5 ms·

How we hit our $30k ARR milestone

261 points by AdriaanvRossum 7y ago

AdriaanvRossum 7y ago
I think it would be interesting for Hacker News to know what happened with the company that they made famous from the start: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18024277 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18024277
- AdriaanvRossum 7y ago
  Very meta information: https://simpleanalytics.com/blog.simpleanalytics.com?start=2019-10-15&end=2019-10-15 https://simpleanalytics.com/blog.simpleanalytics.com?start=2...
larrysalibra 7y ago
Congrats on the huge milestone! I really like how you respect the Do Not Track flag. I wish companies had done this before browser makers started removing the feature. https://www.macrumors.com/2019/02/06/apple-removes-safari-do-not-track-option/ https://www.macrumors.com/2019/02/06/apple-removes-safari-do...
barbellguy97 7y ago
I still remember reading about your company on HN, Adriaan. Gefeliciteerd!!
fs2 7y ago
Don't use it myself but this is great news. I'm happy to see Adriaan is so open about everything that goes on (also the bad things). Something that I always find difficult for projects like this.
lukeqsee 7y ago
We (my startup in my profile) switched over to Simple Analytics when we redid our website. While they don't have all the features we might want, the experience and privacy guarantees are fantastic. Major congratulations to the team!
- codysc 7y ago
  This is a timely submission for me. I'm ramping up for a launch and was looking for the same privacy respecting analytics solution. Good to see feedback.
Yuval_Halevi 7y ago
Adriaan Did you ever compare traffic results between GA and Simpleanalytics? I know that many times GA has a difficult time recognizing traffic from Reddit and HN so it shows it only as direct. I have Jetpack on a few of my sites and it shows completely different results than GA, mainly because I think GA can filter by default bots traffic which is kinda common on bookmark sites (when a post becomes viral) Will try your tool... looks great
- soared 7y ago
  Researching 'dark social' can help you solve some of that
encoderer 7y ago
Congrats on the milestone. As I’ve grown a SaaS over the last 5 years I’ve found there are enough MRR and ARR milestones that we can celebrate something real every few months. It’s a great feedback loop. (Eg 10k arr, 1k mrr, 25k arr, 3k mrr, 50k arr, etc) Advice given to me, taken in my own way, and now I’m passing on: to get from 1k mrr to 10k mrr double down on everything that has worked for you. Once you hit 1k (or in your case about 3k) you obviously have at least one thing that is working. After 10k we were forced to get more creative. (Feeder products, paid advertising, etc) This is the era of the Micro SaaS.
- cambalache 7y ago
  That is a fantastic advice, even better if backed by some data.This is actionable, practical advice. Most of the material for instructing internet entrepreneurs get stuck in that circle of cliches, generalizations and wishful thinking. I would love to read a book with down to earth practical advice like the one you gave.
- mrskitch 7y ago
  I agree heavily with this, minus the paid advertising bit. I think it depends on your audience. I've grown browserless.io from 8k MRR last year, to ~20k MRR this year wo doing paid ads. Doubling down on what makes your product what it is is fantastic advice. Making adoption and trialing it easy is also what I'd recommend as churn can become a problem during this timeframe. Micro SaaS FTW!
- yoshyosh 7y ago
  Assuming you're talking about cronitor, curious what feeder products you guys created, and how did that work out?
  - encoderer 7y ago
    We acquired and grew crontab.guru It’s worked out very well.
    - patio11 7y ago
jacquesm 7y ago
Ga zo door. Op naar de ton :)
mxuribe 7y ago
This was a great write-up; thanks for sharing!!!
gnicholas 7y ago
Curious about the focus on revenue versus profitability. I get that most VC-backed businesses are measured primarily against revenue targets, but this seems like a bootstrapped startup and I'd think they'd be more interested in metrics that factor in margins, profitability, etc. I totally get that when people see "$30K ARR" in the title of an article, they know what it's about. Are there other metrics that relate more to sustainability that we can use/popularize? Not trying to be critical of this founder — just thinking of ways we can change the conversation to be more relevant to/appropriate for bootstrapped startups.
- ssutch3 7y ago
  It appears to be a side project at this point. They have revenue against expenses on their "open" page here: https://simpleanalytics.com/open https://simpleanalytics.com/open but as you can see salary is ~$500/mo

