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My eighth year as a bootstrapped founder

mtlynch.io

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Re: My eighth year as a bootstrapped founder

#61

Post by mitjam »

ojbyrne wrote: post #53
switz wrote: post #12

Thanks for being so transparent. As a fellow solo bootstrapper, I think the thing people most often misunderstand is the relative inconsistency (income, "wins", the camaraderie, etc.) so it's nice for you to bare all. That being said, you do get the consistency of independence and autonomy. As I watch my peers deal with crappy work environments, losing their jobs, and other bullshit, I just keep chugging along: self-…

Concerning independence and autonomy, I ruefully recall hearing the saying “You get to work your own hours … as long as it’s all of them.”

There is a word play in German: „Selbstständig bedeutet selbst und ständig.“ - Self-employed means yourself, continuously.

Re: My eighth year as a bootstrapped founder

#62

Post by apparent »

Curious to know how you think AI/vibecoding will affect the solopreneur path.

On the one hand, it could make it accessible to many more people, who previously couldn't have built a business alone because they lacked coding skills.

On the other hand, it could make it harder to get customers because they can also code their own customized tools, making it less necessary to buy software and some services.

There's probably a third and fourth hand, which haven't yet sprung to mind.

Re: My eighth year as a bootstrapped founder

#63

Post by cyode »

Excellent series, I've been reading for a few years now!

Q for OP: looking back at your 8 posts, I don't see you ever reflecting on loneliness (or lack thereof) as part of your founder journey. Yet both founder friends and anecdotes always emphasize this as a big weight.

Is it a significant factor for you, compared to your past life at FAANG? Do you you ever think about spending your time differently to optimize for more social fulfillment (vs. fulfillment from building or becoming profitable)?

Re: My eighth year as a bootstrapped founder

#64

Post by kaizenb »

apparent wrote: post #62

Curious to know how you think AI/vibecoding will affect the solopreneur path. On the one hand, it could make it accessible to many more people, who previously couldn't have built a business alone because they lacked coding skills. On the other hand, it could make it harder to get customers because they can also code their own customized tools, making it less necessary to buy software and some services. There's probab…

These things also on my mind recently. I'm a freelancer, providing design-development services, and trying to understand as things changing rapidly.

I don't think even the tools are advancing, allowing us to build in a new way, not everyone will be able to develop production ready products. Or good looking ones. So there will be always in need for people know how to orchestrate the new workflows with good taste and years of experience.

Couple of articles I've bookmarked recently:

● What, then, are we paying for? https://quinnkeast.com/writing/software-is-problem-ownership

● Designers as agent orchestrators: what I learnt shipping with AI in 2025 https://uxdesign.cc/designers-as-agent-orchestrators-what-i-...

● The new UX Toolkit: data, context, and evals https://uxdesign.cc/the-new-ux-toolkit-data-context-and-eval...

● How I Stopped Worrying and Learned to Love the Terminal https://pablostanley.substack.com/p/how-i-stopped-worrying-a...

● The rise of the Model Designer https://uxdesign.cc/the-rise-of-the-model-designer-cef429d9c...

Re: My eighth year as a bootstrapped founder

#65

Post by julianeon »

apparent wrote: post #28

Maybe it's just me, but it seems kind of weird to say you earned $8,200 in "profit" when there was no salary. Profit is typically the excess a business earns above its costs. For a solo founder, it can be a little tricky because the more you pay yourself in salary, the less you have in profit (and vice versa). But here, there was no salary. Maybe "earnings" or "income" would be a better term to use? Otherwise someone…

I think in a hand-wavey sense people understand that $PROFIT means $INCOME here.

Re: My eighth year as a bootstrapped founder

#66

Post by tonyedgecombe »

ojbyrne wrote: post #53
switz wrote: post #12

Thanks for being so transparent. As a fellow solo bootstrapper, I think the thing people most often misunderstand is the relative inconsistency (income, "wins", the camaraderie, etc.) so it's nice for you to bare all. That being said, you do get the consistency of independence and autonomy. As I watch my peers deal with crappy work environments, losing their jobs, and other bullshit, I just keep chugging along: self-…

Concerning independence and autonomy, I ruefully recall hearing the saying “You get to work your own hours … as long as it’s all of them.”

