
The 10k Bootstrap Challenge - alexandros
http://bootstrapchallenge.com/
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bignoggins
I'm a big fan of bootstrapping, allow me to add my own data point. I was the
typical bored-at-BigCo guy but was afraid to completely jump into startups
full time (I have a family). I decided to bootstrap my startup (mobile app) at
the beginning of 2010, while working full time for 6 months. 6 months after
that I quit my job full time as the income from the startup surpassed my SV
engineering salary (made 75K in 6 months). In 2011, I traveled the world for 7
months with my wife while making my 2nd app, and my income went up to 340K.
This year, I'm pretty much working ~20 hrs a week and I'm on track to hit at
least 600K (already did 300K YTD). No full time employees, no VCs, no board,
minimal expenses (macbook + iphone), no hassle.

I have friends and relatives who have done YC, gone the whole fundraising
route, etc. Some who are fairly successful, but I wouldn't trade places with
them in a second. I'm not saying bootstrapping is better, but if you are like
me (risk averse and lazy) then it is definitely a legitimate option.

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nanijoe
Oh the paradox...The thought of bootstrapping being for the lazy and risk
averse.

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bignoggins
it's for the risk averse because you can bootstrap and keep your job. it's for
the lazy because your limited time forces you to attack much smaller problems
and make compromises, which im my opinion is a GOOD thing.

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clarky07
I did this about a year ago. It took me about 2 months to get self sustaining
and 6 months to reach my previous salary. Been thinking about writing it up,
maybe I should go ahead and do it.

Good luck, living off income from things you make is a great thing.

~~~
clarky07
Since so many asked for it I decided to knock it out. Here's my story -
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3982830>

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sparknlaunch12
Thanks for sharing. Awesome. Any advice for us dreamers? Can it be repeated?

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clarky07
Give it a shot. Look at bignoggins advice above. Go for smaller niches instead
of trying to be angry birds. There are lots of very useful things that can be
done on a phone or tablet. Make something useful that somebody is likely to
type into the search on the app store. It can definitely be repeated.

Also, don't worry about there already being an app that does that. There are
600k+ apps. It's been done. But you can find a niche where the best app isn't
that great, or at least where you can do it a little better. Make a great app,
and make it look great. Don't try submitting things that look terrible. They
will get lost in the noise at this point.

~~~
sparknlaunch12
What tools do you recommend to start?

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robfitz
Hey guys! Thanks for the support. You caught me pretty early in the process,
so not terribly much to show just yet, but I hope you'll stick around for the
ride.

If you're curious, the first product I'm trying to make profitable (and the
one whose numbers I reference in the video) is at <http://whattowrite.org>

But, as I say, the stats on it are pretty bleak at the moment (I need to
improve the funnel performance by ~1000%). I may end up spending 2 weeks
invalidating it and then move on to greener pastures.

Regarding the amount of money and number of months it gives me, I chose the
amount (10k) in order to give myself 4 months, rather than the other way
around. 4 months feels about right. If I could live happily on £1k per month,
I would have made it the £4k bootstrap challenge ;)

Thanks again!

~~~
sparknlaunch12
Good concept.

What is the writers site built with andhow will it generate revenue?

Are you adopting a lean startup approach?

Good luck.

~~~
robfitz
Django/jquery/sendgrid, I have no idea (yet!), and yes. On the first idea the
main stuff I'm pulling from lean is analytics, but if this one doesn't work
out I'll do more custdev and in-person stuff as appropriate.

~~~
sparknlaunch12
Cool. Really like how the form filling flows.

Will wait to see how you monetise this. I suspect there are some serious
writers/bloggers out there looking for inspiration and willing to pay?

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iusable
Interesting idea.

Tiny typo. It should be 'live' not 'life'.

"So I'm betting £10k that I can build a portfolio of products which is
profitable enough to life off before running out of money."

should be

"So I'm betting £10k that I can build a portfolio of products which is
profitable enough to live off before running out of money."

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tobydownton
People love start-up stories and case studies, this will be a real-time
version, I'm off to make some popcorn, best of luck!

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mmphosis
From the title, I thought this was a challenge to write a bootstrap loader in
10 kilobytes.

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corford
I'm two thirds through a very similar process. I quit my job in late Dec 2011
and temporarily moved myself and my girlfriend in with my folks.

5 months, 1 pivot and ~£8K later I'm almost ready to release a public beta.
With a bit of luck, this will happen before the end of June. I've then got a
further 6 months left in the budget to feed us until the site (hopefully!)
starts bringing in enough money to live off. Failing that, it's back to
salaried employment (if any one will have me...)!

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CharlesPal
I'm very curious about this guy's background. He seems to have experience in
product development, marketing and customer acquisition.

Having said that... I'm not sure how long ~16k USD (10k GBP) lasts in London
but here (Boston) that would not give too many months of runway. Not using
consulting for at least a short time he is giving himself a small window for
success.

I wish him the best of luck but his approach does seem a bit aggressive.

