70 Cold Calls to Find a SaaS Idea (No VC Needed)

Most founders overthink idea generation. Jason Buckingham didn’t. He made 70 cold calls—while working a demanding job at Microsoft and raising a young family—until he found a niche with real buyer pain and a willingness to pay.

That approach is especially relevant for this SMB Content Marketing United States series, because it’s the same muscle you need for effective content marketing on a budget: talk to a specific audience, learn their language, validate demand, then build your message (and product) around what they already care about.

Jason’s story (shared on Startups for the Rest of Us, Episode 589 with Rob Walling) is a clean case study in startup marketing without VC: customer discovery first, simple validation, then steady growth—no splashy launch required.

Why 70 cold calls beat “waiting for the perfect idea”

Cold outreach works for idea validation because it forces contact with reality: people either have a problem and budget, or they don’t. No amount of brainstorming can replace that.

Rob Walling referenced MicroConf’s State of Independent SaaS survey, which found most SaaS ideas come from:

• A problem the founder experienced (~45%)
• A problem the founder saw in clients/customers (~22%)

Only a small slice comes from “research-first” idea hunting (Rob cites ~8%). Jason landed in that minority—successfully—but with a big caveat: it required volume, persistence, and a process.

Here’s the stance I’ll take: “Research-first SaaS” isn’t unreliable because it’s flawed. It’s unreliable because founders quit after 5–10 conversations. Jason didn’t.

The hidden advantage: you’re building distribution while hunting

Jason wasn’t just gathering data. By talking to dozens of operators, he was also building:

• A network of early adopters
• A list of future follow-ups
• A vocabulary bank for positioning and sales copy
• Confidence selling to a non-technical audience

That’s content marketing, too—just in 1:1 form.

The script that made strangers say “yes” to a call

Jason’s response rate was high because his outreach respected the reader.

His pattern:

1. Ask for 15 minutes (low commitment)
2. Personalize every email (proves it’s not spam)
3. Make it about them (their day-to-day, their workflows)

He wasn’t pitching software. He was interviewing.

If you’re a bootstrapped founder in the US trying to validate a B2B SaaS idea, here’s a practical cold email template based on that approach (edit to your niche):

Subject: Quick question about how you handle [workflow]

Hi [Name] — I’m [Your Name]. I’m researching how [role/company type] handle [specific workflow] and where the process breaks.

Could I ask you a few questions on a 15-minute call next week? I’m not selling anything—just trying to understand what’s frustrating today.

If it’s easier, I can send questions by email.

Thanks,
[Your Name]

Notice what’s missing: hype, big claims, and “can I show you a demo?” Too early.

What to say on the call (so it doesn’t turn into fluff)

Jason kept the calls useful by staying focused on operations. A solid discovery call flow:

• “Walk me through what happens from new lead → successful outcome.”
• “Where does this process slow down?”
• “What do you use today? Spreadsheet? CRM? Sticky notes?”
• “What have you tried that didn’t work?”
• “If you could wave a wand and fix one thing, what would it be?”
• “What’s this problem costing you? Time, missed revenue, stress?”

For content marketers, these answers are gold. They become:

• Blog titles that match real searches
• Landing page copy that sounds like the customer
• Sales objection handling
• Webinar topics that don’t need paid ads to fill

The pivot moment: 35 calls “failed”… then one call changed everything

Jason started in home care. He did 35 calls and kept hearing the same thing: a well-funded competitor already solved the core software problem.

Then, on call 35, someone casually mentioned:

• “We do home care… and we also do senior placement.”

Jason hadn’t heard of senior placement. That’s the point.

A great bootstrapped niche often looks like this:

• It’s real work, tied to real money
• The buyers aren’t “software people”
• The market is underserved because it’s not trendy
• Needs are specific enough to beat generic tools

Senior placement firms are essentially “realtors for assisted living”—matching seniors to facilities and getting paid by those facilities. Jason heard a repeated pain: they couldn’t reliably track clients, facilities, and matching needs in existing tools.

He followed up with another 30–40 calls, confirming patterns across agencies nationwide.

The best validation move: pre-selling for commitment (not cash)

Jason and his cofounder JD didn’t pre-sell because they were broke. They pre-sold because they refused to build for “polite liars.”

They offered early agencies:

• Prepay 3 months upfront
• Get a 20% lifetime discount

Five agencies wrote checks.

