2. THE DREAM
• Eventually we realize that we don’t own our income.
• Our most valuable asset is our time — both to us and
our employers / clients.
• Ergo, we want to separate time from money.
3. F O R M O S T, I T ’ S
A PIPE DREAM.
• “Make money while you
sleep!”
• “Make $XX,XXX from
home!”
• “Move to San Francisco
and apply for YC!”
4. My goal tonight is to present a low risk
framework for augmenting / replacing
your income.
8. SO WHO IS THIS GUY?
• Ran a consultancy in Norfolk, “We Are Titans”
— maxed at 11 FT employees.
• Got tired of client work. Bootstrapped a SaaS called
Planscope.
• Have since written two books, teach a number of
workshops, and speak on consulting / bootstrapping.
• In less than 2 years, run rate of $10-40k/month with NO
OUTSIDE MONEY.
16. “Disrupt. Game changer. TechCrunche’d. Scale.”
–EVERY WANTRAPRENEUR EVER
(AND MOST OF MY FORMER CLIENTS)
17. P L AY I N G T H E
S TA R T U P L O T T O .
• “Wouldn’t it be cool IF…”
• We mostly read about the
successes, but not the
failures.
• Low likelihood to succeed,
but high pay-off if you do.
• A+B
18. DEFINING THE PERFECT
B O O T S T R A P P E D P R O D U C T…
• Business-to-Business
• Non point-in-time (e.g. weddings, events, job finding)
• Naturally recurring (PM, accounting, scheduling)
• Turnkey (doesn’t require a network effect)
19. DEFINING THE PERFECT
B O O T S T R A P P E D P R O D U C T… ( C O N T )
• Lots and lots of competition
• Customer pays more than they cost
• Money maker
• Money saver
21. V A L I D AT I N G Y O U R P R O D U C T
• Your product is the bridge between “OMG this sucks”
and :-)
• Product validation requires understanding the net
effect of removing problem X from a set of companies
• By focusing on the problem (e.g. making client
communication more transparent) you’ll be naturally
constrained to ship only what matters.
22. Q U I C K W I N S F O R V A L I D AT I N G
• Stalk Internet forums for common themes, shared
language, and raw pains.
• Google around for “Why X sucks” (X being a well-
established player.)
• Go door to door asking “Will you write me a check for
this?” NOT “Would you use this?” (Universal truth:
people don’t like making other people feel bad. They
will, however, refuse to pay for stuff.)
26. THE BLUEPRINT FOR GUERRILLA
PRODUCT SALES
• Create an audience. Be the hero who slays Problem X.
• Produce content around the problem and solutions,
with all arrows pointing toward your product.
• Aggressively hunt down your first 50 customers. (See
Robert Graham’s great book on cold calling for
startups.)
• EMAIL.
27. THE BLUEPRINT FOR GUERRILLA
PRODUCT SALES (CONT)
• Think about the friction that someone needs to
overcome to use your product. How can you offer a
low hanging fruit?
• Borrow other people’s audiences. See: Constant
Contact, guest blogging.
• Offer concierge onboarding.
• Collect as much qualitative AND quantitative data as
you can.
29. • Understand and verify core problems that affect a
businesses’ ability to thrive.
• Build a MVP that solves (or partially solves) that
problem.
• Market through the solution, don’t sell the product.
• Offer low hanging fruit or impulse buys if your product
requires big workflow changes.