~~~
Hannan
Living in London was quite expensive for me. He estimates four months:

"All my expenses come from the £10k but I can only make money from products
(e.g. no consulting). London is expensive, so this gives me about 4 months."

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CharlesPal
Spending £2.5k/month to live in London? In your experience, how accurate does
that sound?

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beck5
That is living an fairly decent life. You could scrape on £1k a month if you
really wanted to.

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megablast
This is what I do, rent and bills is around £800 a month, and can live quite
well on another £300 to £400, and that includes going out.

~~~
robfitz
I spent 5 years living like that at my first couple companies. These days,
however, my life is no longer organised in a way where that's viable. So
2-2.5k it is. If I was in a real pinch, I could temporarily get to 1.5k, but I
feel like 4 months is about the right period of time for this anyway.

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peteretep
I may well be trying to do something similar in a year, so I look forward to
seeing how you do! Good luck.

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roman_m
Same for me, good luck!

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robfitz
Let me know when you guys get started. If I'm in a position to help, I will!

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SkyMarshal
In case anyone not aware, check out the Facebook group _HN - Monthly
Launchpad_ :

<https://www.facebook.com/groups/launchinnov/>

It's a network of HN'ers launching side projects and bootstrapped companies.

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gmq
This is really interesting. I'm giving myself 6 months to get _something_ out
there (I'm not sure what exactly, yet) or a job in a tech related field.

If it doesn't work, I'll have to start applying for jobs related to my degree
(teaching).

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sparknlaunch12
Reminds me of Joe Stump's entrepreneur goal- to figure out how to make $30 a
month from 1000 people.

The key is having focus and a goal in mind. If one can stick to the plan then
they are already ahead of the game.

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joshmlewis
Z-index your footer to 9999. YouTube video covers it up on iPad. Also the
white form field on the left sidebar overruns into the text. I'm on an iPad so
not sure how desktop version differs.

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Aftershock21
I am doing similar thing, I quit my job in Oct 2011 and making iPhone apps.
Made 4 apps so far but just earning $10/day from it. But its a lot of fun and
exciting than a job.

~~~
sidman
In the same boat as you, quit my job around the same time you did (august of
2011), built an iPhone app and have some affiliate marketing. Turned over a
bit more then 10 bucks a day (average about $70) but still in the ball park of
can do much better :)

And yes it is fun ! i guess we just gotta keep going

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jstanley
The domain name is registered by Rob Fitzpatrick of thestartuptoolkit.com. I
wonder what the relationship is?

Edit: Looks like this site is also by him, just not submitted by him.

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mendable
Nice idea.

What is the product you are working on?

You talked about about the numbers, but some general idea of the app would be
interesting if we are going to follow along with your progress.

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drsim
This could work really well to harness the power of learning from the
community if you reveal your product.

I'm sure lots of folks, especially here, would jump in and help you improve
your registration rate if we had visibility.

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HarrietJones
I'm sort of doing this.

I'm 4 months in, I've had one scrapped project, one failed project and one
project which isn't really taking off.

I'll be watching this with interest.

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HarrietJones
What I should have done is posted the fact that I'm doing the same to Hacker
News. I'm guessing that if his blog gets enough traction, he'll succeed. Not
because the product is great, but because this "10k GBP - can I make money"
sideproject brings in the eyeballs.

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gravitronic
While HN brings eyeballs it does not really bring profits unless you are
innovating in the "productivity / programming / business" product space.

What it CAN do is give you decent SEO via reposts that helps diversify your
inbound links resulting in better pageranking. My month of blogging has
brought me from ~90th for "android dj app" to ~9th in google search.

~~~
robfitz
If only I hadn't made the idiotic decision to compete with twitter for the
term "bootstrap" :)

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latj
Step 1 should maybe be purchase train tickets to bulgaria where you can
stretch your 10k GBP out for a year.

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iharris
It takes guts to take a leap like this. Good luck, I hope you succeed.

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bking
I wish you good luck, and I am excited to see your portfolio develop.

/sips coffee

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bazookaBen
if the business doesn't require a lot of physical interaction , try moving to
a lower cost country. Your runway will increase two/four fold.

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rmATinnovafy
Keep us posted. Specially the marketing side of things.

Good luck.

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danvoell
What's your first product?

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voodoochilo
curious already.

