What's your first product?
The 10k Bootstrap Challenge
11–20 of 82 posts
Re: The 10k Bootstrap Challenge
#12I 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.
Would love to hear about it! Do you blog?
Re: The 10k Bootstrap Challenge
#13I'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 doe…
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."
Re: The 10k Bootstrap Challenge
#14I'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...)!
Re: The 10k Bootstrap Challenge
#15I'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 doe…
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."
Spending £2.5k/month to live in London? In your experience, how accurate does that sound?
Re: The 10k Bootstrap Challenge
#16I 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.
Yes please! I've been trying to crack this particular nut for nigh on half a decade and still haven't made much headway, so it would be great to read about how you managed it.
Re: The 10k Bootstrap Challenge
#17Nice 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.
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.
Re: The 10k Bootstrap Challenge
#18I'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 doe…
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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Re: The 10k Bootstrap Challenge
#19Earlier quoted context omitted.
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."
Spending £2.5k/month to live in London? In your experience, how accurate does that sound?
Sounds about right, the London Living Wage (a suggested but not mandatory minimum wage for living in London) works out at just under £400 per week, so maybe £5k to live on, the remaining £5k for other expenses, etc.
Bear in mind it's not £2.5k/month for living expenses: it's £2.5k per month for all expenses: including building the product, etc etc.
Re: The 10k Bootstrap Challenge
#20I'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 doe…
Also, this means he needs about £2.5k/month to live.
Building a product based business that goes from making £0 to profiting £2.5k/month in 4 months is definitely an interesting challenge.
This is one of those stories that you wish you could skip to the last chapter so you can see how the book ends.