August 12th, 2024

Ask HN: Is YC Worth It for a B2B SaaS with $8.5k MRR and Linear Growth?

The startup has 87 customers, $8,500 MRR, and a 13% monthly churn rate. It has over 18 months of runway and is considering Y Combinator or another fundraising round.

The startup has successfully acquired 87 customer companies and achieved a monthly recurring revenue (MRR) of $8,500. It is currently gaining approximately 4-5 new paying customers each week, but is facing a 13% monthly churn rate. The growth rate has been linear for the past two months. The company raised pre-seed funding in July and has a runway of over 18 months, which could be shortened if additional hires or increased marketing expenditures are made. The founders are contemplating whether to pursue Y Combinator (YC) to accelerate growth or to focus on their next fundraising round.

- The startup has 87 customer companies and $8.5k MRR.

- It experiences a 13% monthly churn rate with a linear growth rate for two months.

- The company has a runway of over 18 months following pre-seed funding.

- Founders are considering Y Combinator to boost growth or pursuing another fundraising round.

8 comments

By @lowkey - 6 months

Your problem isn’t lack of marketing, it is the false assumption that you have product market fit. With 13% monthly churn customers are telling you they either don’t really care about the problem you solve or they don’t value your solution. Cut your burn to extend your runway so you can have enough time to figure out why your product isn’t sticky enough. You can’t, won’t and shouldn’t raise funding till you solve this.

By @jononor - 6 months

13% monthly churn?? You are on track for replacing all your customers in under 1 year. Effectively you have no recurring revenue at all. Something is seriously wrong if B2B customers are leaving that fast, and you need to find out what and fix it fast. I would plug that hole before thinking about scaling.

By @snowhale - 6 months

Thank you all for the excellent advice. I understand that we need to improve our business and deliver more value to our ICPs before scale.

By @jags-v - 6 months

The short answer is it depends.

Insights you may gain at YC may help you either pivot or improve the current SaaS you have either from an offering or operational perspective.

Most importantly folow your gut feeling because that's what got you to $8.5k MRR. If there is even a 5% chance to improve your product or increase your revenue or both, you should take it. Define your success metric and proceed accordingly.

Hope this helps you :)

By @ipaddr - 6 months

You acquired 87 customers and are getting 5 new month but losing 10 customers. The question is how many new customers are leaving vs part of the 87 batch. They are going to wonder if your new customer pipeline is scalable.

By @b20000 - 6 months

You should not need customers to get accepted. If you do then i’m not sure i understand what YC is about.

By @aristofun - 6 months

Mind sharing the link?

By @snowhale - 6 months

* last July -> July, 2023

Ask HN: Is YC Worth It for a B2B SaaS with $8.5k MRR and Linear Growth?

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