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Poll: is your startup profitable?

news.ycombinator.com

21–30 of 48 posts

Re: Poll: is your startup profitable?

#22
post #4

Other interesting options: * Yes - and we're making more than we would working elsewhere. * Yes - and it's at least "ramen profitable" and more or less self-sustaining. * Yes, but not enough to live on just yet.

I would add: Yes, and our biggest problem is how to invest the profits.

Re: Poll: is your startup profitable?

#24
post #4

Other interesting options: * Yes - and we're making more than we would working elsewhere. * Yes - and it's at least "ramen profitable" and more or less self-sustaining. * Yes, but not enough to live on just yet.

Here's a vote for door #2: ramen profitable, bordering on door #1: more than would make elsewhere.

Re: Poll: is your startup profitable?

#25

Yep! (I feel proud and lucky to say that) Bootstrapped on $60 in Adwords by my business partner when he was selling a finance spreadsheet in college. :) http://www.youneedabudget.com

Happy YNAB user here. I was impressed by the number and quality of the support and classes you offer. The philosophy behind YNAB aligns really well with my own. Also happy to see that one time purchase software can be profitable in the Age of SaaS.

Re: Poll: is your startup profitable?

#28
I was lead tech (and first hire) at a hardware startup which launched two unsuccessful products then ran out of money (despite some seed funding). After that I left.

Revenue and margins yes, but far from break-even.

Re: Poll: is your startup profitable?

#30
Profit is funny for the startup scene. When first starting out building my company, my co-founder and I were often focused heavily on "profit" when talking to VC's and pitching.

At a demo day we had a meeting with a partner from a big fund and pitched him. He turned us down and told us why but was kind enough to have a follow-on meeting with us to talk further about our pitching strategy and general business strategy.

One of the key points I got out of speaking with him was this: VC's (institutional, not necessarily angels) generally want to see high-growth and not high-profit. If you've got revenue coming in and you're "profitable" on it, then you need to be growing more (spending it). To the point that most VC's believe you should grow so fast that you never reach profitability until you exit OR decide to "level out" the business.

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