How do you finance your startup's expenses?

@sven_radavics This is the perfect combination! What did come first? Own income? Revenue or investors' money?

@valilus all my own for most of it. Then a little investor dollars, now revenue is growing + looking for investor dollars to close out my pre-seed.

@sandra_idjoski this is such a great approach! Did you manage to generate some revenue with your startup?

@valilus We're just now releasing the paid version. 😄 Hopefully, the first revenue is to come in the next.

@richw How much was the investment until you got the first subscribers? And after how much time did you have the break even point?

@valilus It wasn't that bad, maybe at least 2,000. I didn't keep records of all the expenses, I have them somewhere just unorganized. The project itself is already in profit and compensating contributors- as for myself I haven't broke even yet. It was 7 months from start of development to the day premium subscriptions were rolled out.

@jack95 great! how did you get your first customer? And could you explain shortly how are you generating revenue?

@valilus I haven't got a customer yet, I am not counting my friends or relatives on trying it out! ;D I will be probably soon make a Free access to my SaaS and see how it goes until I get the chance to generate some revenue from it. It's been only financed through my own income so far. Nothing fancy. I started the whole thing in 2016. I tried to do at least 50% of the process, to reduce the cost on the making the alpha version of the app. I did spend a lots on others things and ended up not being used as well! But that's the "normal" process I guess of making it as an entrepreneur. I am more of a product maker than a social person, it's been quite a rough ride to change my focus to get into those social platforms. I am trying my best and it's been great so far. That's about it. Cheers! (sorry for the late reply) :D

@jack95 Assin, that's a great story! What is the SaaS about? Because I love coming up with outside the box ideas to promote / market such services. Maybe I could help.

@valilus Hi! Sorry for the late reply. I am gonna try to give you some good insight about it. The SaaS will be providing a platform for those who seek to pursue and perfect their education or business model in the field of agroecology. It is defined as the study of the relationship between crops and the environment. We are covering nearly all the aspects of agriculture, from weather data, to crop management, livestock farming, and more. There are 9 features, 2 being completed. It's a model based on relying on the natural resources available within the targeted location, or what it possibly be produced to promote a sustainable system. The goal is to rely on the less possible external natural resources. I think that will be the future of agriculture. This tool will provide total transparency on the reality of the industry, particularly when it comes to the cost and revenue of each activity. It works as a simulator where people can learn and build their business model and check if it's financially viable option for them. We minimize the risk for total control over their projects from start to finish. The purpose is to raise awareness and reduce the risk of taking a route that may not be favorable to the person. It's also made for those in transition from conventional farming. I also tried my best to build something that could let the users customize and create what they want without any type of restriction. I built a project for my city hall towards building gardening areas around my small city. Which is neat! I want people to fully express themselves and the app would simply help them to achieve their goals. We are still working on the MVP version, if lucky, it should come out soon! ;D Cheers.

And I totally agree with this because investing is all about proving and believing. Tbh, I still envy those folks who had invested in zoom before the covid issue happened to us with Mortgage Broker Wigan. Guys, do you think Ollie is still worth investing in? I’d be really grateful to hear your thoughts about it. Thanks in advance.