Agreed, but spent most of it on the business and buying out my partner in the first 4 years.
I'm sure buying out your partner was an incredibly difficult decision to make. Good on you for leaning into what you've built by putting your money where your mouth is. I hope it pays off for you, and thanks for sharing your story with us.
Thanks! So far, so good after 1.5 years. Truly sucked stuffing more capital into the business as there is a lot concentrated there that is somewhat illiquid, but our working relationship has soured enough that it made sense. No regrets.
I’m definitely not trying to peddle advice, I was just approached about my story. I think there are tons of micro niche things like this that can be built to earn a living (I have a list of 5 I’d build on top of just Stripe if I had the time). Large companies can’t do everything, and I think Stripe owns that. Not to mention, they still get all their same fees and don’t have to maintain the app.
I fully agree with this sentiment. I myself piggy-backed my product (or rather: feature) on a much langer company which was growing like crazy and have been able to grow it to a comfortable $40.000 per month over the last 6 years. It’s just me doing the bulk of the work with 2 friends helping out to handle 1st level support. Now that it is a mature product and as long as the company I depend upon does not overhaul th…
This is EXACTLY what I did, and I agree there are soooo many opportunities like this. I think most people are risk averse to it as they think the API might get shut off, but I look at it as a really quick way to build something. If it gets cut off, on to the next.
> I’ve set a goal to be processing $10M/month in Stripe volume by Spring, which is a pretty big stretch goal. As the app is already highly profitable, why suddenly such an ambitious goal?
Great question. It’s not about the money, but more about how I was passive for too long just letting it be. I’ve waited to invest in several things for growth until I knew had the market cornered. I’m not too concerned about adding more features now, so the only next logical step is growth.
Growing from $6M to $10M didn’t seem huge at the time, but now it does...
Maybe they already have Stripe and don't do very many transactions this way, so they're not that cost-sensitive? For exceptions to their normal way of doing business, convenience might be more important.
I'd say you're right. $70M annual processed by 56K merchants comes out to an average of ~$1.2K in sales per merchant per year.
Bingo, although the YAUs is a bit lower than that for obvious reasons. However, simple solution for these places to depend on for in person charges.
Though the private jet company and exotic car rental place are a touch higher than that.
Didn’t. First integrated with Magtek (insanely painful). Then I wished that another company would make it simpler. Along cane Stripe’s Terminal and here we are.
You can get that sort of money as a developer if you're lucky and in the right place. I just finished a contract with an Evil Inc that was paying pretty close to that. From my personal sample getting a job that pays that well is a lot easier than getting a business to be successful enough to have that much profit.
what skills do you need to get that kind of rate? And how many YOE?
> I’ve set a goal to be processing $10M/month in Stripe volume by Spring, which is a pretty big stretch goal. As the app is already highly profitable, why suddenly such an ambitious goal?
Great question. It’s not about the money, but more about how I was passive for too long just letting it be. I’ve waited to invest in several things for growth until I knew had the market cornered. I’m not too concerned about adding more features now, so the only next logical step is growth. Growing from $6M to $10M didn’t seem huge at the time, but now it does...
Still, what's your motivation for wanting to grow more? Money can be a legitimate motivation, but you said that's not it. I guess I'm curious what drives you now.
Thank you! I’ll be first to admit it was perfect timing (which wasn’t planned at all). The freedom is what I was looking for; if nobody buys it, I’ll happy just keep running it. If Stripe launches the same features, I’ll figure out how to pivot. Or, build something completely new. Who knows what the future holds.
> had just built a new house in the suburbs I'm more interested in this topic - any relevant posts? :)
Ha, extra space was great, but hated the location. Spent all our time in the car (I was working remotely as an FTE), so basically stranded.
Happy to not be selling my soul to another Evil Inc or having a boss... tried that several times before.
You do you man. But if you have the skills you have it will be a lot easier to make that much money in corporate than on your own. That said I'm buying some specialized equipment for a synthetic biology startup I'll be trying my hand at before my next contract. I expect to spend most of the money I made and get no where, again.
Daniel Vassallo’s post might be interesting to you:
How can such an app compete against Stripe’s very own Terminal? Don’t this guy’s customers know that an official option exists? https://stripe.com/terminal
That's just one more thing to carry. If you have the option of just using your phone, what are you going to pick?