@lunchwithjen — 38x breakout selling Lunch Money

@lunchwithjen — 38x breakout selling Lunch Money | Overshot

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Engineer to Solo Founder The Origin Story I'm a solo founder with no outside funding who built a profitable app here's the quick story hi I'm Jen I started my career in Silicon Valley where I worked for Twitter and then I left to cofound a venture backed startup after a year of that I did the inevitable I burnt out spectacularly and so I decided to sell everything I owned and I went travelling for a year I wasn't gonna have any income so I started tracking all of my spending in a spreadsheet no budgeting app supported multi currency back then my app does :) and most still don't now and that wasn't gonna work for me and my adventures abroad which included living on a farm in Thailand herding sheep at sunrise and working as a bartender and waitress in the countryside of France Follow more on that later I knew I didn't want to work for a corporation again and I thought entrepreneurship wasn't for me so I ended up freelancing for three different companies I've been using my spreadsheet for a year and a half and it was starting to get pretty clunky I also missed coding for fun so I decided to turn it into a side project I would wake up at 6:00am freelance until noon eat lunch and then work on my app for the rest of the day I had small goals and to be honest I never thought that this would turn into a business I just wanted to first get off my spreadsheet and then I got some friends and family on it Hey, you're in! A while ago, you signed up to beta test Lunch Money, a new app for budgeting and personal finance. We have started to onboard users and you're one of the first! then one day I decided to post on Hacker News and I hit front page for 24 hours and I got over 1,000 sign ups QUIT QUIT QUIT that's when I quit all my freelancing gigs and I went on it full time for the first five years I ran everything on my own engineering product design marketing support Our "About" page I guess you could say I had a lot to prove as a female We Can Do It! I decided to bring on a small team to help me out THE LUNCH MONEY TEAM PANAMA 2026 and here we are today 12,000 paying customers in over 30 different countries a lean team working around the world and zero outside funding that was a speedrun version Follow for more! I'll go deeper on each chapter including a traumatic life event I'm fine. that completely changed the way I thought about my business

Transcript

I'm a solo founder with no outside funding who built a profitable app. Here's the quick story. Hi, I'm Jen. I started my career in Silicon Valley where I worked for Twitter, and then I left to cofound a venture-backed startup. After a year of that, I did the inevitable. I burnt out spectacularly, and so I decided to sell everything I owned and I went traveling for a year. I wasn't gonna have any income, so I started tracking all of my spending in a spreadsheet. No budgeting app supported multi-currency back then, and most still don't now. And that wasn't gonna work for me and my adventures abroad, which included living on a farm in Thailand, herding sheep at sunrise, and working as a bartender and waitress in the countryside of France. More on that later. When I came back home, I knew I didn't want to work for a corporation again, and I thought entrepreneurship wasn't for me, so I ended up freelancing for three different companies. By then, I'd been using my spreadsheet for a year and a half, and it was starting to get pretty clunky. I also missed coding for fun, so I decided to turn it into a side project. I would wake up at 6:00 a.m., freelance until noon, eat lunch, and then work on my app for the rest of the day. I had small goals, and to be honest, I never thought that this would turn into a business. I just wanted to first get off my spreadsheet, and then I got some friends and family on it. Then one day, I decided to post on Hacker News and I hit front page for 24 hours and I got over 1,000 signups. That's when I quit all my freelancing gigs and I went on it full-time. For the first five years, I ran everything on my own: engineering, product design, marketing, support. I guess you could say I had a lot to prove as a female working in tech. Finally, I decided to bring on a small team to help me out, and here we are today: 12,000 paying customers in over 30 different countries, a lean team working around the world, and zero outside funding. That was a speedrun version. Follow for more! I'll go deeper on each chapter, including a traumatic life event that completely changed the way I thought about my business.

I'm a solo founder with no outside funding who built a profitable app

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