David Heinemeier Hansson at Startup School 08

What Hacker News said

Strong rec csallen · 2011-11 · on “Startups Are Hard. So Work More, Cry Less, And Quit All The Whining”

I haven't read the book that some others have been recommending, but it looks good (I respect a lot of the people who gave it favorable reviews on its website). Aside from that, I'd say you should do some research on others who've successfully followed this path. They exist -- they're just less likely to show up in tech news, which is heavily influenced by investors (who only care about big wins) and bloggers (who only care about big news). Take a look at the early blog posts from Balsamiq's Peldi, anything by Patrick Mackenzie, the Wufoo guys, Gary Vaynerchuck, or anything from the 37Signals guys. This talk by DHH never fails to motivate me: [this video]

Strong rec bira · 2012-04 · on “Show HN: We decided not to apply to YC so we could try Kickstarter”

Have you already watched DHH's "How to Make Money Online" presentation ( [this video] )? If not, watch it ASAP. If you go down the bootstrapping road, you must have profits coming in, to fund and further the development of your product. Sooner or later you will have to make money and since you don't seem to have a lot of funds laying around, the sooner the better. Moreover, have you validated your idea(s) (included the previous, failed attempts to excute them and build a viable business)? Are you sure that there are enough people out there with the burning desire to throw money at you for this app to make it worth the hustle? (assuming you want to sell your app, which would be the best and most s

Strong rec leelin · 2020-12 · on “The Rise and Fall of Ambrosia Software (2019)”

Reading the ending hits closer to home and made me more sad than expected! Andrew Welch was uneasy about the idea of scaling up, especially when they could survive as they were just fine off their utility products Way back in the day, YC always said not to worry about competitors raising tons of money (not sure if that's still the rec). The 2008 DHH boostrapping talk during Startup School is still one of the most influential videos on my career as a founder. But that path is increasingly less popular! [this video] Lastly, for all the bolo comments out there, I remember the huge transition from modems to school ethernet that made it playable - it was honestly one of the reasons I was looking forwa

Recommends mgl · 2011-06 · on “10 YouTube Videos Every Entrepreneur Should Watch”

Nice collection but this one with David Heinemeier Hansson on bootstrapping a profitable startup is definitely missing: [this video]

Recommends AVTizzle · 2012-05 · on “Workplace experiments: A month to yourself”

The other answers aren't wrong, but I think listening to 37Signals Partner DHH from Startup School would speak best: [this video] Almost more than their products, they're known for their very vocal broadcasting against the standard startup focus of investments, valuations, exits, etc... Their books "Getting Real" and "Rework" represent their bootstrapping, sustainable-business values - they're not timid in speaking out against the nonsense of the modern startup conventional wisdom. Personally, I think it's a very refreshing and empowering voice for entrepreneurs. It's not without controversy though, so dig in to their content for yourself to make your own judgement. (FWIW - "Getting Real" is a fr

Recommends hello_newman · 2013-08 · on “The Best Companies Don’t Do Accelerator Programs”

"Not every important idea is a huge world-changing event. Sometimes building a small company that makes a big difference to a small number of people is more important." Totally agree. DHH actually gave a talk about this subject at Start-Up School back in 2008. Definitely worth watching [this video]

Recommends graeme · 2014-07 · on “Ask HN: Did you get "never have to work again rich" through software?”

There is more to business than startups. If you can program, then you can bootstrap a "lifestyle" business. I don't love that term, but people know what it means. You can make a business that doesn't depend on traction and scale. Find a prosaic need, and serve it. Could start with consulting, or products. Start small, stay small by Rob Walling is an excellent primer, as is the four hour workweek. The latter glosses over how much effort is actually required to make a "muse", but the mindset is spot on. I'm currently doing this. I'll never get a $10 million payout, but I've built good revenue streams and have complete freedom of time. And I did it without knowing programming. You've basically

Recommends _448 · 2022-12 · on “I am done. I give up”

Cold email is a hit and miss approach. Just go talk to people face to face. Initially it seems like a non-scalable approach but it works wonders. The silicon valley, VC preached mantra of hyper scale is what muddles the minds of most entrepreneurs. Everyone starts thinking of million of users rather than 100s of users. There is a very interesting presentation at YC startup school 2008: [this video] You will recognise the speaker :)