12 ms·

What it's like to bootstrap a business before it can financially support you

289 points by ChanningAllen 7y ago

Enginerrrd 7y ago
> * opt only for business ideas that can generate good revenue upfront The fact that this isn't a fundamental requirement perplexes me. But I consider the generic silicon valley startup model a sickness. You sell your and the company's soul to VC's before you even make a dime at the expense of the people who sweat and bled for you and who you also promised stake, only to routinely get screwed by the VC's who get paid out first. > * jump into bootstrapping full time while relying on personal savings It can be done, but I don't recommend it. > * bootstrap on the side while working a day job This is what I did. About the time you're pulling your hair out because you don't have enough time in the day to follow through with taking people's money is a great time to finally quit that day job.
- koolba 7y ago
  Keeping your day job and being willing to slog through your nights and weekends is a level zero test of whether you believe in your own success. “I don’t have time” is the sorriest excuse for an excuse. If you really want to make it you’ll make time. If you don’t, consider it an indication that you don’t have what it takes.
  - deleted 7y ago
    [deleted]
  - Enginerrrd 7y ago
    I 100% agree with that. If you can't balance your career/interests/family/side-projects/sanity to keep everyone happy while working a day job, then good luck doing a lot more of the same after you fully launch.
  - HatchedLake721 7y ago
    Amen
  - scarface74 7y ago
    ”I don’t have time” is the sorriest excuse for an excuse. Yeah some people have to do silly things like spend time with their kids and make sure they are attentive to their spouses.
  - steve_taylor 7y ago
    Do you have kids? Do you have a wife pressuring you to save for a deposit on a house and get a mortgage in an overpriced market in order to provide a stable environment for the kids? I doubt it. This is typical generic startup know-it-all bullshit.
    - vjktyu 7y ago
      The cynical me hints that "for the kids" is just a nice way to say "I need an option for 50% that I get to execute, should I leave our startup." With this logic, the price of the house doesn't matter.
    - enraged_camel 7y ago
      >>Do you have a wife pressuring you to save for a deposit on a house and get a mortgage in an overpriced market in order to provide a stable environment for the kids? Wait... are you seriously suggesting that struggling to save the deposit for and then buying an overpriced house will provide a stable environment for your kids?
      - someguydave 7y ago
        If the environment was poor, people probably would not bid much for the house.
      - imtringued 7y ago
        You're attacking a strawman. Nobody was saying anything about struggling. Accumulating a down payment is by definition a lengthy process because you have to pay rent while you are saving up money. If you could get a mortgage with 0% down you could immediately convert the money you would have spent on rent into equity.
    - Enginerrrd 7y ago
      I have kids, launched my company the same year my son was born, and 100% agree with his statement. There's room for some level of success outside of failing that "level 0 test", but there's also a lot of truth in those words too.
  - ludocode 7y ago
    I have a four month old daughter. My job takes eight hours, almost two hours more for the commute, at least an hour each day for cooking and meal prep, six hours for sleep, and the rest is taken up with the baby. I get some work done on weekends or in the middle of the night but it's not enough. I recently negotiated with work to drop down to four days a week. They refused to let me do three days a week for the worst reason: my coworkers depend on me too much, so they need my butt in the chair. I tried it for a bit, but it's still nowhere near enough time to bootstrap my side project. So I decided to quit. I'll burn savings for a bit while I try to prove out my idea. My wife knows she married a starving artist. I feel a lot older than I wanted to be when starting a family, but we're getting old enough that we don't have the luxury of putting it off any longer. I don't know if I'll ever be able to afford a house. Am I failing your level zero test? Not everyone is a 21 year old college graduate with zero expenses or obligations. Saying it's just the "sorriest excuse for an excuse" and "you don't have what it takes" is just insulting. Real people have real time commitments in the real world.
    - csomar 7y ago
      Just a shot in the dark. But how hard would it be to reduce your commute to practically 0? How hard would it be to convince your co-workers/manager of working remote?
    - mathgladiator 7y ago
