A very relatable story! Are you going to write follow-up posts with more details covering the rest of the journey with more of the ups and downs of running a tiny bootstrapped startup? I'd be interested in reading!
A nice story-- I built my own SaaS (in the middle of year seven now). A similar story... I even read Rob Walling's book and even went to a local Microconf.
The numbers grew slowly and have pretty much plateaued. It's my dream job, and I can't imagine going back to work for anyone else.
I do have an existential dread though--- mainly, "what if my revenue goes to zero?" and I constantly think about how to improve the service or build another service on the side.
Though, it's still better than the dread that comes with being employed and potentially laid off.
Congrats! Mine just turned 17 and I just modernised it a bit. Happy clients for almost 2 decades. No unicorns but still a nice fuzzy feeling. Keep going for the next 10 years!
You are welcome m1keil. It did come at exactly the right time. It is a bit dated but still holds strong. I also like his new book called 'The SaaS playbook' which is a bit more for the stage my SaaS is currently in.
