{"version":"1.0","type":"rich","provider_name":"Acast","provider_url":"https://acast.com","height":250,"width":700,"html":"<iframe src=\"https://embed.acast.com/$/6683eb5ce091a56d49596947/6930247afb6ea8e378f8e513?\" frameBorder=\"0\" width=\"700\" height=\"250\"></iframe>","title":"How a Theatre Teacher and an Entrepreneur Built Ludus: The Software Powering Performing Arts with Zachary Collins","thumbnail_width":200,"thumbnail_height":200,"thumbnail_url":"https://open-images.acast.com/shows/6683eb5ce091a56d49596947/1764762020188-ddbdf6c7-9acd-49a1-9afe-00b5805c4074.jpeg?height=200","description":"<p>In this episode, Gavin Savage sits down with Zachary Collins, CEO &amp; Co-Founder of Ludus, one of the most quietly impressive vertical SaaS companies in the US.</p><p><br></p><p>Ludus didn’t start as a startup; it started as a favor. A college student building a small tool to help his former theatre teacher sell tickets for a school play.</p><p>That “side project” would evolve into the operating system for performing-arts organizations, serving thousands of theatre programs, community venues, and arts groups across the US.</p><p><br></p><p>Zach shares the full journey:</p><p><br></p><ul><li>How a quirky, hyper-specific workflow in performing arts became a massive SaaS opportunity</li><li>The moment he realized Ludus wasn’t a side project anymore</li><li>Why vertical SaaS is in its “Netflix moment” - and how Ludus rode that wave</li><li>How the company went from bootstrapped, profitable - $1M+ revenue without outside capital</li><li>What really happened inside Ludus when COVID hit and ticket sales went to zero</li><li>The bets they made under pressure - virtual shows, streaming, distancing tools — that kept the business alive</li><li>How competitors folded while Ludus accelerated into 2021 and beyond</li><li>The distribution engines that took them to thousands of organizations and millions of seats filled</li><li>How Zach thinks about workflow depth, moats, and deciding which adjacent products to build</li><li>What finally pushed him to raise their first institutional round after a decade of bootstrapping</li><li>How he’s preserving Ludus’ culture, discipline, and customer-obsession while scaling the team</li><li>And the lessons he wants every vertical SaaS founder to hear - especially those in their own “COVID moment”</li></ul><p><br></p><p>This is a story about grit, timing, deep workflow empathy, and vertical SaaS. If you care about vertical software, real product-market fit, or building beloved tools in unsexy industries, this one's a must listen!</p>","author_name":"Gavin Savage"}