I launched Ottomated in early 2025 as a side project. Year one closes with paying customers, real revenue, and a long list of things I’d do differently.
The numbers
Total revenue, year one: enough to be a real business. Not enough to quit consulting. The shape of the curve matters more than the number — month-over-month growth held steady at around 18%, which compounds into something interesting if the compounding doesn’t stop.
Churn
Logo churn was 3.2%, dollar churn was 1.8%. The 1.4-point spread is because the customers who stay tend to expand. That’s the shape of a real product.
What I’d do again
Ship the thing. Charge for it from day one. Talk to every customer for an embarrassingly long time. Pick a boring stack and make it sing.
What I wouldn’t
I wouldn’t build the marketing site myself in week one. I’d start with a Notion page and a Stripe link and not feel bad about it.