Some people do that but it is more of a choice than you might expect. For most of the twenty six years I was doing it I rarely worked more than three or four hours a day.

Re: My eighth year as a bootstrapped founder

#67

Post by bambax »

> When I tell friends and family I’m working on a book, they innocently ask, “Oh, so you’re still on paternity leave?” -- No! I’m writing a book. It’s a real job!

"Real job", yes and no. Writing a book is an enormous amount of work, and people probably understand that. But, in most cases, it doesn't bring any real money, and that's what's confusing to strangers. "How do you make a living then?" is what they mean, I think.

Re: My eighth year as a bootstrapped founder

#68

Post by rkuodys »

switz wrote: post #24
mtlynch wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Thanks for being so transparent. As a fellow solo bootstrapper, I think the thing people most often misunderstand is the relative inconsistency (income, "wins", the camaraderie, etc.) so it's nice for you to bare all. > That being said, you do get the consistency of independence and autonomy. As I watch my peers deal with crappy work environments, losing their jobs, and other bullshit, I just keep chugging along: s…

Yup, I always say – the hardest part of my job is that if I don't do it, nothing gets done . That copy error on the website. That minor bug. We take for granted the velocity we get by having colleagues. If I get lazy, everything grinds to a halt. And those little nits add up. But I strongly agree it's all worth it.

Can I ask you if you consider that AI changes anything about that? Since I'm embarking on the same boat, my dream is a team of AI which supports and ensures business continuity while Im on vacation or "OOO" otherwise.

Re: My eighth year as a bootstrapped founder

#69

Post by hdjrudni »

apparent wrote: post #62

Curious to know how you think AI/vibecoding will affect the solopreneur path. On the one hand, it could make it accessible to many more people, who previously couldn't have built a business alone because they lacked coding skills. On the other hand, it could make it harder to get customers because they can also code their own customized tools, making it less necessary to buy software and some services. There's probab…

I just sold my first solo(ish) business, so I can speak to this a bit.

'ish' because I had a partner, but he was non-technical.

AI is a boon. I'm currently finding it works best in apps that have established patterns but aren't enormous. If you lay some groundwork (as I did, because the AI didn't exist when I started), it's quite lovely for migrating heaps of old code and just doing all those annoying little things which were never very high priority but needed fixing.

If you're just starting, AI will do what you ask but it just doesn't know how to structure things in a maintainable way. So I'd argue it's still not particularly great if you "lack coding skills" but it might trick you into thinking so.

My customers (B2B) were generally older folks. They never once asked about AI. I don't see it being a serious threat yet. People are still afraid of spreadsheets and other things I would consider quite basic, the fact that coding is more accessible than ever... I don't think that's really enticing many people. Some, sure, but why would they want to mess around with that if your product is fairly priced, does what they need, and you will maintain it for them?

It's the same as us software engineers when we're deciding whether to pay for a 'managed' platform (SQL, Cloud, k8s) etc or roll our own. Sure, we can do it ourselves and for cheaper, but it just doesn't always make sense due to time and maintenance.

Anyway, I'm excited for the doors this opens up for me. I was looking to hire someone a few years back the guys I brought on briefly were very mediocre and required a lot of ramp up time. And also hiring is really hard. I can get away with not hiring for much longer now because the AIs understand the project and are productive instantly. Going from zero to one employee is hard. After that I imagine it would get easier but I never made it that far.

Re: My eighth year as a bootstrapped founder

#70

Post by adrianmsmith »

xyst wrote: post #45

I do give this author praise for actually being transparent. > In total, I had $8.2k in profit on $16.3k in revenue. That was my total income for the year, which is obviously not enough to support a family, but my wife also works, and we have savings/investments. Self bootstrapping is not for the weak. At the height of the "indie grind set", you would get all of these "indie developers" raiding your social media feed…

> You end up working for shitty Fortune 500 company, work on useless/mindless shit, grind for 8 hrs, collect paycheck, eat, sleep, and repeat.

I used to think like this but what if it isn't the case? Maybe the market is making the right decisions after all? Maybe contributing a tiny amount to a successful business really is worth more to society than contributing a huge amount to a project with barely any customers, and that's why we get paid more working for large companies?

(Not suggesting OP's projects have barely any customers, I am more talking about my own forays into small business.)

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