I love his book "Authority" (not affiliated with the author, just got a lot of value from it). It states that one of the best moves to make a claim of expertise is writing a book, and contains a framework to write a book about something you know in ~3 months.
ConvertKit: How Nathan Barry Bootstrapped an Email Marketing Business
21–30 of 124 posts
Re: ConvertKit: How Nathan Barry Bootstrapped an Email Marketing Business
#22«Bootstrapped» with 55k$ and an already succesful business is not exactly boostrapping to me. This achievement is very impressive nonetheless. Growing a business even in a known environment is very hard, I know it first hand. It's especially interesting that he shares numbers, some I'd love to be able to do but money is particularly taboo in my field. Having your accountant and banker tell you that your numbers are a…
There will also be a bit of a taboo around talking about money, but this site (indiehackers) make it a point of talking about numbers. It's great information, and we should be trying to tear that taboo down.
Re: ConvertKit: How Nathan Barry Bootstrapped an Email Marketing Business
#23Earlier quoted context omitted.
> «Bootstrapped» with 55k$ and an already succesful business is not exactly boostrapping to me. That's exactly what it is. $55K is next to nothing for starting any kind of company, even if you quit your job and start as a freelancer (arguably the simplest kind of company) you'll need some capital to catch you if you have a dry spell. Business that get started on $0 are extremely rare.
It is ten times the median savings an american family has [1] Once again I am not diminishing his accomplishments. I started my own company with the same amount of money but never claimed to have "bootstrapped"it. We on HN live in a bubble that amazes me. I know first hand how much it costs to start a company and how hard it is to raise a 1M€ (I heard it is as hard as raising 10M$ in the valley, but never tried to ra…
Just a quick definition: http://www.investopedia.com/terms/b/bootstrap.asp
> Bootstrap is a situation in which an entrepreneur starts a company with little capital. An individual is said to be boot strapping when he or she attempts to found and build a company from personal finances or from the operating revenues of the new company.
Re: ConvertKit: How Nathan Barry Bootstrapped an Email Marketing Business
#24Wow, this is pretty astounding. Congrats Nathan.
Personally though, I don't get how this kind of marketing strategy works. I unsubscribe SO FAST from things that seem like mass emails that it just wouldn't work on me. I suppose I'm a huge exception to the general public? I'm even surprised when I look over at my girlfriend's gmail how many promotions she has (not in a separate tab).
Re: ConvertKit: How Nathan Barry Bootstrapped an Email Marketing Business
#25Earlier quoted context omitted.
It is ten times the median savings an american family has [1] Once again I am not diminishing his accomplishments. I started my own company with the same amount of money but never claimed to have "bootstrapped"it. We on HN live in a bubble that amazes me. I know first hand how much it costs to start a company and how hard it is to raise a 1M€ (I heard it is as hard as raising 10M$ in the valley, but never tried to ra…
> It is ten times the median savings an american family has The median American family is not trying to start a business. Also: if you can't manage your own funds and save please don't start a company, it will most likely not work and create misery for yourself and others. > Once again I am not diminishing his accomplishments. I started my own company with the same amount of money but never claimed to have "bootstrap…
Please bear with me, I am not trying to be a smart-ass like many seem to think, these are honest questions and I think that they also come from using a foreign language and coming from a different culture. I think you're right in calling that a problem of definition.
I agree with everything you said about money and investors management. I'd just add that "stupid money" probably isn't the good kind of money :-)
At least I know that I would have made a mistake accepting a large amount of that kind of money. Choosing a smaller amount coming from people I trusted more probably helped me a lot in my beginnings.
Now to my honest follow-up question: let's say a billionaire puts his 1B$ into a new venture, would you call that "boostrapping" as well?
Re: ConvertKit: How Nathan Barry Bootstrapped an Email Marketing Business
#26Earlier quoted context omitted.
> «Bootstrapped» with 55k$ and an already succesful business is not exactly boostrapping to me. That's exactly what it is. $55K is next to nothing for starting any kind of company, even if you quit your job and start as a freelancer (arguably the simplest kind of company) you'll need some capital to catch you if you have a dry spell. Business that get started on $0 are extremely rare.
It is ten times the median savings an american family has [1] Once again I am not diminishing his accomplishments. I started my own company with the same amount of money but never claimed to have "bootstrapped"it. We on HN live in a bubble that amazes me. I know first hand how much it costs to start a company and how hard it is to raise a 1M€ (I heard it is as hard as raising 10M$ in the valley, but never tried to ra…
You seem to misunderstand what the word "bootstrapped" means and I don't mean disrespect. Just because he put $55K of his own money does not make it any less bootstrapped. In fact, that is the definition of bootstrapped. He used his own money. He did it fulltime. You seem to have this notion that to bootstrap a business, you have to start from $0 or perhaps a very small amount.
