You will find all previous episodes of the Bootstrapped Founder Newsletter with a short list of the topics and links discussed in each episode. If you’re interested in subscribing, please scroll down or visit the Newsletter page.
Bootstrapped Founder #48: “Audience-First” Is Not Just “Building an Audience” — October 9th, 2020
- I talk about the misunderstanding of “audience-first” and why building a following is not enough.
Bootstrapped Founder #47: The Problem With Audience-First — October 2nd, 2020
- I talk about the wildly diverging definitions of “audience”, my own attempt at defining it, and why audience-first matters.
Episode 42: The Bootstrapped Founder – August 28th 2020
- ✍️ How I Self-Published Zero to Sold, a Bestselling Book on Bootstrapping
- Links to Preetam Nath’s Shopify post, Reid Hoffman’s Myths, Failory’s First-Hand Lessons
- Stories of Pete Codes and Pieter Levels, Pierre de Wulf’s ScrapingBee, Elad Shaham’s SyncThemCalendars
Episode 41: The Bootstrapped Founder – August 21st 2020
- ✍️ Positioning Is Where It’s At
- Links to James Skylors please not to take VC, Paul Powers’ bike shop, Justin Jackson’s insight on trials, Harry Dry’s conversational copy
- Stories of HaKr’s Visalist, Zeno Rocha’s Dracula Pro
Episode 40: The Bootstrapped Founder – August 14th 2020
- ✍️ You Want a Tribe
- Links to Wired’s article on Tech Experts, Preetam Nath’s firing customers, Bram Karsteins article on knowing to code being a trap
- Stories of Samuel Briskar’s Bannerium, Anne-Laure Le Cunff’s Ness Labs, Marko Saric’s Plausible Analytics
Episode 39: The Bootstrapped Founder – August 7th 2020
- ✍️ When You Reach Your Limits: Growing a Company Beyond the Founder(s)
- Links to Stay SaaSy’s Rogue Waves, Makerpad workshop with Tom Osman, Ian Bicking’s thoughts on Voice Interfaces, Laws Of UX
- Stories of Adam Wathan’s Tailwind CSS, Dyan Wilson’s Failures, Ben Birnbaum’s Cortado, Steve McLeod’s Price Increases
Episode 38: The Bootstrapped Founder – July 31st 2020
- ✍️ The Power of Omission: Killing Features for Fun and Profit
- Links to Double Entry Accounting for Devs, Ryan Ashcroft’s Journey, Nabeel Qureshi’s understanding article
- Stories of Marco Saric’s Plausible Analytics, Sumit Kunar’s Tresor One, Stefan Vetter’s Friendly
Episode 37: The Bootstrapped Founder – July 24th 2020
- ✍️ Made to Stick: Shaping an Extensible Product
- Links to Carol Chen’s founder article, the 1918 pandemic and dixie cups
- Stories of Steven Hylands’ Lowdown, Kevin Conti’s side project, Jon Yongfooks Bannerbear.
Episode 36: The Bootstrapped Founder – July 17th 2020
- ✍️ Standard Operating Procedures: Managing Your Future Self
- No links or celebrations this week
Episode 35: The Bootstrapped Founder – July 10th 2020
- ✍️ Roadmaps and You: Building a Future Together
- 📗 Zero to Sold
- Links to swyx’s Coding Career Handbook, explosingtopics Indie Hackers trends, Uicard
- Stories of Bart Boch’s Almost Cake, Marko Saric’s Plausible Analytics, Preetam Nath’s Superlemon
Episode 34: The Bootstrapped Founder – July 3rd 2020
- ✍️ Customer Retention: How to Keep Them Around
- 📗 Zero to Sold
- Links to Landon Benett’s journey to $250,000 ARR, Courtland Allen’s perspective on funding for bootstrappers, 65 free books, Hugo Zaps Finishing a Side Project.
