SaaS Bootstrappers to SaaS Bootstrappers
Valuable Advices
For this week’s Wednesday issue, I wanted to share advice from bootstrapped SaaS founders, particularly aimed at early-stage startups.
Before reading please note that;
"There is not just one truth for everyone".
Each person's journey is unique, and this should not lead to demotivation.
For instance;
- I interviewed the GummySearch founder Fed and he has been bootstrapping 2 businesses while managing a full-time job. His total MRR is > $5K.
- On the other hand, Stefan Wirth is dedicating himself full-time to three bootstrapping projects.
You know yourself better than anyone else. Trust your instincts!
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Have connections in your target market and make sure your target market are people/businesses you want to work with.
Less about audience building. More about the fact that there are enough hard things about starting out. Intentionally choosing the right customer when you start makes one of those hard things a little easier. Pick a customer that has shown they are willing to pay for the product and understand the value proposition. Selling to a customer that needs to be educated is an uphill battle.
I’d suggest they think long and hard about whether the proposed idea sits in a category where bootstrapping is viable before they start the journey. I’m leading a SaaS startup building a Content Management System (CMS) so an enterprise grade mission critical solution. I’m not sure it is a category where a bootstrapped entrant could be successful.
So my argument is that the not all SaaS categories are ones where a boostrapped approach is viable. Alternatively, think about your route to market once the application is built. Many bootstrapped SaaS businesses are lead by tech founders who can code. Hence they rely on sweat equity to build out the feature set. However, when it then comes to building awareness you’ll need some sales and marketing. Most tech founders need support with these.
Get money quick lol
stupid but really that’s the #1
Can YOU get money quick on this project
the “you” is important, other ppl with the same idea might make money, but can YOU.
Find a vertical saas play in the sector you are building in and then you’ll have enough cash and customers to build a horizontal play 🙂
Probably the best advice I could give – find a way to focus on one thing that works and double down on it. It’s so easy to get ditsracted and launch a million initiatives hoping one will stick. Instead, exercise patience – if you spend time with a potential customer / user and really get to know them and what problem they are trying to solve, you will get so much knowledge about what should be your priorities.
It’s not really got anything to do with funding – if you think about it, bootstrapping doesn’t make anything like that easier or harder – it’s just a question on how you spend your time.
Talking to people is a great way to discover and validate problems. Writing code isn’t. Charging money is the ultimate form of validation. If a total stranger pays for your product, they must think you’re solving some problem for them.
My tip: bootstrapping means a top priority is finding ways not to spend money.
Look for grants, interns, and skill swaps. Make sure anything you pay for is essential to the bottom line.
1) go all in / full-time, don’t treat your business as a “side-project”, most side-projects stays that way.
2) Read “The mom Test” and interview as many people as possible in your target market.
3) Once you’re comfortable interviewing people, start selling
4) Distribution distribution distribution. Stop coding and adding features and start selling. Read the book “Traction” and apply. Ideally you should have thought about distribution beforehand. Having a great distribution strategy won’t necessarily make you successful, but the worst case scenario is that you’re going to fail fast.
My biggest advice is make sure you’re building something people actually are willing to pay for—BEFORE you spend too much time/money building it.
And don’t talk to family/friends… they will lie to you (and themselves) because they don’t want to hurt your feelings. Talk to strangers who seem like your target customer and get them to validate the idea. Ask them “would you buy this kind of product right now if it existed?” If they answer “no” thank them and move on. If they answer “yes” send them to a pre-order form where they can pay immediately to get early access at a discounted rate.
If they don’t end up paying right then and there—they were lying to you in an attempt to be nice. The only reliable validation of a product is when people ACTUALLY hand you money for it.
So one of my lessons learned is that in most cases (unless you’re going to Mars or something advanced like that), you should actually ignore investors. Focus your time on other things even if you actually want to have investors.
Build your product, speak to people, publish content, grow your audience… when you manage to do those things well, you won’t need to waste time trying to catch the attention of the investors having coffees and doing presentations.
They’ll be coming to you instead and you’ll be able to pick. It’s pretty common for founders in the early days to spend most of their time chasing investors and it’s some tough odds they’re up against. So building something first and sharing it publicly with the world opens you to the investors and opens their eyes to you.
For more advice like that, check our article.
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