Ask HN: What are your recommended reads for bootstrapping a business?
My own startup experience is primarily in VC-backed startups. I'm starting to believe that there's a whole class of problems that can't be tackled using that standard startup playbook of targeting unicorns with succeeding rounds of capital. But, I'm pretty ignorant of bootstrapping.
What books, articles, forums, discord servers etc. would you recommend for how to bootstrap a business? I'm personally more interested in the business side, but I'm curious about anything the community respects and finds valuable.
Published in 2022, this chronicle by @mind-blight details the mechanics of building a profitable, self-funded business without venture backing.
The community focused on B2B customer acquisition channels, cold email vs SEO distribution, and balancing full-time employment with side-project development.
Send me an e-mail and I'll send you curated resources that were useful over the years. I can't write a thorough reply right now and there are many layers to it.
TL;DR:
A market you can reach that can buy a product you can get distributed.
It's advantageous if you enjoy interacting with the people you want to solve problems for, especially initially (many calls, emails, conversations).
The product's sale complexity (high-touch vs. low-touch or self-service, buyer-is-user vs. buyer-is-not-user but can make discretionary decisions vs. purchase signed off by a committee) will impact what you do. Continually reduce the sale complexity.
Since every startup is different, I don't know how universal any advice might be. If you are not financially wealthy, be prepared for a long haul if your project is non-trivial. Without significant resources, you have to do everything yourself and revenues could be years away.
Not being able to quit your day job and devote all your time to it can push the schedule back significantly.
Sometimes, you can convince others to join you for a while without pay (only promises of equity), but unless they are 'all in', they generally fall away pretty fast.
* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Payback_period
* https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/engineering/payback-period
* https://www.investopedia.com/terms/p/paybackperiod.asp
Here are my fav resources:
Micro SaaS Ideas - https://microsaasidea.com - Newsletter (basic is free) + community (pro) for bootstrapped/solo founders. The content is superb - research backed insights & analysis.
Book: http://zerotofounder.co - covers both tech & marketing side. Author himself has successfully bootstrapped as a solo founder.
I've read a huge pile of books on this topic, but there's only one that I actually found worth reading. As a bonus, it's short.
The Incredible Secret Money Machine, by Don Lancaster.
It's short, easy to read and understand, and when I look back on all of the various business mistakes I've made over the decades, for every one I can find a place in that book where he warned about it.