Zuckeberg did it right? Atleast till it was viable? JUST DO IT.
Zuckerberg was a programmer.
Also Facebook is not SaaS (at least not the way most people think of it).
Ask HN: Is it possible for a non-programmer to bootstrap a SaaS business alone?
31–40 of 76 posts
Re: Ask HN: Is it possible for a non-programmer to bootstrap a SaaS business alone?
#32I'm a developer and have helped bootstrap a couple of SaaS. The problem is that in most partnerships like this, the other person can usually only offer ideas or something very minimal with regards to the success of the business. I usually end up just doing everything myself. Unless you offer something besides just the idea (money, contacts, industry experience). The partnership will not work. I've had to quit a few s…
Yeah in a startup or small business I think every founder needs to do work. You can't have people who only essentially generate work for others. There are so many things that need doing when you're small that aren't directly related to development but still need to be done: applying for grants, tax concessions, marketing, building communities, competitive analysis, market research, payroll, accounting.
But this is the fundamental point of the article. It's very difficult to do marketing, communities, competitive analysis market research payroll and accounting when you have no money and no product. So what can non-technical co-founder bring to bootstrapping a SaaS platform with just ideas? May not be possible.
Re: Ask HN: Is it possible for a non-programmer to bootstrap a SaaS business alone?
#33Absolutely. I contracted for a person who built a small but very profitable SaaS app using contractors. There are some caveats though. The person has a smattering of technical knowledge which prevented him from being completely taken advantage of by contractors. And he was an effective manager (a rarity to be sure). And he knew exactly what he wanted and stayed on top of details of how it was implemented. Although no…
The key here is that he had the financial backing to complete the project. Unclear whether the original poster has enough of a cash runway to keep even a team of 1 at a fulltime salary.
Re: Ask HN: Is it possible for a non-programmer to bootstrap a SaaS business alone?
#34Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yeah in a startup or small business I think every founder needs to do work. You can't have people who only essentially generate work for others. There are so many things that need doing when you're small that aren't directly related to development but still need to be done: applying for grants, tax concessions, marketing, building communities, competitive analysis, market research, payroll, accounting.
But this is the fundamental point of the article. It's very difficult to do marketing, communities, competitive analysis market research payroll and accounting when you have no money and no product. So what can non-technical co-founder bring to bootstrapping a SaaS platform with just ideas? May not be possible.
>But this is the fundamental point of the article. It's very difficult to do marketing, communities, competitive analysis market research payroll and accounting when you have no money and no product. So what can non-technical co-founder bring to bootstrapping a SaaS platform with just ideas? May not be possible.
You hustle? You sit there and think what is the literal next step, then you try that thing, reevaluate, and repeat. Then keep doing it until you're rich, broke, or dead. There is always something you can be doing.
Re: Ask HN: Is it possible for a non-programmer to bootstrap a SaaS business alone?
#35Perhaps by possible, but probably not advisable. Consider the obvious alternatives:
(1) having a technical cofounder, or
(2) raising money instead of bootstrapping.
Either of these alternatives will take time — to find the cofounder or the funders — but this is nothing compared with how much slower you'll move if you're bootstrapping and don't have a pot of cash to fund development with.
And the better your idea is, the easier it will be to find suitable cofounders or funders. So if you find these two tasks to be difficult, this tends to indicate that the underlying idea is not as strong.
My background: I am a non-technical founder of a software startup that has been mostly bootstrapped and mostly solo. My path was made possible/easier by the fact that I have savings from having been a corporate lawyer, and by my wife's stable/good job. Without both of these things, launching a startup would have been even harder.
Re: Ask HN: Is it possible for a non-programmer to bootstrap a SaaS business alone?
#36Analogy; Can a non-programmer manage programmers?
Re: Ask HN: Is it possible for a non-programmer to bootstrap a SaaS business alone?
#37Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yeah in a startup or small business I think every founder needs to do work. You can't have people who only essentially generate work for others. There are so many things that need doing when you're small that aren't directly related to development but still need to be done: applying for grants, tax concessions, marketing, building communities, competitive analysis, market research, payroll, accounting.
But this is the fundamental point of the article. It's very difficult to do marketing, communities, competitive analysis market research payroll and accounting when you have no money and no product. So what can non-technical co-founder bring to bootstrapping a SaaS platform with just ideas? May not be possible.
I agree it may not be possible! I think you need money, or you need to convince someone of the value of what you are building and get them to help you for equity. That's a super hard sell though.
Re: Ask HN: Is it possible for a non-programmer to bootstrap a SaaS business alone?
#38It is freakishly hard to build a successful SAAS if you have funding and a solid team. Doing it alone as a solo non-programmer has got to feel like trying to drink the ocean. I've never been able to figure out how non-programmers can sift through mounds of freelancers to find a good developer. And, even if they find good developers, I have no idea how they manage to motivate and retain them. I'd love to read some sto…
> I've never been able to figure out how non-programmers can sift through mounds of freelancers to find a good developer.
I'm not convinced programmers can either, they can just find the ones that think like they do and weed out the worst of the worst.
Re: Ask HN: Is it possible for a non-programmer to bootstrap a SaaS business alone?
#39Absolutely. I contracted for a person who built a small but very profitable SaaS app using contractors. There are some caveats though. The person has a smattering of technical knowledge which prevented him from being completely taken advantage of by contractors. And he was an effective manager (a rarity to be sure). And he knew exactly what he wanted and stayed on top of details of how it was implemented. Although no…
The key here is that he had the financial backing to complete the project. Unclear whether the original poster has enough of a cash runway to keep even a team of 1 at a fulltime salary.
You don't need a full time team or person (the guy I worked for doesn't have that) as long as you can deploy and manage the hosting and have someone you can call if there is an issue.
But no way to get building/operating capital? In general forget about it. Most likely not going to fly.
I'm convinced lots of people do this because I've personally seen at least two. But even more try and spend a bunch of money and fail (seen a lot more than 2 of those). The ones who succeed generally don't hang around HN posting startup related buzzwords though so it's understandable they are presumed not to exist.
Re: Ask HN: Is it possible for a non-programmer to bootstrap a SaaS business alone?
#40It is freakishly hard to build a successful SAAS if you have funding and a solid team. Doing it alone as a solo non-programmer has got to feel like trying to drink the ocean. I've never been able to figure out how non-programmers can sift through mounds of freelancers to find a good developer. And, even if they find good developers, I have no idea how they manage to motivate and retain them. I'd love to read some sto…
Here's one https://www.indiehackers.com/businesses/convertkit ... follow the link to their blog about the "Web app Saas challenge" and they outline the entire process they took.
Wildly successful too ... $600k MRR in just a few years https://convertkit.baremetrics.com/