      People make different choices, and then they have to live with the consequences. I agree that not having time is a sorry excuse because it ignores that people made decisions on how to spend their time.
    - Enginerrrd 7y ago
      For what it's worth, I did launch a side-project into a full-time company the same year my first kid was born. I would contend that if you have difficulty managing all the competing interests in your life between work family and side-projects now, it will not likely improve when you launch your former side project into a full time gig. Elon Musk is notorious for not taking vacations and sleeping on the factory floor when exciting shit is going down. His partner knows this and is ok with that. If yours isn't, then frankly, yeah it's going to be a major uphill battle and stressor on your relationship to try and pull that off. It's totally ok to not be in a position to do this. In fact, it's arguably a healthier way of living. But it may still be an indication of failing that level zero test because you just aren't into it enough. Business is not the make-a-wish foundation.
  - yowlingcat 7y ago
    We're not on LinkedIn, so it's probably a good idea for you to keep the gratuitous chest-beating to a minimum. Let's be honest. Having what it takes is about whether you successfully sell the MVP you get built to happy paying customers and keep the momentum going. Simple as that. "Slogging" through the nights and weekends on an idea that doesn't have legs is a level zero test of being a glutton for pain. Don't mistake that for actual progress.
- CodeWriter23 7y ago
  Even a company which can go better than ramen profitable with the first sale still has risk in the expenses of closing the first sale.
ilamont 7y ago
I was revenue-positive by the second month but couldn't draw a salary until the end of year two. Everything was reinvested into the business. Having a spouse who contributed household income and health insurance was the only way I was able to do it. I am eternally grateful to her. I also picked up a few consulting gigs (including one that was quite steady) and still do that now.
lsc 7y ago
Oh man. I bootstrapped a business on the side, and quit my dajob when it got to the point where it could support me (which is to say, could pay me like 1/4 of my market value in silicon valley) - One of the clearest mistakes I made that could have made the company opportunity cost profitable had I not screwed it up was that I was conserving capital while I had the opportunity to grow really fast. For a short period of time, because of a blog post someone else wrote, I had a huge waiting list. I was building servers one at a time, using the money from the first to pay for the next one. A lot of that waiting list dried up while they were waiting for me; There is a reasonable chance I would have been 5x bigger at that point had I maxed out my credit and bought servers all at once. And if I was wrong? if I maxed out my credit and went bankrupt? I'd still be better off than I was in reality. 10 years at 1/4 salary is... brutal in a way that bankruptcy isn't. (I think. I've never actually gone bankrupt.) I guess my real point here is that you need to time box it. At some point, you need to give up. I've never worked with VC, but I would assume that it would act as something of a forcing function here. I think being disciplined about "always take a better job if you are offered one" might also work.
- fyp 7y ago
  > For a short period of time, because of a blog post someone else wrote, I had a huge waiting list Why is this short opportunity window unique? So you realized you missed this window but then the environment was already one where this "5x" demand no longer existed? If that's the case would it have been wise to ramp up that quickly? Maybe you did the right thing.
  - hinkley 7y ago
    Let’s say he took out a bank loan to build 50 machines real quick. He probably would have sold them quickly and been able to build the next 50 and pay the bank at an accelerated rate, and everything would have been fine. He’d eventually have a higher customer base and slightly higher volume. Where you’re correct is that people look at this in hindsight and say things like what I said. But in the moment they may think this is the big chance, hire a few staff to build them faster and get stuck with a bunch if liabilities when demand ramps down while they were hoping it would continue going up. People who don’t believe in their business fail, some never even start. But believing your own hype is the best way to fail spectacularly and I expect it’s hard to see while it’s happening. Even as an employee I’ve looked back a few times and wondered what the hell I was thinking buying into a failed idea.
kareemm 7y ago
