From Solo Developer to Venture Scale Entrepreneur: Jordan Boesch, CEO of 7shifts (Part 2)

Sramana Mitra: Beyond your dad, how did other customers find you?

Jordan Boesch: We had it online and people were finding us because they were just looking for scheduling software. They would google us and they’d sign up. I didn’t think anything about how to expand and get more. It was really just a fun project for me where folks could sign up and I could talk to them and learn about their needs. That’s how people found us.

Sramana Mitra: How much were they paying?

Jordan Boesch: At that time, we charged per employee, which is different than how we charge now, which is by restaurant location. I think we charged a dollar per employee per month.

Sramana Mitra: You positioned as a restaurant scheduling software?

Jordan Boesch: Before we positioned it for restaurants, we were trying to be everything to everyone. There was a turning point where that changed. Although it was developed with my dad in mind, it took on a life of its own where we had various industries signing up – everything from retail, medical professionals, and staffing agencies. You name it. They were there. We didn’t think much of it at that time. We did go through an inflection point where that changed.

Sramana Mitra: When did that come?

Jordan Boesch: We took part in a tech accelerator. We raised $150,000 after that. That was in 2014. We decided that we don’t want to build a product that feels like it was okay. We want it to evoke an emotion that people feel like this is the best product in the market.

We said in 2014, “We’re just going to go after restaurants.” It was scary. Two-thirds of our customers were non-restaurant customers. We made this massive change. If you were a medical company, suddenly you were seeing pictures of restaurants on our website. We did lose some customers at that time. We were very determined that the restaurant industry needed a product like this.

A lot of the reason we got early on as to why people didn’t focus on the restaurant industry is that they’ve all said that margins are low and restaurant operators will never pay for anything. When we heard that, it sounded like an immense opportunity. Restaurants are going to be around for a long time, if not forever.

Sramana Mitra: A sharper positioning took place in 2014.

Jordan Boesch: Yes.

Sramana Mitra: You said you started this by yourself. By the time you did the accelerator, you had co-founders. How long did you do this by yourself before the other two people got on?

Jordan Boesch: Full time, I only did it by myself for a few months, but I was working on it for many years as a side project. I thought that it’s not as exciting to work by yourself. I wanted to work with a team again. I get a lot of energy from working with great people.

Sramana Mitra: Until 2013, you were working mostly by yourself.

Jordan Boesch: Right.

Sramana Mitra: What was the revenue level before the accelerator?

Jordan Boesch: It was about $40,000 ARR. That was just enough for me to live. That was when I had that shift of leaving my job as a software developer at another company.

Sramana Mitra: Then you bring in this $150,000 funding after the accelerator. Where did you put in that money to scale?

Jordan Boesch: We put it into just hiring more people to build the product. We hired about three software developers. $150,000 in the Bay Area wouldn’t last us very long.

Sramana Mitra: You were in the Bay Area?

Jordan Boesch: When we were part of the accelerator. That $150,000 just wouldn’t have lasted us very long. We took it back home and converted it into 220,000 CAD. We were able to hire a few people with that and focus on building a product.

This segment is part 2 in the series : From Solo Developer to Venture Scale Entrepreneur: Jordan Boesch, CEO of 7shifts
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