I'm Sharath ππΌ I sold a startup while hustling at a full-time job. AMA.
Sharath Kuruganty
54 replies
Hello there! I'm Sharath, 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 podcast, 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 Iβm tinkering with a couple of side-projects:
- Blubi, a permanent home for your social content where you can use AI to remix it.
- Next Step, 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 π
Replies
Ken Savage@kensavage
CookieJar
What was your tech stack when you built Shoutout? Current customer here btw.
Share
CookieJar
Love the tinkering mentality. What particular attributes show up when you feel your on to something while tinkering?
Undefeated Underdogs Podcast
Joybird AI
With so many side projects (15+!) - how do you decide what to share/feature on your social media?
Undefeated Underdogs Podcast
@michael_cho1 All my projects are executed one after the other. Best to focus on one thing at a time so you get to give your best.
Angel Match
Which no-code tools you think are the best to build side-projects?
I am a non-technical founder myself and I want to try no-code to build my next app. Thanks
Undefeated Underdogs Podcast
@rashid_khasanov depends on the idea you have.
- Bubble is good for building a platform
- Softr is good for curation projects
- Glide is good for mobile projects
- Carrd is good for launching and validating ideas
Nack AI
Haha, maverick intro, thanks!
Curious to hear more about how you ended up selling? Particularly:
- How you got approached;
- General process;
Undefeated Underdogs Podcast
@rawoyemi 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.
Hi Sharath,
This is really inspiring to hear! Juggling a full-time job with side projects is no small feat, and achieving such success is truly commendable.
I'm particularly interested in your experience with no-code tools. Could you share a bit about how these tools have helped in your startup journey, especially when it comes to prototyping and iterating quickly?
Also, how did you manage your time between your full-time job and your side projects? Any tips or strategies you'd recommend for those of us trying to balance a similar load?
Undefeated Underdogs Podcast
Thanks for the kind word @svitlana_palamarchuk
Idea validation - Used Carrd to build the landing page
MVP validation - Used Bubble to build the first MVP
They massively helped me move fast. And the community supported me when I got stuck.
I wrote a thread on some tips to balance a full-time job and side projects: https://twitter.com/5harath/stat...
What are the no-code tools you used? I'm trying to create my own as well.
Undefeated Underdogs Podcast
@amosyohanan man there are so many. Bubble, Carrd, Glide, Airtable, Softr etc
Columns
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???
Undefeated Underdogs Podcast
Glad to hear that @clay_raterman
Best distribution channel - Launch multiple mini projects(that add value) on Product Hunt
Columns
Between
Hi Sharath, thanks for doing this AMA. What side project are you most passionate about right now? Next Step looks super interesting.
Undefeated Underdogs Podcast
@between_team Hey David. I'm super excited about blubi.ai for two reasons:
1. I'm building for myself. Hopefully, find people like me who can use it.
2. I'm excited to create a platform that helps content creators create content without worrying about the platform.
Thanks for hosting AMA. How did you find first 100 users? I don't have an audience or personal brand in any social media. And my potential customers are not super tech savvy to do digital ads or social media campaign. Currently planning to create a DB manually by googling and do email or SMS campaign. Your thoughts on this or alternatives?
Threado AI
What is your go to strategy after you come up with the idea for a project?
Undefeated Underdogs Podcast
@maithreyemurali18 Tweet and see how people react to it :)
Rollback
Do you have a newsletter ? What ideas can you give for some trying to provide value and get a larger audience.
Undefeated Underdogs Podcast
@raiyanyahya that's something I wanted to do this year. It's on my radar. I got a good name too - Sharath's Cliff Notes :) Check it out: https://5harath.substack.com
Newsletters are a great way but I might not be the right one to advice here. But I would also actively tweet and interact on Twitter.
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?
Undefeated Underdogs Podcast
@akshay_rathod2 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.
Storytailor
what would you suggest we do as a two sided marketplace with limited to no marketing resource to find a scalable channel of acquisition as fast as possible (with users on the waitlist pre-launch)?
Undefeated Underdogs Podcast
@aldo_petruzzelli It seems like you want things fast with less effort - in my experience, that's like finding a bigfoot sitting in a city. It's not real lol
Not to be rude but you have to put in the work and play the long game.
Some advice:
1. Figure out supply and demand for your marketplace.
2. Start building in public - solves marketing and needs $0 to spend on.
3. Use Twitter as your distribution channel.
4. Launch the product and get some revenue.
5. Be impatient with actions and patient with results.
Dialworks for Sales Hiring
Hey Sharath - Was Shoutout still based on no-code infrastructure when you sold it?
Undefeated Underdogs Podcast
Hey @akshat_jain28 No, it's fully coded now. I used no-code to validate the MVP in the initial days.
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?
Undefeated Underdogs Podcast
@narenbhandary ππΌ Ah that's a great question.
There are many, but the most important one is not to lose any momentum - product-wise, mentally.
My question is about building a community for our SaaS users. (questions at the end fyi)
We recently started gaining more users to our SaaS product Tamly, it is a LinkedIn automation tool for sales and business development teams.
Although it is super simple once the users get a grip and complete a whole funnel even once (e.g. middle aged, less tech savvy sales people love it), connecting the user's LinkedIn and Tamly accounts for the first time could feel a bit complicated.
So, we have a lot of new users come in, sign up, and leave soon after without executing their first funnel successfully. I want to create a community and enable instant communication between our users and myself. Our 'product champions' for example, never hesitate to give me a call any time and I actively help them with their campaigns and stuff. I want our new users to feel the same way and communicate with us.
Now for the questions:
1) Is it weird for us to reach out to users on WhatsApp for a more sincere and instant communication? Consider the users provided their mobile number optionally, and so far we didn't have any adverse reactions.
2) I simply need to pinpoint the stage that users find ambiguous/challenging, to provide the right support at the right moment (and have them subscribe hopefully ;p). Would you have any other suggestions than user outreach?
3) I know utilizing Slack for such efforts is effective and am planning to do so. Which other channels would you recommend for community building?
Love seeing some smaller startups get sold. We always hear about the million dollar sales, but these are great as well
Undefeated Underdogs Podcast
@richard_gao2 For sure. Thanks for the kind words.
WebCurate
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?
Undefeated Underdogs Podcast
@hosseinyazdi @nuno_ms_reis 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.
WebCurate
@hosseinyazdi Very interested in this too.