Eight Years, 100k Customers, and One Exit: What Tobias Günther Learned Building Tower
A bootstrapped journey from a two-person agency to a seven-figure acquisition — told honestly, including the burnout.
The Story
In the early days of Git, graphical interfaces barely existed. Tobias Günther and his co-founder were running a small web agency with a strong developer focus, and they kept hitting the same wall: working with Git on the command line was powerful but painful. No good visual tool existed to make the experience smoother.
So they built one themselves.
That decision turned into Tower - a native Git client for Mac and Windows. Over eight years, without any outside investment, Tobias and his team grew Tower to over 100,000 customers, including teams at Apple, Google, and Amazon. In 2021, SaaS.group acquired it. The ARR had crossed seven figures.
What makes this story worth reading is not just the outcome - it is the texture of the journey. Ten months of development with only two months of cash left at launch. A brutal burnout in 2014 that landed Tobias in a rehab clinic for five weeks. A subscription model switch in 2018 that felt risky but changed the business entirely. And a consistent bet on quality and content that paid off slowly, then all at once.
Today, Tobias coaches and mentors other founders - drawing on two decades of entrepreneurship and four companies, two of which became profitable, one of which he successfully sold.
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Key Insights
Scratch your own itch - but go in with your eyes open
Tower started as a tool Tobias and his co-founder needed themselves. That clarity of purpose carried them through the hard parts. But they had never built a desktop product before, had no outside funding, and were living off saved client profits. Real conviction matters - so does knowing exactly what you are walking into.
Choosing native over cross-platform was a deliberate quality bet
The team was frequently tempted to switch to a web-based, cross-platform technology - it would have made multi-platform distribution far easier. They chose to stay with native desktop tech anyway, prioritising performance, stability, and interface quality. Not the fastest path, but it defined the product's reputation.
Switching to subscriptions changed everything - and it was hard
Tower launched in 2011 on a one-time license model. By 2018, Tobias made the call to switch to a yearly subscription. At the time, this was a genuinely difficult move — not the obvious choice it seems today. Their customers supported it, and the predictable revenue finally gave the team the financial stability to ship bolder improvements and plan further ahead.
Content was a long-term growth engine, not a marketing tactic
Early on, the Tower team committed to creating the best learning content for developers - not just about the product, but about Git itself, including for people who did not use Tower at all. Blog posts, video series, books, and creative community content like an illustrated history of macOS helped them earn genuine trust in the developer community. This is what compounding content looks like over a long timeline.
Bootstrapping fit the product and the person - and that alignment mattered
Tobias is clear that he is not against VC funding - he simply believes every founder needs to understand what model fits who they are and what they are building. For Tower, staying bootstrapped meant keeping full control and building at a pace that suited the product. That alignment between the business model and the founder's values is often underrated.
Burnout is a real cost of building - and it is not optional to ignore
In 2014, Tobias experienced severe burnout - serious enough to require five weeks in a rehab clinic. He reflects on this as something he sees too often among founders. The cost of exceeding your limits is real and long-lasting. It is not a badge of honour; it is an avoidable mistake
What He Would Do Differently
Aim higher from the start. You invest 100% of your time regardless of the size of the goal. So choose a goal that is actually worth that investment.
Protect work-life balance earlier. The 2014 burnout was preventable. The warning signs were there. He would act on them much sooner.
Find coaches and peers much earlier. He kept his circle too small for too long. A mentor or coach and a community of peers would have accelerated his growth and saved him several costly detours.
What You Should Do Now
Build toward a real problem you personally understand. Tower worked because Tobias was the customer. If you are building something, ask yourself: do I have a firsthand sense of why this matters? That clarity will carry you through the slow stretches.
Do not delay your business model decision. Tobias waited until 2018 to move to subscriptions, and it changed the business. If you are selling something on a one-time model and feeling the cash flow squeeze, it is worth seriously evaluating whether a recurring model fits your product.
Invest in content that teaches, not just content that sells. The Tower team built resources for developers who may never pay them a cent. That generosity built credibility with an entire community. If your content only talks about your product, it is missing a larger opportunity.
Act early on burnout signals. If you are regularly running on empty, it is not sustainable and it is not a prerequisite for success. Take the warning signs seriously before they force the issue.
Find your people. Tobias recommends joining communities like Indie Hackers. Being around other founders who are working through the same challenges is not soft advice — it is a practical edge. It shortens the learning curve and keeps you grounded.
Develop a bias toward action. Tobias's parting advice is simple and worth keeping close. Plans are cheap. Building teaches you things no amount of preparation can. Shipping a rough version will tell you more about your idea in a week than six months of thinking about it.
You can follow Tobias Günther on LinkedIn and his personal website — he shares coaching insights, founder reflections, and lessons from two decades of building.
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