Independent SaaS Survey: Bootstrapped Marketing Benchmarks

Most founders build their marketing plan off vibes, a couple of loud Twitter threads, and whatever their last job did. That works right up until you need consistent pipeline and you don’t have VC money to paper over mistakes.

That’s why the State of Independent SaaS Survey (announced on Startups For the Rest of Us, hosted by Rob Walling) matters. A good survey doesn’t tell you what’s “hot.” It tells you what’s common, what’s working, and what tradeoffs real bootstrapped teams are making—especially on channels like content, community, and partnerships.

There’s a wrinkle: the original episode page is currently returning a 404. The reality? That happens. What doesn’t change is the opportunity: use founder surveys as a benchmark tool to make smarter marketing decisions when you’re building a US startup without VC.

Below is how I’d use a survey like this to sharpen positioning, pick channels, set expectations, and build a marketing system you can actually run while shipping product.

Why independent SaaS survey data beats “marketing advice”

Answer first: Bootstrapped SaaS marketing improves fastest when you benchmark against peers with similar constraints—small teams, limited ad spend, longer timelines.

Marketing advice on the internet is usually missing the part that matters most: context. A VC-backed company can buy its way out of weak messaging. A bootstrapped founder can’t.

Survey data from independent SaaS companies is useful because it tends to reflect:

• Lower tolerance for burn (you need ROI, not “learning”)
• Owner-operators doing marketing (less specialization, more prioritization)
• Longer compounding cycles (content/community outperform ads over time)
• Focus on retention (because churn kills bootstrapped growth)

One snippet-worthy way to think about it:

Bootstrapped marketing isn’t about finding the perfect channel. It’s about picking a channel you can sustain long enough for compounding to show up.

If you’re following our “US Startup Marketing Without VC” series, this is the same theme we keep coming back to: sustainable acquisition systems beat flashy campaigns.

What to look for in the State of Independent SaaS Survey

Answer first: The most valuable survey outputs aren’t “top channels.” They’re the relationships between channels, stage, and spend.

Even if you haven’t seen the final results yet, you can anticipate the kinds of cuts that matter—and plan your own decisions around them.

Segment by stage, not by ego

Averages lie. You want brackets like:

• Pre-revenue / validation
• $1k–$10k MRR
• $10k–$50k MRR
• $50k+ MRR

Channel performance and effort look totally different across these. For example:

• Pre-revenue founders often “do content” but it’s really exploration (finding language that resonates).
• At $10k MRR, content starts turning into a system (editorial calendar, refreshes, internal linking, lead magnets).
• At $50k+ MRR, content becomes an asset you protect (updates, pruning, topical clusters, conversion rate work).

Watch for channel stacking

The best bootstrapped growth is usually a stack, not a single tactic. Look for combinations like:

• SEO + a newsletter + a low-friction demo flow
• Podcasting + partnerships + webinars
• Community + templates + product-led onboarding

When you see stacking, ask: What’s the anchor channel? Typically it’s content or community because they compound and lower CAC over time.

Pay attention to time-to-results

Bootstrapped founders need honest timelines. In independent SaaS, common “time-to-results” patterns are:

• SEO/content: 3–9 months before it feels real (faster if you already have distribution)
• Outbound: can work in weeks, but requires tight ICP + messaging discipline
• Partnerships: 1–3 months to set up, then can become a steady second engine
• Communities: slow early, strong later—if you commit to stewardship

If the survey includes questions about timelines, that’s gold. It prevents you from killing a good channel too early.

Bootstrapped marketing benchmarks that actually help (even before results)

Answer first: You can use survey-style benchmarks to set realistic targets for traffic, conversion, and effort—without copying someone else’s channel.

Because we don’t have the published dataset in the RSS scrape (the page is down), I’m not going to invent numbers. Instead, here are practical benchmarks you can set up using the same categories these surveys typically measure.

Benchmark 1: Your acquisition math (the “boring” part)

If you’re a US startup marketing without VC, you need a simple model you revisit monthly:

1. Visits per month (by channel)
2. Lead conversion rate (visit → signup/demo)
3. Activation rate (signup → meaningful use)
4. Close rate (demo → paid) or upgrade rate (free → paid)
5. Net revenue retention / churn

A survey won’t solve this for you—but it will show what other founders are measuring, and that often nudges you toward the metrics that matter.

