From launch to sustainability in 21 months

Yes, this title is multi-interpretable. Most founders would write the story of how they managed to reach their goal. To share their success and their learnings. Don’t get me wrong. Those stories are lovely to read, and great stories to share.

But wouldn’t it be awesome if these stories are written upfront, and afterward

That’s mainly why I decided to build Mindwave. To write authentic stories about the past, to be in the present, and to work on the future. Stories to treasure for myself, and to let others in on my journey.

Already looking forward to re-write this story again, 21 months from now. Using Mindwave as the go-to source for all my learnings and insights. To check-in with my expectations and see where I excelled or failed to meet them.

But for now, this is my ’21 months before sustainability’ story.

What is sustainable?

My ambition is to build a sustainable Mindwave. According to Wikipedia sustainability means ‘the ability to exist constantly‘. In other words, to build a business that is here to stay ?.

I need a goal that marks: I’m here to stay. A milestone that means Mindwave is a viable and profitable business. So I can grow Mindwave on my terms, at my own pace. It’s basically what makes me jump out of bed each morning.

So, I set this milestone: $100.000 ARR

  • It would mean Mindwave is a viable product. Happy users creating word-of-mouth growth.
  • It would mean Mindwave is a profitable business. Being able to provide a decent income for me, and enough money for my freelancers to continuously improve the product.
  • And to be honest, it’s a beautiful number to look at.

But, what is normal?

How long would it take me to get there? What do I know about “What is normal?” Mindwave is my first SaaS product. No much history there. The best thing I can do is to look for a reliable Benchmark. So, hi Baremetrics ??

While browsing their site and numbers I stumbled into this article:
https://baremetrics.com/blog/how-fast-saas-companies-hit-arr-milestones

Hey, this is exactly what I’m looking for. One of the benchmarks in this article is my sustainability target. How convenient!

Baremetrics answer: 463 days.

I started up Google Sheets and simply calculated: 15 July + 463 days = 20 October 2020. 

Then my Concept7 experience kicked in. When making prognoses, always take a  conservative approach. So, I decided to make 20 October 2020 my Best Case Scenario. 

What am I comfortable with for the Normal Case? Let’s say it would take me 30% longer than the average SaaS startup. Sounds decent to me. The Normal Case Scenario: 15 July + 602 days  = 7 March 2021.

$100K ARR, 21 months from now. Challenge accepted!