My Bootstrapped Micro-Startup Got Acquired(mohddanish.me)
mohddanish.me
My Bootstrapped Micro-Startup Got Acquired
https://mohddanish.me/my-bootstrapped-micro-startup-got-acquired-for-usd22k-10
94 comments
In the screenshots, it seems like most of the traffic came from sites like HN and PH so the traffic may not have been sustained in the future.
At the same time a bird in the hand is worth more than 2 in the bush.
Except in this analogy the two birds in the bush give you a continuous stream of their eggs.
You're hoping it does. There are no guarantees about the future.
Killing the golden goose
unless they're both male birds. Perhaps also bad-tempered, shrieking a lot and prone to peck you on the head or take a dump on your shoes. It's amazing how analogies never fail to clarify and raise discussions to new heights!
Yes, but those two asshole male birds might be celebrities, attracting tonnes of thirsty female, egg-laying birds to your bush. Didn't think of that, did you?
That's what a present value calculation is for.
Not sure why this is downvoted, "growing from 700/month to 7000/month can be mostly momentum" is trivializing what is more likely a very difficult scaling process, and there is a huge opportunity cost to continue to operating the business as opposed to cashing out and trying the next thing.
SaaS maps better to Golden Goose analogies.
i mean in a western country the dude himself is at least worth at minimum a $100.000/yr salary
This is interesting, I am building a few SaaS products, one has gotten around 4 paid customers. I was thinking to sell it, but maybe I should try to bring in more momentum.
Are you willing to share the app name?
Developing a SaaS product isn’t for everybody but if you are a developer and want to expand your breadth it’s a wonderful and rewarding challenge.
Nothing is easy but there has never been more resources, support and tooling for indie SaaS makers. If you want to get started the indiehackers community is fantastic and my inbox is always open for answers/encouragement Shane at Cronitor.io
Nothing is easy but there has never been more resources, support and tooling for indie SaaS makers. If you want to get started the indiehackers community is fantastic and my inbox is always open for answers/encouragement Shane at Cronitor.io
The hardest part about building a SaaS product for me isn't the technical challenges (although there are some too), it's mostly anxiety. The thing that scares me the most is launching and receiving negative feedback, the thought alone is enough for me to stop working on it.
Negative feedback is better than no feedback. at least you know the person was sufficiently attracted to your product and idea and try it. It’s an opportunity to improve, and it’s also an encouragement. I’ve had people giving me bad feedback and then a few years later come back and finally use it. At this point i knew my product had improved.
Also, you’d be surprised how most people sound harsh but actually don’t really mean to. They’ll most likely completely change their tone after you’ve contacted them and tell them you’d like their opinion on future improvements. Also, if by any chance those people finaly use your product, you have a high chance that they become strong proponents and advertisers for your product.
Also, you’d be surprised how most people sound harsh but actually don’t really mean to. They’ll most likely completely change their tone after you’ve contacted them and tell them you’d like their opinion on future improvements. Also, if by any chance those people finaly use your product, you have a high chance that they become strong proponents and advertisers for your product.
Right! Don't worry about negative feedback, because the much more likely scenario is no feedback as nobody cares.
Getting anyone to care enough to give you any feedback at all is a sign you are onto something.
Getting anyone to care enough to give you any feedback at all is a sign you are onto something.
Negative feedback doesn't matter unless it's from customers (or potential customers). People tend to worry too much about negative feedback from non-customers. A good example of non-customers eager to provide negative feedback is right here: HN :-)
I've been running a SaaS for a couple of years now and learned to take all feedback from customers very, very seriously, but also largely ignore feedback from non-customers. As an example, most people who whine about your B2B SaaS being "too expensive", are non-customers. I did some experiments with discounts, these people inevitably leave anyway.
Most real customers will give you feedback that is constructive, which immediately makes it positive. E.g. rather than whine or complain they will point out a missing feature or show how the software fails.
So, while anxiety is very real (solo founder anxiety is a major issue), it should not come from negative feedback.
I've been running a SaaS for a couple of years now and learned to take all feedback from customers very, very seriously, but also largely ignore feedback from non-customers. As an example, most people who whine about your B2B SaaS being "too expensive", are non-customers. I did some experiments with discounts, these people inevitably leave anyway.
