How to sell to Founders at SaaS companies in Netherlands
Founders at SaaS companies in the Netherlands are primarily measured on customer retention rates. They will respond to outreach that shows a clear understanding of the challenges of scaling subscription models, particularly around churn reduction strategies. Demonstrating knowledge of their specific market dynamics and how to optimize their user engagement can lead to meaningful conversations.
Written and maintained by the SoloRiff team, who build outbound software and run outbound with it. The figures below are our own: we measured 559 saas company domains over public DNS on 2026-09-03. Last updated 2026-09-03.
What actually hurts
- high customer churn rates
- ineffective user onboarding
- lack of actionable customer feedback
- difficulty scaling rapidly
The playbook
- 01
Identify churn patterns in SaaS metrics
Research the target company's customer retention rates using tools like SaaSOptics or ProfitWell. Look for companies with a churn rate above industry benchmarks, which indicates they may be struggling with customer satisfaction or engagement.
- 02
Analyze recent funding announcements
Check platforms like Crunchbase or PitchBook for recent funding rounds. Founders who have just secured investment are often looking for solutions to scale quickly and may be more receptive to outreach that addresses their growth challenges.
- 03
Craft a message around user engagement strategies
When reaching out, focus on specific tactics for improving user engagement, such as onboarding processes or customer feedback loops. Use insights from their website or product to tailor your message, demonstrating you understand their unique challenges.
- 04
Leverage industry-specific events
Identify upcoming SaaS conferences or webinars in the Netherlands. Mentioning these events in your outreach can create a sense of urgency and relevance, as founders are often looking to network and learn about industry trends.
- 05
Follow up with a case study on churn reduction
If you don’t receive a response, send a follow-up email including a brief case study of a similar SaaS company that successfully reduced churn. This can pique their interest and demonstrate your expertise in their specific industry context.
Can saas companies even receive your mail?
We measured the DNS of 559 saas companies, sampled evenly across company sizes, to see how many authenticate their own email. It matters in both directions: a domain that does not authenticate is a domain whose team is used to mail going missing — and if your own domain is in the gap, yours is the mail going missing.
Publishes a DMARC policy of quarantine or reject — the domain actually asks receivers to act on failures.
The gap is the finding: 16.7% of 1–10-person companies against 80.9% of the largest — 64 points apart. Small companies are where the unauthenticated domains are, and small companies are who most cold outreach is aimed at.
Where does your domain sit?
Same three lookups, run live against your domain. Nothing is stored and nothing is emailed to you.
How this was measured
Company domains were sampled within employee-count bands, then queried over public DNS for SPF (TXT at the apex), DMARC (TXT at _dmarc.) and MX. One domain per company, deduplicated. Anyone can reproduce any single row of this with dig.
DKIM is deliberately absent. A DKIM key lives under a selector that cannot be enumerated from outside the domain, so a company with flawless DKIM under a name we did not guess would be counted as having none. That would measure our guess list, not the industry.
Domains with no MX record are excluded rather than counted as failures — parked and redirect-only domains would otherwise drag every figure down and make the result an artefact of the sample.
Sampled within bands, so this describes the population of companies, not of employees: a 10-person company counts once, as does a 10,000-person one. Each band is at least 60 domains; bands below that are not published. Figures are percentages of the sample, not of the whole industry, and we publish no company names — only counts.
Measured 2026-09-03. Re-measured monthly.
The full census across every industry — sortable, with sample sizes, free to reuse under CC BY 4.0.
Subject lines that fit
- Improving your retention rates
- Strategies for user engagement
- Insights on scaling your SaaS
Questions
- Why do founders at SaaS companies ignore outreach about user engagement tools?
- Founders often receive numerous outreach messages and may overlook those that don't immediately address their pressing issues, such as high churn rates or scaling challenges. If the outreach doesn't demonstrate a clear understanding of their specific context, it risks being dismissed.
- What are common objections from SaaS founders regarding new tools?
- SaaS founders frequently cite concerns about integration with existing systems, the learning curve for their teams, and the ROI of new tools. They want to ensure that any new solution will not disrupt their operations or require extensive training.
- How can I demonstrate value to a SaaS founder in my outreach?
- To effectively demonstrate value, provide insights or data relevant to their specific challenges, such as case studies of similar companies that benefited from your solution. Showcasing a clear understanding of their market and pain points will help you stand out.
- What triggers a SaaS founder to respond to cold outreach?
- Founders are more likely to respond when outreach is timely and relevant, particularly during periods of growth, such as following a funding round or after launching a new product. Highlighting immediate solutions to their current challenges can also prompt a response.
Or have it run itself
SoloRiff does every step above on its own — finds the companies, finds the people, writes each of them individually, and handles the replies. Drop your URL and watch it work before you sign up for anything.
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