How Ayush Singhvi Grew Byldd to $70,000 MRR In Just 3 Years

Getting to market quickly is key to success for many startups, and Byldd is dedicated to making that happen. Byldd works with founders and entrepreneurs to create a minimum viable product (MVP) as quickly and inexpensively as possible.

In this interview, Byldd’s founder Ayush Singhvi shares the story of how he created the company and grew it to $70,000 MRR in just four years. You’ll appreciate the practical knowledge bombs from Ayush’s experience with Byldd as well as his insight into how the company’s strategy and services can benefit other entrepreneurs.

How much revenue and profit does the business generate?

$70,000 monthly recurring revenue.

Tell us about yourself and your business.

I started my career in Dubai as an electrical engineer. Moved to New York to do my master’s from NYU and made the jump to both entrepreneurship and software development.

Entrepreneurship because I always wanted to start my own tech business and software because I couldn’t afford to hire anyone else to write code for me. I ended up helping a bunch of early-stage companies, building two businesses of my own before Byldd and eventually starting Byldd to then help other non-technical founders who were in a similar position. 

At Byldd, our aim is to assist entrepreneurs in creating and launching profitable, investment-ready tech products.

Our mission is to level the playing field of software entrepreneurship by making it easier and more affordable for non-technical entrepreneurs to start and grow their businesses.

We’re committed to building with a focus on revenue and investment. Our strategy revolves around creating solutions that target customer pain points efficiently enough to secure paying customers. We swiftly introduce a product to the market and then shift towards an iterative process where real customer feedback fuels future product development.

The inspiration behind Byldd came from my own observations throughout my career. I’ve led several product teams and consistently noticed a common issue of founders spending excessive amounts on products that do not resonate with the market.

These founders often lacked strategic partners to guide them on what to prioritize, how to approach the market, or inform them about the typical challenges and traps associated with building tech products. They would communicate their requirements to development agencies motivated to keep building and charging billable hours.

After identifying this gap, I established Byldd as a side project in 2020. Beginning with just one engineer, we’ve grown into a team of more than 55 professionals, generating more than $70K in monthly recurring revenue and launching 2-3 products each month.

How does Byldd make money?

We have two primary ways of making money. First, we charge for the service we provide. Our ticket size for an initial MVP is about $10-15K and takes about 1 to 1.5 months.

Our approach involves refining the product for the market, building it, getting it in front of customers, making the first few sales, and establishing a tight product feedback loop to drive future product development.

Our goal is to act as the long-term development partner of the founder and this really couples us tightly with founders. If we’re able to help you generate revenue and set up a real business, we can continue to work together for a long time. 

The other way we make money is by investing in our portfolio companies and acquiring equity. This ties us even further with the founders we work with – their success is our success.  

How are you able to build a product for that relatively small investment?

That’s a great question. There are a couple of reasons.

The cost of creating a software product is influenced by a few factors, but it mostly comes down to the amount of developer hours needed. The fewer hours needed from developers, the quicker and more cheaper it will be.

Typically, the cost can range from $30K to $50K, with a development period of anywhere from 3 to 6 months. This timeline and budget depend on the expertise of the development team and the intricacy of the product, as well as other factors.

At Byldd, we prioritize launching products fast and cost-effectively. We aim to get you to market quickly so you can secure paying customers or raise funds for future product development.

To make that happen, we have to reduce the number of developer hours involved in the product, and there are a few specific ways we do this:

1. We limit the scope of the MVP. We focus on building a product that solves the problem well enough that customers will pay for it. The MVP is not as feature-rich as the product will eventually become. We cut out what isn’t necessary for the MVP.
2. We use our own IP extensively. Our proprietary IP can write code based on the nature of the product. For example, it can automatically create the functionality to create, edit, or delete users for a product that will need a user database. This easily accelerates the development by a month or two.
3. We have modules for commonly needed functions. Our product development process has been streamlined through the creation of reusable code segments for routine functions. For example, integrating subscription payments into a product, complete with billing, invoices, and revenue dashboards, is as simple as checking a box. Essential features like user logins, registration, payments, subscriptions, admin dashboards, image uploads, video streaming, direct messaging, and more come pre-configured and won’t incur any additional development costs or time.

This approach allows us to save around 80-90% of the development hours needed. This allows us to charge founders less money, and we can usually launch a sellable product under $10K in 4-6 weeks.

How and when did you launch Byldd?

We launched in 2020. The idea had been on my mind when a friend came to me with a request to develop the initial version of his food delivery platform. It appeared like the ideal launchpad, and despite having a full-time job, I opted to go for it. I put together a compact team consisting of two engineers and a UI/UX designer in India, which I spearheaded.

It took us 8 months to build that first product. Now, with the IP we have and the module we’ve created, we could launch it in under a month.

How much money did you invest to start the business?

