First screen, captured 1 day ago. Hover to scroll the page, or open the video.

Running a bootstrapped SaaS for 20 years with my brother

What HN thinks

Twenty years of file conversion, and HN still wants to convert the stats into doubt.

Congrats and genuine fandom
Many users congratulate the founders and say they rely on Zamzar, for example for epub to pdf, finding it better than local tools.
Skepticism about the numbers
Some question the 550 million users and API figures, and suspect bot comments or self-promotion. Others explain the numbers through freemium use and API calls being counted separately from files.
Privacy honeypot worries
Some note that online converters collect huge amounts of private documents, and that such honeypots really exist.

Consensus: Most commenters are positive about a long-running bootstrapped business, but a vocal minority doubts the published usage statistics.

Recommended in the comments

LibreOffice (product): Suggested as a local way to convert documents without uploading private files.
Pandoc (tool): Mentioned as a local alternative for epub to pdf, though one user found the results weaker.

Summarised by Claude from the comment thread 1 day ago.

Points: 223
Comments: 52
Best rank: #3
Posted: 2026-10-30 by whyleyc
Category: Startups business

zamzar bootstrapping saas file-conversion founder-story anniversary

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