20% of the revenue from my $5k+ MRR Saas will go directly to charity - AMA
I'm sure my experience will resonate with a lot of you here - ever since I was a teen I wanted to work for myself, earn my own money and not have anyone tell me what to do with my days.
I've created dozens of side-projects, apps, and MVPs that didn't go anywhere, while dreaming of not having to work a 9-5.
I founded rarchy.com in 2019 after teaching myself how to code for a couple of years, and have been sitting comfortably at $5k+ MRR for the last few months - finally, no more 9-5!
With all the turmoil of the last 2 years, I'm now doing something I never thought I would - I've decided to willingly return to part-time employment, and turn Rarchy into a social enterprise where 20% of future revenue will go directly to charitable organizations.
Feel free to AMA!
Wow that's really so nice of you, @owwor
Curious what made you want to go back to employment as you've mentioned that you started your business, not wanting a 9-5?
Also how long did it take for you to grow to $5k MRR?
I've always contracted since working on Rarchy full-time - it feels like part-time employment gives me a good mix of income stability but not given up too much of my time.
Before COVID, this was never an option - it was either full-time or nothing!
It took just under 2 years to reach $5k, it would have only taken a year if not for COVID, but got there in the end!
Going social is one thing (congrats!), but going back to employment is another: What led you to do that?
Nothing beats a stable income! My partner and I bought a house recently and I completely underestimated how much everything costs...
Working part-time should give me the right balance between a stable income, and the flexibility/time needed to continue growing Rarchy (I hope!)
Best of luck for that new life!
What charities are you most interested in supporting? And why did you choose to give 20%?
The plan is to give to children's charities, mainly for education (see more reasoning here: https://rarchy.com/post/why-weve-turned-rarchy-into-a-social-enterprise).
20% seemed like a fair figure to start with so I can still invest and grow Rarchy - dependant on that, I could see this moving to 25/30% at some point in the future.
I've a couple of questions. How did you optimize your SEO (since you said 80% SEO) and how did you get from zero to $500 MRR?
I've got a 10 year background in SEO so I've got a rough idea of how things work.
If you look at Rarchy.com, you'll see I only really rank for my homepage and the visual sitemap generator page, so everyone that finds me is looking for a product, rather than top-of-funnel content.
I do plan to write a lot more top-of-funnel content, but I've been saying that for 2 years and not written a single word yet so...
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There was a beta of Rarchy for 2 years before I released the paid features, so hit $500 MRR in the first month from a mixture of existing BETA users and new users from SEO/Paid Search.
Can you describe your customer acquisition process and where the majority of your customers are located? 🍻
Probably 80% SEO, 10% Search Ads, and the rest from word of mouth! Also planning to do a lot of cold outreach to our target market this year.
The majority of customers come from the US, with the rest from the UK, EU & ANZ.
Does one need to be a very good competitive programmer to build a SAAS company...?
I don't think so, I've never done competitive programming in my life!
Why not invest in me? I have skills in web/mobile development but don't have enough money to grow and build what I want. Love to hear your opinion. I see you have a good heart
Maybe in the future, but for now I'm going to focusing on the younger demographic.
Thanks for your understanding!