I’m bootstrapping my third company[1]. I sold the previous two. I’m surprised my approach wasn’t mentioned: bootstrap with consulting revenue. It’s not novel (it’s how 37Signals bootstrapped Basecamp back in the day). The ideal way is to provide a service that aligns with the product so you can deliver under the same brand. In my case I’ve consulted as a fractional Product lead[2] since 2007 to bootstrap my product businesses. Consulting has allowed me to support my family and provided as much runway as necessary before the bootstrapped business could support me full time. One criticism of this part-time consulting approach is that it distracts from the product. This is not true if you’re delivering a service that doesn’t compliment the business. But ironically probably more than half the founders i know are in permanent fundraising mode for companies that probably shouldn’t have raised in the first place. I look at consulting as a higher probability form of fundraising and see time spent on it as little different than fundraising for the “traditional” angel or venture funded company. 1- my current company is https://www.savio.io https://www.savio.io 2- i do product management consulting through https://www.reemer.com https://www.reemer.com
- Vesuvium 7y ago
  Maybe media do not report on that because it's the obvious way to do it. I am doing the same for my own company.
  - kareemm 7y ago
    Agreed. I’m a little surprised Indie Hackers didn’t mention it (hence my comment) given how viable it is. There are still stresses associated with this approach.
- toyg 7y ago
  The problem with consulting is that it only scales linearly with the amount of bodies you throw at it, and it takes a lot of time away. I have been "consulting with a view to bootstrap" for a year and a half now, and the result is that I still have no real product, because most of my brain energy is spent on the consulting side to keep the lights on.
harlanji 7y ago
I’ve pretty much given up on working as a coder, as it seems too hostile to side endeavors. From manager squeezing time, to contracts squeezing IP, it creates a fearful mentality. Working as a laborer not touching computers feels like the way. As a bonus, I barely have to go to the gym to stay ripped. My phone never rings and everything I touch is mine. I worked in SV startups and corps for some years, always felt too risky to work on the side if I wasn’t sleeping or getting drunk. I’m not sure what I’m founding yet and have no pressure, I just work for hours a day on whatever if I don’t have a job scheduled. Where’s my business co-founder? Email in profile.
- yowlingcat 7y ago
  Genuine question here: have you thought about trying Upwork? You can set your hourly rate low to start off with and then gradually increase it as you get more satisfied customers, more reviews, more proof of your capabilities. You'll have a global customer base, and so long as you get things done in a timely manner, not that much trouble finding work. It won't be market rate for a long time (if ever), but based on your past posting history, it might be something that could be really helpful for you right now. Best of luck!
- norbot 7y ago
  How ripped are we talking here?
zackmorris 7y ago
If I could do it all over again and actually succeed this time: * Get your living expenses down to $1000/mo before you start your startup (this is just a target for the northwestern US, find your own where you live). * Multiply all projections by 3. People will complain that you are being over-conservative and probably laugh at you or grow concerned. They might point to other companies that succeeded in such and such time. Ignore them just like they ignore survival bias. * Divide revenue by 5 to 10. A repair business running at 30% profitability needs to gross $3 for every dollar it keeps. A restaurant needs to make 20x at 5% margin. Chargebacks. Refunds. Illness. Accidents. Countless life experiences can make it feel like you are treading water for months/years. Another way to say this is that each dollar you make in your startup is like making $5-10 anywhere else, so treat it with the reverence it deserves. * Donate plasma. This is a form of prostitution because you are selling yourself for money, but you'll make an extra $300/mo. You'll get a glimpse of the value of human life and dignity inherent to an industrial society that's being denied to us all by the lack of UBI. It will also show you the true value of money because you'll see that retail service jobs pay 1/2 to 1/4 per hour what plasma pays. You'll learn how all money is blood money because someone always exchanges blood, sweat, tears or time for it (unless they are born into it like the people who most likely have it today). And if you aren't ready to put your life on the line in some fashion, you might not be ready to make the big sacrifices that running a startup demands, or even lead others. * Learn The Secret (The Law of Attraction) and other mindfulness practices. It's not so much that they are real (my experience is that it's all real) but that successful people are likely to attribute their success