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I'm Sharath πŸ‘‹πŸΌ I sold a startup while hustling at a full-time job. AMA.

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Hello there! I'm , founder, community builder, and content creator. Currently, I work at Threado as Head of Community, but in my free time, I build products, host a , advise founders and help makers launch on Product Hunt! In the past, I built 15+ side projects using no-code tools and got the opportunity to work with prolific people like Naval Ravikant. I accidentally built a startup called Shoutout in my maker journey which grew to $30K ARR and eventually, I sold for 6 figures. All this happened when I was hustling at full-time jobs. As a startup operator, I got the opportunity to work for the most prominent brands in tech like Product Hunt, and On Deck where I nurtured community. Right now I’m tinkering with a couple of side-projects: - , a permanent home for your social content where you can use AI to remix it. - , a tight-knit community for first-time founders figuring out the next steps. I'm here to answer questions about SaaS, building in public, audience building, community, bootstrapping, no-code, and anything startups! AMA πŸ‘‡
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Thanks for hosting AMA. Just curious to know how you've managed to sell your product. Was there any specific place, or did a buyer reach out to you directly, or else?
Very interested in this too.
Answering here so you both will get my response. Micro Acquire is the best place to sell micro SaaS products. They have built a tight network of buyers. But in my case, I tweeted that I was looking for a new founder to take up and within a day I got a bunch of DMs - one of them was the buyer who I felt was a good fit.
Didn't know about Micro Aquire and that tweeting about product selling can actually work! Thanks for sharing Sharath! :)
Hey Sharath, thanks for doing this. What is one piece of advice that you would have loved to be given when you started on your journey?
πŸ‘‹πŸΌ Ah that's a great question. There are many, but the most important one is not to lose any momentum - product-wise, mentally.
Great answer, Sharath. When you get into a flow, you really need to ride it till the end.
What were the main reasons for you to sell and for the buyer to acquire it? Was it just the steady ARR, or did they think they could scale it themselves faster? Or just a product acquisition? Thanks for the AMA!
We reached a point where we shipped 0 features and made 0 progress. But, thanks to my co-founder, who built a robust product and the idea has a self-marketing quality, we saw growth happening organically. It made me feel guilty since there was nothing I was doing. Also, I felt the need for someone who takes the product to the level. We decided, and the acquisition went smoothly.
Congrats on your success! What does your schedule look like? Please break it down as much as possible.
Thanks Haha you are making me question my routines now. Hard to pinpoint but my usual days looks like this: 1. Deep work 2. Important habits like meditation, and journaling for 5-10mins 3. Dropping my son to daycare 4. Have limited meetings. 5. Dedicated work time for my full-time job 6. Dedicated work time for my side projects. 7 Past 6pm family time starts
going to extract some of these for myself πŸ‘Œ
What is your go to strategy after you come up with the idea for a project?
Tweet and see how people react to it :)
Haha, maverick intro, thanks! Curious to hear more about how you ended up selling? Particularly: - How you got approached; - General process;
big compliment haha The decision was definitely a hard one to take. But you need to pick priorities and go with your reality. Regarding the process, look at acquire.com - the best place to sell businesses. In my case, I tweeted about it and a founder showed interest. But it didn't happen overnight. I had to go through many to find the right fit.
Your story is inspiring! What do you think is the best distribution channel for a brand new saas where the founder is tight on cash and has no personal brand???
Glad to hear that Best distribution channel - Launch multiple mini projects(that add value) on Product Hunt
mini launches is an awesome idea. I never thought about it like that
What are the no-code tools you used? I'm trying to create my own as well.
man there are so many. Bubble, Carrd, Glide, Airtable, Softr etc
Thnk you!
Hey Sharath! How do you manage time? How do you even run a startup while doing full-time job? How we can do it too?
It can be done with proper habits/routines from your end and support from your family. I did mostly late nights, weekends, and holidays. I also had a great co-founder who supported me in this. Lastly, the community played a big role in making it all happen.
Hey Sharath, well-done man sincerely. As you're jumping in Ai related product building, I am sure you'd like to keep an eye on Argil.ai. We're building a tool to render AI integration to your application seamless. You can build different workflows just with clicks.
Thanks ! Cool tool.
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