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To all the people saying it’s impossible — I’ve been bootstrapping an analytics company in ecomm space. From launch to 500k ARR took 9 months with almost entire

To all the people saying it’s impossible — I’ve been bootstrapping an analytics company in ecomm space. From launch to 500k ARR took 9 months with almost entirely inbound. (Aka 0 marketing cost) I didn’t have an audience prior or spent any time at all on sites like Reddit. It’s not easy to do by any means, but here’s what I believe are the requirements: - a true generalist: technical, product, sales, design. - deep experience in the industry you are gonna serve. Hanging out on Reddit does NOT get you this. You have to have worked in the industry prior on high level roles. It’s what’ll give you credibility to potential buyers. - design a product and business model that’s niche and painful enough for a large AND expanding TAM. - there’s has to be sufficient dissatisfaction with incumbents. Customers are craving for better solutions and motivated to find one. - you can effectively source and work with contractors to fill the gaps in your skills and time. - the product must have near zero churn. Otherwise the leaky bucket is too much to fill without an actual sales force. This is possible, my business is exactly this. - you know how to be capital efficient and can product low cash outflow consistently. - you are not personally in need of an actual income for at least 3 years. Preferably more. I believe the above are a must for a single bootstrapped founder to create a high growth startup. The optionality it affords you is tremendous and you will stand above the rest. If you are interested in joining me (we are hiring) - lemme know! fei(at)sourcemedium(dotcom)

lifeisstillgood 5y ago
The last point - 3 years of income - is a huge stumbling block for so many (myself included) but it is a trivial hurdle for many VCs. Is there a VC model that says "seed capital for many, and low continuous returns from 30% of investments" It won't return billions but the maths seems sane (I did suggest that there is room globally for a "million startups fund")
- 4thethrillofit 5y ago
  This is why it does make sense to take preseed and seed capital. It gives you the cushion necessary to make the right decisions for the business. Bootstrap to VC is a continuous spectrum as opposed to the black and white decision most would have you believe. There are so many more financing options available to viable businesses than before - startup studios, revenue based financing and many more (eg angel.clearbanc.com)
  - lifeisstillgood 5y ago
    This may sound a dumb question on HN but is there a primer on all this?
    - 4thethrillofit 5y ago
      It's a lot of exploration and learning as you get deeper into it. Many resources out there that are scattered about. It should be easier!
- jmarks1992 5y ago
  Take a look at https://calmfund.com/ https://calmfund.com/ — it’s basically the model you mention.
  - 4thethrillofit 5y ago
    Yea! Tyler is great, highly recommend it. More truly founder friendly funds are sorely needed.
rexreed 5y ago
On your site, is there a reason why you hide the pricing and make it so that you have to get a demo to get it? Do you price every customer differently? Is there a reason for no price or cost transparency? That suggests that you're either still trying to figure out pricing, want to be able to charge arbitrary amounts, pricing is too complicated to share, or wanting to hide prices for some reason. [1] https://www.sourcemedium.com/faq#pricing-plans https://www.sourcemedium.com/faq#pricing-plans
- davidjytang 5y ago
  > our team will work closely with you to integrate your data sources and setup your dashboard Seems to have some customization involved. My industry is largely B2B where we never advertise prices for many reasons. Once we reveal our prices, all our clients would stop working with us.
  - rexreed 5y ago
    I imagine they must know how much it costs to work with you, so why would revealing the prices cause them to stop working with you?
    - davidjytang 5y ago
      Revealing our prices to the public equals to revealing customers' costs to their competitors and their customers. An industrial habit I guess. It seems to be very important for project bidding processes.
- 4thethrillofit 5y ago
  It’s because we don’t have a self serviced onboarding which would take a lot longer and resource to build. It’s also not to give sticker shock before they have a chance to learn what it does and whether it’s a good fit. If most of your leads are word of mouth or inbound, having too much stuff on site isn’t necessary. It’s also just matter of not having time resource to spend on the website. Having pricing is more important for cheap monthly products that are alot more self services.
phlipski 5y ago
"you are not personally in need of an actual income for at least 3 years. Preferably more." Hence the saying, "The first 20 million is always the hardest!"

lifeisstillgood 5y ago

The last point - 3 years of income - is a huge stumbling block for so many (myself included) but it is a trivial hurdle for many VCs. Is there a VC model that says "seed capital for many, and low continuous returns from 30% of investments" It won't return billions but the maths seems sane (I did suggest that there is room globally for a "million startups fund")

4thethrillofit 5y ago
This is why it does make sense to take preseed and seed capital. It gives you the cushion necessary to make the right decisions for the business. Bootstrap to VC is a continuous spectrum as opposed to the black and white decision most would have you believe. There are so many more financing options available to viable businesses than before - startup studios, revenue based financing and many more (eg angel.clearbanc.com)
- lifeisstillgood 5y ago
  This may sound a dumb question on HN but is there a primer on all this?
  - 4thethrillofit 5y ago
    It's a lot of exploration and learning as you get deeper into it. Many resources out there that are scattered about. It should be easier!
jmarks1992 5y ago
Take a look at https://calmfund.com/ https://calmfund.com/ — it’s basically the model you mention.
- 4thethrillofit 5y ago
  Yea! Tyler is great, highly recommend it. More truly founder friendly funds are sorely needed.

rexreed 5y ago

On your site, is there a reason why you hide the pricing and make it so that you have to get a demo to get it? Do you price every customer differently? Is there a reason for no price or cost transparency? That suggests that you're either still trying to figure out pricing, want to be able to charge arbitrary amounts, pricing is too complicated to share, or wanting to hide prices for some reason. [1] https://www.sourcemedium.com/faq#pricing-plans https://www.sourcemedium.com/faq#pricing-plans

davidjytang 5y ago
> our team will work closely with you to integrate your data sources and setup your dashboard Seems to have some customization involved. My industry is largely B2B where we never advertise prices for many reasons. Once we reveal our prices, all our clients would stop working with us.
- rexreed 5y ago
  I imagine they must know how much it costs to work with you, so why would revealing the prices cause them to stop working with you?
  - davidjytang 5y ago
    Revealing our prices to the public equals to revealing customers' costs to their competitors and their customers. An industrial habit I guess. It seems to be very important for project bidding processes.
4thethrillofit 5y ago
It’s because we don’t have a self serviced onboarding which would take a lot longer and resource to build. It’s also not to give sticker shock before they have a chance to learn what it does and whether it’s a good fit. If most of your leads are word of mouth or inbound, having too much stuff on site isn’t necessary. It’s also just matter of not having time resource to spend on the website. Having pricing is more important for cheap monthly products that are alot more self services.

phlipski 5y ago

"you are not personally in need of an actual income for at least 3 years. Preferably more." Hence the saying, "The first 20 million is always the hardest!"