to things besides luck. It's good to know how to speak the lingo and present a good appearance for networking, since your primary revenue stream will probably come from a human need you might not have expected. * Find a romantic partner that believes in you. Short of that, work a good job for a while and provide for their needs for some number of months or years before your startup so they're willing to take a risk on you. Or reject this advice completely and be a loner for a few years. Most startups were started by geeks, so it might be advantageous. But if you succeed, don't be a douche. Nobody likes that you succeed. Many secretly hate you for it. Be magnanimous. Pay it forward. If you suffer in solitude or walk around like a self-help guru, you'll probably fail. * Remember that the thing isn't the thing. Financing to get you to the thing is. Our entire system of western capitalism is at odds with your personal dream of being the next Steve Jobs or Elon Musk. And since all money is blood money, maybe you don't want that anyway. We need new heroes like, I dunno, Captain America. I think that there is vast untapped potential in ideas like cooperatives and communal stewardship of the things we care about. I've tried to adopt ideas like radical inclusion into my life. Maybe something in your belief system will lead you to a worthy cause and the funding to see it through. We all know that banks sure won't. Well this post stinks but my gut seems satisfied that most of the nonintuitive stuff has been covered. Happy holidays everyone.
clon 7y ago
I spent some of my best years bootstrapping a business (trying to avoid the word "startup"), growing steady each year 30-50%. No hockey stick so far, but our customers are happy and the product rocks. 1) It is hard, properly HARD. 2) It does not seem like it is fair to yourself - you might feel like you are not really giving yourself a proper chance, be it capturing the market, hiring the best possible talent etc. 3) It might make you more risk averse, as you are gambling with your baby. 4) On the other hand, it is not the low risk path either, so it sort of conflicts with #3. I mean that there are a lot of risks involved in raising capital at an early stage, but going the tortoise path has other kinds of risks. Also see #2. 5) Your type of market needs to support it, obviously. Low investment product, stable customer base. In our case, the customers are large semi-governmental organizations and in all of history we have lost just 1 established customer. This gives a lot of consolation that you are building a house, one brick at a time. 6) You need a lot of mental stamina - everyone else seems to be doing things more cleverly. Your buddies will move on to work for the big bucks and establish their careers, others might be busy burning through VC money. It will take time. 8) Sometimes an investor will come along and try to offer you their money. But it often turns out as if your are playing a totally different ball game. One thing I learned was to ask not just how many X they expect us to deliver, but straight out ask how many X-s their "family" or whatever expects them to deliver. But in the end you might have a company that is actually self sustaining, fantastic people around you and customers that appreciate what you are doing to them. I consider myself lucky, though. Feels like all odds were stacked against us.
lwb 7y ago
I am pleasantly surprised to see Amir Rajan on that list. From this reddit post I thought that after his game went viral he couldn't capture any long-term success and went back to working a regular job: https://www.reddit.com/r/Entrepreneur/comments/7m96wn/a_dark_room_from_sabbatical_year_to_800000/ https://www.reddit.com/r/Entrepreneur/comments/7m96wn/a_dark... It's a fascinating story. He has several other iOS games besides A Dark Room, but none of them seemed to go anywhere. Glad to hear his business is doing better now. I suppose there's always money in the Skyrim business model -- just port your one successful game to every platform ever :)
deleted 7y ago
[deleted]
galaxyLogic 7y ago
I think there's two approaches to this and they probably often overlap. You may have a great idea and you want to do it because you believe its a great thing to accomplish. Or you may think you want to maximize your net income, and do whatever it takes to do that. I think the latter is better if that is what you want to do but only if that is what you want to do.
think29 7y ago
https://vertshockguruji29.blogspot.com https://vertshockguruji29.blogspot.com It's kinda hard to believe this is possible but they've been doing it for years and are finally pulling back the curtain on the system they've been secretly developing.
yowlingcat 7y ago
It seems that GP is "ripped" enough to make a shirt like this: https://harlanji.com/merch/no-hymen-no-diamond/ https://harlanji.com/merch/no-hymen-no-diamond/

