My first bootstrapped startup has launched (iPhone ads). Prayers/Advice please
After spending about 5 months on this and a little over 1k (I'm a student... every bit hurts haha) I have a little piece of expensive paper that states I own a company and a working non-traditional advertising site specifically targeted just for the iPhone (at least for now). Any moral support, advice, or just general questions would be awesome! Thanks HN
www.adsreloaded.com
Published in 2010, this chronicle by @msencenb 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 ★ 4 points
TOTAL DISCUSSIONS 4 comments
Neat idea! I think it would help if you had some more answers to FAQs; maybe if there was a walkthrough with some photos showing just how easy it is? For instance, it is not evident to me from looking HOW it would payout, or when, etc.
Also, the contact link is a dead-end at present. Other idea that could be helpful: including easy ways to spread the word about your site, since it's the kind of thing that people would want to share. (At the same time, be sure to work hard to avoid the appearance of scammy-ness, as that can happen too easily with 'make money quickly online' schemes.)
But it looks like a cool start, I'd try it out if I had an iPhone. Good luck!
Interesting idea. But if you pay the user for installing, what does that do for the business model of the developer? When will he make money?