#19 - Bootstrapping in Bangkok
Tobias Meixner - Co-Founder Hubql
Tobias is another guy I got in touch via Twitter.
He has been building his bootstrapped product while freelancing on the side.
This interview is for those who are in pre-revenue stages and also want to build a SaaS company while working full-time or part-time.
And want to get more information about the ecosystem in Bangkok and Thailand.
May not be for those who have been generating 10K MRR at least.
Updates From My Side:
I am going to be transparent here. After a while, I started to notice that in terms of content I am the guy who likes to build directories and reports. Interviewing is a great trigger to meet with new people but it’s hard to share it in the report format. So, I am thinking about is this makes me motivated, do I need to change the format or structure.
Just wanted to share my genuine feelings here.
Feel free to share your suggestions.
So when I checked your LinkedIn profile, I have seen that you have been living in Bangkok, but before that, I guess you have some experience outside of Bangkok, maybe European countries. I would like to understand why you moved to Bangkok and what happened there, you know?
I know Bangkok is a place for digital nomads, mainly for Europeans, and I really want to understand your case in that space.
Tobias:
It's actually gone quite some time back. I moved to Bangkok about 12 years ago and when I was studying information systems in the past, I had the opportunity to travel and also travel to Thailand.
And so when I graduated, I had the opportunity to start a job here in Thailand. And, I got a job, started working in Thailand after graduation and then never looked back. So it's really been my new home since then. And I enjoy living in Thailand.
As long as you have a stable job.
And you have been living there for how long?
Tobias
12 years.
Tobias:
Full time. We are bootstrapped. So we started about a year ago. And it actually solves the problem that I've experienced working in software for so many years. And it's something that we want to change. So our vision is to change the way people work and the way people develop software.
And so there's a deep passion of ours, my co-founder and I, and so that's why we started the company and also quite invested in the company, not just only our time, but also some of our resources too.
I see. Cool. And, how long you have been focusing on your solution - hubql?
Tobias:
Yeah, we started about a year ago and we started part time and then sometime like mid-last year, we decided to go all in and focus on it full time. As you know, and talking with other bootstrap founders, we can only go so far as soon as we find product market fit.
It might be a different story, but we are still in the stage of finding a market for our product.
We are deciding on what the next step is going to be, but we are still full time focusing on the product
I guess you are not the only ones who are focusing on that. When I check your link, it seems like you have six employees, right?
Tobias:
Yeah, we have six people working on the product and not everyone is full-time and not everyone is an employee at this stage.
And what is the current situation of HubQL at the moment? Are you generating any revenue from that space?
Tobias:
Yeah, right now we are pre-revenue. We are still in this stage where we are approaching potential customers. We are generating leads. We have some potential discussions, but no revenue at this point. We do have quite several signups, so it is interesting product, but no revenue at this stage.
What do you do guys do attract some leads. Do you have anything that you would like to share with us?
Tobias:
Yeah, different channels that we are trying. So we try to attract developers in social media. So we are quite active on LinkedIn. We are starting to be more active in Reddit, for example. And so besides building the product, we also want to build up the community.
And this is also a long-term investment. So we focus a lot on building the community besides doing some direct sales of products. Opportunities of course; where we do reaching out in our network, some cold emailing and things like that.
So we're really in for the long-term game which is building the community and the product.
I see. And in terms of short term, I mean, what do you have on your channel list? I mean, do you use Google ads or do you send a connection request on LinkedIn? What do you guys do to get some feedback?
Tobias:
Yeah. Actually most of our signups right now are coming from Google ads. So we run some ads related to our topics and this has been working pretty well because the conversion is pretty good. Our landing pages seem to attract our target group. So we can generate users. So the next step is really to reach out to them and generate also revenue from teams that eventually will also try the product. But right now it's mostly Google ads that we run.
How much money do you spend on Google ads?
Tobias:
A couple of hundreds per month. Small budget, because the conversation is going well.
If you think it's efficient, you can increase the budget later on. And you said that you have been focusing on this almost, let's say more than one year. I just want to learn during that period, how was your mood Tobias? Because you have been focusing on a project that is not earning the money at the moment, right?
