Tell HN: From $200/mo to $18k in 5 years as solo founder
#2017 — $2,500 ($208 / month) Internship for US based company as a web developer with Angular.js
#2018 — $6,500 ($542 / month) I joined a full-time job as web developer in a company & was doing extra work in night as freelancer.
I quit my job in 8-months & moved to south India to building company of one.
#2019 — $24,691 ( $2058 / month ) I sold my first project that I build out of a GitHub repository for $22k and did some extra side work to make more money. From now, I stop taking freelance work and start exploring ideas in APIs software. In Nov, 2019 I build NoCodeAPI and Launched in Jan’2020 before covid.
#2020 — $42,124 ( $3,510 / month ) I grow my SAAS business nocodeapi to $2k MRR & built a small website with Twitter API in 11 hours and I sold that for $5k within a month.
#2021 — $153,609 ( $12,800 / month ) NoCodeAPI MRR $3.5k and sold two side project for $95k while growing my SAAS business.
#2022 — $216,433 ( $18,036 / month ) NoCodeAPI MRR grows to $5k and this got acquired for 6 figures.
#2023 — ? Currently, I’m building a new software to make apps with table data. → tableapps.io
137 comments
[ 1.8 ms ] story [ 215 ms ] threadSo 6 figures makes sense for $5k MRR.
I have surface level experience in the private equity industry and was surprised that there seems to be very, very little due diligence performed on sales through microacquire, so I'm building a due diligence platform for buyers and sellers doing those sorts of deals.
I'm curious about how your buyers performed due diligence.
congrats btw
Did you have to enter a support agreement given you were a solo founder?
I run https://www.startups.fyi and feature profitable startups/side-projects along with revenue info (a lot of them are from solo-founders like yourself).
Would love to feature you if you're up for it?
If they spend $0.99 for $1 of MRR, that is amazing, because the first month's revenue covers the cost of acquisition and the rest of the stream is profit (minus other expenses of course.)
Some of it depends on churn and how much MRR you lose and how quickly.
We'd look at an objective function of LTV to CAC ratio.
We'd ignore everything below a certain absolute MRR.
We'd also ignore anything below a certain MRR growth rate.
The ones we'd typically look at as an investor are: MRR/ARR, Churn, CAC and TLV.
TLV would be total lifetime value which includes the monthly revenue * months given churn.
CAC would be the advertisement cost.
This basically means, how much $ are you spending to make what total $ per customer, and how what is the volume.
MRR is meaningless in larger startups because for all intents and purposes would be eaten by the salaries in two seconds, unless it's huge. At any point it becomes reported as annual revenue.
Successful startups spend more like $1.25 per $1 of MRR.
Profit is for solo founders and bootstrapers.
And after that Google SEO, WOM.
I love designing.
Do you think Mercedes makes a cheap version of an SLK for the "poor Indians"?
I make more than the OP and live in his/her part of the world. Luxury items are more expensive than they are in the US.
That bigger house you can afford? You're still paying US prices or higher for your furniture and appliances. Same goes for autos, edu, cars, wine, dining, etc.
Generally speaking, "poor countries" are only relatively cheaper in terms of labor and situationally, real estate. Your Merc will cost you, having it washed will be relatively cheap.
they, do? Global pricing of the same product is vastly different depending on regions. If there is an Italian and a Nepalese market for a handbag, that same bag could selld for twice as much in Italy. Just look at videogame prices!
As someone coming from a poorer country, I'd check if it really is the same item - usually what happens is that they produce a cheaper version out of cheaper materials and with lesser service commitment that costs almost the same price (80-95%) as the better item in a rich country.
Similarly, I was shocked to find that scotch whiskey is actually cheaper in Colombia than the US, and it's the same product. The market is more competitive because discount liquor (especially rum) is decently good quality and reaaally cheap. It's also hard to sell someone a bottle that is half their monthly salary!
Of course, this doesn't hold for anything (and I frankly have no idea how supply chains work), but my point is that it's not as simple as made out above.
Your point is taken, but like, I don’t have a monthly line-item for Mercedes.
I'm not buying tens of thousands of dollars of cars and high-end electronics per year. Or fancy clothes. I'm buying tens of thousands of dollars of services, housing, and food.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Renault_Kwid
Yes, it is easier to buy luxury things in United States, most of the things are cheaper, comparing to other countries (SLK, laptops, phones, etc). But that is not what defines the life.
If I remember everything correctly, below is break down of monthly spending Russia vs USA in that time. Based on my annual pay, my monthly salaries were $4,500 in Russia, $7,700 in USA
Let's compare (first number is spent in Russia, second in USA), everything per month. At that time I used to use the money-spent tracking software, so kind of remember pretty well most of the bills.
