SaaS Influencers Worth Following
Not the loudest. The ones with genuinely outsized impact — the founders, operators, and investors who quietly shaped how modern SaaS is built, priced, and grown. A curated short list I actually read and recommend.
Founders & Operators
The people who built and scaled real SaaS companies — and now teach the operating reality of getting from zero to scale.
Jason Lemkin
Built and sold EchoSign to Adobe, then created SaaStr — the largest community for B2B SaaS founders — plus the SaaStr Fund.
Why follow
The most prolific, tactical voice on going from $0 to $100M ARR: pricing, hiring your first sales reps, board dynamics, all of it.
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The SaaStr PlaybookJason Cohen
Bootstrapped and built two $1B+ companies. Writes A Smart Bear, home to the deepest essays on SaaS strategy, metrics, and moats.
Why follow
First-principles essays that quietly shaped how a generation of founders thinks about pricing, growth math, and durable advantage.
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A Smart Bear (essays)Rob Walling
The godfather of bootstrapped SaaS. Founder of TinySeed (the first accelerator for bootstrappers) and MicroConf; author of The SaaS Playbook.
Why follow
Proof you don't need venture money — the definitive operating system for calm, profitable, founder-controlled SaaS.
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The SaaS PlaybookProduct & Growth
The sharpest minds on product strategy, product-led growth, and the loops that turn usage into revenue.
Lenny Rachitsky
Former Airbnb PM. Writes the most-read product and growth newsletter in tech and hosts Lenny's Podcast.
Why follow
Turns fuzzy product and growth questions into tested, repeatable playbooks — sourced from the operators who actually did it.
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Lenny's NewsletterKyle Poyar
Helped coin 'product-led growth' at OpenView. Now co-founds Tremont and writes Growth Unhinged, read by 85k+ operators.
Why follow
Data-rich teardowns of how the fastest-growing SaaS companies actually price, package, and grow — real benchmarks, not theory.
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Growth UnhingedElena Verna
Growth leader for Dropbox, Miro, Amplitude and SurveyMonkey, now at Lovable. Writes one of the sharpest PLG newsletters around.
Why follow
Cuts through growth theater with blunt, systems-level thinking on PLG, monetization, and building real growth engines.
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Elena's Growth ScoopPricing, Positioning & Metrics
The voices who fixed how SaaS gets priced, positioned, and measured — the stuff most founders get expensively wrong.
Patrick McKenzie
Known as patio11. Software founder turned Stripe's resident essayist; writes Bits about Money and the canonical pieces on SaaS pricing.
Why follow
Almost single-handedly taught indie SaaS founders to charge more — and explains the financial plumbing nobody else will.
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Kalzumeus greatest hitsApril Dunford
Positioning consultant who has launched 16 products. Her books Obviously Awesome and Sales Pitch are the standard texts on B2B positioning.
Why follow
The clearest framework anywhere for why your product isn't selling — and how to reposition it so the right buyers get it instantly.
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Obviously AwesomeTomasz Tunguz
Former Redpoint MD, now founder of Theory Ventures. His blog is the data-driven reference for SaaS benchmarks and metrics.
Why follow
Brings hard data to gut-feel decisions — burn multiples, growth benchmarks, and what 'good' actually looks like by stage.
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Tomasz's SaaS data blogCapital, Brand & Audience
Investors and media builders who shape how SaaS gets funded, framed, and followed.
Harry Stebbings
Started The Twenty Minute VC at 18 with no network. Now runs 20VC — a top tech podcast — and a multi-fund venture firm.
Why follow
Crisp, founder-first interviews that pull real fundraising and scaling lessons out of the best operators and investors alive.
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The Twenty Minute VCChristoph Janz
Early-stage SaaS investor at Point Nine. Coined the 'five ways to build a $100M business' and the widely-used SaaS funding napkins.
Why follow
Frames the whole SaaS journey on a napkin — elephants, rabbits, and flies — so you instantly see which business you're really building.
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Five ways to build a $100M business
Maggie Sellers
Founder of HSR Media. Her Hot Smart Rich newsletter and podcast sit at the intersection of consumer, capital, content, and culture for 160k+ founders and investors.
Why follow
A masterclass in building a media brand and engaged audience from zero — the modern founder's distribution playbook.
Start here
Hot Smart RichCurated by Startup to Scaleup. Suggestions for who else belongs here are always welcome.
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