How to sell to Founders at SaaS companies in United States
Founders in SaaS companies focus on scaling their product and customer base while managing cash flow. They respond to outreach that clearly outlines how a solution will accelerate user acquisition or optimize operational costs. Understanding their current growth stage and specific challenges, such as churn reduction or feature development delays, is crucial for engagement.
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
- inefficient onboarding processes
- limited resources for scaling
- difficulty in feature prioritization
The playbook
- 01
Identify recent funding rounds
Look for SaaS companies that have recently secured funding, as they are often in a growth phase. Use platforms like Crunchbase or PitchBook to filter for companies that have raised a Series A or later in the last 6 months. This indicates they have resources to invest in new solutions.
- 02
Research churn rates and customer feedback
Investigate customer reviews on platforms like G2 or Capterra to identify common complaints about their product. Focus on issues related to customer retention or feature gaps. Mention these insights in your outreach to demonstrate understanding of their pain points.
- 03
Craft messaging around scalability challenges
Tailor your messaging to address specific scalability challenges faced by the founder, such as onboarding inefficiencies or support bottlenecks. Highlight how your solution can streamline these processes and improve user experience, making it relevant to their growth objectives.
- 04
Leverage mutual connections for introductions
Use LinkedIn to identify mutual connections who can introduce you to the founder. A warm introduction increases the likelihood of a response. Prioritize connections who have worked with the founder or are in the SaaS space to enhance credibility.
- 05
Follow up with relevant industry insights
If you don’t receive a response, follow up within a week with a piece of relevant industry insight, such as a new trend in SaaS or a recent case study of a successful pivot. This positions you as knowledgeable and keeps the conversation open without being pushy.
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
- Scaling your SaaS product
- Insights on reducing churn
- Streamlining your onboarding process
Questions
- Why do founders at SaaS companies ignore cold outreach?
- Founders often receive numerous outreach messages and prioritize those that align closely with their immediate needs or challenges. If your message doesn’t address a specific pain point or opportunity, it may be overlooked in favor of more relevant communications.
- What are common objections from SaaS founders?
- Founders may object due to budget constraints, existing vendor relationships, or a belief that their current processes are sufficient. Addressing these objections requires understanding their unique situation and demonstrating clear ROI or competitive advantages.
- How can I demonstrate value to a SaaS founder quickly?
- To quickly demonstrate value, include specific examples of how your solution has helped similar companies achieve measurable results, such as increased user engagement or reduced operational costs. Tailoring this to their current challenges can make your outreach more compelling.
- What content do SaaS founders engage with?
- SaaS founders typically engage with content that addresses industry trends, growth strategies, and operational efficiencies. Providing insights or case studies that resonate with their experiences can foster trust and interest, making them more receptive to outreach.
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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