Skip to main content

How Viral Vault Scaled to $90K/Month in SaaS

6/15/2024
Viral Vault
Jordan Welch
Viral Vault
www.tryviralvault.com
Los Angeles, United StatesFounded 2019
💰
Monthly Revenue
$90,000
👨‍💼
Founders
Jordan Welch
👥
Employees
6
🏢

Business Description

Viral Vault is an all-in-one toolkit for Shopify entrepreneurs, offering product discovery, marketing templates, training videos and a community forum under one roof to help users launch and scale online stores.
📝

Executive Summary

Viral Vault is a unified SaaS platform for Shopify store builders, offering product ideas, marketing assets, training modules and an active community. Founder Jordan Welch validated his concept with a basic ClickFunnels MVP, survived a partner betrayal and a flop launch, then ignited growth through YouTube content—driving revenue to $90K per month and a $3M valuation.
📄

Case Study Content

Overview

Jordan Welch already ran profitable dropshipping stores when he spotted a gap: beginners struggled with product research and store setup. In 2018 he built a crude MVP in ClickFunnels, tested demand and raised $30K in pre-launch revenue—only to have his partner vanish with the funds. Undeterred, Jordan invested his own e-commerce profits and hired a Russian dev team to build version one of Viral Vault in mid-2019. After a disappointing launch with just 30 subscribers, he pivoted repeatedly, burned through $300K in development and ads, then reignited growth by publishing weekly YouTube tutorials. Within 18 months he pushed recurring revenue to $50K/month, total monthly sales to $90K and hit a valuation near $3M.

Stage 1: Research

Jordan tapped his 20K-strong YouTube audience and e-commerce forums to ask “What’s your biggest Shopify struggle?” Product selection topped the list. He mapped out an all-in-one toolkit that combined winning-product ideas, ad creatives, step-by-step training and peer support.

Stage 2: Building the MVP

Using ClickFunnels he launched a bare-bones engine that scraped product data daily. It looked messy but cost next to nothing. A first promo drove 100 signups in days, validating demand. Over six months, iterative funnels generated $30K, but his partner absconded—forcing Jordan to reboot funding from his Shopify profits.

Stage 3: Full Development

Jordan hired a remote development team and spent $10K–$30K monthly over six months building a polished SaaS app. He paused all other ventures to stay focused, reaching a hard-coded launch in July 2019. Expectations were high—only 30 customers joined, leaving him $100K down and battling stress.

Stage 4: Scaling by Content

After wasted ad budgets and a failed high-ticket pivot, Jordan doubled down on organic reach. He documented his renewed e-commerce journey on YouTube—posting weekly, sharing case studies and subtle product demos. Subscribers exploded from 29K to 200K in ten months. Viral Vault subscriptions surged, pushing MRR to $50K and total revenue to $90K per month, with $10K in ongoing costs.

Results & Advice

Today Viral Vault is valued at $2.5–3M and has helped thousands of store owners launch. Jordan’s key takeaway: build your audience first, offer free tactics, then let your platform solve a specific pain point. He recommends using YouTube as a free, transparent pipeline to your ideal customers.

💡

Key Takeaways

  • 1Validate your SaaS idea cheaply with a basic MVP before investing heavily in custom development.
  • 2Leverage an existing audience—in this case Jordan’s 20K YouTube subscribers—to uncover real pain points and drive early interest.
  • 3Invest in remote development talent to manage costs, but expect high burn rates and cash-flow risk when building a full product.
  • 4After initial launch failures, pivot marketing strategy: focus on organic content rather than expensive ad campaigns.
  • 5Publishing consistent, value-packed videos on YouTube can fuel subscriber growth and convert viewers into paying SaaS customers.
  • 6Maintain a side cash-flow business to fund your project without risking bankruptcy as you refine your SaaS offering.
📊

Key Facts

Monthly Recurring Revenue
$50K
Total Investment Used
$300K
Current Valuation
$3M
🛠️

Tools & Technologies Used

🔒

Premium Content Locked

Subscribe to access the tools and technologies used in this case study.

Subscribe Now
🚀

How to Replicate This Success

🔒

Premium Content Locked

Subscribe to access the step-by-step replication guide for this case study.

Subscribe Now
Share:
✍️

About the Author

Founders Hut Logo

Founders Hut

Founders Hut is a leading online platform dedicated to sharing thousands of in-depth business case studies from successful companies around the globe. Since its launch, Founders Hut has empowered entrepreneurs, marketers, and corporate innovators with actionable insights drawn from real-world successes and failures.

Interested in Being Featured?

Share your success story with our community of entrepreneurs.

Get Featured
Disclaimer: Some data in these case studies may be inaccurate or out of date. In certain cases, AI-generated content is used.