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I always love seeing what the real numbers of a bootstrapped business look like. It's easy to look at a company that's been around long enough to be successful

I always love seeing what the real numbers of a bootstrapped business look like. It's easy to look at a company that's been around long enough to be successful and think, "If I just build a product and flip a switch... I'll be rich." and it really doesn't work that way. It's a long, slow, slog to get to a certain level of success if you're bootstrapping.

nedwin 13y ago
This is why I love Gail Goodman's "The Long Slow SAAS Ramp of Death" talk. http://businessofsoftware.org/2013/02/gail-goodman-constant-contact-how-to-negotiate-the-long-slow-saas-ramp-of-death/ http://businessofsoftware.org/2013/02/gail-goodman-constant-... There are no quick wins, it's a grind.
- programminggeek 13y ago
  Yes, I've watched that multiple times and it's great.
wslh 13y ago
Having co-founded and bootstrapped my own small company in 2003 where we produced more than 8 very sophisticated (e.g.: reverse engineering, virtualization) software products, mainly for Windows desktops. I can tell: - We increase our sales every year until the 2007/2008 crisis, where we needed to use the company savings because the world changed completely for us. It was 2011 the year where we were more confident that we can remain in the Windows sector and not jumping to the web or mobile bandwagon. - We were very conservative in our salaries. They were below the top 20% salaries in the industry. - We spent around 1/4 of the profits (that's a lot) in risky R&D for trying new things. The fruits of this came 3 years later and there is an intersection between being lucky and producing stuff. There are a lot of things that you produce or think everyday that can be converted to blog articles, small products, etc. - We dealt with all companies sizes and that's is difficult to learn. The same project that is trivial to solve in a small company is completely different when you deal with a big one: a lot of stakeholders that keep you busy in the communication loop and testing your solutions with an army of testers. Your solution does not have the same price if it requires a lot of communication and is tested by professional QA teams. One of our software components is installed on million PCs.

nedwin 13y ago

This is why I love Gail Goodman's "The Long Slow SAAS Ramp of Death" talk. http://businessofsoftware.org/2013/02/gail-goodman-constant-contact-how-to-negotiate-the-long-slow-saas-ramp-of-death/ http://businessofsoftware.org/2013/02/gail-goodman-constant-... There are no quick wins, it's a grind.

programminggeek 13y ago
Yes, I've watched that multiple times and it's great.

wslh 13y ago

Having co-founded and bootstrapped my own small company in 2003 where we produced more than 8 very sophisticated (e.g.: reverse engineering, virtualization) software products, mainly for Windows desktops. I can tell: - We increase our sales every year until the 2007/2008 crisis, where we needed to use the company savings because the world changed completely for us. It was 2011 the year where we were more confident that we can remain in the Windows sector and not jumping to the web or mobile bandwagon. - We were very conservative in our salaries. They were below the top 20% salaries in the industry. - We spent around 1/4 of the profits (that's a lot) in risky R&D for trying new things. The fruits of this came 3 years later and there is an intersection between being lucky and producing stuff. There are a lot of things that you produce or think everyday that can be converted to blog articles, small products, etc. - We dealt with all companies sizes and that's is difficult to learn. The same project that is trivial to solve in a small company is completely different when you deal with a big one: a lot of stakeholders that keep you busy in the communication loop and testing your solutions with an army of testers. Your solution does not have the same price if it requires a lot of communication and is tested by professional QA teams. One of our software components is installed on million PCs.