Selling Through Other People's Audiences: Affiliates and Partners
The fastest way for a small SaaS to reach buyers is often through partners who already have them: a coach, a community, an agency or an affiliate. In these interviews, Lancer says most of its growth came from two coaches, LaunchFast launched to a coaching program's members on day one, Outrank credits its affiliate program as one of three levers behind its growth, and Hero Analytics sells to agencies it finds in partner directories.
We transcribed the Starter Story interviews with transcribe.so and searched them by speaker and timestamp, so every quote below links to the moment it was said. Think of this as notes from the friend who actually watched the whole thing. Revenue figures are self-reported by the founders. Disclosure: we sell a transcription service, and we are not affiliated with Starter Story; links go to their original videos. This is part four of the Founder playbooks series.
In the interviews we read in November 2026, Lancer reported $10,000 a month by its third or fourth month, Outrank passed $200,000 a month, and Hero Analytics was at about $96,000 a month in recurring revenue.
| Company | Whose audience | The deal | Self-reported result | Moment |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lancer | Freelance platform coaches | 30% lifetime if they onboard the client, 20% for a referral | Most growth from two coaches | 08:49 |
| LaunchFast | A seller coaching program | Equity for distribution, a members-only price | About 21.8K a month at day 90 | 01:26 |
| Outrank | Affiliates | A program made easy to promote | From about 20K to 200K a month, with ads and SEO | 11:51 |
| Hero Analytics | Agencies in partner directories | Pricing by client count, seats for clients | Adding close to 10K a month each month | 01:30 |
Who is the layer above your buyer?
Lancer is an AI agent that finds, qualifies and bids on jobs on a freelance marketplace for agencies and freelancers. Its founder ran no paid ads. Instead of selling to buyers one by one, he looked for "connectors": people with access to many buyers who could become affiliates (07:03). Convincing one connector, he said, becomes a high-ticket sale, compared with hundreds of calls to sell a $200 a month product.
He listed three things that make a good connector: a large network of your ideal customers, a reputation that earns their trust, and, as a bonus, sales skill. For Lancer that meant coaches who teach people to win work on the platform. Each has a steady flow of new paying clients, who already trust the coach's advice on how to bid.
The result was concentrated. "Most of our growth came from actually just two Upwork coaches" (08:49). The first came through an introduction from a beta user and needed only a demo. The second took cold outreach, and the founder offered him $1,000 just to take a call. Coaches who sign up a client and set them up on Lancer earn 30% for the life of the account. A plain referral earns 20%.
Lancer's five-step connector playbook
His playbook for starting over (09:46):
- Define your ideal customer from real usage: people who onboard easily and stay. For Lancer, agencies turned out better than solo freelancers.
- Find the level above them: who has a wide network of those customers and their trust?
- Send a very personal pitch, with research on the person and even a long recorded video that references their work. One affiliate is worth the effort.
- Agree the terms. He sees 20 to 30% lifetime commission as standard, with upfront payments case by case for big networks.
- Track affiliates and pay monthly, with affiliate software so payouts are automatic.
When is giving up equity for distribution worth it?
LaunchFast is an AI product research tool for Amazon sellers. Its founder had no audience, but remembered a seller coaching program he had once bought, which had thousands of active sellers. He pitched the program: give him 48 hours, and if they liked the tool, they would partner (04:44). He built it around the program's own workflows and documented processes, sent a recorded demo, and got the call the next day.
He gave up equity for that access, and said he would do it again even at half the company: "50% of 20k MRR is better than 50% of zero MRR" (04:44). The program's members pay $50 a month, while the public price is $199 a month. He reported about 10K a month at day 30, 17 to 18K at day 60 and about 21.8K at day 90 (01:26).
His homework for viewers is concrete: list five possible distribution partners, such as coaching companies, communities or creator groups, and contact three of them by the end of the week (08:49).
What role does an affiliate program play after launch?
Outrank, an SEO content tool from a founder who runs several software products, grew from zero to about $20,000 a month by building in public (11:51). Past that point, he said, building in public alone could not keep the pace. The team started ads, hired someone dedicated to SEO, and put real effort into its affiliate program, aiming to make recommending Outrank as easy as possible for affiliates. He credits those three moves together with taking Outrank from about 20K to 200K a month.
Two lessons follow. An affiliate program is a scaling lever, not a launch plan: Outrank added it after the product already had traction. And it competes for attention with other channels, so the same founder's rule applies: in his experience, growth for each product comes down to one or two acquisition channels, and those get all the effort.
How do partner directories help you sell to agencies?
Hero Analytics sells reporting software to email and text-message marketing agencies, not to the stores they serve. One agency brings ten, twenty or thirty client brands onto the platform at once (05:10). Pricing follows that shape. An agency with 10 clients pays around $500 a month, one with 20 clients around $600, and the largest agencies get custom pricing (02:29). Agencies can also add seats for their own strategists and their clients at $10 a month each.
Finding agencies is easy because the platforms list them. The e-commerce and email platforms the agencies use publish partner directories that, in the founder's words, give a ranked list of agencies by size and influence. Every agency on one platform shares the same problems, so almost every feature helps every customer.
The pitch writes itself from the agency owner's goal: "Every agency owner is trying to take on more clients without hiring more people" (08:10). Saving the agency time is the second message. His advice for other industries is to look for the agency layer in a market you know, then open the main platforms' partner directories.
What to copy
- Name the layer above your buyer. Coaches, programs, communities, agencies: who already has your customers' trust?
- Start with a short list. Write down five possible partners and contact three this week, as LaunchFast suggests.
- Pitch one partner like a big deal, with a personal video and research on their work.
- Pay more for more work. Lancer pays 30% when the partner onboards the client and 20% for a bare referral.
- Offer the partner's members something special, such as LaunchFast's members-only price.
- Make the affiliate program easy to promote, and add it once the product already sells.
- Sell to the agency, not the end client, with pricing tied to client count, and find agencies in platform partner directories.
If you want to study these episodes yourself, our free YouTube transcript tool gives you a timestamped transcript of any public video. Part two covers YouTube search as a growth channel, and part three covers Reddit for your first 100 customers.
Frequently asked questions
What commission should a SaaS affiliate program pay?
Lancer's founder treats 20 to 30% lifetime commission as standard. He pays 30% when the affiliate onboards and sets up the client, 20% for a plain referral, and considers upfront payments for partners with large networks.
How do you find affiliates or partners for a SaaS before you have users?
Look for people who already serve your buyers: coaches, coaching programs, communities and agencies. LaunchFast pitched a coaching program it had once bought from, and Hero Analytics finds agencies in the partner directories of the platforms they use.
Is it worth giving equity to a partner for distribution?
LaunchFast's founder thinks so for a first product with no audience, saying half of a working business beats all of one with no customers. It is a large trade, so it makes most sense when the partner gives access you could not build yourself in a reasonable time.
Why sell SaaS to agencies instead of end customers?
One agency brings many client accounts at once, so each sale is bigger. Hero Analytics prices by client count and adds seats for each agency's clients, and partner directories make agencies easy to find.