Meta Product Designer Turned Founder Of A Remote, Bootstrapped, And Profitable Startup: A Founder’s Story with Sarah Hum

I’m Sarah, one of the founders of Canny.io. My background is in graphic design and I worked at Meta before transitioning to being a founder. My co-founder Andrew and I were nomads for two years before settling in Toronto, Canada.

Tell us about your childhood and where you grew up

I grew up in Toronto, Canada as the oldest of three. I come from a family of entrepreneurs. My grandparents immigrated to Canada and started a restaurant. My siblings and I grew up watching Disney movies in the back room of my dad’s optical. Throughout high school, I had a very limited view of what my career opportunities were. I thought I’d be an accountant for the longest time. Eventually, I turned to my personal interests in the arts and explored working in film. That’s also how I discovered graphic design and I ended up going to university for that.

How did you get started as an entrepreneur?

I did several hackathons while in university that got me really into building and shipping products quickly. One of them included traveling to San Francisco and experiencing Silicon Valley. It was inspiring to see so many people trying to make it in tech. I think that ignited my interest in scrappy tech startups. I started my first full-time role as a product designer at Meta knowing that I wanted to start my own company one day. Looking back, working at Meta didn’t much help my founder career. I’d say the main benefits of my time there were: 1. Getting a reputable stamp on my resume 2. Meeting smart people who are now also starting companies One and a half years later, I left Meta to join Andrew and start Canny. Fast-forward six years, we are a team of 13 and we’re fully remote, bootstrapped, and profitable.

What is one business lesson you would tell a startup founder?

I think it’s still a really common mindset that the only way to start a company is by raising money. Become a unicorn startup or die trying. However, there are a lot of possibilities in between those. Bootstrapping means that you have full ownership and control of your company. No need to appease a board via quarterly updates. For us, that also means being able to give more equity to the people who are actually working on Canny. Being profitable means there’s no risk of your company dying of financial reasons. It also means that your product has proved valuable for your customers. Focus on getting to profitability as a sign that you’re building something valuable.