Break all the rulebooks: How ActiveCampaign reached $70M in ARR

On this week’s episode of the SaaS Revolution Show, we speak with
Jason VandeBoom, Founder and CEO of ActiveCampaign about all the
unusual things he has done to reach $70M in ARR and counting.


A builder and maker of things from an early age, young Jason
thought that the best way to cater for that was to attend Fine
Arts school. That pursuit brought him to Chicago. However, to pay
for Arts school he started doing consulting on the side. He ended
up packaging it into an on-premise solution, which he sold for
the good part of the following decade, abandoning the pursuit of
the fine arts and establishing himself as a tech entrepreneur. In
2013 he began a transition into building a cloud based customer
experience automation platform. By 2016, Jason was employing
around 20 people and started growing the company.


Three years later the numbers speak for themselves - headcount is
nearing 550, the company has 80,000 customers and is on a healthy
growth trajectory, currently earning 70M in ARR. What is not so
obvious is how Jason got there. Breaking a lot of hard SaaS rules
and doing things that on paper made little sense in scaling but
in fact have contributed massively to the success of the company,
has been the heart of it.


Listen on to hear:


An example of an unscalable tactic, many would consider toxic
to the bottom line

Active campaign’s unusual way of doing customer research

How they break the rules of user conferences



Jason VandeBoom is one of many excellent speakers we will host at
SaaStock19 in Dublin this October that will be sharing unusual
and not often talked about ways to grow. We have over 160
speakers that will be split between 5 stages, including a Podcast
stage where your favorite podcasts such as The Top, The Growth
Marketing Podcast, Inside Intercom, The SaaS Revolution Show and
others will be recording live episodes that you can listen in on.
That is just one small part of what you get with your SaaStock
ticket so go ahead and grab one now at the best possible price.


 


 


 


Check out the other ways SaaStock is helping SaaS founders move
their business forward: 


SaaStock Europe: 14-15 October 2025 | Dublin, Ireland
Book you tickets: https://saastock-europe.com/tickets/


SaaStock USA 2025: April 2026 | Austin, Texas
Join the waitlist: https://saastock-usa.com/


SaaStock Founder Membership: A private members group of B2B SaaS
founders between $100K - $10M ARR who are committed to growth and
helping others (https://www.saastock.com/founder-membership/)


SaaStock Local: Monthly meet-ups in cities all around the world,
bringing together SaaS enthusiasts and experts to discuss the
most pressing topics in SaaS (https://local.saastock.com/home)