In this episode of Startup Strategies, Juliana sits down with Jon Kazarian, the founder who bootstrapped Accelavent, a B2B event platform, to $374K ARR, then watched COVID turn his revenue negative overnight. He pivoted to virtual events and scaled to $10M ARR in just

Jon Kazarian shares how he:

• Pre-sold vaporware using InVision prototypes while his team coded 100-hour weeks.
• Convinced his dad to invest $75K from retirement with one condition: beat Zoom stock.
• Navigated VCs ghosting him after competitor Hopin raised $1.1B.
• Closed 760 demos before the product even existed.
• Maintained a 16-second support response time to power B2B word-of-mouth growth.
• Leveraged SEO, high-touch LinkedIn outreach, and selective paid channels to scale to Fortune 500 customers.
• Raised $5.1M on a SAFE instead of chasing billion-dollar VC hype.
• Focused on “don’t die” as the ultimate startup strategy—because staying alive preserves optionality.
• And much more….

Let’s break down his Startup Strategies.

Links and resources:

FREE Startup Marketing Cheatsheet

FREE $1M ARR SaaS Marketing Playbook

Join the Startup Strategies Newsletter for weekly growth & marketing breakdowns.

Let’s connect:

Tiktok

Instagram

LinkedIn

Youtube

X

Need help with growing & marketing your startup? Work with us.

Make sure you hit FOLLOW or the + sign so you don’t miss out on future episodes on everything growth & marketing for your startup.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.