Ask HN: Suggest good books on bootstrapping a startup
I am not good in marketing, growth hacks etc, like to improve my skills. Would you please suggest some great books for getting first few customers for a startup ?
My one gripe with the IH forum is it seems like everyone on there is doing the millionth note taking / project management / web analytics app. Or even worse, a product for other Indie Hackers.
I wish there was more originality, better yet solving real problems for real people - not other indie hackers. Not that it doesn't exist, it just seems the signal to noise ratio is so low.
Since Indie Hackers generally don't take external funding, all the risk is concentrated on the founders. That makes it attractive to focus on established product categories with known demand.
Funded startups are in a better position to take risks and work on innovative products. You don't know if you're building the right thing, and even if you are your potential customers might not see the value right away. Funding allows founders to take a salary while trying to find a market.
I had lots innovative ideas I started working on my product. But in practice the few users I had were all asking for the same types of standard functionality. So I started trying to more directly compete with existing successful businesses.
I am on IH and I am indeed building another web analytics app [0], but I do try and feel like I solve a real problem, help real people and have a positive impact in the self-hosted movement.
I have 100x other "original" ideas, but it's very likely that only few of them would generate enough income to sustain the IH life.
Also, as you mentioned, most of the products there seem to be targeted at other indie-hackers, but that's mostly because the people building those things are more vocal because they can generate leads this way. If someone locally sells flowers and is an indie-hacker, it wouldn't make any sense for him to also try to promote his business on IH. That being said, I still saw a lot of original ideas (cookie delivery, services, products, etc.).
So frustrating and upset to see another marketing funnel on what I thought was going to be a person sharing things on his personal blog. Must everything be monetized? Gross
I really enjoy teaching, to do that well - which requires full time focus - I would need some income atheist a percent of my salary (which was way in top bracket where I live).
I do have a free blog, where I share my learnings.
A course requirs much more time than that but is much more effective in building habits, expressing ideas in visual formats. More effective in my view.
If you are still not convinced do check out patio11 s talk from micro conf on productive consulting
Thanks for sharing the book link, I went through table of content. I am looking for bootstrapping a startup with few (5 to 10) customers. which hacks typically work to acquire initial customers, how to find them for an idea that I have, or The problem I found is faced by many other people ? if so how to find and engage them to provide solution. what type of users usually come forward to give feedbacks. how to attract them ? where are they ? how they are searching a solution to their problem ? I need books that gives me a framework and list of hacks to solves this problem.
You specifically mentioned marketing/growth hacks etc.
I'm a programmer who bootstrapped a site 10 years ago and it's supported me since as an indie hacker. In order to learn about marketing, I held a monthly closed-doors growth hacking meet-up with other bootstrappers and founders to share our experiences about what works, so I've seen a fair amount of the territory.
Anyway I've got a YouTube channel where I share a lot of what I know, especially with respect to getting those first 1000 users. The focus is on marketing techniques that appeal to engineering types like me (e.g. scalable SEO generated from data; paid ads that you can leave running long-term etc.)
My context is scrappy (the biz only had between 1 and 4 employees), but what I know should be of interest to people in the early stages (less so for funded startups, where scale changes the game somewhat) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aCzT-LQI6x0&list=PLpkoC9yJXD...
Talking with customers is great start - partly an art and science. Unfortunately I did it wrong. In 2012, I had an idea and found two initial customers after calling 40+. talked with these two continuously till the product matures. They are super supportive, they gave all problem they face, exited to use the product as well. gave us good feedbacks and improvements, After 3 months of development, we showed a demo to other customers, very few shown interest. During our post analysis, we came to known that, these two customers have built a project for them. They've completely taken us away from a product to project. customization for few customers is also a bad thing to do. (they have paid me, what I need, but still I missed the great niche product, failed to scale to few thousand userbase with only common features). I should have talked and engaged with more customers and built only core features.
Hard disagree. Building, shipping, and learning from my mistakes is the only I was able to actually apply anything I learned from books. IMO the best method is to do both - start building now, and read books relevant to whatever part of the journey you're stuck on or need help with.
Spoken like a true prodigy! Entrepreneurship is not a spectator sport. You have to participate and not cheer from side lines. You have to get onto the base plate and start swinging. The more you bat, the more you maximize your chance of hitting the ball and making that home run. You can keep reading books all day long(and there is no shortage of shovels these gold rush days) but unless you make something and put it out there you won’t learn. Launch and learn. This will be my deathbed advice to my son.
That's a good idea. what I've learnt was startup failures has lot in common, similarly success is not an anomaly, it should has its own pattern. Most mistakes are already someone else mistake, I believe that reading some books will help to avoid 80% of the mistakes. the acquired knowledge will store a mental model within me. otherwise I need a lot of luck.