- Stories of Andy Cloke’s Exit, nscode’s Exit, and my book launch
Episode 33: The Bootstrapped Founder – June 26th 2020
- ✍️ Customer Exploration: Seeing Through Your Customer’s Eyes
- Links to Indie.vc, Invest Like The Best with John Collison, Support Examples.
- Stories of Bashir Aminu of Coinprofile, Caleb Porzio, and Nathan Latka’s Magazine.
Episode 32: The Bootstrapped Founder – June 19th 2020
- ✍️ Being Small Is a Benefit: How to Leverage Being a Bootstrapper
- Links to Dominik Monn’s Rant about Clones, Tyler Tringas’ modern online MBA curriculum, Pete Codes’ Imposter Syndrome Ebook.
- Stories of Kyle Gawley’s Gravity, Josh Howarth’s Exploding Topics
Episode 31: The Bootstrapped Founder – June 12th 2020
- ✍️ Spreading the Word: How to Do Marketing on a Shoestring Budget
- Links to Rosie Sherry’s IH Community Twitter Strategy, Godard Abel’s SaaS Trust Talk, Steve Long on Failory, Akimbo by Seth Godin
- Stories of Musharof Chowdhury from UIdeck, Pete Codes of NoCSDegree
Episode 30: The Bootstrapped Founder – June 5th 2020
- ✍️ Seller Beware: Pricing Models That Can Break Your Business
- Links to Stetson Blake’s Article on SaaS Founding, Startup Pitch Decks, Tools for Better Thinking, James Ivings post about Google Unsubscribe Buttons
- Stories of Anne Laure Le Cunff, Brett Williams, Mike from RegiRank
Episode 29: The Bootstrapped Founder – May 29th 2020
- ✍️ Not All Subscriptions Are Equal: Offer Yearly Plans from the Start
- Links to David Baer’s List of Founders, GI Ethical Standards, Oaths, Pledges, and Manifestos, Amie Chen’s Spider Pro
- Stories of Jack Ellis, Jamal Mashal
Episode 28: The Bootstrapped Founder – May 22nd 2020
- ✍️ Profit-Sharing as Employee Compensation for Bootstrappers
- ✍️ Not All Subscribers Are Equal: How to Deal with Plans That No Longer Work
- Links to Rob Fitzpatrick’s Customer Development Remotely Videos, EmpireFlippers’ SaaS Pricing Models / Valuation article, Dan benoni’s & Louis-xavier Lavallee’s Psychology of Design
- Stories of Bannerbear, NoCodery, Matt Giovanisci
Episode 27: The Bootstrapped Founder – May 15th 2020
- ✍️ Price Is Not Set In Stone: Strategies For Increasing Your Revenue
- Links to Channing Allen’s NoCoders Making Money, Kameron Tanseli’s Craigslist/Zapier article, John Saddington’s How to Start a Community, Charlie Wards’ Weekend Club, Slow To Criticize, Beng Comfortable with being Uncomfortable.
- Stories of Dytto, Sitesauce.
Episode 26: The Bootstrapped Founder – May 8th 2020
- ✍️ You May Be Barking Up the Wrong Tree: Re-Evaluating Your Audience
- Links to Kevin Kelly’s 68th, Stéphane Nass’s Financial Modeling, Dropshipping, Elad Gil’s Offense&Defense
- Stories of SaaS Inspire, Reader Mode, Maker Mind
Episode 25: The Bootstrapped Founder – May 1st 2020
- ✍️ Build for Value, Not for Applause: Product Management Under Heavy Constraints
- Links to Tope Awotona of Calendly, Ryan Petersen of Flexport, Gabriel Chuan and Dru Riley on ISAs and Micro Private Equity, Dan Hulton and a Huge List of Code You Need to Write
- Stories of MentorCruise, Hypefury
Episode 24: The Bootstrapped Founder – April 24th 2020
- ✍️ First Things First: Feature Prioritization Frameworks
- Links to MicroConf Vault and Our Talk, Jason Cohen’s From Burn-Out to $100M ARR, Paul Grahams 2006 post, Baremetrics’ Churn Analysis post, Windows 98 CSS Framework
- Stories of Conmute, AdWhistle, and Plausible Analytics.
