285: Paperform: How a Developer Bootstrapped a SaaS to $1.5M+ ARR - with Dean McPherson

It was 2016 and Dean was working as a developer in Sydney, Australia. After doing some work building online forms, he believed there was a gap in the market for a different type of form building product. As a developer, turning his idea into a minimum viable product (MVP) wasn't hard. But getting the word out about his product and finding customers was a whole different ballgame. He promoted his product on Betalist without much success But it did help to his product on AppSumo teams' radar, and he was invited to do a launch with them. After scrambling to get his MVP ready for the launch, we managed to land 3000 customers. But every AppSumo customer paid a one-time lifetime price - so he still had zero recurring revenue. But it did give him enough money to quit his job and work on the product full-time with this wife. They basically operated as a lifestyle business for a couple of years. Eventually, Dean realized that if he wanted the business to grow, he needed to think about it differently, start hiring a team and getting a lot more serious about marketing - something neither he nor wife knew much about. Today his company does over $1.5 million annual recurring revenue (ARR) and is still bootstrapped. In this interview, we talk about he's grown his idea into a 7-figure business, how he figured out how to differentiate his product in a crowded market, and how hiring his first employees was a scary decision but turned to be one of the best things he's done for his business. I hope you enjoy it. Enjoyed this episode?

You can listen to 285: Paperform: How a Developer Bootstrapped a SaaS to $1.5M+ ARR - with Dean McPherson online on Radio and Podcast. Open the player on this page to stream the available audio.

285: Paperform: How a Developer Bootstrapped a SaaS to $1.5M+ ARR - with Dean McPherson is an episode from The SaaS Podcast - SaaS, Startups, Growth Hacking & Entrepreneurship (formerly ConversionAid Podcast) by Omer Khan.

This episode is 47:29 long.

This episode was published on May 5, 2021.

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