bootstrpppin

Is skymass your start-up by any chance?

You've hit the nail on the head.

Thanks jasfi

Thanks ezekg.

Their pricing pretty much kills any chance of margin for a typical SaaS company with a free tier.

Frustrating, because Retool is 80% towards being a perfect low/no code builder for complex-ish user-facing apps.

I used it extensively to find my co-founder and had an amazing experience - there are SO many incredible people on there.

Here's my advice:

- Location: while you can't search for a location, you can tell the YC platform your location, and set a radius, so that it only shows you profiles of people close to you.

- Meet people face to face: I had 20+ video calls and 10+ face-to-face meetings and I got SO MUCH more value from the face-to-face meetings. So much of finding a co-founder is about chemistry, and that's much easier to find/pick up on f2f.

- Do something different: Try to meet people for an activity, instead of just for a coffee. You'll get to know them in a much deeper sense.

- Explain who you're looking for clearly: don't feel like you need to appeal to everybody. I got a lot of success from making my profile very explicit "I'm looking for people who love XYZ and are motivated by ABC. I'm less interested in people that are looking for 123"

- Share your business idea: it may feel scary posting your idea to the world but if you have one, I suggest sharing your business idea clearly on your profile. It will attract people who want to work with you on it and repel people who have no interest in the space you want to work in.

- Persist: finding the right co-founder can take weeks/months/years. Expect to meet lots of the not-right people before you finally find the perfect match.

Hope that's helpful!

I really hate Google Analytics - especially the new version (GA4?). I find it so hard to use. The microcopy is useless, and the fact that it doesn't track identity makes it vary hard to see anything beyond macro-trends.

My preference is to use old school SQL to report on transactional data, instead of event data. Sometimes I'll use a simple GUI like Metabase to visualise the queries and build simple dashboards.

If I'm forced to use an event-based telemetry system I suppose I'd go to Mixpanel via Segment.

My co-founder has also suggested we implement Posthog, but I've got no experience with it so far.

Hope that's useful

I've no doubt OpenAI will be able to develop models that put many AI Startups out of business.

...but that's only half the battle. Beyond just having better agents, they need to be able to communicate that value to the users of all these different niches, and that's very hard to do with authority and credibility....especially in narrow niches.

How can OpenAI position themselves as experts in accounting, finance, law, coding, sysops, design etc.

For homogenous tasks like 'diary management'- sure, I can see a world where OpenAI's agents are widely used.

But for niche/specific or tasks that need domain expertise I think they'll end up partnering with companies, borrowing from their credibility/brand within the niche, to perfect the product but mainly as a way to drive confidence within prospective users.

I see a lot of parallels to operating systems: sure, Apple will have a crack at homogenous tasks like Calendaring, Task management etc, but they've got no business with jobs that need real depth like Design, in which case they'll partner with best-in-class brands like Adobe.

It's been a little while since I used it, so my memories are a bit vague I'm afraid.

I was trying to hook up my app, so that I could upsert contacts/leads with Salesforce/Hubspot.

I'll try and remember more specific/useful feedback for you and shoot it over to your support email if that's helpful?

I've had a play around with Integry and really love the premise (I do actually plan to use it properly - just waiting for the right time).

I do wish the docs were a bit better though - we've found it quite hard to decipher exactly how to make it work. Lots of trial and error.

Great product though!!

It sounds like you've done everything 'right' (and congrats on getting this far!)

I wouldn't be put off by slow demand - in my experience momentum takes a long time to build (unless you're lucky enough to have timed your launch to a bubble/trend)... but momentum compounds, and given enough time/effort, it'll compound into something meaningful.

The only caveat is that this assumes you're solving a problem people:

- Have

- Find truly painful

- Are willing to spend money to fix

If your problem space is solid, I'd personally push on and lock in for the journey...especially if your intuition is telling you that you're onto something - trust it :)

Hope that's helpful

That's a good idea - not sure how big the docs are, but would local storage be helpful?

Thanks for that - I hadn't come across PayloadCMS.

Retool seems to support basics like version control, release mgt etc but the platform risk of a proprietary platform is certainly a concern.

This'll be unpopular, but if you want to keep it super lean and avoid being asked for compliance certs like SOC2/ISO, you could consider building it as an installable app on top of a platform your customers already trust

ie. a Salesforce App.

That way, they already use/trust the environment where the storage/processing of their sensitive data is taking place, akin to an old school 'on prem' solution (but without as much headache for you)

Worth thinking about

Hey thrw42A8N,

I've done a large greenfield rebuild before, which was a success - but I will never do that again. It ate my life.

I do have a bootstrapped product already in the market, but this is a second, unrelated product for a different audience....a new project entirely.

First project is Node + React but considering Retool for a v1 for this next project.

It's a great question.

For one of my product we spray and prayed, iterated fast and have not necessarily got/found PMF yet.

For my products we are 'pre-selling' (which feels much much better):

We've been reaching potential customers on LinkedIn, asking them for 15 mins to give feedback on our 'product' (at this point is just a sales deck).

At the end of the 'pitch' we get feedback from the customer. We also explain that we're launching a pilot, and give them an opportunity to join the pilot.

The pilot is paid (but cheaper than the public pricing will be), and it involves signing a v.simple 1 page contract/agreement which allows us to invoice them ahead of the 'launch'.

For us, this has been incredibly effective at:

- Understanding if this product hits a pain-point that customers are actually willing to spend budget on

- Weeding out the 'weak' signals like 'I quite like it' (people who 'like' it but may never buy)

- Giving us financial/commercial confidence, since we have invoiceable revenue guaranteed

And what it feels like? It feels awesome! Sometimes, when you find somebody that really gets it, their body language and attitude is entirely different....they literally PULL the product from your hands (vs. you pushing it on them). They're asking questions like "when can we launch/try it", and "can I introduce you to X Y Z people, who are going to love this?". And they say things like "We're budget constrained, but there are tons of things I'd rather get rid of, to make budget for this"

Happy to help if you have any more Qs

I was going to ask the exact same thing! Shame - not a very decisive answer

1) Kindle - best ROI ever, for dollars spent per hour of entertainment

2) Proper Japanese Chef Knife - makes me love cooking again

I'm a bootstrapped founder (with some prior experience zero-to-one-ing startups before), and have spent the best part of this year trying to find PMF for two of my bootstrapped products.

At least for the style of businesses i'm building, my biggest learning is quite simply that finding PMF can not be shortcutted (trust me, I've tried).

For me, finding PMF has meant: - Spending as much time with potential customers as possible (on calls, in their office etc). Learn/Listen - Constantly playing with positioning/messaging/feature-set based on insights you're learning. - Building out a pilot/prototype and seeing if customers will pre-pay to be in a early pilot group

The great news is, most of this can be done without writing a single line of code.

Hope that's helpful

I was terribly burnt out back in 2019 when I was in a very hands on role.

Once I recovered, I've moved 'up the chain' into a COO role and it didn't help at all - I felt exactly as you described.

With a lot of reflection, I've come to believe that I love 'doing' much more than I love 'managing' and that was a big contributor towards the empty, lethargic feeling.

I've now left that style of work and have started building bootstrapped products with a co-founder, and it's amazing. New energy, hands-on every day, fun!

Hope that's helpful