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This looks like it is probably a great lifestyle business (based on the claimed API requests and pricing) but I'm not sure that I would call it a startup. It so

This looks like it is probably a great lifestyle business (based on the claimed API requests and pricing) but I'm not sure that I would call it a startup. It sounds like it hasn't even had an employee devoted to it until recently. There isn't anything wrong with that at all but for a "startup" this wouldn't be a great outcome. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Startup_company http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Startup_company

notahacker 13y ago
Depends. "Billions" of API requests off 5 Heroku dynos could represent an awful lot of profit if enough of them are being paid for at .25-.4 cents a request. And the 75% response rate to his emails is extremely impressive. It seems scalable and repeatable enough as it is, to the point where I'm not sure what VC money and an enterprise sales team would add.
rdegges 13y ago
We didn't need VC or anything like that to get started, so our expenses were very low. It also did (and does) generate quite a bit of revenue, so I'd say it's definitely outside the 'lifestyle business' category. In the end we had all partners (3 of us), and a full time employee -- so it was fairly big I'd say (all with profitability, etc. from day one). Along the way we could have definitely hired more engineers and grown the team, but we decided to treat it as a passive business after we got some big successes and didn't think hiring / etc. would be necessary (at least for a while). If I could go back in time and re-do that, I think the company would be much larger now (and more successful) had we scaled our engineering team early on with the money we got, and tried to shoot for quicker growth.
- spullara 13y ago
  IMHO, your last paragraph really is the difference between a lifestyle business and a startup. I'm not disrespecting the choice at all, just a different set of goals. Based on the set of customers you have and domain expertise I'm not sure why you aren't throwing everything behind this business. Anyway, good luck!
  - rdegges 13y ago
    We have since changed strategy, and are now hiring / scaling the team / company :)
- prottmann 13y ago
  You made the strategy you felt good with and that cant be wrong. :)
wpietri 13y ago
Wrong, wrong, wrong. He searched for a repeatable and scalable business model. He found it. He scaled. He delivered excellent ROI to his investors. That's a startup. People who think it's not real if it doesn't involve angels and VCs and TechCrunch write-ups and whatnot are fashion victims. Pity them.
- spullara 13y ago
  No one claimed this business wasn't real. I think you are the one that is the fashion victim that wants everything to have the same label. Honestly, you can probably define a startup as a company that hasn't figured out and proven their business model yet — clearly he doesn't meet that criteria. Below you will find a comment by the OP that suggests he is going to really scale the business by expanding the offering and focusing on it. Probably using the revenue he is generating. Which is awesome — no need for VCs for his business as it was profitable from day 2. For this next tier of growth though, it probably will be a startup, one where he isn't sure whether the investment will pay off or not. If you ask me, that is the essence. Once you've figured that out, it isn't really a startup anymore.

notahacker 13y ago

Depends. "Billions" of API requests off 5 Heroku dynos could represent an awful lot of profit if enough of them are being paid for at .25-.4 cents a request. And the 75% response rate to his emails is extremely impressive. It seems scalable and repeatable enough as it is, to the point where I'm not sure what VC money and an enterprise sales team would add.

rdegges 13y ago

We didn't need VC or anything like that to get started, so our expenses were very low. It also did (and does) generate quite a bit of revenue, so I'd say it's definitely outside the 'lifestyle business' category. In the end we had all partners (3 of us), and a full time employee -- so it was fairly big I'd say (all with profitability, etc. from day one). Along the way we could have definitely hired more engineers and grown the team, but we decided to treat it as a passive business after we got some big successes and didn't think hiring / etc. would be necessary (at least for a while). If I could go back in time and re-do that, I think the company would be much larger now (and more successful) had we scaled our engineering team early on with the money we got, and tried to shoot for quicker growth.

spullara 13y ago
IMHO, your last paragraph really is the difference between a lifestyle business and a startup. I'm not disrespecting the choice at all, just a different set of goals. Based on the set of customers you have and domain expertise I'm not sure why you aren't throwing everything behind this business. Anyway, good luck!
- rdegges 13y ago
  We have since changed strategy, and are now hiring / scaling the team / company :)
prottmann 13y ago
You made the strategy you felt good with and that cant be wrong. :)

wpietri 13y ago

Wrong, wrong, wrong. He searched for a repeatable and scalable business model. He found it. He scaled. He delivered excellent ROI to his investors. That's a startup. People who think it's not real if it doesn't involve angels and VCs and TechCrunch write-ups and whatnot are fashion victims. Pity them.

spullara 13y ago
No one claimed this business wasn't real. I think you are the one that is the fashion victim that wants everything to have the same label. Honestly, you can probably define a startup as a company that hasn't figured out and proven their business model yet — clearly he doesn't meet that criteria. Below you will find a comment by the OP that suggests he is going to really scale the business by expanding the offering and focusing on it. Probably using the revenue he is generating. Which is awesome — no need for VCs for his business as it was profitable from day 2. For this next tier of growth though, it probably will be a startup, one where he isn't sure whether the investment will pay off or not. If you ask me, that is the essence. Once you've figured that out, it isn't really a startup anymore.