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

Re: We bootstrapped to $11M in ARR

#131

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

steveklabnik wrote: post #113

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…

People have been saying this for a very long time. I did a startup in Pittsburgh back in ~2009, and this was exactly what everyone was saying. My cofounder is still doing startups in the same space(ish), but in the Bay Area now. That doesn't mean it won't ever come to pass, but I am still skeptical. (And I live in Austin now... but the startup I work for is still fundamentally based in the Bay.)

This is a strong argument: people have been talking about the distribution of work with every new invention (phone call, fax, email, and now video conferencing). And they don't just mean moving from San Fran to Austin (where people speak the same language, and you can hire citizens, and the currency is the same and you drive on the same side of the street), but to India and China.

And yet, and yet, and yet the same centers of industry persist. Movies in LA, Oil in Houston, Finance in NYC and tech in San Fran.

I am sure the arguments for the persistence are well rehearsed and can be looked up but I just want to underscore one feature: winner take all.

Whichever argument you find compelling as to why these industries congregate, (networking is easier, money is easier to get, you have everything you need in one place, ambitious people go there and so on) it has to be such that the #1 place has an enormous advantage over the #2 place. If your argument does not have that structure, it doesn't really explain why everyone congregates.

And if your argument does have that property (some winner-take-all mechanism), then after covid and zoom force a redistribution, so long as that small advantage maintains, the dominant city will re-assert itself.

Re: We bootstrapped to $11M in ARR

#132

Post by bootstrapper101 » Thu, Mar 18, 2021, 3:55 PM UTC

xwdv wrote: post #78

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…

If you’re getting older and don’t have kids yet, would you recommend then not having kids at all or still having them anyway? Maybe it would be better to seek a young wife then if you plan to be ambitious?

All the questions you are asking are coming from your head and not your heart!

With wife and kids you want to follow your heart as long as your head (life situation) can support it.

If you would want to love your kids and be there for them, have them whenever you can. Nothing is guaranteed for anyone. Make your best case effort and love them from the bottom of your heart.

Don't seek out wife like an agenda. That is a receipt for disaster. I married my wife because that was the first person I met where my thought process was: "How can I make her happy" not "How does this person fulfill my image and needs from a life partner".

Your expectations from your life partner might change with time. If you start with a baseline and it doesn't hold anymore, it would likely lead to discontent and possibly separation. Expectation is the bane of all relationship.

For immediate family just focus on what you can give and don't expect anything back.

Re: We bootstrapped to $11M in ARR

#133

Post by tfang17 » Thu, Mar 18, 2021, 3:58 PM UTC

mizzao wrote: post #106

Is it possible to bootstrap a consumer startup in the same way as a B2B SaaS? Seems a lot harder, given that revenue from day one is not easy.

I'm the cofounder of Eureka Surveys. We are a bootstrapped consumer startup with 1M+ users and profitable.

Re: We bootstrapped to $11M in ARR

#134

Post by brandonmenc » Thu, Mar 18, 2021, 3:59 PM UTC

blacktriangle wrote: post #104

brandonmenc wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My great grandmothers were alive until I was in my 20s, but they were like, practically in arranged marriages when they were 14. I know this is an extreme example but, talk about downsides!

Is it? Every study on arranged marriages I've seen points to lower divorce rates and higher general happiness. Assuming your parents aren't assholes they'll try and do right by their kids. And the nice thing about an arranged marriage is that it's two people not following some illusions of effortless love and happiness, but two people coming together to collaboratively build that love and happiness.

Uh, yeah.

One of my great grandmothers was in an actual arranged marriage at age 14 to a man who was like 60 years old. She managed to get out of that one, but had to marry another man (my great grandfather, who I never met) to do it.

It was a different world back then, but compressing generations to the point where you are able to know your great grandparents usually requires some creative accounting that wouldn't fly for most people today.

Re: We bootstrapped to $11M in ARR

#135

Post by gautamdivgi » Thu, Mar 18, 2021, 3:59 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…

>>> real estate prices (though I read these are coming down a bit)

That's not really the case. It's people moving out of SF. The Bay Area (and surrounding suburbs) real estate market is hotter than ever. Just had a friend move there and finding a place to buy is basically you willing to bid over asking price.

