Avoid Vanity Metrics
We’ve been taught to believe that creators are only truly successful when they reach the top echelon of their platform, with millions of followers and likes. But this is a false notion that doesn’t…
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Bootstrapping
Paying the Bills While Building Your First Indie Business
There is a huge difference between building a product, a business, and a company. It’s a progression from one to the other, usually involving making significant changes in your life. Requirements…
Read the essay →Why You Shouldn’t Sell Your Business
I was talking to Damon Chen, who built Testimonial.to to $400.000 in ARR this week, and at one point, he mentioned that he isn’t looking into selling his business just yet. Maybe even never. That got…
Read the essay →When Should You Go from Side-Project to Full-Time?
Earlier this week, I talked to Michele Hansen of Geocodio on The Bootstrapped Founder Podcast. Michele co-founded the business with her husband and ran it as a side project for several years. Now…
Read the essay →Calm Business Misconceptions
In a world where everyone talks about disruption and hustling, the concept of a calm business can seem out of place or even naive. How can you compete with people who spend 80 hours a week working in…
Read the essay →Operating a Calm SaaS Business
For most founders, running a business is juggling hot coals while riding on a unicycle. It’s a stressful occupation, requiring constant vigilance, and offers barely any downtime to recover or relax.…
Read the essay →Pricing for Calm SaaS Businesses
One of the biggest points of confusion for any software business is pricing. It often takes months, if not years, to find a working way to charge your customers, and even then, you’ll need to adjust…
Read the essay →Product Development for Calm SaaS Businesses
Building a software product is both incredibly simple and excruciatingly complicated. You can build a new mind-blowingly helpful feature within hours, sometimes even minutes. But if you make the…
Read the essay →Solution Exploration for Calm SaaS Businesses
When you’re building an audience-centric and community-first business, you’re delaying finding your business idea and building your product for as long as possible. First, you look into your market…
Read the essay →Problem Discovery for Calm SaaS Businesses
If you want to build a business by selling a product that people genuinely need, your solution needs to solve a critical problem that your prospective customers are willing to pay for—a problem so…
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