Shutting down our startup after 5 years

You bootstrapped (read: GOD MODE difficulty) a startup to 3k MRR - that's an achievement many wantrepreneurs can only dream about. Not only that, but you did it in a crowded space, WITH YOUR WIFE! The strength of your relationship alone is incredible.

Honestly, congrats. You've built up valuable skills, shown your grit, and should proudly put this on your CV. AI is changing the world atm (I know, my SaaS helps companies govern and measure their initiatives), the skills you've gained, the experience and the creative thinking you've shown are traits many businesses will fight for in the years to come.

Very impressive stuff. On to the next chapter.

If you want to sell it, I could be interested in acquire it! I run a web hosting company and I can offer the service to my clients. Let me know.

Tough decision man but it sounds right to me. I’m going through a similar situation myself. It does feel bad to “lose”, but it definitely gets easier each day. I now am excited to get a job for a bit and work on new ideas. I feel like I have a vastly better understanding of how/what I should do for a new startup project as well so I can iterate quickly and cheaply. I’d say you will feel the same as well. You will fail forward, with the valuable skills youve gained.

Thank you for sharing openly.
I think the experience you've gained should not be taken lightly.
Deciding to close sounds like the right move, and nothing to be ashamed of. On the contrary - it is a bold move that not everyone are willing to make.
Good luck to you and your wife in whatever you decide to do next.

Thanks for taking the time to openly write about the highs, lows and sheer health struggles of your journey. You have not failed. The fact you took the time to tell your story for all of us clearly shows you are a leader. All the best with the next part of your journey and your health. As the great strength coach Ron McKeefery says "Make the big time where you are at". It's going to be okay.

Thank you for sharing. We have seen many successful cases, but your willingness to share your experiences is even more meaningful.
A temporary setback is not a failure. Take this time to recharge and prepare for the next journey. Look forward to your next sharing.

Don't lose hope. The saying goes that the darkest hour is just before dawn!

When I co-built Logomakerr.AI in 2021, Logology was one of the competitors we studied and learned from. We waited much longer than you - almost two years to be profitable.

Stay strong!

What an incredibly courageous decision to make AND to share your story with us! Massive applause to you, Dagobert, that takes a lot of strength and resilience.
You're doing a great service to the entrepreneur community by talking transparently about failure. We need to hear more stories like these, that are happening to most of us in some shape or another and have nothing to be ashamed about! Failure isn't a bad thing. Call it growth instead. It's just a step on the way to other adventures.

Hope you recover well from your burnout and that you enjoy your new job!

Stay strong Dago! I have always looked up to you (following you on Twitter) for inspiration and you have always come across as a lively person in your Tweets.

I never knew what you were going through health wise and I can empathise since I am in the same boat as you i.e. random heart rate spikes, eye issues etc., after Covid. Just like yours, my side ventures have (and still are!) suffered. I was hoping to break out of 9-5 by 2020 and here I am still working for the man.

I am sure you are gonna do well. It is just a temporary phase which will pass soon. You have a massive audience on Twitter who admires you and engages with what you put out.

Take care.

Thanks a lot for sharing this with us!
It really sounds like a tough decision to make, but one that has to be done. Health comes first and nothing is worth the damage. I wish you all the best on your journey!

I also wanted to say that I really appreciate sharing this and showing the true reality of running a business and that it is not always only success like all the success stories we see all the time would like to portray.

Hey there, why not list the startup on acquire.com? I feel like not everything is lost, and looking for a new owner that can take your vision forward and potentially even Integrate AI to the process wouldn't be the worst ending in the world.

Prioritizing mental and physical health sounds like a no brainer to me. Thanks for sharing the story, I think you're doing the right thing

Thank you for sharing your interesting story. I enjoyed it.

Your product looks really amazing, and your story was especially moving for me. As someone who quit my job back in 2017, I have yet to establish myself as a start up founder.

However, I’ve worked tirelessly since then, and I absolutely feel the burn out. I have not yet experienced the physical health problems mentioned, but this is a good reminder for me to take breaks for eye-strain. That said, the social isolation has been my biggest challenge.

For me, I ended up getting a freelance job which paid the bills in 2020. Now, I work part time, 20 hours a week for Toptal, and that’s paying the bills as I continue my efforts.

Wishing you the best in the future, and thank you for sharing your experience.

I don't know if there is such thing as a "successful" founder to be honest. You had several successes: you managed to make money, live out of your own project, learnt a lot of things... that's great!
Current context is changing so quickly with AI that it makes the future uncertain to many founders, trust me...

