
Ask HN: How to Bootstrap a Startup Effectively? - quotz
Title is self-explanatory
======
krm01
The best way is to build a product for a single customer, who will pay you
upfront (early bird discount) for the solution with the agreement that it's
your product (not client work). Make that one customer super happy and then
find more people that have the same problem you just built a solution for.

~~~
quotz
What if its in the consumer market?

~~~
krm01
Avoid that at all cost if you are trying to bootstrap a startup effectively.

------
soneca
I don't think the title is self-explanatory at all. It is a very broad
question that could have been answered through a lot of different angles.

You want advice on how do you effectively manage your time? How do you
effectively manage your money? How do you manage your effectively
team/contractors? How do you effectively find a good product? Good customers?

~~~
quotz
I am sorry for not explaining a bit more in the title. I wanted to ask about
finding ways of funding for a bootstrapped startup. Without savings,
bootstrapping seems pretty terrifying

~~~
soneca
Then I think krm01 answer is the right path: _" best way is to build a product
for a single customer, who will pay you upfront"_.

About it being B2C product, there you have the exact reason why it is better
to bootstrap B2B products than B2C.

Building a B2B product is how you bootstrap a startup effectively.

If building a B2C is "non-negotiable", then you should try to minimize the
cost of building a product the most. For example, not coding a product.

There is a new site that aims at this sort of solution:
[https://www.makerpad.co](https://www.makerpad.co). Validating business
without code. Might be useful.

------
shanehoban
1\. Build a product customers want (kind of important)

2\. Write efficient code (have low technical debt too while your at it) so you
can keep hosting and operating costs low

3\. Get users to use and buy your product

4\. To become profitable: either charge enough to reach profitability, or sell
more to reach profitability

------
muzani
The goal is often to hit "ramen profitablity" as soon as possible.

If you're doing enterprise, get that one customer who's paying you enough to
sustain yourself, and make them very happy.

For consumer facing, find something you can build 10x better that people are
already willing to pay for. Then beeline towards building and selling it. If
they aren't buying it, it's not valuable enough.

There are exceptions like reddit, but you can't really bootstrap those.
Anything with network effects needs a very long runway.

------
tnolet
Take your time. Overnight success is a myth. Spend more time on marketing than
coding. Talk to users a lot.

~~~
ezekg
This! Try to focus your energy on finding _your_ market and less on throwing
your product at tire-kickers from Product Hunt, Reddit and Hacker News. As a
bootstrapper, you're not looking for affirmation from your peers, you're
looking for customers. Definitely put a ton of effort into talking to
prospects/customers -- even if you just receive radio silence in return -- it
is so important to have these conversations even if they're super rare.
Experiment with different marketing avenues to see what sticks.

I wrote about this more here:
[https://www.indiehackers.com/interview/2fa6c5e1eb](https://www.indiehackers.com/interview/2fa6c5e1eb)

------
saran945
bootstrap a startup is an art. no decision is final, many of your decisions
would become invalid in days.

if the product is for general public then 1) can be started as a side project
2) Friends and family may use first 3) Experiment the idea with 1000 lines or
less code. 4) Don't prefect the idea, let it evolve 5) Don't go for startup
events, mentors, investment etc 6) No co-founders until you get n number of
users 7) Where can you get early users ? 8) do you use the product yourself ?
9) simplicity of the product is the key 10) no one is waiting, no one is
caring your idea until it gets some traction. the list goes on..

many ideas i stopped in the middle, because myself not interested to continue.
because ideas seems to good in one time, later it is boring to do.

------
davismwfl
The best way I have learned and follow myself is find clients willing to pay
THEN build the product. I have used powerpoint, PDF's, Balsamiq and lots of
manual ways to demonstrate ideas to potential clients before code ever was
typed into an IDE.

~~~
quotz
What if the market is the general public, the consumers?

~~~
davismwfl
Still the same, test the idea before you invest lots of time. It is even
easier when the market is consumers usually. Go to the Gym, Starbucks etc ask
people if they'd use it, pay for it etc. Talk to humans face to face to get a
read on their feedback. Collect their email and name to offer them a free
preview when the product launches. If they resist, they weren't really
interested and just trying to be nice.

If you get good initial feedback from people you talk to then it is good to
setup an online signup form and do some simple advertising with FB/Google and
see if you can get 500 or 1000 signups. And get feedback on the features so
you know what to build. If you have good traction with signups and solid
feedback move forward.

If instead you get very few signups as a percentage of visits then you aren't
on the right track. Change the approach and retest before you build.

The #1 mistake I think most developers make is trying to build a product
before they have a client/market.

~~~
davismwfl
I do want to clarify one point, consumer market is not an easy market in
general. My "even easier" comment is about getting initial product validation
because you don't have a lot of gatekeepers like B2B can have before you talk
to a decision maker.

------
Salesdude
Read the books:

The Lean Startup

Four Steps to Epiphany

Both books will give you everything you need. The rest comes down to your
personality and your tech/sales skills.

------
rootVIII
do all the coding yourself... do it in Python... use Stripe as your checkout
vendor:)

~~~
quotz
That would probably take me 3 years all in all :D I need an option where I can
establish a cofounding team to work on it with me, and we all need to be ramen
profitable

~~~
throw03172019
One thing I learned over the past years is a v1 should be the bare minimum to
get sales. You can add all the bells and whistles later.

