The Bootstrapped Founder

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11/5/2021
13 : 14

Bootstrapped Founder #109: Building in Public: Taking Breaks

​ The Bootstrapped Founder Logo ​ ​ Dear founder, Let's get one thing straight right away: building in public is a performative act. It's not something that "just happens." It might
10/29/2021
13 : 14

Bootstrapped Founder #108: Building in Public: Balancing Building and Sharing

​ The Bootstrapped Founder Logo ​ ​ Dear founder, One of the major problems that Build in Public novices face is how to split their attention between creating their product and talking about their
10/22/2021
13 : 14

Bootstrapped Founder #107: Too Little, Too Much: Advice and How to Take It

​ The Bootstrapped Founder Logo ​ ​ Dear founder, "For even the very wise cannot see all ends." ― Gandalf, JRR Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring Whenever people talk about advice, they
10/15/2021
13 : 14

Bootstrapped Founder #106: Burnout

​ The Bootstrapped Founder Logo ​ ​ Dear founder, Every week, I see more people talking about burning out. It seems to be hitting anyone: from seasoned entrepreneurs with glowing track records to
10/8/2021
13 : 14

Bootstrapped Founder #105: What Founders Can Learn From the Facebook Outage

​ The Bootstrapped Founder Logo ​ ​ Dear founder, If Facebook can survive a 6-hour outage, so can you. Let's talk about unexpected downtime, which is often a direct consequence of dependency risk.
10/1/2021
13 : 14

Bootstrapped Founder #104: Copycats and Endurance

​ The Bootstrapped Founder Logo ​ ​ Dear founder, Almost every product that ranks #1 on ProductHunt eventually gets copied. Someone sees an interesting product getting traction and decides to build the
9/24/2021
13 : 14

Bootstrapped Founder #103: Audience-building is not Community-Building

​ The Bootstrapped Founder Logo ​ ​ Dear founder, I've seen people make the following observation more and more: "you shouldn't build an audience; you should build a community!" Now,
9/17/2021
13 : 14

Bootstrapped Founder #102: Pivoting in Public: Risks and Opportunities

​ The Bootstrapped Founder Logo ​ ​ Dear founder, Pivoting a business is scary. Changing what you offer is like switching lanes on a busy motorway: there are many things to consider, and steering
9/10/2021
13 : 14

Bootstrapped Founder #101: Why Reading Fiction Is Important for Entrepreneurs

​ The Bootstrapped Founder Logo ​ ​ Dear founder, I recently heard a saying: "leaders read, and readers lead." It made me reflect on my reading choices over the last few years and what I have
9/3/2021
13 : 14

Bootstrapped Founder #100 🥳: Consistency, Accountability, and Perseverance

​ The Bootstrapped Founder Logo ​ ​ Dear founder, Welcome to the 100th episode of the Bootstrapped Founder. Today, I will take the opportunity and talk about consistency, accountability, and
8/27/2021
13 : 14

Bootstrapped Founder 99: Of Tangibility and Lawnmowers

​ The Bootstrapped Founder Logo ​ ​ Dear founder, Ever since Danielle and I moved to Canada, I've been having a few new adventures. Getting to mow the lawn in our backyard was one of them. For a
8/20/2021
13 : 14

Bootstrapped Founder 98: The Creeping Nature of Stress for a SaaS Founder

​ The Bootstrapped Founder Logo ​ ​ Dear founder, I did an Ask-me-Anything on ProductHunt this week, and one question stood out to me. Jon Jackson asked me about the kind of life I led while running
8/6/2021
13 : 14

Bootstrapped Founder #96: Hyrum's Law

​ The Bootstrapped Founder Logo ​ ​ Dear founder, Removing features is surprisingly effective for a SaaS founder. But the surprise of how much less maintenance there is for the founder is only the
7/30/2021
13 : 14

Bootstrapped Founder #95: What Watching Gamers Fail for Days Can Teach You About Entrepreneurship

​ The Bootstrapped Founder Logo ​ ​ Dear founder, I've spent most of the last two weeks watching a group of professional gamers lose. For days straight. During those many hours observing them play,
7/23/2021
13 : 14

Bootstrapped Founder #94: How to Kill Your Business

​ The Bootstrapped Founder Logo ​ ​ Dear founder, Most advice comes in the shape of telling you what to do to be successful. It's instructional, it shows the happy path, and as a reader, I resonate
7/16/2021
13 : 14

Bootstrapped Founder #93: Conversations are at the Core of Engagement

​ The Bootstrapped Founder Logo ​ ​ Dear founder, Conversations are at the Core of Engagement Yelling into the void won't get you anywhere. This is particularly clear while you have zero followers,
7/10/2021
6 : 1

Bootstrapped Founder 92: The Myth of the Immediate Payoff

​ The Bootstrapped Founder Logo ​ ​ Dear founder, Wherever you look in the founder community, people talk about "how to hack SEO" or "how to hack Twitter Ads." I'm not a fan.
7/2/2021
13 : 14

Bootstrapped Founder #91: Say Thank You

​ The Bootstrapped Founder Logo ​ ​ Dear founder, I've had an amazing year so far. I launched Zero to Sold a year go to great success, and in May, I launched The Embedded Entrepreneur to even
6/25/2021
13 : 14

Bootstrapped Founder #90: Competition Isn't Always a Business

​ The Bootstrapped Founder Logo ​ ​ Dear founder, When founders do market research, they are well-advised to look for competition. But many entrepreneurs have a very limited understanding of what
6/18/2021
13 : 14

Bootstrapped Founder #89: Selfish vs. Selfless: Self-Promotion in Communities

​ The Bootstrapped Founder Logo ​ ​ Dear founder, I used to think all self-promotion was wrong — at all times. Being raised in Germany, I developed a severe case of tall poppy syndrome — the phenomenon