Opportunity
Product
Go-to-Market
Business
Team
The Ask
60+ million solopreneurs.
Zero sales tools built for them.
Until now.
Sollo is the AI-powered lead-generation CRM purpose-built for solopreneurs. Find prospects, get coached, close deals, all in one place.
26Paying Customers
$30,264ARR
318Waitlist
13Countries
The Problem
Solopreneurs are the fastest-growing workforce, and the most underserved
The solopreneur economy has doubled since 2020, yet no one has built tools for how they actually work.
Global market research
66% Struggle with lead generation. 62% rely almost entirely on referrals. ~70% have no formal sales process
41% Cite income unpredictability as a top challenge. Only 55% earn their primary income from their solo business
92% Believe they should charge more but lack the frameworks and confidence. ~25% of potential revenue left on the table
5-7 Tools costing $150-$750/month. CRM adoption remains low despite a proven 21-30% revenue lift. 30-40% of hours go to non-revenue activities
Validated by our 26 beta customers
100% confirmed prospecting paralysis. 100% confirmed revenue unpredictability. 85% confirmed no structured sales process. 85% confirmed pipeline conversion gap.
Why Now
Three converging forces create a once-in-a-decade window
1
The market is massive and growing
Over 60 million solopreneurs globally, and the number has doubled since 2020. Freelance platforms growing at 18.6% CAGR, the creator economy at 23.3% CAGR, and the broader gig economy at 16.2% CAGR. McKinsey projects 50%+ of the global workforce in gig or independent work by 2027.
2
AI is accelerating the shift
AI is displacing traditional team-based roles while simultaneously enabling individuals to operate at enterprise scale. This is creating more solopreneurs and making them more capable, but they still need tools designed for how they actually work.
3
Incumbents are not serving this segment
HubSpot, Salesforce, and even newer CRMs like Attio are designed for teams. No incumbent has built a product that combines lead generation, outreach coaching, and pipeline management specifically for one-person businesses.
Traction
Paying customers before public launch
Real revenue from real solopreneurs across 13 countries, with zero paid acquisition.
26
Paying customers
All on $97/mo beta pricing
$30,264
ARR
26 customers × $97/mo
318
Waitlist signups
100% organic
$0
Paid acquisition
All founder-led content
13
Countries
UK, NL, US, AU, PT, CH, CA, KE
Beta cohort spans executive coaches, growth consultants, fractional execs, AI consultants, sales coaches, and SaaS founders, confirming the pain point is universal, not niche.
Market Size
A $68B+ market growing at 16-23% CAGR
Solopreneurship is counter-cyclical: recessions increase self-employment as displaced workers start businesses.
$68B
TAM (conservative)
38M solopreneurs globally
$11.6B
SAM
10-14M B2B pros, English markets
$582M
SOM (3-5 yr)
500K-1M target users
29.8M
US solopreneurs
84% of all US businesses
4.38M
UK self-employed
£366B economy, +10.6% YoY
28M
EU self-employed
14.3% of total employment
The Product
One platform. Six pillars. Built for one person.
Sollo replaces the patchwork of 5-7 fragmented tools with a single AI-native platform.
Offer Creation
Guides solopreneurs through defining their service, pricing, and ideal customer profile. Powers everything downstream.
Replaces guesswork & generic templates
Prospect Discovery
Curated, ICP-matched prospects delivered daily with enriched LinkedIn, email, and phone data.
Replaces Sales Navigator + Clay
AI Sales Coach
Templates, timed nudges, and contextual coaching from proven solopreneur sales methodology. Rated #1 feature by 85% of beta users.
Replaces hiring a sales coach
Solopreneur CRM
Clutter-free 7-stage Kanban pipeline with weighted deal forecasting, automatic close date tracking, and contact management.
Replaces spreadsheets & enterprise CRMs
Unified Inbox
Threads Gmail, WhatsApp, and LinkedIn directly into deal records. One conversation view across every channel.
Replaces app-switching
Community Hub
Paid community connecting solopreneurs with peer support, resource vault, training library, templates, and playbooks.
