Mistakes on Our Way to $88k in Revenue
Published in 2019, this chronicle by @justingreet details the mechanics of building a profitable, self-funded business without venture backing. Key verified financial milestone: $88k.
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 Cloud & Mobile Era (2014–2019)
COMMUNITY SCORE ★ 107 points
TOTAL DISCUSSIONS 27 comments
13 is super crucial. It doesn’t matter what you’re doing, making your entire identity revolve around one thing is always a bad idea.
Growth is all about branching out and trying new things. Maybe some of those new things are dead ends, but I find trying new things or hobbies always helps me learn about the things I’m already passionate about. The stress relief and mental break ain’t bad either!
I really liked #8. Don't Engineer Too Early.
If customers are asking for features, processes, (your time), etc...then don't give that to them. Sell that to them. They'll pay if they really want it.
If a restaurant owner is asked why a certain thing is not on their menu enough times, the smart ones will get that on their menu. Is that new menu item free? Hell no.
What about IP agreements? After reading "Venture Deals" you get the idea that if you to talk about your project and bounce ideas off of them during the development phase they could have implicit "rights" to IP. What do you have to have everyone you talk to about developments sign an IP agreement?
3. Start your company as an LLC
No matter what anyone tells you, don't start as a C-Corp, unless you are sure that VC is investing in your company right away. Even the cost of winding down a C-Corp is substantial.
Click-bait. Imagine you made a way to make 88k a month and keeping growing, why tell anyone?
Exactly: You tell once growth has stopped and you need a quick fix.