My Eighth Year as a Bootstrapped Founder

a month ago

The author reflects on their eighth year as a bootstrapped founder after quitting a job at Google.
Highlights include creating TinyPilot (2020-2024), selling it, and becoming a father in 2024.
Financial summary: $8.2k profit on $16.3k revenue, mainly from a book Kickstarter and early access sales.
Expenses included computer hardware ($2.1k) and LLMs ($1.9k) for tasks like fixing layout issues.
The author discusses the challenges and misconceptions about writing a book as a full-time job.
Writing progress: 150 pages, 13 blog posts, 12 notes, and 12 monthly retrospectives in a year.
Key insights: Business alignment is crucial for enjoyment, profitability, and work-life balance.
Comparison of past business (Is It Keto) with current book project (Refactoring English) in terms of alignment.
Parenting as a founder has been manageable and enjoyable, contrary to initial fears.
Lessons learned: Writing takes longer than expected, alignment with personal interests is key, and parenting doesn’t hinder founding.
Grading last year’s goals: Earned $8.2k (D), 80% book completion (C), minimal progress in learning Gleam (D).
Goals for next year: Earn five book citations, $75k profit, and create a profitable software business.

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