That moment—walking out of a coffee shop with a real check—is the opposite of VC theater. It’s simple proof:

If someone pays before the product exists, you’re not guessing anymore.

If you want a practical benchmark: for many bootstrappers, 3–10 pre-sold customers is enough to justify building an MVP—assuming the problem is consistent and the users match your target segment.

What “pre-sell” can look like in 2026

You don’t need paper checks (though it’s a great story). In 2026, a realistic pre-sell stack:

• Stripe payment link + simple agreement
• Notion or Google Doc mockups
• A recorded Loom walkthrough of the proposed workflow

The principle stays the same: money equals truth.

Why “ugly” marketing can win in the right SMB niche

Rob called out something many founders ignore: Senior Place’s branding doesn’t look like a modern SaaS targeting designers and developers—and that’s why it works.

Jason designed the site with a “handwritten” aesthetic because the typical buyer:

• Isn’t a tech-native
• Values comfort and clarity over polish
• Wants simple workflows and human support

This is a major lesson for SMB content marketing:

Your marketing should fit the buyer, not your peer group on X or LinkedIn.

If you’re selling to US small businesses with older operators (insurance, home services, healthcare, logistics), your conversion rate often improves when:

• Copy is plainspoken
• Screenshots are obvious and labeled
• Calls-to-action are low-pressure (“See if it fits”) rather than flashy
• Support and onboarding are highlighted early

Bootstrapping reality: slow growth, low churn, high trust

Jason’s early years weren’t “rocketship.” They were what most bootstrapped SaaS looks like:

• Day job + nights/weekends
• Feature tradeoffs (build customer value vs. admin polish)
• Support demands from less technical users
• “Should we market more, or will churn spike?”

But there’s a payoff.

Senior Place saw extremely low churn. Jason noted they hadn’t lost a customer to a direct competitor in years. That’s common in niche CRMs: switching costs are real, and once the product matches the workflow, customers stick.

Here’s a quotable way to think about it:

Customer acquisition is the tax you pay upfront. Low churn is the compounding you earn later.

That’s why this case study matters for lead-focused marketing: steady growth becomes easier when retention is strong.

Cold outreach → content marketing: turning calls into inbound leads

Cold calls can feel separate from “content marketing strategies for small business,” but they’re connected.

Jason’s process generates the raw material for inbound:

1. Collect repeated phrases (exact words customers use)
2. Turn them into:
   • Blog post headlines
   • FAQ pages
   • Comparison pages (“Senior Place vs spreadsheets”)
   • Onboarding emails
3. Publish consistently, then re-use:
   • Short LinkedIn posts quoting customer language
   • Case studies featuring real workflows
   • Simple webinars aimed at one job role

If you’re bootstrapped, this matters because content marketing is slow if you guess. It’s fast(er) when you already know:

• the buyer’s daily frustrations
• what they call the problem
• what “success” looks like in their terms

A simple 30-day plan (budget-friendly)

If you want to apply this without VC, here’s a realistic month:

• Week 1: Send 30 personalized emails, book 6–10 calls
• Week 2: Run calls, document pains + exact quotes
• Week 3: Create one landing page + one “problem page” blog post
• Week 4: Offer a paid pilot/pre-sell to 3 warmest prospects

No ads required. Just consistency.

Common questions founders ask (and the honest answers)

“Is cold calling dead for SaaS?”

No. It’s unpopular, not ineffective. In B2B niches, especially underserved SMB categories, direct outreach still works because inbound competition is lower and buyers aren’t flooded with relevant offers.

“How many calls do I need?”

Enough to see patterns. Jason needed ~35 calls to hit a dead end, then another ~30–40 to confirm the new niche. A practical target for most founders: 25–50 calls per niche before making a call.

“What if competitors already exist?”

Competitors aren’t the issue. Funded incumbents solving the exact workflow end-to-end are. Jason exited home care because a heavily funded player had already won the core software wedge.

What to do next if you’re building without VC

Jason’s story is a reminder that you don’t need a flashy idea. You need a repeatable pain, a buyer with budget, and the willingness to do uncomfortable work long enough for the pattern to appear.

If you’re building a SaaS for US SMBs and relying on content marketing to drive leads, start where Jason started: direct conversations. Your first 20 calls won’t feel efficient, but they’ll save you months of building the wrong thing—and years of writing content that doesn’t convert.

If you had to validate a business idea with 30 calls over the next month, which niche would you test first—and what would you ask that you’re currently afraid to ask?