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AMA - I built a software company worth 8 figures

Ravens_Shadow

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Ok I didn't know that. This topic come up in my email newsletter and was interested in checking it out. I have no idea what is it the INSIDERS forum.

I don't subscribe to the INSIDERS, so I have no idea what is in there.

I certainly appreciate a success story posting an AMA, though I still don't understand the risk of posting the company name ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
I do not want my competitors, or my customers to know details about how I operate the business or what I went through. I don't want it to be searchable on google and lead people to here, which then leads people to my INSIDERS thread that details a massive majority of what i've done to build my company. It is a competitive advantage if they read my trials and issues i'm facing.

Will respond to everyone else soon. :)
 
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Lou Soto

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I've been wanting to do an AMA (Ask me anything) for a while. I've built a desktop software company worth 8 figures, but I'm aiming for $1 billion, not to be a unicorn, but just because I think its the natural progression of where I'm headed. I started the company in 2016 and I have 15 employees and I've never taken on investor money despite rejecting quite a few offers. In MJ's own words he thinks that my company will be the first 9 figure (hopefully 10 though) exit on the forum. I built everything from the ground up on the business end by myself. I brought on my initial founding partner with equity and a few initial employees with equity. I've had experience negotiating a multi-million dollar contract and building an entire IP from nothing which has seriously upset an industry as we came out of nowhere. We also follow profit first accounting methods and do quarterly dividends. I don't want to publicly name the company here but I'm happy to answer general business questions or give advice on situations you may be in.

I don't really believe in outsourcing cheap labor or paying/treating employees like dispensable objects. Everyone in my company makes a minimum of $80,000 a year, even if in their country it's perfectly acceptable that they're paid a fraction of what we pay them. I believe in treating both customers and employees as well as I possibly can in an effort to retain their strong talents.

Ask me anything about:

  • Managing employees and building a team
  • Subscription and permanent license based software
  • Bootstrapping your business & working on the biz while you have a day job
  • Dividend distributions and taking money out of your business
  • Building a successful software company, even if you can't code (I can't)
  • General business advice, mindset, etc
  • Anything that you feel you want to know about someone who's gotten as far as I have



If you know the company I run or my industry, please do not mention it in this thread. It is irrelevant, and if anything it's a harder industry to be in than most.
I've been in the software industry for many years (20 years), I've ventured out a few times on other business ideas from time to time, and I always dreamed of starting a software company, what kind of advise would you give a person that is older and thinks its too late to start a business? And the 2nd Question, how does one find software niches in such a competitive market?

-Lou
 

wheelhouse

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I've been wanting to do an AMA (Ask me anything) for a while. I've built a desktop software company worth 8 figures, but I'm aiming for $1 billion, not to be a unicorn, but just because I think its the natural progression of where I'm headed. I started the company in 2016 and I have 15 employees and I've never taken on investor money despite rejecting quite a few offers. In MJ's own words he thinks that my company will be the first 9 figure (hopefully 10 though) exit on the forum. I built everything from the ground up on the business end by myself. I brought on my initial founding partner with equity and a few initial employees with equity. I've had experience negotiating a multi-million dollar contract and building an entire IP from nothing which has seriously upset an industry as we came out of nowhere. We also follow profit first accounting methods and do quarterly dividends. I don't want to publicly name the company here but I'm happy to answer general business questions or give advice on situations you may be in.

I don't really believe in outsourcing cheap labor or paying/treating employees like dispensable objects. Everyone in my company makes a minimum of $80,000 a year, even if in their country it's perfectly acceptable that they're paid a fraction of what we pay them. I believe in treating both customers and employees as well as I possibly can in an effort to retain their strong talents.

Ask me anything about:

  • Managing employees and building a team
  • Subscription and permanent license based software
  • Bootstrapping your business & working on the biz while you have a day job
  • Dividend distributions and taking money out of your business
  • Building a successful software company, even if you can't code (I can't)
  • General business advice, mindset, etc
  • Anything that you feel you want to know about someone who's gotten as far as I have



If you know the company I run or my industry, please do not mention it in this thread. It is irrelevant, and if anything it's a harder industry to be in than most.

