Let's add another one to the series of entrepreneurial advice that just really irritates me. Today, I'm going after "improve 1% every day" — you know, that meme or mantra about making tiny little improvements every day because they supposedly compound into something massive over time. This one is infuriating, and I'll tell you why: … Continue reading The 1% Improvement Myth: Why Customer Conversations Beat Micro-Improvements Every Time
Author: Arvid Kahl
I write about bootstrapping, audience-building, and building in public at The Bootstrapped Founder.
Formerly FeedbackPanda (exit/2019)
Wrote Zero to Sold, The Embedded Entrepreneur, and made Find your Following.
Don’t Give Up… Your Assumptions
Let's dive into a piece of entrepreneurial advice that's highly irritating and very dangerous. Today I want to talk about the one that I get so much: "Don't give up. Don't ever give up. Force yourself, grind it out." This advice is very dangerous because it builds on the founder's capacity to struggle through challenges, … Continue reading Don’t Give Up… Your Assumptions
Many Heads, Not Many Hats: The Founder’s Identity Crisis
We often joke in entrepreneurship about founders having to wear many hats. But I think that metaphor is wrong. It's not about swapping hats. It's about growing entirely new heads. Not just the cover of the head — the head itself. A new brain that thinks different, speaks different, prioritizes different. And somehow, these heads … Continue reading Many Heads, Not Many Hats: The Founder’s Identity Crisis
The Case Against Vendor Lock-In: Why Easy Exit Means Better Retention
Sometimes software founders are a weird bunch. They've built their businesses on open source software and the contributions of people who've done a lot of work for free. They've benefited at great length from infrastructure and tooling built on open standards that facilitate free exchange of data and ideas. Yet when it comes to their … Continue reading The Case Against Vendor Lock-In: Why Easy Exit Means Better Retention
The Dead Internet Theory: Are We Building Machines That Only Talk to Other Machines?
I saw something on LinkedIn the other day that stopped me mid-scroll. It was a post—clearly AI-generated, you could tell from the cadence, the slightly off phrasing, the generic inspirational tone—and underneath it were dozens of comments. Enthusiastic comments. Supportive comments. And every single one of them was also AI-generated. Bots responding to bots. A … Continue reading The Dead Internet Theory: Are We Building Machines That Only Talk to Other Machines?
Marketing for Founders Who Hate Marketing
Many of the technical founders I know really don't like marketing. And it's not that they don't understand it. They know how important it is to run an effective business. But they don't really know how to do it right. They don't know how to leverage their technical skills to make marketing easier. And they … Continue reading Marketing for Founders Who Hate Marketing
Vibe Coding Won’t Kill SaaS
I really want to clean up a little bit when it comes to vibe coding and software as a service businesses, because I think there's a lot of confusion, a lot of hype, and a lot of complaints about the imminent demise of software as a service solutions. And I think it's time that we … Continue reading Vibe Coding Won’t Kill SaaS
How Your Data Model Shapes Your Product
My dear friend Jack Ellis is an unending source of founder inspiration. Not only has he recently started embracing AI agentic coding—something he's been holding back on for quite a bit. I think I've mentioned several times on this podcast alone how he and I seem to have quite opposing views on embracing this technology. … Continue reading How Your Data Model Shapes Your Product
AI Best Practices for Bootstrappers (That Actually Save You Money)
I recently realized something while building Podscan, my podcast database system that does a lot of background data extraction and analysis for my users. I've stumbled upon a couple of AI integration best practices that a lot of people might not be fully aware of. So today, I want to dive into the concepts I … Continue reading AI Best Practices for Bootstrappers (That Actually Save You Money)
I Never Really Loved Coding (And Only AI Made Me Realize It)
If you had asked me a couple of years ago if I loved coding and software development, I would have given you a resounding yes. No other job had ever been as enjoyable. No other activity had ever been as rewarding as building software, writing code, building systems that do what I want them to … Continue reading I Never Really Loved Coding (And Only AI Made Me Realize It)