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Ask HN: Single Person startup/company?

news.ycombinator.com

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Re: Ask HN: Single Person startup/company?

#391

Post by csallen »

throwaway58182 wrote: post #70

Just hit $1 million/year in sales :) About 20 years ago wrote a scratch-my-itch B2B desktop software for Windows. Side project for 10 years which is how long it took to reach about $120K to make the switch to full time. Added features and increased price accordingly. Hired a few more people. Growth is slow but steady. Yearly renewable support contracts are the secret. Coding is easy, marketing is hard. Persistence, p…

Hello! I'd love to interview you, anonymously if that suits your fancy. Is there anyway I can contact you? You can also contact me at csallen at alum.mit.edu.

Re: Ask HN: Single Person startup/company?

#392

Post by csallen »

throwaway7312 wrote: post #154

I'm a single founder. We do ~$150K / year in revenue right now. We did $15,000 in 2011 (our first year in business). $55,000 in 2012. $96,000 in 2013. $157,000 in 2014. Dropped to $133,000 in 2015, our first year of negative growth. From 2011 to mid-2014, I worked constantly to improve our basic product. But in 2014 I realized we'd never compete with the big guys in our industry, who do $10MM to $30MM / year. So I st…

Thanks for sharing! Would you mind if I pick your brain a little bit? You can email me (csallen at alum.mit.edu), or I'm happy to chat here anonymously if that's better for you!

Re: Ask HN: Single Person startup/company?

#393

Post by csallen »

tajen wrote: post #130

I'm single-running an Atlassian add-on, $4000 the first year, $40k the second year, $55k the 3rd. APIs are young and change often (=maintenance costs), market is not saturated yet, but the competition is competent. It's a real benefit (=3 month savings) to your startup if you don't have to build the sales engine: I've sold to very, very famous names, that I could never have had if it wasn't through Atlassian's appsto…

I'd like to contact you, too, if you see this comment! You can email me here: csallen at alum.mit.edu

Re: Ask HN: Single Person startup/company?

#395

Post by lmenus »

__a__ wrote: post #172
throwaway58182 wrote: post #70

Just hit $1 million/year in sales :) About 20 years ago wrote a scratch-my-itch B2B desktop software for Windows. Side project for 10 years which is how long it took to reach about $120K to make the switch to full time. Added features and increased price accordingly. Hired a few more people. Growth is slow but steady. Yearly renewable support contracts are the secret. Coding is easy, marketing is hard. Persistence, p…

"Using throwaway so customers don't find this comment." Question - Why would you care if they did?

Check comments above, he answered it there!

Re: Ask HN: Single Person startup/company?

#396

Post by archielc »

pieterhg wrote: post #171

I'm a single founder, I'm nearing $400k/y revenue. It started a side project on here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8107222 and then grew over the last 2 years. 2014: ~$50k 2015: ~$200k 2016: ~$400k Also traffic also doubled every year, so revenue is tied pretty closely too that! This also includes about $7k/m from my remote jobs site which is also tied to Nomad List: http://remoteok.io . It's now a cost of li…

I remember seeing this when it just started (like two years ago, not sure if it was one of those 12 startups/year). Current one looks fantastic compared to that one, so I guess it's one more example that demonstrates you shouldn't hold off until it's feature-rich eye-catching candy. Your project story is inspiring!

Re: Ask HN: Single Person startup/company?

#397

Post by throwaway29464 »

dhruvkar wrote: post #351
throwaway29464 wrote: post #168

I'm a single founder of a B2B SAAS - took 3 years to get to 10K MRR. From Jan 1 of this year MRR has grown from 10K MRR to 27K MRR. Likely due to a combination of better product market fit, getting some very marquee name clients and price increases. Finally quit my full time gig in April - never looking back I hope!

Awesome! What worked in order to get from 0 MRR to 10K MRR?

thanks! talking to customers and grinding away almost every night and weekend (started as a part time project).

Re: Ask HN: Single Person startup/company?

#398

Post by csallen »

matchagaucho wrote: post #159

Some numbers on my single-person company: Market: Add-on tools/plugins/components for enterprise software platforms. Customers: ~30 Growth rate: Adding about 1 new customer per month Revenue: $550K ($300K product / $250K consulting) Gross profit margin: 80% Costs are basically hosting, occasional marketing campaigns, some offshore development, and various SaaS subscriptions to operate the business. The product often…

I'd love to interview you, anonymously if you prefer, about your company! You can reach me at csallen at alum.mit.edu.

Re: Ask HN: Single Person startup/company?

#399

Post by udkl »

Pephers wrote: post #390
udkl wrote: post #248

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Looks cool, how did you go about marketing it ?

Thanks, I appreciate it! I must admit that marketing is my absolute weak side, but I've had the most success using organic SEO backed by some SEM campaigns. Since my product requires customers to have a website, I've created landing pages targeted at major WYSIWYG/DIY website builders. If they search for e.g. "booking system for " they'll have a chance to find a Zapla landing page for that platform :)

oh oh ... MS just came out with a similar booking software integrated into Outlook.... don't think it will affect you much though ...
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