Dashiell Bark-Huss is incredible. She lived in a van for three years, where she taught herself to code. She created WishTender as a solo developer after a friend suggested it would be useful. After Dashiell launched, her spouse began working with her, and they have bootstrapped the business to 50k+ users in 1.5 years.

WishTender is an international wish list that ensures you receive gift funds quickly and without worry (privately).

Key Takeaways

[00:41 ] - Learning how to code in 1.5 years in order to launch a SaaS.

[02:25 ] - An untapped market opportunity - anonymous gifts.

[07:23 ] - Growing to $30K monthly revenue without prior experience.

[09:05 ] - Navigating the difficulties of a non-tech entrepreneur.

[12:33 ] - Manual outreach to 100s of people to find the first paying customers.

[13:17 ] - Organic expansion through word of mouth and Twitter posting.

[14:22 ] - Bootstrapped success - having money and trying to figure out how to spend it.

[16:00 ] - Focusing on customers and their needs.

[18:24 ] - Starting from scratch again - address the struggles and share them in public.

[20:40 ] - Patience and persistence of a founder.

Quotes

“Patience and persistence is the most important thing.“ - Dashiell

“The most successful founders don't really give specific advice because they know it is very hard to give the right advice.“ - Dashiell

“A lot of advice you will get, beware of the advice you're getting. Are they founders? Are they successful founders? Are they just lucky?“ - Dashiell

Links

Follow the journey:

Twitter: twitter.com/dashbarkhuss

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/dashbh

WishTender: wishtender.com

Book with insights: Navigating The Bootstrapped Mafia

Connect with Bulat:

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/thebulatk

Twitter: twitter.com/thebulatk