Bootstrapped SaaS Marketing: Freemium vs Partnerships

Most bootstrapped founders don’t fail because they pick the “wrong” marketing channel. They fail because they pick a channel that adds permanent cost before it adds reliable growth.

That’s why Mike Taber’s update on Startups for the Rest of Us still lands years later. He’s building Bluetick (a SaaS tool for personal outreach at scale), he’s exploring a deep partnership with a larger CRM product, and he’s making the kinds of decisions that matter more when you’re building without venture capital: freemium or not, lifetime deals or not, partnerships or not, and how much bureaucracy you can tolerate to keep distribution alive.

This post is part of our SMB Content Marketing United States series, where the theme is simple: you want growth you can fund from customers—not from investors. Mike’s story gives a clean lens for that.

Freemium isn’t “free marketing” when your marginal costs are real

Freemium gets pitched as a low-cost customer acquisition strategy. The reality: freemium is only “cheap” if your product has near-zero marginal cost and fast self-serve activation.

Mike put freemium on the back burner for Bluetick, and that’s a rational choice for a bootstrapped SaaS with:

• Ongoing infrastructure costs (sending, syncing, storing, and processing email activity isn’t free)
• Higher support demands (outreach tools naturally attract edge cases and deliverability issues)
• A product that’s valuable only after meaningful setup (templates, inbox connections, sequences, follow-up logic)

Here’s the stance I’ll take: freemium is a marketing channel disguised as a pricing plan. If you can’t afford the channel, the plan doesn’t matter.

A bootstrapped “freemium readiness” checklist

Before you launch freemium, you should be able to answer these with numbers:

1. What’s your marginal cost per active user per month? (hosting + third-party APIs + deliverability tooling + support time)
2. What percentage of free users activate in < 15 minutes? If activation takes hours or requires help, your support costs will spike.
3. What’s your free→paid conversion target? If you can’t confidently say “we need X%,” you can’t size the risk.
4. What do you remove from free that preserves value but limits cost? “Unlimited everything, but free” is a trap.

For many SMB-focused products, a better move is a narrow, time-bound trial (7–14 days) plus strong onboarding. It keeps your “top of funnel” broad without committing to indefinite cost.

Why AppSumo-style lifetime deals often backfire for lean teams

Mike also decided against an AppSumo deal after talking with founders who’d done them. The recurring complaints were blunt:

• Lifetime users were hard to upsell later
• Support volume stayed high for years
• Customer expectations didn’t match what they paid

One founder told him a painful number: 80% of support calls coming from lifetime-deal users years later.

That shouldn’t surprise you. Lifetime deals can attract a segment that’s optimized for bargain-hunting and experimentation. They’ll:

• Push for features and support because they “already paid”
• Treat your tool like an all-you-can-eat buffet
• Create ongoing cost without ongoing revenue

When a lifetime deal can still make sense

I’m not anti-lifetime-deal. I’m anti-using it as a panic button.

A lifetime deal is most defensible when you have:

• Clear onboarding that minimizes support
• A product with low marginal cost
• A defined cap (seats, usage, or support scope)
• A plan for what the deal buys you beyond cash (distribution, partnerships, reviews, proof)

If you’re doing it because “we need momentum,” you’re usually buying the wrong kind of momentum.

For SMB content marketing, this matters because a lifetime deal can look like marketing success (“Look at all these customers!”) while quietly weakening your ability to fund content, support, and product improvements.

Partnerships can be your “VC-free distribution”—but only if you set rules

Mike’s core storyline isn’t freemium or AppSumo. It’s the long, messy middle of a partnership that might become a merger.

He’s been collaborating with a founder who runs a larger SaaS product (a CRM for field sales reps). The bigger product is doing roughly 10–15x the revenue of Bluetick, but the key detail is more interesting: both products were stagnant.

That’s the reality for a lot of bootstrapped startups. You get to a certain revenue level, then you hit a ceiling because:

• The current acquisition channel saturates
• The product targets too broad a customer profile
• The team doesn’t have focused go-to-market execution

A partnership is a way to borrow distribution when you can’t afford to buy it.

The partnership play: “productized service” as a growth wedge

Their current plan: a done-for-you service using Bluetick, sold into the CRM’s existing customer base.

That’s smart for two reasons:

1. It sells outcomes, not features. SMB buyers pay faster when the promise is “appointments booked” rather than “automation workflows.”
2. It creates a feedback loop for marketing. Every service engagement teaches you the objections, the messaging, and the ideal customer profile.

In 2026, SMBs are flooded with AI-generated outreach. That makes “we do it with you” (or for you) more valuable, not less. Buyers don’t need more tools—they need fewer missed follow-ups.

A simple rule for bootstrapped partnerships

If you’re doing real work before the deal is formal, set a clock.

