0-14m ARR (and growing rapidly) in 2.5yrs w/ 6ppl and zero funding as Founder/CEO of Retention.com (formerly GetEmails). 

I build innovative solutions that help ecommerce brands rapidly grow abandonment revenues and first-party, owned audiences.

Retention.com is growing so fast because of exceptional product/market fit and incredible team.

Our solutions grow abandonment revenues and owned audiences exponentially faster than any other way with fantastic engagement metrics. 

We amplify existing monetization efforts by making it easy for brands to harness the power of Identity.

I have over 10 years experience at creating SaaS products, building go-to-market strategies, and building sales machines, all with the same core executive team. 

I also have deep marketing, client success, and customer support expertise.

I build capital-efficient, lean, high-growth, highly profitable, bootstrapped SaaS businesses. 

Before Retention.com, I bootstrapped Robly Email Marketing, an Email Marketing and Marketing Automation SaaS to an 8 figure exit as Co-Founder/CEO. 

Before that, I was a Credit Default Swap trader at Lehman Brothers and Barclay's Capital.

I also post twice daily on LinkedIn, write a twice-per-week newsletter, post a weekly video "Work In Public" update on our company page, and have a weekly podcast called "10 Years in the Making" where I interview our amazing DTC founder customers.

Follow me to learn about email, SMS, and audience growth, and to watch a unicorn get built in public.

Subscribe to my newsletter here: https://retention.com/join-my-newsletter/

Adam Robinson

CEO @ Retention.com & RB2B | Person-Level Website Visitor Identity | Push LinkedIn Profiles to Slack in Real-Time, 100% Free!

Founder/CEO of RB2B and Retention.com. 

rb2b.com: Identify your anonymous website visitors. Push their LinkedIn profiles to Slack. It's 100% Free.

Sign up today at rb2b.com.

6Sense, Demandbase, and Clearbit all stop at the company (or account) level.

You need to know the PERSON who visits your site to close the loop on ABM. 

DM me with any questions.



=============================================================================



Retention.com: $0-22M ARR in 4yrs w/ zero funding as Founder/CEO. 

We help ecommerce brands rapidly grow abandonment revenues, improve ad efficiency, and grow first-party, owned audiences in a cookie-free world.

We amplify existing monetization efforts by making it easy for brands to harness the power of Identity.

I build capital-efficient, lean, high-growth, highly profitable, bootstrapped SaaS businesses. 

Before Retention.com, I bootstrapped Robly Email Marketing, an Email Marketing and Marketing Automation SaaS to an 8 figure exit as Co-Founder/CEO. 

Before that, I was a Credit Default Swap trader at Lehman Brothers and Barclay's Capital.

I create content for LinkedIn, made a docuseries in 2023 called Billion Dollar Challenge, and am investing heavily in creating work-in-public content for our community space for R!B2B.

https://community.b2b.retention.com/

Billion Dollar Challenge: 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a7259jq1_1A&list=PLxUsfasmudU7fh5Q2C7InaG3EvDVemiU4

Follow me to watch us build a unicorn in public.

Member, CEO Pavilion

In 2017, a CEO friend told me I was "wasting my life" on my tiny startup.

He had raised $30M in VC. His co-founders' families had put in $2M. They were supposed to be on their way to $1B.

He tried to recruit me.

Here's what happened:

Him: "We'll be worth a billion soon. A small piece of equity here will be worth way more than your big stake in that tiny thing you're building."

I told him no.

Him: "You're not ambitious enough. It's been 5 years and your startup isn't going anywhere. You're too talented to be thinking so small."

Me: "Maybe you're right. But it's MY startup. You work for the VCs. I'd rather stay stuck on my own thing than work on yours."

I told him what I wanted: mid-20s ARR SaaS with under 40 people.

He thought I was crazy.
 
Eventually, he shut down his VC-backed company after burning through $30M.

That same month, I booked my first $1M profit month.

This is what I took from that:

Stay in the game.

If you're small but profitable, you can outlast almost everyone. Time is your biggest advantage.

Most VC-backed companies have 18-36 months of runway. You have forever.

The world beats you down when you're small.

Everyone told me I was thinking too small. That I should raise money. That I'd never build anything meaningful bootstrapped. They were all wrong.

