

 I'm trying to bootstrap my own startup - Any advice? - joeylomanto
http://www.hellohired.com

======
johnmurch
Ha - I had this idea a few weeks ago. Glad to see someone has JFDI and got
this up and live.

First off, $14/month is NOTHING. You may be able to make it up on volume, but
read
[https://training.kalzumeus.com/newsletters/archive/enterpris...](https://training.kalzumeus.com/newsletters/archive/enterprise_sales)
\- I would start at $99/month (but thats me)

Second - if you are planning to bootstrap this, whats your marketing strategy?
How are you going to get 100 business using it this month? Hr people outreach?
Now you could blog/tweet/etc. people and get them but rather than a push
method, how about a pull? Partnerships are great - find things like
[http://hackerbundle.com/](http://hackerbundle.com/) that you can jump on to
at least get to the right people. Then you can get them to push it out,
checkout
[http://www.getharvest.com/invitation/8t9a?utm_source=rp&utm_...](http://www.getharvest.com/invitation/8t9a?utm_source=rp&utm_medium=twitter)
it's a landing page that is custom to a specific user who can push it out to
their followers.

Third and last - timeshifting. Rather than trying to email/contact everyone,
setup things that can happen automatically adn build a list. Weekly webinars,
interviews with bloggers, etc. Build up video/online content that is
interesting and useful that other people will read/watch (slideshare - tips
for hiring/process/etc.)

Good Luck - love the direction!

~~~
joeylomanto
John, wow. This is one of my first posts on HN and I never expected this.

Yea, the $14 seems low, but it'll cover base operation costs. I did plan on
making up for it in volume (going to read that article) but also have
promotion opportunities (at cost) when companies publish new jobs.

In terms of marketing, I'm banking on a great experience going a long way. I
have a few connections that can hopefully help me get a few recognizable logos
on the homepage that could boost the credibility.

In addition to that, all your other questions are really challenging me for
how I can get that momentum a lot sooner. And your suggestions are extremely
helpful. I have a few loosely outlined goals for the next 30 days, and I'm
going to include these into those plans.

Thank you so much :)

------
xauronx
"automatically works on mobile and table devices" I wish I had a table device,
but I'm guessing it's a typo.

It looks pretty awesome so far. I'm not sure if you're necessarily trying to
get beta testers, but when I saw "The first 1000 companies that sign up get 2
months free!" I thought... well, not many companies must have thought this was
good enough to try. Not to mention, if I come back in three months and that
message is still up, I know that you still haven't convinced 1000 companies to
sign up in three (or six, or nine) months. I'm not sure if that's a good or
bad thing.

It looks great and if my company were ready for that stage I would sign up for
sure.

~~~
joeylomanto
Hah, you don't have a table device? My bad :P

Thanks for the encouragement, xauronx. That was also really good feedback on
my "1000 companies" messaging. I guess my strategy is to try and give a little
extra incentive for the early adopters. I do have plans to adjust it as I get
closer to that goal, I'm not entirely sure to what yet.

Thank you so much!

------
hector_ka
It is going to take longer than you think. :-)

~~~
joeylomanto
Yea, I'm ready for a long haul. What I'm really going to make sure of is that
I remain focused on validating the concept before I invest too much
time/effort/money into building the wrong thing.

So at least if it takes a long time, I'm making small incremental steps in the
right direction.