Mike and Rob discuss the risk: you can end up effectively working a day job inside someone else’s business without clarity on equity, roles, or end state.

If you’re considering a partnership-instead-of-funding path, protect yourself with three agreements, even if they’re lightweight:

• Scope: what you will and won’t build
• Timeline: what gets decided by when (30/60/90 days)
• Economics: how value is shared (rev share, equity, acquisition option, or paid contract)

Handshakes work—until they don’t.

The “profit vs revenue” trap in bootstrapped growth decisions

One of the most telling moments in Mike’s update is his point that despite the CRM doing far more revenue, Bluetick may have higher profit.

This comes up constantly in SMB content marketing and bootstrapped SaaS:

• A bigger product can have bigger support burden
• More customers can mean more edge cases
• Legacy code and technical debt can turn every feature into a project

So here’s the practical takeaway:

When you’re bootstrapped, profit buys time. Revenue only buys bragging rights.

If you’re choosing where to invest your limited effort—content, partnerships, outbound, SEO—profitability gives you the runway to iterate.

A quick decision framework: “Growth potential × ability to execute”

Mike and his partner reached a contrarian conclusion: Bluetick may have more growth potential than the larger CRM because the CRM’s growth has been flat.

If you’re in a similar position (two products, or two markets), rate each option 1–5 on:

• Growth potential: how big is the reachable market for your niche?
• Speed to test: can you validate a channel in 30 days?
• Channel fit: does SEO/outbound/partners actually work in this market?
• Execution capacity: do you have the people and time?

Then choose the one with the highest combined score, not the one with the most historical revenue.

Google audits: the hidden tax on bootstrapped distribution

The least “marketing” part of the conversation is also the most relevant to marketing leaders at SMBs: platform dependency can become a tax.

Mike previously paid five figures for a Google security audit. Later, after reviewing the cost and the practical impact, he chose not to repeat it.

Instead, he used workarounds:

• For Google Workspace (business accounts): customers can whitelist the app
• For gmail.com users: fall back to IMAP + app passwords

Whether you agree with his decision or not, the meta-lesson is clear:

Every channel you “build on” has gatekeepers. The more bootstrapped you are, the more you need a Plan B.

For SMB content marketing in the U.S., this is why founders diversify into:

• SEO and content (owned attention)
• Email lists (portable distribution)
• Partnerships (borrowed trust)

Paid ads can work too, but they’re rarely forgiving when margins are thin.

People also ask: “Should I avoid Google-dependent products?”

No. But you should architect your business so Google isn’t a single point of failure.

That can mean:

• Supporting multiple auth methods (OAuth + IMAP)
• Building for Microsoft and Google from day one if your audience uses both
• Keeping a content engine that doesn’t depend on an app store ranking or one integration

A practical plan for VC-free growth this quarter

If you’re running a bootstrapped SaaS or SMB software business in the U.S., use this 30-day plan to apply the lessons from Mike’s decisions.

Week 1: Pick one “owned” channel and one “borrowed” channel

• Owned: SEO blog content, email newsletter, webinars
• Borrowed: partnerships, integrations, co-marketing with a complementary tool

Don’t pick three. Two is enough.

Week 2: Turn your product into a result-focused offer

Even if you’re not launching a full done-for-you service, package an outcome:

• “Inbox follow-up system setup in 48 hours”
• “Outbound sequence rewrite + deliverability check”
• “Pipeline cleanup + automation install”

This sells better than feature lists, and it gives your content marketing clear topics.

Week 3: Publish content that matches the buying moment

Most SMB blog content is too generic. Publish content that’s decision-adjacent:

• Comparisons (with real tradeoffs)
• Implementation guides
• Mistakes and teardown posts

Aim for 2 posts that reduce risk for the buyer, not 6 posts that only get impressions.

Week 4: Set a partnership clock

If you’re collaborating with another company:

• Define a 60-day pilot
• Decide what success means (revenue, leads, retention)
• Put next steps in writing (rev share, equity option, or contract)

You don’t need a 40-page agreement. You do need clarity.

Where bootstrapped marketing gets simpler (and tougher)

Mike’s update is a reminder that “startup marketing without VC” isn’t about clever hacks. It’s about choosing constraints on purpose.

He skipped freemium. He skipped AppSumo. He’s exploring partnerships and productized services as a way to access distribution without fundraising. And he’s refusing to pay a recurring, expensive platform tax that doesn’t clearly improve customer outcomes.

If you’re building in the SMB market in the United States, that’s a solid playbook: protect margins, borrow distribution carefully, and invest in channels you can own.

What would change in your marketing plan if you treated every new channel—freemium, lifetime deals, integrations—as an ongoing cost you’ll be paying a year from now?