Dear World,
Life doesn't always go how you think it will. I'm both proud and surprised in this moment, reflecting. Perhaps I shouldn't be feeling either of those things, but that's just how I feel... even as my new tattoo scars and heals and I shift to other vibe feelings. New adventures.
July 11 2023 - I officially joined Shuffle Dating along with our third cofounder, Harris, who ended up resigning that same Christmas. He was an excited Shuffle participant and a solid technical partner. I came directly from Senseg in Ecuador, my previous venture-funded startup. I ended up bringing along a single teammate, Christian Chunga, who is an amazing software engineer and has built from scratch our whole platform powering everything.
My cofounder Austin and I had a great run over the past 2 years. To date, we've served over 30,000 customers more than 10,000 matches for an average 4.3/5.0 overall good participant satisfaction and at most 5% regret. On a people level, this means countless relationships came out of Shuffle! At least 4 marriages that we know of so far.
We employed a full-time team of 6-10 with generous salaries & benefits in Latam, all supporting their own families. We generated low 7-figures in total gross revenue, which represents our impact in creating love at scale, and we made over $300k in profit which went to our own salaries and expenses as well as re-investing in the business. Our peak revenue was $90k/mo. Now we're closer to a conservative steady-state of $25k/mo today, with room for upside. Demand fluctuates, and we're still profitable, just smallish.
We never had investors, except Austin's dad James. He is on the LLC partnership having contributed a small amount of initial capital, mid-5 figures, promptly and inefficiently spent away in the early days (before I joined) so we don't really count it. We've essentially been a small business, not a startup, bootstrapped from zero. James has also been more of a cofounder and operator partner, tirelessly and generously doing flyer printing and distribution in his retirement. Love you James. Thanks for everything. What a great Yeo family I've worked with! (go Koreans tbh)
We haven't changed much from Austin's initial concept and there's a huge opportunity to build on our platform, which keeps improving every week. Everything has truly been wonderful, and a great business success compared to my previous net-negative solo run with Senseg. BUT here's the news today: we're closing up shop by December. Opportunity costs are simply too high with AI and our current energy levels as owner-operators.
Exactly why and how and all that... is a fun complex story I'll surely tell again and again over the years. Hopefully that story changes as Austin and I learn more, but right now we're still in the middle of things! So here's what you can do to please help us in this transition today:
Life doesn't always go how you think it will. I'm both proud and surprised in this moment, reflecting. Perhaps I shouldn't be feeling either of those things, but that's just how I feel... even as my new tattoo scars and heals and I shift to other vibe feelings. New adventures.
July 11 2023 - I officially joined Shuffle Dating along with our third cofounder, Harris, who ended up resigning that same Christmas. He was an excited Shuffle participant and a solid technical partner. I came directly from Senseg in Ecuador, my previous venture-funded startup. I ended up bringing along a single teammate, Christian Chunga, who is an amazing software engineer and has built from scratch our whole platform powering everything.
My cofounder Austin and I had a great run over the past 2 years. To date, we've served over 30,000 customers more than 10,000 matches for an average 4.3/5.0 overall good participant satisfaction and at most 5% regret. On a people level, this means countless relationships came out of Shuffle! At least 4 marriages that we know of so far.
We employed a full-time team of 6-10 with generous salaries & benefits in Latam, all supporting their own families. We generated low 7-figures in total gross revenue, which represents our impact in creating love at scale, and we made over $300k in profit which went to our own salaries and expenses as well as re-investing in the business. Our peak revenue was $90k/mo. Now we're closer to a conservative steady-state of $25k/mo today, with room for upside. Demand fluctuates, and we're still profitable, just smallish.
We never had investors, except Austin's dad James. He is on the LLC partnership having contributed a small amount of initial capital, mid-5 figures, promptly and inefficiently spent away in the early days (before I joined) so we don't really count it. We've essentially been a small business, not a startup, bootstrapped from zero. James has also been more of a cofounder and operator partner, tirelessly and generously doing flyer printing and distribution in his retirement. Love you James. Thanks for everything. What a great Yeo family I've worked with! (go Koreans tbh)
We haven't changed much from Austin's initial concept and there's a huge opportunity to build on our platform, which keeps improving every week. Everything has truly been wonderful, and a great business success compared to my previous net-negative solo run with Senseg. BUT here's the news today: we're closing up shop by December. Opportunity costs are simply too high with AI and our current energy levels as owner-operators.
Exactly why and how and all that... is a fun complex story I'll surely tell again and again over the years. Hopefully that story changes as Austin and I learn more, but right now we're still in the middle of things! So here's what you can do to please help us in this transition today:
- Buy Shuffle. Or refer us to someone who will. Mid 6-figures total price tag, see data room & listing. Working with Baton Market has been good and very interesting as my first legit sale. Thanks Tiger, as always.
- Hire our team. We love them each so much, and it is through no fault of their own that we will no longer pay them for their good work. They all speak excellent English. Incredible talent.
There are currently 6 full-timers I'd like to help find new jobs. We have:
- a founding software engineer,
- customer support reps, event operators, supervisors, marketing coordinators,
- a social media content creator, and
- a highly engaged GM who can quickly build + manage well-oiled Latam teams.
I will personally vouch for Christian, Mateo, Diego, Val, Dave, and Cristian. Contact me any time, email below. They all work remotely very very well and are not expensive at all by U.S. standards, great value. Each less than $50k/yr all-inclusive total comp for full-time (++ nights & weekends hustle) today. We've worked with most of them for over a year or two at this point. I plan to remain involved personally as a friend and mentor throughout the rest of their exciting and long careers ahead!
Ideally of course, none of them have to find new jobs if we can just get a buyer for the company in the next month or two. Thanks in advance for any and all leads.
Sincerely, and wishing you a Happy Friday,
Andy
@shuffle.dating
cofounder & CEO
http://shuffle.dating/data-room