Think scaling is all that matters? Not so fast. Here are 12 real-world examples from B2B SaaS founders who grew by doing things that don’t scale. These scrappy, hands-on tactics helped them find what really works before hitting the gas on growth.
Forget Scaling (For Now): Start Doing Things That Don’t Scale
SaaS founders love talking about scale. “Automate everything,” they say. But here’s the thing—sometimes you need to do the exact opposite: do things that don’t scale.
– Why?
Because scrappy, manual efforts can help you figure out what actually works
Once you understand what works, then you can automate and scale it up. But until then? Hustle baby.
The first customers? They’re gold. Get to know them. Do whatever it takes to make them happy, even if it’s time-consuming. Manually onboard them. Send personal emails. Jump on calls. These early efforts might not scale, but they’ll teach you what matters.
Why SaaS Founders Should Get Their Hands Dirty
The best way to truly understand your users is by getting in the trenches. In the early days, you need to talk to your customers, manually onboard users, and handle support yourself.
This level of involvement provides insights that automated tools just can’t match.
These hands-on efforts? They’re your best source of insight. Once you know what clicks, then you can scale.
By doing these non-scalable tasks, you validate everything—your product, your messaging, your cold email strategy. It’s not just a growth hack; it’s a way of working that applies to everything—marketing, product, customer success, etc.
12 Examples of SaaS Doing Things That Don’t Scale
Let’s dive into real examples of SaaS companies that embraced this approach and succeeded. The first few are pretty well-known. But I’ve dug deeper to find B2B SaaS examples:
From guerrilla marketing stunts to personal outreach campaigns, these stories show how founders took hands-on approaches to gain traction before they had the resources to scale.
“Reid [Hoffman] and the founding team sent invites and asked their friends to try the v1 product and invite their professional contacts. In total that was maybe a couple thousand individuals”
ーLee Hower, founding team, via Quora
This founder answered 99 StackOverflow questions, and now 2 million developers know about their product.
This founder answered 99 StackOverflow questions, and now 2 million developers know about their product. | |
|
The founders of Uncover manually fulfilled more than 1,000 orders over close to six months
The founder of Oneup tried something different, he personally recorded and sent welcome videos to every new signup.
Alex Turnbull shares how he got 2000 customers along with six non-scale growth tactics he used along the way.
Another tactic was scrapping online mentions to ensure no customer is ever lost due to a bad experience.
What SaaS founders Can Learn From These Non-Scalable Tactics?
The key takeaway here is simple: doing things that don’t scale helps you understand your customers deeply. Yes, it’s hands-on and time-consuming, but it reveals what truly clicks. You validate your product, refine your messaging, and figure out which growth channels actually work.
It’s not just an early-stage tactic; it’s a mindset. Test manually, learn fast, and only then think about scaling or automating.
A Note for 2025: Master the Manual Process Before Deploying AI Agents
AI agents are set to take center stage in 2025, automating repetitive tasks and streamlining workflows. But here’s the kicker: if you don’t have a well-defined process, automating it won’t get you results.
Before deploying AI, focus on doing the work manually. Get your hands dirty.
Understand the steps, refine the process, and optimize it.
Only once you’ve nailed down what truly works should you hand it over to AI agents for scaling.
Final Thoughts: When is time to shift from Manual to Scalable?
At some point, it’s time to level up. Once you’ve tested, validated, and refined your approach through manual efforts, you’ll see patterns. That’s your cue: when you have a clear, repeatable process that consistently delivers results, it’s time to automate.
Automate what’s proven to work. Leverage tools, workflows, and AI to scale up your efforts without sacrificing quality. Just remember—you can’t skip the hands-on phase. Trying to scale too early often means scaling mistakes.
I'm obsessed with this topic! Get “non-scalable growth tactics” delivered to your inbox every other week.
saas-HQ
Resources and bite-sized case studies to grow your SaaS. bi-weekly.