Thanks for sharing -- I think it's important to show the other side of the indie hacking/solo-dev space.

We mostly see success stories because it sells and that inspires us to think that we just need to put time and code as much as we can to reach the desired $$, but the truth is much more complex. Even well-financed startups struggle with the same issues, they just have VC money to burn through. But on the product-fit level, it's all the same.

Churn is a natural part of every product. Even if you would have a recurring revenue it wouldn't change anything, because users also churn from it. So in reality, it doesn't matter if you charge $50 upfront or $10 over 5 months -- the result is the same.

It looks like one of your issues was the lack of enough visibility to bring more revenue (so as you've said -- invest more in SEO)

Anyway, all the best and I'm sure after a while you guys will be ready to build a new product, fortified with the experience that you've gained.

You lost the battle. But I am sure you will return and win the financial freedom war. All the best!

Wow, it saddens me to read this and to be honest it also creates some anxiety around my own future. But I'm super grateful that you shared your thoughts honestly and it's great that you took the decision, even though it must have been super tough.

Hmm. Very interesting. I recently made the decision to go back to full time employment after 7 years of focusing on my business full timeI felt like I was betraying myself and wondered if my business would survive the transition. But it has worked out better than I expected so far.

There's surprisingly very few resources on these kinds of transitions.

Hi Dago, When I was launching LogoAI, Logology is definitely one of competitors we researched. I could tell that your product idea is quite unique and your website design also reflects that. We also face many of the challenges you described. I think doesn't matter the outcome, this is going to be a great experience. I'm sure you are going to build your own product again in the future and I'll be waiting to see. Cheers!

Hi Dago,

not a failure at all. A failure would be to keep continuing at any cost. Learned that from reading "Quit: The power of knowing when to walk away" recently. Way too many people continue for too long.

Respect to you for sharing it even!

We thought of trying to switch to a recurring revenue model and invest in SEO, but with the uncertainty caused by A.I (both for acquiring customers and designing logos), we don't feel confident it would be enough.

Thanks for sharing this. Tough yet a good decision.
Don't be too harsh on yourself. I've been there in the past and it took me a few years to recover. Be clear on your priorities.
My biggest realization was no amount of money/success can get me back the time I spend with myself and my family.
Loads of love to you...

It would be great if you share your findings on what needs to be improved when working with your partner. I did the same and I'm curious to know how to improve it while managing my personal and professional life.

Thank you for candidly sharing both sides of the founder journey.

Kudos to you for making it this far and taking the leap of faith in the first place. I'm sure you learned tremendously (+ experienced things 99% of folks don't get to), which will be applicable to your personal and professional life.

There's a lot of value and merit in that - don't take that lightly!

Know when to shut down is also bold.

I appreciate your candid expression. Determining the right moment to call it quits can often be challenging. However, accounts like the one shared here serve as valuable reminders that persisting at any expense might not always be the most advantageous choice. Occasionally, deciding to halt and move forward in a different direction can prove to be the optimal path.

Thanks for this honest sharing. It can be hard to know when it’s time to quit. Stories like this help us to see that continuing at all costs isn’t worth it. Sometimes stopping is the best way forward.

I'm so sorry to hear what you've been going through. But you've been really brave to share what's been going on behind the scenes and change course. I hope this is the start of a healthy and fulfilling new chapter for you, whatever that looks like.

Congrats on making a tough decision. For what it's worth, most companies fail. You just don't hear about it because people don't like talking about the ones that didn't work out. You've both learned a lot, and whether in a job or the next time you start your own venture, that knowledge will be valuable. But there's no reason to feel bad about stepping away from a bad situation and taking care of yourself.

Thanks for taking the time to share your story. Very insightful.

Wishing you all the best

Impressive and super inspiring story! I am sure you will get back to it at some point!

PS: I learned a ton from your Twitter course.

Sorry to read this. There are many definitions of success. Your not a failure! Celebrate the successes you have shared together. Good luck with the future.

Thanks for sharing your story. Would it be possible to run it as a side project ? At my startup withBilly I'm trying just that. The whole process is automated so actually I don't need to work on it actively only acquiring new customers.

Thanks so much for sharing your story 💚 The burnout sounds so round - but you being so candid about it is so helpful and such an example for others.

Damn man, I was really sorry to read this. Please focus on the positives - you built an insane following that so many of us here would be jealous of.

