I lost money the first year. I was profitable in name only the second year. I made a profit that would almost cover my rent the third year. Now I'm in my 4th year, and I'm actually making a living. January and February covered all of my expected business expenses for the year. I never thought it would take as long as it did, but when revenue really started to grow, it came as a pretty big surprise.
Ask HN: How long did you stuck with your startup before it is profitable?
31–40 of 46 posts
Re: Ask HN: How long did you stuck with your startup before it is profitable?
#32My first startup did sales force automation for palm devices - profitable after 6 years (left it after 2), but still haven't seen any explosive growth till today (9 years already). Became a lifestyle business for those that stayed
Third startup (the one I'm building today was lamen profitable after 6 months. Don't expect it to grow a lot more until we get some funding, since the next steps require a lot more than lamen to succeed.. (ah, the great wall between MVP and V2)
Re: Ask HN: How long did you stuck with your startup before it is profitable?
#33Earlier quoted context omitted.
Thanks, we're on GAE, and they claim they'll only route to subdomains. Any ideas?
been using this for one of the sites i run on aws. http://www.wwwizer.com/
Thanks for the suggestion, I think I've convinced godaddy to forward it now to www. Just waiting for it to propagate through the DNS system.
Re: Ask HN: How long did you stuck with your startup before it is profitable?
#34BCC was profitable within about a month of conception and has been since then. AR will, knock on wood, probably hit cash-flow positive in May (about six months after launch) and pay back development costs in a month or two after that. I was originally targeting 12 months for surpassing BCC & consulting but, knock on wood, I have since learned something about my market which may make that pessimistic.
Would love to hear more about your experience in this industry and where you think you fit with the bigger players out there (televox, smilereminder etc.)
Re: Ask HN: How long did you stuck with your startup before it is profitable?
#35Re: Ask HN: How long did you stuck with your startup before it is profitable?
#363 years, then I realized it wasn't going anywhere I wanted to go, so I sold it. Wasn't profitable.
Don't mean to ask something personal, but curious to know how much you sold it for. A relative figure in % to your yearly pay before would be fine too.
I can't say according to the contract. About 30% of my yearly pay before that. I gave a developer that worked with me a good cut of that, to thank him for all his effort.
Re: Ask HN: How long did you stuck with your startup before it is profitable?
#37BCC was profitable within about a month of conception and has been since then. AR will, knock on wood, probably hit cash-flow positive in May (about six months after launch) and pay back development costs in a month or two after that. I was originally targeting 12 months for surpassing BCC & consulting but, knock on wood, I have since learned something about my market which may make that pessimistic.
Would love to hear more about your experience in this industry and where you think you fit with the bigger players out there (televox, smilereminder etc.)
The short version is that, if everything goes according to plan, they are Big Consultingware Project Management and I am Basecamp. (Or, to put it another way, I'm not competing with them, I'm competing with non-consumption of services.)
Re: Ask HN: How long did you stuck with your startup before it is profitable?
#38Last hit for me: launched solo in 1998, self-sustaining though I didn't make any money personally (kept folding it back in, worked programming contracts to live), got angel funding in 2000 and popped staff to 14, first profitable month in March 2001. Became consistently profitable in October 2001 and never again went into the red. Sold to a venture firm in 2006. Current biz: launched in 2009. Still working on profita…
I am curious. Do venture firms buy whole businesses? I thought they invest in firms, not buy them altogether.
In my case it was an acquisition and roll up - they acquired my company and one of my competitors, combined the two together and brought in a seasoned executive w/ IPO experience to lead the NewCo. I was retained to be the CTO, though it's tremendously difficult to go from being the boss to having a boss and left a little over a year later.