Episode 669 | 10 Years to Overnight Success: Bootstrapping to a Multi-Million Dollar Exit

In episode 669, Rob Walling chats with Rick Hymanson, founder of detamoov and previously Shugo. They discuss Rick’s exit from Shugo in 2018 in what Rob calls “ten years to overnight success”. Rick recounts an early pivot for the company in finding product market fit, building the business with a day job, the logistics of the exit, and why he’s excited to join TinySeed with detamoov.



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Topics we cover: 




1:59 – How Rick felt after exiting Shugo



5:10 – Deciding to start detamoov after the exit



7:09 – Creating a Shugo MVP and pivoting



11:15 – Building a SaaS product while working a day job



15:34 – Transitioning to full time and growing Shugo ARR



20:28 – Expanding the product feature set



22:11 – When did you know you had product-market fit?



23:28 – Finding an acquirer and navigating the process



27:38 – Starting and growing datamoov



31:12 – The value of relationship building



34:43 – IP ownership agreements




Links from the Show: 




Rick Hymanson | LinkedIn



detamoov



The SaaS Playbook



TinySeed




If you have questions about starting or scaling a software business that you’d like for us to cover, please submit your question for an upcoming episode. We’d love to hear from you!



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