Adnan Malik bootstrapped Software Finder from two people in 2019 to 340 employees with 100%+ growth every year — without ever taking outside funding.
The engine: a human matchmaking layer between confused software buyers and overwhelmed vendors. We get into why 70-80% of B2B software buyers end up unhappy, how a 120-person content team drove 300% organic growth while competitors collapsed, and the mid-market sales mistake costing SaaS founders their margin.
For SaaS founders, operators, and marketers who want to understand how marketplaces actually scale.
In this episode:
→ Why most B2B software buyers end up dissatisfied
→ The chicken-and-egg problem and the first-mover edge of starting in health IT
→ How content scaled to 300% organic growth while competitors dropped
→ Why 90% sales / 10% marketing is the costly default for mid-size SaaS
→ AEO in practice — and why Adnan calls it "glorified SEO"
→ The personal cost of scaling from 100 to 340 employees
----------- Episode's Chapters -----------
0:05 — Introduction & Guest Welcome
0:49 — What Software Finder Does & How It Started
2:01 — The Business Model: Free for Buyers, Paid by Vendors
5:58 — Solving the Chicken & Egg Problem
9:21 — 5 Years of 100% Growth — What's Driving It
14:43 — SEO Investment & Organic Traffic Wins
17:04 — AEO & How LLMs Are Changing Buyer Search
20:48 — Biggest Mistakes Vendors Make with Buyers
25:22 — Why Brand & Reviews Matter Before the Sale
26:32 — Review Manipulation & How to Build Trust
30:49 — Founder Burnout & Managing Rapid Growth
33:49 — Biggest Win, Biggest Failure & Lessons Learned
36:38 — Advice for Bootstrapped Founders Today
Adnan Malik - linkedin.com/in/adnanmalik1
Software Finder - https://softwarefinder.com
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