MAKE Bootstrapper's Handbook By Pieter Levels

My Notes

Get an idea from problems in your own life. If you don't have problems that are original enough, become a more original person. Don't build products that are solutions in search of a problem.

build your idea with the tools you already know. Don't spend a year learning some language you'll never use. Don't outsource building to other people, that's a competitive disadvantage. Build only the core functionality. The rest comes later.

launch early and multiple times. Launch to famous startups websites (like product hunt, hacker news, the next web), mainstream websites (like reddit) and mainstream press (like forbes).

launch in a friendly way, that means "here's something i made that might be useful for you", instead of acting like you're some big giant new startup coming to change the world.

grow organically. A great product that people really need which is better than the rest will pull people in. You don't need ads for that. Don't hire people if there's no revenue yet. Don't hire many people if there's revenue either. Stay lean and fast. Do things yourself.

automate by writing programs that do stuff that you do repeatedly. Only automate if it's worth the time saved. For stuff that's too hard to automate or not worth it, hire contractors. Let them work as autonomously as possible. Where possible let robots manage them (for example by giving them alerts when things happen in your product). This lets you take time off, or work on your next business.

exit by not putting your company for sale, but letting buyers come to you. Filter out the majority of buyers that aren't serious. With the serious buyers left, negotiate a price by valuating your own company. Price it agressively high. Always keep the bargaining power on your side of the table.

the goal of a bootstrapped business is much more reachable. You don't need to do a billion dollars in revenue. You're already there if you can pay yourself enough to live from. Any money that comes extra is even better!

launch early and build with/for your users.

the most important thing is to find ideas from solving your own problems. You do that by looking at your own life and observing what your daily challenges are. Then you see if you could make those challenges easier using technology.

problems are always changing, as are markets, as are people. If you are your target market, that's perfect. You just evolve with it.

a repetitive theme with failing companies is founders who have no connection to, expertise on or passion for their industry.

so how can you find problems that are actually unique and original? Well, become more unique and original yourself.

you need constant feedback from your users in the markets to see what people want and what people use and whatnot. You can't just think of that. You can't think big immediately. You have to start small.

the most elementary mistake people still make is not sharing their ideas. No, people won't steal your idea if they like it. And even if they do, they probably can't execute it as well as you. And even if they do, you're not a snowflake! There's thousands or even millions of people with the same ideas as you. Stop thinking you're so special! Ideas are a dime a dozen. Everything is about how you execute.

"to me, ideas are worth nothing unless executed. They are just a multiplier. Execution is worth millions. To make a business, you need to multiply the two. The most brilliant idea, with no execution, is worth $20. The most brilliant idea takes great execution to be worth $20,000,000. "

perfectionism is detrimental because 9 out of 10 times it doesn't make things better but just creates inaction.

perfectionism is necessary in smaller details of your service or startup, but not in the entire thing because then it will simply paralyze you with inaction and fear that what you do is not perfect.

perfect what needs to be perfected now. The stuff that's low priority, don't put too much effort in it to perfect it.

the more sustainable way to build a startup: build something yourself see if it works no, build something else see if it works no, build another thing see if it works it works! Let's see if i can monetize it i can hire some people now with the money i'm making with it now i have a team of a few people if we want, we can rent an office, or just save money and stay remote the business model seems to be proven because every time i spend $1 more, i get $1. 50 in revenue, thus it's scalable. This means, if i get more money, i can spend more and get more profit theoretically maybe we can borrow or get some angel investor or vc to fund our expansion in return for giving away some of our ownership, or use our cash flow for it we got more money now, we spend it on the right things, and now we're making even more profit, it worked! Now the product is really cool, people love it, and we're making lots of money, mission accomplished let's see if i can sell the product because i want to do other stuff with my life (build a family, start a farm, raise kids) okay, i sold it for $500,000 to $10,000,000, now i have financial independence in return for a few years of hard work and my investors are happy too!

in the early stages of any project that's not funded, keeping your costs down is your biggest priority. And if you use your own skills to make the basics, that's a lot of costs saved. Developers these days are crazy expensive, due to high demand for them. Most dev's go for $50 to $250/hour. Just the mvp of any small app will already cost roughly 100 hours of work. So there you go, that's $5,000 to $25,000. A fully functioning app will cost thousands of hours, from $50,000 and up. That's a lot of money if you don't have a lot of money. So, if you have access to a big money pile, then why not, go and hire some people to build it. But you'll still be competing with a lot of diy-ers that don't have that cost, and you'll want to get your costs back at some point in the form of revenue. If your development costs are so much higher than the rest, you'll also need to make a lot more money than the rest. Possible, but hard. Especially in the beginning. Now, the worst you can do is contact a developer and ask them to work for free in return for a 50% share of profit, while you get the other 50% because you came up with "the idea". It's become a startup trope and it's ridiculous. The market value of an idea without execution is $0. So either you get real skills (an mba ! = skills), or get money to pay developers. Paying with future equity is ridiculous, it's like paying with a $5 lottery ticket. Don't make a joke out of yourself! Nobody works for free anymore. You have

in the early stages of any project that's not funded, keeping your costs down is your biggest priority.

in the early stages of any project that's not funded, keeping your costs down is your biggest priority. And if you use your own skills to make the basics, that's a lot of costs saved.

the timing of a launch on product hunt is quite important. Product hunt's timezone is san francisco (pst timezone) and its ranking resets at midnight. That means you will need to launch at 00:00:01 or not much later. If you submit at 9pm pst when there's 3 hours left to vote, product hunt will take that into account somehow with their vote algorithm, but it still simply puts you at a disadvantage.

the whole zeitgeist is now about people looking for authenticity, because everything around us is fake. We like people that are open, honest and real. Why? We are bombarded by bullshit marketing messages.

be organic! Be real. Create traction by making a great product that is considerably better than the competition, easier to use and more original.