Most bootstrapped businesses offer monthly subscription plans. The revenue that is generated from your customers that way is incredibly reliable. If you know how many customers you have, you know exactly how much money will come in this month, next month, and the future, provided you keep your customers or replace the ones that quit … Continue reading Not All Subscriptions Are Equal: Offer Yearly Plans from the Start
Author: Arvid Kahl
Arvid Kahl is a software engineer turned entrepreneur. He co-founded and FeedbackPanda, an online teacher productivity SaaS company, with his partner Danielle Simpson. They sold the business for a life-changing amount of money in 2019, two years after founding the business.
Arvid writes on TheBootstrappedFounder.com because bootstrapping is a desirable, value- and wealth-generating way of running a company.
In over a decade of working in startup businesses of all sizes, Arvid has learned a thing or two about what works, what doesn't, and how to increase the chances of building a successful business.
Not All Subscribers Are Equal: How to Deal with Plans That No Longer Work
You may have started with subscription plans that turn out to be problematic. At FeedbackPanda, we had started with a $5/month plan. After a few months of offering that, we sunset that plan because we noticed that it attracted a kind of customer we did not want to serve: bargain shoppers. The customers on that … Continue reading Not All Subscribers Are Equal: How to Deal with Plans That No Longer Work
Profit-Sharing as Employee Compensation for Bootstrappers
We don't often talk about employee compensation in the bootstrapped space, as many businesses have few employees, and only start hiring when it's absolutely necessary. So making sure our employees are properly compensated for their work beyond their regular salary isn't one of the most prominent themes we have to think about. In a recent … Continue reading Profit-Sharing as Employee Compensation for Bootstrappers
Price Is Not Set In Stone: Strategies For Increasing Your Revenue
It’s important to understand that you can always change your prices. You own your business, and you can change everything about it. Most payment providers allow you to have an infinite number of plans, and you can add (and remove) as many as you like at any given time. There is no reason to stick … Continue reading Price Is Not Set In Stone: Strategies For Increasing Your Revenue
You May Be Barking Up the Wrong Tree: Re-Evaluating Your Audience
While most of your customers will likely enjoy your product, some won’t. Some customers will be complaining a lot, asking for features that you don’t intend to ever build, or are generally very hard to please. When you notice that something is wrong, you can usually trace it back to one or more of your … Continue reading You May Be Barking Up the Wrong Tree: Re-Evaluating Your Audience
Build for Value, Not for Applause: Product Management Under Heavy Constraints
A bootstrapped founder will have very little time to devote to building things that don't matter. Everything you do in your bootstrapped business should have a meaningful impact on moving your company towards a state of stability and growth. Bells and whistles are the least of your concerns when you're trying to get to profitability. … Continue reading Build for Value, Not for Applause: Product Management Under Heavy Constraints
First Things First: Feature Prioritization Frameworks
A business is an ever-evolving thing. Luckily, you will be at the steering wheel as the founder of your business. You will adjust your processes as needed along the way, and you improve your product over time. Often, inspiration strikes at the most random times. You read an article on an industry blog, or you … Continue reading First Things First: Feature Prioritization Frameworks
Our MicroConf Europe 2019 Talk “Optimizing Your Way to a Dream Exit”
Danielle and I had the wonderful opportunity to give a Attendee Talk at MicroConf Europe 2019 in Dubrovnik. We spoke about the many optimizations and processes that we implemented during our time growing FeedbackPanda to $55.000 MRR, and how those affected the sale of the business. A recording of this talk is now available in … Continue reading Our MicroConf Europe 2019 Talk “Optimizing Your Way to a Dream Exit”
Forget Goals, Create Systems: Foundations of a Sustainable Bootstrapped Business
When you're starting with your business idea, you will be looking at how successful businesses have accomplished their success. You will see a lot of different sizes, markets, and business models. But they all have one thing in common: they've built a system that works. Their long-term and short-term goals may have changed through the … Continue reading Forget Goals, Create Systems: Foundations of a Sustainable Bootstrapped Business
The Boring Truth of Successful Products That Survive
Most products that you will see staying on the market have something in common: they do one thing very well. And not much else. Weber sells grills that are fantastic at grilling. The furthest they strayed into new territory so far has been by adding an app-readable thermometer. Still, that gimmick and anything else about … Continue reading The Boring Truth of Successful Products That Survive
