What Stopped You from Launching a Bootstrapped Product in 2015
What will you do differently in 2016 to make it happen?
Published in 2015, this chronicle by @shk88 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 Cloud & Mobile Era (2014–2019)
COMMUNITY SCORE ★ 20 points
TOTAL DISCUSSIONS 23 comments
I didn't feel the user interface was ready. Also, as the system is a database at heart it has to be absolutely rock solid.
Planning to launch on the 5th of Feb, which is the date (4 years) since I wrecked my knee and started working on this project to keep my mind busy. See https://velox.io
Too many hours devoted to employer. I already have something bootstrapped active (movinggauteng.co.za), but stagnating a bit. Wanted to launch a small December idea to take my mind off my 2 jobs. This year I'm aiming to work no more than 48 hours a week for employer, start making money on bootstrapped product, and enjoy my life more.
I didn't launch sooner as I was focused on too many projects. Finally buckled it down and drove my project to completion. Official launch will occur in a week or two: http://rallycoding.com/
Stop looking for productivity 'techniques' that others have found to work for them and just do the best thing I can think of now to get something done.
Momentum tends to work better than any one 'technique'.
Launched earlier this year with a $500 budget, now making ~1.2k revenue per month trying to grow it further. Still need to get a job though, $200/mo is not much fun for food in Seattle.