Some of the best SaaS ideas don’t start with a “big vision” — they start with a founder stuck in a painful, frustrating situation, unable to find a solution.
For Monica Eaton-Cardone, that pain was chargebacks — when customers dispute credit card transactions, often unfairly, creating costly fees, penalties, and lost revenue for merchants.
In 2010, she was building her own e-commerce marketplace, unaware of how destructive chargebacks could be. What started as a nuisance turned into an existential threat — shutting down merchant accounts, freezing revenue, and destroying cash flow.
Her solution? Build the platform she wished existed — and in the process, turn a taboo topic into a global SaaS category.
Lesson 1: The Best SaaS Ideas Come From Lived Pain
When Eaton-Cardone searched for “chargeback solutions” in 2010, nothing came up. Processors and banks downplayed the issue, even advising her not to talk about it.
Instead of giving up, she:
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Learned the payments industry rules inside out.
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Mapped over 100 sources of chargebacks.
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Used predictive modeling to forecast risk by product, region, and customer profile.
Consulting takeaway: If your customers don’t yet realize a problem is solvable, you may have an opportunity to define the category.
Lesson 2: Sell the Win, Not the Vision
When Chargebacks911 launched, merchants didn’t believe chargebacks could be prevented or fought.
To overcome skepticism, she used a performance-based model — charging only a percentage of revenue recovered or prevented. The quick wins created instant proof and fueled organic, referral-driven growth.
SaaS takeaway: In early markets, the fastest trust-builder is a risk-free, outcome-driven offer.
Lesson 3: Build From What You Know
Eaton-Cardone’s first platform wasn’t built by a Silicon Valley team — it was a scrappy, homegrown system she coded herself, inspired by routing logic from her VoIP software background.
The goal: automate dispute case handling by gathering data from both banks and merchants, applying rule engines, and producing faster, more accurate outcomes.
Insight: Early SaaS doesn’t need perfect UX — it needs to prove it can deliver value faster, cheaper, or more reliably than manual processes.
Lesson 4: Culture Outlasts Org Charts
Chargebacks911 scaled to nearly 400 employees worldwide, but Eaton-Cardone resisted the urge to copy “corporate” structures. Instead, she:
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Built a role-based management model (over rigid hierarchy).
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Promoted “diamonds in the rough” from within — often assistants who became department heads.
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Maintained startup-like owner mentality by aligning roles to passions and strengths.
Consulting takeaway: The processes that make you fast and agile early on can — and should — scale if you protect them intentionally.
Lesson 5: Know When to Bring in Outside Talent
As the company expanded internationally, she began hiring experienced leaders from outside — not to replace the culture, but to:
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Shorten the learning curve in specialized roles.
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Bring fresh perspective and challenge internal “we’ve always done it this way” thinking.
SaaS insight: External hires aren’t just about skill gaps — they’re a hedge against cultural blind spots.
Lesson 6: Protect Your Strategy as You Scale
Early on, Eaton-Cardone shared her vision freely. Today, with dozens of competitors, she keeps some product and strategy details compartmentalized — even internally.
Growth reality: Once you’re the category leader, what you’re building next can be more valuable (and vulnerable) than what you’ve built already.
Founder Takeaway — How to Spot a Platform Opportunity in Your Own Business
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Listen for taboo topics — The problems no one talks about can be the biggest opportunities.
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Map the problem end-to-end — Get to the root causes before building the solution.
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Prototype from what you know — Borrow logic and systems from industries you understand.
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Prove outcomes early — Outcome-based models build trust in skeptical markets.
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Scale culture before structure — Protect what makes you different as you grow.
Closing Thought
Eaton-Cardone didn’t set out to create a SaaS company for banks and merchants. She set out to stop a problem that was killing her own business.
By turning that private pain into a public platform, she built the first global company dedicated to preventing chargeback fraud — and, in the process, helped create an entirely new SaaS category.