8 years ago I have started a company that would become , a company doing over 1 million euros of recurring revenue while being profitable year over year. Socialshaker Saas Since its inception the company has been I in 2015 and we are now part of larger group called sharing a . Since then I am running the France office with Socialshaker targeting SMBs all over Europe. bootstrapped. sold it Facelift common DNA Yes I know : and you could ask yourself why because all you hear in the media is startups raising xx milions these days. I will add here that the vast are focused only on of financing, or . I did not raised money majority of headlines in the tech industry rounds acquisitions IPOs : we have , did a lot of custom development before focusing on and experiencing . I was happy that every year the company was able to pay everyone on the team while growing and picking up dozens of clients. My story is a bit different pivoted Saas only 100% Year-over-Year growth The truth is : I have thought very quickly after launching Socialshaker ( ) that we would have to with another european company to be a strong player in the future. march 2011 join forces I shortly contemplated raising money when I got initial traction but was then . He told me that I would reach 1 million euros in revenue by selling 99€/month licenses. I just thought at this time : Challenge accepted! You need a to be able and eventually become the #1 player in Europe while I had started Socialshaker by myself. . Because we were boostrapped from the start we always cared about being able to pay our employees for the next months so we were always very cautious about the way we our finances. We did not throw users parties every month and I was not traveling to the Valley every quarter. So 3 years ago if a VC had told me I needed to spend the 1 million euros we just raised I honestly would have had no clue on how to spend it in a profitable way. especially when you layout a . I later learned that some VCs have a vision limited of 3–4 years and want to maximize their profit as quickly as possible while knowing in the meantime that a strategic change can kill your business. This is ok to them as they invest in dozens of companies. As a founder however you’d better be sure that this is the right bet. I have seen several competitors collapse after raising millions from VCs. Why did I not raised money instead? 1. turned down by a top fundraising advisor never 2. team of experienced founders to scale 3. When you raise money you need to spend it manage 4. Not being VC backed can actually be a key to success plan over several years When Socialshaker joined Facelift in 2015 a lot of people kept asking me why I choose to sell a company that was profitable and growing. My answer has always been the same : . because this is part of the plan A plan that I have which means that a lot of my investment decisions have been taking this plan into consideration. For example we have focused on revenues (selling software licences) instead of selling a lot of services around our solution (consulting, training etc.). We could definitely have made a lot of money from services but recurring revenues are the only interesting metric for a bigger company while services revenues is hard to sustain. designed for years Saas The very first attempt at designing Socialshaker’s interface **Absolutely not.**I am just saying that it’s when you start a company despite what you could think based on media coverage. Am I saying that you should never raise money? not the only option If the company you just started is this is totally ok in my mind to raise capital in order to go faster than any other competitor. If not however, then just know that the . With some help from friends and family you can start a very healthy business today. In my opinion it’s mainly a matter of targeting a billion market opportunity cost of starting a company has never been so low will and dedication over years. There’s tons of people starting businesses everyday and still killing it. If you are in the tech industry just know that , (37Signals), or are all boostrapped companies. without VC backing Mailchimp Basecamp Braintree Pardot doesn’t mean you cannot . In fact because your company has rock-solid foundation you can even raise rounds on a whole other level. This is what companies like or did. Boostrapping grow faster later Facelift Github But remember that you have a lot than you’ll ever have of and this is still ok. Our world is full our very successful medium-size companies creating thousands of jobs, you just do not hear from them everyday in the news. more chance building a million dollar company building a billion dollar company
