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How we built a $1M ARR SaaS startup

canny.io

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Re: How we built a $1M ARR SaaS startup

#21

Post by WrtCdEvrydy »

a13n wrote: post #15
WrtCdEvrydy wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Upgraded our AWS Lightsail instance. Use ElasticBeanStalk... nah, actually that's a terrible idea. Edit: Use Caprover inside of an AMI on an autoscaling group on EC2 (t2.smalls if you want)... or use ECS on Fargate.

Fair point, but honestly not a huge priority. Lightsail is a super convenient and cheap way to host our blog. The main problem is we were on a $10/mo server, which is plenty for our typical blog traffic. But definitely not enough for HN! Heh.

Yeah, it happens. Trust me, we've given up on static resources because of the fact that social media can blow something up very quickly.

Re: How we built a $1M ARR SaaS startup

#22

Post by a13n »

welder wrote: post #16

The key learning: Get your product used by the React.js team for hyper growth.

I sure hope that wasn't the key learning from our post! It's not a very repeatable/helpful learning :)

Luck can definitely play a big role in building a successful company. I think what a lot of people don't realize is how you can increase your exposure to luck.

For example, if you have a bigger/better network, you're more likely to get lucky from that. If you talk to more people about your company, you're more likely to stumble across key partners/investors/customers.

In our case, our luck with React.js can be attributed to my working at Facebook before starting Canny.

Re: How we built a $1M ARR SaaS startup

#23

Post by a13n »

seapunk wrote: post #13

Hi Andrew and Sarah! Congratulations for this milestone. I'm following your journey since your first blog post and it was a great motivation when we started building our startup as digital nomads too. I think many bootstrappers were inspired by Canny and your transparency along the years.

Thanks!! Best of luck with Threader :)

Re: How we built a $1M ARR SaaS startup

#24

Post by David »

welder wrote: post #16

The key learning: Get your product used by the React.js team for hyper growth.

Or: Focus on finding impactful early customers that increase your visibility (and then make them happy). Finding such a great customer may require luck, but that doesn't mean the odds are fixed.

Re: How we built a $1M ARR SaaS startup

#25

Post by auto »

a13n wrote: post #10
ghiculescu wrote: post #7

Congratulations to the Canny team. It's a great product, apparently we've been happy customers since they were 20x smaller :) I found the note about luck in the Zero to One section interesting. I don't know anyone who runs a bootstrapped SaaS that's made it past 1M, who doesn't feel like they got super lucky with their first customer. We did exactly the same thing - a random connection that just happened to work out.…

Thanks so much for being a customer! And yeah, it always feels bad to write that "we got lucky", as it isn't really that repeatable/helpful. But it's true.

I don't think it's something to feel bad about; on the contrary, with your level of transparency here and in the context of everything else you did that wasn't centered around luck, I think it's an honest aspect about this kind of growth.

Congrats on the milestone!

Re: How we built a $1M ARR SaaS startup

#27

Post by jlokier »

ponker wrote: post #18
otoburb wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, they bootstrapped their way entirely to $1M ARR. Huge accomplishment. HN hug of death on the original link so it's hard to read that right now.

Uh, how do you “bootstrap” a team of 9 at $1m ARR? I thought bootstrapping means your revenues cover your costs.

> I thought bootstrapping means your revenues cover your costs.

No, I would say almost everyone who bootstraps either goes into debt or uses savings to fund the business, hoping to break even and make a profit eventually.

If you can get enough revenue from the first day to cover cost of living for even 1 person, that's a good start, but unusual. Bootstrappers who start with an existing client or product that's already selling can do that.

Also, depending on circumstances $1m ARR may be enough to cover costs for a team of 9. Many people earn much less than $100k even accounting for costs, and some SaaS don't need high operating costs (hint: cloud services are not the cheap way), or are still working their way through AWS/IBM/Google free credits.

Re: How we built a $1M ARR SaaS startup

#30

Post by RangerScience »

a13n wrote: post #10
ghiculescu wrote: post #7

Congratulations to the Canny team. It's a great product, apparently we've been happy customers since they were 20x smaller :) I found the note about luck in the Zero to One section interesting. I don't know anyone who runs a bootstrapped SaaS that's made it past 1M, who doesn't feel like they got super lucky with their first customer. We did exactly the same thing - a random connection that just happened to work out.…

Thanks so much for being a customer! And yeah, it always feels bad to write that "we got lucky", as it isn't really that repeatable/helpful. But it's true.

Fun story: The lead artist/dancer of https://www.skyfirearts.com/ had had that dream for years, and that "first lucky break" came when (8-9 years ago) he was getting coffee and the guy behind him in line was the guy for Tesla Coils in the US, who then helped Skyfire get up and running.

AFAICT, what's repeatable / helpful is a bit more nuance about "how to make luck": 1) Know what you want so you can recognize it when you encounter it 2) Give yourself lots of opportunities to encounter it 3) Have the self-direction and resources to jump on it when you encounter it

Of course, there's also just pure blind luck.

Edit: I know there's another step in here, but TBH I'd love advice for it: Making sure the other party recognizes you as something they've been looking for (aka, all the above but from their perspective). Advice?

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