Max Klein

Tinkering, that’s what I’d spend most of my time doing. I’ve seen so many other successful bootstrappers doing the same – their site is running fine, money is coming in, growth is steady. The owners are fixing bugs, making things a bit nicer, doing some A/B testing, migrating servers, changing database, managing users and killing spam.

Basically, they’re just tinkering about and keeping the business running.

You know what, this approach works fine for companies that are looking to get their product acquired, but if you are intending to actually grow your business, I’m not so sure it’s the best strategy.

Every product has a certain size. It sells in a certain manner and at a certain magnitude, and as a bootstrapper, you will quickly reach that level if your product is good. You can now start tinkering about if you want, but that’s not the path to growth.

If Microsoft had been tinkering still, we’d be using DOS 20.0, which would probably be a great product, but it would still be DOS. If Ford had been tinkering we’d be driving the Ford Model T 12 Cylinders. If Apple had been tinkering, we’d be using the Apple 17.

Companies that are on a path that does not involve getting their product acquired have big jumps when they take what they have, and reinvent it in a way that actually jumps forward. DOS becomes Windows. Microsoft Office is made. Netscape becomes Firefox. The iPod inspires the iPhone. The iPhone inspires the iPad.

When your product levels out, stop tinkering about and wasting time with marginal improvements. Think about how to make a new product that takes what you learned from the old product and makes something that breaks new ground.

All the mega-large companies now always had huge steps forward with new products, not with optimizations of old products.

If you’re bootstrapped and things seem steady, then make something new. Use your income and use your momentum to drive the next product. That’s where your growth will come from.