Replaces working in isolation
Competition
No one combines all six pillars for solopreneurs
12-18 month window of opportunity before any incumbent can credibly enter this segment.
| Tool | Price | Primary Use | Competitor vs. Sollo |
|---|---|---|---|
| HubSpot | $100+/mo | CRM / Marketing | No offer creation, no coaching, no community. Team-designed, overwhelming for solos |
| Sales Navigator | $99+/mo | Prospecting only | Prospecting only — no CRM, no coaching, no inbox, no offer creation, no community |
| Attio | Free-$59 | AI-native CRM | CRM only. No prospecting, no coaching, no offer creation, no community. Built for teams |
| Clay | $185-$495 | Data workflows | Best enrichment but no CRM, no coaching, no inbox. Too expensive for solopreneurs |
| Breakcold | $29-$80 | Social CRM | Social selling only. No offer creation, no prospecting, no coaching, no community |
| Sollo | $49-$147 | All six pillars | Only platform combining all six pillars for solopreneurs |
Window of opportunity: None of the existing players are focused on solopreneurs as their primary customer. They are building for teams, agencies, or enterprises. Breakcold is the closest but lacks offer-based ICP workflows and sales coaching. Attio has $116M in funding but is moving upmarket, not down.
Today's Solopreneur
5-7 tools.
$750/month.
Still guessing.
$750/month.
Still guessing.
Sales Navigator for leads. A coach for advice. Spreadsheets for pipeline. And still no system to reliably generate revenue.
With Sollo
One platform.
$49-$147/month.
Predictable revenue.
$49-$147/month.
Predictable revenue.
AI finds your prospects. Coaches your outreach. Tracks every deal. And gets smarter with every interaction.
Replacing $750/mo in tools with one $49-$147/mo platform
Pricing
Simple, transparent pricing that scales with the user
Free tier drives adoption. Essentials is the daily-driver. Pro unlocks full power + community.
Free
$0
Try Sollo risk-free
Limited trial to experience the platform
- 50 contacts, 5 active deals, 1 pipeline
- 5 AI messages per month
- 40 enrichment credits/mo
- Gmail read + send
- Deal research & outbound drafting
- Pipeline board & basic deal view
- Tasks with due dates
Essentials
$49/mo
$39/mo billed annually
Your daily-driver CRM
- 2,500 contacts, unlimited deals, 2 pipelines
- Unlimited AI coaching
- 400 enrichment credits/mo
- AI lead generation & ICP scoring
- Gmail, Calendar, WhatsApp, LinkedIn
- Discovery prep & proposal generation
- Full analytics, forecasting & deal velocity
- Tags, custom fields, CSV import/export
- Email support
Pro
$147/mo
$117/mo billed annually
Full power + community
- Unlimited contacts & pipelines, 3 seats
- 2,000 enrichment credits/mo
- LinkedIn connection analysis
- Email sequences & workflow automation
- Proposal tracking & storage
- Deal health, staleness alerts & daily digest
- Sollo Community & peer network
- Priority support
Credit system: 1 credit = 1 lead search • 4 credits = email lookup • 40 credits = phone lookup. Top-ups: 400 credits ($10). Blended ARPU target: ~$121/mo by Month 12 with ~75% of customers on Pro.
Free User Strategy
Free users are valuable before they ever upgrade
The free tier is not just a conversion funnel. It creates value for users and for Sollo from day one.
Value for free users
Solopreneur Pricing Benchmarks
Aggregated, anonymised data showing what solopreneurs in similar categories charge. "Consultants in your space charge an average of €X per project." Data solopreneurs cannot get anywhere else.
Industry Conversion Benchmarks
How do your close rates compare to other solopreneurs? What's the average pipeline velocity in your category? Insights powered by Sollo's aggregate user data.
Community Access
Free users can attend local meetups and engage with the solopreneur community. Builds loyalty and creates upgrade pressure as they see what Pro users can do.
Value for Sollo
Proprietary Aggregate Data
Every free user who logs deals, contacts, and outcomes contributes to Sollo's proprietary dataset. Over time, this becomes an incredibly valuable asset: benchmarks, insights, and AI training data that no competitor can replicate.
Network Effects & Distribution
Free users who attend meetups, share content, and refer others are a distribution channel. A free user who brings two friends — one of whom upgrades — has generated revenue at zero CAC.
Future Revenue Streams
Benchmarking reports, premium data insights, and CRM-adjacent services (virtual office numbers, professional email, invoice financing) are all monetisation opportunities that serve the free user base without cannibalising the core subscription.
Near-term revenue opportunity: Quarterly "Solopreneur Benchmarking Reports" drawing on aggregated platform data — pricing trends, close rates, pipeline velocity by category and region. Distribution: free summary with paid deep-dive, or included as a Pro-tier benefit. Positions Sollo as the authoritative voice on the solopreneur economy.
