Founder stories
$100K ARRin 3 years
4 milestones
Ex-Facebook Designers Build User Feedback Tool to $1M ARR
Founder
Sarah Hum
Co-Founders•Technical•USA
Commitment
Full-timeExperience
First-timeProduct
User feedback tracking tool.
Type
SaaSIndustry
Developer ToolsModel
SubscriptionMarketing Strategy
How Sarah acquired customers
Primary Channel
Word of Mouth
Tech Stack
Tools used to build Canny
ReactNode.jsPostgreSQL
The Full Story
Sarah studied graphic design and worked as a product designer at Facebook. There she met her co-founder Andrew.
Community First
They started with Product Pains, a community for tracking feedback. They repositioned and rebranded to Canny.
Bootstrapped Success
They never did outbound sales - all growth came from inbound. Just under 3.5 years after launching, they hit $1M ARR.
- Time to $1M ARR: 3.5 years
- Investment raised: $0
- Team: Fully remote
- Sales: 100% inbound
Key Takeaways
1
Building a community first can give you initial customers for your SaaS
2
Inbound marketing can work if you focus on it from day one
3
You don't need investors if you're profitable from the start
4
Product people (designer + engineer) can be a strong founding combination
Originally published onIndie Hackers
Inspired by Sarah's journey? Generate a business idea in the Developer Tools space using AI and real founder data.
Milestone Journey
Sarah achieved 4 milestones on the path to $100K ARR
First Customer
3 months
April 2017
6% faster
vs avg 3 months+9 months to next milestone
$1K MRR
$1,000
1 year
January 2018
Avg: 11 months
+1 year to next milestone
$10K MRR
$10,000
2 years
January 2019
Avg: 1 year
+1 year to next milestone
$100K ARR
$1,000,000
3 years
July 2020
Avg: 3 years
3 years
Total journey time
4
Milestones achieved
Sarah's Path to $100K ARRPremium
The journey, decisions, and context behind this milestone
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