In this episode, Ian and Andrey talk about kids’ toys, Uberdeck, making sense of Adwords, Snappy, content marketing, finding a regular job after years of running a bootstrapped software company, selling physical products, Userscape’s new hire, running a conference, and moving to a consultancy.
Great show as usual. Andrey, you are touchingly honest about your journey as a bootstrapper. I kept nodding constantly, as I related to everything you spoke about. This is why this is the No1 podcast on my iTunes.
I do agree with Ian that you should just focus on 1 product at a time. Having 2 products & being burnt out is not sustainable. Using Andy Brice’s expertise sounds like a genius idea!
I’ll soon have to start selling my desktop app, so I’m preparing for a long difficult process. There’s fun in overcoming that adversity.
Thanks for a great and super honest show. I believe the feelings and emotions Andrey is sharing resonate with the experience of the majority of bootstrapped business owners.
@andrey you should really consider following @ian’s advice on focussing your marketing effort towards a single target audience. You could choose: “Mobile game developers in the New York area, making free apps.” Then, find out anything you can about this group, and you adapt your marketing to your target audience. Write very specific blog-posts that entertain this audience without over-selling your product. Love your target audience and be their most trusted adviser! Automate everything, use a CRM like Trak.io to capture info about your visitors. Also don’t be shy of doing physical stuff, like going to a meet-up and make a live-demo of your product.
Again, listen to the I Love Marketing podcast that I told you about last week. You’ll learn some really great insights.
Agreed. Great episode, even if it was a bit of a downer - but it’s only a downer because I’m going through similar thoughts of whether to switch to a consulting focus, or even get a job instead of doing the bootstrapped product thing. So the discussion was really helpful. Andrey’s line about being interviewed by an 18 year old and being asked to explain why your business ‘failed’ after a decade is one of my fears too. Maybe I should’ve paid more attention to those recruiter emails 
Just as @anon3850446 said, it’s the #1 podcast on my list too.
Thanks guys 
we definitely keep it real if nothing else.
Hi guys,
thanks so much for making these shows. Now Techzing has veered totally off-topic and seemingly run out of steam, it is great to have a new bootstrapping podcast taking care of the chattier stuff :-).
On the subject of physical products, there is a podcast covering that from someone with a physical product out there: http://thinkmakesell.com/. I have listened to a few and they are pretty good.
Thanks again.
Best,
Andrew
Ah cool. Gosh, I need to hire someone to listen to all these these podcasts for me
Common, folks, its not too bad out here. Yes, the time management is a real problem, yes, you work for someone else, but the income is good and generally allows you to put money aside for “your thing”.
And no, 18y/o are not doing interviews. Not where hiring is taken seriously, anyway.
1.5x playback is your friend … then see how high you can push that multiplier … would never do that to your podcast of course ;-).
Hey guys, I’ve been listening to your podcast but I’ve noticed a few episodes starting from this one have been trimmed at the start… Is it a known problem? Do you have another source I can use to listen to the entire episode?
http://bootstrapped.fm/bootstrapped-episode-27-everybody-gotta-hustle/
Hi Alexandre.
They’re not trimmed. We just decided to start doing cold opens. It’s just easier that way. You’re not missing much more than “Hello. Ready?”
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