Fun fact: @coingecko was founded entirely bootstrapped with only $100 of starting capital. Today we are one of the largest crypto website in the world with 20+ employees.

How is this possible?

2/ Do it on the side
@bobbyong and I started coingecko as a side project while we kept our day jobs. This helped us continue to put roof over our heads and pay for food. Starting a startup can psychologically mess you up, having a fulfilling day job helps fill that gap too

3/ Diverse founding team
I do tech and @bobbyong sells. These are 2 most basic skills to get any product off the ground

As a whole initial founders need to be able to cover all grounds from the start, such that we never desperately need to hire

4/ Defer hiring
We deferred hiring until years later. Salary can take up the highest cost, while we are still validating ideas.

Defer hiring also forces you to find various hacks to getting the job done effectively with limited resources

5/ Live in low cost area
We are based in Malaysia where cost of living is relatively low. Our burn rate is low, we can skip taking a salary and live on simple hawker food to get by.
Stay hawker profitable and hawker sustainable

6/ Start with a niche, scalable one

We started @coingecko in 2014 when bitcoin is considered a niche. Competition is low, cost of acquiring users is low.

In any space you enter, find the niche that is small/cheap that can potentially scale into a rocketship

7/ Finally why are we proud of bootstrapping.

It's about building a sustainable business and product that we enjoy while aiming for long term hypergrowth

Limited resources force us to think creatively in finding growth

Bootstrap gives startup flexible time horizon risks too

8/ Next time you think about starting up.

You don't have to leave your job
You don't have to be in Silicon Valley
You don't need VC funding
You just gotta do it right and stick with it!