Most real customers will give you feedback that is constructive, which immediately makes it positive. E.g. rather than whine or complain they will point out a missing feature or show how the software fails.
So, while anxiety is very real (solo founder anxiety is a major issue), it should not come from negative feedback.
Don't internalize the feedback. There will always be haters and bashers (we had people trolling the newspaper article comment section when we got bought by Intel). The point is that if you provide a valuable service to someone you'll get meaningful feedback from them (maybe not all good!) and you can learn from that. Don't pay attention to people who are just recreationally crapping on you and you'll be fine.
If you try to launch something, and it doesn't go well for anyone - well, you learned something. I do a martial art (Brazilian Juijitsu) where one of the cliches is "you win or you learn". It may be a cliche, but it applies to a lot of things. But to extend the metaphor, you have to get on the mat.
If you try to launch something, and it doesn't go well for anyone - well, you learned something. I do a martial art (Brazilian Juijitsu) where one of the cliches is "you win or you learn". It may be a cliche, but it applies to a lot of things. But to extend the metaphor, you have to get on the mat.
"You win or you learn" is such a good framework — especially if you take time to process after each game / release / quarter / whatever. I heard an Ultimate coach say that once, and it totally changed my perspective on what we were doing out there.
Negative feedback does not mean your product is bad, just look at the Show HN post for Dropbox (and discussions about this post): https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8863. I especially love that the top post is someone saying that this is trivial to make on your own, something I hear far too often.
I hear you.
There's a good chance that, if you're like me, your anxiety about putting it out there leads you to tell yourself that if you just do this one other feature that it'll be ready. So you wait, and you do it. But it isn't quiiiite there yet. So you repeat that cycle. After a while, you've built up your expectations — both of how good it'd have to be to receive attention, and of what kind of attention you'd need to receive to justify the investment of time — that it's almost an impossible bar to meet. So … you don't ship.
I'd encourage you to ship things earlier in the process. As Matt Mullenweg said, "if you’re not embarrassed when you ship your first version you waited too long." (https://ma.tt/2010/11/one-point-oh/)
I'd also be more than happy to give you friendly-but-honest feedback, if it'll help. Email in profile.
There's a good chance that, if you're like me, your anxiety about putting it out there leads you to tell yourself that if you just do this one other feature that it'll be ready. So you wait, and you do it. But it isn't quiiiite there yet. So you repeat that cycle. After a while, you've built up your expectations — both of how good it'd have to be to receive attention, and of what kind of attention you'd need to receive to justify the investment of time — that it's almost an impossible bar to meet. So … you don't ship.
I'd encourage you to ship things earlier in the process. As Matt Mullenweg said, "if you’re not embarrassed when you ship your first version you waited too long." (https://ma.tt/2010/11/one-point-oh/)
I'd also be more than happy to give you friendly-but-honest feedback, if it'll help. Email in profile.
Find someone who's already building a useful SaaS product that they're willing to take the responsibility for, and help them build it. If it fails, at least that person takes the brunt of the negative feedback?
I would honestly much rather overcome my fears. Being a solo founder and running a company is one of my goals.
If that's most of what's holding you back, you should try to power through that anxiety, I think you'll be very pleasantly surprised. Most people who bother to write in are very kind, and if you're this anxious about negative feedback, I'm guessing you're not the type to try the obnoxious stuff that pisses people off enough to write in with negative feedback. Making it very easy to cancel will help too.
If you are sensitive to negative feedback it’s likely you are also sensitive to positive feedback, and it comes in roughly equal amounts. I have an email file of positive feedback received over the years. When I read stuff like “Thanks for such an excellent product. I really like it in our stack.” It lifts my spirits again and again.
It’s actually a chore to get a meaningful critique from a customer they just don’t care enough and will just cancel.
It’s actually a chore to get a meaningful critique from a customer they just don’t care enough and will just cancel.
Nice! Any suggestions on people/groups to follow on indiehackers? Have you been to any of their meetups?
First of all, congratulations on the sale.
Second, funny that his first job after graduation was CTO.
