18:40) “Some raised $20 for every $1 of ARR. Not us.”
(18:46) “VC objectives and mine are slightly different”
Available today wherever you get your podcasts.
“ChatGPT SEO gurus? It’s bullshit," $200m ARR CEO of @airSlate
In Vadim's first ever public interview on Top Founders podcast, he shares:
Financial data
(03:40) DocHub $22M, pdfFiller $106M, signNow $35M
(03:52) “This page does $106M of revenue”
(03:57) 866,000 paying customers on one product
(04:35) 85,000 forms hand-built by lawyers
(07:16) 2x ARR but Valuation down $1b to $800m
(07:35) $100M revenue at last round. Now $200M
(08:19) 2015: GC money, bought signNow, hit $50M
(08:42) $18M revenue in 2013–2014
(09:10) “pdfFiller was a cash machine”
(10:51) 1.1M paying customers, 866,000 on pdfFiller
(11:04) 1.1M customers ÷ $200M = $180/year each
(18:30) $200M ARR on <$200M equity raised
Growth tactics
(01:23) No “AI” branding
(01:53) Why acquired brands keep their own names
(04:58) Unannounced AI product
(05:35) 85,000 lawyer-built forms. Why he’s not Harvey
(07:55) “Customers build their own software? Baloney.”
(08:54) Bought signNow at $3M. Now $35M
(11:26) 4.8 billion keywords managed
(11:30) 35 million SEO pages built
(12:33) Contextual relevance vs programmatic SEO
(12:50) 4.8B keywords. “Very few are productive.”
(13:07) Search influence drops from 80% to 30%
(13:30) Keyword-volume SEO dead in 9–12 months
(14:27) “ChatGPT SEO gurus? It’s bullshit.”
(14:55) “Our competition was not sophisticated”
(15:05) Superior PPC bidding math. Now everyone has it
(16:31) Vertical vs horizontal: the NDR fight
Fundraising, M&A
(06:43) $150M raised total, GE Capital, Morgan Stanley
(07:03) June 2022: $52M at a $1.25B valuation
(07:45) “My VC friends don’t understand”
(08:35) Raised first money at $8.5M revenue
(09:21) The no-board, no-VC golden years
(09:37) “Get money as late as you possibly can”
(17:26) Running the Bending Spoons playbook
(17:37) M&A rule: $1M products “not interesting.”
(17:56) How he handles a real board
(18:40) “Some raised $20 for every $1 of ARR. Not us.”
(18:46) “VC objectives and mine are slightly different”
Available today wherever you get your podcasts.
Nathan Latka retweeted
Founders - if you're considering building your own Model, this is a must listen.
CEO @Jiajun3423 (Jeff) of @AkoolInc put on a masterclass:
> Spends $1m/mo on training.
> Broke $36m ARR in June this year.
> Users producing 500k images/vids per day
Proves you don't have to raise $1b (he's only raised about $10m!)
My full Top Founders Podcast interview with Jeff:
(04:38) $25m revenue in 2025, targeting $60m in 2026
(05:34) Over $3m revenue in a single month
(08:28) First 100 customers: slow enterprise sales → self-serve payments
(08:53) 210,000 organic clicks per month
(10:46) Stuck at $100k revenue in both 2021 and 2022
(11:19) Breaking through to $2m–$3m revenue in 2023
(11:56) Landing Coca-Cola after 3 months of testing
(12:34) Scaling to $12m–$13m revenue in 2024
(12:49) 60–70 employees, 40 engineers, $1m quotas for sales reps
(13:21) 20,000–30,000 paying customers, including hundreds of businesses
(13:55) One enterprise customer pays $4m per year
(15:18) Users generate 500,000 images, videos and other assets daily
(15:31) $10m raised across 4+ years
(15:51) $100m valuation two years earlier; later SAFEs priced higher
(16:29) Would he take a hypothetical $500m cash offer from Google?
Revenue doesnt lie 🤯
Founders - if you're considering building your own Model, this is a must listen.
CEO @Jiajun3423 (Jeff) of @AkoolInc put on a masterclass:
> Spends $1m/mo on training.
> Broke $36m ARR in June this year.
> Users producing 500k images/vids per day
Proves you don't have to raise $1b (he's only raised about $10m!)