Re: We bootstrapped to $11M in ARR

#136

Post by tfang17 » Thu, Mar 18, 2021, 4:00 PM UTC

bootstrapper101 wrote: post #119

philipyoungg wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

May I know what your product is? I'm working on www.stayinsession.com for almost a year now. It's B2C and extremely rough. And as you said: loathe customer support for B2C.

Biggest issue with customer support are: Getting customers and supporting them. Solution to both of them is making a simple product which provides incredible value which is self serve. Word of mouth will take care of the rest. Eventually build a community driven forum which will help with support.

We've had a good experience at Eureka Surveys (also bootstrapped) hiring an offshore support team to support our 1M+ users.

Re: We bootstrapped to $11M in ARR

#137

Post by tfang17 » Thu, Mar 18, 2021, 4:03 PM UTC

throwaway11002 wrote: post #81

bootstrapper101 wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't spend the money I already make. Not sure what I would do with 10x money. 1% ungrateful complaining consumer out of 1 million users are 10k users. I don't like dealing with them. At 10x the business they might become 100k or more. I would rather have 10k high paying Saas customers and weed out the ungrateful ones there but to their face. Currently we are working above the board with no dark patterns. We have o…

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…

We've had good luck at Eureka Surveys with hiring in the Philippines. Check out my thread on it here: https://twitter.com/t0mstah/status/1356296043009253382

Re: We bootstrapped to $11M in ARR

#138

Post by bootstrapper101 » Thu, Mar 18, 2021, 4:07 PM UTC

jeffreyrogers wrote: post #126

josephg wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Nothing beats just getting down and building something end to end. As you do it more and more, you get better and faster.

I just came up with an analogy of trying to be successful at startup: Imagine someone who is just born in prehistoric rugged terrain who wants to reach some magical place. You don't know even how to crawl. There is some food and clues all over the place about how to reach the magical place. You have a magic button which can take you to slave house (corporate life). You could potentially come back from Corporate life to the startup life, but you would be bruised and would have picked bad skills which you know needs to forget.

You immediate focus should be gaining skills and pace. You will start by learning to crawl, walk, jump, climb, track your path, get better instincts, find food, look for clues, follow clues.

With more tries, you will get better at these. You will be better at navigating the terrain. You will get better heuristics which will determine your success.

Many time either people looking for a magic solution. This is equivalent to someone in this situation thinking if they can roll downhill and hope to be within crawling space of the magical space. It doesn't work that way. Some people do get lucky but most don't.

Any many times people are procrastinating. Which is like someone waiting at the edge of this magical world figuring out whether to make a plunge.

Just get started. You will figure out along the way. Make sure you have a good plan on health and finances!

Re: We bootstrapped to $11M in ARR

#139

Post by sharkweek » Thu, Mar 18, 2021, 4:08 PM UTC

gautamdivgi wrote: post #135

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…

>>> real estate prices (though I read these are coming down a bit) That's not really the case. It's people moving out of SF. The Bay Area (and surrounding suburbs) real estate market is hotter than ever. Just had a friend move there and finding a place to buy is basically you willing to bid over asking price.

This is happening in Seattle. You can maybe buy a small condo downtown or on Capitol Hill for a deal right now. But as Seattle is a city of neighborhoods, if you want a house, you're paying 200k over asking price against 10-20 offers right now.

Re: We bootstrapped to $11M in ARR

#140

Post by tfang17 » Thu, Mar 18, 2021, 4:10 PM UTC

Seems to be a lot of questions about how bootstrapped startups handle customer support.

I'm the cofounder of Eureka Surveys. We're bootstrapped, profitable, and just crossed 1M+ users. We've had an amazing experience hiring customer support in the Philippines. I have a thread about it on Twitter: https://twitter.com/t0mstah/status/1356296043009253382

The tl;dr is that you can hire cheap ($3.50/hr), high quality virtual assistants from the Philippines to handle customer support for you, all from day one. Having CS has really made a difference for us in our business and is one of our main differentiators as we've scaled up the CS team. DM me on Twitter and I can connect you to some excellent VAs looking for jobs!