Hi! I’m Arvid. I empower founders & creators who want to build calm & sustainable businesses in public.
The Bootstrapped Founder is the home of my Twitter course Find your Following, the books Zero to Sold and The Embedded Entrepreneur, where I share how to build a business, an audience, and a path to financial independence.
You will also find the Bootstrapper’s Bookshelf, the Bootstrapped Founder Podcast, the YouTube channel, and the Bootstrapped Founder Newsletter here.
Here are my most recent blog posts:
Fundamentals of a Calm Business
Reading Time: 7 minutes If you’re not building a Calm business today, you’re making your entrepreneurial journey harder than it needs to be. Calm companies focus on profitability and sustainability. They succeed by growing slowly and deliberately, calmly adapting to changes in the market without the need for a soul-sucking “grind to total market domination.” I’m not a fan … Continue reading Fundamentals of a Calm Business
How NOT to Use Twitter DMs
Reading Time: 6 minutes Too many founders use Twitter like they’d use Google. They find someone they’d like to talk to, send them a Direct Message, and never receive a reply. The culprit? Usually, the message itself. When it comes to DMs that do the job, you want them to be warm, low-effort, and short. Yet, in reality, most … Continue reading How NOT to Use Twitter DMs
Don’t blame the market; blame your marketing
Reading Time: 5 minutes Many unsuccessful founders believe their business failed because of a “market problem.” They think it’s “the market” that wasn’t ready for their product or that “the market” made the wrong choice. This line of thinking is a dangerous —and most of the time completely false— perspective to take. It’s not a market problem. It’s a … Continue reading Don’t blame the market; blame your marketing
On Saying No
Reading Time: 6 minutes If you try to build an audience on social media, you’ll quickly learn that attention is an incredibly scarce resource. People are busy. They won’t even look your way unless you can offer them something unique. And yet, we founders have a hard time focusing our own attention. Why do we keep reading through each … Continue reading On Saying No
The Risks and Illusions of the “Post-Exit Retirement”
Reading Time: 5 minutes Building and selling a business is a blessing and a curse. While it catapults founders into a very different financial situation, it also shifts what gives them purpose and passion and allows for lasting impact. Chasing these elusive virtues causes many entrepreneurs who thought they could retire to get back to work — or it … Continue reading The Risks and Illusions of the “Post-Exit Retirement”
Permission to Follow Up: The Difference Between Owned & Borrowed Audiences
Reading Time: 5 minutes Email newsletters aren’t new — they might be one of the oldest forms of digital mass communication. I certainly remember signing up for them in the late 90s, when social media didn’t exist. But they’re back with a vengeance because they allow for something that got lost in the age of social media: direct and … Continue reading Permission to Follow Up: The Difference Between Owned & Borrowed Audiences
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