Hey bootstrappers,

In nature, animals, especially those lower down on the food chain, often give birth to large litters to better their chances of survival. (Nature is metal.)

In entrepreneurship, starting multiple businesses can also help you beat the odds of failure, which some report to be as high as 90 percent. 

How might that look?

1. Build several small products to test the market.
2. Scale them as far as possible then sell on Acquire.com.
3. Apply lessons learned to new projects.
4. Build, sell, repeat to that life-changing acquisition.

One of this week’s founders, for example, built six failed startups before landing on his multimillion-dollar idea.

Food for thought.  

Chris Roper

Managing Editor

Partners in Life and Business: How This Couple Built a Successful Tech Startup 

Up to 65 percent of cofounders fall out, but not Marie Martens and Filip Minev, partners in life and business, who built Tally after a string of successful and failed startups.

By the time Marie and Filip were ready to build a business together, Filip had already built and sold a crypto tracker to the investment company, eToro. But past success doesn’t guarantee that history will repeat itself. The couple’s second business, and first collab, failed when Covid hit.

One brainstorming session later, Marie and Filip decided to build a form-builder that was both fun to use and affordable to young startups. They were lucky to have savings to rely on while growing a community through social outreach, referrals, and a freemium subscription.

“Tally is a viral product because you make forms to share with other people. And because the tool is free, we added a Made by Tally badge on each form. Our product is our biggest marketing channel, helping us reach and convert new customers.”

Wins 👍

1. Distinguishing the product from big-name competitors. Tally’s refreshingly simple interface and unlimited form-building for free instantly set it apart in a crowded market.

2. Building in public. The cofounders cold-messaged hundreds of people and wrote about their experiences on social media to build a community of testers and brand advocates.

3. Declining investment offers. Marie and Filip enjoy the lifestyle they’ve built for themselves and believe investor funding would’ve added too much pressure to scale.

Challenges 🤔

1. Living and working together. The couple discussed Tally day and night so found it hard to switch off. The arrival of their first child forced a better work-life balance.

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Students Are Notoriously Hard Sells – Unless You Give Them Useful Tools at Unbeatable Prices

While student Boulama Kandine stacked entrepreneurial wins, his peers suffered writer’s block. Could he modify a product he’d already built to inspire students to write better essays?

Boulama earned his engineering stripes coding Minecraft mods. Then at sixteen, he built websites for clients through his development agency, Otimbi Labs. A client would later ask him to build a product that automated email record-keeping, which evolved into an AI writing tool.

Meanwhile, Boulama saw how many of his fellow students struggled to submit their weekly writing papers, grappling with various apps for plagiarism checking and more. His email summarization tool has been so successful with businesses – could he adapt it for students?

“Companies that understand the power of student marketing do it in two ways: One, by providing such insane value that the cost-to-value calculation isn’t necessary. Two, by providing discounts that get them hooked so they’ll use their products by default after graduating.”

Wins 👍

1. Social media marketing. Boulama dropped into students’ favorite hangouts on Reddit, TikTok, and college forums, creating a buzz around Tinq that drove signups.

2. Offering one-off credits to use the application. Churning students said they only needed to use the app once. Boulama monetized them with one-off payments.

3. Whitelabeling his paraphrasing API. Tinq has piggybacked on the success of online tools highly ranked on SERPs by whitelabeling its technology.

Challenges 🤔

1. Monetizing students. Boulama had to test different pricing models to ensure he would earn a profit from students while still being affordable.

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Why It Took Six Failed Businesses for This Founder to Make His First Million

Seventh time’s the charm? At least that’s what Pat Ahern believes gave him the courage to split an already successful business into two separate entities. A risky move for any founder.

Pat spent much of his second year of high school raiding dumpsters for used textbooks that he’d later sell on Amazon. After a batch of poor reviews (dog-eared books can’t have been popular) put him out of business, he tried to set up a social media platform. It also failed.

College beckoned, and with it, another three failed startup ventures. Not one for giving up, Pat cofounded a marketing agency that he later quit when it became clear it wouldn’t pay his bills. But the urge to build returned, and this time, he was convinced his plan would work.

“Chipotle has thousands of restaurants across the US that provide the same quality of food no matter where they are or who makes that burrito. Our theory was, if we can produce consistently great results, we can build a phenomenal business that helps every client grow exponentially.”

Wins 👍

1. Meeting the right cofounder. Pat had worked with cofounders before, but Dave Freund was the first to share his goals and complement his skill set.

2. Whitelabeling services to a larger agency. The agency became a mentor to Pat and Dave, advising how to operate a grow an agency efficiently.

3. Joining Slack communities. Answering people’s marketing questions demonstrated Pat’s expertise and won new clients for his businesses.

Challenges 🤔

1. Turning down work. Until Pat split the company, he and his cofounder had no choice but to turn down work outside of their standard service offering, which was demotivating.

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