I didn’t invest too much money initially – just what was needed to hire some engineers. I did put in a tremendous amount of my time though. I spent a couple of months writing the first version of our IP – the system that understood business requirements and wrote code according to that.

For example, if you told the system we were making a dating app, it understood that we would need live chat, the ability to swipe left and right, notifications, etc., and then automatically write the code for it, saving founders a bunch of time and money.

How did you find your first few clients or customers?

I was pretty involved in the startup ecosystem in NYC – had been going to some events for a few years and got to meet many founders. The first few companies we worked with came from that network. Most of our businesses still comes from referrals – either by clients who liked our service or by Angel and VC investors who send their portfolio companies to us. 

What was your first year in business like?

The early days were tough, we definitely struggled to grow the business. I had left my job a month before COVID so I was blindsided and freaking about the lockdown. We just had one client to begin with and were making about $150 in profits per month. I was still consulting at my last company to make ends meet and relying heavily on savings. As an engineer, I also struggled with learning how to execute sales, marketing, and growth. 

We tried a bunch of things – cold emails, attempts to partner with VCs and Angels, and learning from established businesses in New York. I tried to learn from the best – reached out to mentors at different established businesses in New York, and read a bunch of books like Spin Selling and Crossing the Chasm – both great reads, by the way.

One of the best books (more like a series of long articles) was Pete Kazangy’s Founding Sales. It’s from a founder who was forced to move from engineering to sales to ensure his business survived and it is a wonderful, actionable read.

Our breakthrough came when a VC took a chance and referred us to one of their clients, resulting in our first significant customer project valued at $27K after negotiations and discounts. While barely breaking even initially, the client relationship endured, and we continue to assist them in scaling their business.

What strategies did you use to grow Byldd?

We maintained really strong relationships with the founders we worked with. Our intention was always to help turn their ideas into businesses, and that came across in the way we worked. So much so that, even if a founder’s company didn’t work out, they still referred us to their friends looking to start up. That continues to this day – we act as thinking partners who are invested in helping them build a business, and founders see it.

Referrals have always been the biggest source of new business for us, and I don’t see that changing in the future. That’s either referrals by founders or referrals from Angel and VC investors who’ve seen our work and sent portfolio companies to us.

Tell us about your team.

Currently, we’re a young and energetic team of 55, expecting to touch 100 by the end of this year. Everyone’s working full-time remotely across different parts of the world. We’re a mix of full-stack engineers, UI/UX Designers, and product managers. 

One of the most important things about running an organization is ensuring you’re hiring the right people. Everyone here is not just passionate about their work and understands the value of ownership but also stands out for being approachable and always ready to help. There’s mutual respect regardless of hierarchy.

The sense of accountability and zeal has led to the execution of some very successful projects along with the chance to continue working with almost all our clients. We hope to keep this going. One of the things I think about a lot is how to ensure we keep this kind of performance and culture as we keep growing the team.

What are your future plans for the business?

In the next five years, we’re looking to be the go-to partner for MVP development for most major accelerators, incubators, and angel investors and have a team of 500 to support the startup world.

On the product side, we’ll have automated many common use cases and functionality necessary for early-stage product development, allowing us to build and launch apps cheaper and faster than anyone else. We’re going to continue to work on that automation with the ultimate goal of being able to go from idea to launched product in under 60 minutes.

What are some of your favorite books, blogs, podcasts, or YouTube channels?

The Lean Startup embodies our entire philosophy for MVP development. That book is filled with great actionable advice and tricks of the trade to help you get up and running.

The Idea to Startup podcast (and Tacklebox Accelerator) is an excellent resource for people who want to test whether their idea has legs – especially if they’re working a full-time job.

How did you make the transition from side hustle to full-time?

Honestly, I was really scared of trading a fixed income and job security for a bunch of uncertainty. First, I changed my FT position to that of a contractor and gradually started reducing the hours I was working. I was very lucky that my former employer, also start-up founders, were supportive and encouraging. 

What was the turning point when you knew your business was successful?

A VC referred a business to us and was incredibly impressed with the work we did. That felt like a turning point because the referrals kept coming after that and we were able to do the same thing for some angels and accelerators.

What is the most important lesson you’ve learned growing the business?

It’s probably the importance of trusting your instinct and not hiring the resume. I’d much rather hire a younger candidate who is hungry, enthusiastic, and humble than someone who’s “done the work” but shows hints of arrogance. Hiring well is challenging but critical. Study best practices, learn from mentors, but ultimately rely on your instincts.

What advice do you have for other entrepreneurs?

What’s your OMTM – one metric that matters? This is something that you need to think really hard about as a founder – make sure it’s not a vanity metric like views or downloads – and that it’s as closely tied to revenue or profit as possible. Focus on that number and make sure your business efforts are tied to making it go up. 

Running a business has a lot to do with momentum. Starting out is going to be the hardest part but when you get that wheel turning and that flywheel effect going, all subsequent steps will only make it easier and add to your momentum. Hang in there.