I agree with pretty much everyone else - design is KEY. Hiring someone like MetaLab seems unrealistic to bootstrapper's - doing it yourself usually leaves a la

I agree with pretty much everyone else - design is KEY. Hiring someone like MetaLab seems unrealistic to bootstrapper's - doing it yourself usually leaves a lack confidence (at least for me). But I don't think you should let design hold you back, if it's useful, people will use it, THEN you can invest your real time / effort / money into making it look better.