Bootstrapping Guide by Jotform - From 0 to 10 million users with $0 funding

- Follow your dreams and the money will follow - Hustle until the haters ask if you’re hiring - Work hard, play hard - Sleep is for losers - Rise and grind Motivational startup quotes are everywhere. They shout from Instagram feeds, coffee mugs and status updates. Maybe you have one scribbled on a nearby sticky note. If so, no judgment. These are powerful themes. Everyone wants to feel excited about what they’re doing and creating. We know that hard work can deliver results. And quitting your job to chase a startup dream is a seductive idea. Mainstream media also perpetuates the story that if you log 80 hours a week, follow your passion and “hustle hard,” you’ll create the next Facebook or Amazon. It could happen. But this narrative often leads founders into business before they’re ready. It can also create enormous (and unhealthy) pressure that derails smart, ambitious people. For every entrepreneur who’s clocking three hours of sleep each night and going prematurely grey, I’d like to offer an alternative path. This path led me to build JotForm in one of the most competitive industries around: online forms. Even Google Forms stepped into the ring, and remains one of our toughest competitors. But we persevered — for 15 years and counting. We’re still one of the leading players, with +10 million users and +300 employees, and we’ve done it without taking a single dime in outside funding. This is not a story of overnight success or following my dreams straight to the top of TechCrunch. I’ve built this business slowly, while maintaining my freedom and my personal life. I believe that bootstrapping is a great approach for entrepreneurs. And in this bootstrapping guide, I’d love to share everything I’ve learned from growing my startup from 0 to 10 million users without selling your soul to investors.

Aytekin, this is brilliant! I have been following your story for a while. Thank you so much for beautifully and simply putting your experiences together in this guide. And it's a lot more than just a bootstrapping guide, though that is the underlying theme across the guide. Let's make it the #1 product of the week!

There are many books, schools or tutorials on how to build a startup but all of those always include funding at some point, which requires you to sacrifice a part of your work and product. Yet, this one is all about how to do it without getting a funding, zero to hero, I can’t wait to memorize it! Congrats on the launch! 🚀🚀

Congrats on the launch, can't wait to read it! @aytekintank

Congratulations on the fresh new look!

VCs are good in many ways but nothing beats the creativity of freedom. If you can bootstrap, you gotta bootstrap - coming from somone who had been through multiple rounds with VCs.

Congrats! Breath of fresh air in these VC times!

Congrats on the launch! 🚀 I think both the story itself and the guide will be helpful to many people around the world! Can't wait to see the impact of it!

Great product! Congrats!

This is awesome! Thanks for sharing your story!

Congrats on the launch

I came looking for copper and found pure gold. Thank you very much for this material. Best wishes!

Congrats for the launch! Thank you for haring your story and your advices. Can't wait to read it @aytekintank

Congratulations on the launch! Is this all new material or can we just see excerpts and excerpts from previous?

Thanks for this guide! Can't wait to read it..

This is brilliant.

Great work Aytekin. I have been following your blog for the past 3 years and your approach to entrepreneurship has what got me interested in startup in the first place. All the very best for your book release on product hunt.

Love it.

I didn’t know you guys were that big. This will be interesting to read...

@aytekintank -- 2 things: 1. This is brilliant! Overall and also coz I can pick specific sections and read just them! 2. Respect!