Overview of 462: Polly — Lessons on Building a 7-Figure SaaS on Slack's Platform (with Bilal Aijazi)
This episode of the SaaS Podcast features Bilal Aijazi, co‑founder of Polly (polly.ai), an engagement platform that brings polls, surveys and feedback workflows into Slack, Teams, Zoom and presentation tools. Bilal walks through Polly’s origin (2015), the Product Hunt virality, freemium→paid evolution, the platform risk when Slack launched overlapping features, and how Polly expanded across platforms and product surfaces to reach multiple seven‑figures ARR with ~20 people and millions of monthly active users.
Key takeaways
- Product-market fit can be discovered by moving to where users already work: Polly found traction when ported from email to Slack.
- Freemium + viral distribution is powerful but converts only a small subset to paid — know who the buyer is (not just the user).
- Focus monetization on high‑value rituals (company all‑hands, sales kickoffs, L&D, CSAT workflows) rather than casual uses (lunch polls, fantasy football).
- Platform risk is real: platforms will sometimes build overlapping features. Mitigate by becoming multi‑platform, embedding deeply, and aiming to become a platform yourself.
- Retention beats acquisition for long‑term SaaS health — design pricing and feature paywalls for sticky usage.
Founding & early growth story
- Origin: Bilal saw messaging apps evolve into platforms (WeChat) and realized enterprise chat would follow. Initial product was email‑based feedback (low engagement).
- Pivot to Slack: launched one of the earliest Slack apps in 2015 after Slack opened an API. Viral boost came via a Product Hunt post and early SEO around “Slack polls.”
- Clunky early install: initial Slack onboarding required ~5 manual steps (tokens, slash commands) but still had ≈80% completion because demand was high.
- Virality mechanics: social product — responders can become creators; historically ~12% of responders become creators, fuelling organic spread.
Product, monetization & pricing strategy
- Core product: polls → general purpose questions → multi‑question surveys, anonymity, hidden results, workflows, product integrations (Google Slides, PowerPoint).
- Freemium model from day one; paywall features emerged from customer conversations (anonymity, multi‑question surveys, automation).
- Pricing:
- Creator/seat pricing is the long‑running model (buy seats for creators).
- Enterprise tier often priced on monthly active users (MAU) for easier administration.
- First paying user: $8/month (fantasy football use), which later helped open conversations with HR buyers that led to enterprise deals (five‑figure contracts).
- Conversion reality: most users never pay; focus on identifying monetizable creators and the buyer personas that run the rituals that need Polly.
GTM / Growth tactics that worked
- Product‑led viral loop: the product is inherently social — you must send a poly for it to be useful, which drives responder→creator transitions.
- Lifecycle marketing: use in‑product hooks and email flows to capture responders, nurture them into creators, and book demos.
- Talk to customers: Bilal stresses early and continuous customer conversations to discover high‑value use cases and sequence product bets.
- Focus features on rituals and embed points (e.g., slides integration to run polls during meetings) to increase paid conversion and retention.
Platform strategy & lessons
- Platform risk: Slack (and other big platforms) can and will build similar features (e.g., Slack Workflow Builder). That can stall adoption of competing capabilities.
- Mitigation tactics:
- Diversify across platforms (Slack, Teams, Zoom, Google Meet, Slides, PowerPoint).
- Embed deeply in workflows (in‑presentation polls, meeting integrations).
- Build unique product experiences and iterate faster than platform’s one‑off features.
- Maintain partner relationships and monitor platform roadmaps constantly.
- Long term: “Every company building on platforms must eventually become a platform themselves” — tie your identity to the broader product, not just to one host platform.
Metrics & current snapshot
- ARR: multiple seven figures.
- Team: ~20 people.
- Scale: millions of monthly active users, tens of millions of lifetime users.
- Distribution: top third‑party app in Slack/Teams ecosystems with a massive freemium top‑of‑funnel.
Practical advice / Actionable recommendations for founders
- Validate where users already work (ship where adoption can happen organically).
- Identify buyer vs user early — design pricing and GTM for the buyer who controls spend or runs the ritual.
- Instrument hooks for conversations: let free users easily book demos or give feedback inside the product.
- Prioritize retention: build for recurring, sticky use cases (events/rituals) rather than one‑off casual usage.
- Talk to customers relentlessly — product direction and monetization hypotheses come from conversation.
- Expect platform competition; diversify (platforms, verticals) and consider verticalizing if you want simpler go‑to‑market.
- If you’re technical, learn to sell — founders must articulate vision to customers, partners and teams.
Notable quotes & quick highlights
- “Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the face.” — Mike Tyson (Bilal uses this as startup reality).
- “Just don’t die.” — Paul Graham paraphrase; persistence/resilience is core startup advice.
- Viral stat: ~12% of responders eventually become creators (a key growth multipler).
- First customer anecdote: $8/mo fantasy football poll user who later connected the team to HR.
Resources / Contact
- Polly: https://polly.ai
- Bilal: bilal@polly.ai
If you want to dive deeper into specific parts (pricing mechanics, lifecycle email plays, platform partnership tactics), the episode contains granular stories and examples worth listening to.