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Mar 27, 2023 · 16m · top-founders

Developer SaaS Hits $112k MRR Bootstrapped using community growth strategy

Julian Danjou · 9m spoken Nathan Latka · 4m spoken
0:00 / 0:00

gold bands on the timeline = statements, start to end. Hover to read, click to jump. CC turns on captions

In this interview with Nathan Latka, Mergify co-founder and CEO Julien Danjou details how the developer tool scaled from an open-source side project into a fully bootstrapped SaaS company generating $110K in monthly recurring revenue across 150 enterprise engineering teams.

How this conversation actually went

Every chapter scored 0–10 on four independent dynamics. Hover any point for the reasoning behind the score. Nathan holds 30.6% of the talking time here. How this is scored →

Nathan as informed peer 5.0 Guest teaching 1.5 Guest disagreement 0.2 Nathan pushing back 1.3
05100:0010:001:05–3:25 · Nathan as informed peer 5/10 Welcoming Mergify Co-Founder Julien Danjou Nathan quickly establishes the SaaS pricing structure and calculates an estimated average revenue per user based on seat tiers, while Julien straightforwardly explains their enterprise and basic tiers.3:27–6:35 · Nathan as informed peer 6/10 Open-Source Origins and First Customer Acquisition Nathan probes into initial launch dates and calculates the company's monthly run-rate ($110k/month from 150 customers at $750/mo), verifying their 3x year-over-year bootstrapped growth.6:36–8:55 · Nathan as informed peer 4/10 Co-Founder Partnership and Resource-Constrained Execution Nathan explores the 50/50 equity split and asks how the founders sustained themselves without pay between 2018 and 2021. Julien explains how extreme resource constraints forced ruthless product prioritization.8:55–11:42 · Nathan as informed peer 6/10 Transitioning Full-Time and Scaling the Team Nathan looks up Mergify's live search rankings and GitHub Marketplace placement. Julien clarifies that the GitHub Marketplace actually drives negligible customer volume.11:42–14:07 · Nathan as informed peer 5/10 Growth Outlook and Marketing Experiments Nathan inquires about specific marketing experiments like podcast and newsletter sponsorships (such as Software Engineering Daily and TLDR), with Julien noting varied performance across developer channels.14:07–15:41 · Nathan as informed peer 4/10 Evaluating Potential Acquisition Offers and Strategic Fit Nathan poses an acquisition scenario ($10M cash buyout from GitHub) which Julien contemplates before transitioning into the standard rapid-fire Famous Five questions.1:05–3:25 · Guest teaching 2/10 Welcoming Mergify Co-Founder Julien Danjou Nathan quickly establishes the SaaS pricing structure and calculates an estimated average revenue per user based on seat tiers, while Julien straightforwardly explains their enterprise and basic tiers.3:27–6:35 · Guest teaching 1/10 Open-Source Origins and First Customer Acquisition Nathan probes into initial launch dates and calculates the company's monthly run-rate ($110k/month from 150 customers at $750/mo), verifying their 3x year-over-year bootstrapped growth.6:36–8:55 · Guest teaching 2/10 Co-Founder Partnership and Resource-Constrained Execution Nathan explores the 50/50 equity split and asks how the founders sustained themselves without pay between 2018 and 2021. Julien explains how extreme resource constraints forced ruthless product prioritization.8:55–11:42 · Guest teaching 2/10 Transitioning Full-Time and Scaling the Team Nathan looks up Mergify's live search rankings and GitHub Marketplace placement. Julien clarifies that the GitHub Marketplace actually drives negligible customer volume.11:42–14:07 · Guest teaching 1/10 Growth Outlook and Marketing Experiments Nathan inquires about specific marketing experiments like podcast and newsletter sponsorships (such as Software Engineering Daily and TLDR), with Julien noting varied performance across developer channels.14:07–15:41 · Guest teaching 1/10 Evaluating Potential Acquisition Offers and Strategic Fit Nathan poses an acquisition scenario ($10M cash buyout from GitHub) which Julien contemplates before transitioning into the standard rapid-fire Famous Five questions.1:05–3:25 · Guest disagreement 0/10 Welcoming Mergify Co-Founder Julien Danjou Nathan quickly establishes the SaaS pricing structure and calculates an estimated average revenue per user based on seat tiers, while Julien straightforwardly explains their enterprise and basic tiers.3:27–6:35 · Guest disagreement 0/10 Open-Source Origins and First Customer Acquisition Nathan probes into initial launch dates and calculates the company's monthly run-rate ($110k/month from 150 customers at $750/mo), verifying their 3x year-over-year bootstrapped growth.6:36–8:55 · Guest disagreement 0/10 Co-Founder Partnership and Resource-Constrained Execution Nathan explores the 50/50 equity split and asks how the founders sustained themselves without pay between 2018 and 2021. Julien explains how extreme resource constraints forced ruthless product prioritization.8:55–11:42 · Guest disagreement 1/10 Transitioning Full-Time and Scaling the Team Nathan looks up Mergify's live search rankings and GitHub Marketplace placement. Julien clarifies that the GitHub Marketplace actually drives negligible customer volume.11:42–14:07 · Guest disagreement 0/10 Growth Outlook and Marketing Experiments Nathan inquires about specific marketing experiments like podcast and newsletter sponsorships (such as Software Engineering Daily and TLDR), with Julien noting varied performance across developer channels.14:07–15:41 · Guest disagreement 0/10 Evaluating Potential Acquisition Offers and Strategic Fit Nathan poses an acquisition scenario ($10M cash buyout from GitHub) which Julien contemplates before transitioning into the standard rapid-fire Famous Five questions.1:05–3:25 · Nathan pushing back 1/10 Welcoming Mergify Co-Founder Julien Danjou Nathan quickly establishes the SaaS pricing structure and calculates an estimated average revenue per user based on seat tiers, while Julien straightforwardly explains their enterprise and basic tiers.3:27–6:35 · Nathan pushing back 2/10 Open-Source Origins and First Customer Acquisition Nathan probes into initial launch dates and calculates the company's monthly run-rate ($110k/month from 150 customers at $750/mo), verifying their 3x year-over-year bootstrapped growth.6:36–8:55 · Nathan pushing back 1/10 Co-Founder Partnership and Resource-Constrained Execution Nathan explores the 50/50 equity split and asks how the founders sustained themselves without pay between 2018 and 2021. Julien explains how extreme resource constraints forced ruthless product prioritization.8:55–11:42 · Nathan pushing back 2/10 Transitioning Full-Time and Scaling the Team Nathan looks up Mergify's live search rankings and GitHub Marketplace placement. Julien clarifies that the GitHub Marketplace actually drives negligible customer volume.11:42–14:07 · Nathan pushing back 1/10 Growth Outlook and Marketing Experiments Nathan inquires about specific marketing experiments like podcast and newsletter sponsorships (such as Software Engineering Daily and TLDR), with Julien noting varied performance across developer channels.14:07–15:41 · Nathan pushing back 1/10 Evaluating Potential Acquisition Offers and Strategic Fit Nathan poses an acquisition scenario ($10M cash buyout from GitHub) which Julien contemplates before transitioning into the standard rapid-fire Famous Five questions.

