I'm an avid Twitch viewer. While writing, coding, or just researching, I quite often watch someone playing video games. I could play those games myself, but I wanted to spend time on my projects without dedicating my full attention to a game. Twitch allows me to participate in the gaming experience without losing my focus. … Continue reading What founders can learn from Twitch streamers about building in public
Author: Arvid Kahl
Arvid Kahl is a software engineer turned entrepreneur. He co-founded and ran 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.
He has written the best-selling book Zero to Sold and is currently writing The Embedded Entrepreneur.
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.
The Emotional Journey of a Bootstrapped Founder: Fear of Disappointing Your Customers
Over the last few weeks, you will have noticed that I have started talking more about the emotional impact of entrepreneurship. I talked about impostor syndrome, people cloning businesses, the loss and grief of selling a business, all topics that most people keep quiet about. I remember keeping quiet about this myself a few years … Continue reading The Emotional Journey of a Bootstrapped Founder: Fear of Disappointing Your Customers
When Your Business Gets Cloned
This week, I ran into a Tweet by Mike Rubini, who had found that not only his product Groouply had been cloned, but the person behind copying his Facebook group monitoring tool had put up a comparison page, trashing Mike's product. That made Mike wonder if he should stop building in public. It's an alluring … Continue reading When Your Business Gets Cloned
Jargon and Community
I've been thinking a lot about the understood meaning of terms in quickly evolving industries this week. I even chose to make a major pivot because of this in renaming the book I am currently writing. I'll get to this in a minute. But first, let's take a little detour into the world of... Opera. … Continue reading Jargon and Community
The Grief and Loss of Selling a Business
This week, my partner, co-founder, and love-of-my-life Danielle Simpson appeared on the Software Social Podcast hosted by Michele Hansen and Colleen Schnettler. In a remarkably open and honest conversation, Danielle touched upon many different topics regarding our journey with FeedbackPanda, but one thing stood out to me: her story of how she dealt with the … Continue reading The Grief and Loss of Selling a Business
The Two Goals of Audience-Building
Let's talk about audience-building today. Last week, I talked about how I use Twitter, and that was received reasonably well. That's why I want to talk about why audience-building is such a good idea. I'm aware that many of you already know that I'm working on a book called Audience First. That means I'm currently … Continue reading The Two Goals of Audience-Building
How I Use Twitter
Today, I want to talk about how I leverage Twitter to build an audience, build relationships, and find opportunities. I'll talk about my overall strategy and the little day-to-day things I do, and which tools I use. I started using Twitter regularly to engage with other founders and talk about my work in October 2019, … Continue reading How I Use Twitter
On Offering Public APIs for Your SaaS
Many bootstrapped SaaS founders see other successful SaaS businesses and think, "Hey, they offer an API, I should do the same" — But should they really? I believe that there are two answers to this question, and they're determined by which phase of your business you're in. For companies in the Survival Stage, adding public … Continue reading On Offering Public APIs for Your SaaS
Motivation Will Eventually Go Away: Build Accountability Systems Instead
Motivation is a powerful initial force. It provides momentum. When we start projects, we need that momentum to push us through the initial collision with reality when we learn of all the complex choices we have to make to get things off the ground. It's the motivation to learn, to discover, and to create that … Continue reading Motivation Will Eventually Go Away: Build Accountability Systems Instead
Audience-Building through Podcasting
Today I want to share my learnings from a year of intense podcasting. I've been publishing new episodes of the Bootstrapped Founder podcast for almost a year now, just shy of twelve months. At the same time, I have been a guest on more than twenty podcasts. Both hosting and appearing on podcasts has changed … Continue reading Audience-Building through Podcasting
