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Bootstrapping our product on the side and looking for a way of funding it.
Does anyone have the experience to be hired as a whole team to do short-term/long-term contracts?
Happy to provide our portfolio, but didn't want to self-promo.
This post is a bit longer to give you some context.
We are a product team building products for almost 8 years.
We are on a journey of creating a sustainable way of living by doing what we love.
We started by doing basic digital agency work. But we didn't like working with clients from all fields. We hated the hassle over every penny with clients who didn’t value our work.
Next came the idea of building the next unicorn. After a few trials, we figured out we don't want to sacrifice so much of our lives to it.
Then we thought we have enough skills and experience to build a sustainable bootstrap product that will make us a good living while doing what we love. Building a product that matters to people.
But again, this wasn’t easy. Especially for us who don’t have the expertise in some vertical to understand its problem enough to build a solution for it.
We’d have to stay years in one problem space to truly understand it, connect with key people, and deliver great solutions without funding capital. But that needs cash and passion for that space, which we honestly don’t have.
We love building great products, and we are really good at it now (I can share references if you’re curious).
So we struggle with monetizing our passion. But we are trying to be as honest as possible with ourselves.
My question is -
How a team that loves and is great at building products that solve problems under big constraints (we are only a 3-man team and always worked without funding) can help others on their journey?
I feel like we need to pick a niche, where we can offer our expertise. Kind of a SWAT team for your company. But who is “your” company and how do we pick the “niche”? I feel like I lack an understanding of the problems companies face and how we can help them.
Was anyone in a similar situation? Do you see ways your company would benefit from working with us?
Link to the whole conversation in comments.
So why it works for us now? It allows us to portion the big ideas into smaller chunks, set measurable goals, and then assess how each of the sprints contributed to the bigger goal.
It makes us accountable both in terms of tasks for given weeks and for the actual results the sprint delivers.
It's also easier for us to focus on things that matter and don't get distracted throughout the week. Many opportunities occur every day, but if we set our sprint, stick to it and the opportunity is really great, we just put it into the next one.
We work in weekly sprints. Each Sunday we talk about the past sprint and set a new one. The discussion is abstract, we chat about business in general and then get to the specific task setting. That's why it's Sunday - you can already work on Monday. With a clear head.
We are a remote team so we do syncs when we feel like they're needed. Sometimes more, sometimes less.
We tried many other ways in the past. We also tried sprints before, but it never worked. Why?
The most important lesson we learned is that we always overestimated what can be done in one week so the sprints prolonged themselves to the next week. And then it doesn't make any sense.
We are still learning to set clear and measurable goals for each week that bring us closer and closer to our big dream.
Did you ever hire a developer for a 3-6 months contract? If so, who are you? What was the purpose of the hire? Where did you look for freelancers?
I am asking as I struggle with this concept a little bit. In the realm of hardcore tech startups it seems like everyone tends to hire devs on full time positions with the desire to build strong and long lasting tech teams - which makes total sense.
We are product builders by heart. Over the last 7 years, we've built many MVPs of our own products and some for others as well.
With our latest product/startup, we built an amazing MVP and started talking to investors with the idea of raising. But it didn’t feel right. It wasn't what we wanted to do. We realized we enjoy being in the early phase of the product (prototype/MVP) instead of building a big startup that is destined to become a unicorn.
That's why we want to help others build and grow their own business by being a small & specialised product team dedicated to delivering only prototypes and MVPs. The idea is to offer a 3-week sprint dedicated to building an MVP with clear and measurable results - exactly as we do for our own products.
Where I see the value: - So non-technical founders or founders who are yet to build their tech team are able to validate their idea and raise seed capital - To help scaling startups stay innovative and exceptional even under the pressure that comes from focusing on the core problem. By building a satellite product or validating new vertical / problem space. - So companies whose core IP isn't tech / digital can keep up with the digital innovation in the correct way. To validate their idea of solution to specific problem by quickly building MVP / prototype and not spending millions on agency work that might not have any impact.
I am curious - Did you ever consider hiring an external team to build your MVP? If so, at what stage? If not, why?
I'd be more than grateful to hear your insight or any idea you might have.
Thank you! :)