I'd love to learn more about your process of the sale. And in your graphs, is that attributed to profit/revenue in 2024?

I'm on a super similar journey. Started in 2022, did about 400k in revenue in 2025 at 79% margin, we'll se how this year goes. Theres a world where i'd love to add a lot of scale, but that'll rely on some experiments (underway) panning out. It's 'failure' in most peoples books but 2x'ing would be great too?!

How did you find a buyer? How did you come to a sale price? Why didn't you keep going?

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mtlynch 3 hours ago | parent [-]

> I'm on a super similar journey. Started in 2022, did about 400k in revenue in 2025 at 79% margin, we'll se how this year goes. Theres a world where i'd love to add a lot of scale, but that'll rely on some experiments (underway) panning out. It's 'failure' in most peoples books but 2x'ing would be great too?!

Nice, congrats!

Yeah, I think depending on what bubble you're in, bootstrapping to 400k and 2x'ing every few years is either failure or amazing. The VC/hypergrowth path doesn't appeal to me, so I think something that gives you $100k+/yr in profit is a huge success.

> I'd love to learn more about your process of the sale.

Sure, I wrote a couple of posts with the details.[0, 1]

[0] https://mtlynch.io/i-sold-tinypilot/

[1] https://mtlynch.io/lessons-from-my-first-exit/

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verelo 2 hours ago | parent | next [-]

Thanks for the reply. Just to clarify the picture for me, was the 2024 jump in profit attributing the sale or was that just a solid year?

Agreed on the 2x every year or two being a weird failure state. I've done both, and I'm at a junction point right now, but I really think a huge part of going all in on the VC route is finding the right money to work with. I've been mostly technical, hidden in dark places all my life. I love having the chance to be customer facing, i love the business side of my work, but doing that with the wrong backers is so unappealing i'd rather not have their money.

Edit: just skimmed your prior post (https://mtlynch.io/i-sold-tinypilot/). Great stuff, love the transparency!

	▲	mtlynch 2 hours ago \| parent [-]
		> Thanks for the reply. Just to clarify the picture for me, was the 2024 jump in profit attributing the sale or was that just a solid year? Mostly the sale. The deal closed in April, but Jan-March was an especially profitable quarter.[0] [0] https://mtlynch.io/retrospectives/2024/04/

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scalemaxx 3 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Do you do podcast interviews? Would love to dig into the no-VC/hypergrowth path as that's what I'm all about.

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mtlynch 2 hours ago | parent [-]

Yep, the place where I've talked about it the most has been The Software Misadventures Podcast.[0, 1]

[0] https://softwaremisadventures.com/p/michael-lynch-on-quittin... (2022, two years into the business)

[1] https://softwaremisadventures.com/p/michael-lynch-indie-hack... (2024, just after I sold)

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Exoristos 2 hours ago | parent [-]

I think scalemaxx is offering to interview you.

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mtlynch 2 hours ago | parent [-]

Oh, I'm open to that!

	▲	scalemaxx 3 minutes ago \| parent [-]
		Yes indeed! What's the best place to reach out?