Expansion
Multiple credible vectors for growth
Sollo's initial wedge is deliberately narrow. The platform's architecture creates clear expansion paths once we have real usage data.
Product
- Operations & project tracking: "win the deal" to "deliver the project"
- Payments & revenue share via Stripe integration
- Advanced AI coaching: personalised pricing, time management, client relationships
- Marketplace & referrals: peer project handoffs
- Invoicing & financial tools
Geography
- Year 1: Deep focus on Netherlands & UK (Amsterdam, London, Manchester) with early US testing
- Year 2: Scale across the United States using density-first approach
- Year 3: European expansion into Germany, France, and the Nordics
- Community density is paramount: depth over breadth
Revenue Model
- Payments revenue share: % of transactions processed through Sollo
- Enrichment credit top-ups: $10-$80 packs for usage-based revenue
- Community premium tiers: masterminds, accountability cohorts
- Partner ecosystem: affiliate and integration partnerships
Go-to-Market
Built for capital efficiency, not ad spend
A content-and-community engine that generates compounding organic growth.
Content Engine
Founder brand on LinkedIn, weekly "Going Solo" podcast, YouTube Shorts, daily posts, and weekly newsletter. Builds audience trust at zero marginal cost per subscriber.
Community-Led Growth
Paid community leads in target cities running meetups. Partnerships with existing solopreneur communities globally. Creates social switching costs.
Performance Marketing
Paid ads only after organic content proves messaging. 48-hour kill rules on underperformers. CPA targets: €75-€150. Budget: €2-5K/mo.
GTM Detail
Three pillars, one universal CTA
Every piece of GTM activity drives to one action: create a free Sollo account. One exception: the Sollo Community drives directly to Pro.
Content Engine
100-170pieces / month
"Going Solo" podcast (2x/week) feeds a content waterfall. Each episode → 13-21 assets.
- LinkedIn 5x/week • Instagram 1 Reel/day
- YouTube 2x/week • Newsletter 1x/week
- 5-10 short-form clips per episode
Performance Ads
€75-150target CPA
Crawl-walk-run. Only proven organic content gets ad spend. 48-hour kill rules.
- M6-7: Boost organic (€200-€500)
- M8+: Scale winners (€2K-€5K/mo)
- LinkedIn 50-60% / Meta 25-35%
Community-Led Growth
ROI+from month one
Two distinct community channels with different conversion paths (see below).
- €500/mo stipend per community lead
- Pilot 2-3 cities → scale to 30+ cities
- Partner with 50+ existing communities
Free Sign-up
Universal CTA
Content
Podcast, LinkedIn, newsletters → sign up
Partner Communities
Indie Hackers, local meetups, TNW, Codebase → sign up
Paid Ads
Proven organic → paid creatives → sign up
Product-led triggers
Contact limits, AI caps, feature locks
Founder-led calls
Personal follow-up → conversion
Essentials €45/mo
Pro €135/mo
Direct to Pro
Sollo Community
Pro membership required to join the Sollo community. Peer support, resource vault, training library, templates & playbooks.
Pro €135/mo
Key distinction: Partner communities (Indie Hackers, TNW, local meetups) drive free sign-ups. The Sollo community is a Pro-exclusive benefit that drives direct Pro conversion.
Content Engine
One podcast episode. 13–21 content pieces.
The "Going Solo" podcast is the atomic unit. Everything else derives from it.
“Going Solo” Podcast
2 episodes / week
1 solo teaching (15–20 min)
1 guest interview (30–45 min)
1 solo teaching (15–20 min)
1 guest interview (30–45 min)
100–170
pieces / month
Per episode output
Short-Form Video
5–10 clips
Reels, Shorts, TikTok
Carousels & Graphics
2–3 per ep
LinkedIn, Instagram
Quote Cards
3–5 per ep
Shareable social assets
Newsletter + Posts
3–4 per ep
Email deep-dive + LinkedIn
Channel strategy & targets
LinkedIn
Primary channel
Cadence5x / week
6mo target50K followers
Instagram
Brand building
Cadence1 Reel / day
6mo target5K followers
YouTube
Long-term compounding
Cadence2x / week
6mo target1K subs
Newsletter
Owned audience
Cadence1–2x / week
6mo target2K subs
Why content is infrastructure, not marketing: Every episode is a compounding asset. A two-person content machine (Mike + agency) produces the output of a team 3x its size using AI-augmented workflows. Batch recording 4–6 episodes at a time, a 60-day content queue, and repeatable templates mean consistency beats brilliance.