289 points by ChanningAllen 7y ago

> * opt only for business ideas that can generate good revenue upfront The fact that this isn't a fundamental requirement perplexes me. But I consider the generic silicon valley startup model a sickness. You sell your and the company's soul to VC's before you even make a dime at the expense of the people who sweat and bled for you and who you also promised stake, only to routinely get screwed by the VC's who get paid out first. > * jump into bootstrapping full time while relying on personal savings It can be done, but I don't recommend it. > * bootstrap on the side while working a day job This is what I did. About the time you're pulling your hair out because you don't have enough time in the day to follow through with taking people's money is a great time to finally quit that day job.

koolba 7y ago
Keeping your day job and being willing to slog through your nights and weekends is a level zero test of whether you believe in your own success. “I don’t have time” is the sorriest excuse for an excuse. If you really want to make it you’ll make time. If you don’t, consider it an indication that you don’t have what it takes.
- deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]
- Enginerrrd 7y ago
  I 100% agree with that. If you can't balance your career/interests/family/side-projects/sanity to keep everyone happy while working a day job, then good luck doing a lot more of the same after you fully launch.
- HatchedLake721 7y ago
  Amen
- scarface74 7y ago
  ”I don’t have time” is the sorriest excuse for an excuse. Yeah some people have to do silly things like spend time with their kids and make sure they are attentive to their spouses.
- steve_taylor 7y ago
  Do you have kids? Do you have a wife pressuring you to save for a deposit on a house and get a mortgage in an overpriced market in order to provide a stable environment for the kids? I doubt it. This is typical generic startup know-it-all bullshit.
  - vjktyu 7y ago
    The cynical me hints that "for the kids" is just a nice way to say "I need an option for 50% that I get to execute, should I leave our startup." With this logic, the price of the house doesn't matter.
  - enraged_camel 7y ago
    >>Do you have a wife pressuring you to save for a deposit on a house and get a mortgage in an overpriced market in order to provide a stable environment for the kids? Wait... are you seriously suggesting that struggling to save the deposit for and then buying an overpriced house will provide a stable environment for your kids?
    - someguydave 7y ago
      If the environment was poor, people probably would not bid much for the house.
    - imtringued 7y ago
      You're attacking a strawman. Nobody was saying anything about struggling. Accumulating a down payment is by definition a lengthy process because you have to pay rent while you are saving up money. If you could get a mortgage with 0% down you could immediately convert the money you would have spent on rent into equity.
  - Enginerrrd 7y ago
    I have kids, launched my company the same year my son was born, and 100% agree with his statement. There's room for some level of success outside of failing that "level 0 test", but there's also a lot of truth in those words too.
- ludocode 7y ago
  I have a four month old daughter. My job takes eight hours, almost two hours more for the commute, at least an hour each day for cooking and meal prep, six hours for sleep, and the rest is taken up with the baby. I get some work done on weekends or in the middle of the night but it's not enough. I recently negotiated with work to drop down to four days a week. They refused to let me do three days a week for the worst reason: my coworkers depend on me too much, so they need my butt in the chair. I tried it for a bit, but it's still nowhere near enough time to bootstrap my side project. So I decided to quit. I'll burn savings for a bit while I try to prove out my idea. My wife knows she married a starving artist. I feel a lot older than I wanted to be when starting a family, but we're getting old enough that we don't have the luxury of putting it off any longer. I don't know if I'll ever be able to afford a house. Am I failing your level zero test? Not everyone is a 21 year old college graduate with zero expenses or obligations. Saying it's just the "sorriest excuse for an excuse" and "you don't have what it takes" is just insulting. Real people have real time commitments in the real world.
  - csomar 7y ago
    Just a shot in the dark. But how hard would it be to reduce your commute to practically 0? How hard would it be to convince your co-workers/manager of working remote?
  - mathgladiator 7y ago
    People make different choices, and then they have to live with the consequences. I agree that not having time is a sorry excuse because it ignores that people made decisions on how to spend their time.
  - Enginerrrd 7y ago
    For what it's worth, I did launch a side-project into a full-time company the same year my first kid was born. I would contend that if you have difficulty managing all the competing interests in your life between work family and side-projects now, it will not likely improve when you launch your former side project into a full time gig. Elon Musk is notorious for not taking vacations and sleeping on the factory floor when exciting shit is going down. His partner knows this and is ok with that. If yours isn't, then frankly, yeah it's going to be a major uphill battle and stressor on your relationship to try and pull that off. It's totally ok to not be in a position to do this. In fact, it's arguably a healthier way of living. But it may still be an indication of failing that level zero test because you just aren't into it enough. Business is not the make-a-wish foundation.
- yowlingcat 7y ago
  We're not on LinkedIn, so it's probably a good idea for you to keep the gratuitous chest-beating to a minimum. Let's be honest. Having what it takes is about whether you successfully sell the MVP you get built to happy paying customers and keep the momentum going. Simple as that. "Slogging" through the nights and weekends on an idea that doesn't have legs is a level zero test of being a glutton for pain. Don't mistake that for actual progress.
CodeWriter23 7y ago
Even a company which can go better than ramen profitable with the first sale still has risk in the expenses of closing the first sale.

