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Produced by PodRescale · 26 Dec 2025Hosted by Vlad Malonen

Bootstrapping Through War to $6M ARR: A SaaS Founder Story

The content pack PodRescale made from this episode of SaaS Interviews with CEOs, Startups, Founders: 16 finished assets, all public.

Imagine bootstrapping a startup to $6M ARR while your team faces a war zone and you’re weeks away from running out of money. That’s exactly what Vlad Malonen, MD, PhD, and AI scientist, shares in this episode.

25:29Original feed
What the host didPublished one episode25:29 of audio, on their own feed. That is the entire input.
What we didA content packWe transcribed the recording and generated the writing and assets below.
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16finished assets2channels5planned posts
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In the pack:Show notes8 quotesNewsletterTranscript

Everything this episode became.

One 25:29 episode, 16 finished assets. Open any of them.

  1. 01Show notes45 words
  2. 02Chapters7 · timestamped
  3. 03Quote cards8 cards
  4. 04Newsletter3 subject lines
  5. 05Episode titles12 title options
  6. 06Summaries2 versions
  7. 07Transcript4,836 words
  8. 08Asset263 words

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The beauty of speed size is they open the doors for using richer media.

SaaS Interviews with CEOs, Startups, FoundersFrom the episode · 8:49
TranscriptSaaS Interviews with CEOs, Startups, Founders · 25:29Play this moment
8:49

They open the doors for using richer media . So we have plenty of cases.

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Show notes · as generated

This episode features Vlad Malonen, surgeon-turned-AI scientist and CTO/co-founder of Speed Size, who bootstrapped his SaaS company through the Ukraine war to $6M ARR. Vlad shares lessons from extreme adversity, team management, and the technical innovation behind Speed Size’s AI-powered media optimization for global brands.

Vlad describes the closest Speed Size came to running out of money, with less than two months of runway and the team affected by the Ukraine war. Founders stopped their own salaries as an immediate survival mechanism.

Introduction to Speed Size’s core product—AI-powered media compression for e-commerce and rich media websites, helping brands maintain fast page loads with high-quality assets.

Surviving crisis and scaling a SaaS business requires tough decisions, relentless focus, and leveraging deep tech to solve real-world problems for high-value customers.

The beauty of speed size is they open the doors for using richer media.
Pull quote · from 8:49
Our idea is that we want to be in the places in the cloud suppliers who lack the native image and video compression and delivery.
Pull quote · from 11:26

Newsletter example

Bootstrapping Through War: Vlad’s $6M SaaS Journey

I never imagined I’d lead a SaaS company through war. But when our team in Ukraine faced the unthinkable—drafts, uncertainty, and less than two months of runway—my co-founder and I made a call: we’d stop paying ourselves, and fight for the company together.

In this episode, I open up about what it really takes to bootstrap a SaaS to $6M ARR in the middle of chaos. You’ll hear how we rebuilt our team from 50 to 20 core tech specialists, forged premium partnerships with AWS, and kept growing—even when global events threatened everything.

I share the hard truths I learned: VCs aren’t the safety net you think, and sometimes, optimizing for survival means saying no to easy money. We pivoted, doubled down on our customers, and focused on delivering results to brands like Crocs and We Shoes—even as the world shifted around us.

If you care about what’s possible when everything’s at stake—and want an unfiltered look at the founder journey—I hope you’ll listen.

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SaaS Interviews with CEOs, Startups, Founders, by Vlad Malonen

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