Community-Led Growth
Local networks. Global moat.
Competitors can copy features. They cannot replicate real-world relationships and tribe loyalty.
Track 1
Sollo Community Leads
Recruit engaged beta users to serve as local ambassadors. Each lead organises one in-person meetup per month in their city.
€500
/ mo per lead
3
Pro subs to break even
What a community lead does
- Organise 1 in-person meetup / month
- Curate local WhatsApp / Slack group
- Surface product feedback & UGC
- Warm follow-up with free users (from M6)
Rollout plan
M3–5
2–3 pilot cities
M6–9
Scale to 5 cities
Year 2+
30+ cities
Track 2
Partner Communities
Partner with existing solopreneur communities globally. Contribute value first, position Sollo naturally.
Existing partnerships
The Next Web (TNW)
Amsterdam • Masterclasses delivered
Codebase Edinburgh
UK’s largest tech incubator
Barclays Eagle Labs
UK-wide incubator network
Target communities
Amsterdam
Digital People NL, Talent Garden, The Social Hub
London
Freelance Exchange, Rebel Meetups, Eagle Labs
Berlin
Solopreneurs Berlin, DNX Festival, Uplink
Global Online
Indie Hackers, Fractionals United, Reddit
Partnership timeline
M1–3
Deepen TNW, Codebase, Eagle Labs
M4–6
Talent Garden, Indie Hackers, fractional groups
The Community Flywheel
Each element feeds the next, creating compounding returns
Local Meetups
Warm leads + UGC
Content Engine
Photos, stories, clips
Social Proof
Organic + paid ads
More Sign-ups
Feeds back in
Unit economics: At €600/month total cost per community lead (stipend + expenses), just 3 new Pro subscribers per month (€135 each) makes the programme self-funding from month one. Community-connected customers show significantly higher retention — they are not just buying software, they are joining a tribe.
People Plan
Four people. AI-first. Maximum leverage.
Every team member is fluent in AI tools. A four-person team using AI well outperforms a ten-person team that doesn't.
The Lean Team (4 people at steady state, growing to 5)
| Start | Role | Focus |
|---|---|---|
| Month 1 | Mike — Founder & CEO | Personal brand, podcast, founder-led sales, GTM strategy, investor relations |
| Month 1 | Lead Engineer | Core product, billing, AI coaching, integrations, architecture |
| Month 4 | UI/UX Designer (generalist) | Product design, user research, design system, marketing assets |
| Month 4 | Growth Marketer (full-time) | Funnel optimisation, email marketing, SEO, referral programme, paid ads pipeline |
Month 6 Hire
| Start | Role | Focus |
|---|---|---|
| Month 6 | Community Lead / Onboarding | Manage community lead programme, warm follow-up with free users, onboarding |
AI as a force multiplier: Every team member uses AI tools daily. The growth marketer uses AI for copy testing and analytics. Mike uses AI for sales prep and content creation. Content production is outsourced to a specialist agency. This is how a 4-person team produces the output of a team three times its size.
Total people cost: €418K/year at full capacity (all 5). Headcount ramps from 2 in Month 1 to 5 by Month 6.
Finances
24-month revenue projection
Base case: cash flow positive by Month 16. Built on conservative assumptions. All figures in EUR.
| Month | Date | Customers | MRR | Monthly Costs | Net |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| M1 | Apr 2026 | 15 | €1.3K | €13.2K | -€11.9K |
| M3 | Jun 2026 | 15 | €1.3K | €16.5K | -€15.2K |
| M6 | Sep 2026 | 51 | €4.9K | €49.6K | -€44.7K |
| M9 | Dec 2026 | 304 | €22.1K | €64.8K | -€42.7K |
| M12 | Mar 2027 | 506 | €54.3K | €77.9K | -€23.6K |
| M16 | Jul 2027 | 1,023 | €110.4K | €99.5K | +€10.9K |
| M18 | Sep 2027 | 1,342 | €144.9K | €113.8K | +€31.1K |
| M24 | Mar 2028 | 2,506 | €273.2K | €159.6K | +€113.6K |
24-month totals: €2.1M cumulative revenue vs. €2.0M total spend. Unit economics improve at scale through volume discounts on enrichment, AI inference, and messaging infrastructure.
Defensibility
Three compounding layers of competitive moat
Not a single feature, a reinforcing flywheel that deepens with every user.
