We bootstrapped to $11M in ARR • Hacker News Board

Re: We bootstrapped to $11M in ARR

#121

Post by bootstrapper101 » Thu, Mar 18, 2021, 3:34 PM UTC

herodoturtle wrote: post #87

bootstrapper101 wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Every year you delay having kids, you are reducing the amount of time you will spend with your kids and grandkids. As you get older, the quality of time you spend with them will also get worse. My wife went through lot of difficulties in her pregnancies. It would have been easier for her body, if we had kids earlier. My drive to get out of the corporate slavery was the reason for the delay. So I regret the delay.

Hey man, if it's any consolation, my folks had me when they were very young, and I barely spent any time with them whilst growing up. As immigrants we had it pretty tough financially, and they were always working long hours (always for someone else) to try make ends meet. They harbour significant regret about not being more present in my childhood. These days they're of course much older, and I am in the lucky positi…

I know. We had kids around the same age.

In my case my big mistake was moving to US mid way in career. It disrupted by established life and I had to start over from scratch. If I had stayed in my native country, I would have been able to have kids earlier.

Thanks for sharing your experience!

Re: We bootstrapped to $11M in ARR

#122

Post by bootstrapper101 » Thu, Mar 18, 2021, 3:36 PM UTC

xwdv wrote: post #77

robertlagrant wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is exactly right - I've had my kids in my mid 30s, and while there are upsides, there are downsides. At a friend's wedding, his great grandmother was there. Hearing that, I realised there is an amazing upside to having kids a little earlier.

Don’t get too hung up on it. While it’s cool to be a great grandparent, a great grandparent has tons of grand kids, and a lot of them don’t really give that much of a shit about you at the end of the day unless you’re some kind of interesting person. No descendants will care about you as much as your immediate children. I love my grandparents, but barely see them or talk to them even knowing the time is short. Think…

This is a really good point. You can have at it all but you can definitely wish ;)

Re: We bootstrapped to $11M in ARR

#123

Post by motohagiography » Thu, Mar 18, 2021, 3:39 PM UTC

I've used the canary tokens and they are probably the most elegant security tool I've seen in the business. What a pleasure to read.

Re: We bootstrapped to $11M in ARR

#124

Post by bryzaguy » Thu, Mar 18, 2021, 3:42 PM UTC

misthop wrote: post #120

nradov wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The other benefit of locating in Silicon Valley is convenient access to multiple first and second tier universities. Many startups are founded to commercialize research done in those schools. Only a few other areas have a similar concentration of top schools.

It's amusing to read this comment in response to one that calls out Boston 3 times.

Harvard is pretty close to Boston, is the best I could think of.

Re: We bootstrapped to $11M in ARR

#125

Post by bootstrapper101 » Thu, Mar 18, 2021, 3:44 PM UTC

daniellarusso wrote: post #86

throwaway11002 wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can I ask how you're handling customer service? I'm a one-man company and it's the most draining part of my business. It's so tempting to outsource first line support but I also feel there's some value in answering all the emails yourself because you know your customers' needs. And I'm not sure how to even outsource support. Do I just hire someone part-time from some gig website and pay them for X hours/week? I think…

Do you have an FAQ that is part of your first auto-reply when somebody contacts support? Do you have helpdesk software? Are you using an answering service/receptionist to answer calls and then send the support issue to your support email or software? Make as much as you can self-service for your users. Have brief videos explaining your solution, so you can easily reply with a link to the video and ask them to follow…

These are great tips. We do most of these.

Automate everything possible.

If you still can't manage and need human support, hire someone in India/Philippines part time, treat them like a valued employee, build a relationship.

