We bootstrapped to $11M in ARR
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We bootstrapped to $11M in ARR
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Re: We bootstrapped to $11M in ARR
#2The vast majority of businesses....
1. Are outside the valley
2. Started with minimal or no funding
3. Hire a ton of employees overall
4. Give their founders comfortable lives.
5. Do their thing very quietly without anyone really knowing.
6. You've never heard about.
Re: We bootstrapped to $11M in ARR
#3Nice writeup!
Speaking as someone that tried to be a founder from Brazil: I imagine that making it on Silicon Valley must be hard task on itself but making in an underdeveloped country makes odds stacked against you.
We compete with companies founded with people that have access to clients with way more purchasing power and better supply pipeline.
I'm a bit curious on how the team got overcame this issues, and would suggest you to repost this on a time that gets more traffic in americas, since is 3AM here.
Re: We bootstrapped to $11M in ARR
#4The vast majority of businesses.... 1. Are outside the valley 2. Started with minimal or no funding 3. Hire a ton of employees overall 4. Give their founders comfortable lives. 5. Do their thing very quietly without anyone really knowing. 6. You've never heard about.
I’d love to hear more of these stories, but suspect 5. Do their thing very quietly is in the spirit of many of these businesses.
Re: We bootstrapped to $11M in ARR
#5The vast majority of businesses.... 1. Are outside the valley 2. Started with minimal or no funding 3. Hire a ton of employees overall 4. Give their founders comfortable lives. 5. Do their thing very quietly without anyone really knowing. 6. You've never heard about.
I’d love to hear more of these stories, but suspect 5. Do their thing very quietly is in the spirit of many of these businesses.
It is. And there is always a reason private companies post their numbers. Unless there’s a strong reason to do it, it is a better strategic move to keep them private.
Re: We bootstrapped to $11M in ARR
#6The vast majority of businesses.... 1. Are outside the valley 2. Started with minimal or no funding 3. Hire a ton of employees overall 4. Give their founders comfortable lives. 5. Do their thing very quietly without anyone really knowing. 6. You've never heard about.
I’d love to hear more of these stories, but suspect 5. Do their thing very quietly is in the spirit of many of these businesses.
At least for software, the vast majority are in some sort of niche you've either never heard of or thought about. Software for managing operating theater procedures, software for managing doctors/dentists, software for managing money exchanges, software for managing legal conveyancing, software for managing schools, etc. Those are examples from places that I've worked that were purely software shops, add to that just about any sizeable company in any industry that have software developers, everything from you pet food brand to your toothbrush manufacturer likely started outside of silicon valley, most without little to no venture capital.
They used to be called micro independent software vendors (mISV) and before the silicon valley gold rush this was the dream of young entrepreneurs.
Re: We bootstrapped to $11M in ARR
#7The vast majority of businesses.... 1. Are outside the valley 2. Started with minimal or no funding 3. Hire a ton of employees overall 4. Give their founders comfortable lives. 5. Do their thing very quietly without anyone really knowing. 6. You've never heard about.
I run one of these companies.
USD 50M+ ARR, USD 20M+ profit. 3 people company.
Could grow 10x if we want to. But we are enjoying staying low and enjoying our family lives.
Excellent article by the Canary guys. They seem like really honest people.
We didn't raise any money. Only focus was how to do faster iterations. By the time 25 of my ideas didn't succeed, every iteration became very fast. Idea to launch in 3 months. Happy to answer any questions.
Looks like this is dead. Happy to answer any questions @dang ! Once kids are in high school, maybe will try something bigger!
Re: We bootstrapped to $11M in ARR
#8Earlier quoted context omitted.
I’d love to hear more of these stories, but suspect 5. Do their thing very quietly is in the spirit of many of these businesses.
At least for software, the vast majority are in some sort of niche you've either never heard of or thought about. Software for managing operating theater procedures, software for managing doctors/dentists, software for managing money exchanges, software for managing legal conveyancing, software for managing schools, etc. Those are examples from places that I've worked that were purely software shops, add to that just…
Those are absolutely terrible companies for software developers to work for though. I have several family members that work for them. If you want average pay and the owners to take all the profits, go for it. Otherwise, work for FAANG, a great startup or a finance company (hedge fund or investment bank).
Re: We bootstrapped to $11M in ARR
#9[deleted]
Re: We bootstrapped to $11M in ARR
#10Earlier quoted context omitted.
I’d love to hear more of these stories, but suspect 5. Do their thing very quietly is in the spirit of many of these businesses.
At least for software, the vast majority are in some sort of niche you've either never heard of or thought about. Software for managing operating theater procedures, software for managing doctors/dentists, software for managing money exchanges, software for managing legal conveyancing, software for managing schools, etc. Those are examples from places that I've worked that were purely software shops, add to that just…
This is why I've been putting more energy into networking and finding the right partners - people who understand these niche problems, have an existing network to sell the solutions to and just need the technical team to build and iterate on the product.
Brainstorming is still important to me, but I'd rather brainstorm with a specialist. If any HNers fit the bill, please do send an email.