If you like that, then check out his Expect Everything to be Unexpected write-up. My favorite reality check. I posted it in its own thread:
Bootstrapping a SaaS Startup from Scratch
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Re: Bootstrapping a SaaS Startup from Scratch
#72Earlier quoted context omitted.
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!
I just submitted that one since it was my favorite. Especially the image metaphor at the beginning. :) I just saw this comment but extra references can't hurt ya.
Re: Bootstrapping a SaaS Startup from Scratch
#73Just curious, how many new visitors/sign-ups author received for his service using this content marketing? ;-) (Totally no offence.)
Re: Bootstrapping a SaaS Startup from Scratch
#74> 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.
"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."
This is a complete bullshit statement.
I've read every interview and Csallen has made on IH - it's a solid site with great interviews. I haven't read anywhere where he or any of the interviewees has claimed overnight success. Quite the opposite really. He's done a lot of hard work.
I don't think he's misrepresented anything and he built a great site. I wish him all the best!
Re: Bootstrapping a SaaS Startup from Scratch
#75I’ll get to spend all of my time writing code that I could finally be proud of. I’ll get to code things the right way — not the jank ass way these ass clowns do things. I’ll have a build server for continuous integration and have automated unit tests for everything and I’ll use that cool new framework I just saw the other day on HackerNews
You caught me.
Re: Bootstrapping a SaaS Startup from Scratch
#76"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…
I wonder where I can find such marketing partner and what's the expected compensation in term of equity and whatnot?
Re: Bootstrapping a SaaS Startup from Scratch
#77This is very similar to what Jonathan Blow is telling about programming games as Independent devs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JjDsP5n2kSM
Re: Bootstrapping a SaaS Startup from Scratch
#78The whole series is painfully accurate; glad to see someone telling it like it is. That aside, article is actually not as anti-establishment as the author makes out -- unless your source of prevailing wisdom is from click-baity 4 Hour Work Weak style articles. But I doubt any serious founder puts any stock in that stuff. There's a lot of valuable info to be learned from high quality sources like Steve Blank's article…
Can you send me some links to good authors or books, or whatever you recommend? @misterhtmlcss on Twitter
Please and thank you.
Re: Bootstrapping a SaaS Startup from Scratch
#79Hey everyone! Clifford here, the author of the article. Just thought I'd jump in and say thanks to everyone for all the awesome feedback - you've all seriously made my day (and probably even year for that matter)!
hey Clifford, inspiring work and great article!
Re: Bootstrapping a SaaS Startup from Scratch
#80"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…
If only I ever had found people that valued my work, I may have stayed in marketing. Now I'm a former strategist that is converting to programming.