Last updated on September 3, 2024
Our CEO and co-founder, Lav Crnobrnja, recently was a guest on the SaaS Podcast to share the story behind Vacation Tracker and the key strategies that have driven our success. Now nearing $2 million in annual recurring revenue, Lav’s insights offer valuable lessons for anyone looking to build and scale a SaaS business.
5 Do’s and Don’ts of Building a SaaS Business
Vacation Tracker was developed in 2017 during a company hackathon sparked by the leave management challenges faced at Lav’s first company, Cloud Horizon. Lav and co-founder Slobodan created a landing page and generated some initial interest for the software but ultimately set the project aside until a waitlisted user reached out, prompting them to release a beta version. This proved there was real demand for the product, leading to its official market launch shortly after.
With 60 people on the waitlist, 20 signed up, and 10 became active users.
Today, Vacation Tracker serves over 2,500 active users and continues to grow. Read on to discover key insights from Lav on how he guided the business to this level of success.
Do: Solve Real Problems
Vacation Tracker was initially developed not as a consumer product but as an internal solution to address challenges with leave management. When Lav and his team at Cloud Horizon struggled with tracking employee PTO using Excel spreadsheets, they recognized the need for a more efficient system—one that offered them more visibility and minimized workflow disruptions. What began as a tool to solve their own issues quickly proved valuable to many other businesses facing similar challenges.
Don’t: Strive for Perfection
Quoting Reid Hoffman, Lav shared: "If you're not embarrassed by the first version of your product, you've launched too late." Launching quickly and improving based on user feedback is the unique approach that allowed our team to grow Vacation Tracker quickly, directly responding to what users needed and wanted.
“Most people care about the solution to a problem, not how the solution looks.”
Do: Engage Directly with Your Customers
A hands-on approach to customer engagement has been crucial to our success. By personally handling support and demos, Lav stayed closely connected to our users. This direct engagement helped us understand customer problems, refining Vacation Tracker to better serve their needs.
“I was the one doing all the chats and talking with them, really trying to understand their problems.”
Don’t: Underestimate the Power of Content Marketing
By honing in on the specific problems our audience faces, we’ve transformed content marketing into one of our most powerful tools for growth. Targeted content that addresses real challenges, like PTO accrual methods, has helped us attract qualified leads and nurture them over time. This strategic focus ensures that even if a prospect isn’t ready to buy today, they remember us when the time comes.
“Google wants to see consistency, they want to see quality content, so that's what we did... To this day, content is our best channel. Hands down.”
Do: Differentiate Your Product Early
The strategic decision to build Vacation Tracker as a Slack-first product set Vacation Tracker apart in the market. Designing the solution to work seamlessly within Slack made it easy for our users to manage leave directly within their primary workspace. This early differentiation not only addressed a specific need but also aligned perfectly with how our target audience already operated, driving adoption and setting the stage for our continued growth.
We’re grateful to the SaaS Podcast for giving Lav the opportunity to share our journey. The do’s and don’ts outlined above capture the core principles that have guided Vacation Tracker’s growth from a hackathon project to a thriving SaaS business.
Whether you're just starting out or looking to scale, these lessons from our CEO provide actionable insights to help you navigate the challenges of building a successful SaaS business.
To learn more about our journey and the inspiration behind Vacation Tracker, read our story here.
Claudia
Claudia is an experienced marketer with a passion for writing and creating engaging content that connects with readers.
