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Ian Blair

Founder & CEO, Laundry Sauce · 1 appearance on the record.

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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.

12statements → 6claims → 0claims resolved → 3.5/5average certainty → 1.25/5average debate potential → ≈4.5/5argument clarity, estimated → 8said about them ↓

6 not checkable as stated how the 6 claims stand · each chip opens the sources

6 assertions · 1 opinion · 1 insight · 4 disclosures · every statement was checked. The predictions and assertions are the 6 claims: statements the public record can support or contradict. 0 are resolved, and 6 name no date, number or outcome precise enough to check. Everything else (opinions, insights, what ifs, disclosures) can never be settled by the record, so it carries no assessment.

The record, in short

What the tape says about how Ian argues and how the claims held up. Everything they said, and everything said about them, is in the tabs below.

How they sound: not measured why? →

We measure speaking style by listening to the audio itself, and a fair number needs at least 2,000 words from one person on tape we have measured. There is too little of Ian Blair on measured tape to publish a rate. This says nothing about how they speak.

Everything Ian Blair said on Top Founders that made the record, most notable first. Filter by type, assessment or year in the ledger →

Opinion
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.”
Ian Blair Oct 24, 2017 ▶ 3:17 822: SaaS: 25 Years Old and $250k+ in MRR, Here's Trick to Starting With No Developers
Insight
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 Oct 24, 2017 ▶ 8:54 822: SaaS: 25 Years Old and $250k+ in MRR, Here's Trick to Starting With No Developers
Disclosure
Blair: BuildFire has raised about $2.5M in capital
“We've raised about two and a half million so far.”
Ian Blair Oct 24, 2017 ▶ 5:03 822: SaaS: 25 Years Old and $250k+ in MRR, Here's Trick to Starting With No Developers
Assertion Not checkable as stated
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”
Ian Blair Oct 24, 2017 ▶ 5:47 822: SaaS: 25 Years Old and $250k+ in MRR, Here's Trick to Starting With No Developers
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Blair: BuildFire reached nearly $200K pure SaaS MRR in late 2016
“Yeah, that would be you know, close to the 200 mark.”
Ian Blair Oct 24, 2017 ▶ 8:17 822: SaaS: 25 Years Old and $250k+ in MRR, Here's Trick to Starting With No Developers
Assertion Not checkable as stated
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.”
Ian Blair Oct 24, 2017 ▶ 9:49 822: SaaS: 25 Years Old and $250k+ in MRR, Here's Trick to Starting With No Developers
Assertion Not checkable as stated
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.”
Ian Blair Oct 24, 2017 ▶ 12:09 822: SaaS: 25 Years Old and $250k+ in MRR, Here's Trick to Starting With No Developers
Disclosure
Blair: BuildFire spends just over $10,000 monthly on paid advertising
“We're doing a little over 10,000 a month on paid.”
Ian Blair Oct 24, 2017 ▶ 12:19 822: SaaS: 25 Years Old and $250k+ in MRR, Here's Trick to Starting With No Developers
Disclosure
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.”
Ian Blair Oct 24, 2017 ▶ 14:14 822: SaaS: 25 Years Old and $250k+ in MRR, Here's Trick to Starting With No Developers
Assertion Not checkable as stated
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.”
Ian Blair Oct 24, 2017 ▶ 15:41 822: SaaS: 25 Years Old and $250k+ in MRR, Here's Trick to Starting With No Developers
Disclosure
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 Oct 24, 2017 ▶ 16:25 822: SaaS: 25 Years Old and $250k+ in MRR, Here's Trick to Starting With No Developers
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Blair: Scaled white-label reseller to $300k ARR in 12 months
“We ended up building up a 300,000 dollar recurring revenue stream in 12 months.”
Ian Blair Oct 24, 2017 ▶ 4:07 822: SaaS: 25 Years Old and $250k+ in MRR, Here's Trick to Starting With No Developers

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 on Top Founders. 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)

Assertion Not checkable as stated
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.”
Nathan Latka Mar 4, 2019 ▶ 4:16 Fast Trick: How Your Competitors Are Getting Customers

Every mention by year

tap a year for its mentions
0041812019episodesmentions
0112019episodes it came up in
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2019 7 mentions in 1 episode

Appearances (1)

EpisodeDateSpeaking time
822: SaaS: 25 Years Old and $250k+ in MRR, Here's Trick to Starting With No Developers Oct 24, 2017 12m
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