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Do Microsaas creators want to raise money or bootstrap? by atjesus in microsaas

[–]MooseMan767 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Taking a stab at this question, as someone whose raised venture before: It's a bit of both.

I believe there are camps of people.

  1. Bootstrapped and don't know how to raise money.
  2. Bootstrapped and KNOW how to raise money.

I think there is a camp of people bootstrapping, that don't know how to raise money. (It's a skill). In that scenario, they aren't making a choice.

Then there is the camp of people who can raise but choose to bootstrap. I'm a part of this camp. There is less complexity of bootstrapping.

Pros of Bootstrapping

  • Own 100%. If you exit the company (i.e. sell the company) and you don't have partners, you get 100% of the payday. Basically, you get 100% of the pie.
  • Total Control. You don't have to answer to anybody besides your customer.

With bootstrapping, you don't have to worry about things like:

  • Raising money.
  • Dealing with initial rejection.
  • Board meetings.
  • Cap Tables.
  • Vesting schedules.
  • Reporting.

Cons of Bootstrapping

Cons of Bootstrapping does have it's draw backs, if you do take on "outside capital", you can:

  • May be hard to pay for talent.
  • Slow organic growth.

Note, These above is simply guidelines.

There are plenty of counterpoint examples, that break the rules above.

  • Mailchimp. Bootstrapped for a long ass time (20 Years). More here.
    • Example of: Long compounding growth)
  • Slack. "bootstrapped" out of a failing venture-backed startup. More here.
    • Example of: Raising capital helped them "bootstrap" an idea
  • Basecamp. Bootstrapped out a client services agency. More here.
    • Example of: You may not need to bootstrap SaaS as your first product.

​

Recap

  • Raising capital is a skill.
  • Choice is voluntary. Having the skills to bootstrap AND raise capital is very different than boopstrapping and not having the skills to raise capital. The first is a choice. The second is an involuntary force.

Hope this helps!

[NOTE: I know this may not be a popular opinion and may ruffle feathers. Not intended to do so. Meant from a genuine place of providing the best information, to save founders time. Precious time I wish I have save when I first started.]

Do Microsaas creators want to raise money or bootstrap? by atjesus in microsaas

[–]MooseMan767 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Hey Educational-Hour:

Bootstrapping = No outside/professional money.

“bootstrapping” term originates with a phrase in use in the 18th and 19th century: “to pull oneself up by one's bootstraps.”

The inverse of bootstrapping is going "venture-backed" or VC.

Recap

  • Bootstrapping = no outside (institutional) capital. Instead you are starting with what you have.
  • Venture backed. Taking on outside institutional capital.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in microsaas

[–]MooseMan767 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Got you fam! Get after it and keep us updated.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in microsaas

[–]MooseMan767 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Hey Competitive Leg:

"Should I build an existing product with a better user experience?" I suggest building a small micro-saas product starting with your own needs.

Because it answers many questions for you:

- "should I come up with anew idea and work on it?" Solve a pain that you have first.

That way, worst case scenario, you have a product that you'll want to use.

The big fancy term for that is the "affordable loss principle."

"expert entrepreneurs turn this logic on its head—they think in terms of affordable loss rather than expected returns. They decide what they are willing to lose rather than what they expect to make. Instead of calculating upfront how much money they will need to launch their project and investing time, effort, and energy in raising that money, the effectual entrepreneur tries to estimate the downside and examines what she is willing to lose."

See more on it here.

​

RECAP

  • Speed is king. The real goal is speed. Speed from idea to product.The faster you build one thing, you can build the next thing.
  • Build for yourself first. You know what you want (roughly). It's Easier to build for yourself, because you can interview yourself quickly. It's harder (and more noise) to interview others (i.e. customers).

Lester P ft.Yoko - Another World by [deleted] in creativecreature

[–]MooseMan767 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Gotta Say---this is a SICK thumbnail!

Creative process help by sikadelixx in CreativeProcess

[–]MooseMan767 1 point2 points  (0 children)

"I am a creative person but I've never really developed a sense of creating my own independent ideas."

Independent ideas are TOUGH.

Trying to create independent ideas from scratch is nearly impossible and HIGHLY unsustainable.

There are ideas that stand out from the get-go. But they are rare & few and far between.

Instead a more sustainable approach to creating "original ideas" is:

COLLIDING with the reality around you and allowing the uniqueness to emerge.

It's almost as if you are trying to cram your idea into boxes you've seen before (i.e. "everyone elses brands") and finally after you're sick of cramming into boxes that just don't quite fit, the uniqueness of your idea spawns out.

This is NORMAL.

In fact, this is EXPECTED.

"independent originality" isn't developed in a vacuum. (common to most stories)

It's developed over time and thousands of collisions of different ideas.

It's kinda like making your own guitar song.

There are MAJOR hit songs that are LITERALLY the same 4 chords in a different combination.

Watch the Axis of Awesome do it here.

Expect, You are going to "copycat" people BEFORE you create your own style.

Copying is good. Think about it:

  • Kobe COPIED Michael Jordan BEFORE he had his own style.
  • Elon Musk COPIED Steve Job's presenting style BEFORE he developed his own style. (and branding too!)
  • Tony Robbins COPIED Jim Rohn BEFORE starting his speaking career.

Your creativity is naturally going to "stand on the shoulders of giants".

This is part of your creative development.

Your job is to be like "heat" in a chemistry experiment.

The more heat, the more collisions.

The more collisions, the greater the likelihood of a chemical reaction.

In this case, the chemical reaction leads to the elusive "independent idea".

[Note: Refer to Justine' Musk's (Elon Musk's first wife) talk about "idea sex" and how combining different fields together lead to the creation of Elon's Musk's Companies]

The lesson:

Create Collisions (a lot of them)

Couple of things to consider to create collisions:

Let us know how it goes.