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My Bootstrapped Micro-Startup Got Acquired

mohddanish.me

11–20 of 95 posts

Re: My Bootstrapped Micro-Startup Got Acquired

#11
post #8

Sounds like the buyer got a terrific deal. There seemed to be rapid growth and interest. Getting any revenue is hard - growing from 700/month to 7000/month can be mostly momentum. Just sitting on it would make more. Maybe there is more to the story but if not, please hold out with your next project. You'll get low ballers. I had someone offer me 30k for an app I spent a month building. I would have taken it but he wa…

At the same time a bird in the hand is worth more than 2 in the bush.

Not sure why this is downvoted, "growing from 700/month to 7000/month can be mostly momentum" is trivializing what is more likely a very difficult scaling process, and there is a huge opportunity cost to continue to operating the business as opposed to cashing out and trying the next thing.

Re: My Bootstrapped Micro-Startup Got Acquired

#12
post #7
post #5

Hard to make sense of an acquisition at a cost this low. It’s like a month or two salary of a senior software engineer.

Salaries aren't in that range generally in South East Asia, where I gather the author is from.

Yea, you'll really only find salaries like that in America.

Re: My Bootstrapped Micro-Startup Got Acquired

#13
post #4

Developing a SaaS product isn’t for everybody but if you are a developer and want to expand your breadth it’s a wonderful and rewarding challenge. Nothing is easy but there has never been more resources, support and tooling for indie SaaS makers. If you want to get started the indiehackers community is fantastic and my inbox is always open for answers/encouragement Shane at Cronitor.io

The hardest part about building a SaaS product for me isn't the technical challenges (although there are some too), it's mostly anxiety. The thing that scares me the most is launching and receiving negative feedback, the thought alone is enough for me to stop working on it.

If you are sensitive to negative feedback it’s likely you are also sensitive to positive feedback, and it comes in roughly equal amounts. I have an email file of positive feedback received over the years. When I read stuff like “Thanks for such an excellent product. I really like it in our stack.” It lifts my spirits again and again.

It’s actually a chore to get a meaningful critique from a customer they just don’t care enough and will just cancel.

Re: My Bootstrapped Micro-Startup Got Acquired

#14
post #4

Developing a SaaS product isn’t for everybody but if you are a developer and want to expand your breadth it’s a wonderful and rewarding challenge. Nothing is easy but there has never been more resources, support and tooling for indie SaaS makers. If you want to get started the indiehackers community is fantastic and my inbox is always open for answers/encouragement Shane at Cronitor.io

The hardest part about building a SaaS product for me isn't the technical challenges (although there are some too), it's mostly anxiety. The thing that scares me the most is launching and receiving negative feedback, the thought alone is enough for me to stop working on it.

Don't internalize the feedback. There will always be haters and bashers (we had people trolling the newspaper article comment section when we got bought by Intel). The point is that if you provide a valuable service to someone you'll get meaningful feedback from them (maybe not all good!) and you can learn from that. Don't pay attention to people who are just recreationally crapping on you and you'll be fine.

If you try to launch something, and it doesn't go well for anyone - well, you learned something. I do a martial art (Brazilian Juijitsu) where one of the cliches is "you win or you learn". It may be a cliche, but it applies to a lot of things. But to extend the metaphor, you have to get on the mat.

Re: My Bootstrapped Micro-Startup Got Acquired

#15
post #8

Sounds like the buyer got a terrific deal. There seemed to be rapid growth and interest. Getting any revenue is hard - growing from 700/month to 7000/month can be mostly momentum. Just sitting on it would make more. Maybe there is more to the story but if not, please hold out with your next project. You'll get low ballers. I had someone offer me 30k for an app I spent a month building. I would have taken it but he wa…

At the same time a bird in the hand is worth more than 2 in the bush.

Except in this analogy the two birds in the bush give you a continuous stream of their eggs.

Re: My Bootstrapped Micro-Startup Got Acquired

#16
post #7
post #5

Hard to make sense of an acquisition at a cost this low. It’s like a month or two salary of a senior software engineer.

Salaries aren't in that range generally in South East Asia, where I gather the author is from.

He was bootstrapped and sold it for more than he would have made working full-time for another company or contracting for those 9 months, so kudos for coming out ahead!

He basically ripped off a github repo curated list of APIs and made it "searchable" + listed to PH then sold the site based on the traffic from that one spike. Not belittling it at all - he had the initiative to build it, monetize it, and sell it.

Re: My Bootstrapped Micro-Startup Got Acquired

#17
post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Salaries aren't in that range generally in South East Asia, where I gather the author is from.

Yea, you'll really only find salaries like that in America.

Or Europe or Australia. So, y’know, all of the developed world. (With apologies to whomever I have inevitably missed.)

Re: My Bootstrapped Micro-Startup Got Acquired

#19
post #4

Developing a SaaS product isn’t for everybody but if you are a developer and want to expand your breadth it’s a wonderful and rewarding challenge. Nothing is easy but there has never been more resources, support and tooling for indie SaaS makers. If you want to get started the indiehackers community is fantastic and my inbox is always open for answers/encouragement Shane at Cronitor.io

The hardest part about building a SaaS product for me isn't the technical challenges (although there are some too), it's mostly anxiety. The thing that scares me the most is launching and receiving negative feedback, the thought alone is enough for me to stop working on it.

[flagged]

Re: My Bootstrapped Micro-Startup Got Acquired

#20

Developing a SaaS product isn’t for everybody but if you are a developer and want to expand your breadth it’s a wonderful and rewarding challenge. Nothing is easy but there has never been more resources, support and tooling for indie SaaS makers. If you want to get started the indiehackers community is fantastic and my inbox is always open for answers/encouragement Shane at Cronitor.io

Nice! Any suggestions on people/groups to follow on indiehackers? Have you been to any of their meetups?

[flagged]
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