Ultimately, every business will go bust or stop trading. You kept going for 5 years, learned loads on the way, and proved you can build a massive following.

I'd love to see you return with a product that brings in recurring revenue, as I know you have the marketing piece down.

Please be kind to yourself, and enjoy the simple life for a bit! :)

Harvey

Hey Dagobert, it's been a while since we last chatted, and I gotta say, I teared up when I read this post. I'm so sorry that you experienced burnout so severe. What you described sounds like a slow, arduous torture. It feels like the concept of "startup" has severely failed you. I'm sad to hear that you feel like a loser and a failure... I hope this message confirms what you know deep down, that you as a person are so much more than a successful company. And life holds so much more than financial and career success. There are so many more areas of life you can win in.

I hope the future holds much, much more happiness and ease of life. Be kind to yourself - you deserve it <3

Ooof, I thought that reading all the success stories is pretty depressing when you're just embarking on that journey with loads of uncertainty, but honest and heartbreaking posts like that are actually much harder.
On the other hand, I guess it gives you some balanced perspective that it's not always rosy or dull out there, and you need to seek balance above all else.
I believe that going back to a "regular" work is not a failure. With all the experiences and people you've met along the way it will be completely different. Plus, for the first time in the long time, you won't have to worry about money and what exactly you should be doing next 🙃
Wish you all the best ❤️

Thanks for sharing your story. All the best!

Thanks for sharing this - your health and wellbeing is way more important than anything else.

In a previous business I faced the same and held on which cost me my marriage and financially suffered when I should have just stopped - but with hindsight its obvious now and its not so clear when you are in it at the time.

Good luck for the future.

I'd want to thank you for sharing your story and wish you the best in the future.

Take the time you need to recover and recharge. We'll eagerly await your return with new content and the valuable lessons you have to share. Sending you and Lucie all the best as you embark on this new chapter. You've got a community cheering you on! 💙

Hey man,

don't be that hard on yourself, you've achieved quite a lot already and quite honestly, one of the hardest thing to get right is to know when to quit.

There's way more to life than project... it might have taken a while for you to realize, but at least is not too late, you're both young, you still together, that's what matters.

Rest, re-fill the tank with a job, re-group and next project set clear Go - NoGo milestones... and don't think twice about quitting if is not up to expectations.

BTW, I have some authority to say this, ended up 4 months in hospital after my first startup...

Just be a capybara 😉

Thanks for sharing your journey.

Thank you for taking the time and energy to share this with us @dagorenouf

Most importantly, never again dare you say that you are ashamed for what you did. You have created something you believed in, you didn't stop with just an idea in your head. You actually built the thing and found customers that used your product. That is more exceptional and inspiring than you seem to think.

While I do understand that you may not be able to make a living of this with both you and your partner being invested full time in the product be proud of what you did and I promise you, many around here would be quite happy to reach what you created.

On a final note, it's my personal belief that it's not worth your relationship, friends of hobbies. Like you say, in the end most (if not all) of your followers or clients don't care about you, they care about their own friends, hobbies and relationships.

It probably won't be easy to let go of your product, but rest assured that it will be worth it if you have made the choice to prioritize your life again. While I don't know you as a person, I stand by the choices you have made here!

Looking forward to any lessons you might share with us in the future or by hearing how your career switch is going for you and your wife. Best of luck mate!

Wish you all the best! Bootstrapping a startup is no easy feat even though some of the stories that are online suggest otherwise. It is a constant uphill battle but you managed to survive 5 years! That is impressive and a win in my book :)

Cheer up there Dagobert Renouf! Hope you find peace and something decent soon.

Honestly, I don't like giving up. I don't know what you have been through, but I hope you come back and finish that fighting.

Hope you're not feeling too bad. It has been really, really hard for me as well. Building a business from scratch can be quite challenging. But don't forget, life is more than just work and business.

Take a break; it might help you figure out what you want to do next.

Thanks for sharing, I just took a glimpse of your site, beautifully designed. The logos generated are really neat. But it takes 16 steps for a logo...? Generative AI is taking over most creative tasks. People only need a prompt now.

thanks for sharing dagobert. It takes courage to be open about it public. You should do whatever makes you happy and you should not feel bad about it.

It's hard just to read your words here. I only imagine how hard it would have been for you and your wife! Whatever it is going to be for you guys from here on. You are going to have a better life! And I wish that for you and your wife. :)

Never give up, just don't

It's touch to kill the business. It start from exciting and end with gravity. Hope you could take some rest and then find a new way come back again.

