Startups For the Rest of Us

In episode 688, Rob Walling interviews Lane Wagner, founder of Boot.dev. Boot.dev is a learning platform gamified to teach backend development. They discuss the journey of bootstrapping Boot.dev, its explosive growth, and its unique business model. Lane also shares challenges of running a B2C business, why he took some funding, and the significance of customer lifetime value over MRR in his business. Topics we cover:  2:38 – Boot.dev seeing incredible growth 3:35 – Growing on YouTube with partnerships 5:42 – Teaching Python and Go as a B2C business 7:49 – “This is not really SaaS”, considering JTBD 11:18 – The beginnings of Boot.dev, serving the backend niche 14:21 – Gaining the confidence to quit the day job 15:51 – Deciding to raise funding and “mostly” bootstrap 20:31 – Enduring hardship before turning the corner on growth 26:38 – Finding the right revenue metric for the business Links from the Show:  MicroConf US - Atlanta - April 21 - 23, 2024 Interested in Spons