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Ask HN: Bootstrapped business is good but slow growth. Should I raise money?

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Re: Ask HN: Bootstrapped business is good but slow growth. Should I raise money?

#21

Post by general_failure »

tbrooks wrote: post #12
newpreneur wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

wow. That is a coincidence. But every word is true :) How long you been doing this ? And yes, would love to share notes. How to contact you ?

2.5 years. Yeah I think I could be at $1mm ARR in 3-4 years if I was full-time. I'm just too risk averse to make the jump from my current gig. I've tried hiring a full-time salesperson to grow the business, but it's just really hard to find the right person. [edit] email me at my HNusername at google's mail service.

It's hard only if you are being very stingy about the money. Have you considered taking them in as a partner (which they are as employee < 3)

Re: Ask HN: Bootstrapped business is good but slow growth. Should I raise money?

#22

Post by tbrooks »

general_failure wrote: post #21
tbrooks wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

2.5 years. Yeah I think I could be at $1mm ARR in 3-4 years if I was full-time. I'm just too risk averse to make the jump from my current gig. I've tried hiring a full-time salesperson to grow the business, but it's just really hard to find the right person. [edit] email me at my HNusername at google's mail service.

It's hard only if you are being very stingy about the money. Have you considered taking them in as a partner (which they are as employee < 3)

Not stingy, just picky.

I have an offer at for $60k base with $100k on-target earnings. I wouldn't say that's stingy at all.

Re: Ask HN: Bootstrapped business is good but slow growth. Should I raise money?

#23

Post by schutzsmith »

You don't happen to be in the Hudson Valley do you? We've got the Hudson Valley Tech Meetup second week of December and there's several folks just like you at that. Several now have distributed workforces.

Happy to introduce you.

PS. I'm totally intrigued now to find out what your WP app is!

Re: Ask HN: Bootstrapped business is good but slow growth. Should I raise money?

#24

Post by general_failure »

tbrooks wrote: post #22
general_failure wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's hard only if you are being very stingy about the money. Have you considered taking them in as a partner (which they are as employee < 3)

Not stingy, just picky. I have an offer at for $60k base with $100k on-target earnings. I wouldn't say that's stingy at all.

Agreed :) stingy was not the right term for what I wanted to convey..

Re: Ask HN: Bootstrapped business is good but slow growth. Should I raise money?

#25

Post by partisan »

newpreneur wrote: post #6
partisan wrote: post #4

First, congratulations. And good on you for not putting the cart before the horse (quitting before having revenue). Could you hire an employee, part-time, using the revenue you are currently bringing in?

Thx. Very difficult to hire someone locally. I am in NYC area and with my profits before taxes being 5K (give or take), I doubt I can find someone even part time here in the US. I could go offshore but I dont' want to because of timezone and communication gap issues. I know this because my current freelancer even though good, is offshore and I am not able to drive things forward with him as smoothly as I want to. Btw…

I understand. I guess it depends on the level you are hiring at. If you need someone who has specific knowledge then they are probably too expensive, but if you can train someone, then you can probably hire someone with very limited experience and willing to grow with a company.

Good luck on your venture. Exciting times ahead for you and it's inspirational for the rest of us. Feel free to shoot me an email if you'd like to discuss the C#/MVC aspect.

Re: Ask HN: Bootstrapped business is good but slow growth. Should I raise money?

#26

Post by rxm »

In general it is not a choice, but a question of numbers. Software businesses tend to benefit from having many customers, which requires growth and capital. A consultancy that develops and uses software tools might go the bootstrap route. Do the numbers and then decide. What does it cost to add and maintain a customer? Would you get more customers with a better feature set? How smooth is the API, interface, and documentation?

I have a nice consultancy that developed many unique software products. Over the years I have not been able to maintain them. If I had taken outside money I could have taken those tools to market and probably grown beyond my current stagnation point.

Re: Ask HN: Bootstrapped business is good but slow growth. Should I raise money?

#27

Post by rajacombinator »

If you have to ask others, you're probably not ready to jump ship and go 100% on this business. I don't mean to discourage you because in your place I would probably do it, but it will be very stressful especially with your family situation. If you already have doubts going in it will be very hard on you.

Re: Ask HN: Bootstrapped business is good but slow growth. Should I raise money?

#28

Post by debacle »

I would recommend you contact patio11 or read up on some of his materials about passive marketing. Why not provide a free/demo tier of your software that is rate or context limited (or returns junk data). If they want to discuss over the phone, do it, for now, but work aggressively on a comprehensive FAQ.

That said, if you're clearing $5500 a month from your side project and working fulltime, why can't you save up for 6 months then quit your job? That should give you close to 6 months of runway for your project, which should be enough to allow you to extricate yourself from WordPress and hone your marketing strategy.

Finally, I mean if the angel is someone you trust who is offering fantastic terms and isn't looking for a huge chunk of your business, there's no reason not to go for it.

Re: Ask HN: Bootstrapped business is good but slow growth. Should I raise money?

#30

Post by infinii »

See if your company allows for a sabbatical. If they do, save the side revenue for a few months to prep for the sabbatical. Then devote yourself 100% to it to push it to the next step. Afterwards, you have a job waiting for you and you should have done enough work to see whether the future of your business is viable.

Employees and/or partners is also a good idea.

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