Indie Bites

<p>Today I'm revisiting one of my favourite episodes, from 2020, with Sabba Keynejad, co-founder and CEO of <a href="https://veed.io/">VEED.io</a>, an online video editing platform. When I interviewed Sabba, VEED were at around $2m ARR, fully bootstrapped. Since this interview, they’ve gone on to bootstrap to about $7m ARR before <a href="https://techcrunch.com/2022/02/02/veed-an-online-video-editing-platform-picks-up-35m-from-sequoia/?guccounter=1&amp;guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&amp;guce_referrer_sig=AQAAAHqD2n2RBDbYkQ_pWt8kDBR9mh7luVtelvK0b2eMtT9d4p3jMfITfbMoFnYuCaAOMIwuqhcuinH74J1heknM-zusOQR3AbvRhs54H4ExZYXaB9N-cwFNlB3XOanq-7xYgo2ppehQ8cJlq23ydFgOMacGdUeFiFs3YKXnyUzZFs4X">raising a whopping $35m series A from Sequoi</a>a. And when I first met Sabba, years before this interview, VEED was just a small product that wasn't generating any revenue. This episode is special to me because I’ve followed VEED’s journey from the start and it’s been inspiring to see. </p><p><strong>Timestamps</strong></p><ul><li>00:00 Intro</li><li>02:46 VEED origins</li><li>03:24 Differentiation</li><li>03:58 Picking a market</li><li>04:48 Hiring and learning new skills</li><li>06:16 Inflection points in growth</li><li>07:07 Quitting your job</li><li>07:45 Why you should find a cofounder</li><li>08:41 Getting the first users</li><li>09:47 Free vs paid</li><li>11:16 Growth tactics</li><li>12:04 Advice to other founders</li><li>13:01 Recommendations</li></ul><p><strong>Recommendations</strong></p><ul><li>Favourite indie hacker is <a href="https://twitter.com/Shpigford"><strong>Josh Pigford</strong></a></li><li>Best book for indie hackers; <a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Traction-Startup-Achieve-Explosive-Customer/dp/0241242533/"><strong>Traction</strong></a></li><li>Favourite podcast; <a href="https://www.npr.org/podcasts/510313/how-i-built-this?t=1600981290605"><strong>How I Built This</strong></a></li></ul><p><strong>My links</strong></p><ul><li><a href="https://twitter.com/jmckinven"><strong>Twitter</strong></a></li><li><a href="https://twitter.com/indiebitespod"><strong>Indie Bites Twitter</strong></a></li><li><a href="https://youtube.com/@indiebites"><strong>Indie Bites YouTube</strong></a></li><li><a href="https://indiebites.com/membership"><strong>Join the membership</strong></a></li><li><a href="https://jamesmckinven.com/"><strong>Personal Website</strong></a></li><li><a href="https://2hourpodcast.com/"><strong>2 Hour Podcast Course</strong></a></li><li><a href="https://podpanda.co/"><strong>PodPanda</strong></a> (hire me to edit your podcast)</li><li><a href="https://indielife.fm/"><strong>This Indie Life Podcast</strong></a></li></ul><p><strong>Sponsor - </strong><a href="https://emailoctopus.com/"><strong>EmailOctopus</strong></a><strong> 🐙</strong></p><p><em>EmailOctopus is an independently owned email marketing platform, built to support other small growing businesses. With a focus on affordability and ease of use, EmailOctopus contains all of the features you need to reach and grow your audience. You can </em><a href="https://emailoctopus.com/"><strong><em>start today</em></strong></a><em>, with their industry leading free plan where you can contact up to 2,500 subscribers without paying a penny.</em></p>