1
Integration Density
A solopreneur who uses Sollo for offer creation, prospect discovery, AI coaching, pipeline management, and multi-channel inbox has a 5x switching cost vs. any single-feature tool. Every new feature deepens the moat. No competitor currently combines all of these in one product.
2
Community Network Effects
72% of solopreneurs report feeling isolated. Sollo's Community Lead Programme deploys trained leads in 10+ cities running meetups, accountability groups, and strategy calls. Users don't just leave a product, they leave a trusted peer group. Social switching costs that cannot be replicated with engineering or ad spend.
3
Proprietary Sales Methodology & Data Flywheel
The AI coach is built on a sales methodology developed specifically for solopreneurs, not generic ChatGPT. As more solopreneurs use the platform, the AI learns which outreach messages, follow-up sequences, and deal strategies work best for specific offer types and industries.
Risks & Mitigations
Every early-stage investment carries risk
We have identified the key risks and the specific mitigations in place.
Competitive
An incumbent (HubSpot, Attio) launches a solopreneur tier
No incumbent is currently focused on solopreneurs. They don't pay enough to warrant their time, which is exactly Sollo's opportunity. Community moat cannot be replicated with engineering.
Execution
Content engine does not gain traction in first 90 days
Committed 90-day publishing cadence before evaluating. Content production agency in unison with Growth Lead produces 80% of content independently, reducing founder bottleneck.
Product
Free tier attracts users who never upgrade
Product-led upgrade triggers, weekly conversion monitoring, and willingness to tighten free tier limits if conversion underperforms.
AI
AI tools commoditise, solopreneurs build their own workflows
Solopreneurs need a purpose-built platform regardless of AI adoption. Sollo's moat is the proprietary sales methodology and data flywheel, not the AI infrastructure.
Market
Economic downturn reduces freelancing
Solopreneurship is counter-cyclical. Recessions historically increase self-employment rates as displaced workers start businesses.
The Founder
Michael Lovegrove
Michael Lovegrove
Founder & CEO
Built and exited JRNY, a fintech recognised by Deloitte and Money20/20, exited in 2021 (not a glamorous exit. Learned the hard way and took those learnings into his next roles).
GM at Fresha (unicorn): grew EMEA ARR from $12M to $19M in 10 months and increased average deal size by 15%. Operated at scale inside a high-growth org.
Helped 100+ startups learn to sell through Snowballn' consultancy, contributing to $30M+ cumulative revenue growth. Seed to Series C.
He is the customer. Experienced the feast-or-famine cycles, isolation, tool fragmentation, and sales gaps firsthand as a solopreneur.
The convergence: Sollo sits at the intersection of everything Michael has done. Building a company, operating at unicorn scale, teaching hundreds how to sell, and living the solopreneur journey.
Solo founder - by design, not by default
Why it’s an advantage
- Solo founders are 54% less likely to fail than 3-person teams (NYU/Wharton research)
- 60% of startups fail due to team issues - a risk eliminated entirely
- Decisions in hours, not weeks - critical at pre-seed when speed = survival
- Full equity retention and zero governance complexity
- 350+ unicorns were solo-founded, including Amazon, SpaceX, and eBay
Risks & how I’m mitigating them
- Bus factor: Hiring founding engineer(s) as first priority with pre-seed funds. Technical depth without co-founder governance complexity
- Skill gaps: Hire founding team to plug gaps. Outsource non-core business functions.
- Isolation: Embedded in founder communities and engage the right mentors/investors/advisors
Founding engineer > technical co-founder: Rather than splitting equity and authority with a co-founder, I’m hiring founding engineer(s) - senior technical talent with meaningful equity (1-3%), vesting schedules, and deep product ownership. This model preserves clear leadership and decision-making while building the technical depth the business needs. It’s the same approach used by companies like Vercel and Notion in their earliest stages.
Use of Funds
Raising €400K to prove unit economics
Capital deploys from Month 4 after 3 months of founder-bootstrapped operations. 12 months of runway for a lean 5-person team.
12 months of runway under conservative assumptions. Pre-money valuation: €3.6M. This round funds Sollo from beta (26 customers) to 500+ paying customers and €54K MRR.
60+ million solopreneurs.
$68B+ market.
One platform purpose-built for them.
26 paying customers. 318 on the waitlist. 13 countries. A founder who's built, sold, and taught the playbook to hundreds. We're building the operating system for solopreneurs.
€400K
Pre-Seed Round • €3.6M Pre-Money Valuation • Amsterdam, NL • Founded 2026
mike@gosollo.com • gosollo.com
Confidential • April 2026