Hello all,

Recently, our CEO Ben Walsh was invited to a panel at the Millennial Developers Summit hosted by Millennial Media last month. After the event, he gave an interview to TechnologyAdvice.com regarding fundraising and bootstrapping your business. Below, you can listen to the complete interview, view the full article here, or just read the key points from the article below.

 

Here are the key takeaways quoted from the article:

  • Know yourself, your team’s capabilities, your passions, and your core competencies.
    People may approach you and ask you to do something you’ve never done before. Focus on the things on which you’re an expert. Get to know the different personalities on your team and likewise observe the areas in which they excel.
  • Pick projects that are aligned with your company’s vision.
    Bootstrapping is a double-edged sword as it generates revenue, but can also pull you away from the original ideas that caused you to start the company in the first place. Therefore, pick projects that are aligned with your company’s long-term vision. Don’t get caught in the idea of doing something for the money because eventually you may not be happy doing it.
  • Know when to walk away.
    Evaluate the opportunity cost of everything that comes your way. Is it beneficial for you or your company in the long-term? Short-term income is helpful, but not as helpful as creating a pathway to desired long-term success.
  • Hire a great team.
    Walsh stressed the importance of hiring the right personalities that fit your company culture, especially for small startups. Hiring a misfit could be like voluntarily infecting your company with a cancer that could destroy the company. Hire slow and fire fast. Spend a longer amount of time getting to know your candidates before actually hiring them. Hiring friends could be hit or miss, in that they could either prove to be effective or they could be too comfortable or too casual to take orders from you. Exercise prudence during the hiring phase.
  • Understand user acquisition.
    Walsh noticed that “user acquisition” has become a buzzword (buzzphrase?) in the gaming space today. But there’s not much advice or tools presented on what to do with it, especially when talking about user acquisition on a bootstrapper’s budget. Walsh further explained that companies must understand that user acquisition has to begin with the concept. Start with your product and your vision for that product, ask yourself these questions:– Who is your audience?
    – Does your idea or product resonate with your audience?
    – Is this an idea someone would pay money for down the road if executed well?

Share your thoughts with us here, on Facebook or Twitter. We’d love to hear from you.