Ian Blair
Founder & CEO, Laundry Sauce. On 2 shows, 2 appearances. The Shows tab opens the full record on each.
founderexecutivelaundrysauce.com ↗
Ian Blair is the co-founder and former CEO of BuildFire, a no-code mobile application builder that he sold via Acquire.com. In 2021, he launched Laundry Sauce, a direct-to-consumer premium fragranced laundry detergent brand.
Everything Ian Blair said on any show that made the record, most notable first. Each card names its show and opens the statement there.
Ian Blair: College is increasingly irrelevant due to AI and YouTube
“I think, you know, college is just less and less relevant today. You know, I don't think it's getting any better with you know, AI and just how much you know, the knowledge is essentially just democratized on the internet. You can learn anything on YouTube at …”
Ian Blair: Continuous feature addition creates an endless treadmill for scaling
“One thing that I've learned is like simple system scale. And, you know, when you have to add tons and tons of new features, it just becomes like this endless treadmill that you're on.”
Ian Blair: Venture-backed founders must provide shareholder liquidity by year ten
“When you raise capital, I mean, at a certain point, you have to return capital to shareholders. So You know, kind of around the 10 year mark, you know, they're looking for liquidity.”
Ian Blair regrets not selling BuildFire when markets were hot and frothy
“When things are like really hot and frothy and, you know, the future's looking bright, I mean, that's really the time that you want to sell. So I wish, you know, we had made those moves at the time.”
Blair: Enterprise websites cannot be built on Squarespace or Weebly
“You can't really build like an enterprise level site on, on Squarespace or Weebly or something like that. Whereas like something like WordPress, you can.”
Blair: SaaS companies are adding professional services to maximize software value
“I think a lot of SaaS companies are starting to go that way, because that's really how you get, like, the most out of the software, because, you know, you're working with people that know it the best and can get you the results that you're really looking for o…”
Ian Blair: Mobile apps became specialized tools rather than eating the world
“It kind of felt like everything was going to go towards apps. I mean, ultimately it didn't you know, apps became still a little bit more like specialized.”
Ian Blair's next venture Laundry Sauce hit eight figures in 18 months
“There's kind of this, like, wide open market, and you know, it's scaled at, you know, eight figures in the first, like, year and a half, so it's,”
Ian Blair: $100M B2C brands get famous while B2B equivalents remain unknown
“Because if you're like a hundred million dollar B to C company, like everyone in America knows who you're at, who you are. If you're a hundred million dollar, like B to B company, no one knows who you are.”
Blair: BuildFire has raised about $2.5M in capital
“We've raised about two and a half million so far.”
Blair: BuildFire broke $1M annual revenue run rate in 2015
“In 2015, let's see, 2015, I think that's when we broke the one million a year mark”
Blair: BuildFire reached nearly $200K pure SaaS MRR in late 2016
“Yeah, that would be you know, close to the 200 mark.”
Blair: BuildFire's ARPU ranges between $350 and $500 per month
“I would say on average, it's probably about three, 54. Yeah. Maybe 500 a month.”
Blair: BuildFire receives hundreds of thousands of monthly website visitors
“We have, you know, hundreds of thousands of people on our month or on our site each month.”
Blair: BuildFire spends just over $10,000 monthly on paid advertising
“We're doing a little over 10,000 a month on paid.”
Blair: BuildFire's monthly logo churn hovers between 3% and 5%
“Pure logo churn is about five. I can hover anywhere from like three to five percent.”
Blair: BuildFire acquires DIY customers for $25 to $30 CAC
“So like, for example, like the DIY customers, you know, it's like 25, 30 bucks. It's really cheap.”
Blair: BuildFire has grown purely through inbound marketing without outbound sales
“We haven't really had a direct sales effort yet. A lot of SaaS companies early on, that's how they start out. And, you know, we were fortunate to really do inbound marketing well and provide us with a whole slew of customers early on.”
Ian Blair: BuildFire published over 15,000 apps in 10 years
“Spent a little over 10 years building that company and published over 15,000 apps to the app store.”
Ian Blair scaled BuildFire to $30K MRR while still in college
“Like, I had four months off just to work on the business, and it was growing, and I don't know, we probably got it to, like, 20, 30,000 a month in recurring revenue.”
Ian Blair: BuildFire's initial attempt to sell via investment bank failed
“So we started working with an investment bank early on and unfortunately did not get a transaction across the finish line.”
Ian Blair: BuildFire's acquisition due diligence completed in just 30 days
“There's only a 30 day due diligence process.”
The other half of the tape: Ian Blair's own voice is left out of every number here. Other people bring the name up 7 times in 1 episode across the shows. 1 statement on the record names them. every mention, with the transcript →
Who brings them up most Nathan Latka 7
Statements about Ian Blair, by other people (1)
Latka: BuildFire Reached $2.4M 2017 Revenue and $300k Monthly MRR
“Since launching BuildFire in 2012, Ian has raised 2.5 million in investor funding and has 31 employees at age 25. His annual revenue in 2017 was 2.4 million dollars and his current monthly recurring revenue is 300,000 dollars per month.”
Every mention by year
tap a year for its mentions
Top Founders 7
2019 7 mentions in 1 episode
One line per show, most statements first. The link opens Ian's full record on that show: the calibration, argument clarity, speaking style and every statement made there.
| Show | Role there | Eps | Statements | Record | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 ACQUISITION STORIESLEDGER | Founder & CEO, Laundry Sauce | 1 | 12 | — | full record on Startup Acquisition Stories → |
| TOP FOUNDERSLEDGER | Founder & CEO, Laundry Sauce | 1 | 12 | — | full record on Top Founders → |