Bootstrapping Using Services to $35M from Ireland, Then Raising $70M: Teamwork CEO Peter Coppinger (Part 3)

Sramana Mitra: What is the timeline? You started this in 1999 and grew this to 40 people in three to four years?

Peter Coppinger: Yes. We got the idea for Teamwork in 2009. We launched around then, but we kept it as a side project. We really found it difficult to find time to work on our product. After a couple of months after the passing of the idea, we said that the only way we were going to get this product off the ground was if we treat ourselves like one of our own customers. We dedicated Fridays.

Then we started working on Saturdays and Sundays and client work from Monday to Friday. We launched the product as a side project. After a year, there was more revenue coming in from our side project than our core business.

Sramana Mitra: I would like to understand the specifics of this. 2009 was when you had the version one out.

Peter Coppinger: Right, it took us the next two years before we went all-in.

Sramana Mitra: How long did it take you to build version one?

Peter Coppinger: After probably two months’ work, we had a product for internal use. Then version one was after four months.

Sramana Mitra: What was the revenue of the agency at that point?

Peter Coppinger: I don’t remember. I do remember that the $30,000 MRR from the product was the magic number we wanted to get to to retire the agency.

Sramana Mitra: How long did it take you to get to $30,000 MRR?

Peter Coppinger: Two years.

Sramana Mitra: You don’t remember at all what revenue you were at when you started Teamwork?

Peter Coppinger: Probably $20,000 MRR.

Sramana Mitra: After you launched, what was the business model on that website?

Peter Coppinger: We decided to go with a slightly different business model. We let them have unlimited users and we charge by the number of active projects. You could archive projects as projects come and go. It was a really nice model for freelancers and small agencies in that you didn’t have to worry about the number of people you hired. It was very generous pricing.

Sramana Mitra: How much were you charging per project?

Peter Coppinger: The maximum plan was at $50 a month for unlimited projects.

Sramana Mitra: How are people finding you?

Peter Coppinger: We launched this product and we did no marketing. It was a good product. We didn’t do anything major. In the first week, we got our first customer. I remember being excited by that. We had to wire up with PayPal. It’s super easy to launch. We wired it up so that, in our agency, every time we got a sale, we had Homer Simpson saying, “Pizza money!”. In the early days, it was once a week. Then it started happening twice a week. Then five times a week. Then it started happening four times a day.

Sramana Mitra: All organic?

Peter Coppinger: Yes. We didn’t do any marketing.

This segment is part 3 in the series : Bootstrapping Using Services to $35M from Ireland, Then Raising $70M: Teamwork CEO Peter Coppinger
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