define: bootstrap <i>not taking VC (friends/family money is OK)</i><p>why? <i>for control, to be the boss, to have freedom. A lot of pain to go through</i><p>save <i>money</i><p>team <i>takes years, so start thinking about it now. Who's going to be on your team? How are you going to finance this? eg. consult, sell your car</i><p>market <i>Bootstrapping won't work for every kind of business. Best way is to sell to business, can sell for a lot of money, so you only need a few sales to reach profitability</i><p>product <i>who pays money already? Sell to someone who's spending</i><p>use it <i>yourself; be in your target audience</i><p>beta <i>free, let everyone you know in, make it seem exclusive, but don't really make it exclusive; then use this as your free research. This is how you find out what are good ideas and what are the bad ideas</i><p>what are PEOPLE doing? <i>It's one thing to sit around thinking about what would work, but when you see what people are really doing, that's how you get a really great product. eg. what are they clicking? It's different from what they say they're going to do. Gives you great ideas about what is the product, what defines the product.</i><p>what are YOU doing? <i>you're the user. would YOU pay for it?</i><p>steal a business plan <i>copy competitors, charge less</i><p>launch it <i>Means charging money. as soon as you can charge money, launch your product. Be lean. NOT 1.0, every feature imaginable, pie-in-the-sky, perfect app. But keep 1.0 in mind</i><p>course correct <i>then start heading towards 1.0. You might not even hit it</i><p>add features <i>launch, and then start adding features. Along the way, from watching users, you can tell which ones are important and which one's aren't, and prioritize your stuff that way. Use those ideas you already have for 1.0, if you can roll them out incrementally, you'll make "super-fans", really excited about the product, they want to help you, they want you to succeed</i><p>flickr <i>photographers are referred to it by other users</i><p>youtube <i>marketing without money: a youtube link to a funny video goes into your brain. same as seeing a coke ad on a billboard. For some businesses you can't just advertise with google words, you need to think of ways to use the internet</i><p>facebook <i>gets better the more of your friends are on it. Same with twitter [network effect]; build something that gives people a reason to invite their friends</i><p>be cheap <i>don't buy stuff you can't actually afford until you can actually afford it. Sounds simple but it's surprising how many people blow their money before they even have the money. "PAYG and you won't have to go"</i><p>be smart <i>use your brain at all times. don't do what I'm saying just because I'm saying it, think about all the decisions and think of how it applies to your business</i><p>don't give up <i>change and adapt, always be adapting and correcting your mistakes, because there's going to be a lot of mistakes</i><p><i>[transcript ver 0.5]</i>