How Gather navigated the early COVID-19 pandemic as a bootstrapped SaaS

Executive overview

Brian and Scotty, co-founders of Gather (a design collaboration tool), entered the pandemic already in a cash crunch. COVID removed the option of raising money or loans — but paradoxically reduced their personal anxiety about finances, since the crisis felt universal.

Their upmarket pivot proved well-timed. Larger enterprise customers kept spending while smaller solo designers churned. Inbound interest from newly remote teams created an unexpected opportunity.

Going upmarket before a recession is a forcing function: larger customers churn less, spend more, and stay in business.

Financial situation and mindset shift

• Fundraising and loans are no longer being pursued — both were off the table by March 2020
• Cash position unchanged from previous episode, but stress around finding money has dissipated
• Both founders describe a psychological shift: the macro crisis externalised what felt like personal failure
• Living in Mexico adds complexity — local working-class communities cannot shelter in place, creating visible inequality around them

Impact on customers and churn

• Gather serves interior designers, architects, and firms working on physical spaces — hotels and cruise ships among them
• Smaller solo designers churned quickly, cutting any non-essential spend
• Larger firms continued: they have deep pockets, ongoing projects, and can't afford to stop
• Net result: a bad month overall, but enterprise pipeline actually grew

Upmarket pivot paying off

• Two active enterprise deals in progress, each involving custom features and data migration
• Inbound inquiries increased as teams went remote and began evaluating online collaboration tools
• The shift from "preparing for the plane to crash" to seeing a genuine opportunity changed Brian's outlook
• Rob's portfolio observation: ~15% of TinySeed companies thriving due to remote work tailwinds, 70% in wait-and-see mode, 15% in real trouble

Product and development trade-offs

• Cut developer hours in half to extend runway
• Larger enterprise features paused as a result
• Redirected capacity to UX fixes and small improvements — well received by existing customers
• Aligns with their current priority: retain existing customers and reduce churn

Fears and hopes going forward

• Brian's fear: the sales uptick is temporary; broader economic deterioration hits the interior design industry hard
• Scotty's fear: their financial constraints leave no room to pivot if revenue declines sharply
• Brian's hope: close the enterprise deals using a customer-funded development model (customers pay upfront for features they want built)
• Scotty's hope: enterprise deals close, providing financial relief and funding new feature development
• Both plan to restart sales and marketing with a clearer, updated message around remote collaboration