Make: Bootstrappers Handbook Product Information and Latest Updates (2025)

It's a gret summary of what you need to bootstrap an idea, but it lacked of sincerity since its inception.

We've been waiting and, in spite the end result is visually attractive, I feel slightly scammed. Early adopters payed a lot for an ebook which production lasted too long and is not printed. In the meanwhile, Pieter talked about how he was investing in cryptocurrency —with our investment on his book?

Besides, the community helped him write the book for free.

Moreover, It doesn't have bibliography nor sources from his biz school studies; it seems he withholds some tricks from himself (or his blog). Also, there is some media out there where he says almost the same things for free.

It's a great exercise of personal branding, but lacks of technical depth, following the rule that if you failed it is because you did not work enough. It would improve with more strategic principles rather than mere tactics.

If you'd like to get in touch with the feeling of successful bootstrapping, read "Things a Little Bird Told Me" by Twitter's founder Biz Stone (paperback, 20$). On how to structure a new business, "Business Model Generation: A Handbook for Visionaries, Game Changers, and Challengers" by Alexander Osterwalder (paperback 19$). On great design, I recommend you read "Da cosa nasce cosa" by Bruno Munari.

Pros:

Easy peasy tricks to build a digital product.

Cons:

We payed 30$ for an ebook, extended production time while harvesting pre-orders

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7yr ago

levelsio

eu/acc: European Accelerationism

Maker

Hi Guillem, sorry to hear this. > Moreover, It doesn't have bibliography nor sources from his biz school studies; it seems he withholds some tricks from himself (or his blog). Also, there is some media out there where he says almost the same things for free. I don't know what I've withheld. My business school studied were 2007 - 2012, that was way before I was in startups. A lot of the business school theory is interesting but not practical for startups. Therefore, I've focused on specific and actionable information that people can use, fast. > It's a great exercise of personal branding, but lacks of technical depth, following the rule that if you failed it is because you did not work enough. It would improve with more strategic principles rather than mere tactics. I think a lot business books are too strategic but not actionable. The readers leaves feeling they learnt a lot, but don't have much to apply. This book gives you direct ideas on what to do, when. Again, actionable. I hope this clears it up a bit, why I wrote it in this way! Still, thanks for letting me know.

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7yr ago

Guillem Carbonell

@levelsio Please do not take me wrong, as the Internet leaves space for everybody to become a troll. What You've achieved is outstanding, but some of those who payed feel a bit deceived by the content. It might simply be that the added value we expected is not as huge as we expected it to be. In order to improve, I think it would be a great idea to build a community around the book for digital entrepreneurs to gather up, teamwork and follow the method by combining skills. That would cost no more than a private Slack for those who payed, for example, and would make paying more meaningful (as you can't copy a community in the same way anybody could plagiarize your content).

7yr ago

super

7yr ago

Thank you for mentioning that the book is targeted for digital-product startups, as opposed to startups in general. Software and web developers often forget that there are other types of startups out there.

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7yr ago

Ross Currie

Brutal Teardowns

I pre-ordered in 2015 and haven't received my copy yet. Seems like Levels just keeps taking pre-orders without delivering. Has anyone confirmed this has actually shipped yet? I haven't received any e-mails from him yet.

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7yr ago

levelsio

eu/acc: European Accelerationism

Maker

@rossdcurrie Sorry Ross, they're sent out in a batch. Should be in your inbox now. Let me know if you got it.

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7yr ago

Ross Currie

Brutal Teardowns

@levelsio That's not entirely true, since you hadn't sent them when I wrote my initial comment. I feel like instead of putting us last on your launch checklist that you could've reached out to us a bit before now. Even a "Hey, I'm just putting the final touches on the book" e-mail - for many of us, the last we heard from you about our order was August 2016.

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7yr ago

levelsio

eu/acc: European Accelerationism

Maker

@rossdcurrie You're right I should prioritize pre-order customers. My apologies.

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7yr ago

Niklas Stephenson

@rossdcurrie Relax, the book will arrive.

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7yr ago

Ross Currie

Brutal Teardowns

@nikstep Relaxed was two weeks ago when I asked for an order update and got no reply, after he posted book revenue figures for January. Rightfully annoyed is when I see him pushing new sales again when I still haven't received mine after 2.5 years. Of course, now I know the book is coming, but I would've known that already if he'd e-mailed pre-order customers with an update prior to launching... my post here probably would've been "Woohoo! I've been waiting for this one for ages! So excited!" or something equally fan-gushy. It's arrived now... so... woohoo!

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7yr ago

levelsio

eu/acc: European Accelerationism

Maker

👋 Hi Product Hunters! When I was reading Hacker News in 2013, I remember seeing @patio11's posts on building web apps (like Appointment Reminder) by himself, without funding. Back then, there weren't many others doing anything like that. Back then, you were either big and VC-funded or you were a freelancer working for them. Ever since Product Hunt launched 2014, there's been a rise of indie startups. It's never been more possible to build something on the internet, by yourself, without funding, charge money for it, and pay your bills. I'm the living proof of that. Just as music has indie bands, the startup world now has indie startups. This book is everything I learnt in the last few years about building indie startups. In the hope that it makes them more popular. Get ideas from problems you have in your life, build solutions for them, validate them by launching and seeing if you get users, monetize by asking your users for money, grow by building with your users, automate your business and if you like at some point exit and sell it! 🤡 How I wrote this book I felt on a very meta level, I wanted to write this book with the theory described in this book. Before even writing a single line on it I announced this book and opened it up for pre-orders:

The landing page was literally a Typeform telling that I wanted to write a book, but it didn't exist yet, and asking for $30 to support it.

The only thing people received after paying $30 immediately was an empty Workflowy list where they could write what the book should be about specifically. That gave me immediate feedback from customers what they wanted me to make. Just like a startup.

Thousands of people pre-ordered the book (quickly netting $50,000+ in revenue at $30 per pre-order) and there was thousands of items in the Workflowy list to write about. I went through it regularly and tried to re-order it to find patterns. I found I could divide up all questions people had in the different stages of startups. Ideas, building, launching, growing and monetizing. Everyone was at a different stage and needed different questions answered. I then started writing the first chapter. I wanted to do this by "building in public" too. Or in this case, writing in public. I made a Google Docs text document and started writing.

But not before I started a live stream on Twitch of the writing process of course. I wanted to live stream most of the chapters. It helped me because, as you may know if you've ever written a book or thesis, the procrastination of writing can become incredible.

Every time I finished the draft of a chapter I sent it out to all the pre-order customers. And they could review it as a Google Doc again.

Only the final process of writing this book was done by myself. Collecting all the content, cleaning it up, rewriting it and making editorial decisions on what should be in it. But 90% of the process was out in the open. And that's exactly what this book is about: launch early and build with your users.