4 ms·

I bought a side project back in 2014 (3-4 month old then with about $2000 MRR) and grew it to a bootstrapped SAAS company of 20 employees as of today with reven

I bought a side project back in 2014 (3-4 month old then with about $2000 MRR) and grew it to a bootstrapped SAAS company of 20 employees as of today with revenue in 100K MRR range. Happy to answer any questions.

jodiak 5y ago
How validated was the side project when you bought it? Were there already paying customers? What kind of due diligence did you do in order to find out if the project was worth buying?
- codegeek 5y ago
  Yes it was validated and had like 7-8 paying customers. The guy who sold the project was an excellent content marketer which really helped early on as I had no clue how to market :).
  - dqv 5y ago
    How did he do the marketing? Was it blog posts or YouTube videos or something else?
ezekg 5y ago
What was the MRR when you acquired it, and how much effort did it take on your end to shape it into a workable product? Was code quality good enough?
- codegeek 5y ago
  MRR when acquired was give or take $2000 but it was only 3-4 months old so there was huge risk. Code quality was garbage and mostly built with WP plugins duck taped together. I along with my CTO rewrote the whole thing after 12 months.
  - louiswilbrink 5y ago
    Was a rewrite the best way to increase customers? Or was there more energy and resources dedicated to marketing and sales?
    - codegeek 5y ago
      Marketing and Sales is always better. But rewrite was needed because we pivoted a bit and changed our target market and after lot of validations and testing.
awb 5y ago
How long did it take to recover your investment? And if you had to do it over again would you buy the business again or did it change dramatically enough that you'd try to create it from scratch next time?
- codegeek 5y ago
  I recovered the investment within 12 months. I would not create from scratch if I could find similar deals. I love the idea of buying businesses :)
dred_prte_rbrts 5y ago
How did you find it? I'd love to buy a few of these a year but the information I can find seems to be for either brick-and-mortar or angel/vc investments.
- awb 5y ago
  Not OC but flippa.com and bizbuysell.com are the marketplaces I’ve heard of
rootusrootus 5y ago
> 20 employees as of today with revenue in 100K MRR That's an interesting pair of statistics. Part time employees? Outside the US? A business that is heavy on inexpensive support personnel and light on engineering?
savorypiano 5y ago
Why did the original creator sell? Was the growth not possible for him?
- codegeek 5y ago
  he was more of a flipper :). He didn't want to run any operations. Just build, market and sell. After selling to me, he built and sold other projects as well. The guy is a marketing genius!!
  - fratlas 5y ago
    Would you be comfortable doing an intro? Looking for this exact skillset for an ambitious project
bobthe3 5y ago
could you provide a link. very intrigued.

jodiak 5y ago

How validated was the side project when you bought it? Were there already paying customers? What kind of due diligence did you do in order to find out if the project was worth buying?

codegeek 5y ago
Yes it was validated and had like 7-8 paying customers. The guy who sold the project was an excellent content marketer which really helped early on as I had no clue how to market :).
- dqv 5y ago
  How did he do the marketing? Was it blog posts or YouTube videos or something else?

ezekg 5y ago

What was the MRR when you acquired it, and how much effort did it take on your end to shape it into a workable product? Was code quality good enough?

codegeek 5y ago
MRR when acquired was give or take $2000 but it was only 3-4 months old so there was huge risk. Code quality was garbage and mostly built with WP plugins duck taped together. I along with my CTO rewrote the whole thing after 12 months.
- louiswilbrink 5y ago
  Was a rewrite the best way to increase customers? Or was there more energy and resources dedicated to marketing and sales?
  - codegeek 5y ago
    Marketing and Sales is always better. But rewrite was needed because we pivoted a bit and changed our target market and after lot of validations and testing.

awb 5y ago

How long did it take to recover your investment? And if you had to do it over again would you buy the business again or did it change dramatically enough that you'd try to create it from scratch next time?

codegeek 5y ago
I recovered the investment within 12 months. I would not create from scratch if I could find similar deals. I love the idea of buying businesses :)

dred_prte_rbrts 5y ago

How did you find it? I'd love to buy a few of these a year but the information I can find seems to be for either brick-and-mortar or angel/vc investments.

awb 5y ago
Not OC but flippa.com and bizbuysell.com are the marketplaces I’ve heard of

rootusrootus 5y ago

> 20 employees as of today with revenue in 100K MRR That's an interesting pair of statistics. Part time employees? Outside the US? A business that is heavy on inexpensive support personnel and light on engineering?

savorypiano 5y ago

Why did the original creator sell? Was the growth not possible for him?

codegeek 5y ago
he was more of a flipper :). He didn't want to run any operations. Just build, market and sell. After selling to me, he built and sold other projects as well. The guy is a marketing genius!!
- fratlas 5y ago
  Would you be comfortable doing an intro? Looking for this exact skillset for an ambitious project

bobthe3 5y ago

could you provide a link. very intrigued.