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Give it time
a day ago
- In venture-funded startups, time is negative: every month burns runway, moving fast is essential to survive, and time is borrowed.
- In revenue-funded businesses, time is positive: each month brings freedom, time compounds, linear growth sustains, and time builds trust, resilience, patience, and clarity.
- The overarching message is to give time, as it ultimately outlasts competition and earns value.
In defense of linear
a day ago
- Founder Zeke Gabrielse received a seven-figure acquisition offer for Keygen, tempted by the promise of exponential growth and recognition.
- He struggled with the slow, linear growth of his bootstrapped business and felt left behind compared to fast-growing startups.
- The offer came at the cost of his freedom, including time with family, control over his work, and the calm lifestyle he values.
- He realized that boredom and loneliness are better addressed by slow hiring and careful growth, not by selling out for an ego boost.
- Zeke declined the offer, choosing to continue his linear path with Keygen as a calm, profitable business rather than a startup.
The space elevator
a day ago
- Bootstrapping a business is compared to a slow, steady space elevator, while venture-backed startups are like explosive rocket ships.
- The elevator is cheaper and less risky, but slower; rockets are faster but have a higher risk of failure, including exploding.
- Rocket launches attract crowds and attention, but they quickly move on to the next spectacle, while elevator riders can keep their loved ones close.
- Elevator riders make small bets and accumulate wins over time, whereas rocketeers bet everything on a single outcome.
- Sometimes rockets succeed or fail dramatically, reinforcing the elevator rider's choice to stay on the steady path.
- Progress on the elevator is slow but compounds over years, and the rider must avoid burning all their fuel (resources) to eventually reach their destination.
Don't die
a day ago
- Survival is the most important goal for a bootstrapped SaaS company; growth must outpace churn.
- Incremental growth is progress; every customer gained net of churn is a win.
- Longevity builds trust and reliability, which matters more than flashy marketing or rapid growth.
- Survival provides time to iterate, refine, and learn what the market needs.
- Giving up guarantees failure; persistence keeps the door open to success.
Bootstrapping GDC with DMD
16 days ago
- FreeBSD lacks a GDC package; a wrapper program enables bootstrapping GDC using DMD.
- GDC is written in D since GCC 12; DMD can bootstrap stage1 GDC with flag translation via a wrapper.
- The wrapper, gdc-wrapper, translates GCC-style flags for DMD, allowing GDC builds on FreeBSD and other systems.
Hitting $125k MRR as a solo founder by doubling down on the right segment
17 days ago
- Jason Zigelbaum built Zigpoll, a survey and customer feedback platform, after identifying a gap in understanding customer behavior in e-commerce.
- He bootstrapped the company solo, without cofounders, funding, or a sales team, reaching $125K MRR (around $1.5M ARR) and doubling revenue annually.
- The initial focus was on e-commerce, but Zigpoll now serves SaaS teams, offering post-purchase, exit-intent, and CRO surveys to capture honest feedback at key moments.
- Key growth channels include the Shopify App Store (about one-third of signups), word-of-mouth from agency operators, and AI tools like ChatGPT (14% of signups).
- A major learning was realizing agency operators were the core segment; un-gating integrations and building for them increased revenue per account by 24% without price hikes.
- Zigelbaum emphasizes listening to customers through structured feedback, acting on patterns quickly, and using qualitative data over waiting for statistical significance.
- His tech stack is JavaScript-based, using Express, Mongo, React, and Redis, and he prioritizes reliable third-party tools to save time and money.
- Future goals include reaching $2M ARR and expanding Zigpoll beyond e-commerce to serve any business needing customer insights, while remaining solo and bootstrapped.

bootstrapping

Give it time

In defense of linear

The space elevator

Don't die

Bootstrapping GDC with DMD

Hitting $125k MRR as a solo founder by doubling down on the right segment