Skills compound.

Every year you spend building, you get better at product, sales, hiring, and understanding customers. It’s invisible for years. Then suddenly it's not.

Survival is the strategy. 

Most founders quit at year 3 or 5. Stay alive long enough and your odds skyrocket. You just need one breakthrough.

Don't let anyone tell you you're wasting your life.

The CEO who said I wasn't ambitious enough? He doesn't say that anymore.

You don’t need VC money. You need time and one breakthrough.

Keep building.

CEO @ Retention.com & RB2B | Person-Level Website Visitor Identity | Identify 70-80% of Your Website Traffic | Helping startup founders bootstrap to $10M ARR

I'm thrilled to announce this years winner of RB2B's President's Club.

He only started 6 months ago and has closed $1M in ARR.

Bro, is insane. Doesn't take breaks, doesn't sleep, doesn't eat.

Just look at this output:

- 16,830 conversations
- 3,040 demos
- 1,600 custom pricing quotes
- countless support tickets too

As a thank you, we sent him to the Grand Wailela in Hawaii for a week.

First class travel, all expenses paid.

Yes, he still has to work, but he's AI and has no feelings/say.

Thank you Adam Bot!

Nobody realizes that Apollo and ZoomInfo were both stuck at single-digit ARR for YEARS. When they finally got unstuck, unlocked rapid growth, and hit billion dollar valuations, both companies had ONE THING in common:

They hired Santosh Sharan.

Here are the 7 things that makes Santosh a top 0.1% unicorn builder:

1. He understands the mechanics of exponential growth

Santosh believes that sustained growth is about “Stacking S-Curves”. Meaning, you bang your head against the wall for years, then something hits, explosively. During that explosion you're working on your next S-curve. Steady exponential growth is about stacking these curve.

He also appreciates initiatives that have the potential to unlock non-linear growth (such as LinkedIn for RB2B), and the drivers of growth you can’t measure.

2. He doesn’t play to win; he plays to destroy all competitors

Santosh’s instinct is to design businesses and GTM strategies that are impossible to compete with, which usually means forgoing near-term revenue in favor of virally expanding user bases. When you become the 800lb gorilla and synonymous with the category you can charge premium prices and see exponential revenue growth.

3. He deeply understands all of the key departments of a startup

Santosh started as an engineer, moved into Product and Growth, and then moved on to running Sales and Marketing teams. He approaches all teams with an engineer’s mindset. He sees his role as removing blockers in one department and moving to the next.

4. He knows what the building blocks of massive future success look like

Santosh has been a part of the largest data companies when they were fledgling startups. He has seen, over and over again, what a unicorn looks like as it’s being born, and knows the opportunities worth pursuing.

5. He is empathetic towards employees and customers

No matter the problem, Santosh has seen it. He understands the immense pain that we go through as we grow. He also believes in creating businesses that treat customers well and make the world a better place.

6. He knows how to put together a killer data asset

Few people in the world could put together a fixed-price data asset that would allow us to make the free offer we have at RB2B. Santosh is one of them. 

7. He understands fundraising and M&A

Santosh has run many transactions as the buyer and seller, and has done countless VC and Growth Equity rounds. He understands what investors and acquirers look for in companies, which informs growth and product strategy. 

TAKEAWAY

Santosh is a Unicorn builder.

A look at his LinkedIn profile will show you exactly what I’m talking about.

People always ask me how I convinced him to work with us.

I don’t have a great answer, other than “I somehow did”.

Now, he's moved on to found his own company, Zeer AI.

I can't wait to see what happens.

Up and to the right!

25 things I wish THIS GUY knew about business (me, 25 years before $28m ARR bootstrapped):

1. Building things that make money is far more rewarding than making money itself.

2. Ideas don’t matter. Execution is everything. Learn how to execute.

3. YOU are going to have to do everything. No one will sign up to execute your “ideas”. (Why would they? You have never actually DONE anything.)

4. Your skills as an entrepreneur will compound over time. Start acquiring them NOW.

5. The quality of your product will dictate how much wind you have at your back.

6. The quality of your team will dictate how far (and fast) you can go. Great talent is everything.

7. You will NEVER regret removing a person from the wrong role. You will only wish you did it sooner.

8. To even have a shot at success, you need a great product AND great marketing. Don’t sleep on either side, or you will never get anything off the ground.

