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Quiller

by Dylan, Mark TannerLaunched 2014via The SaaS Podcast

Quiller, founded in 2014 by Dylan and Mark Tanner, helps sales and marketing teams create beautiful web-based proposals, quotes, and presentations as an alternative to PDFs and PowerPoints. Starting from Dylan's personal frustration with proposal creation at his micro agency, they grew to 3,000 customers and 45 employees through a freemium model, viral loops, and eventually moving upmarket to target larger sales and marketing teams. The company has raised $7.5 million and learned valuable lessons about freemium's tradeoffs and the importance of focusing on the right customer segment.

Key Takeaways

  • Used seo as primary growth channel
  • Reached product-market fit in 2-3 months
  • Got first customer via Cold outreach and referrals, particularly targeting video producers and others who could benefit from embedded content in web-based proposals
  • Most effective channel: SEO and word-of-mouth/viral loop (light virality from sending Quiller pages)
  • Monetizes with subscription pricing

Revenue

Initial Investment$20k
Pricing Modelsubscription

Traction

First Customer ChannelCold outreach and referrals, particularly targeting video producers and others who could benefit from embedded content in web-based proposals
Most Effective ChannelSEO and word-of-mouth/viral loop (light virality from sending Quiller pages)
Outreach MethodCold calling, personal outreach to friends and industry contacts, hand-holding early customers with excellent support
Time to PMF2-3 months
Traction Patternseo

Tech

Tools Used
SalesforceHubSpotXeroSlackZapierIntercomCalendlyProduct HuntGoogle WaveGoogle Docs

Why They Built It

Dylan, a designer and developer running a micro agency, was frustrated with the time-consuming process of creating proposals using Word, Excel, and Adobe InDesign. He built a website-based proposal as an alternative and discovered clients were impressed by the digital-first approach, inspiring the creation of Quiller.

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