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10 Things To 1 Million People
10 Things To 1 Million People
10 Things To 1 Million People
From: Nathan at TeamGantt - To: sebastianssmith@gmail.com - Cc: - Date: September 28, 2019 at 8:04 AM
Hi Sebastian!
We’re a small team that started with 2 people in a basement. Now, over 1
million people have used TeamGantt to get work done.
We could not have done it without you. Thank you for joining us on
this journey.
It took us just under 10 years of work, and we learned a lot along the way.
Here are 10 things that have helped a small underdog like us stay steady
and grow consistently over the last decade.
This is more important than deciding what you build or how you will market
it. Those things will change. But your co-founder likely won’t.
We kept costs down by keeping things simple. For example, our first server
cost us less than $12/month. Sure, we pay a lot more than that for the high-
quality servers we use now. But you don’t need fancy ones to start small.
Perhaps the biggest way we kept costs down was by simplifying our space.
Like I said, we started out in my basement. We eventually relocated to
another basement, then to a $5,000 air-conditioned shed in the backyard
before moving into the office we have today.
Pretty much all of our competition raises lots and lots of money to
accelerate their growth. Our competition has always been bigger—some of
them way, way bigger. Often with hundreds or thousands of employees. We
have 21. When we started we had 2.
6. Focus
Focus has been absolutely critical to us. It’s the only way we’ve been able
to do a lot with a small team.
Life isn’t just about work and making money. Maybe we would have gotten
to 1,000,000 users faster. But we also may have damaged relationships,
completely burned ourselves out, or lost sight of our faith and priorities in
life. None of this is worth it.
9. Hire slow
We’d go through hundreds of resumes, interview the top 6, and still not
have a fit. Then finally number 7 would be it—and 7 was way better than
the previous 6.
If it delays the process by a month but means you get an employee that will
kill it for years to come, it’s totally worth it.
10. Be kind
Be kind to your customers, and be kind to your team. Thank them for the
work, and let them know they’re appreciated.
John and I are doing a video series on YouTube to cover more of our
thoughts. Here’s episode 1 on why and how we bootstrapped TeamGantt
(aka: took no investment money).
Also, this is us in our office. We aren’t still in that shed. That was a while
ago. 😊
Was this helpful? Do you have any questions? Let me know! I read every
reply.
Best,
Nathan Gilmore
Co-founder, TeamGantt
TeamGantt 1810 J York Road Suite 317 Lutherville-Timonium MD 21093 United States
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