Did you search for other jobs? And similar stuff?
Tobias:
So this is my second startup. And so, I know a little bit about the startup world.
It's something that you want to invest long-term in building a company, building a product is not easy. So I'm aware of this and it's a roller coaster. So there are great days, there's good news, but there's also a lot of bad news or stressful days. And of course, for me personally, it's finding a routine that kind of works for yourself.
Everybody is different, but for myself, I have found a routine in terms of how I can manage the stress, and how I can manage my workload. And also find a way to of course ensure your income, for example, to make sure that you can continue to run the company. And so if that is in balance, then of course, it's a long-term game that you have to play.
So your mental stability and your income stability are very important to make sure that the company continues to run. It's a challenge, but I think it's manageable. There's always a way to solve the problems that you have on hand.
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Do you focusing on your hobbies at the moment?
Do you have any hobbies there like running or stuff like that, or all the month doing this project?
Tobias:
Yeah. So last year I found out that tennis was the way to tackle my stress before I did a lot of walking and running. But I needed something that is a bit more, you know, requires more energy where you can also maybe just sometimes release your stress.
And I found that tennis is kind of the best way for me to do it. So I played tennis around three times a week and it hurts a lot.
How much time you need to spend to make this profitable in terms of months or is it going to be a year?
Anything you have regarding to that or just you will see it on the path.
Tobias:
Yeah, so we are one year into into the company, right?
So now it's the time for us to find a way to ramen profitable. That's kind of the goal. And for now, we can only generate this with the freelance work that we do on the side that of course helps us to continue to fund the runway that we have for the company and then eventually get to the point where we can generate revenue from the product, of course the goal is to reach this within this year.
And then expand from there. So that's that's kind of our plan. We also do look for fundraising opportunities. So if that is something that might happen, then we also open for them.
I see, good to hear those. Okay, cool. For the bootstrappers like you, how is the life in Bangkok? I mean, you recommend them to live there or are there any communities that you keep in touch?
Yeah, I'm just wondering that because I was also spent some time in Bangkok. And I couldn't find some people because of the season as far as I understand. But in your case, as you have been living there for almost 12 years, 13 years, how is Bangkok changing in terms of bootstrapping, nomading and other stuff?
Tobias:
Yeah, I think nomading majority is still in other places. So if you look at Phuket or maybe Chiang Mai, there's probably more popular places for digital nomads in Bangkok itself, you still have quite a few that you can maybe meet in the co working spaces.
There's more opportunities from the government, I would say. So, in terms of visa opportunities, they try to support digital nomads. They also try to support startups here.
And you have some events where they try to promote starting a startup in Thailand?
Tobias:
So I think it's more than in the past and not only digital but actually starting a startup, you know, like SAAS companies.
Founders, for example, come together and find solutions to collaborate or find a community of investors. I think this is still a bit early stage where in Thailand. That can help, but not really, a network of angels or you know maybe a private investment that is happening that much in Thailand.
So it's still quite struggling, I think, to start a startup in Thailand for, let's say Thai people looking to start a SaaS company. It's probably not as easy as in other places.
Just wondering about your advice for other bootstrappers that want to start their own company or you know that want to start their let's say SaaS.
Tobias:
Just take some time out of your free time and maybe invest an hour a day to build an app and validate it very quickly.
And only once you see that there's an actual interest, then actually start a process of starting a startup and starting a company. Because the risk is definitely fairly high. But yeah you can validate and build a product really fast today and get feedback really fast. So I think use that opportunity to validate your assumptions or your ideas and then move on to the next one if it doesn't work.
And that's maybe something that we haven't done as much in HubQL because we are more like a visionary company that in the long term game, but if you're starting out alone, maybe. It also takes some time to, for example, find a co-founder. It's not someone you can find within a day or two.
So I think the first step is to really just validate the idea, validate the product, and then maybe find a team or someone you might want to collaborate with to build a company, which of course is related to the decision.
If you want to do just the sort of passive income as an indie or actually start a startup, which is also quite a big decision to take and settle on.
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