Answering from a throwaway: started my own software company 10 years ago, selling SaaS w/ monthly recurring revenue in the CRM space. I was 25 at the time, an

Answering from a throwaway: started my own software company 10 years ago, selling SaaS w/ monthly recurring revenue in the CRM space. I was 25 at the time, and left a 150K/year job as a lead engineer. Endured 18 months basically zero income, then a slow climb from ~60K to 500K/year in 2012. Monthly recurring revenue = stable income. Especially b/c our primary product is a low price point, so our revenue is well distributed across hundreds of clients. Other than the sacrificial early years, the key points are: 1. No VC 2. Long, steady SaaS income ramp 3. Small company - 3 people total, I'm the only developer (and always have been), and I own the majority of the company. The company does over 1M in revenue annually, with a low cost basis. If someone wanted to go this route, I would advise them: 1. Be a full-stack generalist 2. Build a revenue-generating company by selling software (vs. giving it away in hopes of attracting eyeballs & monetizing those). 3. Learn a vertical (CRM, in our case), and fix a pain point. Don't follow the herd into the sexy startup de jour. 4. This is a marathon, not a sprint. Don't kill yourself. 5. Offer extremely good customer service