My stance: If you don’t know your visit→lead conversion rate, you’re not “doing marketing.” You’re producing content and hoping.

Benchmark 2: Content that drives leads (not applause)

Most SaaS blogs overproduce top-of-funnel content because it’s easy to write and feels productive.

Use a simple 70/20/10 mix:

• 70%: high-intent keywords (alternatives, comparisons, “software for…”, “how to” with buyer context)
• 20%: product-led tutorials (how your ICP does the job, using your workflow)
• 10%: narrative content (founder story, lessons, contrarian takes)

Then measure what matters:

• % of posts that generate any signups within 60 days

• of posts ranking in top 3 positions

• Demo request rate by landing page

Surveys often reveal the same truth: independent SaaS wins with unsexy consistency.

Benchmark 3: Community building with a job-to-be-done

If the survey surfaces “community” as a growth driver, don’t translate that as “start a Slack.” Translate it as:

Create a place where your ICP gets a recurring job done, and your product becomes the obvious tool.

Examples that work for bootstrappers:

• A monthly teardown session (websites, onboarding emails, pricing pages)
• A private library of templates with member submissions
• Office hours with rotating expert guests (sales, RevOps, compliance)

Community doesn’t replace marketing—it reduces the cost of trust.

How to participate in surveys like this (and get ROI from answering)

Answer first: Treat the survey as networking and intelligence gathering, not charity.

If you see the State of Independent SaaS Survey floating around, fill it out—but do it in a way that pays you back.

Give clean answers (so the dataset is useful)

Independent founder datasets get noisy fast. If the question asks “primary channel,” don’t list six channels. Pick the one that actually drives new customers.

Capture your own snapshot first

Before you submit, write down:

• Current MRR/ARR bracket
• Top 2 channels by new customers in the last 90 days
• CAC (even a rough blended estimate)
• Churn or retention
• Team size and time spent on marketing per week

You’ll be able to compare yourself to the published results later without trying to reconstruct history.

Use the results to kill a channel politely

Founders waste months because they can’t admit a channel doesn’t fit their constraints.

When survey results come out, use them to make a clean call:

• If your peers at a similar stage rarely use a channel successfully, that’s not proof it can’t work—but it’s a strong signal you’ll need unusual skill or patience.
• If many peers succeed with a channel you’ve ignored, run a time-boxed experiment (4–6 weeks) with a clear success metric.

A simple “no-VC” marketing plan built from survey thinking

Answer first: The safest bootstrapped plan is one compounding channel + one controllable channel + one relationship channel.

Here’s a plan I’ve seen work repeatedly for independent SaaS, especially in the US market:

1) Compounding: SEO + “problem library”

Create 30–50 pages that map to recurring problems in your niche.

• Each page answers one problem
• Includes a simple CTA (template, calculator, checklist)
• Links to 2–4 related pages

This becomes your long-term asset.

2) Controllable: outbound to validate positioning

Outbound isn’t a forever channel for everyone, but it’s a great truth serum.

• Send 20–50 targeted emails per week
• Use a single, specific hook (pain + outcome)
• Track reply rate and booked calls

If your message doesn’t get replies, your positioning is off. Fix that before you write 40 blog posts.

3) Relationship: partnerships in your ecosystem

Find “adjacent tools” and service providers your ICP already trusts.

• Co-host a webinar
• Swap templates
• Bundle onboarding content

Partnerships are a bootstrapped cheat code because they borrow distribution without buying ads.

What to do next (especially if you’re tired of guessing)

Surveys like the State of Independent SaaS Survey are community infrastructure. They’re one of the few ways bootstrapped founders can see what’s normal—without relying on VC-backed playbooks.

If you run a SaaS and you’re marketing without venture capital, make this your operating rhythm:

1. Benchmark quarterly (via surveys, peer groups, or your own dashboard)
2. Pick one compounding bet and stick with it for 90 days
3. Add a second channel only when the first is stable

A good question to leave you with: If you had to double leads in 6 months without increasing spend, which single system would you build—content, outbound, partnerships, or community—and what would you stop doing to make time for it?