Episode 23: The Bootstrapped Founder – April 17th 2020
- ✍️ Forget Goals, Create Systems: Foundations of a Sustainable Bootstrapped Business
- Links to Nadya Primak’s Desire for money and Passion Being at Odds, Impact of COVID-19 on European Tech, International Payments for Remote Freelancers
- Stories of Successful One-Person Online Businesses, Brent Williams and DesignJoy, Sabba Keynejad and VEED.io
Episode 22: The Bootstrapped Founder – April 10th 2020
- ✍️ The Boring Truth of Successful Products That Survive
- Links to Rand Fishkin’s ‘Read the Room’, Amy Hoy’s Indie Hackers Podcast episode, Channing Allen’s Thoughts on Recession and Indie Hacking
- Stories of Atul and Newstube, Charles-Eugene’s Micro CRM, 1HaKr’s Visa List
Episode 21: The Bootstrapped Founder – April 3rd 2020
- ✍️ Making Tech Choices: Don’t Add Risk to an Already Risky Business
- Links to Einar Vollset’s COVID-19 Business Relief GuideJulian lehr’s Signaling as a Service, Stanislav Myachenkov’s Cognitive Biases in Software Development
- Stories of Steven Yung’s From Dev to Maker, Garrett Moon’s Killing your First Product
Episode 20: The Bootstrapped Founder – March 27th 2020
- ✍️ Not in House: On Reinventing the Wheel
- Links to Saddingtons Letter, Podcasting Tech Stacks, Good Companies, ahrefs Blogging Course, SaaStr Bridging the Gap Course, around Video Call Product
- Stories of Anne-Laure Le Cunff with Ness Labs, Anna Grigoryan with Community Finder, Yusuf Qabil with One Profile
Episode 19: The Bootstrapped Founder – March 20th 2020
- ✍️Surviving a Recession as a Bootstrapped Business
- Links to Morningbrews Quarantine Guide, Cutler’s Know-it-all CEO, Chen’s Next Feature Fallacy
- Stories of Sarah Hum with Canny
Episode 18: The Bootstrapped Founder – March 13th 2020
- ✍️How to Release as a Bootstrapper: Often, Early, and Safely
- Tectonic Shifts, COVID-19, The Bus Factor
- Links to Product Market Fit = Minimum Viable Company, Cropster, Non VC Compatible SaaS Companies
- Stories of Jon/Bannerbear and Mogens/Read
Episode 17: The Bootstrapped Founder – March 6th 2020
- ✍️The Do’s and Don’ts of the Minimum Viable Product
- Co-founders, Early Employees and the Problem with Fractional Ownership
- Links to ProfitHunt, Laura Roeder talking about Founder Bias
- Stories of Adam/TailwindUI, Alexander/Unicorn Platform, Rosie/Rosie Land
Episode 16: The Bootstrapped Founder – February 28th 2020
- ✍️The Myth of The Finished Product
- Why I Chose to Sell FeedbackPanda
- Links to Rosie Sherry tutoring, Pat Walls talking about reaching $1000 MRR
- Stories of Jen/Lunch Money, Steven/Lowdown
Episode 15: The Bootstrapped Founder – February 21st 2020
- ✍️Solution Validation Doesn’t Happen In a Vacuum: How to Talk To Your Future Customers
- Bias in Software Engineering
- Links to Harry Dry’s Twitter post, Remotive’s job list, Hotjar on the SaaS Revolution Show
- Stories of Moonlight, Simple Analytics, Dracula Pro
Episode 14: The Bootstrapped Founder – February 14th 2020
- ✍️Make It Sell Itself: On Referral Systems
- Bootstrapped SaaS as an Asset Class
- Links to Tim Ferris’ Problems with Fame, Annel_laure LeCunff’s Trilemma
