13 years ago today, I launched Buffer.
It’s hard to believe my little side project turned startup turned business is now a teenager. In recent years, I’ve reflected a lot on how to build Buffer to exist and thrive long-term.
With that in mind, I thought it could be interesting to share 13 fun facts which demonstrate our longevity mindset and the impact it has on both the product and the team.
Here we go:
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Over Buffer’s lifetime, our total revenue has been $159.16M.
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We’ve raised only $4M, so we’ve made close to 40X our funding so far in revenue.
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For 8 of our 13 years, we’ve been profitable.
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49% of the team have been at Buffer for over 5 years; that’s 39 of 79 teammates! 31 people (39%) have been at Buffer for over 7 years, and 5 people (6%) have been on the team for more than a decade.
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34 teammates have taken a 6+ week sabbatical since the program started in 2019.
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49 babies have been born to teammates in Buffer’s lifetime.
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4,955 active users started using Buffer over a decade ago, and 2,321 of those are paying customers.
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We initially supported just 1 social network, now we have 11 channels you can connect with Buffer.
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Over the last 6 years, we’ve spent $4.5M buying back the majority of our VC investors to build a long-term company with no exit plan.
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Teammates have collectively received $1,395,923 through annual profit sharing distributions we’ve issued on 5 of our 13 years.
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We’ve donated $269,185 to 28 different charitable organizations since our first contribution in 2017.
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For 11 years, we’ve been a fully remote and distributed company. Today, we’re spread across 51 cities in 19 countries.
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Finally, I’ve built and led Buffer working from 25 different countries over the last 13 years.
Here’s to many more years 🥂