Episode 688 | Growing Boot.dev From $6k to $110k in Monthly Revenue in 15 Months
21 November 2023

Episode 688 | Growing Boot.dev From $6k to $110k in Monthly Revenue in 15 Months

Startups For the Rest of Us

About

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: 




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    Lane from Boot.dev (@wagslane) | X



    Boot.dev



    Profitable, at last!



    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!





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