- Taxes: 7% (~$300) vs ~18% ($1386)
- Rent: $300 vs $1200
- Cellular: $20 vs $100 (2 people)
- Internet: $10 vs $60
- Medical: $0 vs $200 (co-pays, dentals, plus paying for spouse to keep her on the plan)
- Groceries: $300 vs $1000
- Cinema/Bars: $100 vs $300
- Commute: $20 vs $100
- Car insurance: $20 vs $100
---
- What is left: $3430 vs $3254.
At the end, comparing the Russian's salary vs USA - based on just common spent, I ended up with a little less money to keep on hands. And it always felt like those money that left way easier to spend in USA without even looking. Clothes, shoes, concerts, etc.
For me, only when I started to get more than $250,000 a year in USA, I felt that I was making a salary, that I could compare to one I had in Russia.
Few notes: I lived not in the very big city, just around 600,000 people, so rent and everything way cheaper comparing to Moscow or St Petersburg. $54,000 a year is very high salary in Russia, not very common, I used to work remotely for UK based company.
P.S. I never regretted moving to USA (especially now), yes, it did feel like I was making less, but the companies I was working for, the products, the people, are on different level. I learned a lot. Built my own company, living American dream.
1. Taxes in Russia are actually higher. You forgot to include 30% Social Security tax, 20% VAT tax and import taxes, that make, for example, cars, clothes and every bit of electronics 50% more expensive. Now, because of the sanctions, it's 100% more expensive.
2. Rent depends on location, prices in Moscow are closer to $1000 range. And in the US you usually get larger, cleaner apartments, with more amenities.
3. Cellular and Internet are indeed much cheaper, but it's small amounts.
4. Healthcare is cheaper while you are young and healthy. If you have cancer, your life expectation will be 1/3 of that in the USA. And overall you will live 15 years less, that is, if you don't get mobilized.
5. Groceries are basically 1:1. Some items, like bread, are cheaper in Russia, but fresh fruit and vegs are more expensive.
2. Sorry, I would not agree to that. If you want to compare cities, Moscow should be compared to NY or SF, where for $1,000 you will get a corner in a garage, if you are lucky. :D
3. I don't know $200 a month is a large amount of money. In some countries it is a month living. I have not been in Russia for a while, and my knowledge is based on 10 years ago, but you can get a $50 Android phone with like $3/month service, that will have some internet, an be able to make calls and texts. In USA, I believe, the cheapest would be close to $20 a month? The same about internet, you can start with $3/month in Russia for home internet, but in USA it is going to be at least $40?
4. I mean current time is different, obviously. But free health care is a free health care. Based on the relatives (mom, dad, grandfather and grandmother), they got an ok health care. My dad has serious asthma, with oxygen tanks, and he is actually running from doctors more, than he should, they are always reminding him about checking with them in the hospital. My mom has diabetes, she get all the prescriptions for free. My grandfather died of cancer, I mean he got some treatment, probably not the best, but he stayed in the hospitals for a long time. He actually lived in Crimea, when it was part of Ukraine, and at the same time this state was very corrupt (probably now as well, don't know), but he still got a treatment. To be honest, I don't have much knowledge yet about how the treatment of serious illness is going to be in USA, but my guess that they will suck all your money first, and after that get your on medicare. That is my guess.
5. That is hard to compare. In Russia there are still local markets, which aren't exactly the same as US markets. In local markets you can buy groceries (fruits, veggies) from local farmers for cheaper than in the supermarket. In USA markets are all super-organic food, that even has higher prices than in supermarkets. And the cheapest fruids/veggies you can buy are wallmart-like stores, where everything not even fresh. In Russia people do eat meat less often, but veggies and fruits can be way cheaper than in USA.
Source: An Indian-American (I don't like hyphens but in this case relevant for context) who frequently visits India and has business there as well.
At least he has control of his time.
1. They want to do their own things, controlling their own time and not work for someone else
2. 18K/Mo in a developing country like India is huge. Assuming that's revenue and profits are say at least 50% (usually higher for SAAS but I am being conservative), that income puts you in top 10% at the minimum.
In what country is 18k/mo not huge? That was my annual salary in my last job! I need to move to America lmao
So, I add simplicity to this product and making super easy for people.
How much for marketing spend, most profitable levers you used?
If your takeaway from this is that “build it and they will come” is a good go to market strategy, you’d be terribly wrong in the vast majority of cases. It worked in this case because it was a solution to a painful, concrete problem and the product hunt audience happened to be the right customer suffering from that problem.
Actually I think the meme is kinda dumb because they assume that people didn't read about it 1000 times already.
Why did you sell now instead of building for a few more years? If you had hit $30-50k per month you probably could have sold it for enough to be financially independent for life. Were you bored or burned out? Or did growing it further require things that you didn’t want to do?