Ask HN: Suggest good books on bootstrapping a startup
I am not good in marketing, growth hacks etc, like to improve my skills. Would you please suggest some great books for getting first few customers for a startup ?
Published in 2020, this chronicle by @saran945 details the mechanics of building a profitable, self-funded business without venture backing.
Core Principles for Independent Builders:
Charging customers from day one acts as the ultimate filter for building software that solves genuine, high-urgency problems.
Keeping fixed overhead low and leveraging lean infrastructure allows founders to stay alive until market tailwinds kick in.
Small, repetitive improvements in customer retention and conversion rates yield massive returns over multi-year horizons.
Community Debate Themes:
The community focused on B2B customer acquisition channels, cold email vs SEO distribution, and balancing full-time employment with side-project development.
CATEGORY Bootstrapping & MRR →
HISTORICAL ERA Pandemic Bubble (2020–2022)
COMMUNITY SCORE 50 points
TOTAL DISCUSSIONS 31 comments
You specifically mentioned marketing/growth hacks etc.
I'm a programmer who bootstrapped a site 10 years ago and it's supported me since as an indie hacker. In order to learn about marketing, I held a monthly closed-doors growth hacking meet-up with other bootstrappers and founders to share our experiences about what works, so I've seen a fair amount of the territory.
Anyway I've got a YouTube channel where I share a lot of what I know, especially with respect to getting those first 1000 users. The focus is on marketing techniques that appeal to engineering types like me (e.g. scalable SEO generated from data; paid ads that you can leave running long-term etc.)
My context is scrappy (the biz only had between 1 and 4 employees), but what I know should be of interest to people in the early stages (less so for funded startups, where scale changes the game somewhat) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aCzT-LQI6x0&list=PLpkoC9yJXDKlGz7SPwofn1joJH9nAABmX ↗
I was in similar state a few of years back. Read these, and used them to a good extent.
Lean analytics. (must read) Product-Led growth. (must read) 22 Laws of marketing (must) One million followers
If you like scientific approach: Influence by Robert Cialdini Contagious (Jonah Berger)
This resource is also gold: https://brianbalfour.com/essays/customer-acquisition ↗
I am also documenting my learnings in a book [1].
[1] https://book.amols.blog/59decisions ↗
The Great CEO Within. Free ebook. Popular (1K+ HN points). Good methods.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ZJZbv4J6FZ8Dnb0JuMhJxTnwl-dwqx5xl0s65DE3wO8 ↗
Unicorns vs Horses. Article. Good perspective.
https://medium.com/@awilkinson/unicorns-vs-horses-f81d8dd61f17 ↗
You can also find books on audible to listen to that might save you time especially listening to them at a faster speed like 1.5x - Also check out some startup podcasts as well.
Another good book might be Blitzscaling by Reid Hoffman.
One thing to keep in mind is not to get distracted by all these items (they are good, but can be useful) but there are no shortcuts.
Most of the largest companies were built without a playbook but with determination and a north star.
Remember to also have fun! Hope this helps somewhat.
"Company of One", by Paul Jarvis, the co-founder of Fathom Analytics
he goes through lots of stories and anecdotes from companies, consultants, and agencies who found that staying small can be a strategic advantage
growth is a means to an end, but not an end in and of itself
Amazon link: https://www.amazon.com/Company-One-Staying-Small-Business/dp/1328972356 ↗