9. Brand is a very real - and very powerful - thing. Learn how to build aspirational brands.

10. Ignore what everybody else is doing. Startups don’t kill startups.

11. Don’t copy people. Figure out how to do SOMETHING new, even in crowded spaces.

12. You don’t actually want wealth. You want freedom, and control over your time and job.

13. Embrace the idea of years (maybe a decade of) “ramen profitability”. Being small will ultimately compound into huge profits (and the freedom you want). It just takes time.

14. The goal is to create the maximum amount of profit with the fewest number of employees.

15. Nobody who is ahead of you can actually give you good advice. They can only share experiences.

16. Set up your life and work so that you can do it for decades without burning out.

17. Learn how to build organic audience on social media ASAP. It will change the trajectory of anything you are doing.

18. Relentless focus on one thing over years and decades is what will make you successful.

19. Let go of the idea of a retirement “number” - because it will always change.

20. A truly great life partner and children will add more to your life than you could ever imagine.

21. Your life will someday be more expensive than you ever thought possible. Don’t fight it - it actually DOES make you happy. Just figure out how to make more money.

22. Consider sobriety. It will really help you, and you will wish you found it sooner.

23. Nutrition is actually far more important than exercise. But exercise > everything else.

24. Never take your foot off the gas. Innovate or DIE.

25. Everything is going to take way longer than you think. Never, EVER give up. 

Just keep building ✌️

I’ve talked to over 20 founders the past 4 weeks and every one of them is miserable.

They want me to be miserable too … but I’m NOT. 

11 years in, I’m more excited than ever. 

Here’s the top 5 reasons why I love my job and life (and how you can too):

1. I focused on profit from day 1. 

Nobody does this in tech, because VC is the “shortcut”. You go faster (and almost no founder makes money).

But - 10 years later, that profit has grown to a magnitude where we have the resources to pursue any opportunity we want to. 

2. I hired an incredible exec team. 

The longer we exist, the bigger we get, and the more credibility we have, the better the talent is that wants to join us on our journey. 

I love waking up every day to build with such smart and motivated people. 

3. That exec team lets me do what I want to do (and what I’m good at).

I love the early-early, really small, really lean team stuff. I love coming up with products and seeing if people like them or think they suck. 

I also love doing outrageous marketing stunts, and I have learned to love creating organic social content. 

But despite being the CEO of a $29m ARR company, I: 

a. I never interview, hire, or fire anyone

b. I don’t deal with any of the people opps in the larger part of our org

c. I only do internal meetings on Monday

I do content on Tuesday, have a marketing meeting on Wednesday, and by Friday most weeks my calendar is completely empty. 

(You 9-9-6 grinders out there will say I’m soft … But I’m optimizing for the energy to keep at this for DECADES)

4. My work rhythm gives me energy for my family life, and vice-versa. 

This is part of running my calendar how I do (which most CEOs would say is LIGHT). It creates a virtuous cycle in the two parts of my life I actually care about. 

5. On January 6 I was able to create my dream life.

I love Aspen and the mountain life it provides. 

On January 6, I was able to move my family a to a house a mile outside of downtown, and rent an office two blocks away from the gondola. 

When I am enjoying a powder day and walk two minutes to my office, I still cannot accept that this is now my permanent reality.

My wife loves it and my kids are going to grow up rippers…

All while I keep building this growing, profitable business, with people I love and respect. 

What’s the takeaway? 

You probably don’t have the patience to bootstrap, but you should. 

We all know bootstrapping gets you there slower. 

Nobody respects you for YEARS in the beginning… that SMALL thing you’re working on…

And worst of all you don’t have TechCrunch articles about how you raised at some dumb valuation to send your friends and family so they can think you’re rich (when you’re not).

But if you can just manage to do what we did…

Get something going…

Small at first…

Then keep doing it for a decade…

You’ll end up having the one thing that you actually wanted when you started this whole thing. 

FREEDOM ✌️

Contrarian take: Several simpler-than-ever-before, stupidly minimalist apps designed for an incredibly well-defined ICP will experience insane product-market fit in 2026. These apps will be met with total lack of understanding by the “vibe-coding” community, who in disbelief say:

“That’s stupid, I can build that in under an hour”.

