rwalling

I don’t see signs of this yet. We’re still seeing the same level of companies with traction come through each time we run an application process for TinySeed (accelerator focused on bootstrapped SaaS).

But realistically, there are a couple camps in bootstrapped SaaS. Folks who want to build an audience (often by “building in public” on social media), then hope they can monetize it. And folks who focus on non-audience-driven marketing and sales.

We only fund the latter, so take my comment with that context.

Bravo, @paraschopra What an incredible journey. I remember when you launched. I hadn't realized it was 16 years ago!

I'll hit you up privately with an invite to tell your story on Startups for the Rest of Us. It's a fitting place for a bootstrapper like yourself.

100% I would move out of the bay area if I had the means and I was bootstrapping.

I grew up in the East Bay, but I bootstrapped my companies in New Haven, CT and Fresno, CA, both much cheaper to live than the Bay Area.

It happened that my wife was getting her PhD, which is why we moved to those cities, but I commented often that I was grateful that we lived in such low cost of living cities while I was trying to conserve cash and get my companies off the ground.

I run MicroConf, and each year we run a survey and a report called The State of Independent SaaS, where we survey 600 or 700 bootstrapped or mostly bootstrapped SaaS founders. One of the questions we ask is about location.

And unlike venture backed companies, which cluster in a handful of cities, Independent/Bootstrapped SaaS founders are located in more than 340 cities around the world, with the most populated city (London) having only 4% of the population.

You can bootstrap from pretty much anywhere. Personally, in your shoes, I would pick a place with great quality of life and great culture, plus low cost of living. Cities like Minneapolis, Charlotte, Raleigh & Durham, Boulder, etc.

Good luck, you have plenty of runway and I wish you the best on this journey.

My more up-to-date follow up to Start Small, Stay Small is The SaaS Playbook. Aimed at people who are bootstrapping or mostly bootstrapping.

Here are a couple links if you want to get started with my work, all focused on bootstrapping profitable SaaS companies:

[Stair Step Method of Bootstrapping] https://robwalling.com/2015/03/26/the-stair-step-method-of-b...

[Podcast] https://startupsfortherestofus.com

[Book] https://saasplaybook.com

[YouTube] https://microconf.com/youtube

That's at https://microconf.com/connect

Thanks for the kind words, Adrig! (about MicroConf, my book, etc). I really do appreciate it.

Some links to what Adrig mentioned:

- https://www.indiehackers.com

- https://microconf.com

- https://www.startupsfortherestofus.com (podcast)

- My new book is https://saasplaybook.com

- https://tropicalmba.com - the podcast for 7- and 8- figure founders

I think everything else is pretty easy to find via Amazon/book website of your choice.

Thanks for the kind mention in this article. I’m going to be honest, I started blogging and writing books (and now podcasting) because I was SO TIRED of the vague business advice I saw on the internet.

A couple weeks ago I saw a founder ask: “What podcasts should I listen to for practical advice on bootstrapping a SaaS?” And people responded with suggestions like Tony Robbins, GaryVee, and the Founders podcast (which summarizes business biographies).

Don’t get me wrong, those resources have their audience and fulfill a need. But that’s not what a bootstrapper needs to hear at that point in time. They need specific advice that’s as prescriptive as possible without crossing the line and becoming overly prescriptive. “Rules of thumb” if you will ;-)

That kind of situation is why I started talking about startups. To take an opinionated stance and be as specific as possible. Which is why I focus on SaaS and not entrepreneurship in general.

In any case, I appreciate the mention and consider myself among esteemed company with the other folks mentioned in your essay.

In addition to the content we (MicroConf) have put out on this topic, and the community we’ve built that allows people to find co-founders, we’re also gearing up a co-founder matching service.

Zero to Exit Start Small, Stay Small The SaaS Playbook

Startups for the Rest of Us podcast YouTube.com/MicroConf

Indie.vc Tinyseed.com

For sure check out MicroConf.com/YouTube and the podcast Startups for the Rest of Us. I’m the host of both, a former developer turned entrepreneur, and both of those are designed for someone in your exact position.

From there you’ll hear about related books, events, groups etc that will benefit you on your journey.

Good luck!