I am INTJ (IQ ~120), which means that I don't have a collectivist mindset and stand on my own. I don't depend on the government and want to limit its influence on me. I followed society's model for success, got degrees in Software Engineering and many other certs in the industry, worked for a corporate for 8 years where I started from the bottom. Worked on a SaaS for 3 years, that includes windows software and an app, then tried selling it for 1 year if my life depended on it, but couldn't find any customers. Even hired some expensive advisor from this site to assist me in case I had blind spots in my process. Few 100$/month to cover some costs would have done great for the morale. What I have now is all these years of experience, a student loan, and a minimum wage IT job, while the inflation is wreaking havoc on the economy. No software engineering company wants to hire me because there's always not enough 'knowledge' or an emotional disconnect with the hiring manager. I think it's largely because I don't fit in with the "woke" culture. What do you recommend I should do?
 
Last edited:

arukomp

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@Ravens_Shadow - great job and massive thanks for your posts here! It's actually compelling me to subscribe to INSIDERS to hear even more about your story :D

I'm a software developer myself for the last 5-6 years and just recently started building my own little SaaS, very niche product aimed at helping other developers save time and build their products faster.

I'm at this point where I still work full-time, but try to fit in an hour here and there every day to work on my side-project. This will most likely last another year or two before the project gets any traction and replaces my current income.

What was your experience working your full-time job and this business? What helped you keep sane and not burn out? Any tips & tricks to get through this difficult period?

Thanks!
 

rsrs

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@Ravens_Shadow - great job and massive thanks for your posts here! It's actually compelling me to subscribe to INSIDERS to hear even more about your story :D
I did just that. Believe me: it worth a lot more. Amazing job he did on documenting his journey, years diligently posting progress. I still need to dive into all the other stuff in INSIDERS, but I'm VERY happy with the value provided.
 
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Aishwarya

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I've been wanting to do an AMA (Ask me anything) for a while. I've built a desktop software company worth 8 figures, but I'm aiming for $1 billion, not to be a unicorn, but just because I think its the natural progression of where I'm headed. I started the company in 2016 and I have 15 employees and I've never taken on investor money despite rejecting quite a few offers. In MJ's own words he thinks that my company will be the first 9 figure (hopefully 10 though) exit on the forum. I built everything from the ground up on the business end by myself. I brought on my initial founding partner with equity and a few initial employees with equity. I've had experience negotiating a multi-million dollar contract and building an entire IP from nothing which has seriously upset an industry as we came out of nowhere. We also follow profit first accounting methods and do quarterly dividends. I don't want to publicly name the company here but I'm happy to answer general business questions or give advice on situations you may be in.

I don't really believe in outsourcing cheap labor or paying/treating employees like dispensable objects. Everyone in my company makes a minimum of $80,000 a year, even if in their country it's perfectly acceptable that they're paid a fraction of what we pay them. I believe in treating both customers and employees as well as I possibly can in an effort to retain their strong talents.

Ask me anything about:

  • Managing employees and building a team
  • Subscription and permanent license based software
  • Bootstrapping your business & working on the biz while you have a day job
  • Dividend distributions and taking money out of your business
  • Building a successful software company, even if you can't code (I can't)
  • General business advice, mindset, etc
  • Anything that you feel you want to know about someone who's gotten as far as I have



If you know the company I run or my industry, please do not mention it in this thread. It is irrelevant, and if anything it's a harder industry to be in than most.
Congratulations on your success and I am very happy for you. I hope your business becomes multi billion dollar soon. :)
Here are some of my questions:

1. How did you convince very bright people to work with you?
2. I don't have much money for bootstrapping but might have to go for investors, any suggestions?
3. I have a friend, we are not very close but he could be of some help in my start up, should I involve him/her, if yes then how far? Or it is better to find other new people?
4. How much of your idea(?) or execution steps(for example through business plans) should be made public? this is for building a team or getting investors, I know that an idea is worth nothing unless executed but the story of Facebook has made a deep effect on my mind, that's why.
 

