Chris Frantz (Loops W22) - Unscalable marketing, unique outreach, fun onboarding: How Loops succeeded within Y Combinator!

Today’s guest is Chris Frantz of Loops, a simple and beautiful email-sending platform for SaaS companies. Chris’s previous companies include the recently sold Snazzy AI and he previously led marketing at Biteable and strategy at Curiosity.Loops is a simple and beautiful email-sending platform for SaaS companies. It includes a Notion-style block editor for email creation, a beautiful code editor based on VS Code, and pre-built loops for SaaS companies to snap in to increase their revenue and user engagement.Listen on to learn more about Chris Frantz’s YC application and journey!Prefer to curl up and read the transcript? Read our newsletter at https://ycfounderstories.substack.com/ Episode Timestamps:1:02: What is your startup idea?1:47: How did you come up with the idea?2:43: When did you get into YC?3:56: What are the key elements to focus on when applying to YC?5:20: Share your YC interview experience in 1-2 sentences.7:20: Did you pivot your idea during or after YC?7:57: How did YC help you go from 0 to 1 to N?9:03: Share a “do things that don’t scale” story in your startup journey.10:27: How did you get your first 1000 users?12:07: Share 3 tips for founders who are trying to get into YC.13:10: What is YC's take on competition?15:24: Does YC encourage founders to rely on no-code or do they prefer code?16:53: Why did you apply to YC?18:04: What is your inspiration behind your unconventional marketing?20:01: What is the trend along which YC picks its founders?21:57: Any cautionary things founders should think about before applying for YC?24:28: How was your personal YC experience?26:37: How did you and your cofounder plan for Demo Day? 28:09: How did YC help you raise post and pre-Demo Day? 29:42: For folks with kids and family, what advice do you give them for YC? 31:22: What was the transition from Unbounce like and how do you make that choice to start another company?32:27: What is something that you want to convey to founders who are trying to apply to YC?👉🏼 About the Host:Sharath is a founder, creator, and community builder. He is also a serial maker who built and shipped 15+ projects using no-code tools. His SaaS product Shoutout generates $30k ARR, which was sold to a UK-based product studio. Prev, Sharath worked for world-changing startups like Product Hunt and On Deck, where he helped build and nurture communities. He also grew his audience on Twitter from 200 to 21,000 using give-first principles and creating high-value content. Currently, he is the Head of Community at Threado and hosts another podcast called The Undefeated Underdogs.👉🏼 Where to find Chris Frantz:Loops: https://loops.so/Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/frantzfriesLinkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ctfrantz/👉🏼 Where to find Sharath:Twitter: https://twitter.com/5harathYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@5harathWebsite: https://5harath.com/Newsletter: https://ycfounderstories.substack.com/The Undefeated Underdogs Podcast: https://undefeatedunderdogs.com/