The final of the women's 800m race was a spectacular event at the Tokyo Olympics this year. In the last few seconds of the race, Athing Mu, a US athlete, was more than five meters ahead of the runner chasing her over the finish line. Mu was incredibly fast and dominated the field from the … Continue reading Why Competition is Good For Business
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.
Hyrum’s Law
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 first one of many — and maybe the only one you can anticipate. At FeedbackPanda, we tried to quietly remove a feature that we had implemented to make transitioning into … Continue reading Hyrum’s Law
What Watching Gamers Fail for Days Can Teach You About Entrepreneurship
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, I found lessons that every entrepreneur should take to heart. I'll share them with you today. I'm a big fan of the online game World of Warcraft. I've played very … Continue reading What Watching Gamers Fail for Days Can Teach You About Entrepreneurship
How to Kill Your Business
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 with that a lot. After all, I want to see how it's done right. I want to learn from the best. But that's not the only way … Continue reading How to Kill Your Business
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, but it remains true even when you have an audience. Talking about something that people don't expect or want to talk about is just like speaking to them in a language they don't understand: it's a waste of … Continue reading Conversations are at the Core of Engagement
The Myth of the Immediate Payoff
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. Hacks are focused on instant gratification. Those looking for hacks play finite games; they expect to "win" at something incredibly complex and opaque that it's very hard to make out who … Continue reading The Myth of the Immediate Payoff
Say Thank You
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 greater success. I can't adequately express how incredibly grateful I am for the support and encouragement I have received. Whenever I see someone talking about my work, … Continue reading Say Thank You
Competition Isn’t Always a Business
When founders do market research, they are well-advised to look for competition. But many entrepreneurs have a very limited understanding of what "competition" means and therefore overlook many interesting — and often critical — competitors in their chosen markets. It usually goes like this: a founder spots a niche in the market they're interested in. … Continue reading Competition Isn’t Always a Business
Selfish vs. Selfless: Self-Promotion in Communities
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 of people holding back so they wouldn't stand out from the rest. It's an eclectic mix of jealousy and self-limitation, and I have realized just how destructive … Continue reading Selfish vs. Selfless: Self-Promotion in Communities
Properties of an Interesting Problem
Let's look at what makes a problem interesting enough to note it down in our search for the perfect business opportunity. Different people will define the word "problem" differently. I think that a "problem" is anything that stands in the way of people accomplishing their goals. If they feel some sort of pain you can … Continue reading Properties of an Interesting Problem
