Ask HN: Solo Founder Tips?

[jyu]

I'm solving a problem I have personally dealt with at work. Built out an MVP, talking to users, improving product. I am realizing the mountain of work ahead.

I am outsourcing non-core stuff like researching the competitive landscape, investors, contacting prospective users. Also scheduling alternative days of talking to users vs building product has helped a lot.

Wondering what other 1 or 2 person teams do to improve effectiveness?

[JanSt]

Avoid investors. You don't need a huge team. Try to bootstrap everything, preferably on the side (can you reduce your work hours? I reduced my hours by 50%. I never had pressure to make money and developed the project for nearly two years). Spend the time building product. Automate everything else you can. Can you reach users? Otherwise think about a partner that already has an audience. I have spend $0 on anyone besides my partner (my brother, who owns his own company) and a bookkeeper (but most of payments is as simple as it gets - app store / play store. Better pay 15% fee and don't care about VAT, processing, refunds etc (and save the salary for an employee for that). But I spend on managed infrastructure (cloud serversm managed database, S3...) You can go very, very far alone. I'm the solo dev and ceo on a complex project that competes with companies with many more employees. When you start gaining users: ask every single one for feedback, questions and improvements. Build a good FAQ.

We are profitable and growing in an established market with many players.

[milanspeaks]

I've created 2 products in past as a solo founder — Growby.net and Robofy.ai — and I can share some tips from my previous experiences.

When you're running a startup on your own, it's tough to handle both product development and marketing at the same time. What worked for me was to alternate between the two. For instance, I'd spend one week focusing solely on coding and building the product, and the next week would be dedicated to marketing and search engine optimization (SEO). Some solo founders switch tasks every day, but I found that dedicating a full week to each area was more effective for me.

Another key point is to focus on high-impact, low-effort tasks. It's unlikely that you'll be able to master all aspects of digital marketing or build a groundbreaking product all by yourself. Concentrate on the most crucial tasks that will give you the biggest return on your effort. In other words, prioritize.

Lastly, keep direct communication with your customers in-house. Don't delegate this important task. However, it's okay to outsource more technical tasks like server management and coding to others.

[jyu]

Thanks. Focusing on high-impact, low-effort makes a ton of sense. I'm definitely staying close to paying customers. Wondering how you delineate core vs noncore tasks that you outsource?

[muzani]

Don't try to follow the unicorn route.

Make sure you set the bar low. You survive against unicorns by being an ant. Be very, very cautious of scope creep.

That doesn't mean low quality. When you set the bar low enough, you're in a different playing field, somewhere unicorns don't fit. You're a bottom feeder.

But make sure you cross the bar you set. That's all you have to do, just promise and deliver. You can overdeliver.

Nobody's going to VC back a subscription razor service. You can make sharper razors, cheaper razors, nicer boxes. You can put a perfumed handwritten note in everyone's first box. You're specializing so there's not much else to do.

But do keep an eye on your scheduling. Hit deadlines you set for yourself. Setting deadlines lets you figure what matters and what doesn't, or whether you're scoping too big.

You shouldn't have a mountain of work. That's not what success means. Scope it down to an anthill. There's something out there that fits you perfectly.

Spend a lot of time planning because you can't just throw resources at everything to see what sticks. It takes as much effort to make a bad product as it does to make a good one, probably more. So don't waste your time making something that doesn't fit you. Make use of things like prototypes. Carefully evaluate what isn't working.

[keiferski]

Maybe a relic of past times, but:

Dollar Shave Club has raised a total of $163.5M in funding over 7 rounds. Their latest funding was raised on Nov 19, 2015 from a Series D round.

https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/dollar-shave-club/co...

[muzani]

Funny, I was so confident they weren't VC funded that I didn't even bother checking if they were.

[ezekg]

It's not easy, but it's doable. You have to cultivate the business you want to run (going solo vs with a team). I never personally outsourced much work other than bookkeeping/financials, and instead opted to do things myself. Some things can be slow as a solo founder, but you will find that you can move a lot quicker i.r.t. to product development and support in a way that can give you a real competitive advantage.

For me, talking to users happens daily, throughout the day via email. I try to be as responsive as possible, without breaking any flow state. I do product development when I feel like it (which typically looks like a sin wave otherwise I tend to burn out), or when it's required i.e. bug fixes. The rest is marketing and just sitting there thinking about next steps (some may call it vision).

[busymichael]

I am on a similar path with https://intro.wtf (AI product merchandising for online retailers). I am solo but am trying to make being a solo saas founder the 'water I swim in.' I am connecting with others in my network who are solo founders, joined microconf, listening to podcasts, etc. I am trying to connect with other people who are all focused on similar goals, combine that with my focus and work to get better over time.

[keiferski]

This is a good idea and something I’ve discussed at the company I work for. But you need a different name. Serious e-commerce companies aren’t buying anything from a .wtf domain.

[satvikpendem]

There's a good book I read about this, Company of One. I also recommend The Million Dollar One Person Business. They're both about solo foundership.

[b20000]

I am outsourcing non-core stuff like researching the competitive landscape, investors, contacting prospective users >>> how do you outsource this?

[jyu]

Realized I misspoke here. I'm talking to new users almost every day. Making lists of new users to contact is what I'm outsourcing.

[b20000]

what about the landscape and investors?

[jyu]

Competitive landscape, just need to be aware of what they're doing, but not really focusing on them. There are probably at least 10-30 competitors doing something similar and different stages of venture backed.

Same idea. Probably 5 applicable accelerators, ~100-500 angel investors, ~50-100 seed stage investors. Going through accelerator interviews. Ignoring all investors until after I get more paying users. I haven't gone through raising before, but https://www.lore.vc/ has been a nice resource. Setting up the auction environment for the best fundraising market dynamics.

[ezekg]

Agree. This is table-stakes stuff for a solo founder.

[geniium]

Do the contacting user yourself. Find your first 10 customer yourself. You will learn a lot !

[satya71]

I’ve heard from other solo founders that having a mastermind group or even a coach, if you can afford one, helps a lot.