speaking balance: gold is Nathan, purple is the guest (3 minute bins)

0:00 · Nathan 56.8% · guest 43.2%0:00 · Nathan 56.8% · guest 43.2%3:00 · Nathan 22.2% · guest 77.8%3:00 · Nathan 22.2% · guest 77.8%6:00 · Nathan 13.9% · guest 86.1%6:00 · Nathan 13.9% · guest 86.1%9:00 · Nathan 24.7% · guest 75.3%9:00 · Nathan 24.7% · guest 75.3%12:00 · Nathan 21.5% · guest 78.5%12:00 · Nathan 21.5% · guest 78.5%15:00 · Nathan 73.8% · guest 26.2%15:00 · Nathan 73.8% · guest 26.2%
Sharpest disagreement ▶ 11:13 Julien corrects assumptions about Marketplace distribution

Julien bluntly dismisses the idea that the GitHub marketplace is a major growth channel, noting that GitHub deprioritized them because they don't drive enough direct revenue.

 Hardest push from Nathan ▶ 9:00 Nathan presses for specific full-time transition year

When Julien gives an ambiguous timeline about when the founders went full-time, Nathan interrupts to pin down the exact year.

 Biggest teaching moment ▶ 8:05 Julien describes the advantage of zero capital

Julien educates Nathan on why having zero money and two spare hours a week prevented them from falling into the common engineering trap of endlessly adding unused features.