ilamont 7y ago

I was revenue-positive by the second month but couldn't draw a salary until the end of year two. Everything was reinvested into the business. Having a spouse who contributed household income and health insurance was the only way I was able to do it. I am eternally grateful to her. I also picked up a few consulting gigs (including one that was quite steady) and still do that now.

lsc 7y ago

Oh man. I bootstrapped a business on the side, and quit my dajob when it got to the point where it could support me (which is to say, could pay me like 1/4 of my market value in silicon valley) - One of the clearest mistakes I made that could have made the company opportunity cost profitable had I not screwed it up was that I was conserving capital while I had the opportunity to grow really fast. For a short period of time, because of a blog post someone else wrote, I had a huge waiting list. I was building servers one at a time, using the money from the first to pay for the next one. A lot of that waiting list dried up while they were waiting for me; There is a reasonable chance I would have been 5x bigger at that point had I maxed out my credit and bought servers all at once. And if I was wrong? if I maxed out my credit and went bankrupt? I'd still be better off than I was in reality. 10 years at 1/4 salary is... brutal in a way that bankruptcy isn't. (I think. I've never actually gone bankrupt.) I guess my real point here is that you need to time box it. At some point, you need to give up. I've never worked with VC, but I would assume that it would act as something of a forcing function here. I think being disciplined about "always take a better job if you are offered one" might also work.

fyp 7y ago
> For a short period of time, because of a blog post someone else wrote, I had a huge waiting list Why is this short opportunity window unique? So you realized you missed this window but then the environment was already one where this "5x" demand no longer existed? If that's the case would it have been wise to ramp up that quickly? Maybe you did the right thing.
- hinkley 7y ago
  Let’s say he took out a bank loan to build 50 machines real quick. He probably would have sold them quickly and been able to build the next 50 and pay the bank at an accelerated rate, and everything would have been fine. He’d eventually have a higher customer base and slightly higher volume. Where you’re correct is that people look at this in hindsight and say things like what I said. But in the moment they may think this is the big chance, hire a few staff to build them faster and get stuck with a bunch if liabilities when demand ramps down while they were hoping it would continue going up. People who don’t believe in their business fail, some never even start. But believing your own hype is the best way to fail spectacularly and I expect it’s hard to see while it’s happening. Even as an employee I’ve looked back a few times and wondered what the hell I was thinking buying into a failed idea.

