Focus on Smaller Players

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When you first start up, focus on small players as clients. They tend to have less budget and fewer resources, but they are more in need of a solution. They have more problems that they need help with. If big companies have a need and you can offer a customised solution, then they are likely to tie you up so that you are completely bespoke for them.

Smaller companies are less fussy. They will usually be happy if you share your solution with others, on the grounds that you’re not charging them the earth.

Additionally, it’s easier to connect with smaller companies. Big companies have layers and layers of structure, so it’s likely you won’t get to spend time with the actual end user. This is a problem because you need to spend as much time as possible with end users to really listen hard, understand their problems and figure out what solutions you can provide.

It has to be direct information; second or third-hand feedback is useless, especially in the early stages. With smaller companies, you don’t have lots of teams getting in your way – you can spend time with actual end users trying to work out how to build a solution.

Also, smaller companies are less likely to have rigid rules about working with particular suppliers and onerous onboarding policies. In every market RFi entered, the biggest bank was always the last to subscribe. They had the largest teams, the most data and well-established relationships with our biggest competitors, so they felt they had the least need for us.

My point is that you should always start with smaller players.

Remember, you don’t need to build for scale when you start – you just want to put food on your table. This is, again, different for bootstrappers. You will probably need to take on one-off projects for single clients to avoid depleting all your runway.

This initial step is normal. It allows you to start identifying the most common problems, preferably at a small company. Then, while you’re working on a solution for them, you can find other small companies with similar problems. You can poke around in corners. You’re looking for commonality, not a problem unique to one company.

However, as a bootstrapper, you can’t be overly precious about choosing your projects. It takes time and multiple attempts to find the common problems. You should bid for projects that you think might help you get there, but at the end of the day, if they don’t, then at least they will provide some income.

Hopefully, you’ll also learn something that will help you along the way. The only way you’re going to find a product is by working with companies, so start whatever projects you can with several small companies and then try to work out if there is any commonality.

Even if it doesn’t produce your first product, it may lead to the idea that forms your first product, and more importantly, you will be getting paid at least to put food on your table.

The key is to focus on identifying commonalities in the problems you are solving. If you don’t, then you will just end up doing lots of bespoke, customised projects without ever building a product for mass adoption. This is a common mistake that cash-hungry bootstrappers can easily fall into. Focus on finding the common problem across multiple projects.

Fortunately, finding commonality is not like looking for a needle in a haystack – it’s usually easy to spot once you’ve spent some time working and learning in the space.

Ray Kroc was a fifty-plus-year-old failed milkshake salesperson when he bought his first McDonald’s burger. The film The Founder is a brilliant story about this. Kroc stared at the burger in his hands and realised that the revolutionary kitchen technique the McDonald brothers had created meant that they could always get a burger into your hands cheaper and faster than any competitor.

Do their burgers taste the best? Probably not, but they are the fastest, cheapest, and most consistent. These three qualities are what you need to think about when developing a product.

Cheaper, Faster, and Better

How do you make a McDonald’s-like product in your respective space? You can build consistency over time, but at the start, you should build a cheaper, faster, better product. Cheaper, faster, and better is your ultimate goal, but begin with just cheaper and faster. It’s a great start.

 if you enjoyed this extract from my book Bootstrap Confidential then you can grab it on:

Bootstrap Confidential: Building from Bedroom to Boardroom Without Investors eBook : Green, Charles: Amazon.co.uk: Books