Bootstrapped. 10 Months. Learned Rails. Finally Launched. Feedback Please?
Published in 2011, this chronicle by @marcamillion details the mechanics of building a profitable, self-funded business without venture backing.
Core Principles for Independent Builders:
Charging customers from day one acts as the ultimate filter for building software that solves genuine, high-urgency problems.
Keeping fixed overhead low and leveraging lean infrastructure allows founders to stay alive until market tailwinds kick in.
Small, repetitive improvements in customer retention and conversion rates yield massive returns over multi-year horizons.
Community Debate Themes:
The community focused on B2B customer acquisition channels, cold email vs SEO distribution, and balancing full-time employment with side-project development.
CATEGORY Bootstrapping & MRR →
HISTORICAL ERA Web 2.0 Genesis (2007–2013)
COMMUNITY SCORE ★ 50 points
TOTAL DISCUSSIONS 58 comments
Stuff I like:
-The semi-transparent chameleon is clever
-The pricing section is well-designed
-Product looks simple and easy-to-use
Stuff to consider:
-Try making the chameleon 50%-75% smaller. It distracts from the content.
-I would eliminate the "Sign up with Huey" hoverstate. My first question was literally, who is Huey? I now know it's the name of a plan. If you leave it, the default plan should be Iguana, the recommended plan, and not the most expensive one.
-Currently the product comes across as too generic. Add a few more screenshots and use-cases to show off the uniqueness of your product.
-The support and sign-in buttons are too transparent. To draw attention to them, they should probably less transparent and have a solid text color.
-The product may be too barebones for the prices you are selling at. Try adding more features like voting for the best version, adding annotations, etc...
Good idea, and look well-executed.
I would add more images and examples of the application in use.
Also, choose more relevant examples... the only one I see is a comparison between the same image with color changes. Show something like a whole website project from early stage (sketched mockups) to later stages (details in coloring and font choices, or whatever).
Also, IMHO, the copy should focus more on the benefits for the designer (get better feedback faster, more often) than on the benefits for the client ("Save your clients the hassle of resizing browser windows, or printing...")
This is a great looking app and site, especially if you were learning as you went.
Good luck! Adriano
The pricing looks like it's based on the idea that, since designers and agencies are earning boatloads of money anyway, taking just a tiny slice of that money shouldn't faze them, even if that tiny slice amounts to $100/month. I think you'll run into a lot of potential users who will question the fairness of paying that amount of money for what is in essence an image viewer, and refuse to buy even if they could easily afford it and clearly see its usefulness.
Sir Marc, Great to see compV is launched. Congrats on that feat. Love the design. I'm also feeling Huey.
My 2 cents: A video demo would do wonders. You can show persons exactly what Compversions does.
I agree with charging for it, up front. But if that's the case, show people what they are paying for(video).
The index/imdex seemed a tad bit confusing, im sure there's a better way to handle it.
Edit: Spelling
I dont have a need for this day to day, but I was going to sign up to get updates, check out the tool etc.
Since I dont hvae a use for it today, I figured i wouldnt really use the 14 day trial.. What I really wanted was a free version so I could come back and use the tool when I had a need for it in my daily life.