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INSIDE THE GAZE
Smarter Hotel Management with RoomRaccoon
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Ambition comes with a price—especially when you're building something game-changing from scratch.
For a SaaS business like ours, that cost hits you right at the start.
While funding was tempting, we saw too many startups stuck in endless funding rounds, pitching instead of perfecting. We wanted to focus on getting to market, not sitting in boardrooms chasing checks. That just didn’t feel right for us.
So, we got creative—and maybe a little scrappy (like a raccoon). It wasn’t always easy, but finding our own way to fund growth meant keeping control—and set us up for long-term success.
How we launched our Minimum Viable Product (MVP) in one year
- The Bliss as our testing ground
We used The Bliss Hotel to trial every feature, refine our product, and fix issues in real-time. It gave us the perfect playground to test and learn without external pressure.
- Customers as funding partners
We added new customers every month, asking them to pay upfront in exchange for a discount. Not only did this fund our growth, but their constant feedback helped us improve the product every single day.
- Launching an MVP backed by real-world use
By the time we launched RoomRaccoon in January 2017, it was a product shaped by real-world usage and constant feedback. Many of our first customers are still with us today, a testament to the strong relationships we built during those early days.
IMG: Nadja and Tymen signing the registration forms to launch RoomRaccoon in 2017—a milestone in their journey.
Looking back now, staying bootstrapped was one of the best decisions we ever made. It gave us complete control over our business. During the pandemic, when so many companies had to downsize, we doubled our team. We weren’t tied to financial markets or investor pressures, so we could focus on what mattered most—our customers and our growth.
So, yeah, staying lean and scaling fast isn’t easy, but it’s worth it.
It forced us to think differently, act boldly, and grow sustainably. And here we are today, stronger and still completely in control.
IMG: Nadja and Tymen wins the Breda Startup Award in 2018