Wisith

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@Ravens_Shadow I love the journey, man!

Big ups to you for paying your employees well along with exercising regularly and eating healthy. Working out is my stress reliever too.

This is a hindsight question, but what would you do if you didn't find your cofounder on the Discord?

My friend and I co-founded a software company too. The MVP is built and we have paid users. It's all written in C-Sharp, but we desperately need someone who's better in cloud computing to maximize our total addressable market. I've searched high and low for a CTO, but may need to go the VC route for their network.

Also, is your cofounder and team local or in the same time zone at least? If not, how do you work effectively while 100% remote?

I'm sorry about the hardship you went through during the journey with your personal life, man. Positive vibes to you!

In regards to marketing your product, did you just start posting about it on Reddit and social media platforms?

How did you get paid users with a pre MVP? Photoshopped mockups?

Sorry if these questions have been answered. I binged the thread now to catch up.
 

Ericito

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I've been wanting to do an AMA (Ask me anything) for a while. I've built a desktop software company worth 8 figures, but I'm aiming for $1 billion, not to be a unicorn, but just because I think its the natural progression of where I'm headed. I started the company in 2016 and I have 15 employees and I've never taken on investor money despite rejecting quite a few offers. In MJ's own words he thinks that my company will be the first 9 figure (hopefully 10 though) exit on the forum. I built everything from the ground up on the business end by myself. I brought on my initial founding partner with equity and a few initial employees with equity. I've had experience negotiating a multi-million dollar contract and building an entire IP from nothing which has seriously upset an industry as we came out of nowhere. We also follow profit first accounting methods and do quarterly dividends. I don't want to publicly name the company here but I'm happy to answer general business questions or give advice on situations you may be in.

I don't really believe in outsourcing cheap labor or paying/treating employees like dispensable objects. Everyone in my company makes a minimum of $80,000 a year, even if in their country it's perfectly acceptable that they're paid a fraction of what we pay them. I believe in treating both customers and employees as well as I possibly can in an effort to retain their strong talents.

Ask me anything about:

  • Managing employees and building a team
  • Subscription and permanent license based software
  • Bootstrapping your business & working on the biz while you have a day job
  • Dividend distributions and taking money out of your business
  • Building a successful software company, even if you can't code (I can't)
  • General business advice, mindset, etc
  • Anything that you feel you want to know about someone who's gotten as far as I have



If you know the company I run or my industry, please do not mention it in this thread. It is irrelevant, and if anything it's a harder industry to be in than most.
Congratulations. I knew your day would eventually come. You grinded hard for it and it worked. Wish you all the best.
 
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I Am I Said

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I believe these kind of questions are exactly what successful people are being asked which have no f*cking value for anyone yet we fill the need for consumption.
Totally disagree, I'd find this valuable, as I'm starting out with no experience and often caught in uncertainty. How can you possibly know what's valuable for anyone but yourself? I'd find the answer useful. He did say "anything". Gee Whiz.
 

ycee

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Nice one @Ravens_Shadow - thank you for sharing.

I'm currently in the ideation and market testing phase of building my first SaaS. How did you find the pain/idea for your business? Was it just scratching your own itch or something more than that?

Any tips to find business ideas with 7-fig+ potential would be of great help!
 
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Peacefulwarrior

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  • Building a successful software company, even if you can't code (I can't)
How did you build the software? I am thinking of potentially building a platform so that two seperate groups of users can interact and exchange their services (don’t want to list exactly what service). I have absolutely zero knowledge of how to build software. Did you outsource this?

Also, did you know there was demand for your idea prior to making the decision to act on it? Or did you just assume that it would be in huge demand? I find it difficult to find where the demand is but I’m almost 100% certain my idea will be in high demand and very profitable.
 