Thanks for sharing and I wish you from the bottom of my heart that your body and soul fully recover from your burn out.

But I am also sad and angry that we as the audience continue to feed and admire a hustling culture on Twitter, expecting daily progress and success stories. And then say so sorry for your burnout and move on to be surprised about the next creator’s burn out.

Thanks for sharing this insightful story. Not a story, your life actually. But you're the genius, one day you will dominate again. I tried your product, this is really cool!

Hope for the best<3

Reading your post, it's clear you've been on a real rollercoaster journey with Logology. The courage, grit, and determination you and your wife have shown over the past 5 years are commendable.

The journey of a startup is challenging, and the roadblocks you've faced – from maintaining profitability and the pressure of constantly finding new customers to dealing with the implications of AI – are daunting, to say the least. It's impressive that you've navigated these challenges with so much tenacity.

Take care of yourself! Good luck!

That's a hard decision to make in the moment, but sounds like the right one. It sounds like you all are pretty entrepreneurial so I'm sure some new experiences will be good for you both, and if the whim strikes again, you can take another shot at it.

I wish you two much success in your next adventure! It was a good read. Unfortunately, not all ideas and startups are made to survive. You reached some impressive milestone which put you ahead of many entrepreneurs.

Thanks for sharing your story.

Maybe you will find joy again on side projects. Having a steady income stream helps a lot to deal with side hustle struggles.

I hope you get better.

This is my first article here and it really touched me. Being inactive designer that specialized in logos myself, I feel the struggle you described at a personal level. Don't feel stupid, it would be stupid if you wouldn't try! Thank you for sharing and wish you speedy recovery!

Thanks for the shared knowledge and I wish you two all the best!

Would be nice if one of your next articles would provide a few key takeaways of what to do and what not to do when boostrapping, to avoid a similar situation. Cheers!

Thanks for sharing the struggle along with the successes.

There's a ton of survivorship bias in the indie hacking world, and people are also incentivized to share more successes since it usually gets more engagement than failure stories.

You fought in the arena and didn't get to where you were hoping to but at least you fought hard and gave it a shot.

I wish you all the best, and quick recovery for your health after the pressure has stopped! That's for sure something that many founders go through - I sometimes feel this stories should be a must-read for new founders. Make sure to stay in surplus or you're lost.

It takes immense courage to startup and much more to let go of your dream after 5 years of toil. Wishing you all the best for the future. Keep your heads up bud

"I feel like a loser and a failure. I’m afraid people will lose interest in me if I stop sharing only my success."

Please don't feel this way. What you achieved is the dream of many. Running a startup or any business is extremely hard. I have been running mine for 8+ years and feel like a failure all the time. It is common to think like that but what you accomplished is the dream of many. Never forget that. You tried something that has a less than 5% success rate and you still learned things along the way

Be proud and take this as a positive learning lesson. You are a much better entrepreneur now even though you may have burned out for the time being. Nothing wrong with a job until you are ready some day again.

As a strange, I am proud of you for running a small business for 5+ years. I know how hard it is. All the best!!

This product seems fimiliar actually. I feel like I heard about it a few years ago before AI was something all over the place. Probably because I've been seeing other indie startups and just software in general for sooo long.

I'm struggling myself too. particularly on https://obeatow.com. huge drop in sign ups and zero dollars, so I feel you.

My new AI product Imgartfis seems to be doing better with two paying customers currently and less struggles to get signups. Maybe build something AI related next as it seems to be giving me better luck than I ever got with traditional SaaS.

I'll miss seeing non AI related products.

Hey mate!

Firstly, I just want to say it has to be an absolute god given sign that I hadn't been on both twitter OR indiehackers for ages (like 5 months), and the most insane part?

My last twitter post was to you on a thread re: 'what I'm working on' and I mentioned 'I was building a sort of ETF/ domain name/ dao collective to democratise and allow startups with $0 or similar, to not only 'brand with the best' (esp. given the access to AI etc. that we all have no that kind of 'evens the playing field.....for everything but domain names that is).

I would LOVE to have a chat and (I don't want anything but to help where I think things align e.g. if you were interested in helping (and definitely don't intend to not pay you your share - 50/50) for helping me build designerscourse.com while I finish up my book (literally smashing through it now, worldsbestname (will also be on worldsbestname.com).

I love the way you're open, transparent and although I totally understand how bummed you must be, I promise I mean it when I say your startup (and your literally 2nd startup, the memes daily tings) was such a refreshing idea.

