Topics in ‘Bootstrapping’

Five rules for doing Great Work

What separates the fleeting thrill of a “great idea” from the enduring rewards of great work? These five facts: Great work is work that helps people. It’s not made great by accolades or praise from your peers… but by the experience of the people who actually use it. That’s work you can be proud of. Great work… Read more »

Uncertainty

I’ve spent most of the past few days with my guts vibrating. My husband and I are buying a house — and selling a house. We’re moving from our favorite part of our favorite city, in the middle of everything, to nearly 10 acres in a town we’ve never spent time in. We moved here… Read more »

Declaring Your Independence… a History

Today — July 4th — is the perfect day to talk about revolution. And stories, half-truths and outright lies… and, duh, independence. Today I want to have a chat with you about your independence. But first, a history lesson. If you’re American, you can probably recite the the story with me: “On July 4th, 1776,… Read more »

5 Things I Wish Somebody Told Me Before I Founded My SaaS

If you’re new around here, you’d be forgiven for not realizing that, hey, I don’t just guru all day in my pajamas. My teaching comes from real world experience, running a business that is not in the business of teaching people how to start a business. Crazy! So yeah, Freckle Time Tracking is my first… Read more »

The Good Enough Launch

Let’s talk product launches, shall we? Alex and I just wrapped up our first launch of 2016. It spanned just over two weeks and welcomed 63 brand spanking new students (and 1 upgrading alum) to the new 30×500 Academy. Total revenue: $113,637 Graph includes $1,039 in book sales which aren’t part of the launch Pretty… Read more »

How do you design products people love?

You can learn a lot from the questions that people ask us during a 30×500 launch. I know this…because we’re in the middle of a waiting-list only launch of 30×500 Academy right now. People always ask us: “OK, well, does 30×500 Academy (and therefore Sales Safari) work for… ebooks? Does it work for SaaS? Does… Read more »

Invest now, or pay later

“Quality is remembered long after price is forgotten.” — Henry Royce, of Rolls Royce I was a strange kid. I practically lived at the library, where I would spend hours crawling around — literally on all fours on the grey industrial carpet, the better to see those lower shelves — and read just about everything…. Read more »

On resolutions that don’t suck

Happy New Year! Now…what are you going to do with it? Yes, I know, I know… I’m late. 2016 is now 27 days old and not so sparkly any more. The thrill isn’t gone, exactly, but it’s faded a little. And all those hopeful, shiny New Year’s Resolutions tend to start falling like dominos, right…… Read more »

Time to Let Go of Startup Fairy Tales

If you know me, you know I don’t promote stories of “startup heroism” — those thrilling tales of late nights, fueled by coffee, working everywhere and everytime, for 3-5 years until the acquisition ship comes in and you retire with your riches to “Mojito Island”. It’s a sexy and alluring narrative because it says: All… Read more »

2015 Year in Review – Seven Figures, World Domination, Chaos, Time for a Mojito

It’s been a crazy fucking year. A mixture of horrible things, wonderful things; a mixture of things that happened to me, and things I made happen. It wasn’t boring for a single second. (“May you live in interesting times” – a curse indeed.) My year really kicked off, in October 2014 — yes, yes, I… Read more »

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