Conversionaid: The Saas Podcast, Startups, Growth Hacking & Traction

He lived in his first customer's basement for a year. Nate Baker found Qualia's first customer by wearing a Stanford sweatshirt to a conference. That customer, Barry Feingold, didn't just sign up—he taught them the industry, made intros to competitors, and let the team live in his basement. In this episode, founders will learn how to find their first customers through network-based selling and multi-year upfront contracts. Nate shares the brutal early days: building for months without talking to customers, getting their first customer's software shut off overnight, and plateauing at $45K ARR because they didn't respect sales as a skill. Their VP of Sales told them: "I've never seen such a gap between great product and incompetent sales execution." Within 12 months, they went from $45K to $3.5M ARR. Today, Qualia generates over $100 million in ARR with 600 employees and has raised more than $200 million to transform the home buying process. This episode is brought to you by: