scubakid

Anything in particular you're looking for? Currently there is support for some common Canadian account types, tax estimation, CPP, OAS, GIS, etc.

here's a writeup I shared that might be of interest[0]

it's mainly been product-led growth. I've always just been a guy that likes building cool things, and I spent most of the early years head-down coding. anything marketing-oriented was new to me, and not my natural skillset.

gradually PL started getting some attention in the FI / FIRE space, and recently I've begun building out a small team while staying bootstrapped.

https://projectionlab.com/blog/we-reached-1m-arr-with-zero-f...

outdated software with known vulnerabilities

Maybe I missed it, but was it ever established that these general vulnerabilities are actually relevant to this specific system/implementation?

good point, I'd agree sensors are just a piece of the picture

To me, "what is it like to be a" is more or less the intersection of sensory modalities between two systems... but I'm not sure the extent of the overlap tells you much about whether a given system is "conscious" or not.

You know, I used to bullseye T16s in my womp rat back home, they're not much bigger than thermal exhaust ports.

cool project. I always found java a little verbose for my taste, but I bet this runs faster than our sim engine! (it's in typescript)

I think there's a certain type of engineer that actively prefers working in a small team where you can make an outsized impact and wear many hats. I'm one of them lol.

I wonder if you could bring on just one really good dev who matches that description vs scaling up to a larger team. In many cases, a very small team of A+ players can beat a large team of B players.

Although it sounds like you're saying marketing/distribution may have played a larger role in your trajectory? In hindsight, do you think focusing your team-building efforts on the marketing side would have been a better strategy?

Knowing what you know now, is there anything strategic you would have done differently after reaching that 1M ARR milestone?

Did you consider adding an optional survey (or just an input or two) somewhere in setup or the onboarding flow? I bet some % of people would willingly tell you how/why they are using the software.

Glad to hear it resonated. And also glad I didn't start this project with the expectation of quick success, hype, or exponential growth. If I had, there's no way I would have made it through the slower early years.

you might enjoy The Simple Path to Wealth by JL Collins.

We've done some pricing experimentation over the years, and it's possible we're actually still positioned too cheap right now for the value the platform provides.

Personal finance is a pretty broad space, and it's common for different people to come to this with varying desires and expectations.

In our experience, the people who see the value in a good long-term DIY financial plan view our current pricing as extremely affordable, especially compared to traditional financial planning services which often charge $3-5k for a PDF and a pat on the back.

Anyway, if automated tracking is the piece that's most important to you, it might be worth noting that we do plan to add more options for that. But that work -- and all the other controversial implications of it that I mentioned in another comment -- just needs to be prioritized against all the other highly requested things on the product roadmap, based on what the community really wants the most.

Yep, I wrote the post!

I'd say we reached PMF a couple years ago the way I define it (solid customer acquisition from organic sources & word-of-mouth, strong retention, sustainable growth).

I was just curious if others might look at it differently, since I know definitions can vary. And like you said, some people might look at this update and dismiss it as still really small-time.

I noticed most tools neglect international scenarios because the US market is big and it's easier to focus on that. So I decided to be different and try to build with as much international flexibility as possible. We have a bunch of international account types and tax preseta, including some for the UK.

Doing some research would definitely be part of the diligence process when considering a new project.

Congrats on 100k organizations, that's impressive.

How much of a pain point is support? At that scale, is it becoming a burden without more of a team in place?

I'd be curious to hear more about what the ups and downs on your journey have been like.

Thanks! He's a fun little copilot when he's not chewing my cables and mousepad.

Definitely agree on thinking in bets and probabilities.

Is your sense that we're officially at PMF now? Or maybe last year even?

Or do you think the question is fundamentally subjective and depends on who you ask and what numbers seem compelling to them, like you kind of alluded to before?

GPT is not bad at high-level guesstimates, but there's a LOT that goes on under the hood to make a detailed, accurate, responsive, and tax-aware long-term planning system with a good UX for nuanced scenario comparisons and what-ifs. At current capability levels, AI tools aren't a great replacement for that in my experience. But we'll see if that changes as they continue to evolve...

one of the nice things about being lean and bootstrapped is there's less pressure to chase the mass market.

so we need to worry less than a venture-backed company probably would about just how far outside of the FIRE community this has a lot of appeal.

that being said, there are certainly a lot of people who would benefit from having a long-term financial plan. here's to hoping your ynab comparison turns out to be apt!

lol so have we gone from "wicked PMF" to just being "onto something"?

the rear-view thing sounds kinda like "you'll know it when you see it"... which I'm sure is true for some people, but idk if I would know when to declare PMF without a more precise definition.

oh neat! I was surprised how long their lifespan is -- my fiancé has had ours for over 20 years... although for some reason his allegiance flipped a few years ago, and now he only flies to me, not her.

thanks! consistently putting in those hours wasn't easy. it became the only time in life I've had elevated blood pressure. but you're right that I probably wouldn't have gotten here without burning the candle at both ends like that.

at the time, I was too risk-averse to go all-in right away, and this was the best de-risking strategy I came up with. luckily, my schedule is now more balanced again. (a little lol)

sounds like that would also mean overhauling the data model to track individual positions within every account, not just balances?

and then folks would expect every account's asset allocation to be automatically derived from those positions too I imagine? that would differ a lot from how asset allocation modeling and change over time currently works in the tool.

maybe I'm missing something, but it feels like there could be a lot of complexity here that would need to be carefully weighed against the product vision and other things on the roadmap.

Word-of-mouth growth sounds like a good sign. And depending on your goals, sometimes building a defensible niche business, maximizing ARPU, and minimizing churn can be better than chasing the mass market. Could something like a referral program potentially move the needle?

There are many frameworks and approaches, but here are two of my filtering criteria:

1. I don't start a project unless it's something I deeply want to exist for my own personal use. That way I know there's at least one person who would pay for an elegant solution. And even if no one shows up, at least it's useful to me.

2. I don't start a project unless I can envision the solution top to bottom and feel confident about the scope of the technical work. I'm not the most brilliant person at data structures & algorithms, and I prefer solutions where a simple architecture can get the job done. If there are foggy areas in the technical design, or parts I struggle to visualize clearly, to me that's a red flag.

Are your existing customers vocal about what they love or wish you'd add? Do you know how they found you and what made them choose you over competitors? Is there a niche/segment within your larger TAM with a specific pain point you're solving really well? And how big is that segment?

Either way, if your existing customers don't all come from paid channels, and they're loyal, and you've outlasted multiple competitors, that already sounds like a real achievement to me. My progress was slow for years before things started to really pick up, so don't discount signs of traction if there are some meaningful ones.

Neat, someday I'd like to see the Azores. I've heard good things.

FYI if you click on a destination name, it's currently throwing a 500 error.

I was definitely fortunate to attempt this in a compatible stage of life (no kids yet).

I'd like to think there will still be room for craft/creation if I become a parent someday. But I doubt this level of sustained focus (obsession?) over multiple years would have been possible or responsible in that scenario.