EVERYTHING I'VE LEARNED BUILDING THREE MILLION DOLLAR BUSINESSES OUT OF MY LIVING ROOMS
Accepted startup ideas work well for people with funding, but if you're out here bootstrapping from scratch, you might want to approach things differently. /A thread

So I'm a dreamer like everyone else, but I prioritize moving all those dreams into the here and now. So instead of holding on to some massive dream of a business idea that will require funding and years of development and for fortune to smile on me, instead I ask myself this…

What can I build now with my current resources? Now. TODAY. Something that I know people need right now and are already spending a shit ton of money on as we speak. Whatever that is, I get moving

So I don’t care if it’s something fun or that I’m passionate about. Matter of fact the unsexier the better if you ask me. Not only are unsexy industries where you’ll find a lot of money to be made, most of the sophisticated competition are focused on other things.

There is a lot of money to be made providing simple home services like home cleaning or laundry for example, but everyone is out here building mobile apps. Meanwhile I’m over here like...

So if we forget about passion projects, we can focus on outcome/goals for the bootstrapped businesses I built:

Get to revenue in 60 days, grow that bad boy, learn, improve, and get moving on with life!

And to do that, you have to let some things go. Here’s what I’ve picked up along the way that might not always square with what people think of when building a startup. This is what has worked FOR ME!

Validation: Validation in my opinion is for fantasy ideas. If you stay away from having to come up with an awesome idea, you won’t need validation in the first place. I find what other companies have already validated.

And when you find that thing, stop worrying about competition. Competition IS the validation.

Saturation: One of the first things you’ll hear is “the market is oversaturated”! This is largely meaningless, yet this single phrase has stopped more potential entrepreneurs in their tracks than…well I honestly can’t think of anything that beats this. Kills me every time.

Start looking at the quality of the competition instead, and you’ll often find that the market is saturated with a LOT of bad players, and they’re making a LOT of money despite being so bad. A bootstrapper's dream!

Business plans: This often ends up being a way to push action further down the road. I used to do 60 page business plans that took me months and never took action. Now I download something like this, fill that bad boy out, and get to work. One page: http://100startup.com/resources/business-plan.pdf

Demographic data, market analysis, the economic outlook... blah blah blah. More ways to kick the can down the road and to feel that you’re doing something when you’re really not. Or to convince yourself why it won’t work. Now my analysis is this…

Are a lot of people making money doing this thing?
Is the startup cost low?
Is there sorcery involved?
Yes, Yes, no? Ok bet I can throw my hat in the ring and see what’s up. Shooters shoot. RIP Mamba.

So what if my idea is stolen? Ideas hold little intrinsic value without execution. However, you can start to extract value when you get feedback on it, massaging it, push and poke it, and really run it through the wringer. And the only way to do this is to tell people about it.

This goes against our most basic instincts Well the reality is, most people are sitting on the bench with a gazillion ideas that they're not executing on. You just added one more to that list. Either way, if an idea can't survive competition is it that great to begin with?

In addition, what happens when you launch? You can’t run a business without telling anybody about it. You’ll often get this response, “ But I’ll lose my first-mover’s advantage?”. Well good. I would never want to be the first mover anyhow.

First movers bare a tremendous cost in educating customers. Most regular folks don’t have that money to bare that cost. The folks that are second and onwards, can just slide in and benefit from all of that initial work. This way you get to revenue without spending a ton...

Find your passion? Nah son. Find something that is viable. I’m passionate about table tennis, but I’m not looking to turn that passion into a business. When it comes to business, I’m far more passionate about providing a good product/service that has good margins.

This way, I’m free to work on the best opportunity that arises without limitation. So while most of the brainpower is busy chasing sexy mobile apps and such, you can make bank by selling ugly widgets or providing basic services. It’s tough to pay bills with app downloads.

Fancy Tech: For technical folks, it seems like the inclination to complicate things is overwhelming. So a problem like “find people that need lawn service and connect them with people that provide lawn service” becomes....

...well how about we use Zillow’s APi to pull a picture of the lawn, and the customer confirms it by drawing an outline of the area to be serviced and we tie that into Google maps and feed everything into a pricing algorithm..

Unfortunately, many of these guys do not make it. More often than not simplicity wins. I was doing $60,000 a month with a combination of Google calendar, Google spreadsheets, and gmail. Get out of the customer’s way.

Start Small: Start something small to get practice: You don’t get good at running marathons by reading about running marathons. And you don’t get good at business by reading about business. You get good by doing. And doing it over and over again.

But just like you wouldn’t expect to win the first marathon you entered, why put so much pressure on yourself to win at the first company you start? Or worse yet, paralyze yourself with fear into never running at all because you’re afraid you won’t win?

It doesn’t make sense with marathons and it doesn’t make sense with business. So while a lot of folks over-analyze every minutia about the thing, people like Kevin and me would have already downloaded a training regiment, bought a pair of shoes, and hit the bricks.

So what if I fail? Nothing happens! It’s literally the most mundane non-event imaginable. I spend a day or two wrapping up any loose ends, head to the movies or do something fun, and by the next day I’m already figuring out what the next thing is.

If you start small, no one failure will be your undoing. But you have to get to the experience of doing.

My personal experience hasn’t been “Try->Win”, it has been more like “try, fail, try, fail, try, fail, try, fail win, win, win, win.” With each failure you get better, it’s like the best and cheapest MBA you’ll ever get. Get it over with and get back to work.

And lastly, Naysayers: If you’re a DOER, you'll encounter them. Sometimes it’s even your friends and family. I keep an imgur album of the best ones I come across. Sometimes for a little motivation, and sometimes just to look back and smile.

But your biggest naysayer lives in your head. And that voice is constantly appraising and analyzing every business idea we entertain. Not a bad thing on its face, but the voice in our head typically skews negative.

Shut that dude/dudette up! Or you’ll analyze and over think and what-if every single idea until you convince yourself it won’t work. Over time this messes with your confidence, and you'll end up paralyzed.

Say what you want about the guy (he’s a wild dude I know and this is a clip I saved from way back when), but Kanye was right about this one thing: Most people are held back by their perception of themselves! It’s a brutal feedback loop.

So that's about it peeps! If you're new here these two case studies walked you through two of the businesses I starting in my living room:
Sub box: https://twitter.com/rohangilkes/status/1258083735125159936
Saas: https://twitter.com/rohangilkes/status/1256264500501594112

Ok back to quarantining...more of these to come since I have time at home alone. See you peeps on the next one!