Move Slow and Fix Things(endler.dev)
54 points by ahmedhossamdev | 0 comments
Matthias Endler's essay arguing against VC-funded hustle culture and for small, bootstrapped, sustainable businesses, critiquing Paul Graham's startup advice.
#bootstrapping on Hacker News
23 stories tagged bootstrapping, newest first.
I run multiple $10K MRR companies on a $20/month tech stack(stevehanov.ca)
792 points by tradertef | 453 comments
Steve Hanov's blog post describing how he runs several $10K MRR bootstrapped software companies on a $20/month tech stack without funding.
Ask HN: Those making $500/month on side projects in 2025 – Show and tell
336 points by cvbox | 330 comments
An annual Ask HN thread inviting people earning around $500/month from side projects in 2025 to share them, with links to prior years' threads.
It’s been a very hard year(bell.bz)
363 points by surprisetalk | 451 comments
Andy Bell's blog post on how 2025 was a very hard year for his bootstrapped company Set Studio/Piccalilli due to economics, tariffs, politics and AI attitudes.
Bootstrapping a side project into a profitable seven-figure business(projectionlab.com)
896 points by jonkuipers | 243 comments
ProjectionLab blog post by Kyle Nolan on bootstrapping a personal finance planning side project to $1M ARR in four years without outside funding.
I created Perfect Wiki and reached $250k in annual revenue without investors(habr.com)
677 points by sochix | 384 comments
A Habr retrospective (translated) by Ilia Pirozhenko on building the Perfect Wiki product and reaching $250K annual revenue without outside investors.
A startup doesn't need to be a unicorn(mattgiustwilliamson.substack.com)
538 points by MattSWilliamson | 324 comments
A Substack essay arguing that startups don't need to aim for unicorn-scale valuations; the page failed to load and showed an error message.
20 years working on the same software product(successfulsoftware.net)
431 points by hermitcrab | 149 comments
A Successful Software blog post reflecting on 20 years of developing and selling the same software product as an independent developer.
Thank HN: My bootstrapped startup got acquired today
2080 points by paraschopra | 373 comments
Hacker News post by Paras Chopra announcing that his bootstrapped A/B testing company VWO (Wingify) was acquired by private equity firm Everstone for $200M.
No Calls(keygen.sh)
1517 points by ezekg | 492 comments
A Keygen blog post titled "No calls" from January 2025, by the company's founder, about the company's policy of not taking sales calls.
Ask HN: Those making $500/month on side projects in 2024 – Show and tell
474 points by cvbox | 517 comments
Annual Ask HN thread inviting people earning around $500/month from side projects in 2024 to share what they built, linking prior years' threads.
Lessons from my first exit(mtlynch.io)
348 points by saeedesmaili | 102 comments
Michael Lynch's blog post reflecting on lessons learned from selling his indie hardware business, TinyPilot, his first exit.
Whence '\n'?(rodarmor.com)
318 points by lukastyrychtr | 112 comments
Casey Rodarmor blog post tracing where the 0x0A byte for '\n' comes from in the just command runner's Rust parser, down through the compiler chain.
Writing a Rust compiler in C(notgull.net)
361 points by todsacerdoti | 186 comments
Blog post by John Nunley announcing Dozer, a Rust compiler written in C, and explaining why he is building it to bootstrap Rust.
One-man SaaS, 9 Years In(blog.healthchecks.io)
714 points by km | 159 comments
Healthchecks.io founder Pēteris Caune's 2024 status update on running his one-person SaaS business nine years after its July 2015 launch, covering revenue and operations.
I sold TinyPilot, my first successful business(mtlynch.io)
903 points by mtlynch | 280 comments
Michael Lynch's blog post announcing the sale of TinyPilot, his KVM-over-IP hardware business, and reflecting on building it.
I turned my open-source project into a full-time business(docs.emailengine.app)
552 points by andris9 | 208 comments
Blog post by Andris Reinman, author of Nodemailer, describing how he turned his open-source email project EmailEngine into a full-time business.
My sixth year as a bootstrapped founder(mtlynch.io)
962 points by mtlynch | 288 comments
Michael Lynch's annual retrospective on his sixth year as a bootstrapped solo founder, including his TinyPilot business.
Ask HN: PG's 'Do Things That Don't Scale' manual examples?
340 points by nicgrev103 | 264 comments
Ask HN thread asking founders for examples of manual, unscalable work done early on, inspired by Paul Graham's essay 'Do Things That Don't Scale'.
Why you shouldn't join Y Combinator(newsletter.smallbets.co)
443 points by georgehill | 229 comments
Daniel Vassallo's Small Bets newsletter post arguing that joining Y Combinator is a bad deal for founders despite being good for the economy.
My solopreneur story(news.tonydinh.com)
704 points by alexzeitler | 429 comments
Tony Dinh's newsletter post recounting his first two years as a full-time indie hacker, growing from zero to $45K per month in revenue.
Don't Take VC Funding – It Will Destroy Your Company(eidel.io)
505 points by olieidel | 287 comments
Oliver Eidel's blog post arguing that first-time founders misunderstand venture capital and that taking VC funding can harm their company.
Mistakes to avoid to build a better 1-person business(tinyempires.substack.com)
464 points by Jthink | 159 comments
A Tiny Empires Substack post outlining four mistakes to avoid when choosing markets and building a one-person business.