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bootstrapping

Too Many Would-Be Entrepreneurs Are Thinking About Their Ideas, Companies, and Investors All Wrong

Too Many Would-Be Entrepreneurs Are Thinking About Their Ideas, Companies, and Investors All Wrong

By Bob Warfield on April 22, 2013

As so often happens, the serendipitous intersection of one too many notes from the same chord in a short time have prompted me to post.  In this case, I am seeing a lot of evidence that would-be entrepreneurs just don’t think about their ideas, their companies, or investors as they should. Case in point: I […]

Posted in Business, Featured Posts | Tagged bootstrapping, strategy, venture | 1 Response

Charging for Your Product is About 2000 Times More Effective than Relying on Ad Revenue

Charging for Your Product is About 2000 Times More Effective than Relying on Ad Revenue

By Bob Warfield on February 24, 2013

I was reading Gabriel Weinberg’s piece on the depressing math behind consumer-facing apps.  He’s talking about conversion rates for folks to actually use such apps and I got to thinking about the additional conversion rate of an ad-based revenue model since he refers to the Facebooks and Twitters of the world.  Just for grins, I […]

Posted in Business | Tagged bootstrapping, CNCCookbook, Conversion Rate, Facebook, Revenue model, startups, strategy, Twitter, venture

Is Silicon Valley Worth the Cost for Tech Startups and Bootstrappers?

Is Silicon Valley Worth the Cost for Tech Startups and Bootstrappers?

By Bob Warfield on January 11, 2013

There’s always some article or other in the blogosphere rambling on about why XYZ will be the next Silicon Valley–they’re quite popular.  I just read an interesting piece that has some clues about the true costs of living here (yes, I live at least near SV and have worked most of my career in SV). […]

Posted in Business | Tagged bootstrapping, content marketing, Hacker News, Houston, Silicon Valley, startups | 3 Responses

No office, no boss, no boundaries:  The Life of a Bootstrapper

No office, no boss, no boundaries: The Life of a Bootstrapper

By Bob Warfield on January 10, 2013

I loved this CNN article that I found courtesy of Hacker News, except for the sketchy spin on loneliness.  It captures some of the lifestyle I’d like to have, though I’m not there yet.  I have been able to quit my day job, but I’m still low enough in six figures and busy enough with […]

Posted in Business | Tagged bootstrapping, CNCCookbook, customer service, Hacker News, startup

A Solo Bootstrapping Odyssey:  2012 Was The Year I Quit My Day Job

A Solo Bootstrapping Odyssey: 2012 Was The Year I Quit My Day Job

By Bob Warfield on January 9, 2013

For those who like Bootstrapping Case Studies, here is mine. 2012 was the year I moved on from a Day Job and started doing my Bootstrapped Company CNCCookbook full-time.  I’m not the first to do so, and certainly not the last, but I thought I’d provide a historical background and then some data on CNCCookbook in 2012 […]

Posted in Business | Tagged Agile Backlog, bootstrapping, CNCCookbook, Day Job, Entrepreneurship, Silicon Valley, startups, strategy, venture | 5 Responses

Converting Content-Audience Fit to Product Traction

Converting Content-Audience Fit to Product Traction

By Bob Warfield on December 18, 2012

Jason Lemkin has a new post out about gaining traction after your product ships.  He says it’s hard, much harder than building the 1.0 product which was already hard, and he makes some concrete suggestions on how to go about gaining traction: –  Finish hiring your core team.  Presumably you’ve left the sales and marketing […]

Posted in Business, Featured Posts | Tagged bootstrapping, Helpstream, marketing, SaaS, strategy, venture | 1 Response

The Very First Thing a Founding Team Needs to Do:  Achieve Content-Audience Fit

The Very First Thing a Founding Team Needs to Do: Achieve Content-Audience Fit

By Bob Warfield on December 10, 2012

A lot of entrepreneurs,  when faced with the question, “What’s the most important thing to do first?”, would answer, “Build a product.” Big mistake. The most important thing to do first is to find an audience.  It may be that building a product is an integral part of growing your audience, but you’re not ready to […]

Posted in Business, Featured Posts | Tagged bootstrapping, Google Analytics, marketing, Product marketing, startups, strategy, Tribe, venture

The Series A Crunch:  One More Reason to Bootstrap and Skip Venture Capital

The Series A Crunch: One More Reason to Bootstrap and Skip Venture Capital

By Bob Warfield on November 28, 2012

I’ve talked a lot about bootstrapping on this blog–I am a total convert, and I’m enjoying every minute of bootstrapping my own company.  There are many reasons for my enthusiasm.  Investors these days are going to make you take most of the bootstrap journey before giving you a dime being one of the biggest.  You’ve […]

Posted in Business, Featured Posts | Tagged bootstrapping, Entrepreneurship, Liquidity Event, Seed money, startups, vc funding, venture, Venture Capital | 1 Response

Gliffy: bootstrapped in San Francisco

Gliffy: bootstrapped in San Francisco

By Phil Wainewright on November 28, 2012

It’s rumored that a Web entrepreneur only has to walk down the street in downtown San Francisco to attract VC funding these days. That’s probably an exaggeration, but even so, you can’t help but admire the grit of Gliffy’s co-founders, Chris Kohlhardt and Clint Dickson (pictured in their new office, below). They’ve chosen to bootstrap […]

Posted in Business | Tagged Atlassian, Atlassian Confluence, bootstrapping, Confluence, Gliffy, startups, Wiki

Gaining the Wisdom of Crowds in a Bootstrapped SaaS Company

Gaining the Wisdom of Crowds in a Bootstrapped SaaS Company

By Bob Warfield on November 19, 2012

When you’re bootstrapping a small company, sometimes it’s hard to do the things larger organizations take for granted, like making sure you’re listening well enough to your customers.  On the other hand, you can take advantage of your nimble nature and the availability of some great technology to do some things that even a lot […]

Posted in Business, Featured Posts | Tagged bootstrapping, customer service, Google Analytics, SaaS, software as a service, Software development, strategy, user interface, wordpress | 2 Responses

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