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Ten Years of Bootstrapping: Lessons Learned
Note: I was holding off on posting this because I wanted to wait for our redesign to be finished…but alas, it is taking much longer than we thought it would…so as promised a while back, here is our story. Our Story: 10 Years of Bootstrapping In 2002, after several years of running a small but […]
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When to join a startup
<p>Something has changed in the last few years which has made an increasing number of people want to join startups. It seemed to start around ...
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I bought back my acquihired startup
I wrote about my language learning startup, Readlang , back in 2014 , and then again in 2016 , both times attracting attention on Hacker News, where my story of a struggling one-man startup seemed to resonate. Well, it’s now 7 years later, and a bunch has happened since, so it’s time for an update…
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Misadventures in VC Funding: The $24 Million Moz Almost Raised
Marketing, entrepreneurship, and the ongoing study of how influence spreads (with the occasional interlude on travel, pasta, TV -- the important stuff) from founder Rand Fishkin.
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11 years of hosting a SaaS
Lots of mistakes, some uptime too.
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Startup advice
In honor of the new YC batch starting tomorrow, here is some of the best startup advice I’ve heard or given (mostly heard): 1. Make something people want. 2. A great team and a great...
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I stopped setting a financial goal for my SaaS
Money can be only a short-term motivation / Make it “better” rather than “bigger” / Figuring out “enough” / Life is one shot
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If I Launched a Startup - Cheat Sheet
Startup lawyer tips for launching: incorporate smart, use mentors/advisors carefully, and raise seed capital with founder-friendly, low-drama terms.
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Startups should not use React
That is, if you ever hope to be acquired by a larger company
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A horrifying startup accelerator story
Recently, I wrote a post called “Entrepreneurs Deserve Full Transparency” for my WSJ series. Several entrepreneurs wrote me, but this story really stands out as a warning to do your diligence and demand full transparency. Not all accelerators are created equal. I’ve posted the following email by permission of the…
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My Experience in the Educational Apps Market – 2013 report
So after my 2011 and 2012 reports. Here's my 2013 report about my sales and experience as an indie educational iOS app developer. I hope yo...
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The Post-YC Slump
At the end of a YC batch, the general consensus among the partners is that about 25% of the companies are on a trajectory that could lead to a multi-billion dollar company. Of course, only a...
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Selling My Bootstrapped SaaS Business (2017)
How I built and sold a bootstrapped Micro-SaaS business in five years. A guide for founders to selling a SaaS business.
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I wish I’d thought of that. Operation Starbucks
I should have thought of it first. I walked into Starbucks one afternoon. Ok. Ok. I do this every afternoon, but something was different this time. Something really neat was going on.
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Startups in 13 Sentences
February 2009 One of the things I always tell startups is a principle I learned from Paul Buchheit: it's better to make a few people really happy than to make a lot of people semi-happy. I was saying recently to a reporter that if I could only tell startups 10 things, this would be one of them. Then I thought: what…
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How I took my SaaS from idea to sold in 14 months
I built an MVP in one month and grew the product for a year. But now it’s time to pass the torch. It’s official, I sold Mugshot Bot! Here’s how it all went down.
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Twilio's Seed Pitch
I read yesterday evening that our portfolio company Twilio, which priced its IPO last night, is going to live code from the NYSE this morning. That brought a powerful flashback to the first time I met Jeff Lawson, founder and CEO of Twilio. It was 2008 in our old offices on the 14th floor of […]
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Want to found a startup? Work at one first
Research shows start-ups with experienced founders are more likely to succeed, and build more valuable companies too. But if you want to found a company, how do you get that experience? My experience says the fast-track is joining an existing start-up and riding that wave, taking the opportunities that come with…