Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

We bootstrapped to $11M in ARR

blog.thinkst.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

171–180 of 225 posts

Re: We bootstrapped to $11M in ARR

#171

Post by bootstrapper101 »

moneywoes wrote: post #163
bootstrapper101 wrote: post #138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 ha…

> 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. RE my earlier question I’d really appreciate it if you could provide more insight into this. So far I’ve been building MVPs in Django ( quick and easy) CRUD mainly, trying to improve copy writing, building better communication…

I feel that it's better to learn skills as a part of getting traction vs try to acquire skills in vacuum.

So have a razor sharp focus on building and adoption. If things are going great then cool. If not, introspect and seek advice till you figure out how to make progress. You will acquire skills along the way.

There is no magic bullet. Naval said that for success you need Product, Market, Founder fit. I would suggest go through his podcast "How to get rich".

Re: We bootstrapped to $11M in ARR

#172

Post by bootstrapper101 »

moneywoes wrote: post #162
bootstrapper101 wrote: post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I agree with your premise that everyone has to provide value in their own unique way. However, what skills primed you for success? You mentioned knowing the equation between CLV and CAC. Any similar knowledge? What about on the software side? I imagine marketing (PPC,SEO) is more important than tech stack.

As I mentioned in other posts, I focussed on learning and pace.

I first went moderately deep on technology skills. Then on a need basis, I kind of did a BFS on all skills needs to build and run a startup.

Eventually all the skills are important.

One other thing I really put a lot of effort in is trying to put me in the shoes of other parties. E.g. if I am trying to launch an idea I try to get in the shoes of engineer, pm, design, marketing, analytics and end user. Given that I have played all of these roles to some extent, it helps me make better decisions.

Re: We bootstrapped to $11M in ARR

#173

Post by bootstrapper101 »

frongpik wrote: post #165
bootstrapper101 wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 month…

How did you get to the decision makers to pitch your idea? Unless you were already well connected, I presume it wasn't easy to get attention from the right people.

I pitched my ideas just twice and got some funding for them.

However either my approach was wrong or I wasn't working with the right people. I felt that funding was too big of a waste of time. Without traction, everything I did was being second guessed. And too much time was being wasted pitching.

I haven't raised any money for 20+ of my ideas including the current one. But I can imagine it would be easier for me to raise money on better terms in future!

I use the nanny vs parent analogy for involvement with a product.

When you are working for someone else, you are a nanny. The product isn't your baby. Be careful how much you get invested. If you get sentimental and attached you will end up hurting yourself.

If you own your company, it's like being the parent. You have sole responsibility but except government no one else can interfere.

VC funded business can be like a wild ride. You may start as a parent, but you will eventually end up as a nanny. In some rare cases you can have majority voting rights till the end. Only famous case for that I know is Facebook.

Re: We bootstrapped to $11M in ARR

#175

Post by yibg »

cambalache wrote: post #170
tfang17 wrote: post #140

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 virtu…

- Cheap, high-quality, free-from-exploitation. Pick 2. Spare me the "Life is cheaper in the 3-world non-sense"

What do you propose? Don't hire from cheap places or pay them the same rate as expensive places? If companies pays the same as expensive places, why would they hire from cheaper places?

Re: We bootstrapped to $11M in ARR

#176

Post by cambalache »

yibg wrote: post #175
cambalache wrote: post #170

Earlier quoted context omitted.

- Cheap, high-quality, free-from-exploitation. Pick 2. Spare me the "Life is cheaper in the 3-world non-sense"

What do you propose? Don't hire from cheap places or pay them the same rate as expensive places? If companies pays the same as expensive places, why would they hire from cheaper places?

Write all these down:

- Pay your local workers livable wages and dont fuck the local population. Where are most of the customers located?

- If you want to hire foreign workers pay them the same or a substantial fraction of your local workers. If they are good their nationality should not matter.

- Hire and pay directly not through intermediates, dont wash your hands off from all the regulations you need to comply with.

Here we have a company which is effectively paying 10-20% of what a local worker would get (Net Salaries+Taxes+Compliance Requirements,etc). Are they going to charge for their product 10% of the US price in the Philippines?

Many companies want the "good things" about globalization: Access to cheap, unregulated workforce, free-flow of capitals, lack of responsibility for any externality created (are they contributing to social security?) but complain about the other side: worldwide liability, open borders, different regulations.

Re: We bootstrapped to $11M in ARR

#177

Post by mplewis »

yibg wrote: post #175
cambalache wrote: post #170

Earlier quoted context omitted.

- Cheap, high-quality, free-from-exploitation. Pick 2. Spare me the "Life is cheaper in the 3-world non-sense"

What do you propose? Don't hire from cheap places or pay them the same rate as expensive places? If companies pays the same as expensive places, why would they hire from cheaper places?

Because paying people enough money to thrive, not just survive, is the right thing to do.

Re: We bootstrapped to $11M in ARR

#179

Post by warent »

TheMagicHorsey wrote: post #156
warent wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Am I the only one reading a significant amount of ego and humblebrag from this post? It's pretty off-putting and distracting from where there could be value.

I didn't read any such tone. He's quite fact oriented. You may want to introspect into what you are bringing into the reading as your own context.

it's a combination of it being a brand new (potentially throwaway) account, me potentially misunderstanding what is meant by claiming 20m annual profit for 3 people is "staying low", and the limits of text communication

Re: We bootstrapped to $11M in ARR

#180

Post by jiux »

tfang17 wrote: post #140

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 virtu…

I’ve been to the Philippines a couple times (out of my own curiosity; origin = USA), and let me tell you, customer service there is HUGE.

From an American perspective, a couple key points to know are 1. Filipinos are among the nicest people in the world, cultural-wise, and 2. English is taught starting in most elementary schools there.

But wait, there’s more!

From the Filipino perspective, you get to help enable a new means of living income in what is a competitive and resourced-limited economy. To add perspective, while it’s not in all locations, it’s not uncommon to see homeless children wandering hopelessly.

Post reply on HN