- Stories of Tim Nolens and Jason Swett
Episode 13: The Bootstrapped Founder – February 7th 2020
- 🎙The Bootstrapped Founder Podcast
- ✍️Problem Validation: Making Sure You’re Talking To The Right People
- Developers building SaaS for other Developers
- Links to Coffee-Cup Pricing Fallacy, Influencer Strategies, Incubator Lust
- Stories of Pascal Precht (REBASE) and Makerpad
Episode 12: The Bootstrapped Founder – January 31st 2020
- 📕Zero to Sold: The Bootstrapper’s Compendium
- ✍️Finding the Most Painful Problem in a Market
- Customer Gratitude
- Links to Customer-Focused Businesses, $50k Wasted on Ads, Noticing Confusion, Give it Five Minutes
- Stories of Divjoy, Closet Tools
Episode 11: The Bootstrapped Founder – January 24th 2020
- ✍️The Power of the Niche
- Underserved Markets
- Links to Mind-Mapping, Killing a Business Idea, Launch Tools, Indie Hackers Start
- Stories of PricingBot, Bannerbear, Rent-Paying SaaS
Episode 10: The Bootstrapped Founder – January 17th 2020
- ✍️Co-Founders and Alignment
- ✍️The Deli Hustler Story
- Links to Podcasts, Startup Deals, Bootstrapped Businesses as Asset Classes
Episode 9: The Bootstrapped Founder – January 10th 2020
- ✍️Seller-Side Due Diligence
- ✍️The Emotional Journey of a Bootstrapped Founder Series
- Startup Playbooks
- Links to The Earnest Capital Memo, 🔗My Indie Hackers AMA
Episode 8: The Bootstrapped Founder – January 3rd 2020
- ✍️Initial Pricing for a SaaS
- The Discussions I Predict Will Be Important in 2020
- Links to 20.000 Startups Ideas, Flintstoning, The Eternal Novice Trap
Episode 7: The Bootstrapped Founder – December 27th 2019
- ✍️Churn, Retention, and Revenue
- Working on Weekends and Holidays
- Links to Referral Systems, Patrick Collison’s Fast List, David Perell’s Links of 2019
Episode 6: The Bootstrapped Founder – December 20th 2019
- ✍️Continuous Validation
- 🔗My Indie Hackers Podcast Episode
- Why Do We Expect Founders to Go For an Exit
- Links to EdTech Bootstrapping Struggles, JetBrains
Episode 5: The Bootstrapped Founder – December 13th 2019
- ✍️Finding the Critical Problem
- Purchasing Power Parity
- Links to Know Your Team, April Dunford, Louis Nicholls on Bootstrapping SaaS
Episode 4: The Bootstrapped Founder – December 6th 2019
- ✍️The Bootstrapper’s Plight: The Social Headaches of Building a Business
- Transparency In The Bootstrapped World
- Links to Road to Scale, Bootstrapping Bands, Building a Platform
Episode 3: The Bootstrapped Founder – November 29th 2019
- ✍️Finding a Market to Build a SaaS
- ✍️The Bootstrapper’s Bookshelf
- Crucial Founder Skills
- Links to Bootstrapped Companies Taking VC Money, Valuable Things to Learn in 1h, Working on a Farm
Episode 2: The Bootstrapped Founder – November 22nd 2019
- ✍️Real and Imaginary Responsibilities of a Bootstrapped Founder
- Sensitivity in the Startup World
- Links to Remote First Capital, Ahrefs, Bootstrapped Unicorns, Startup Promotion List
Episode 1: The Bootstrapped Founder – November 15th 2019
- ✍️How to do Maximum Customer Support with Minimum Effort
- Links to How VCs Make Money, Solopreneurs, 1Password Getting Funding
