Episode 688 | Growing Boot.dev From $6k to $110k in Monthly Revenue in 15 Months
Startups For the Rest of Us
English - November 21, 2023 10:00 - 32 minutes - 29.9 MB - ★★★★★ - 675 ratingsCareers Business Technology business marketing entrepreneur entrepreneurship leadership finance entrepreneurs interview health fitness Homepage Download Apple Podcasts Google Podcasts Overcast Castro Pocket Casts RSS feed
In episode 688, Rob Walling interviews Lane Wagner, founder of Boot.dev. Boot.dev is a learning platform gamified to teach backend development. They discuss the journey of bootstrapping Boot.dev, its explosive growth, and its unique business model. Lane also shares challenges of running a B2C business, why he took some funding, and the significance of customer lifetime value over MRR in his business.
Topics we cover:
2:38 – Boot.dev seeing incredible growth
3:35 – Growing on YouTube with partnerships
5:42 – Teaching Python and Go as a B2C business
7:49 – “This is not really SaaS”, considering JTBD
11:18 – The beginnings of Boot.dev, serving the backend niche
14:21 – Gaining the confidence to quit the day job
15:51 – Deciding to raise funding and “mostly” bootstrap
20:31 – Enduring hardship before turning the corner on growth
26:38 – Finding the right revenue metric for the business
Links from the Show:
MicroConf US - Atlanta - April 21 - 23, 2024
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Purple Cow by Seth Godin
If you have questions about starting or scaling a software business that you’d like for us to cover, please submit your question for an upcoming episode. We’d love to hear from you!