I think it would be interesting for Hacker News to know what happened with the company that they made famous from the start: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18024277 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18024277

AdriaanvRossum 7y ago
Very meta information: https://simpleanalytics.com/blog.simpleanalytics.com?start=2019-10-15&end=2019-10-15 https://simpleanalytics.com/blog.simpleanalytics.com?start=2...

larrysalibra 7y ago

Congrats on the huge milestone! I really like how you respect the Do Not Track flag. I wish companies had done this before browser makers started removing the feature. https://www.macrumors.com/2019/02/06/apple-removes-safari-do-not-track-option/ https://www.macrumors.com/2019/02/06/apple-removes-safari-do...

barbellguy97 7y ago

I still remember reading about your company on HN, Adriaan. Gefeliciteerd!!

fs2 7y ago

Don't use it myself but this is great news. I'm happy to see Adriaan is so open about everything that goes on (also the bad things). Something that I always find difficult for projects like this.

lukeqsee 7y ago

We (my startup in my profile) switched over to Simple Analytics when we redid our website. While they don't have all the features we might want, the experience and privacy guarantees are fantastic. Major congratulations to the team!

codysc 7y ago
This is a timely submission for me. I'm ramping up for a launch and was looking for the same privacy respecting analytics solution. Good to see feedback.

Yuval_Halevi 7y ago

Adriaan Did you ever compare traffic results between GA and Simpleanalytics? I know that many times GA has a difficult time recognizing traffic from Reddit and HN so it shows it only as direct. I have Jetpack on a few of my sites and it shows completely different results than GA, mainly because I think GA can filter by default bots traffic which is kinda common on bookmark sites (when a post becomes viral) Will try your tool... looks great

soared 7y ago
Researching 'dark social' can help you solve some of that

encoderer 7y ago

Congrats on the milestone. As I’ve grown a SaaS over the last 5 years I’ve found there are enough MRR and ARR milestones that we can celebrate something real every few months. It’s a great feedback loop. (Eg 10k arr, 1k mrr, 25k arr, 3k mrr, 50k arr, etc) Advice given to me, taken in my own way, and now I’m passing on: to get from 1k mrr to 10k mrr double down on everything that has worked for you. Once you hit 1k (or in your case about 3k) you obviously have at least one thing that is working. After 10k we were forced to get more creative. (Feeder products, paid advertising, etc) This is the era of the Micro SaaS.

cambalache 7y ago
That is a fantastic advice, even better if backed by some data.This is actionable, practical advice. Most of the material for instructing internet entrepreneurs get stuck in that circle of cliches, generalizations and wishful thinking. I would love to read a book with down to earth practical advice like the one you gave.
mrskitch 7y ago
I agree heavily with this, minus the paid advertising bit. I think it depends on your audience. I've grown browserless.io from 8k MRR last year, to ~20k MRR this year wo doing paid ads. Doubling down on what makes your product what it is is fantastic advice. Making adoption and trialing it easy is also what I'd recommend as churn can become a problem during this timeframe. Micro SaaS FTW!
yoshyosh 7y ago
Assuming you're talking about cronitor, curious what feeder products you guys created, and how did that work out?
- encoderer 7y ago
  We acquired and grew crontab.guru It’s worked out very well.
  - patio11 7y ago

jacquesm 7y ago

Ga zo door. Op naar de ton :)

mxuribe 7y ago

This was a great write-up; thanks for sharing!!!

gnicholas 7y ago

Curious about the focus on revenue versus profitability. I get that most VC-backed businesses are measured primarily against revenue targets, but this seems like a bootstrapped startup and I'd think they'd be more interested in metrics that factor in margins, profitability, etc. I totally get that when people see "$30K ARR" in the title of an article, they know what it's about. Are there other metrics that relate more to sustainability that we can use/popularize? Not trying to be critical of this founder — just thinking of ways we can change the conversation to be more relevant to/appropriate for bootstrapped startups.

ssutch3 7y ago
It appears to be a side project at this point. They have revenue against expenses on their "open" page here: https://simpleanalytics.com/open https://simpleanalytics.com/open but as you can see salary is ~$500/mo