Basics Of Bootstrapping A Micro SaaS: A Beginner’s Guide

What is Bootstrapping?

‘Bootstrap’ refers to a strap of a boot to help the boot pull it on. In an entrepreneurial context, ‘bootstrapping a micro saas’ means ‘starting a software business/startup/company with more of your effort and skills and less of your money or no money at all’. You don’t seek external investments initially, making you the business’s sole owner.

Indie Hackers

Indie hackers are independent developers who bootstrap small/micro software(microsaas). Typically the software will focus on addressing one core problem/pain point of customers with its service. So, Indie hackers find/discover that one core problem and build a solution/one core benefit/a small software around it.

In this post, we will discuss what-why-how of bootstrapping a microsaas.

Difference between SaaS and MicroSaaS

Aspects	SaaS(Software As A Service)	MicroSaaS
Scope	Broad, with a wide range of customers and problems	Focusing on a specific niche or problem
Target Audience	Businesses, general users, and organizations, can be anyone	Niche audience
Funding	Requiring a lot of investment upfront	Often bootstrapped
Revenue	Very high with a focus on growth	Moderate with a focus on sustainability with loyal users
Competition	Very high	Niche market with limited competition
Customer Support	Dedicated teams to handle customers	Often managed by the founder

Example of a Successful MicroSaaS – Storemapper

Tyler Tringas, the founder of Storemapper, originally coined the term ‘MicroSaaS’. If you visit the Storemapper right now, you can see it is focused on one thing –  It helps businesses showcase their physical store locations on a map, making it easy for customers to find them.

Why Storemapper is Successful?

Niche Problem: Storemappper solves a very niche-specific problem – helping businesses to put their location online on a map. This is the core benefit provided by Storemapper.

Bootstrapped: It was bootstrapped with minimal resources, so the ROI was very high.

Simplicity: The product is very simple and intuitive for its customers if they just know the basics of using a website.

Problem Identification: The founder discovered the problem and built a solution around it, rather than trying to force a product into the market.

Why Bootstrap a Micro SaaS?

There are some great benefits to bootstrapping.

Ownership and Control: You have complete control, you don’t have to be accountable to investors.

Fast Development: Since there is no team, you are not dependent on anyone. You can execute any project faster.

Customer Satisfaction: You are always in the loop with customers taking feedback, and improving your product to fit the market demands.

Sustainability: With not much operational cost and upfront investment, micro saas model is a business where primary objective is to build consistent wealth month over month and try to sustain it.

Challenges of Bootstrapping

When bootstrapping a micro SaaS, you’ll face a few key hurdles.

Limited Resources: With tight budgets and small/no team, things might progress slower than expected.

Slower Growth: Growing your user base can be a challenge without significant marketing funds.

Increased Financial Risk: Your finances are closely linked to your business’s success, adding financial pressure.

Dependency on Customer Revenue: Your business relies on steady customer payments, making every client crucial.Risk of Burnout: Managing everything alone can be exhausting, potentially leading to burnout.

Steps to Building a Micro SaaS

Step 1: Niche Identification – Find problems in niches that are related to your interests. Industries that are growing rapidly or experiencing change are great places to find problems.

Step 2: Idea Validation – Once you find a problem, verify there is enough demand by engaging on subreddit, Twitter, Facebook groups, and other online forums.

Just demand alone isn’t enough, ask them or assess if they are willing to pay for the solution.

Step 3: Building a Minimal Viable Product(MVP) – Develop a minimal product that solves the core problem, everything else is a distraction. You can focus on fancy UI, and extra features later if the product works out.

Step 4: Marketing – With limited resources, it’s best to focus on content marketing, SEO, pre-launch, and trying to build a community around your product.

Step 5: Reaching Out to Customers – Once you have your first customers and a few more, have a direct communication medium in place to take their feedback or requests and work on them. This way you will build a loyal customer base and a strong customer relationship. And they will spread the word about your product.

Step 6: Sustainability – It’s very important to keep customer relationships going with constant improvements, strategic giveaways, engagement, etc.

In the space of microsaas, it’s proven that most of the revenue comes from existing customers rather than new customers. So always work on retaining your existing customers.

Common Pitfalls and How to Avoid Them

Focus on solving a proven problem, not doing something innovative – Don’t spend time on coming up with ideas nobody ever thought of, chances are they will not work.

No problems are hidden nowadays with digital media, so do your due diligence to find a problem where there is less competition or where you think customers are still underserved.

Don’t overcomplicate your product – Build a simple and effective product that solves a problem.

Don’t underestimate marketing – Prioritize customer acquisition from the start.

Conclusion

Bootstrapping is a great way to test the waters of entrepreneurship in general. And bootstrapping a micro saas is an exciting journey to undertake. I wish you all the luck if you planning to start one for yourself.