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How to bootstrap a Startup with less than $10k. Meet Tipsandtrip.

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Re: How to bootstrap a Startup with less than $10k. Meet Tipsandtrip.

#3
Great example of what Guy Kawasaki (and many others to be fair) have been preaching for quite some time now. If you have a web-based idea there's really no excuse not to give it a shot. Related to this great post I also suggest 1) the StartupTools wiki (started by the awesome guys at Songkick) http://startuptools.pbwiki.com/ and 2) a post I read last night about how to hire a programmer to make your idea happen (http://sivers.org/how2hire).

I agree that this app is going to face fierce competition from well funded companies, but the accomplishment so far is great so congrats and best of luck!

Re: How to bootstrap a Startup with less than $10k. Meet Tipsandtrip.

#5

Great example of what Guy Kawasaki (and many others to be fair) have been preaching for quite some time now. If you have a web-based idea there's really no excuse not to give it a shot. Related to this great post I also suggest 1) the StartupTools wiki (started by the awesome guys at Songkick) http://startuptools.pbwiki.com/ and 2) a post I read last night about how to hire a programmer to make your idea happen ( htt…

Derek's post is one of the best to date about hiring programmers for short projects or outsourcing purposes. I still believe the best way to hire tech talent is to develop relationships as you'll have to trust the guy with your product and IP. Meet people at ruby-python-whatever user groups, find people you could comfortably live with and then try to work together on something.

Re: How to bootstrap a Startup with less than $10k. Meet Tipsandtrip.

#7
Great job of getting to MVP on the cheap! But it seems like a budget of $10K or so would only work for relatively simple apps. Doing something like Dropbox, 280Atlas, or FlightCaster (probably) would take significantly more money.

Any suggestions for how you'd proceed if you knew up front that you were facing a much longer development cycle?

Re: How to bootstrap a Startup with less than $10k. Meet Tipsandtrip.

#9
post #7

Great job of getting to MVP on the cheap! But it seems like a budget of $10K or so would only work for relatively simple apps. Doing something like Dropbox, 280Atlas, or FlightCaster (probably) would take significantly more money. Any suggestions for how you'd proceed if you knew up front that you were facing a much longer development cycle?

I'm not the founder, but IMHO such a project can not be developed on your spare time. I guess the process that Marco used can be replicated for simple freemium saas web apps and mobile applications.

280North and Dropbox are developing brand new and break-trough technology; they need a full team of experienced hackers, loads of money and a grand vision to realize that.

Of course the payoff is different..

Re: How to bootstrap a Startup with less than $10k. Meet Tipsandtrip.

#10
One of the things that always bothers me about the "How to build and launch a product with <$X" articles is the fact that they almost always talk about the costs of outsourcing design/development but almost never talk about the actual costs of living for founders. You know what I'd love to see? Articles about how a couple of scrappy founders cut their living costs to the bone, keep the majority of development in-house (assuming there's a tech founder), and outsource when needed. All of this while trying to get to launch/MVP before the founders' savings run out or need to concentrate on consulting for a while to pay the bills.
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