kareemm 7y ago

I’m bootstrapping my third company[1]. I sold the previous two. I’m surprised my approach wasn’t mentioned: bootstrap with consulting revenue. It’s not novel (it’s how 37Signals bootstrapped Basecamp back in the day). The ideal way is to provide a service that aligns with the product so you can deliver under the same brand. In my case I’ve consulted as a fractional Product lead[2] since 2007 to bootstrap my product businesses. Consulting has allowed me to support my family and provided as much runway as necessary before the bootstrapped business could support me full time. One criticism of this part-time consulting approach is that it distracts from the product. This is not true if you’re delivering a service that doesn’t compliment the business. But ironically probably more than half the founders i know are in permanent fundraising mode for companies that probably shouldn’t have raised in the first place. I look at consulting as a higher probability form of fundraising and see time spent on it as little different than fundraising for the “traditional” angel or venture funded company. 1- my current company is https://www.savio.io https://www.savio.io 2- i do product management consulting through https://www.reemer.com https://www.reemer.com

Vesuvium 7y ago
Maybe media do not report on that because it's the obvious way to do it. I am doing the same for my own company.
- kareemm 7y ago
  Agreed. I’m a little surprised Indie Hackers didn’t mention it (hence my comment) given how viable it is. There are still stresses associated with this approach.
toyg 7y ago
The problem with consulting is that it only scales linearly with the amount of bodies you throw at it, and it takes a lot of time away. I have been "consulting with a view to bootstrap" for a year and a half now, and the result is that I still have no real product, because most of my brain energy is spent on the consulting side to keep the lights on.

harlanji 7y ago

I’ve pretty much given up on working as a coder, as it seems too hostile to side endeavors. From manager squeezing time, to contracts squeezing IP, it creates a fearful mentality. Working as a laborer not touching computers feels like the way. As a bonus, I barely have to go to the gym to stay ripped. My phone never rings and everything I touch is mine. I worked in SV startups and corps for some years, always felt too risky to work on the side if I wasn’t sleeping or getting drunk. I’m not sure what I’m founding yet and have no pressure, I just work for hours a day on whatever if I don’t have a job scheduled. Where’s my business co-founder? Email in profile.

yowlingcat 7y ago
Genuine question here: have you thought about trying Upwork? You can set your hourly rate low to start off with and then gradually increase it as you get more satisfied customers, more reviews, more proof of your capabilities. You'll have a global customer base, and so long as you get things done in a timely manner, not that much trouble finding work. It won't be market rate for a long time (if ever), but based on your past posting history, it might be something that could be really helpful for you right now. Best of luck!
norbot 7y ago
How ripped are we talking here?

zackmorris 7y ago

If I could do it all over again and actually succeed this time: * Get your living expenses down to $1000/mo before you start your startup (this is just a target for the northwestern US, find your own where you live). * Multiply all projections by 3. People will complain that you are being over-conservative and probably laugh at you or grow concerned. They might point to other companies that succeeded in such and such time. Ignore them just like they ignore survival bias. * Divide revenue by 5 to 10. A repair business running at 30% profitability needs to gross $3 for every dollar it keeps. A restaurant needs to make 20x at 5% margin. Chargebacks. Refunds. Illness. Accidents. Countless life experiences can make it feel like you are treading water for months/years. Another way to say this is that each dollar you make in your startup is like making $5-10 anywhere else, so treat it with the reverence it deserves. * Donate plasma. This is a form of prostitution because you are selling yourself for money, but you'll make an extra $300/mo. You'll get a glimpse of the value of human life and dignity inherent to an industrial society that's being denied to us all by the lack of UBI. It will also show you the true value of money because you'll see that retail service jobs pay 1/2 to 1/4 per hour what plasma pays. You'll learn how all money is blood money because someone always exchanges blood, sweat, tears or time for it (unless they are born into it like the people who most likely have it today). And if you aren't ready to put your life on the line in some fashion, you might not be ready to make the big sacrifices that running a startup demands, or even lead others. * Learn The Secret (The Law of Attraction) and other mindfulness practices. It's not so much that they are real (my experience is that it's all real) but that successful people are likely to attribute their success to things besides luck. It's good to know how to speak the lingo and present a good appearance for networking, since your primary revenue stream will probably come from a human need you might not have expected. * Find a romantic partner that believes in you. Short of that, work a good job for a while and provide for their needs for some number of months or years before your startup so they're willing to take a risk on you. Or reject this advice completely and be a loner for a few years. Most startups were started by geeks, so it might be advantageous. But if you succeed, don't be a douche. Nobody likes that you succeed. Many secretly hate you for it. Be magnanimous. Pay it forward. If you suffer in solitude or walk around like a self-help guru, you'll probably fail. * Remember that the thing isn't the thing. Financing to get you to the thing is. Our entire system of western capitalism is at odds with your personal dream of being the next Steve Jobs or Elon Musk. And since all money is blood money, maybe you don't want that anyway. We need new heroes like, I dunno, Captain America. I think that there is vast untapped potential in ideas like cooperatives and communal stewardship of the things we care about. I've tried to adopt ideas like radical inclusion into my life. Maybe something in your belief system will lead you to a worthy cause and the funding to see it through. We all know that banks sure won't. Well this post stinks but my gut seems satisfied that most of the nonintuitive stuff has been covered. Happy holidays everyone.

