Bootstrapping·Will Van Der Sanden, Will van der Sanden

Dux-Soup: From Side Project to Bootstrapped 7-Figure SaaS

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Will Van Der Sanden is the founder and CEO of Dux-Soup, a product that helps B2B sales professionals find and connect with potential customers on LinkedIn.

Back in 2014, Will was a software developer trying to get various startup ideas off the ground. He was getting frustrated because nothing seemed to stick.

Around the time, he also built a simple tool to help his wife find customers for her book-selling business he had no idea this side project would change everything.

Will saw an opportunity to adapt the tool for LinkedIn. He built it as a Chrome extension, put it on the Chrome Web Store, and people started downloading it.

The tool gained steady traction, and within six months, Dux-Soup was generating enough revenue for Will to quit his other work and focus on it full-time.

But the first few years were tough. Will did everything himself writing code, doing customer support, and trying to get the word out.

He worked long days and weekends, and even when he took his family on vacation, he always had to bring his laptop along.

Eventually, all that hard work started paying off. The Chrome Store helped the tool spread quickly, and Will teamed up with influencers to reach even more people.

By keeping the product simple to use and affordable, Dux-Soup hit $1 million in annual recurring revenue (ARR) just two years after launching.

But success came with its own problems.

LinkedIn eventually found out what Will was doing and threatened legal action, shutting down his personal profile. But Will stood firm, and to this day runs his LinkedIn automation company without having a presence on the platform himself.

Now, almost 10 years later, Dux-Soup brings in seven figures in revenue, has more than 80,000 customers, and a team of over 20 people. And they're bootstrapped.

This episode is part of our Bootstrapping series.

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