Can't see that happening anywhere in EU or US heh
Second, funny that his first job after graduation was CTO.
Can't see that happening anywhere in EU or US heh
It's really common in startups everywhere. CTO is just shorthand for "the technical co-founder".
Actually more absurdity is possible in EU. I frequently notice, out of college PM(grad scheme), 1yoe Senior Engineer/Team Lead, out of college R&D Engineer(with BSc only), 2yoe CTO etc.. These are mostly in UK though but still counts.
Why is a new grad R&D Engineer strange? that's certainly most of the people recruited at the first place I worked (UK) started as.
OK they wont be at the same level as the Boss (the President of the Mechanical engineers at the time)
What sort of people do you thein NASA JPL etc. recruit from university in the main.
OK they wont be at the same level as the Boss (the President of the Mechanical engineers at the time)
What sort of people do you thein NASA JPL etc. recruit from university in the main.
I don't work at JPL, but I do work at a different NASA center. I am one of only two people in my team of ~15 that does not have a graduate degree. There are only three with master's degrees; the rest are PhD's. You have to be both talented and incredibly lucky to secure a full time position without a graduate degree here.
That's not what the previous person was saying - they thought it was strange you had new grads as RnD engineers.
And I know all about v high end RnD I worked on campus Cranfield Uni at BHRA in the Math modeling and Nuke section
Though I was a technician, who of course you need to remind the "engineers" how ohms law works :-)
And I know all about v high end RnD I worked on campus Cranfield Uni at BHRA in the Math modeling and Nuke section
Though I was a technician, who of course you need to remind the "engineers" how ohms law works :-)
Presumably those with graduate degrees.
I had previous colleague from India, two years of experience and suddenly was a senior.
I thought it was more common over there... guess not so odd.
I thought it was more common over there... guess not so odd.
My first job out of college (after a failed start up) in 1995 was as Vice President of Computer Operations for Experienced Attorney's Referral Service dba LawInfo.
Just checked out their site, and it looks like they sold to Thomson Reuters.
edit: Actually, I just remembered I worked for Bill Blue at https://datelsys.com for 6 weeks at the end of '94 doing phone support for new internet users. I think subscribers doubled in the 6 weeks I was there. Only lasted about 6 months at LawInfo. Been working in the library since 96.
Just checked out their site, and it looks like they sold to Thomson Reuters.
edit: Actually, I just remembered I worked for Bill Blue at https://datelsys.com for 6 weeks at the end of '94 doing phone support for new internet users. I think subscribers doubled in the 6 weeks I was there. Only lasted about 6 months at LawInfo. Been working in the library since 96.
if you read the description of what he was doing it sounds like it was just a fancy title for "the only technical person handling all the computer-stuff in the company".
If I'm not mistaken, 22k is roughly the amount you would get for placing a single software engineer in a recruitment pipeline. Job-seeking traffic is quite valuable.
Unless I'm mistaken I think he sold public-apis.xyz, the product the main story is about, and not the TweetJobs.dev one (or maybe I'm mistaken, or maybe he sold both?)
> Right after I graduated, I was very blessed to land myself as a CTO(Chief Technology Officer) at one of the startup tech companies in the co-working space industry.
Umm... What ?
That's insane.. But always good to hear some good stories once in a while!
Umm... What ?
That's insane.. But always good to hear some good stories once in a while!
Hard to make sense of an acquisition at a cost this low. It’s like a month or two salary of a senior software engineer.
Salaries aren't in that range generally in South East Asia, where I gather the author is from.
He was bootstrapped and sold it for more than he would have made working full-time for another company or contracting for those 9 months, so kudos for coming out ahead!
He basically ripped off a github repo curated list of APIs and made it "searchable" + listed to PH then sold the site based on the traffic from that one spike. Not belittling it at all - he had the initiative to build it, monetize it, and sell it.
He basically ripped off a github repo curated list of APIs and made it "searchable" + listed to PH then sold the site based on the traffic from that one spike. Not belittling it at all - he had the initiative to build it, monetize it, and sell it.
Didn't he sell the tweetjobs.dev and not the API app?
