I have bootstrapped my startup from 0 to $2 million+ revenue.
Bootstrapping is an art. It requires you to be smart, patient & resilient.
Here are 8 lessons/principles I have learnt over last 4 years that show how bootstrapped founders must build their startup 🧵
1/ Cash is king
Focus on cashflow from day 1, not just profits. It means you can't have indefinitely delayed client payments or sales that take months or even a year to close.
2/ Make your first $ without worrying about the process
For bootstrapped founders, the only validation is paying customers. Do everything you can to close the first sale.
3/ Start as a service, build product later
A service business brings you immediate revenue & cashflow. So start by making your offering a service (eg. consulting) while building your product on the side.
4/ Keep shipping
Perfect is the enemy of good. In fact, go an extra step and test after you ship.
5/ Spend wisely
Focus on organic traffic vs. paid marketing. Leverage SEO to get consistent traffic with minimal spend. Build audience via social media, newsletters & blog.
6/ Make it functional
Focus on making things work vs. making them beautiful.
7/ Hire smartly
Every startup wants great people in their team ⇒ war for talent.
Play smart:
• Hire remotely & globally
• Hire contractors
• Hire part-timers (experts)
8/ Top down forecasting is useless
Companies spend $1bn on hiring contractors globally. We will target 1% of that in a year = $10mn revenue. ⇒ DOESN'T WORK.
I will hire 2 sales people who can each close 2 deals/month with average value of $10,000 = $480K revenue. ⇒ WORKS.
That's it for the thread!
I regularly share such threads around startups, so consider retweeting the first tweet & following me :)
10 lessons I have learned working 5 years in marketing as a tech startup founder. 🧵
Start building an audience before you even think of building a product.
You don't need to quit your job for this. You can build audience on the side.
- Publish blogs.
- Start a newsletter.
- Write on social media.
(1/10)
Successful launch requires months of preparation.
Launch days are also very stressful. Prepare a thorough plan & timeline beforehand so that you don't have to think about what to do & when on actual day of launch.