Zardiw

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Here I am, because I have to address this.

How on Earth does this help you? Or how it would’ve helped him ?

I believe these kind of questions are exactly what successful people are being asked which have no f*cking value for anyone yet we fill the need for consumption.


The guy/girl is looking for a billion dollar exit and that’s what you’re asking?

I have no questions. I’m grateful I get to experience this through the forum.

Thank you @Ravens_Shadow
Why so negative. The question is quite germaine. It's called trying to avoid mistakes made.

z
 
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Ravens_Shadow

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I have begun learning how to code although I find it a steep learning curve and as we all know there are only so many hours in a day! I also work full time so being new to the world of entrepreneurship I am trying to learn where to best target my time energy for the highest returns. Definitely finding the whole "getting started" process a little overwhelming. Any insights you could provide would be a big help.
If you do actually want to learn to code, the way my guys told me they did it was by picking small, useful, projects and gradually grow into bigger ones.

I learnt that VC presence in a business might reduce control and affect the priority of who the company satisfies between the customer and stakeholders... With that in mind, is it better to bootstrap than take on investor money? especially when the project is gigantic & will go a long way with VC support.
Its completely up to you to decide whether or not its worth it to relinquish some control to VC's. I personally wouldn't but its a personal choice and I just . Many do it and become wildly successful. If you think you can do it and it'll snowball your progress, by all means go for it.

@Ravens_Shadow can you describe what your first sale was like? How long it took, how much was the first sale, what it felt like making the first sale, and how you felt about the quality of the first release to a customer?
I'll just speak from my first but far worse tool we put out in mid 2017. The first sale was like $9.99 or something but it really gave me hope. The quality was complete trash but it did the job. And for our second product our first sale was around probably a couple thousand dollars and once again the quality wasn't there with the interface but it did the job. They loved it regardless. No matter how good you think your product is at first, it's always shit in hindsight, so as soon as it does its intended job, release it even if it isn't efficient.

How important is mindset and what can someone do to develop the proper mindset?
Mindset is everything. You need to want to escape your current life more than you want to stay in it. Remove the words "but" and "cant" from your vocabulary because can't is almost never true and but cancels out positive statements.
Example: "I really wanna do this thing, but, it's really difficult and makes my life uncomfortable and the moon isn't in the right phase right now. But i really wanna do it." Great, now you just cancelled out the positive statement of you wanting to do it and came up with some bullshit of why it's a bad idea. Just leave it at "I really wanna do this thing" and your brain will lead the way on how.
For the first version of your software, did you learn code and math to do it yourself?
For the very first prototype version yes, but the sellable version was coded by someone else.

Congrats. Really happy for you. I have a question. I recently hired someone to design my Shopify store but he is not doing satisfactory work, despite multiple warnings. What should I do in this matter?
Fire them and find someone else.

Did you ever face a point where the workload exceeded your teams realistic ability to complete it, but you couldn't yet afford to hire more people? And how did you manage it?

I reduced our dividends and paid the team more to alleviate the pain or we reassigned programmers to do different jobs if they were getting burned out. For the past year we struggled with this and we just made sure the reality was clear and I let my team make up the deadlines and I relinquished control on that. The product update eventually got released to great success.

1) Why you built a desktop software and not a SaaS? Was it a limitation as your specific software needed to be desktop for your industry/customers or was any other reasoning behind it?

2) Maybe it's also industry specific but it's the first time I heard about discord for finding developers. Was it because the type of people you are looking for navigate in Discord?

3) Do you offer equity to all employees? How did employees with equity reacted with the decision not to sell the company? Are you all on the same page re that decision?

4) I'm always thinking about building a software company ( usually SaaS but still ) but I think on my specific case knowing how to code also gives me some disadvantages as my thinkings are very drawn to the technical side of things and do not think so much on the actual business side of it. Do you think not knowing to code helped you on that regard?

