Building an Accidental Business Cesar will share the story of how he accidentally turned his idea for a tool that would encourage him to be more adventurous into an app, 1SecondEveryday. This became, with the help of a co-founder, a thriving, bootstrapped, remote only, business that became the number one paid app in Apple’s App Store in 2018. With a profitable business and an ever-growing number of paid users, it was tempting to keep on doing the same things. Cesar will share the decision-making process that ultimately led to a change in business model, a rewrite of the platform and to taking outside capital. You will learn how 1SecondEveryday makes remote working work, why the business had to change as it grew up and what one founder discovered about the ever-growing number of alternative sources of funding available to software entrepreneurs.

25. JAN 2013
LAUNCH DAY!

26. ANDROID

27. NEW YEARS 2014

32. SALES
$0
$25,000
$50,000
$75,000
$100,000
2013 2014

34. YOU CAN’T “FINISH" TECHNOLOGY

35. $3 > $1

36. ENTER CO-FOUNDER!
COO SCHONECK SHOAF

37. “I DON’T WANT TO
LIVE IN NEW YORK
ANYMORE”

38. $5 > $3

39. ENTER CTO!
SAMI SAMHURI

41. NEW YEARS 2016

42. SALES
$0
$125,000
$250,000
$375,000
$500,000
2013 2014 2015 2016

43. NEW YEARS
2017

44. SALES
$0
$250,000
$500,000
$750,000
$1,000,000
2013 2014 2015 2016 2017

45. NEW YEARS 2018

46. SALES
$0
$500,000
$1,000,000
$1,500,000
$2,000,000
2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018

47. FEBRUARY 1ST
2018
Something we did not expect...
we hit #1 again... why?

48. “THERE IS NO SHORTAGE OF WAYS TO DOCUMENT OUR
LIVES ONLINE, BUT FEW INSPIRE PERSONAL REFLECTION”
SO VISCERALLY.”

50. PARENTS

56. FINALLY TIME FOR
VC FUNDING?

57. “BUT YOU’RE PROFITABLE!”
“YOU’RE LIVING THE DREAM!”
“DON’T TAKE VC MONEY!”

59. “95 percent of VCs
aren’t profitable,”

60. “A VC fund needs a 3x
return to achieve a
“venture rate of return”
and be considered a good
investment”

61. “Ninety-five percent of VCs aren’t
profitable,” he said. It took me a
while to understand what this
really means.
I’ll clarify: Ninety-five percent of
VCs aren’t actually returning
enough money to justify the risk,
fees and illiquidity their investors
(LPs) are taking on by investing in
their funds.

62. THE VC BUSINESS MODEL…

64. BUT LIKE…
WHAT IF WE DON’T WANT TO SELL
OUR COMPANY?
WHAT IF WE DON’T WANT TO IPO?
But like… we also like totally reserve the right to change our minds…
*
*
*

65. SOME COMPANIES
NEED TIME,
NOT MONEY
>

72. IF WE HAD BUILT A
SHOE COMPANY…

73. A DESIRE TO BUILD
SOMETHING LONG-LASTING
AND MEANINGFUL.

75. OUR 2018 GOALS
- Rebuild the app vertical
- Build Pro features
- Make the app Free

77. MARC ANDREESSEN:
“ORIGINAL SIN OF THE INTERNET IS
HAVING ADVERTISING AS THE CORE
BUSINESS MODELAugust 31st, 2019 - A16Z Podcast

79. “The subscription model is a booming field. In
recent years, this market has grown by more than
100% a year, increasing from $57 million in sales
in 2011 to $2.6 billion in 2016, according to one
expert.”

81. ALIGNED INCENTIVES
What’s best for our customers, not advertisers.

82. Charge
$4.99 on the App Store.
One of the top paid
photo/video apps.
OLD N O W
Free app w/ optional Pro
subscription tier at $29.99 a year.
SWITCHING TO A
SUBSCRIPTION MODEL

84. SO HOW DID IT GO?

85. 57,000+ SUBSCRIBERS SO FAR

86. PROJECTED 2019 SALES
$0
$550,000
$1,100,000
$1,650,000
$2,200,000
2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019

87. BUT NOW IT’S RECURRING REVENUE!!!!

88. DOWNLOADS
PA I D V S F R E E

89. NEW YEARS 2019

90. NEW YEARS 2019

91. NEW YEARS 2019

92. ONE TIME REVENUE 👉 RECURRING REVENUE

94. NOOOWWWW
DO WE RAISE VC!?

96. OKAY TIME TO RAISE
For real this time.

97. BUT… DOES IT HAVE TO
BE VENTURE CAPITAL?

99. AVERAGE RETURN FOR AN
ANGEL INVESTOR

101. ENTER INDIE.VC

103. INDIE.VCIn a nutshell: a convertible note with a few key variables to be
negotiated between the investor and the founder
Investment amount
Equity Option
Repurchase Start Date
% of Gross revenue
shared to repurchase
shares
“a team can repurchase up to 90% of
the original equity option back at any
point prior to a qualified financing
through monthly revenue share
payments, a lump or some combination
of both until they reach a 3x cap.”

104. If we start scaling quickly, and we decide to
raise another round… the investors convert
to equity just like any other convertible note.

105. BEYOND INDIE.VC

107. VC ALTERNATIVES
Lighter Capital
Podfund
RevUp
Riverside Acceleration Capital
Scaleworks
United Capital Source
Time Capital
Assembled Brands
Purpose Ventures
Village Capital
Sheeo
XXcelerate Fund
and more I'm sure!
Indie.vc
Earnest Capital
Tinyseed
Ustwo Adventure
ClearBanc
Alternative Capital
Bigfoot Capital
Corl
Decathlon Capital
Feenix Venture Partners
Founders First Capital Partners
Novel Growth Partners
GSD Capital

108. Indie.vc
Earnest Capital
UsTwo
SureSwift
FUNDS A N G E L S
WE RAISED 1.25 MILLION!
Joel Gascoigne (Buffer)
Hunter Walk (Homebrew)
Aaron Rasmussen (Masterclass)
and many more…

113. RETREATS!

117. TEXT

118. TEXT

119. TEXT

120. TEXT

121. TEXT

122. COUPLE OF THINGS WE WISHED WE KNEW
WHEN WE STARTED A REMOTE COMPANY

128. useFYI.com

129. useFYI.com

130. useFYI.com

131. useFYI.com

132. ORDINARY MOMENTS
TIME
VALUE
IMAGE COURTESY OF SHUTTERSTOCK

133. Isn't it funny how day by day
nothing changes, but when you
look back everything is different.
- C.S. Lewis