Thread by @rahulcsekaran

Sharing my learnings from one month of bootstrapping b7labs.co:
1. Building in public works wonders.
2. Free services attract spammers
3. Getting noticed is easier than you think.
4. Focus on building a valuable product.
5. cache. #startuplessons #bootstrapping

1. Building in public works wonders.
Building in public is a powerful way to validate your idea, pivot quickly, and build your network. Twitter is an awesome community with genuine supporters. Avoid building in isolation. #buildinpublic #networking #validation

2. Free services attract spammers
Free services attract a lot of spammers & it's hard to keep them away. Unless you have investors &sponsors, reduce free access. Ad revenue won't work until you scale. (Read-only services like blogs & newsletters are an exception) Think #freemium

3. Getting noticed is easier than you think
Going viral can be tempting, but it's not always sustainable. Focus on building a valuable product that solves a real user problem. Resist the urge to add features that won't make a difference. #leanstartup #userexperience

4. Focus on building a valuable product
Ask yourself, "Does this feature solve a user problem?" before adding anything. Customers will pay if you're saving their time and making their lives better. Get #customerfeedback at all stages.

5. Cache
Leverage browser caching immediately to improve performance. Middleware caching can wait until you have more users say 50k. Don't cache errors :). Most importantly self-cache your learning.

Don't worry about performance, advanced analytics, or metrics until you have validated your product with a few thousand users. Build and release incrementally. If you can release every few days, that's golden. #leanstartup #agiledevelopment

Reason I created this twitter thread of unsolicited advice :) -

b7labs.co/converse reached 2000 users in 2 weeks helping me validate the market and figure out the next steps. I'll share more from my experience as I release the next product.