This document provides a framework for bootstrapping a business idea with low risk. It discusses defining a product idea that is business-to-business, recurring, and turnkey with lots of competition. The next steps are to validate the product idea by researching problems online and talking to potential customers. Finally, it outlines a blueprint for guerrilla product sales through content marketing, aggressively pursuing initial customers, email, and borrowing other audiences. The overall strategy is to understand core business problems, build an MVP to solve them, market through the solution rather than selling the product directly, and offer low-hanging fruit to reduce adoption friction.

1. BOOTSTRAPPING 101
BY @BRENNANDUNN

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.

7. MealsNearMe
DEAD ON ARRIVAL

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.

15. STEP 1
DERIVING AN IDEA

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

20. STEP 2
V A L I D AT I N G

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.)

25. STEP 3
MAKING AN INCOME

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.

28. WRAPPING UP
WE’VE COVERED A LOT OF
TA C T I C S . L E T ’ S TA L K S T R AT E G Y.

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.

30. @brennandunn
brennan@planscope.io
!
See my funnel in action:
freelancersweekly.com