clon 7y ago

I spent some of my best years bootstrapping a business (trying to avoid the word "startup"), growing steady each year 30-50%. No hockey stick so far, but our customers are happy and the product rocks. 1) It is hard, properly HARD. 2) It does not seem like it is fair to yourself - you might feel like you are not really giving yourself a proper chance, be it capturing the market, hiring the best possible talent etc. 3) It might make you more risk averse, as you are gambling with your baby. 4) On the other hand, it is not the low risk path either, so it sort of conflicts with #3. I mean that there are a lot of risks involved in raising capital at an early stage, but going the tortoise path has other kinds of risks. Also see #2. 5) Your type of market needs to support it, obviously. Low investment product, stable customer base. In our case, the customers are large semi-governmental organizations and in all of history we have lost just 1 established customer. This gives a lot of consolation that you are building a house, one brick at a time. 6) You need a lot of mental stamina - everyone else seems to be doing things more cleverly. Your buddies will move on to work for the big bucks and establish their careers, others might be busy burning through VC money. It will take time. 8) Sometimes an investor will come along and try to offer you their money. But it often turns out as if your are playing a totally different ball game. One thing I learned was to ask not just how many X they expect us to deliver, but straight out ask how many X-s their "family" or whatever expects them to deliver. But in the end you might have a company that is actually self sustaining, fantastic people around you and customers that appreciate what you are doing to them. I consider myself lucky, though. Feels like all odds were stacked against us.

lwb 7y ago

I am pleasantly surprised to see Amir Rajan on that list. From this reddit post I thought that after his game went viral he couldn't capture any long-term success and went back to working a regular job: https://www.reddit.com/r/Entrepreneur/comments/7m96wn/a_dark_room_from_sabbatical_year_to_800000/ https://www.reddit.com/r/Entrepreneur/comments/7m96wn/a_dark... It's a fascinating story. He has several other iOS games besides A Dark Room, but none of them seemed to go anywhere. Glad to hear his business is doing better now. I suppose there's always money in the Skyrim business model -- just port your one successful game to every platform ever :)

deleted 7y ago

[deleted]

galaxyLogic 7y ago

I think there's two approaches to this and they probably often overlap. You may have a great idea and you want to do it because you believe its a great thing to accomplish. Or you may think you want to maximize your net income, and do whatever it takes to do that. I think the latter is better if that is what you want to do but only if that is what you want to do.

think29 7y ago

https://vertshockguruji29.blogspot.com https://vertshockguruji29.blogspot.com It's kinda hard to believe this is possible but they've been doing it for years and are finally pulling back the curtain on the system they've been secretly developing.

yowlingcat 7y ago

It seems that GP is "ripped" enough to make a shirt like this: https://harlanji.com/merch/no-hymen-no-diamond/ https://harlanji.com/merch/no-hymen-no-diamond/