DISCLAIMER: I bootstrapped a business with similar amount to his but nowhere near his level of success (embarassing but happy with what I have done so far in 2.5 years). We are a much smaller team though so yes, I have not spent too much on growth yet.
Re: ConvertKit: How Nathan Barry Bootstrapped an Email Marketing Business
#27Wow, this is pretty astounding. Congrats Nathan. Personally though, I don't get how this kind of marketing strategy works. I unsubscribe SO FAST from things that seem like mass emails that it just wouldn't work on me. I suppose I'm a huge exception to the general public? I'm even surprised when I look over at my girlfriend's gmail how many promotions she has (not in a separate tab).
Did you sign up for them? That's a big difference.
I have a ton of spam promotions that come when I join a service. I want the service, not the marketing!
But sometimes I want to follow what someone says, so I sign up. I read that stuff very attentively.
Services like convertkit tend to be used for the latter use cas: deliberate signups by interested people.
Re: ConvertKit: How Nathan Barry Bootstrapped an Email Marketing Business
#28«Bootstrapped» with 55k$ and an already succesful business is not exactly boostrapping to me. This achievement is very impressive nonetheless. Growing a business even in a known environment is very hard, I know it first hand. It's especially interesting that he shares numbers, some I'd love to be able to do but money is particularly taboo in my field. Having your accountant and banker tell you that your numbers are a…
The book sales created enough profits to bootstrap the email business.
To stretch the analogy it like the Power Supply bootstrapping the BIOS bootstraping the Operating System loader.
Re: ConvertKit: How Nathan Barry Bootstrapped an Email Marketing Business
#29Earlier quoted context omitted.
> It is ten times the median savings an american family has The median American family is not trying to start a business. Also: if you can't manage your own funds and save please don't start a company, it will most likely not work and create misery for yourself and others. > Once again I am not diminishing his accomplishments. I started my own company with the same amount of money but never claimed to have "bootstrap…
Please bear with me, I am not trying to be a smart-ass like many seem to think, these are honest questions and I think that they also come from using a foreign language and coming from a different culture. I think you're right in calling that a problem of definition. I agree with everything you said about money and investors management. I'd just add that "stupid money" probably isn't the good kind of money :-) At lea…
> let's say a billionaire puts his 1B$ into a new venture, would you call that "boostrapping" as well?
Depending on how he got the billion and whether or not there is outside investment involved, possibly yes, but the term is usually used for small amounts of money (say But truth be told very few people are in that luxurious position and those that are will almost never risk all (or even a substantial part) of their private capital on an entirely new venture. So that's highly hypothetical and would take the better part of several decades before you'd be in a position to execute that phase of your bootstrap. Elon Musk comes close but even he routinely uses outside capital and so is not really bootstrapping (though I'm not aware of anybody else that is so willing to put most or all of his own money into new ventures).
Bootstrapping comes from the imagery of pulling yourself up by your bootstraps.
You come into the world naked, without substantial inherited money, you become employed somewhere, you save some money, maybe do some side jobs, one day you jump ship and go full time into your own business and your savings provide your runway. That's the textbook definition of a bootstrapped business.
It tends to produce small to mid-sized companies ($100K to $10M) in revenues and anywhere from one to 50 or so employees. It's the most sure-fire path to any kind of independence for skilled workers and has a totally different risk profile from a business that takes on outside investment. (Larger risks of failure, potentially larger returns)
Re: ConvertKit: How Nathan Barry Bootstrapped an Email Marketing Business
#30«Bootstrapped» with 55k$ and an already succesful business is not exactly boostrapping to me. This achievement is very impressive nonetheless. Growing a business even in a known environment is very hard, I know it first hand. It's especially interesting that he shares numbers, some I'd love to be able to do but money is particularly taboo in my field. Having your accountant and banker tell you that your numbers are a…
are you kidding me? This guy is the definition of bootstrapped. How do you think he got that $55K? He was bootstrapping design courses - I've been following this guy for a few years.
I am absolutely not claiming he didn't work very hard to start his company or earning his money.
I am neither claiming he's bad or wrong or anything like that. Like jacquesm said it's probably more of a problem of definition between a dominant one and mine (in other words, looks like I am wrong). I have seen people starting companies with nothing, not even a roof on their heads. I started a company with the amazing comfort of 50k€. I am working hard to make my company a success, but I command the efforts of the guys I have seen eating noodles for years before their company finally took off. We are talking living way below the poverty line here, which is not what I lived when I started a company with 50k€