We wouldn’t “easily grow 2x” if we served every type of software entrepreneur.

We used to cater to all software: mobile apps, desktop, WordPress, etc. and we still have many folks in the community who are non-SaaS. But the focus on SaaS was a spark that dramatically increased growth as it allowed us to optimize everything we offer (content, community, masterminds) on the specific problems SaaS folks face.

We don’t restrict folks who can join based on the type of software, so “restriction” is not the right word to use there. It’s just a focus.

And it was a great choice, allowing us to be the best in the world at what we do (rather than serving a broader market, poorly).

Awesome!

Congrats, Matt. I've enjoyed watching your journey for the past decade and am very excited that you're able to go FT on Preceden.

Appreciate the shout, Torte!

Thanks for the MicroConf shout!

Check out https://youtube.com/microconf and https://www.startupsfortherestofus.com for a long list of SaaS founder stories/case studies.

Author of Start Small, Stay Small here. Thanks for the mention, and I'm glad the book was helpful for you. It sounds like you've built a great business that does exactly what you want it to (support your lifestyle), which IMO is one of the main points of bootstrapping.

You rock, thank you sir!

Our minimum requirement to apply is $500 in MRR. If you're below that I'd encourage you to apply to our next round, which will open in ~6 months.

All of that sprang out of https://startsmall.com, which I published back in 2010. The examples are dated, but the core concepts still hold 12 years later.

It is. I'm trying to wrap up the book I'm currently working on, then plan to circle back to updating SSSS next year.

Ha! Yeah, Internet commenters are the best :-) I also took his comment as sarcasm, or just uninformed.

But you are correct, Andy, I've earned (literally) 100x more money from building/growing software companies than I have from any books I've written. The books, podcast, etc. are a hobby, not the job.

I have been talking + writing about this topic for about 15 years. It's a bigger topic than one could cover in a HN comment, so here are a few resources I'd recommend:

- If you're looking for free info about this, subscribe to Startups for the Rest of Us (podcast) and/or https://www.youtube.com/microconf. Both have hundreds of hours of audio/video content on starting startups, with an emphasis on being a developer.

- If you're willing to spend $10 on a Kindle book, Start Small, Stay Small: A Developer's Guide to Launching a Startup (Amazon, BN.com, etc) is the book I wrote to answer the exact question you are asking.

This journey is long, but fun. I wish you the best of luck!

https://microconf.com/youtube for the MicroConf YT channel.

Absolutely. We (MicroConf/TinySeed) ran some numbers to try to quantify press coverage of “boring” software companies, which confirms dsaavy’s comment: https://tinyseed.com/latest/measuring-the-depth-of-the-softw...

TinySeed is the closest thing you’ll find to this idea. About 10 years ago I wrote the phrase “YC for bootstrappers” in a notebook. That was the initial vision, and what ultimately became TinySeed, the first startup accelerator for bootstrappers.

It depends on what you mean by "small." MicroConf focuses on SaaS founders who are, or aspire to run, 7- or 8-figure companies. We do also provide early stage education, but with the idea of folks building ambitious startups, though no in the traditional Silicon Valley Unicorn sense.

It depends. If the contractors are working ad-hoc or part-time, IMO it's reasonable to say there is one person working full-time on this company, therefore it's a one-person company.

I think of it this way: if I'm solo and I hire a CPA to do my taxes or a bookkeeper to balance the books, does that make me a two-person company? That doesn't feel like an accurate description from my perspective.

I ran my company as a single founder with nine contractors working from a few hours a month to maybe 15 hours a week. All little task-based projects like loading up new content from a repo or answer support emails. Technically, letter of the law, we were 10 people. But from a cost/profit perspective (which I would posit is the most important aspect) it was very much a one-person company.

If you want to learn the nuts and bolts of launching and growing a startup, we focus on doing that as a bootstrapped (or mostly bootstrapped) founders at https://microconf.com.

We've been around for a decade and we have in-person events, online events, an online Slack community with 2100+ founders, and around 300 videos at https://youtube.com/microconf that focus on the day to day decisions you have to make as a founder.

From ideation to validation to launch, growth, hiring, selling your startup, etc. Most of what we offer is free, and we support it by charging for tickets to our in-person events.