We (Nordic fintech company) took the other direction, because one huge client on our customer list helps a lot for further sales. It is still true when we try to enter a new market / country, selling is easier if we have a big name already present in that country on our list.<p>The Basecamp model would never work for us, it is really really hard to get just one client, even for 50 bucks a month, and that will not cover a percentage of our expenses.<p>It may be a US / EU difference though. The cultural differences between EU countries is a lot bigger than US states, and here you need a sales team.
I’ve read this article before, and it’s a good reminder.<p>Especially when you are bootstrapping and just starting out, a big contract just seems too good to be true. A company offering $1000 dollars for an extra feature, another company offering $20000 for a few weeks of custom development...<p>It’s hard to decline offers like that, and I have accepted some offers like that. In some cases it worked out well because interests aligned. In other cases, it just turned out to be a huge time sink.<p>I no longer accept offers like this. If companies want a feature that makes my app better, I’ll implement it anyway — my future customers will pay for it by buying more licenses. If companies want a feature that doesn’t align with my vision, then there’s no point in adding it.