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I have heard this argument a lot. Let me tell you it is categorically false. I run multiple bootstrapped software businesses which culminated in a $4 million pr

I have heard this argument a lot. Let me tell you it is categorically false. I run multiple bootstrapped software businesses which culminated in a $4 million profit last tax year. After many many years of failure. The biggest mindshift required here is you need to really think what can technology solve. Most products being developed by bootstrappers are competing in a space where the problem is already solved. For example the nth job board. Yes in that case if yours look shitty people won't use it. But that is not a problem at all if you are solving a real problem. I will give you one example, and this is me sharing one of my products for the first time: a custom mobile app for housekeepers in rich families in the UK. The mvp for this was built over a weekend using just basic ios tools. Important thing to understand in this market (custom apps for companies) is that you have to go after companies for whom the branding difference is whether they are number 1..3 or 4.. and 4.. companies die due to competition. So if you can in anyway help them stand out for a large annual contract, they will lap it up. There are many opportunites like this. Instead if you are building the next app that you are seeing online, ya you are too late. The other thing is alpha products that are rough around the edges still exist. Forget the Twitter screenshots. When you used Twitter for the first time, did it look like that screenshot? No it didn't. Because by the time it became popular enough, it had been polished a bit. So what you are doing is comparing a product which is popular now vs a screenshot of the thing before it was popular. If you actually look at the first alpha version of things of popular apps now before they were popular, you will see that they are still rough around the edges. Maybe a little bit less so as a lot of ui frameworks are available now. Also older stuff look rough around the edges even more because ui trends themselves have changed. So don't fall for this myth. Solve something hard using technology with a ready to go ui kit and get the v1 out there as soon as possible.

3pt14159 3y ago
I dunno man. I sold a small company back in 2011 and it really was easier back then. Three out of four of our first leads tried to buy us because we were doing "real" machine learning. This was almost a pure API app. We didn't even have documentation we just told people we'd integrate it for them. It is harder these days. Also, the product you mentioned "custom mobile app for housekeepers in rich families in the UK" I don't know how you're marketing that, but that seems like the hard part to me. As for Twitter, people forget what it was like back when they were first starting. There were a ton of people you wanted to follow, but RSS couldn't handle the sheer numbers involved. Blogging had become so big and realistically you could only follow, say, 10 bloggers before being worn out with all the content. Twitter made it possible to get little nugget sized updates from thought leaders without having to eat the whole sandwich of some massive blogpost.
- ekanes 3y ago
  > I dunno man. I sold a small company back in 2011 and it really was easier back then. Three out of four of our first leads tried to buy us because we were doing "real" machine learning. This was almost a pure API app. We didn't even have documentation we just told people we'd integrate it for them. You're kind of agreeing with their point. Your example of success was where you were (at least perceived to be) solving a legit need with a real solution. I agree with the grandparent - people will use a crappy looking app if it solves something they're desperate for (and by implication, isn't solved for already in the market).
  - renegade-otter 3y ago
    You are talking about a pretty dire need and a glaring vacuum in the market. While that's the best-case product market fit, it's not like a good execution for a moderate need in a contested space is not a thing at all. Can I live with text files in folders as my notes? Yes. Would I rather use something like Evernote instead? Absolutely. Would I use it if it gave me problems all the time? Doubt it.
    - ekanes 3y ago
      > good execution for a moderate need in a contested space is not a thing at all That's kinda exactly what this means :) -- don't contest that kind of space if you don't have the funding and great design/etc package.
  - 3pt14159 3y ago
    I was disagreeing that it is easy these days just as it was back then. Back then it truly was much easier to get traction with a new product. Basically, we're post-land-rush now. There are still opportunities, but back then it was really easy to get through doors and startups were celebrated and a lot of easy opportunities weren't yet seized on the web yet.
    - ekanes 3y ago
      Absolutely agree. Everything is much easier now to build, but harder to market/compete.

3pt14159 3y ago

I dunno man. I sold a small company back in 2011 and it really was easier back then. Three out of four of our first leads tried to buy us because we were doing "real" machine learning. This was almost a pure API app. We didn't even have documentation we just told people we'd integrate it for them. It is harder these days. Also, the product you mentioned "custom mobile app for housekeepers in rich families in the UK" I don't know how you're marketing that, but that seems like the hard part to me. As for Twitter, people forget what it was like back when they were first starting. There were a ton of people you wanted to follow, but RSS couldn't handle the sheer numbers involved. Blogging had become so big and realistically you could only follow, say, 10 bloggers before being worn out with all the content. Twitter made it possible to get little nugget sized updates from thought leaders without having to eat the whole sandwich of some massive blogpost.

ekanes 3y ago
> I dunno man. I sold a small company back in 2011 and it really was easier back then. Three out of four of our first leads tried to buy us because we were doing "real" machine learning. This was almost a pure API app. We didn't even have documentation we just told people we'd integrate it for them. You're kind of agreeing with their point. Your example of success was where you were (at least perceived to be) solving a legit need with a real solution. I agree with the grandparent - people will use a crappy looking app if it solves something they're desperate for (and by implication, isn't solved for already in the market).
- renegade-otter 3y ago
  You are talking about a pretty dire need and a glaring vacuum in the market. While that's the best-case product market fit, it's not like a good execution for a moderate need in a contested space is not a thing at all. Can I live with text files in folders as my notes? Yes. Would I rather use something like Evernote instead? Absolutely. Would I use it if it gave me problems all the time? Doubt it.
  - ekanes 3y ago
    > good execution for a moderate need in a contested space is not a thing at all That's kinda exactly what this means :) -- don't contest that kind of space if you don't have the funding and great design/etc package.
- 3pt14159 3y ago
  I was disagreeing that it is easy these days just as it was back then. Back then it truly was much easier to get traction with a new product. Basically, we're post-land-rush now. There are still opportunities, but back then it was really easy to get through doors and startups were celebrated and a lot of easy opportunities weren't yet seized on the web yet.
  - ekanes 3y ago
    Absolutely agree. Everything is much easier now to build, but harder to market/compete.