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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

#91

Post by [deleted] »

a13n wrote: post #83
blueline wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

the linked blog post for that gave me some serious raised eyebrows > Within the first week, we had over 100 applicants for our content manager position. We easily passed on 90% of applications that: >Opened with something like: “Dear Hiring Manager” or “Dear Sir/Madam” am i taking crazy pills? why would you pass on someone just for that?

It’s not just the generic intro, but also the copy paste template email that follows. If you don’t have time to spend even 30 seconds researching the company before applying, we just aren’t the right fit for you. The first hires at an early stage startup are so important.

[deleted]

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

#92

Post by a13n »

itsmefaz wrote: post #82
a13n wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Early-stage definitely was filled with messiness and doubts. We had no idea we were going to get to $1m ARR. When we started we had no idea how to price a SaaS product or make a landing page. There's that quote, "hindsight is 20/20", meaning it's easier to understand what went well/poorly when looking back. It's easy for us to reflect on what went well, and share just that. Doesn't mean it was easy/obvious in the mom…

Got it! I'm currently at the stage of my life where I want to venture out on my own. Few questions that I have are - a) How relevant was your experience (as engineers) in building and growing startups? b) Looking back, what skills would you have liked to acquire before starting up? c) How much of startups is marketing and networking compared to product and growth? Thanks,

> a) How relevant was your experience (as engineers) in building and growing startups?

Super relevant to building the product. I feel like to be successful, you have to be really, really good at a couple things. For us that was engineering + design. For another team it might be that they're good enough at sales that they can close big deals right off the bat.

Being great at engineering + design meant we could build the best product in our market, with a robust codebase that's free of errors (unit tests, CI/CD) and easy to scale.

> b) Looking back, what skills would you have liked to acquire before starting up?

Hmm. It might have been good to work at an early-stage SaaS startup before starting one. This would have given us a lot of context into pricing, sales, marketing, recruiting, etc. Problems that we kind of just had to figure out from scratch.

> c) How much of startups is marketing and networking compared to product and growth?

Most of our success can be attributed to a) building a great product, and b) getting it in front of people. B is all marketing. Ads, SEO, content, etc.

Now, some startups rely entirely on product + sales, and some startups are able to attract all of their customers with just product (esp consumer). It really depends on your product/market/company, and how your customers want to buy.

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

#93

Post by aaresto »

a13n wrote: post #84
andrewmcwatters wrote: post #77

Why would you write an article about your first fire? How immature can you be? "We really wanted someone who would live and breathe Canny." Delusional owners.

The topics that other companies aren’t willing to write about make for the best and most helpful articles. We were careful to anonymize the individual.

Don't pay attention to the negativity of users like this. Canny is great, not only because of the product, but also because you share your leanings with other people. Be proud. You have done something a lot of people want. Ignore those who only are able to see things from their perspective.

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

#94

Post by aaresto »

cryptica wrote: post #59

It never made sense to me why these kinds of 'marketing', 'feedback gathering', 'a/b testing', 'email campaign management' and 'project management' tools seem to always make so much money when clearly they add no value at all to the businesses who use them or their customers. They just keep employees busy and create more jobs. I blame the Federal Reserve Bank's money printing. One of the Fed's 2 mandates is 'job crea…

>when clearly they add no value at all to the businesses who use them or their customers.

They do add value. Product management is about two things: product discovery and product delivery. Canny increases your chances of doing the 1st one right. That is the most difficult thing to do: finding the right product to build. Canny allows you to get direct feedback and learnings from your users in a very simple way and most importantly, in a cost effective one. If you look at their pricing page, you might get scared, but believe me: building the wrong product is even more expensive.

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

#95

Post by AlchemistCamp »

a13n wrote: post #33
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.

We're back up now!

Which part of your infrastructure buckled? Any lessons learned?

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

#96

Post by RangerScience »

biztos wrote: post #67
RangerScience wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Not advice exactly, but I have a few friends who've had lucky breaks like that, and I'm pretty sure it came down to: be interesting, confident, and friendly. Plus the things you mentioned. When they randomly met people who could open doors for them, they just seemed like interesting people to open doors for, and who wouldn't waste the opportunity nor abuse it. Anyway that's my take, but I'm still struggling with #1 a…

Good advice! To continue the unmentioned chemistry metaphor: Ensure that you have reaction sites, as well.

For #1... AFAIK it's the art of holding an abstract wish. Imagine it'll be granted by a lazy genie; neither malevolent nor benevolent; just as easily / simply / directly as possible.

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

#97

Post by USNetizen »

tiffanyh wrote: post #39
USNetizen wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Having done the same thing myself (bootstrapped a services company from $0 to over $8M/year in revenue in 5 years and grown a SaaS product from $0 to ~$800k ARR in 16 months completely bootstrapped), you can go into debt for a short time while bootstrapping, but generally not 3.5+ years unless you are independently wealthy or have a retirement nest egg you've been saving for a few decades you're prepared to liquidate…

Re: $8m/year in 5 years time. That’s an amazing accomplishment. Would you mind sharing, - how many employees you have - biggest driver to your revenue success - biggest mistake the company made - anything else you might find of interest to share

42 employees, or thereabouts. Biggest driver of revenue was focusing on an industry that buys everything in bulk - services, software, you name it. The federal government. It took two years of laying groundwork to get our first few contracts then took off from there. Biggest mistake we made was twofold - one, hiring too early in the beginning (we used a small amount of debt initially paying salaries for "overhead" people, like marketing, sales, consultants, etc., that simply didn't work out or were far too inexperienced) and, two, giving a substantial amount of equity to someone who was intended to be a cofounder type but was a paid employee, didn't put any money into the business (but took plenty out), and didn't have the mindset of an entrepreneur. Key lesson: choose your partner(s) and employees wisely.

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

#98

Post by tsujp »

RangerScience wrote: post #30
a13n wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

This. I like to think of luck as a function of:

- exposure (your own putting yourself out there); - ability to recognise the opportunity (should it arise); and - ability to convey your worth/utility/function to others so that they might reciprocate (e.g. communication skills et al)

I'm kind of parroting what you have said but I resonate with it. In some sense what we call "luck" is in-fact earned at least in part.

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

#100

Post by knotknotone »

I am not sure I understand product. What is it that Trello or JIRA cannot track that you are offering?

I looked at the product and it appears like you can track which feedback (whether product or employee) is bubbling up based on popular vote.

How do you offer to track users? Do you expect me to make my board public for collecting feedback or something else?

BTW, you had a great milestone. As someone in infancy of building my product, $1MM ARR souunds really good.

Now, to add to what other users are saying, it appears like you both (Hum and Rasmussen) worked at FB before. I would imagine you made a bank (aka $500k at least) between you before jumping the ship.

A few questions - 1. How did you find first few customers? 2. How did you convince them to buy over existing products with fair degree of overlap such as Trello, JIRA, ProductPlan, RoadMunk etc. 3. Who do you consider your competitors?

TIA for answering!

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