Amir Salihefendić, founder of bootstrapped SaaS Doist, explains his relaxed attitude toward SaaS retention metrics and customer churn to Nathan Latka.
Opinion
Salihefendić claims Basecamp is wrong about equity in bootstrapped startups
“I mean, honestly, like, I think I mean, I was kind of, like, against this, you know, like, the bootstrapping, especially, like, if you, like, hear the base camp guys, like, equity has no value and stuff like that, but it's kind of bullshit, because, like, equi…”
Disclosure
Salihefendić refuses to entertain any acquisition offers for Doist
“I would say, fuck you... I, you know, I have already like declined, you know, like I don't even like entertain that those ideas... I don't actually, why would I want to sell like this? You know, it's kind of like my life's work.”
Insight
Salihefendić warns against operating a company with no hierarchy
“So like, we also had like you know like I love affair with like no hierarchy and that didn't like, don't try that. Like it's not. Yeah. It didn't work that well.”
Disclosure
Doist historically ignored metrics and refuses to celebrate ARR milestones
“The thing to note is, like, we never actually celebrated any of the milestones so even right now, like, when you pass, like, one million or ten million in ARR, like, it's kind of, like, not really something that we celebrate a lot, and the same thing, like, wi…”
Insight
Building productivity software for individual users makes user retention brutal
“Creating a tool that is mostly for individuals is brutal. Like, If you're doing anything, like, that's not something I can recommend doing, because you have, like, very hard time to actually keep users because you don't have, like, a natural way to bring them …”
Opinion
Todoist's low launch price anchored the entire to-do app market
“I said this initially, like very low price point and basically all the other competitors compete this or like, so I kind of like, because we were like one of the first online to do apps and we basically set the price point and everybody's kind of have the same…”