That's what I am curious about to. From reading the blog, I csn't tell which one did he sell. He says it's the same buyer but was it for the new site?
It was confusing. But I think he sold the public api site. And now he wants to work on the tweet jobs site.
After he had the idea for tweet jobs, he said the original buyer submitted another offer on the original project (which it sounds like he had most abandoned).
After he had the idea for tweet jobs, he said the original buyer submitted another offer on the original project (which it sounds like he had most abandoned).
Yea, you'll really only find salaries like that in America.
[deleted]
Or Europe or Australia. So, y’know, all of the developed world. (With apologies to whomever I have inevitably missed.)
Yes and no, in Europe outside London and Berlin (big capitals) you’ll find that developer salaries are much lower than expected compared to the US.
That’s pretty much across the board.
That’s pretty much across the board.
Swiss, Scandinavian and Finnish and probably Danish and Dutch jobs pay way better than Berlin or London Jobs do.
He could use those funds to fund another product.
Venture capital can be absolutely horrendous in some areas, and you're stuck with either
1) Go to the bank and get a normal business loan
2) VC peanuts with terrible conditions
3) Work hard and save up money, get co-founders and pool your money.
Not saying that it's not like that in tech-hubs, but I'm in one of the most expensive countries in the world, and our VC community is so underdeveloped that it's shameful.
(Also, I see the author is located in Southern Asia, so that's probably a nice payout.)
Venture capital can be absolutely horrendous in some areas, and you're stuck with either
1) Go to the bank and get a normal business loan
2) VC peanuts with terrible conditions
3) Work hard and save up money, get co-founders and pool your money.
Not saying that it's not like that in tech-hubs, but I'm in one of the most expensive countries in the world, and our VC community is so underdeveloped that it's shameful.
(Also, I see the author is located in Southern Asia, so that's probably a nice payout.)
Congratulations - what a great story! It's somehow much more satisfying to read this than ludicrous $Billion acquisitions in SV. Seems more human.
Congrats to you, this is more than most have accomplished.
Congratulations Danish! :)
I help him with this writing of the blog post 50% when we are on the ferry ride from indonesia to singapore.
I'm glad a domain .xyz can build a microstartup "side project turn to profitable business" and you get acquired.
I'm really proud of you!
I'm glad a domain .xyz can build a microstartup "side project turn to profitable business" and you get acquired.
I'm really proud of you!
It's not easy to find product market fit. If there are so much traffic and customers, I will probably try to scale the project instead of selling it.
Who knows if the next project will take off again? As a bootstrap developer, if you cannot nail marketing, you will just have the same problem in the next project
Who knows if the next project will take off again? As a bootstrap developer, if you cannot nail marketing, you will just have the same problem in the next project
This is really interesting, well done!
Seems like you're getting a lot of cynical people on here, you might be interested in posting this story on indiehackers.com
I'm not sure if the first offer was really for the startup or rather just for the domain.
congrats, you're on track for a big thing
super curious to know how much you were paying to deliver 30k page views/month and 60k. Any chance to share? Thanks a lot!
[deleted]
It's heartbreaking to see people who scrape websites and make 60k in a weekend project while opensource maintainers for projects used by thousands of companies are begging for 10 dollars a month
Creating value and capturing value are different things. If you start doing open source, you shouldn't except money. If you want money, you should do something that people usually pay for.
It is common knowledge that open source can be very difficult to monetize. If you are smart enough to program good software you should be able to understand also that. Also if you can program good quality open source software, it shouldn't be difficult to switch to the "evil capitalistic" side and code some software with an actual business model.
It is best to work on open source at the point where you have enough savings so you don't need the money. Creating open source with the exception of monetization is just stupid - sometimes it happens but usually not, and that should be excepted.
It is common knowledge that open source can be very difficult to monetize. If you are smart enough to program good software you should be able to understand also that. Also if you can program good quality open source software, it shouldn't be difficult to switch to the "evil capitalistic" side and code some software with an actual business model.
It is best to work on open source at the point where you have enough savings so you don't need the money. Creating open source with the exception of monetization is just stupid - sometimes it happens but usually not, and that should be excepted.
