Lovable hit $400M ARR with 146 employees. That's $2.7M revenue per employee. Midjourney goes even further. $500M revenue. ~110 employees. $0 raised from investors. That's over $4.5M per employee. Bootstrapped. For context: most SaaS companies celebrate $200k-$300k per employee as a strong benchmark.
If 146 people can generate $400M, what does the math look like at 10?
Do you have a particular WHY or reason for your side projects? If not, how are you personally staying disciplined, motivated, and focused on achieving your side project-related goals?
In a time when big corporations are overpaying for their job offers just to steal the best talent from another big company, and in an era where everyone can build their own startup, there will always be room for people who prefer to join a team and work on something (in the future) big.
I have a confession. I'm a Petroleum Engineering major who's in love with marketing. Sometimes, I think I'm too in over my head. I started doing "marketing" with social media management as my first foray into anything remotely associated with digital marketing (show of hands if you started the popular way). And then, I think I lost a bit of love for social media marketing, and moved on quickly to something shiny email marketing. This was heaven while it lasted. I sold personal financial management courses and eBooks for a popular consultant here in my country. The conversations in the inboxes were so direct and personal that it always felt like I was looking directly at, and talking to the person's soul. I also tried my hands on SEO and content strategy. Doesn't it just feel amazing how you pick up so many useful micro-skills for digital marketing? That's always so intriguing. Now, I do product marketing, thanks to charting newer territories. I find it intriguing how numerous teams work together to solve a problem. Be that small-scale, or global. And meeting a lot of amazing makers and marketers here launching really helpful products here daily (some of which have been time-savers for me) reinforced my reason why I want to identify with this industry. I read a book recently by Gabriel Weinberg and Justin Mares called, "Traction." Recommended by a senior colleague in marketing. The ideas in the book just made so much sense and held so many insights for me. And it made me understand one thing, "whatever you want to get better at, reading books help you navigate there faster." As a marketer, what book(s) gave you your best "aha!" moment?
Hey Product Hunt fam, As an engineer, I steered clear of community and marketing platforms. But after diving into Product Hunt for a few days, I had an epiphany. It's my first, and wow, was I missing out! Question: Engineers and makers, have you had a similar experience? How has stepping into new territory like Product Hunt transformed your perspective? Share your thoughts!
We all have learning experiences from building our projects. Some of that could be helpful to new makers in the community, what are some of your top tips?