Good (even great) book, but has some flaws and focuses mostly on enterprise costumers. The revised version The Startup Owner's Manual is more polished and covers a wider range of business models.
> - The Lean Startup
An excellent recommendation. The other books in the series (especially IMO Running Lean and Lean Analytics) are also worth a look:
Thanks for your suggestion. I have heard about them. but did not get chance to read. started reading the third chapter of The Four Steps to the Epiphany - visionary customer Discovery, Love it.
You can also find books on audible to listen to that might save you time especially listening to them at a faster speed like 1.5x - Also check out some startup podcasts as well.
Another good book might be Blitzscaling by Reid Hoffman.
One thing to keep in mind is not to get distracted by all these items (they are good, but can be useful) but there are no shortcuts.
Most of the largest companies were built without a playbook but with determination and a north star.
Remember to also have fun! Hope this helps somewhat.
I wish there was more originality, better yet solving real problems for real people - not other indie hackers. Not that it doesn't exist, it just seems the signal to noise ratio is so low.
Funded startups are in a better position to take risks and work on innovative products. You don't know if you're building the right thing, and even if you are your potential customers might not see the value right away. Funding allows founders to take a salary while trying to find a market.
I had lots innovative ideas I started working on my product. But in practice the few users I had were all asking for the same types of standard functionality. So I started trying to more directly compete with existing successful businesses.
I have 100x other "original" ideas, but it's very likely that only few of them would generate enough income to sustain the IH life.
Also, as you mentioned, most of the products there seem to be targeted at other indie-hackers, but that's mostly because the people building those things are more vocal because they can generate leads this way. If someone locally sells flowers and is an indie-hacker, it wouldn't make any sense for him to also try to promote his business on IH. That being said, I still saw a lot of original ideas (cookie delivery, services, products, etc.).
[0]: http://usertrack.net/
Lean analytics. (must read) Product-Led growth. (must read) 22 Laws of marketing (must) One million followers
If you like scientific approach: Influence by Robert Cialdini Contagious (Jonah Berger)
This resource is also gold: https://brianbalfour.com/essays/customer-acquisition
I am also documenting my learnings in a book [1].
[1] https://book.amols.blog/59decisions
I really enjoy teaching, to do that well - which requires full time focus - I would need some income atheist a percent of my salary (which was way in top bracket where I live). I do have a free blog, where I share my learnings.
A course requirs much more time than that but is much more effective in building habits, expressing ideas in visual formats. More effective in my view.
If you are still not convinced do check out patio11 s talk from micro conf on productive consulting
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ZJZbv4J6FZ8Dnb0JuMhJxTnw...
Unicorns vs Horses. Article. Good perspective.
https://medium.com/@awilkinson/unicorns-vs-horses-f81d8dd61f...
If you want to support the author, buy the book and/or write a review.
I'm a programmer who bootstrapped a site 10 years ago and it's supported me since as an indie hacker. In order to learn about marketing, I held a monthly closed-doors growth hacking meet-up with other bootstrappers and founders to share our experiences about what works, so I've seen a fair amount of the territory.
Anyway I've got a YouTube channel where I share a lot of what I know, especially with respect to getting those first 1000 users. The focus is on marketing techniques that appeal to engineering types like me (e.g. scalable SEO generated from data; paid ads that you can leave running long-term etc.)
My context is scrappy (the biz only had between 1 and 4 employees), but what I know should be of interest to people in the early stages (less so for funded startups, where scale changes the game somewhat) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aCzT-LQI6x0&list=PLpkoC9yJXD...
- Mom Test
It’s also the most practical business book I’ve ever read. It actually tells you how to execute the ideas than just the ideas.
he goes through lots of stories and anecdotes from companies, consultants, and agencies who found that staying small can be a strategic advantage
growth is a means to an end, but not an end in and of itself
Amazon link: https://www.amazon.com/Company-One-Staying-Small-Business/dp...
https://makebook.io/
Yesterday I bought this book :)
Its totally waste of time to build and learn the hard way.
I am going to buy and read as many books as possible for next few months.
- Saran
- The Lean Startup
Good (even great) book, but has some flaws and focuses mostly on enterprise costumers. The revised version The Startup Owner's Manual is more polished and covers a wider range of business models.
> - The Lean Startup
An excellent recommendation. The other books in the series (especially IMO Running Lean and Lean Analytics) are also worth a look:
https://www.amazon.com/stores/page/7509FE4F-9888-4384-ACBC-D...
Thanks Saran
Another good book might be Blitzscaling by Reid Hoffman.
One thing to keep in mind is not to get distracted by all these items (they are good, but can be useful) but there are no shortcuts.
Most of the largest companies were built without a playbook but with determination and a north star.
Remember to also have fun! Hope this helps somewhat.