I think we may have a way to (without you really doing much extra) work on something which could rival and create an entirely new 'network and marketplace' (and it's not hard to know where our 'income' would come from....we just don't take 30% - ffs - commissions off of domain owners (ironically the first 15,000 are my own listed) like Squadhelp and others do.

preetsg@ me.com or preetsingh.com - Can hop on a video call whenever brother.

I'm in Sydney (it's 3am and I'm up for another hour yet still) salute

You're an inspiration to us all and you/ your posts kept me going at my lowest :)

Never forget that brother

Thank you @dagorenouf - these stories that need to be shared more as this is the reality of many startups. Knowing when to quit is the hardest part, and it’s hard to separate our egos from the work we do. Congrats on giving this your best shot!

Thank you very much for sharing your experience.
I also have struggled to earn daily money since I quite all my jobs and started my startup.

This article gives me the thought that taking the rest is also one of the life strategies.

I just arrived here, but I am sorry to read about your experience.

I wish you the best of luck with your future projects, where you will be able to apply everything you already learned!

Your health problems sound like textbook long covid. Look into POTS after COVID.

Thank you for sharing so openly @dagorenouf and sorry to hear it. But yet, you seem to be leaving with the most valuable thing of all that no amount of money can buy - character building and life lessons through hardship!

We often encounter success stories because they are compelling and motivate us to believe that dedicating time and effort to coding will inevitably lead to financial success. However, the reality is much more intricate. Even startups with ample funding face similar challenges; they simply have venture capital resources to exhaust. However, when it comes to achieving product-market fit, the struggles are universal.

Churn is an inherent aspect of any product. Even with a subscription-based model, users inevitably churn. Thus, whether you charge $50 upfront or $10 over five months, the outcome remains unchanged.

It appears that one of your challenges stemmed from insufficient bungeefitnessnearme.com visibility to generate more revenue (as you mentioned—investing more in SEO).

Regardless, I wish you all the best, and I'm confident that with time, you will be poised to develop a new product, armed with the insights and experience gained.

I think in the end you made the right decision, congrats to what you achieved! Any key takeaways you had from your journey?

You have done everything right, and beyond. Thanks for sharing.

Gran traspaso de experiencia.

Dagobert, tú y Lucie luego de esto, ¿Han podido esclarecer conclusiones en cuanto al producto en sí? Digo, comparar Logology con otros que ya están consolidados (al menos en cuanto a visitas mensuales, por ejemplo)?

Mucha energía y gracias.

It is difficult to continuously generate a monthly income of $3000, and I also can't do it.

Thanks a lot for sharing your (less bright) side of the story. Amazing accomplishment bootstrapping to 3k MRR and even better accomplishment to realise that your health comes first! One day, you'll find the energy again and take all the learnings from this with you to the next and you'll succeed.

One statistic I want to see on my death bed is of all success stories I've seen on LinkedIn, Techcrunch and other sites celebrating fundraising or other milestones, how many actually survived and created something that added value to users or society. I'm expecting a very low number so don't compare yourself to those snapshots of 'amazing successes'.

On another note, would be very interested in understanding what the top 3 learnings would be that you take out of this adventure and you would maybe do differently or think about differently if you would re start this adventure?

Best of luck and lot's of love from Berlin ❤️

You did the right thing. Your health has to come first.

You should be proud of yourself. You managed to survive for 5 years full-time; that's a great achievement.

Someone has already mentioned selling it. Seems like the best thing to do at this point. Sell it, get a lump sum, so when you're ready for your next indie adventure, you've got some runway.

All the best with whatever you plan to do in the future. You've been on my radar of people to follow for a couple years now, I believe you'll make it.

Thank you Dago. You are one of the most inspiring building in public stories I have followed. Love the honesty throughout your journey consistently sharing highs and lows. Your effort, time, and investment are clearly not wasted. Whatever else you do in future builds on this experience. All the best for the future. Also your memes remain legendary, I hope your grand sense of humour remains :)

So I just want to say THANK YOU to all who supported me during this tough time. You truly are the best part of this journey 🥲

Hi Dagobert,

Sorry to hear about the shutting down. Your decision totally makes sense and there's no shame to do what is good for you.

On the other hand, after trying your website, I loved it! I think the conversational onboarding process is really fun to play with and the quality of designs is incredible!

I wish we can find a way to keep this site alive. We can schedule a meeting if you want. I'm a software engineer with an MBA degree, maybe there is something I can help.

All the best,