Bootstrapping - the secret work week
Published in 2011, this chronicle by @dholowiski 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 Web 2.0 Genesis (2007–2013)
COMMUNITY SCORE 47 points
TOTAL DISCUSSIONS 40 comments
It's not about time... in fact having less time helped me a lot to bootstrap my company, we have a few signups right now. And yes, this sounds 37signalsish.
I'd say it's more important to have co-founders that like the bootstraping idea too than having more time.
My startup, btw, is something like Punchd but not requiring everyone to have an iPhone, I built the web application (Python, Django... I even have some tests (integration and unit tests)), a mobile web app (JQuery UI), an iPhone app, web admin dashboard (stats, pretty graphs), etc etc.
All this in like 4 months of bootstraping, putting 1-3 hr a day (sometimes a lot more) and a saturday or sunday here and then. Seriously I think we have most of the features that Punchd or Five Star Card have and all this with my own money we own 100% of the company.
By far we're not profitable, but as soon as one client starts paying (next month, crossing fingers)... boom profit.
I don't know, maybe we have a very good work ethic, but we do fuck around a lot! (Hacker News, parties yay!)
Assuming you are doing this to create a business and not for... fun. Work smarter instead of longer. Sign up for the Micropreneur Academy they have a lot of great articles for working smarter http://www.micropreneur.com ↗
It boils down to stop trying to do everything yourself. Put a dollar value per hour on your time and aim for $75 - $100. Then you realize doing something yourself is NOT free but extremely expensive. Then you can look into outsourcing (programming, virtual assistant, copy writing, etc) with a more open mind. Once you are doing that you are making much more effective use of your time and you will not need as much time to get more done than you are now.
Following this (especially points 6-8) worked really well for me http://sivers.org/how2hire ↗.
It took me a really long time to get this and actually do something about it. It's very liberating and exciting to see completed work come back.
I did this (for six months) up until recently (quit my job) and I can say that it's a great means for getting your project started. If you're in a situation where you don't have a lot of money saved up and need a job, nothing beats spending time in the evenings and weekends working on your idea. The only caveat that wasn't really noted by the author is that it's NOT EASY. When all of your time is occupied with work (even if you view your project as fun/something you enjoy, it's still hard work), you can get worn out very easily. Be warned that this requires a lot of dedication and focus (sometimes you skip going out on the weekend to build a new feature). It will suck at times but once you get into a flow, it gets easier. What's more, make sure you explain what you're doing with any significant others (girlfriend, wife, boyfriend, husband) as this will detract a lot of time from your relationship and you'll need support for what you're doing.
Although this might work for some people I have found personally that creating a sustainable lifestyle is probably best. Setting a schedule that is mentally, physically, and emotionally draining is not a recipe for success in my experience.
The process of building something (although difficult) should be fun (at least part of the time). If you're having a great time doing something chances are you are more productive and willing to stick it out over the long term.
If you need more time freelancing could be a viable option that affords you the financial and mental stability of a regular job while working on your own project. The reality is that there are probably many ways to go about this but I think it is important not to sacrifice your happiness. If most startups fail, throwing your life at it (Social, Romantic, etc.) will certainly make things worse if your project does not work out.
``` It's tough when you're bootstrapping a web app and still have a day job.
``` Beware of $dayjob claiming your $idea once it shows signs of taking off.
I think you should tell your day-job about your potential business before you start. Get them to sign something that says
1) You agree not to use equipment/premises belonging to $dayjob to build $idea
2) You will never work on $idea during any hours you're getting paid by $dayjob
3) $idea does not directly compete with $dayjob
4) They recognize that they have no claim to $idea or anything else you build to support it
If $dayjob is a large enough to have a dedicated HR dept they probably have a specific form to fill out.