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Contrariwise, it's never been easier to bootstrap a solo or <5 person business. Given the profound malinvestment and market distortions groups like SoftBank/We

Contrariwise, it's never been easier to bootstrap a solo or <5 person business. Given the profound malinvestment and market distortions groups like SoftBank/WeWork and FTX/Theranos/AirBnB/A16Z have created I frankly say good riddance.

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michaeljx 3y ago
I ve been bootstrapping a one-man tech company my self, and with 100usd/month I have the following facilities: managed db with weekly backups, managed kubernetes with autoscaling(DO), ci/cd (GitHub + self hosted runners), VPN meshing (tailscale), and a bunch of other open source tools (airflow, selenium, etc). This would have required an entire IT department only 5-7 years ago
- vagab0nd 3y ago
  If it's easy for you, it's easy for your competitors too. IMHO, how easy it is to start a startup is dictated by the competition, not the accessibility of the underlying technology. The tech is always the state of the art at the current time. But that doesn't have any bearing on markets, resources, hiring, etc.
  - michaeljx 3y ago
    I agree but with a different frame of reference. How easy it is to start a startup is not dictated by how easy it is for your competitors to start one, but by how big of a moat the incumbents have. With all these tools available to me now, that moat is becoming smaller and smaller
  - ldjkfkdsjnv 3y ago
    Not really, competitors can be antiquated. A ten year old tech stack can be very hard to pivot away from, and easy to catch up to with modern programming
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    - vagab0nd 3y ago
      Yes, and that has always been the case. We are trying to figure out why it's different now.
anotherhue 3y ago
Someone asked why it was easier but deleted their comment while I was replying. --- Shopify is all in one for many business, contrast that to 10-20 years ago where you had to build the entire storefront. There are several ways to accept online payments, the easiest by far being apple/google in-app. Amazon fulfilment services mean you can skip on logistics (if you're a PHY company). Customers are used to buying things online now, everyone has a phone of some kind so you have an app channel you never had before...
midnitewarrior 3y ago
Cheap money is over. If you don't need money, like a bootstrap, the odds are in your favor. If you are a startup that hasn't quite made a name for itself yet and the coffers are getting low and it's time for another round of funding, you're going to have a rough time.
tmountain 3y ago
Yes, you can do a ton with a small team. It’s a new era!

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michaeljx 3y ago

I ve been bootstrapping a one-man tech company my self, and with 100usd/month I have the following facilities: managed db with weekly backups, managed kubernetes with autoscaling(DO), ci/cd (GitHub + self hosted runners), VPN meshing (tailscale), and a bunch of other open source tools (airflow, selenium, etc). This would have required an entire IT department only 5-7 years ago

vagab0nd 3y ago
If it's easy for you, it's easy for your competitors too. IMHO, how easy it is to start a startup is dictated by the competition, not the accessibility of the underlying technology. The tech is always the state of the art at the current time. But that doesn't have any bearing on markets, resources, hiring, etc.
- michaeljx 3y ago
  I agree but with a different frame of reference. How easy it is to start a startup is not dictated by how easy it is for your competitors to start one, but by how big of a moat the incumbents have. With all these tools available to me now, that moat is becoming smaller and smaller
- ldjkfkdsjnv 3y ago
  Not really, competitors can be antiquated. A ten year old tech stack can be very hard to pivot away from, and easy to catch up to with modern programming
  - deleted 3y ago
    [deleted]
  - vagab0nd 3y ago
    Yes, and that has always been the case. We are trying to figure out why it's different now.

anotherhue 3y ago

Someone asked why it was easier but deleted their comment while I was replying. --- Shopify is all in one for many business, contrast that to 10-20 years ago where you had to build the entire storefront. There are several ways to accept online payments, the easiest by far being apple/google in-app. Amazon fulfilment services mean you can skip on logistics (if you're a PHY company). Customers are used to buying things online now, everyone has a phone of some kind so you have an app channel you never had before...

midnitewarrior 3y ago

Cheap money is over. If you don't need money, like a bootstrap, the odds are in your favor. If you are a startup that hasn't quite made a name for itself yet and the coffers are getting low and it's time for another round of funding, you're going to have a rough time.

tmountain 3y ago

Yes, you can do a ton with a small team. It’s a new era!