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Bootstrapping a SaaS Startup from Scratch

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Re: Bootstrapping a SaaS Startup from Scratch 

#21

Post by danieltillett »

cliff0rd wrote: post #20
danieltillett wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nice work Clifford. Any reason you used a fictional SAAS example rather than the real Tamboo story?

When I started out writing the guide, I actually didn't have any references to Tamboo - it was just me writing about approach using some fictional examples. I posted Part 1 on Barnacles ( https://barnacl.es ) in October (I believe) and a lot of people gave me good feedback but one of the things they said was that it was really hard to find a link to my site and that I was nuts for not talking more about my direct exp…

OK this makes sense. I would really encourage you to do another write up of the full Tamboo story especially all the nasty warty bits that all real business stories have.

Re: Bootstrapping a SaaS Startup from Scratch 

#22

Post by cliff0rd »

danieltillett wrote: post #21
cliff0rd wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When I started out writing the guide, I actually didn't have any references to Tamboo - it was just me writing about approach using some fictional examples. I posted Part 1 on Barnacles ( https://barnacl.es ) in October (I believe) and a lot of people gave me good feedback but one of the things they said was that it was really hard to find a link to my site and that I was nuts for not talking more about my direct exp…

OK this makes sense. I would really encourage you to do another write up of the full Tamboo story especially all the nasty warty bits that all real business stories have.

Oh, and there are plenty of those! I've been trying to incorporate experiences as I go, and there's a good amount of nasty experiences I make mention of in this post: https://medium.com/@cliffordoravec/expect-everything-to-be-u...

But I will definitely look to put something together that incorporates more of what you're talking about - thanks for the input!

Re: Bootstrapping a SaaS Startup from Scratch 

#23

Post by intrasight »

I especially appreciated this:

"Think of building your SaaS app like a game of chess. You want to win the game with the least number of moves possible, but you have to think about how each of your moves potentially affects the overall game (and your chances of winning)."

The analogy is even better with a one-person SaaS startup because you really can only make one move at a time (you can only do one thing at a time). The value in this series of articles is to get you to think strategically about those early moves and not to waste too much time thinking about the moves in the future that you currently have no visibility into.

Re: Bootstrapping a SaaS Startup from Scratch 

#25

Post by realstuff »

csallen wrote: post #16

> Some of it may seem simple. Don’t be fooled. There is complexity in simple things. I've interviewed 80+ founders (mostly bootstrapped) for https://IndieHackers.com , and people sometimes come away from reading an interview thinking, "Well that person had it easy." We tend to underestimate the importance of the things we don't -- the part of the iceberg that's beneath the surface. In truth, the amount of work people…

How ironic of you showing in the particular post. He's precisely referring to people like you and your illegitimate interviewees at IndieHackers who all claim to be overnight successes.

Re: Bootstrapping a SaaS Startup from Scratch 

#26

Post by rsp1984 »

Right in the beginning:

The stone cold truth of the matter is that most of the people pandering this advice are only doing so to build up their “guru” status ... They do this so that look up to them. They do this so that you talk about them (getting you to help them grow their audience). They do this so that you’ll feel like you’re somehow less than they are ... I promise I’m not going to do any of that to you.

Really? Just a couple of paragraphs down:

First off, you should know that your idea probably sucks ... It doesn’t matter what you think ... we’re not going to refer to your precious game-changing idea as “your idea” anymore. We’re going to refer to it as “your guess”.

Ok, so first he's telling you that he's the honest guy who would never bullshit you and really would never try to make you feel less than him. Then goes on to do exactly that.

To me that's an immediate red flag. I don't know the author personally and can't tell what his intentions were when he wrote his essay but I've had the past displeasure of dealing with sociopaths who showed the same kind of behavior.

(Edited for less drastic choice of words)

Re: Bootstrapping a SaaS Startup from Scratch 

#27

Post by codegeek »

"Instead of coding, the vast majority of your time is going to be spent marketing, selling, optimizing funnels, and providing support. Those are the things that get (and keep) customers. Those are the things that you do when you run a business. Not writing code."

This is the best part of this article for me. A lot of solo bootstrappers don't get it. They struggle. But the fact is that you have to market and sell. Talk to customers and do the shittiest but most important thing: Support. No matter how much automation you create, clients will send you emails and say "I cannot do anything. please help" before even explaining what exactly is broken.

There is a lot of dirty work you have to do every day as a bootstrapper and you get no relief from it. You can surely add team members or "outsource" some of it, but you can never outsource talking to clients (both pre sales and post).

Re: Bootstrapping a SaaS Startup from Scratch 

#28

Post by TheBiv »

rsp1984 wrote: post #26

Right in the beginning: The stone cold truth of the matter is that most of the people pandering this advice are only doing so to build up their “guru” status ... They do this so that look up to them. They do this so that you talk about them (getting you to help them grow their audience). They do this so that you’ll feel like you’re somehow less than they are ... I promise I’m not going to do any of that to you. Reall…

Your response logically follows, however it is my belief that the inconsistency you point out is too nit-picky. What I mean is that HN generally follows the Principle of Charity [1] where we should seek to understand the authors strongest possible conclusion rather than tear down an entire article simple due to a relatively minor inconsistency.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Principle_of_charity

Re: Bootstrapping a SaaS Startup from Scratch 

#29

Post by cyberferret »

codegeek wrote: post #27

"Instead of coding, the vast majority of your time is going to be spent marketing, selling, optimizing funnels, and providing support. Those are the things that get (and keep) customers. Those are the things that you do when you run a business. Not writing code." This is the best part of this article for me. A lot of solo bootstrappers don't get it. They struggle. But the fact is that you have to market and sell. Tal…

Agreed. When I started writing my SaaS app, I thought the 25000+ lines of code and 80+ database tables would be the hardest work, and that the marketing would be a breeze afterwards.

How wrong I was! The marketing aspect proved to be just as difficult and brain taxing as the coding. In fact, I found it almost impossible to move ahead until I decided to bring on board a co-founder with a marketing background (after a full year of struggling). It was only then that I realised that marketing and sales is a whole art form not unlike programming. Both disciplines need focus and constant energy to bring about results.

Re: Bootstrapping a SaaS Startup from Scratch 

#30

Post by zinssmeister »

So much truth in this series. A lot of what he talks about I can back up with my own experience building and running SaaS apps. "I want you to understand first hand that building a SaaS startup is mostly a marketing optimization problem — not something that you can just code your way out of."

Part 2 & 3 can be found here

https://medium.com/@cliffordoravec/the-no-bs-approach-to-bui...

https://hackernoon.com/make-it-rain-building-an-mvp-for-fun-...

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