Submittable

Submittable discovered genuine demand when organizations began submitting thousands of applications through their platform without sales prompting. ​​‌‌‌‌‌‌‌​‌‌​​‌​​​​​​‌‌​‌‌‌​​​‌‌Rather than relying on survey responses about interest in grants management software, the team measured actual program launches—organizations creating competitions, fellowships, and grant cycles on the platform. Early traction emerged through word-of-mouth adoption among program managers who faced manual spreadsheet chaos. The critical validation came when repeat customers expanded their usage, running multiple programs annually and inviting colleagues to use the system. Government agencies and foundations that initially piloted single programs returned to launch five, ten, or twenty additional initiatives. This expansion behavior proved demand far more convincingly than any stated interest. The metric that mattered most was applications processed—when nearly 22 million submissions flowed through their system across 134,000 programs, it demonstrated organizations weren't just trying the platform but building their core operations around it. This activity-based evidence, combined with customer retention and program growth, showed Submittable had solved a genuine, recurring pain point rather than creating perceived need.