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ConvertKit: How Nathan Barry Bootstrapped an Email Marketing Business

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Re: ConvertKit: How Nathan Barry Bootstrapped an Email Marketing Business

#61

Post by zem »

mendelk wrote: post #57
zem wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

i was interested, so i clicked through to the page ... and there's no way to just buy the book! the best i can do is a $180 package with the book and a bunch of other stuff i do not want. so i went to see if it's on amazon, and there is a hardcover edition there, but no kindle edition, despite the packages on the author's site all including ebooks. not sure if it's a deliberate barrier-to-entry (as in, "if you're not…

It seems to be available on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Authority-Become-Following-Financial-...

there's no ebook on amazon, just the hardcover

Re: ConvertKit: How Nathan Barry Bootstrapped an Email Marketing Business

#62

Post by karambahh »

charlesdm wrote: post #54
karambahh wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Let's say 500€ daily rate (which is probably average in France with a very large standard deviation between Paris and deserted zones and factoring varying daily rates which are domain specific and experience related. No way a junior RoR freelance would make 500€ in Massif Central for instance. Likewise, 500 is low for an experienced data science freelance working in banking in Paris). 20 6 500=60k€ gross After social…

1. Assuming you keep it in a company, and actually are smart about releasing it when you need it, so you don't have to pay all the tax upfront.

"keep it in a company" at least in France won't really help you, as social contributions are collected every 3 months.

They are very good at hounding you to pay (and inversely keen on giving you back any overpaid amount ;-) ) so the incorporation does not really help here. You still owe them about half the gross revenue.

Re: ConvertKit: How Nathan Barry Bootstrapped an Email Marketing Business

#63

Post by zem »

manmal wrote: post #51
zem wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

i was interested, so i clicked through to the page ... and there's no way to just buy the book! the best i can do is a $180 package with the book and a bunch of other stuff i do not want. so i went to see if it's on amazon, and there is a hardcover edition there, but no kindle edition, despite the packages on the author's site all including ebooks. not sure if it's a deliberate barrier-to-entry (as in, "if you're not…

Just asking - you were curious, but now you are not because the book is not available in the form you like best?

i'm still curious; i just know i have a ton of new paper books sitting unread in my bookshelf because whenever i go to start a new one i do it on my kindle, so i've resolved to buy new books in ebook format only. i might still buy the paper book at some point, but it's lower-priority now.

(at a higher level, i'd like to write a book sometime, but it's competing with everything else i'd like to do sometime)

Re: ConvertKit: How Nathan Barry Bootstrapped an Email Marketing Business

#64

Post by pixelmonkey »

nathanbarry wrote: post #38
jacquesm wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Almost every company ever took two to three years to establish themselves. It's not all that incredible. That simply distinguishes every successful business ever (with a few lucky exceptions) from the ones that failed because their owners gave up too early. Two years is about a minimum that you should be prepared to dedicate to your newborn business if you are at all serious about it. I've written a bit about this he…

Love this. I think early on I had the same idea as the commenter above—that 2-3 years without results is the anomaly and means it's time to move on. Hopefully we can tell more stories to show that two years really should be your minimum commitment to just get traction.

Echo'ed. SaaS founder here. We had two years of slow growth before the product/market fit hit and now, years later, we're generating millions in revenue. #1 piece of advice I give to SaaS founders is to watch the talk, "The Long Slow SaaS Ramp of Death" by CEO of Constant Contact. All good cooking takes time!

Re: ConvertKit: How Nathan Barry Bootstrapped an Email Marketing Business

#65

Post by ashark »

scardine wrote: post #21

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. http://nathanbarry.com/authority/

Huh. "Buy my (assuredly terrible, amateurish, e-)book!" or "sign up for a free PDF copy of my book!" is one of the quickest ways to lower my opinion of a person (or website). Immediately digs a giant hole that they then have to climb out of to convince me they're not scumbag get-rich-quick scam artists or one of their hangers-on or imitators, assuming I don't just close the tab immediately on seeing that kind of thing.

Exception if there's a clear association with a real publisher and/or university, obviously.

Re: ConvertKit: How Nathan Barry Bootstrapped an Email Marketing Business

#66

Post by jacquesm »

karambahh wrote: post #55
jacquesm wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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…

Agree that is entirely hypothetical and Elon Musk is an interesting example. I know he is sometimes risking a very large proportion of his private capital on his new ventures, but I would never have called that "bootstrapping". (Once again, let me re-iterate that I have understood that "my" definition of boostrapping is not correct) To me, a billionaire going all out on a new project is in a better financial, busines…

If you don't get deals because you don't shower then that's a solved problem since Roman times and you should only blame yourself ;)

Other than that, yes, billionaires have some advantages that us ordinary mortals do not have. But to stick with Elon Musk, he wasn't born a billionaire (but he did go to a private school, but that's not unheard of in SA).

