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Tell HN: 19yo, bootstrapped SaaS, 250k ARR after 10 months

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Re: Tell HN: 19yo, bootstrapped SaaS, 250k ARR after 10 months

#61

Post by RicoElectrico »

nugget wrote: post #10

You're already in one of the best communities there is: Hacker News. Don't underestimate what you can learn just by carefully reading the threads here. I went from "idea in my dorm room" to interviewing and hiring executives in their 40s and 50s within 24 months. The best lesson I learned is that there are way fewer "rules" than you think, and smart, disciplined, focused entrepreneurs can accomplish way more than the…

> The best lesson I learned is that there are way fewer "rules" than you think, and smart, disciplined, focused entrepreneurs can accomplish way more than they assume.

Isn't it like this?

* A great idea can succeed despite mediocre execution

* A mediocre idea can succeed if the execution is great

* A bad idea can succeed (for a while) if you're a con artist (WeWork, Solar Roadways etc.)

Re: Tell HN: 19yo, bootstrapped SaaS, 250k ARR after 10 months

#62

Post by tmpz22 »

nugget wrote: post #26
tensor wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would caution that Hacker News is both fairly biased towards a developers view of the world, and also often unrealistic when it comes to things outside of technology. As the technical founder the best thing you can do to grow is actually to spend time learning about management and also the non-technical aspects of running a business. I wouldn't rely on Hacker News for these things. Instead look for local entreprene…

Maybe there's been a positive drift in that aspect of the community over the last couple years. Take this thread from last week about GlacierMD: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25825917 IMO the discussion was at least as insightful as I'd expect from a top level MBA classroom.

Counterpoint, the threads about parler were a dumpsterfire as HN users around the world tried to create 1:1 comparisons between US current events and BLM protests in the Summer in order to support Parler's complete contempt for both moderation and open debate.

Re: Tell HN: 19yo, bootstrapped SaaS, 250k ARR after 10 months

#63

Post by 1996 »

notyourday wrote: post #39

Here's a counter-advise ( take it as you will ) : Do not join any communities. You are a 19 year old who is at 250k ARR at 10 months. You are Bella Hadid. You don't have peers here, among IG influencers pretending to be important at 12K followers. It is lonely there, where you are. There's a reason for that. P.S. You will make it.

This is so true. Lots of pretenders, but no peers.

Re: Tell HN: 19yo, bootstrapped SaaS, 250k ARR after 10 months

#64

Post by devlopr »

log_n wrote: post #59
qazqazqaz wrote: post #9

Congrats, thats some impressive growth in a short time. If you want to know what not to do, I'm happy to chat, email in my profile. I've made almost every possible mistake in the last 20 years ;-) Despite all the mistakes my current company is a couple of stages past the 250k ARR and I'm on the right track. In the end most advice in this situation is not rocket science, like for example: - reserve time to work on you…

I'm probably not understanding something. How is $250k ARR enough to build a team with? I would think you would need to be a magnitude higher at least to support a team off of that, especially if you are bootstrapped and have no cash reserves.

At $250,000 with one tech and one sales founder in place with a stable product and no backlog of required features you could go several ways.

8 killer sales agents. Part salary say: 24k commission 25% of new contracts or

2 killer sales agents. 95k 2% commission or

1 marketing person 75k and two killer sales agents 75k plus 10% commission

50k+ could pay for everything else provided no rent is involved.

Re: Tell HN: 19yo, bootstrapped SaaS, 250k ARR after 10 months

#66

Post by ddoice »

MH15 wrote: post #54
sjaak wrote: post #49

For those requesting a link to the company of OP, it's this: https://schoolyear.nl/ I assume it's ok that I post this, it was easy to find (2 clicks from your profile snerual)! Good job, I think it's cool what you're doing! If I may ask: how do you prevent students from cheating on a test by using their phone for example? Or is your service for in-class tests where phones are forbidden?

Anti-cheating software is a fundamentally flawed approach. As remote education becomes more common educators should leave the concept of an "exam" behind and embrace project-based and open book curriculum.

Totally agree, and this kind of solutions only blocks the laptop but the students can use their smartphones to search for the answers.

Re: Tell HN: 19yo, bootstrapped SaaS, 250k ARR after 10 months

#67

Post by xupybd »

leesalminen wrote: post #2

First off, congratulations. This is quite the accomplishment for anyone of any age. I started a niche B2B SaaS company with a co-founder when I was 23 (www.gingrapp.com). We sold it off when I was 27 and I stuck around for 2 years after acquisition. By the time I left there were 30+ employees and 8-digit ARR. I’m currently 30, married with a toddler and semi-retired. The last 10 years of my life have been absolutely…

Retired at 30. Well done good sir.

Re: Tell HN: 19yo, bootstrapped SaaS, 250k ARR after 10 months

#69

Post by kyawzazaw »

nugget wrote: post #57
MH15 wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Anti-cheating software is a fundamentally flawed approach. As remote education becomes more common educators should leave the concept of an "exam" behind and embrace project-based and open book curriculum.

Art school is a series of project-based classes that culminate in a portfolio of original work that the student can showcase, and that system seems to make perfect sense to everybody. I don't know why other disciplines have been so resistant (forget textbook publishers, I mean the professors, deans, and other administrators themselves.) It's not clear to me there are any reasons to be against it, so perhaps it's simp…

We can try to do that for computer science but it wouldn't work superwell because I feel like some fundamentals are core and needed a systematic way of testing
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