Thoughts, opinions, transcripts, etc.
I reconnected with a few college friends recently who I rarely see. They were overachievers — 3.95 GPAs at UC Berkeley (which is quite literally insane, especially in the poli sci and math departments they graduated from) — and went on to get great jobs and MBAs from Stanford and Harvard. They both have plenty of money, lots of… Continue reading Lifestyle over money
It’s been over a year since I left the comfort and security of a VC-backed paycheck. I haven’t missed it. It’s been a year of growth and development. I’ve struggled, I’ve succeeded, and in some aspects I’ve failed. But the ball has continued to move forward. For most of the past 18 months I haven’t… Continue reading Building out my little empire
I write this from the creek in my backyard where the mosquitos are celebrating this oddly cool summer morning in Walnut Creek by devouring my shins. I like to work down here anyway. It's a reminder that nothing is perfect and it'll also force me to type a bit faster. Q2 ended with a really… Continue reading Toofr LLC quarterly report: Q2 2018
I thought a lot about it. I even dreamt about it. Deep in my gut I knew the change would need to happen but I wasn't sure how or when. The thought would come and go and for the most part I ignored it. Then one fateful day about a month ago I was in… Continue reading Moving from SaaS to metered billing
An excerpt from The Parallel Entrepreneur If you can get your business up to $10,000 in monthly recurring revenue (MRR), then that’s really good. Most entrepreneurs never get there. It’s good but not great. Jonathan Siegel gave me advice that I’ll never forget. I use this bit of wisdom to fire up my drive. He… Continue reading From good to great
Launching and pricing experiments got my first customers 1 month and 23 days. 14.5% of a year. That’s how long it took to go from idea to first revenue in the bank for Inlistio, a tool for marketers to track job changes and get new contact info. I built it in my quest for a… Continue reading 53 days to revenue
The dream is 100 customers paying you $100 per month. That’s the software-as-a-service (SaaS) solopreneur’s mecca. A hundred customers paying $100 per month adds up to $120,000 per year of revenue. Since we’re building software, you’ll have about 85% gross margins, so your gross profit is at least $100,000. Your operating expenses are business-related assets… Continue reading Why SaaS is a solo founder’s dream come true
Last week I started hiring again for the first time in almost a year. It felt different this time because I’m now hiring for my own bootstrapped business. It was also different because I was the sole decision-maker. Here’s a recap on how it went down and what I learned. It’s been nearly seven months… Continue reading A few more thoughts about hiring
I recently posted a part-time marketing job description to help me with a bunch of tactical stuff for Toofr. I need help writing, SEO position tracking, supporting customers, and generally moving the ball downfield on all of my websites. I posted on Craigslist, HireClub, and Remoteok.io. Over the last few days I received about 50… Continue reading Hiring feels a lot different when it’s your own money
These days I don’t have a lot of structure between 9am and 4pm. I don’t go into an office anymore. I don’t report to anyone. I’m running a nice little business now with no partners and no investors. At any given point in that 9–4 window I can pretty much do whatever I want because… Continue reading My favorite question to ask