Self-funding to get from side project to full-time business in 4 years

36-year-old Damjan Dano spent 17 years building a wildly successful service company before deciding it was time to build something more scalable.

In 2018, he started building Aqtos and it has been a slow grind, but he's finally in the process of rolling it out to the public. And just in time — he's been draining his bank account by self-funding a team of 15 people.

Here's a peek at his finances.

First real income

Damjan earned his first online dollar in 7th grade when he signed up for a referral program and made $20–$30. Then, he turned around and spent it on books about the internet — an investment that would later pay off.

A year later, he made his first "real" income — $100 — by designing a website for a local business using Dreamweaver. And it snowballed from there.

He has spent nearly two decades running profitable service businesses in the information and communications technology industry. In fact, one was so successful that it still pays him substantial dividends on a yearly basis.

A wakeup call

While running a wildly successful service business may sound great, he says it was exhausting. In 2018, while working on a major project developing a full crypto exchange for Wall Street investment banks, he had a wakeup call.

He realized he was stuck in a never-ending cycle: Find new clients, collect specs, build, and repeat.

After completing the crypto project, he decided it was time for a change. The grind of constantly seeking new projects was wearing him down.

He wanted to create something scalable.

Building a BOSS

That desire led to the birth of Aqtos, a business operating system designed to help small businesses run their daily operations and increase productivity. It's in the "ever-so-popular and sensitive niche of all-in-one tools."

In other words, it offers task and project management, HR, chat, calendar, invoicing, expense management, website monitoring, dark web check, sales pipeline, and other useful tools.

Aqtos uses a SaaS model, but Damjan refers to it as a “Business Operating System as a Service,” or BOSS — pretty neat acronym — because they offer a lot of business and operational wisdom throughout the software.

According to Damjan, "It's one heavily opinionated piece of code."

Being okay with slow growth

Damjan has a complicated relationship with the idea of VC funding — to the point that he created a product, ToVCorNot, to help founders navigate the question of whether or not to pursue it.

For now, he’s choosing to bootstrap Aqtos, preferring the control and flexibility that come with self-funding. And that has had a big impact on the speed of development — he's been working on the product since 2018, and it hasn't officially launched yet.

I know that this goes beyond the current wisdom "ship fast" and bla bla. But we really need quality products. And this industry we have chosen is not a simple one.

In his mind, there's nothing better than a well-earned dollar. And a well-earned dollar requires that the buyer receives real value.

Real value, according to Damjan, can't be delivered via get-rich-quick schemes. He has no interest in building a subpar product. He wants to earn his money.

Going all in

Aqtos started as a side hustle. In fact, it started as a side hustle twice.

In January, 2024, after two failed attempts, he realized that developing it alongside a full-time job wasn't going to work. He decided to go all in.

If you are serious about something, you have to focus and give it a real chance. I know it's extremely hard and scary, and failure is just around the corner, but you have to face the music. And then, just keep on dancing.

Since parting ways with his clients so that he could focus fully on Aqtos, he has onboarded a few chosen customers to help him develop a better product.

Revenue

Here's what he's bringing in.

• Aqtos revenue: $500 MRR

• Yearly dividends from his previous business: "A decent annual salary by US standards" thanks to his shares in a still-successful service company

• Other funding: Savings and consulting

• Founder pay: $0

• Personal bank account: "Less than I'd like"

My personal bank account is suffering heavily while I'm developing this product. In terms of runway, let's just say we need to start making money ASAP. :D 

Damjan is now rolling out access to a larger audience from his early access request list, which has over 200 people. And they hope to do a public launch soon, which should jumpstart revenue.

High expenses

His business expenses are high, coming in around $20k/mo. And he is personally funding it all from his savings and consulting income.

Here are his monthly expenses:

• Payroll: $15k

• Maintenance: $1k

• Software and tech: $4k

That's a pretty high payroll expense for a company with little revenue. He started with one developer, but soon brought on a CTO and then a team of seven full-time people along with another eight part-time consultants and developers. It's expensive, but he says it's necessary if he's going to put a dent in this "un-disrupted, multi-billion dollar industry".

Though he didn't go into detail, he said his personal expenses are also high.

He has twins, so he says everything costs double. And kindergarten is expensive.

But food is by far his biggest expense. He loves experimenting in the kitchen and says that makes some months "simply unjustifiable."

Investing in what he knows

Damjan invests most of his money into his business, but he's still an active investor elsewhere.

I do not keep money under the mattress. I invest all the time and I'm very bold with my investments. I'm not an S&P 500 type of person.

When Damjan invests, he focuses on what he knows — primarily tech stocks. He likes to rotate through the FAAMG stocks, as well as NVDA and TSLA. He says he gets "okay" returns.

He has also invested in media companies like ITlogs.com and IT.mk. And he dabbles in real estate

Aqtos is his retirement plan, but he does contribute a small amount to his national retirement system.

Investing in himself

He also believes in investing in himself. He doesn't care about impressing people with fancy clothes, cars, or shiny things. He got that out of his system early in his life when he was making — and spending — a lot of money.

But he does care about travel and cooking, as these pay dividends through personal growth, inspiration, and sheer enjoyment.

Spending on good food and cooking equipment, in particular, helps him manage stress, learn patience, and recharge his batteries. For example, he recently spent $350 on a Le Creuset cast-iron casserole dish.

Focus on the bigger financial picture

Damjan doesn't like to micromanage his finances. Yes, detailed financial planning can be helpful, but he prefers to keep things simple and focus on the bigger picture.

Spending time debating whether you should have splurged on that extra coffee or lunch is not my style.

He says that it probably affects his wealth, but it also gives him the freedom to focus on what's important.

Build something that matters to you

His advice to other indie hackers?

Get your priorities straight and develop something that matters to you. Believe in your product and give it a real try before you call it quits.

He encourages founders to ignore the noise around get-rich-quick schemes and "MRR porn." Just stay true to your vision, even — or especially — when things get tough.

And remember, there is a ton of advice out there on how to build a startup and, yet, startups are still failing. Ignore the noise. "You do you."

You can follow along with Damjan on X and LinkedIn. And check out Aqtos.

Please note that the above are opinions. This is meant for informational purposes only. It is not intended to be financial advice.