Meanwhile, none of the apps they build get any traction whatsoever because the 9,000 features they built in 60 seconds adds to the tidal wave of slop that is the rest of the story of 2026.

Tiny feature set + tight ICP + unique distribution = success in SaaS/AI in 2026.

Here's every tool RB2B used to get to $6M ARR:

Tolt (affiliate)
Salesforce (CRM)
Webflow (website)
GSuite (everything)
Slack (daily comms)
Riverside (LI videos)
Zoom (weekly show)
ChatGPT (biz coach)
Ramp (corporate cards)
Wynter (messaging help)
Calendly (calendar mgmt)
Notion (LinkedIn planning)
YouTube (video repository)
Intercom (activation/support)
Justworks (US employee PEO)
LinkedIn (edutainment/marketing)
Clay (filtering/routing PLG signups)
Deel (Non-US employee payroll etc)
Salesloft (CRM/sequencing/booking)
Hangouts (internal/external meetings)

Here's the consultants we've used:

Taylor Haren (cold email/Clay agency)
Samu Kovács (YouTube Agency)
Jonathan Shapiro (executive coach)
Alex Fine🌲 Ali Yildirim🌲 (LinkedIn ads agency)
Alec Paul (LinkedIn consultant)
Eli Rubel (design agency)
brendan short (Inbound GTM/Clay filtering/routing)
Sam Dunning (SEO)

Plus we now have a team of 3 FTEs.

Keep building.

18 months ago, Vector 👻 and founder Joshua Perk 👻 were my rivals. Their core offer was basically "ALL OF RB2B for FREE". Last week they pulled their free offer and their entry price is $399/mo. But here's the craziest thing of all:

They don't want to be known as EITHER a web de-anon company OR a competitor to RB2B!!!

Want to know why?

Tomorrow on Unf*ck My Startup LIVE, we’re doing something completely different. Josh is joining me for a one-of-a-kind conversation between two rival founders who spent the last two years building similar products in the GTM space and made very different bets to get there.

We'll go over: 

1. How Vector positioned itself against RB2B's already stupid offer
2 The good's and the bad's of doing something so bold 
3. How they were able to afford that type of offer in the first place and 
4. Why they thought free was hurting them, and what they are doing now.

Come watch two founders talk shop, compare playbooks, and reveal the logic behind their biggest bets.

Tomorrow at 3pm ET.

Register here: https://lnkd.in/gs-Yyc4p

The only metrics that matter at each stage of SaaS:

$0-500K ARR: Weekly MRR growth rate
$1-5M ARR: Weekly MRR growth rate
$5-10M ARR: Churn + Top of funnel growth

Yes, it’s the same metric twice, but weekly MRR growth rate is the ONLY thing that matters from 0-$5M.

Are you growing week over week? If so, by how much?

Keep it simple. Track the number that tells you if you're moving forward or not.

Churn doesn't matter until $5M+. Before that, you don't have enough customers for the data to mean anything. 

Once you hit $5M, churn starts eating you alive if you ignore it. That's when it matters.

Top of funnel growth becomes the game at $5-10M. You've got the product, you've got retention. Now it's about feeding the machine.

But before $5M…

Weekly MRR growth rate ONLY.

Boise State University

Adjunct Professor

KHQ-TV

General Sales Manager

Lotus Boise Corp

Sparklight

Regional Advertising Manager at Sparklight

NewsChannel 21 / NPG of Oregon

Director of Sales

WTOL

WLUK Fox 11

Fisher Communications

General  Manager

Media General

Pappas Telecasting

Local Regional Sales Manager

Marketing a business is a challenge. You need people that know than just their products, you need people that understand how your business works. Not only do they need to know how to best use Facebook, Google, and Amazon, but MORE importantly, you need them to understand your customer's journey. You need them to understand your operational and logistic pain points. 

Having a conversation about this should never feel like a sales pitch. Its should be collaborative and a place to brainstorm. It should end with you thinking, "my business is better after this talk" and not "boy, I wonder how much they are going to pitch me". 

Great sales people today tackle business challenges, not marketing challenges.

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