How a Solo Founder Built SaaS by Selling to Dance Studios

**Lucas** (0:01)
You know, we've covered a lot of vertical sass plays on this show, bakeries, tattoo shops, dental labs. But there's one niche I think we've overlooked, and it's actually surprisingly big.

**Luna** (0:13)
Let me guess, dance studios?

**Lucas** (0:15)
Exactly. There are over 60,000 dance studios in the US alone.
And until a few years ago, most of them were running on spreadsheets, paper sign-in sheets, or generic scheduling tools that didn't fit their workflow.

**Luna** (0:29)
So a solo founder saw that gap and built something. Who are we talking about?

**Lucas** (0:35)
His name is Matt Reyes.
He was teaching hip hop classes part-time in Austin, and he got frustrated with how hard it was to manage rosters, payments, and parent communication. He had a background in web development, so he built a simple booking tool for his own studio.

**Luna** (0:51)
Classic scratch your own itch story. But what made him think other studios would pay for it?

**Lucas** (0:57)
He didn't at first. He just wanted to solve his own problem. But when he showed it to a few other studio owners in Austin, they all asked, can I use this?
So he started charging $49 a month per studio.

**Luna** (1:12)
$49.
That's pretty standard for this kind of niche SaaS. But how did he get the first customers without a sales team?

**Lucas** (1:20)
He did something really smart. He went to local dance competitions and conventions.
He'd set up a small booth, offer a free month, and actually sit down with studio owners to understand their specific pain points. He wasn't selling software. He was selling time back to overwhelmed owners.

**Luna** (1:39)
That's the kind of face-to-face that a solo founder can actually pull off. No marketing budget, just hustle.

**Lucas** (1:46)
Right. Within 18 months, he had 200 paying studios. And here's the kicker, his retention rate was 95 percent.
Once the studio started using it, they basically never left.

**Luna** (1:59)
Why so sticky? What did the tool do that generic scheduling software couldn't?

**Lucas** (2:05)
A few things. It handled class pass punch cards, sibling discounts, recital ticket sales, all the weird little edge cases that dance studios have.
General tools like Mindbody or Vigero tried to do everything for every type of business, so they were overcomplicated and expensive.

**Luna** (2:23)
So, he kept it simple and focused. What about payments? Did he integrate with Stripe?

**Lucas** (2:29)
Yeah, Stripe for credit cards plus a built-in system for cash and check. And he built a parent portal where families could sign up, pay, and see their kids' schedules. That alone was a huge selling point.
Studio owners hated chasing down payments.

**Luna** (2:46)
I can imagine. So, at $49 a month times 200 studios, that's about $9,800 a month in recurring revenue.
Not bad for a solo founder.

**Lucas** (2:58)
And he kept his costs incredibly low.
He ran everything on a single server, used a basic front-end framework, and did all the support himself. His only real expense was the Stripe fees and maybe $100 a month for hosting.

**Luna** (3:13)
So, he was cash flow positive almost immediately. What's the biggest challenge he faced?

**Lucas** (3:20)
Scaling support.
As he grew past 100 studios, the emails and phone calls started piling up. He had to build a knowledge base and automate some responses, but he still answers every email personally. That personal touch is actually part of his retention secret.

**Luna** (3:38)
That's a double-edged sword though.
At some point, you can't keep doing that alone. Did he ever hire anyone?

**Lucas** (3:45)
He hired a part-time support person after year two, but he's still the only developer. He told me that he intentionally keeps the feature set small.
He says no to at least half the feature requests. That's how he avoids scope creep.

**Luna** (4:00)
That's a hard lesson for a lot of solo founders. They want to say yes to everything, and then the product becomes a bloated mess.

**Lucas** (4:10)
Exactly, and he's very clear about who his customer is. He doesn't try to serve gymnastic studios or martial art schools.
Even though they have similar needs, he stays in his lane.

**Luna** (4:22)
So what's next for him? Is he looking at other verticals, or is he going to double down on dance?

**Lucas** (4:29)
He's doubling down. He's been adding features like competition registration and costume ordering, things that are very specific to dance.
He thinks there's still a ton of room in the US market, and he's starting to get inquiries from Canada and the UK.

**Luna** (4:45)
That's the beauty of a vertical SaaS. You can own a tiny niche, and if you do it well, you can build a very nice business.