10 new "unicorns" in India in 2021, 6 in last 6 days.

I've never been able to grasp why huge loss-making businesses are celebrated & made heroes.

So for those who want to build a profitable business, here are 8 lessons from bootstrapping my startup to $1mn revenue in 4 years 🧵
1/ Don't quit your full-time job yet.

Not sure when & whether to start up?

Do this:
• Start a blog or newsletter
• Build a following on social media or a niche community
• Create an MVP on the side

The 'all or nothing' strategy is needlessly high risk.
2/ Earning the first $ is the toughest, it only gets better

My journey of bootstrapping Flexiple (Revenue):
Year 1 - $0
Year 2 - $50,000
Year 3 - $400,000
Year 4 - $1 million
3/ Work hard to make your first $, worry about scale later.

Here's a few things we did to land & close our 1st client:
• Cold calling & messaging on LinkedIn
• Asking everyone in our extended network for referral
• Contract discussions with client's legal team
4/ Marketing isn't cheap, find smart ways to do it

Things you can do with a $0 budget:
• Guest posts
• Newsletter
• SEO focused blogs
• Building backlinks to your website
• Launching on free platforms
• Submitting to startup directories
• Building audience on social media
5/ Build an audience before you build a product.

• Talk about the problem
• Share your personal experience
• Debate existing solutions
• Share how you would solve it

Channels:
• Social media
• Blog
• Newsletter
• Community websites
• Slack channels
• LI & FB groups
6/ You can't do everything by yourself, hire great people & let them do their thing.

You need people in your team who are dependable & good at problem-solving.

Once you hire, trust that they will do good work. You will never have time to micro-manage, neither is it efficient.
7/ You're always short of talent & you're always hiring.

Every startup, funded or non-funded, wants great people in their team, so there's literally a war for talent.

Play smart:
• Hire remotely & globally
• Hire contractors
• Hire part-timers (experts)
8/ Building your startup is a marathon, not a sprint.

Rushing to reach high revenue or burning out in the first few months will do much more harm than good.

• • •

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More from @hrishiptweets

30 Mar
I write & manage 4 newsletters with 5000+ subscribers and closed down 2 others with 2000+ subscribers (due to lack of time).

15 useful & non-obvious tips on how to run & market your newsletter 🧵
1/ Define a clear goal for your newsletter - what value will your subscribers get?

Examples:

• Insightful content to make you better at remote work. One original article every Wednesday.

• Maker Mind is your weekly dose of mindful productivity.
2/ Be yourself & write like a person would.

Nobody likes reading impersonal, automated emails with a bunch of links.
Read 17 tweets
15 Mar
21 lessons in marketing after 4 years of growing my own startup from 0 to $1mn in revenue 🧵
1) Marketing starts much before you even build the product.

You should start building your audience & letting people know about your product, much before you actually start building the product.
2) Launch day success depends on how well you prepared for months before.

For eg., if you launch on @ProductHunt, you must have:
- list of people (can be beta users) that can support you
- list of channels to talk about your launch
- content of posts & timeline to post
Read 23 tweets
25 Feb
21 lessons in product building after 4 years of running my own startup & 9 years of writing software 🧵👇
1/ Getting people to know about your product is the toughest part when building your product.
2/ Build an audience before you build a product.
Read 22 tweets

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