Topics in ‘Bootstrapping’

How to Negotiate a 4-day Work Week: Chris’ Story

Enjoy this guest post from 30×500 student Chris Hartjes! — Amy Have you ever looked at Amy’s stuff and wondered if anyone is having success with it? I’m proof that what Amy tells you works and can lead to greater things. I have been creating my own products for about 4 years now. I have… Read more »

Is bad copy killing your product?

This is a horror story. This is a story about the lurking, creeping horror of killer copy. Not the good kind of “killer” — no, not dope or sick or totally bad — but the kind that murders your ambitions in their cradle. Spoilers: This horror story has a happy ending. And if you watch… Read more »

Help! My SaaS isn’t growing! +60% revenue, 1 year later…

Just about a year ago, I wrote that Freckle had hit the Plateau of Doom. We were dead in the water at $28,000 a month. We’d grow a little… then shrink a little, grow a little, shrink a little… for months at a time. Why? y=mx+b. Growth (new accounts) is pretty much linear, a reliable… Read more »

Startup Escape Plan: How to free up time, energy & money to build your future

When you stop working for the day, have you really gotten anywhere? Will the hours that you spent today still be paying off for you next week, next month, next year? If your answer is “No,” then you’re probably here because you’re somewhere on the left side of this spectrum: But you want to be… Read more »

Why You Should Do A Tiny Product First

NOTE: The Bootcamp has been moved to June 29/30th due to conflicts. Expect an official announcement this week! So, one of the major changes that Alex and I are making to 30×500 is to teach our students to create an educational product first. What’s an educational product, or infoproduct? Anything small that teaches (which isn’t […]

Nathan Barry’s $5k App Challenge: My Seasoned Bootstrappy Advice

I think Nathan Barry is the bee’s knees. He’s been killing it with his info products: The App Design Handbook and Designing Web Applications. Even before he announced his Web App Challenge, to build an app from scratch that would reach $5,000/mo revenue in 6 mos, I was sure it would only be a matter […]

4 Years Into Our SaaS: Why Bootstrapping Was the Only Logical Choice

Hey, there. Four years ago this December, my husband & I launched our first software as a service, Freckle Time Tracking. Since then, it’s grossed nearly $700,000, and we’ve grown, shrunk, hired, fired, stagnated and worked our tails off. To celebrate, I’m writing a series of blog posts about what we’ve learned. When I was […]

Why Bootstrapping Is Better than an Accelerator Program

NOTE FROM YOUR EDITOR: Sometimes you get an email that’s so right, that so captures what you’ve been trying to create for years that you just can’t help but dance and squeal with glee. That’s how I felt when I saw this very powerful story on the 30×500 mailing list. I feel honored to help […]

Be Your Own Angel – How to Make Money Happen

Let’s talk about money, baby! And where money comes from. Whether it’s funding or acquihires, angels or convertible notes, debt or income, money is the topic we all looooove to talk about (and pretend not to care about). Lemme be straight with you: I love me some money. And I don’t mind admitting it. Growing […]

Fuck Glory – Startups are One Long Con

I’m in my early 20s. Startups seem to be the only way out of 40 years of mediocrity in TPS-land for me, so I don’t really think I have much of a choice. It’s startups or nothing for me. Or maybe I am being myopic? Are there more options to be had in life than […] Related posts:

  1. Dear Startup World: Chill the Fuck Out
  2. Startups are a Boy Band (Biz Book Friday!)
  3. Startups & Risk: Petting Puppies with Peter Drucker
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Freckle Time Tracking
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