Re: We bootstrapped to $11M in ARR

#126

Post by jeffreyrogers » Thu, Mar 18, 2021, 3:45 PM UTC

josephg wrote: post #72

austinjp wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Personally I have at least one business idea every day, probably due to some neuro-divergence issues. The problem is determining which are worth pursuing. By their own admission, OP's 20+ ideas didn't work. You only need one, it just has to be the right one :) Snark aside, I guess receptivity to novelty is critical when pivoting. At that point, though, the pivot should be based on data. Creativity is still required,…

I have a friend who made a project out of brainstorming 5 project ideas every day. They had to be stuff he could realistically build (physically or with code). Sometimes he would riff off a single idea - some problem he wanted solved. Other times he just sort of free associated. He said it was hard at first, but it got easier over time. His ideas didn’t dry up. They multiplied.

A couple of years ago I started writing down ideas whenever they popped into my head. Didn't really make a conscious effort to brainstorm them or anything, but after a while they start becoming a frequent thing. I probably get a couple a week and now have a really long list of things. Some are obviously bad, others require too much outside knowledge or equipment I don't have, but maybe 10-20% are promising and doable by me.

Honestly the hardest thing is picking one thing to focus on for an extended amount of time. It's tempting to prototype something and then get excited by the next idea and never fully finish what you were working on. I think this is just part of how humans are. I know a guy who worked on rockets and says it got boring after a couple of years.

Re: We bootstrapped to $11M in ARR

#127

Post by bootstrapper101 » Thu, Mar 18, 2021, 3:47 PM UTC

baxtr wrote: post #66

bootstrapper101 wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Timeline: 7 years: Work for someone else. Try 5 ideas on the side. Save money 3 years: Tried 2 ideas and spent all the money 4 years: Worked for someone else. Tried 20 ideas on the side. Last became profitable and then I quit. It was really tough. I was working 14 hours every day between full time job and my other ideas. I grew up really poor, so had to do it the hard way. But I had an overwhelming desire to not work…

Oh man. Wow. Incredible. I am really really glad it worked out well for you. I am in the same position like you were. I never want to go back to corporate hell, so my ideas have to work :D What was your biggest lesson? Is there one thing you would do differently now if you could?

If you love what you are doing, it will give you the drive to keep doing it.

Listen to Naval's podcast about "How to get rich". He knows how to put ideas much better than me.

There are no shortcuts and if I tell you my winning lottery number after claiming the prize, it's not worth anything. Discover how you can provide value in your own unique way.

Re: We bootstrapped to $11M in ARR

#128

Post by brianwawok » Thu, Mar 18, 2021, 3:48 PM UTC

catillac wrote: post #98

Communitivity wrote: post #94

From friends I've talked with, the benefits of the valley are real, but diminishing. At the same time downsides are increasing: cost of living, homelessness, real estate prices (though I read these are coming down a bit). I've been told the benefit has been the ease of networking, and likely will always be so. As startup hubs grow around the country this networking benefit will start to be there. It is already there…

Is “SaaS” traditionally considered a niche like the others? The concept seems very broad as opposed to others like Fintech or Healthcare. I would consider a category like “APIs” to be overbroad, and SaaS seems to be similar. I’m very open to being wrong though.

SaaS is all over. I can think of 100 SaaS companies by me in Indiana, and I didn't look that hard. I think it's not an Astin niche...

Re: We bootstrapped to $11M in ARR

#129

Post by misthop » Thu, Mar 18, 2021, 3:49 PM UTC

bryzaguy wrote: post #124

misthop wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's amusing to read this comment in response to one that calls out Boston 3 times.

Harvard is pretty close to Boston, is the best I could think of.

Harvard, MIT, BU, BC, Tufts, Brandeis, Northeastern. Brown is an hour and a half away

Re: We bootstrapped to $11M in ARR

#130

Post by thegginthesky » Thu, Mar 18, 2021, 3:53 PM UTC

Communitivity wrote: post #94

From friends I've talked with, the benefits of the valley are real, but diminishing. At the same time downsides are increasing: cost of living, homelessness, real estate prices (though I read these are coming down a bit). I've been told the benefit has been the ease of networking, and likely will always be so. As startup hubs grow around the country this networking benefit will start to be there. It is already there…

Also, Chicago is a major hub for Logistics Tech. I work for a startup that recently moved their head-quarters from NYC to Chicago, due to the talent there.