1. Limitations/customers/industry/its what i wanted to do
2. Discord or twitter was the only way I knew how to do it, so I just did it.
3. Not everyone got equity and they were all onboard with not selling.
4. Not knowing how to code gave me great advantages as I thought greater things were possible than what most beleived. My hunch was right.
Congrats! I have a software dev/consulting company but I have been trying, for years, to launch a SaaS product and have failed so far. The trick seems to be finding a niche or finding someone to work with in a niche. How much of your success do you feel can be attributed to you being able to do that?
I know my niche backwards, forwards, up, down, left, right, diagonally, upsidedown, to the moon, through the solar system, and into the distant void. The vast majority of my success is seeing the problem in my niche and knowing how to TRULY solve it.

I've been in the software industry for many years (20 years), I've ventured out a few times on other business ideas from time to time, and I always dreamed of starting a software company, what kind of advise would you give a person that is older and thinks its too late to start a business? And the 2nd Question, how does one find software niches in such a competitive market?

-Lou
If you keep thinking you're too old to start it you're never going to start it. Just do it before you have regrets. Get to know a niche, find problems, solve said problems. Look at competing tools, learn them inside and out, and figure how how you would fix it to provide better value to the same market segment and take their customers.

I am INTJ (IQ ~120), which means that I don't have a collectivist mindset and stand on my own. -a bunch of other stuff- What do you recommend I should do?
you need to watch this, and so does everyone else readin this thread. Don't skip any of it or you're doing yourself a major disservice. It's one of the most influential videos I've ever watched regardless of my "religious beliefs".
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ju_N8JlXFc


@Ravens_Shadow

What was your experience working your full-time job and this business? What helped you keep sane and not burn out? Any tips & tricks to get through this difficult period?
You just have to want it more than anything. The job put a fire under my butt like no other to escape. I had that "winning edge" in my brain to just F*cking win because I had no other choice. See the video that i just put above for the other guy.

1. How did you convince very bright people to work with you?
2. I don't have much money for bootstrapping but might have to go for investors, any suggestions?
3. I have a friend, we are not very close but he could be of some help in my start up, should I involve him/her, if yes then how far? Or it is better to find other new people?
4. How much of your idea(?) or execution steps(for example through business plans) should be made public? this is for building a team or getting investors, I know that an idea is worth nothing unless executed but the story of Facebook has made a deep effect on my mind, that's why.
1. I had shown that I tried to do it myself but hit a roadblock and the idea was really good.
2. I didn't have much money either so I got a job. I talked about investors above to someone else.
3. I wouldn't go into business with a friend. You need someone who will let you lead completely, or you be able to completely follow. Any friction on who is in control will destroy your business and your partnership.
4. I'm pretty open, probably too open. Read this to find my current stance now for most things: ART OF MONEY GETTING But with investors you have to tell the truth.

@Ravens_Shadow I love the journey, man!

This is a hindsight question, but what would you do if you didn't find your cofounder on the Discord?
Also, is your cofounder and team local or in the same time zone at least? If not, how do you work effectively while 100% remote?
In regards to marketing your product, did you just start posting about it on Reddit and social media platforms?
How did you get paid users with a pre MVP? Photoshopped mockups?
I would've tried to find one until I had one as i was in that position for many months.
Everyone on our team is around the world in many timezones over multiple oceans. Discord & basecamp & github is how we're effective.
I've only done social media marketing.
The pre-mvp did the job as basically as possible so we got a sale. It looked like horse shit but it did the job.


Congratulations. I knew your day would eventually come. You grinded hard for it and it worked. Wish you all the best.
@Ericito Long time no see! Thanks for the kind comments, I hope you're doing well!

I'm currently in the ideation and market testing phase of building my first SaaS. How did you find the pain/idea for your business? Was it just scratching your own itch or something more than that?
See above in this post, I know my niche like no other. I scratched my own itch.


How did you build the software? I am thinking of potentially building a platform so that two seperate groups of users can interact and exchange their services (don’t want to list exactly what service). I have absolutely zero knowledge of how to build software. Did you outsource this?

