Baremetrics shows subscription businesses their revenue metrics. Josh Pigford built it in October 2013 as an internal tool for his own small products, in about eight working days between client work. Within months it earned more than the products it measured. In November 2020 he sold it for $4 million.
A maker with too many projects
Pigford had been building things for the web since the 1990s. By his own count he had started more than 50 projects and businesses, from link directories in 2003 to small software products.
In 2013 he was doing client work and running two small survey tools, PopSurvey and Temper. Together they made a few thousand dollars a month, roughly $4,000 to $5,000. Both took payments through Stripe.
He wanted to understand how those two products were doing: monthly recurring revenue, churn, customer lifetime value. At the time, there was no simple way to get those numbers from Stripe. Generic analytics tools needed too much setup, and none of them were built for subscription revenue.
Eight days of work, spread over a month
He noticed that Stripe already held almost all the data he needed. So he decided to build a small dashboard for himself.
On October 14, 2013, he announced on Twitter that he was starting on a Stripe analytics app that night. Over the next month, in between client work, his two existing products and some international travel, he spent about seven or eight working days building it.
The first version was, as the name suggests, bare. It covered only six months of history and about half the metrics the product would later have. In a later interview, he described the approach simply: he took his internal tool and put a logo and a credit card form on it.
He launched Baremetrics in mid-November 2013, with no landing page, no blog and no email list. He tweeted about it and told a few people he knew.
Customers on day one
The first paying customer signed up for $250 a month. Pigford has said that was the moment he realised people actually needed this.
Growth came almost entirely through word of mouth on Twitter. Stripe itself helped. In 2013 it was a small company, and Baremetrics was one of the first substantial products built on its API. When Stripe users asked for analytics, Stripe pointed them to Baremetrics.
Within about eight weeks, it had reached $2,000 in monthly recurring revenue. By early 2014 it had passed PopSurvey and Temper combined. Pigford concluded that he should stop focusing on the survey tools, and later sold them.
In February 2014, Buffer made its Baremetrics dashboard public, showing its revenue to anyone. The move drew a lot of attention to Baremetrics and gave its growth another push.
From side project to company
About two months after launch, Pigford threw out the original code and rebuilt the product, using feedback from paying customers. A year in, he raised $500,000 from investors to fuel growth. He hired a team and kept building.
The years that followed were not smooth. At one point he discovered that Baremetrics had only six to eight weeks of money left, and had to turn the business around quickly.
The $4 million sale
In November 2020, after seven years, Pigford sold Baremetrics to Xenon Partners. In a blog post titled “I Sold Baremetrics,” he shared the details openly: a sale price of $4 million, no earn-out, and about $3.7 million in cash for him personally.
He has also been candid about why it did not sell for more. Around the same time, a competitor, ProfitWell, sold for a much higher price. Pigford’s own explanation was that Baremetrics stayed in side-project mode for too long, and that being tied so closely to Stripe limited it.
After the sale he went straight back to making things, starting a personal finance product called Maybe.
What the Baremetrics story shows
- The best idea came from his own problem. He built the tool because he needed it for his own products.
- Fast and rough was enough. Eight working days, half the features and stale data still produced a paying customer at launch.
- A side project can outgrow the main business. Within months, the tool for measuring his products was worth more than the products.
- Staying in side-project mode has a cost. By his own account, Baremetrics stayed small and narrow for too long.
More businesses like this one are in SaaS companies that started as side projects, including BuiltWith and ConvertKit.
Frequently asked questions
Who founded Baremetrics?
Josh Pigford, a developer and serial maker. He launched Baremetrics in November 2013.
Was Baremetrics a side project?
Yes. Pigford built it as an internal tool for his own survey products, PopSurvey and Temper, while also doing client work. It took about eight working days spread over a month.
How fast did Baremetrics grow?
Its first customer paid $250 a month at launch. It reached about $2,000 a month within eight weeks, and earned more than his other products within a few months.
How much did Baremetrics sell for?
$4 million, in November 2020, to Xenon Partners. Pigford said there was no earn-out and that he took home about $3.7 million in cash.
Sources
- Founder chats: Josh Pigford, Baremetrics
- Announcing Baremetrics, Josh Pigford, November 2013
- How Baremetrics went from $0 to $14,000 per month, Intercom
- Baremetrics’ Josh Pigford on launching and pivoting quickly, Intercom podcast
- Josh Pigford of Baremetrics, Indie Hackers Podcast
- Built a SaaS metrics tool in 8 days, hit $30K MRR, The SaaS Podcast
- A $4M exit with Josh Pigford of Baremetrics, Startups for the Rest of Us, episode 534
- Founder interviews: Josh Pigford of Baremetrics, HackerNoon, September 2018
