BuildFire
company on 2 shows · 20 statements across 4 episodes · said 26 times in 6 episodes since 2017
Top Founders 20 
Startup Acquisition Stories 6
Mentions by year, every show
tap a year for its mentions
Top Founders 20Startup Acquisition Stories 6
2024 6 mentions in 1 episode
2020 1 mention in 1 episode
2019 5 mentions in 1 episode
2018 1 mention in 1 episode
every mention on every show, scene by scene, with the transcript →
20 statements about BuildFire, every show
Ian Blair: BuildFire published over 15,000 apps in 10 years
“Spent a little over 10 years building that company and published over 15,000 apps to the app store.”
Ian Blair: Continuous feature addition creates an endless treadmill for scaling
“One thing that I've learned is like simple system scale. And, you know, when you have to add tons and tons of new features, it just becomes like this endless treadmill that you're on.”
Ian Blair scaled BuildFire to $30K MRR while still in college
“Like, I had four months off just to work on the business, and it was growing, and I don't know, we probably got it to, like, 20, 30,000 a month in recurring revenue.”
Ian Blair: Venture-backed founders must provide shareholder liquidity by year ten
“When you raise capital, I mean, at a certain point, you have to return capital to shareholders. So You know, kind of around the 10 year mark, you know, they're looking for liquidity.”
Ian Blair: BuildFire's initial attempt to sell via investment bank failed
“So we started working with an investment bank early on and unfortunately did not get a transaction across the finish line.”
Ian Blair: BuildFire's acquisition due diligence completed in just 30 days
“There's only a 30 day due diligence process.”
Ian Blair regrets not selling BuildFire when markets were hot and frothy
“When things are like really hot and frothy and, you know, the future's looking bright, I mean, that's really the time that you want to sell. So I wish, you know, we had made those moves at the time.”
Latka: BuildFire Reached $2.4M 2017 Revenue and $300k Monthly MRR
“Since launching BuildFire in 2012, Ian has raised 2.5 million in investor funding and has 31 employees at age 25. His annual revenue in 2017 was 2.4 million dollars and his current monthly recurring revenue is 300,000 dollars per month.”
App builder competitor BuildFire started as a Bizness Apps partner
“Build fire for one used to be a partner of ours.”
Blair: Scaled white-label reseller to $300k ARR in 12 months
“We ended up building up a 300,000 dollar recurring revenue stream in 12 months.”
Blair: BuildFire has raised about $2.5M in capital
“We've raised about two and a half million so far.”
Blair: BuildFire broke $1M annual revenue run rate in 2015
“In 2015, let's see, 2015, I think that's when we broke the one million a year mark”
Blair: BuildFire reached nearly $200K pure SaaS MRR in late 2016
“Yeah, that would be you know, close to the 200 mark.”
Blair: BuildFire's ARPU ranges between $350 and $500 per month
“I would say on average, it's probably about three, 54. Yeah. Maybe 500 a month.”
Blair: BuildFire receives hundreds of thousands of monthly website visitors
“We have, you know, hundreds of thousands of people on our month or on our site each month.”
Blair: BuildFire spends just over $10,000 monthly on paid advertising
“We're doing a little over 10,000 a month on paid.”
Blair: BuildFire's monthly logo churn hovers between 3% and 5%
“Pure logo churn is about five. I can hover anywhere from like three to five percent.”
Blair: BuildFire acquires DIY customers for $25 to $30 CAC
“So like, for example, like the DIY customers, you know, it's like 25, 30 bucks. It's really cheap.”
Blair: BuildFire has grown purely through inbound marketing without outbound sales
“We haven't really had a direct sales effort yet. A lot of SaaS companies early on, that's how they start out. And, you know, we were fortunate to really do inbound marketing well and provide us with a whole slew of customers early on.”