 Nathan holds their own ▶ 10:59 Nathan analyzes Mergify's live search and marketplace rankings

Nathan demonstrates real-time domain research by reading off specific search engine ranking positions and GitHub marketplace positioning.
the scores for every segment, with the reasoning behind each
ChapterTopicNathan as informed peerGuest teachingGuest disagreementNathan pushing backWhy
Welcoming Mergify Co-Founder Julien Danjou 5201 Nathan quickly establishes the SaaS pricing structure and calculates an estimated average revenue per user based on seat tiers, while Julien straightforwardly explains their enterprise and basic tiers.
Open-Source Origins and First Customer Acquisition 6102 Nathan probes into initial launch dates and calculates the company's monthly run-rate ($110k/month from 150 customers at $750/mo), verifying their 3x year-over-year bootstrapped growth.
Co-Founder Partnership and Resource-Constrained Execution 4201 Nathan explores the 50/50 equity split and asks how the founders sustained themselves without pay between 2018 and 2021. Julien explains how extreme resource constraints forced ruthless product prioritization.
Transitioning Full-Time and Scaling the Team 6212 Nathan looks up Mergify's live search rankings and GitHub Marketplace placement. Julien clarifies that the GitHub Marketplace actually drives negligible customer volume.
Growth Outlook and Marketing Experiments 5101 Nathan inquires about specific marketing experiments like podcast and newsletter sponsorships (such as Software Engineering Daily and TLDR), with Julien noting varied performance across developer channels.
Evaluating Potential Acquisition Offers and Strategic Fit 4101 Nathan poses an acquisition scenario ($10M cash buyout from GitHub) which Julien contemplates before transitioning into the standard rapid-fire Famous Five questions.

Statements from this episode (10)

Disclosure
Danjou: Mergify's average customer pays $500 to $1,000 per month
“I guess our average team size would be around 100 engineers. So I think for most customers, that's around between 501,000 dollars per month on a subscription basis.”
Julian Danjou Mar 27, 2023 ▶ 2:16
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Danjou: Mergify has over 150 paying customers
“We have more than 150 customers right now.”
Julian Danjou Mar 27, 2023 ▶ 5:04
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Mergify tripled monthly revenue to $110,000 over the past year
“I think a year ago we were at a third of that, so we basically multiplied by three over the last year.”
Julian Danjou Mar 27, 2023 ▶ 5:33
Disclosure
Danjou: Mergify has been fully bootstrapped from the start
“We all bootstrapped since the beginning, so it took a while, I think, for us to grow, basically because we started with”
Julian Danjou Mar 27, 2023 ▶ 5:45
Disclosure
Danjou: Mergify co-founders took no salary initially and worked two jobs
“Yeah, we did not actually. I mean, we worked for the first a few years. We had two jobs for a while both media and I, and when we were able to switch to that full time, but it took care.”
Julian Danjou Mar 27, 2023 ▶ 7:56
Insight
Danjou: Extreme time and capital constraints prevent product over-engineering
“You know that both money and time are very constrained. So you have to focus on the right thing, which as an engineer, you see a lot of stories of people trying to build products and, you know, never launching and adding more and more features because you're l…”
Julian Danjou Mar 27, 2023 ▶ 8:09
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Danjou: Mergify has 10 full-time employees
“We have 10 people full time on the team.”
Julian Danjou Mar 27, 2023 ▶ 9:32
Assertion Supported
Danjou: Mergify ranks on Google's first page for 'merge queue for GitHub'
“If you know what you're looking for, like a merge queue for GitHub I mean, we are in the first, Results on Google, so it's pretty easy to find us. We are one of the only company providing search services”
Julian Danjou Mar 27, 2023 ▶ 10:41
Disclosure
GitHub Marketplace generates almost no new signups for Mergify
“Very few, actually. We used to be in the front page from time to time in the first few years. And no, I think we don't bring enough revenue for GitHub. So it basically put us never in the front page. So if you look from Regify or Mercury, you will find us on t…”
Julian Danjou Mar 27, 2023 ▶ 11:24
Insight
Selling to engineers requires a bottom-up approach, says Julian Danjou
“It's very hard to do marketing with software engineers, so we have this kind of bottom-up approach where we try to sell to the engineers the solution, the tooling that we build.”
Julian Danjou Mar 27, 2023 ▶ 13:03
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