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Comment by randmeerkat | Hacker News Reader

> Even when I was getting started, I read a ton on VC funded businesses but not a lot on non VC funded businesses.

Any suggested reading for the non VC funded business?

We have been able to bootstrap Aha! from zero to over $100 million in annual revenue without any external funding. We have written about some of our experiences at https://www.bootstrap.company/ and https://www.aha.io/blog/collection/bootstrap-movement.

I run a bootstrapped software company, not at the $100M scale.

My interest piqued I clicked, had a look at Aha! (having never heard of it before) and immediately thought - hey I could use this. You got me, ka pai, haha.

Any insight on how to navigate inflexion points that seemingly require more capital that cashflow allows? Stay true and spend less? Number 8 wire might not be the same solution today as it once was, that's my worry.

In a business that is more capital intensive than SaaS bootstrapping is likely to be a lot harder. The beauty of SaaS is that expenses scale smoothly with revenue so you never need large capital infusions.

It may be tempting to think "if only I had enough money for a big advertising campaign". But if you are not seeing that small investments in advertising result in corresponding small increases in revenue, then it is very unlikely that a big investment in advertising will result in a big return.

When something is working well it is blindingly obvious. If you are having to look hard for signs of positivity then it is not working. Lots of money can only serve to make things appear successful for a limited period of time.

Not a lot that I can find. Essentially businesses are about making bets about what reality will look like in the future. So the better modeling you can do of reality, the more successful you can be. Earnestness is a strong word in my dictionary when it comes to testing ideas these days. I started seeing success when I stopped lying to myself and became earnest after over a decade of failure.

> So the better modeling you can do of reality, the more successful you can be.

How do you approach modeling?

> Earnestness is a strong word in my dictionary when it comes to testing ideas these days. I started seeing success when I stopped lying to myself and became earnest after over a decade of failure.

It sounds like there’s something here, but I’m not sure I understand what you mean. By being earnest do you mean being serious about the idea, or is it something else?

Earnestness is basically intellectual honesty but it takes effort. You think you are being intellectually honest but you are not. You need to peel back the layers.

Regarding modeling multiple models overlap is closest that you can get.

Not a successful self-funded entrepreneur but Im working on it and I’ve studied a lot of the greats.

DHH and Jason Fried blog and books like Rework

Arvid Kahl is a successful software bootstrapper and has a few great books and a bootstrapper newsletter

Everything by Rob Walling is focused on software bootstrappers, and his associates brands / YouTube channel, Microconf community etc

Indie Hackers podcast , interviews, and website

Founders at Work is written by a YC founder but ironically had lots of bootstrapped interviews like Craigslist and Joel Spolsky (Trello)

Patio11 blog is classic

MJ Demarco is non tech and writes more “motivational” style books about bootstrapped entrepreneurship

Once you go down this rabbit hole you’ll discover many more . Especially since bootstrappers love making content about their experiences as it’s marketing and potentially more revenue (what DHH calls “selling your byproducts”)

Zero to Exit Start Small, Stay Small The SaaS Playbook

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

Indie.vc Tinyseed.com

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