Sure, for an individual, what you say is exactly the correct approach.
But for society, does it benefit us to pay people to work on scraping websites more than on OSS infrastructure? (One argument is yes because that's how the money flows, but why?) How do we as society fund OSS infrastructure and prevent people who would be good at it from leaving to seek money?
But for society, does it benefit us to pay people to work on scraping websites more than on OSS infrastructure? (One argument is yes because that's how the money flows, but why?) How do we as society fund OSS infrastructure and prevent people who would be good at it from leaving to seek money?
Sorry, what do you mean?!
I mean, unlike theoretically preached by old billionaires and millionaires trying to trick the public and rewrite their own history, making money is usually at odds with creating real value. It's usually about marketing, PR and gaming the system.
I'm generally sympathetic to your stated frustration, but it's a little more complicated than that.
I am well aware that on HN marketing is looked down upon but marketing is about creating and delivering value to customers. If someone is doing that better than others and getting paid a lot for that, there is nothing wrong with it.
Part of it is a big chunk of the HN crowd hasn't been in business, and part of it is that marketing is an ethical mess.
And HN is engineer heavy, so we see how a product comes from raw materials and is built into a thing you can use, and see how those roles are adding value. It's easy to understand that a cut diamond is worth more than a raw diamond.
But a product also has more value if it's on a shelf in a store than sitting in a warehouse, thus a person driving a delivery truck is adding value.
And the mutual gain from the transaction is realized when questions are answered and the transaction is settled, so the cashier is adding value.
Bringing it back to marketing, the transaction can't even begin until the customers are aware of the product and understand that it meets a need they have, so the marketer is adding value by enabling that to happen.
But I've got no proof beyond the observation that people get paid to do these things, and it could be that some or all of these jobs really are redundant. Anyone can settle the debate empirically by starting a business that doesn't rely on them, though.
And HN is engineer heavy, so we see how a product comes from raw materials and is built into a thing you can use, and see how those roles are adding value. It's easy to understand that a cut diamond is worth more than a raw diamond.
But a product also has more value if it's on a shelf in a store than sitting in a warehouse, thus a person driving a delivery truck is adding value.
And the mutual gain from the transaction is realized when questions are answered and the transaction is settled, so the cashier is adding value.
Bringing it back to marketing, the transaction can't even begin until the customers are aware of the product and understand that it meets a need they have, so the marketer is adding value by enabling that to happen.
But I've got no proof beyond the observation that people get paid to do these things, and it could be that some or all of these jobs really are redundant. Anyone can settle the debate empirically by starting a business that doesn't rely on them, though.
> Anyone can settle the debate empirically by starting a business that doesn't rely on them, though
Advertising might be a zero-sum game. Or even net negative. Yet a business without it will likely fail if other businesses use it. In other words, if advertising adds value like Mafia protection adds value then the empirical test proves nothing.
Advertising might be a zero-sum game. Or even net negative. Yet a business without it will likely fail if other businesses use it. In other words, if advertising adds value like Mafia protection adds value then the empirical test proves nothing.
> Bringing it back to marketing, the transaction can't even begin until the customers are aware of the product and understand that it meets a need they have, so the marketer is adding value by enabling that to happen.
This is reducing marketing to advertising. Advertising is a subset of marketing. Marketing research may begin even before a product exists.
This is reducing marketing to advertising. Advertising is a subset of marketing. Marketing research may begin even before a product exists.
That's fair, I was trying to keep it simple to explain my train of thought better.
There seemed to be rapid growth and interest. Getting any revenue is hard - growing from 700/month to 7000/month can be mostly momentum. Just sitting on it would make more.
Maybe there is more to the story but if not, please hold out with your next project. You'll get low ballers.
I had someone offer me 30k for an app I spent a month building. I would have taken it but he wanted to do a payment plan and I said no way. The project has since grown without much help from me to ~2.5k/month and will likely continue for years. It already made more than the offer.
The ability to sell it is still there at any time and for more money just from the momentum of growth. Once you sell, though, you stop collecting revenue and having the potential of growing it even bigger.
If someone wants it at first, it's likely worth more than they're offering. They know it and you should, too.