Also, did you know there was demand for your idea prior to making the decision to act on it? Or did you just assume that it would be in huge demand? I find it difficult to find where the demand is but I’m almost 100% certain my idea will be in high demand and very profitable.
I built a team by giving them equity because I couldn't do it myself and build the product I needed to as I just didn't have the skills to go through with it. I knew there was demand because I was F*cking pissed about the software that was on the market. If i was pissed i'm sure others were too. If you are certain, go for it, that's how I was. My INSIDERS thread details it in as much detail as you could ever want.
 

JustMorpheus

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I've been wanting to do an AMA (Ask me anything) for a while. I've built a desktop software company worth 8 figures, but I'm aiming for $1 billion, not to be a unicorn, but just because I think its the natural progression of where I'm headed. I started the company in 2016 and I have 15 employees and I've never taken on investor money despite rejecting quite a few offers. In MJ's own words he thinks that my company will be the first 9 figure (hopefully 10 though) exit on the forum. I built everything from the ground up on the business end by myself. I brought on my initial founding partner with equity and a few initial employees with equity. I've had experience negotiating a multi-million dollar contract and building an entire IP from nothing which has seriously upset an industry as we came out of nowhere. We also follow profit first accounting methods and do quarterly dividends. I don't want to publicly name the company here but I'm happy to answer general business questions or give advice on situations you may be in.

I don't really believe in outsourcing cheap labor or paying/treating employees like dispensable objects. Everyone in my company makes a minimum of $80,000 a year, even if in their country it's perfectly acceptable that they're paid a fraction of what we pay them. I believe in treating both customers and employees as well as I possibly can in an effort to retain their strong talents.

Ask me anything about:

  • Managing employees and building a team
  • Subscription and permanent license based software
  • Bootstrapping your business & working on the biz while you have a day job
  • Dividend distributions and taking money out of your business
  • Building a successful software company, even if you can't code (I can't)
  • General business advice, mindset, etc
  • Anything that you feel you want to know about someone who's gotten as far as I have



If you know the company I run or my industry, please do not mention it in this thread. It is irrelevant, and if anything it's a harder industry to be in than most.
First of all. great job dude. I'm sure building your company wasn't a walk in the park. What was your mindset when you were looking for a problem to solve in the industry? What are some of the things that you ask yourself to find these problems? Then how do you know you've struck gold?
 
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Ravens_Shadow

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What was your mindset when you were looking for a problem to solve in the industry? What are some of the things that you ask yourself to find these problems? Then how do you know you've struck gold?

I wasnt looking for a problem to solve specifically in this industry, it was just a problem that made me tremendously angry and when I saw that no one else cared, I simply took it upon myself to fix it. If you are the target customer, and you know that solving the problem would make your life easier, you've struck gold.
 

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I wasnt looking for a problem to solve specifically in this industry, it was just a problem that made me tremendously angry and when I saw that no one else cared, I simply took it upon myself to fix it. If you are the target customer, and you know that solving the problem would make your life easier, you've struck gold.
That's awesome dude. Its seems that others were having the same issue that you were having too. How did you go about testing demand for your product? Or was it something that you did in hopes it would be profitable? I've only got a little bit of money at the moment. So I think I can learn a lot from you telling me.
 

FastNAwesome

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Congratulations on your success @Ravens_Shadow, and thanks for this AMA!

My questions would be:

Do you have an in-house legal team? If yes, at what point you brought it into your business? If not, how do you manage contracts and such?
 
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Kirk84

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@Pharez Couldn't quote you properly, to answer your question I initially did 80/20 but eventually moved down to 60/40 (60 to me) and then from there me and my partner diluted equally as we brought other employees on. If anyone leaves the company, the company has sole rights to buy the equity back as we don't want any equity holders with no current skin in the company.

Thank you for sharing all your knowledge.

Does the company buy back equity from employees who want to leave or do you personally buy back equity? At an evaluation of 8 figures, buying back equity is expensive. How do you do that? Do you pay out leaving equity owners in full or is there some payment scheme...

