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Selling My Bootstrapped SaaS Business

indiehackers.com

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Re: Selling My Bootstrapped SaaS Business

#91

Post by tylertringas »

fpig wrote: post #52
nathan_f77 wrote: post #10

> Purposefully under-optimize > For example, I really do not understand paid search advertising (Google Adwords, Facebook, etc) so I purposefully put almost no effort into it as a customer acquisition channel for Storemapper. This article is awesome and super helpful, but that particular point seems like terrible advice. Surely it would be much better to hire a marketing/adwords contractor, and increase the value of…

I agree his explanation of purposefully under-optimizing doesn't make sense, however let me try to rephrase it in a way I agree with: Paying someone to do something for you is as an investment. If you have no understanding of what you're investing in, it's not strange to be reluctant to make the investment. Additionally, if you're doing this type of marketing, but doing it suboptimally, you're not only wasting money,…

^ this is a fair re-phrasing that I'd agree with.

Re: Selling My Bootstrapped SaaS Business

#92

Post by DeBraid »

joosters wrote: post #2

...the cash, from selling the business has built momentum for other projects like [...] angel investing, I just knew that would be in there. Why do so many tech people seem to think that VC investment is what they want to be doing once they have spare cash? This isn't a personal critique of the OP, but it just seems so very common in general. I don't understand it.

People go with what they know.

Makes sense to skew towards industry where one has acquired lots of information.

Re: Selling My Bootstrapped SaaS Business

#93

Post by danieltillett »

amelius wrote: post #43
danieltillett wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I "invest" in new startups because I want to help the next generation. I put invest in quotation marks because I don't expect to make any money (I will be happy if I break even), but I do want to give back and create the environment that I never had access to. I know others feel the same.

> I "invest" in new startups because I want to help the next generation That sounds noble. But, concretely, you want to help people make SaaS products like Storemapper (mentioned in the article)? I don't want to sound demeaning, but is that really such a noble goal?

I am not trying to be noble, just trying to change things where I live for the better (I am not in SV, I am in Australia).

When I started there were zero angel investors and next to zero VCs. Things have got a lot better, but we still have a long way to go.

Re: Selling My Bootstrapped SaaS Business

#94

Post by jlev »

zippergz wrote: post #74
bryanph_ wrote: post #31

Shows how out of touch I am with the corporate world. I can't believe people pay monthly for this.

This is something that any business with multiple locations needs. Why reinvent the wheel if someone has already solved the problem? At $60/mo it's not even a blip on the budget, and almost surely far cheaper than having a developer build and maintain a one-off version.

If anything, $60/month seems too cheap.

Re: Selling My Bootstrapped SaaS Business

#95

Post by duggan »

joosters wrote: post #64
duggan wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Some folks have more spare money than spare time. If you've got the spare time, cool, if you've got the spare money, cool. What's the issue here?

I've no issue with angel investing. It does start to irk me when people talk about it as 'giving back to the community' though. That used to be called charity, not investment.

Ok I think that's a reasonable position to have.

However, giving back to a professional community seems like it would run on a different set of fundamentals to giving back to a social community.

Could one not equally apply the argument to non-monetary activities -- giving talks, running events, writing OSS software, etc? That's all stuff that normally falls under the mantle of giving back to the community, yet it often confers resume benefits.

What is it that makes it different?

Re: Selling My Bootstrapped SaaS Business

#96

Post by KGIII »

kdscruggs wrote: post #86
KGIII wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Some of my investment is to empower people that I like. Some is just to help them over a temporary financial hurdle. Some is more like a gift than an expectation of a financial reward and, honestly, a loss is the expected outcome. I'd also add something to the general topic. I never expected to sell my company and I think that actually helped. I drew a salary and kept my finances distinct from the legal entity that w…

Congrats on the sale! Very noble of you, big fan of your approach. Ultimately, my goal is to eventually do the very same (give good people their chance to flourish and create good business). Have you seen any correlation to the "no pressure"/generous aspect of your investments to the success or failure of said investment? My feeling is that the lack of stress attached to the investment may make it easier for the foun…

No, but I don't have any frame of reference other than this. I treat every investment as a potential total loss, at least in this area. So, I don't really pressure or tell people what to do. So far, it's barely profitable.

Re: Selling My Bootstrapped SaaS Business

#97

Post by erikbye »

cat199 wrote: post #36
erikbye wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When you're busy with your new, own projects, time is in short supply. Are you seriously going to complain that people angel invest? It's of great benefit to founders.

"This isn't a personal critique of the OP, but it just seems so very common in general. I don't understand it."

You conveniently elided the preceding part and where he suggested devoting time instead of money. No matter your selective citation his tone was still that of a critique or complaint.

Re: Selling My Bootstrapped SaaS Business

#99

Post by moeamaya »

tylertringas wrote: post #87
sparrish wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Seems a bit ironic that a successful bootstrapped business owner would want to do angel investing.

Appreciating the good discussion here around "angel investing" which I broadly agree with depending on how you define it. Just want to clarify that for me personally, I meant just investing in early-stage businesses in creative ways; not VC, moonshot, whatevers. In the run up to launching many failed businesses prior to Storemapper I accumulated nearly $60k in credit card debt, which functioned more or less like an a…

Both ourselves and our fellow bootstrap friends have eerily similar tales of CC debt as our first investors. $30k for a nearly profitable bootstrap founder is rocket fuel.

Re: Selling My Bootstrapped SaaS Business

#100

Post by FLUX-YOU »

zippergz wrote: post #74
bryanph_ wrote: post #31

Shows how out of touch I am with the corporate world. I can't believe people pay monthly for this.

This is something that any business with multiple locations needs. Why reinvent the wheel if someone has already solved the problem? At $60/mo it's not even a blip on the budget, and almost surely far cheaper than having a developer build and maintain a one-off version.

I think many of the questions stem from "Why not just use Google Maps and its API directly"? You can embed it, place your own pins, and style it with your own CSS. The only features on the landing page apart from that are some kind of analytics and data import.

However, the analytics piece alone could be worth $60/mo if it provides something that Google maps doesn't, especially with regards to finding out when/where searches happen for your stores (conceivably getting the user's coordinates, and you already know the context for their search because they're on your site's store map). A large amount of searches in a particular location might mean it's a good store expansion location.

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