David Heinemeier Hansson at Startup School 08

Have you already watched DHH's "How to Make Money Online" presentation ( [this video] )? If not, watch it ASAP. If you go down the bootstrapping road, you must have profits coming in, to fund and further the development of your product. Sooner or later you will have to make money and since you don't seem to have a lot of funds laying around, the sooner the better. Moreover, have you validated your idea(s) (included the previous, failed attempts to excute them and build a viable business)? Are you sure that there are enough people out there with the burning desire to throw money at you for this app to make it worth the hustle? (assuming you want to sell your app, which would be the best and most simple way to make money) As PG says, the worst mistake one can make trying to build a company is building something THEY think is NEEDED by their customers and not what the market actually needs. Listen to your audience. Do the people need an iphone app to "truly define us"? Creating a kickstarter campaign was a good move, by the response you'll get you'll understand if you are solving a real problem or not. To expose more people to your app (and validate it or not with a wider set of data) you can use an adwords\facebook voucher and create a campaign (just search for them). Link to your homepage, track how many visitors opt in vs how many of them just land and bounce away, not interested. Ask questions on Answers sites, open threads on forums your ideal customer hangs out, the more eyebal

Reading the ending hits closer to home and made me more sad than expected! Andrew Welch was uneasy about the idea of scaling up, especially when they could survive as they were just fine off their utility products Way back in the day, YC always said not to worry about competitors raising tons of money (not sure if that's still the rec). The 2008 DHH boostrapping talk during Startup School is still one of the most influential videos on my career as a founder. But that path is increasingly less popular! [this video] Lastly, for all the bolo comments out there, I remember the huge transition from modems to school ethernet that made it playable - it was honestly one of the reasons I was looking forward to dorm life!

The other answers aren't wrong, but I think listening to 37Signals Partner DHH from Startup School would speak best: [this video] Almost more than their products, they're known for their very vocal broadcasting against the standard startup focus of investments, valuations, exits, etc... Their books "Getting Real" and "Rework" represent their bootstrapping, sustainable-business values - they're not timid in speaking out against the nonsense of the modern startup conventional wisdom. Personally, I think it's a very refreshing and empowering voice for entrepreneurs. It's not without controversy though, so dig in to their content for yourself to make your own judgement. (FWIW - "Getting Real" is a free PDF out there somewhere. I recommend it, though others may or may not.)

There is more to business than startups. If you can program, then you can bootstrap a "lifestyle" business. I don't love that term, but people know what it means. You can make a business that doesn't depend on traction and scale. Find a prosaic need, and serve it. Could start with consulting, or products. Start small, stay small by Rob Walling is an excellent primer, as is the four hour workweek. The latter glosses over how much effort is actually required to make a "muse", but the mindset is spot on. I'm currently doing this. I'll never get a $10 million payout, but I've built good revenue streams and have complete freedom of time. And I did it without knowing programming. You've basically got a superpower in the internet world. You can program AND you have a baseline of entrepreneurial knowledge. Just shift out of startup mode. As long as you've got enough money or time that you can work on something new without starving, it's not THAT hard to make a business that gives you freedom. (No guaranteed success, but the odds are significantly better than in a startup. This talk by DHH is a good overview) [this video]

"Its hard, but not THAT hard!" [this video] 6 years into building web-apps and finally I am just now seeing a few bucks rolling in (still <$1000 month). I wasted lots of time, primarily pursuing the wrong kinds of business models (free!!!) or putting effort into the wrong areas of a business, ultimately burning out because things weren't working. But, even if you've picked a good product with a good market, for the un-initiated engineer there's this mysterious delta between being able to build something (anything!), and making that something successful. My recommendation (because its working for me), is to find a co-founder who is a business guy employed at a successful small software company. Painting with broad strokes here, but try to pick a sales or marketing guy over a biz dev guy, I think they are connected better with the product. You've heard this advice before. Its true. Engineers think of the world as meritocratic. But good product != success. You need someone to help you get past this way of thinking.

This sentiment reminds me of DHH's talk at startup school ( [this video] ) in which he explains that the best way to create a business is to make money, but not just make money, make it on your own. I am a little removed from the Silicon Valley echo chamber and enjoy the ability to watch it from the sidelines, but I don't understand the obsession with the 'rapid growth, raise millions from investors, become a unicorn, own the world' mentality. I just don't get it. As a founder, your life is going to be just as good (probably better) if you made a couple million dollars in actual money that you don't have to divide up in odd percentages to all sorts of already rich guys who gave you tons of money in the first place. Why isn't everyone just trying to build products that work, that people like, that make money, and going from there? Why the need to go to YC, or raise any capital AT ALL, for the very very low chance of becoming gajillionaires? I understand the appeal of the #1 king on top thing, but not really, and not with the risks and pain associated with the journey and the reality. Whatever I guess. People will not stop investing or raising money, at least for now.

What would your friends and family think if you showed them something that looks like craigslist? Just because something isn't owned by Fbook or Google or doesn't look polished doesn't mean it isn't or couldn't make money. Or if you're not working for Fbook or Google or working on working there that you're doing it WRONG. My friends usually gloss over me talking about developing SaaS apps till I mention ones making $30k/mo or $60k/mo . . . that gets their attention. I love when they follow up with "wait, wait that's per month?" Making a product/SaaS that is successful isn't easy, but it's something most developers can accomplish, it's not s sure thing, but definitely worth the effort if it's something that interests you. It's worth a shot/putting in the effort. So if you're interested in products/SaaS keep at it. Granted most of us have day jobs or are contractors along the way to pay the bills till we hit "SaaScess" but don't give up on it because of what unsupportive family and friends think. You do need to find a better support network, maybe fellow entrepreneurs/web developers, connect with other like minded individuals online. (feel free to connect with me via email HNusername at gmail, I'm always up for bouncing ideas around, being supportive, reviewing apps/products offering constructive criticism). Don't share what you're doing with people who aren't supportive. Just give them a simple answer like I'm consulting, etc. Making any web application is hard so making any f

> A good question to ask yourself early in the process of thinking about an idea is “could this be huge if it worked?” There are many good ideas in the world, but few of them have the inherent advantages that can make a startup massively successful. Most businesses don’t generate a valuable accumulating advantage as they scale. Think early about why an idea might have that property. It’s obvious for Facebook or Airbnb, but it often exists in more subtle ways. This reminds me of David Heinemeier Hansson's talk at Startup School waaayyy back. [this video] The gist: funders tell founders all the time to catch a wave. Go big or don't bother. The reason is that the funder must have a big payoff and small outcomes don't cut it. But there's plenty of room for a small, well-run company with no aspirations of getting bigger. I believe the analogy was: best Italian Restaurant in the city. The other advantage of thinking smaller than "huge" is that success is so much more likely because the competition tends to be less intense. Maybe the author and I have a different idea of "huge," but the examples suggest otherwise. If you're looking for a community that embraces the small startup idea and has developed a lot of material for exploring it, check out Microconf: [link]