My full Top Founders Podcast interview with Jeff:
(04:38) $25m revenue in 2025, targeting $60m in 2026
(05:34) Over $3m revenue in a single month
(08:28) First 100 customers: slow enterprise sales → self-serve payments
(08:53) 210,000 organic clicks per month
(10:46) Stuck at $100k revenue in both 2021 and 2022
(11:19) Breaking through to $2m–$3m revenue in 2023
(11:56) Landing Coca-Cola after 3 months of testing
(12:34) Scaling to $12m–$13m revenue in 2024
(12:49) 60–70 employees, 40 engineers, $1m quotas for sales reps
(13:21) 20,000–30,000 paying customers, including hundreds of businesses
(13:55) One enterprise customer pays $4m per year
(15:18) Users generate 500,000 images, videos and other assets daily
(15:31) $10m raised across 4+ years
(15:51) $100m valuation two years earlier; later SAFEs priced higher
(16:29) Would he take a hypothetical $500m cash offer from Google?
Founders - if you're considering building your own Model, this is a must listen.
CEO @Jiajun3423 (Jeff) of @AkoolInc put on a masterclass:
> Spends $1m/mo on training.
> Broke $36m ARR in June this year.
> Users producing 500k images/vids per day
Proves you don't have to raise $1b (he's only raised about $10m!)
My full Top Founders Podcast interview with Jeff:
(04:38) $25m revenue in 2025, targeting $60m in 2026
(05:34) Over $3m revenue in a single month
(08:28) First 100 customers: slow enterprise sales → self-serve payments
(08:53) 210,000 organic clicks per month
(10:46) Stuck at $100k revenue in both 2021 and 2022
(11:19) Breaking through to $2m–$3m revenue in 2023
(11:56) Landing Coca-Cola after 3 months of testing
(12:34) Scaling to $12m–$13m revenue in 2024
(12:49) 60–70 employees, 40 engineers, $1m quotas for sales reps
(13:21) 20,000–30,000 paying customers, including hundreds of businesses
(13:55) One enterprise customer pays $4m per year
(15:18) Users generate 500,000 images, videos and other assets daily
(15:31) $10m raised across 4+ years
(15:51) $100m valuation two years earlier; later SAFEs priced higher
(16:29) Would he take a hypothetical $500m cash offer from Google?
Youtube: youtube.com/watch?v=AsP2l52-…
Spotify: open.spotify.com/show/3AA9bu…
Apple Podcasts: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcas…
$9m ARR selling AI to dental insurance is actually INSANE 👀 🤯
Nathan Latka retweeted
I'd bet big money on @commanderai
They added $150k MRR over the last 6 months by building AI tools for Waste Management.
Chatted with CEO David Berg last week, shared the tactics behind his insane growth:
00:29 $200K MRR last month, up 4x
04:27 Why his $14K price failed
04:54 $7,200 pricing breakthrough
05:54 Raised $972K at $5M
07:57 AI-powered prospecting signals
08:37 AI aggregates fragmented data
09:34 Raised $4M at $14.5M
10:12 Compensation for first sales rep
11:16 $250K garbage truck economics
11:44 $25K revenue per truck
13:16 5%-7% net margins per truck
13:31 2X over 7 years
Nathan Latka retweeted
Today we’re announcing Petal: the world’s first petabit-class transoceanic subsea cable and the first to deploy multi-core fiber at scale.
Spanning 7,000 km (4,000+ mi) between France and the United States, Petal will deliver 1 Petabit per second (1 Pbps / 1,000 Tbps), doubling the capacity of today’s most advanced transatlantic systems.
Petal is set to enter service in 2029, setting a new standard for high capacity, high density SDM subsea cable designs.
Read the full technical breakdown on our engineering blog: engineering.fb.com/2026/09/2…
I'd bet big money on @commanderai
They added $150k MRR over the last 6 months by building AI tools for Waste Management.
Chatted with CEO David Berg last week, shared the tactics behind his insane growth:
00:29 $200K MRR last month, up 4x
04:27 Why his $14K price failed
04:54 $7,200 pricing breakthrough
05:54 Raised $972K at $5M
07:57 AI-powered prospecting signals
08:37 AI aggregates fragmented data
09:34 Raised $4M at $14.5M
10:12 Compensation for first sales rep
11:16 $250K garbage truck economics
11:44 $25K revenue per truck
13:16 5%-7% net margins per truck
13:31 2X over 7 years











