Episode 717 | Bootstrapping to $1.3M ARR and 300,000 Free Users

Startups For the Rest of Us

Rob Walling

Entrepreneurship, Management, Business, Marketing

4.9 • 819 Ratings

🗓️ 11 June 2024

⏱️ 34 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In episode 717, Rob Walling interviews Marie Martin, co-founder of Tally. They discuss the company’s journey to $1.3M ARR and the unusual pricing strategy that got them there. Marie details how they keep their support volume low, how they differentiate Tally from other form builders, and how they grew to over 300,000 free users. Episode Sponsor: We have been partnering with Lemon.io for several years, and they’ve proven to be a great choice when it comes to hiring for a highly skilled developer to work on your project. Here are five reasons why you should consider working with Lemon.io. The time from your request to getting a candidate is just 48 hours. Developers have previously worked with tech giants such as Apple, Google, Netflix, Airbnb, Intel, and LEGO. They only provide senior devs, with an average of 7 years' experience. Their talent pool covers more than 300 dev languages & frameworks. Your hire comes with a zero-risk, replacement guarantee. Customers of Lemon.io typically stick around for at least a year, proving they know how to gain your trust by delivering consistent results. Quit wasting time searching for a solid developer at a great price. Get in touch with Lemon.io. As a bonus for our podcast listeners, you’ll get a 15% discount on your first four weeks of working with a developer at lemon.io/startups. That’s lemon.io/startups Topics we cover: 2:22 – Where Tally is today 3:53 – Keeping customer support volume low 7:12 – Differentiating Tally from other form builders 10:55 – The ingredients needed to make “free” work 18:31 – ”Shrinking a Market” 24:27 – Growing to 300,000+ free users 26:47 – Dealing with bad actors 29:37 – Applying the learnings from Tally’s success Links from the Show: Tickets for MicroConf Europe | Oct 6 - 8, 2024, Dubrovnik, Croatia Apply for MicroConf Masterminds before June 12th 2024 Marie Martens (@MarieMartens) | X Tally No-Code France TinySeed 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! Subscribe & Review: iTunes | Spotify | Google<...

Transcript

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0:00.0	If you're looking for startup to the rest of us, you're in the right place.
0:02.5	I'm Rob Walling, and today I talk with Marie Marten about bootstrapping her form building
0:08.7	SaaS to 1.3 million in ARR and 300,000 free users.
0:14.7	It's a great conversation, and what I love about what she and her partner have done is
0:20.5	really go against the odds of launching
0:24.3	something with a massive free plan, very generous, really low price point, and yet still being
0:29.9	able to get to 1.3 million ARR in the span of just a few years. Marie is going to be speaking at
0:36.2	MicroConf Europe in lovely Dubrovnik Croatia. Tickets have just gone few years. Marie is going to be speaking at MicroConf Europe in lovely Dubrovnik, Croatia.
0:40.2	Tickets have just gone on sale. The event will sell out. It is being held October 6th through 8th
0:47.2	at this amazing venue. It is literally one of the best, if not the best venues that we've ever had
0:53.4	any microconf at, and I mean
0:55.6	any microcomf, a U.S. at Europe, really going to be an amazing event. So if you want to hear more
0:59.9	from Marie, if you want to meet me in person and hang out with about 125 of your favorite bootstrapped
1:06.8	founder friends, grab a ticket at microcomf.comf.com slash Europe. That's microcomf.
1:12.2	Before we dive into the episode, I wanted to let you know that it's your last chance to apply
1:17.6	for microcomf masterminds. Applications close on June 12th at midnight. Finding the right founders
1:23.6	to surround yourself with can feel like an impossibly hard task. Over the past few years,
1:28.9	our team has successfully hand-matched over 1,000 founders into mastermind groups by looking at
1:34.7	your revenue, team size, strengths, goals, and a few other data points to make sure your peer
1:40.5	group is the right fit. Once matched, you'll also have access to our mentorship series,
1:45.2	a three-month program where you can connect with some great minds in sales, business development,
1:50.2	marketing, and more. If you're looking for accountability, honest feedback about your business,
	...

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