Behind every SaaS success story is a chapter of struggle. Many of the platforms we know today began as small projects, side hustles, or even failed products. Their early performance wasn’t stellar, but one decision or turning point changed everything. Let’s look at 8 such stories.
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8 SaaS Success Stories and What You Can Learn from Them
1. Slack – From Gaming Failure to Workplace Hero
Slack started as an internal tool inside a gaming company called Tiny Speck. The team had poured years into developing their game Glitch, but it failed to catch on with players. With little traction and dwindling resources, things looked bleak.
What Sparked Their Growth
The team realized that while the game didn’t succeed, their internal chat tool was invaluable. They pivoted entirely, polishing the tool and rebranding it as Slack. Within months, it gained adoption in small teams, eventually spreading to global enterprises.
Lesson: A side project can sometimes hold the real value. Always watch for hidden potential in what you’ve already built.
2. Canva – From Small Yearbook Tool to Global Design Platform
Canva’s founder Melanie Perkins first created a tool called Fusion Books, a simple design platform for schools to make yearbooks. It was niche, local, and modestly successful, but not the global success she envisioned. Growth was slow, and investors were skeptical.
What Sparked Their Growth
The turning point came when Canva expanded beyond yearbooks and focused on making graphic design accessible to everyone. By simplifying the user experience and removing complexity, Canva broke through barriers and scaled worldwide.
Lesson: Simplifying a complex skill for the masses can unlock massive adoption.
3. Notion – A False Start and Total Rebuild
Notion launched in 2013 but quickly struggled with performance issues and unclear positioning. The team was tiny, funding was drying up, and users weren’t sticking around. It looked like the product wouldn’t survive.
What Sparked Their Growth
In 2015, the founders scrapped the original product and rebuilt it from scratch with a focus on flexibility and simplicity. By listening to user feedback and emphasizing customization, Notion turned itself into a productivity powerhouse embraced by startups and individuals alike.
Lesson: Sometimes starting over completely is the boldest path to long-term growth.
4. Basecamp – A Design Agency’s Side Project
Basecamp (then 37signals) began as a small web design company. They struggled with managing multiple client projects efficiently. Existing tools were clunky, so deadlines slipped, and communication was messy.
What Sparked Their Growth
Frustrated with their workflow, the team built a simple internal project management tool. When they shared it publicly, it struck a chord with other businesses. Basecamp soon shifted its focus from design services to SaaS, and it steadily grew from there.
Lesson: Solving your own pressing problems often leads to products others desperately need too.
5. Mailchimp – Quiet Side Project to Billion-Dollar Brand
Mailchimp was founded by Ben Chestnut and Dan Kurzius as a side project to support their web design clients. For years, it remained small, with modest revenue and little recognition. It wasn’t flashy or venture-backed, and for a long time, it didn’t seem like a breakout success.
What Sparked Their Growth
Their decision to launch a freemium model changed everything. By giving small businesses free access, Mailchimp gained massive adoption. This user base fueled long-term growth and eventually led to a $12 billion acquisition by Intuit.
Lesson: The right pricing model can be the catalyst that takes you from obscurity to market leadership.
6. Zapier – Rough Hackathon Build to Automation Leader
Zapier started as a rough project built during a hackathon. The early product was clunky and adoption was slow. Based in Missouri, far from Silicon Valley, the team didn’t have easy investor access or buzz.
What Sparked Their Growth
Instead of trying to be everything, Zapier focused on one niche: connecting apps that didn’t naturally integrate. That decision to specialize in integrations created a unique value, and word-of-mouth drove exponential growth.
Lesson: You don’t need to reinvent the wheel. Solving one “glue” problem can be enough to build a successful SaaS.
7. Freshworks – Competing from the Shadows
Freshworks (then Freshdesk) launched in Chennai, India, with a small team aiming to challenge Zendesk. In the early years, they weren’t well known, and breaking into the global SaaS scene from outside the U.S. was extremely difficult.
What Sparked Their Growth
By offering affordable pricing with solid functionality for small and medium-sized businesses, Freshworks gained traction in underserved markets. This customer-first approach eventually led to global recognition and a successful IPO.
Lesson: You don’t need to beat giants on their turf — sometimes serving the overlooked segment is enough to win.
8. GitLab – Open Source with Uncertain Future
GitLab started as a small open-source project. With little funding and a distributed team, its early adoption was limited. Competing with GitHub made the journey even tougher, as most developers gravitated to the more established platform.
What Sparked Their Growth
GitLab embraced a unique remote-first culture from the start, cutting costs and tapping talent worldwide. Combined with strong community contributions and a broader DevOps vision, GitLab scaled into a serious competitor and went public in 2021.
Lesson: A unique culture or structure can be a powerful differentiator in crowded markets.
Key Takeaway
These stories remind us that SaaS success rarely looks like an overnight victory.
Most began with struggles, slow traction, or even near-failures. But one bold decision — whether a pivot, pricing change, or cultural bet — shifted the trajectory.
The takeaway? Pay close attention to what’s not working, and don’t hesitate to change direction. Your breakthrough may be waiting inside the challenge.