How to fly for free in a bootstrapped startup
Published in 2010, this chronicle by @dmytton 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 ★ 20 points
TOTAL DISCUSSIONS 24 comments
How to make money while flying free in a bootstrapped startup: Provide an affiliate link to a credit card offer and write a blog post with a link bait title.
Nice job! CC offer affiliate links have got to be in the $50 a pop range, no?
Whether this is the best way to do it depends on how much you value miles, which depends on the airline / your location / what kind of flying you do. For a lot of people, just taking 2% cash back might be a better deal, though.
Nice post though the title was a bit misleading since the flying is only free because he chose to focus all his credit card rewards on miles. So I guess it isn't really free.
I also get redirected to an affiliate link when I click, contrary to the statement on the blog that, "there are no affiliate links."
I followed the link and holy caw, 37.1% APR?!