I dropped out of college twice. I have tried other business ventures and failed. I did end up working a full-time job in my industry while building my company to get inside knowledge on how I could apply my software to the task at hand.

Follow up questions:
- How do you pick yourself up after failing? I feel quite beaten down after recent my second failure.
- Did you start your full-time job in order to gain industry knowledge just to be able to start your own successful statup? Did you have your startup in mind when starting your full-time job?
 
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drkenny

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Hi, thank you for the AMA. Great thread.
Somewhere earlier in the thread - you wrote that hiring is hard. I run a medical clinic -and I find HR/employees to be one of the biggest challenges. A couple of questions:
1) For hiring - have you gotten to the point of having HR professionals? do you outsource this, or bring someone in house for it? Even though this can be a time saver, it can lead to different challenges. I'd love any advice on this you can share.

2) For managing employees and workload - especially in a completely virtual work environment - do you have clear job responsibilities for each employee (ie written for them to reference)? how do you monitor productivity/deliverables (are there managers checking on employee productivity)? Have you had issues with employees who weren't productive (presumably visiting facebook or instagram, or shopping on amazon during work hours), and how did you manage that?
Thanks!
Kenny
 

FacingReality

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I am INTJ (IQ ~120), which means that I don't have a collectivist mindset and stand on my own. I don't depend on the government and want to limit its influence on me. I followed society's model for success, got degrees in Software Engineering and many other certs in the industry, worked for a corporate for 8 years where I started from the bottom. Worked on a SaaS for 3 years, that includes windows software and an app, then tried selling it for 1 year if my life depended on it, but couldn't find any customers. Even hired some expensive advisor from this site to assist me in case I had blind spots in my process. Few 100$/month to cover some costs would have done great for the morale. What I have now is all these years of experience, a student loan, and a minimum wage IT job, while the inflation is wreaking havoc on the economy. No software engineering company wants to hire me because there's always not enough 'knowledge' or an emotional disconnect with the hiring manager. I think it's largely because I don't fit in with the "woke" culture. What do you recommend I should do?

Hi, I recognized some things in your story and just wanted to tell you about a book which really openend my eyes and mindset a bit. It's The Go-Giver from Bob Burg. It completely changed the way I view some things like selling. It might do something for you too.
 
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Medellin

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@Ravens_Shadow I've been following this thread and it's been a treat - thanks for your time and insight.

Is there a discord server that you currently recommend joining for finding a developer? I'm in the same shoes as you and am looking for a co-founder/ first developer.

Here are some that I have found for anyone else interested:


Once again, thank you!
 

Vanyka

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I wasnt looking for a problem to solve specifically in this industry, it was just a problem that made me tremendously angry and when I saw that no one else cared, I simply took it upon myself to fix it. If you are the target customer, and you know that solving the problem would make your life easier, you've struck gold.
Thank you for taking your precious time and helping people here. Respect! These selfless AMA posts are solid gold, I find.
 

WillHurtDontCare

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I'd love to know how people navigate this as well. I've never done something so difficult in my life. Is it a mindset issue for me? Maybe. I'm in a hard place in life right now.

Think of the notable people in history and ask yourself if we remember them because they had easy lives.

I was never scared of someone running away with the idea because most programmers by default aren't even thinking about running a business anyway.

100% true

Not sure what a pen tester is, so probably not.


Discord (or finding good programmers I admired on twitter) is how I found almost all of my people.

Any recommendations on how to do this? I did this to start my journey from data analyst to web developer - I found some programmers building in public on Twitter then I joined their telegram channels.
 
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codequaza

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How did you handle authentication? Did you implement it on your own or did you use something like okta?
 

Ravens_Shadow

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How did you handle authentication? Did you implement it on your own or did you use something like okta?
I take it you mean account authentication. Right now we just use the account systems provided by our payment processor, FastSpring. We are planning on using AWS Cognito for our upcoming auth system though.
 

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