My Fourth Year as a Bootstrapped Founder
Published in 2022, this chronicle by @mtlynch details the mechanics of building a profitable, self-funded business without venture backing.
The community focused on B2B customer acquisition channels, cold email vs SEO distribution, and balancing full-time employment with side-project development.
$460k sales with $8k profit (1.7%).
We lose $ on every sale but make it up on volume?
Sorry this blog has no substance because it doesn't articulate the elephant in the room. After 4 years you have some revenue, but you don't have any profit...therefore you are continuing to fail.
Unless the line 'Software Development' is what you paid yourself to develop the software. If so you have: 460k sales with 127k owner benefit (27% profit).
Thanks, I appreciate the insight you shared. Curious on your profitability tho...your gross margin seems fairly low (raw material to sales price). How are you trying to reduce costs...or how have you determined the right market price for the product?
I very much enjoy reading Michael's monthly updates on the bootstrapping a business!
Author here.
I quit my job four years ago to build my own independent software business. I've written an annual retrospective every year and shared it on HN, and it's led to interesting discussions and extremely valuable feedback.
I'm happy to answer any questions or take any feedback about the post.