Go Startups

Flux was a modular multi-messaging client that attempted to solve data silos by aggregating messages from platforms like Facebook and email. The startup raised €70,000 in angel funding and burned through approximately €70,000 in personal savings, but failed during private beta before achieving any revenue. The failure resulted from a combination of factors including bad cofounder fit, over-engineering of technical components, poor timing with API changes from major platforms, and a failed enterprise contract negotiation that exhausted their remaining runway.

Bugfender is a remote mobile app logging and debugging tool that started as an internal tool at Mobile Jazz consulting agency in 2015. The bootstrapped SaaS grew organically over 4 years to €9,100/month MRR across 165 paying customers by leveraging content marketing and SEO, ranking on the first page of Google for key developer-focused keywords. The team of 9 (mostly part-time across Europe) reached near break-even without external investment, proving a niche B2D product can succeed through organic growth and direct customer engagement.

Cursor is an AI-powered code editor that reimagines how engineers build software by moving beyond traditional code writing toward intent-based, higher-level programming. Launched in 2022 after just 3 months of development, Cursor achieved legendary growth reaching $100M ARR in 20 months and $300M ARR within 2 years, driven entirely by product quality and organic word-of-mouth adoption. The team differentiates itself through custom model development, dog-fooding, and a human-in-the-loop philosophy that keeps engineers in control while leveraging AI to automate repetitive tasks.