Once you're past $1M net worth or so the game gets easier, sometimes a lot easier. But $1M vs $1B doesn't make much of a difference if the business tanks and you've invested all of your capital in your own business.

And that's the main reason you don't see billionaires usually spending all their money on their own projects: they spread the risk around to avoid possibly losing it all.

Re: ConvertKit: How Nathan Barry Bootstrapped an Email Marketing Business

#67

Post by mendelk »

zem wrote: post #61
mendelk wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It seems to be available on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Authority-Become-Following-Financial-...

there's no ebook on amazon, just the hardcover

There's also this: https://gumroad.com/l/authority

Re: ConvertKit: How Nathan Barry Bootstrapped an Email Marketing Business

#68

Post by charlesdm »

karambahh wrote: post #62
charlesdm wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

1. Assuming you keep it in a company, and actually are smart about releasing it when you need it, so you don't have to pay all the tax upfront.

"keep it in a company" at least in France won't really help you, as social contributions are collected every 3 months. They are very good at hounding you to pay (and inversely keen on giving you back any overpaid amount ;-) ) so the incorporation does not really help here. You still owe them about half the gross revenue.

Sounds like a good reason not to bootstrap a company in France!

Re: ConvertKit: How Nathan Barry Bootstrapped an Email Marketing Business

#69

Post by icantdrive55 »

_vufv wrote: post #12

I'm aware that market is possibly the best kind of fitness evaluator for what kind of ideas the world needs - but every time I see smart people getting excited about making good money by doing what's been done so many times before makes me sad. These kind of stories should be a hopeful example for people who are not yet able to make a comfortable living, but as a community we shouldn't glorify them nearly as much as…

I don't like the glorification either. I miss the days where Tinkerers build things just to do it.

That said, I'm afraid we will never go back to those days.

Its just too cool to be filthy rich in too many circles.

I remember watching that movie about Facebook, and cringing. I could just feel the shift in attitudes.

That said, I'm glad founders are telling their stories of success. Get it out there. I haven't read this post yet, but plan to.

I remember a few months ago a guy had a domain website selling .io domains. He had a auction type site, and yes--"it's hard work tracking down .io domain owners to see if they want to sell." I have no reason to question the guy, but something just didn't add up. I did some further research, and it looks like he bought thousands of the .io domains early on, and that's the secret to his success, but what do I know.

On a different note, I had a acquaintance who was always chasing the big bucks.

He once told me, I will start dating again when I make my money. He spent so much time chasing the dream. I once invited him on a rafting trip. He said, "Just too busy with my business." I said, "We have females going?" He said, "No--I have to get these patents done." (Patents he got from my ideas, but I didn't care; they weren't great ideas.)

He always had some business in the works. He took investment money from guys who shouldn't be investing in risky investments. My final straw with the guy is when he took 10 grand from a Mechanic. This 10 grand was all this Mechanic's savings.

I haven't seen the guy in eight years. Last night I decided to look him up. I saw his obituary. I had a weird feeling he died about a month ago, but when I looked him up; he was on YouTube pitching another business. Last night I got a weird feeling again, and looked him up. He died a out a month ago, of complications of esophageal cancer.

I've been thinking about him all day.

When I look back, he was so consumed with making it big, he was no fun to be around. He couldn't talk, nor cared about anything besides his current business. I got it kinda, but felt he was missing out on life.

As men we are judged on how much money we make, and it needs to change. Society ferrits it out of us with the American required question, "What do you do?"

I'm so tired if that question. I am not what I do? We should just stop answering it?

I know it's not nice to talk about the dead, but he was cheap, deceitful, and so selfish. He was always concerned with getting the edge on everyone--including his "friends". He thought he was more clever than everyone, but he was an open book. He used to do this one trick.

After dinner, we would all pay our bill, and tip well. We would be at the door, and he would always go back to the table--"To make sure the tip was sufficient." He would go back and take back a few dollars. Yea--I caught him red handed one time, and wasn't suprised, but felt it was a petty act. I thought, just like ____. I'm glad he decided to skip the movie he was invited to.

Anyways, after all those big buck speeches. After all the delayed gratification. After hiding money because he was always on the end of a lawsuit. After never helping out anyone, without $ signs in the back of his head. After--oh I will eventually be very happy. After all those years chasing something big; he just died in Feburary.

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