Long story short - they tried different things, got small MRR, took money from an investor and grew up to $1m ARR in the next 2 years.
Yup!
How we bootstrapped our SaaS to $1M ARR
131–140 of 159 posts
Re: How we bootstrapped our SaaS to $1M ARR
#132Earlier quoted context omitted.
Co-founder here, thanks for the kind words. I totally agree, the $1 dollar you make online is really special. I know that, as a computer engineer, it really made us shift our whole mindset about what we do. We thought all we were able to do was to write code for someone else, we discovered that we could also sell a product and make a living out of it.
Very cool. What's your backend stack written in if you're able to share?
Very classic:
Python (Flask) + Redis + Postgres + a bit of JS for the front.
Re: How we bootstrapped our SaaS to $1M ARR
#133Earlier quoted context omitted.
As another bootstrapped founder, I disagree with you. "Our standard terms are for 10-12% equity." The moment you give equity in exchange for money no matter whether its tinyseed or whatever, you are not bootstrapping. Your financial risk is lower because you don't have to pay this money back if your company fails. That is not called bootstrapping. I bootstrapped with my own money AND some smaller loans which I am ful…
My 2c as a bootstrapping founder (who has not taken outside money): I don't think there is any virtue in funding your business with your own money. Call yourself bootstrapped or funded, what ultimately matters is that the business survives and thrives.
Right, but it's still not a bootstrapped business.
Re: How we bootstrapped our SaaS to $1M ARR
#134Congratulations! But maybe "bootstrapped" is not a 100% correct. > MAY 2020 - Joining Tinyseed > And this is precisely why we never decided to raise money. However, a few years ago, [...] An accelerator designed precisely to help people grow their business [...] The money and the support we got from the program helped us grow ScrapingBee into what it is now
This blew way out of proportion. Misleading people was never the intent. We just wanted to share our story and give a little more "human" touch to our about-us page by sharing the journey. Title was amended. Have a good week-end HN!
For what it's worth, I think people are nit picking rather than crying foul. It's a great story, thanks for sharing it!
Re: How we bootstrapped our SaaS to $1M ARR
#135Congratulations! But maybe "bootstrapped" is not a 100% correct. > MAY 2020 - Joining Tinyseed > And this is precisely why we never decided to raise money. However, a few years ago, [...] An accelerator designed precisely to help people grow their business [...] The money and the support we got from the program helped us grow ScrapingBee into what it is now
Co-founder here, I was waiting for this comment to be honest. So in essence, if you consider that bootstrapping is building a business without external funding, you're correct. But to me, bootstrapping VS "VC road" is much more nuanced than this. Going the VC road forces you to have crazy growth and raise more round because the VC model only works if they fund unicorn 1 time out of 100(0). TinySeed works even if they…
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HNer here, I was waiting for this comment to be honest.
So in essence, if you consider that being a billionaire is having a billion dollars, you're correct.
But to me, being a billionaire VS "a regular dude" is much more nuanced than this.
Being a billionaire is a state of mind.....yadda yadda
Re: How we bootstrapped our SaaS to $1M ARR
#136Huge congrats on your success!
I'm really curious to know what happened between $10k MRR and $1mn ARR. That growth happened in a span of 1 year which is just amazing.
Any pointers for others who are at a similar phase of their business looking to grow from 10k->83k MRR in a short span?
Re: How we bootstrapped our SaaS to $1M ARR
#137Earlier quoted context omitted.
Important for others: Some loans do not extend this way and thus company bankruptcy (US) can protect you, so just opportunity cost. But the terms are generally bad, and why firms like tinyseed exist, esp. once revenue starts growing (though at that point you can potentially get a SAFE at better terms...). Money is so sensitive! A Google millionaire bootstrapping on surveillance savings or a doctor taking favorable lo…
I hear you but most small business loans try to push you for personal guarantee. You can fight it but it usually is tough unless you have real physical collateral in the business which is not the case for software companies. I have talked to Bankers who told me that unless the business is brick and mortar with inventory and machinery or real estate, they cannot give loans without personal guarantee even SBA backed lo…
The crew here already bootstrapped to (small) revenue, which means revenue-based loans are possible (https://www.investopedia.com/terms/r/revenuebased-financing....). I haven't been following this space recently, but it seems like there's now a big zoo of traditional lenders + upcoming tiny-vc's. IMO if you've reached something like 10K MRR but not enough of a userbase for crowdfunding, there's a world of options, the angel story may be the most friendly + not yet forcing you on the VC treadmill.
For pre-revenue... that's tougher. For a tech startup, consulting/services, SBIR, (lax) corporate day jobs, etc. all give ways to split between the startup and work without risking your nest egg. For b2b, I now like the model of well-paying design partners that you hustle to land before you take the full leap. But some people are rich, or comfortable with the risk/reward, or all sorts of other things, and go with personal guarantees. Pretty sure that's what I did with our first business credit card. In all cases, bravo to anyone who pushes to sustainable growth, it can be a life changer deal for both the company and the individuals, whatever financial path they pushed through.
Re: How we bootstrapped our SaaS to $1M ARR
#138So if your highest pricing tier on the website is $249 that means you've got circa 4,000 clients right? Or do you have one big client that owns you a little bit because they contribute such a large percentage of your revenue?
Not saying I don't believe the numbers, would just love to understand the makeup of your client base.
Re: How we bootstrapped our SaaS to $1M ARR
#139This is almost cool, unfortunately the product itself (a network of bots to allow websites to be scraped when they obviously don't want to be) seems a little shifty. For example, put these three exhibits together: Exhibit 1: The ScrapingBee terms and conditions state "We assume that you use the Website Platform and Services legally and ethically and that you have obtained permission, if necessary, to use it on the ta…
It's good that there are businesses like this testing the legality of scraping. The notion that scraping should be illegal is absurd IMO.
They don't respect robots.txt or have a way for websites to opt out. These might not be illegal but mighty rude.
Re: How we bootstrapped our SaaS to $1M ARR
#140Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's good that there are businesses like this testing the legality of scraping. The notion that scraping should be illegal is absurd IMO.
They don't respect robots.txt or have a way for websites to opt out. These might not be illegal but mighty rude.
If I'm making a $1m a year in revenue and the absolute worst you can call me is "rude" - I'm down.