How David Sinkinson Bootstrapped AppArmor to a $40M Exit
Published in 2024, this chronicle by @toomuchtodo details the mechanics of building a profitable, self-funded business without venture backing. Key verified financial milestone: $40M.
Core Principles for Independent Builders:
Charging customers from day one acts as the ultimate filter for building software that solves genuine, high-urgency problems.
Keeping fixed overhead low and leveraging lean infrastructure allows founders to stay alive until market tailwinds kick in.
Small, repetitive improvements in customer retention and conversion rates yield massive returns over multi-year horizons.
Community Debate Themes:
The community focused on B2B customer acquisition channels, cold email vs SEO distribution, and balancing full-time employment with side-project development.
CATEGORY Bootstrapping & MRR →
HISTORICAL ERA Post-ZIRP & AI (2023–2026)
COMMUNITY SCORE ★ 19 points
TOTAL DISCUSSIONS 9 comments
I didn't even know some schools/universities had dedicated security (beyond doorkeepers checking IDs for certain buildings/nighttime security).
Much less did I expect it's an ecosystem you could make money with. My university had 35k students and got by without such things. If something was amiss you'd call regular police.
What sort of need does dedicated security address? I can see it for university buildings who store dangerous materials, but doorkeepers would address that just fine. I don't see why you'd have some sort of pseudo police force students would call with an app rather than calling the actual police.
The referenced AppArmor is (quoting the article):
And not the AppArmor Linux kernel security module.
Not to be confused with Linux app armor (lsm) https://apparmor.net/
Instead this is a mobile app/ physical security thingy originating on uni campuses
Ah, this has nothing to do with the security package of the same name, commonly installed on Unix computers.
Back in my day, we had important phone numbers on speed dial and didn't use unnecessary middlemen.