Solo, bootstrapped, minimal

Okay, so if you're not into building a big startup with investors and splitting equity, you can try going solo and bootstrapped. Will it work for you? I don't know. It works for me, as far as I can tell - and I'm a tech person - by no means a genius, but I still can package technology into a product.
This post is an attempt to organize my scattered and fragmented observations and thoughts about bootstrapping small SaaS products - into a long (and still disjointed) text.

The freedom of being solo

Being the only founder means no messy partner agreements or confusing profit splits. Bootstrapped means we're not running around pitching to VCs - we're just focusing on solving a real user problem. If there's no buyer, there's no revenue, end of story. This simplicity brings clarity: you can make decisions fast without endless discussions.

Sure, places like Y Combinator prefer multiple co-founders (if one burns out, the other steps in). But that often translates into compromise after compromise, especially when you're both technical. Instead of pushing the product and landing deals, you might end up arguing about frameworks and code reviews. Sometimes it works (like early Google), but more often it stalls the project, and then you discover that no one actually wants the product.
When you're a single founder, the buck really does stop with you. Mistakes? You learn immediately and fix them. That's motivating.

Personal health == Company health

You quickly realize that your own health—both mental and physical - is your company’s most critical asset. It’s not just “personal well-being” anymore; it’s about keeping the product alive. Skip a run or bail on that cold plunge, and your brain feels stuck in low gear. Sure, you can still show up physically, but your focus and creativity tank - an impossible situation when you’re trying to build long-term products and tackle tough decisions.

There’s also a kind of unspoken rule: if you consistently skip your exercise or your daily mind-clear ritual, it’s almost like not coming to work at all. You can squeak by for a few days, especially if you see others cruising on coffee and sporadic bursts of energy. But a year or two down the line, neglecting your physical and mental well-being means your product suffers. You’re half-asleep, burning daylight in an office chair, and your spark is gone. If you want to keep innovating and thinking several steps ahead, your “personal health engine” has to fire on all cylinders.

Mornings can be rough - maybe it’s cold, maybe you’re sore, and the last thing you want is a run. But you know the difference it makes: once you’ve pushed through that resistance, your mind lights up, you’re more present, and you’re able to consistently do the heavy lifting that a single-founder role demands. Think of it less like a luxury and more like essential maintenance on the machine that’s powering your company.

The sales reality check

Sales become a huge reality check once you’re a solo tech founder. Suddenly, “Who are my customers, and why should they pay me?” is an urgent daily question. It’s a crash course in marketing, positioning, and real human conversations—no longer an abstract problem for some “business partner” to handle. If you’ve never had to sell before, it can feel both terrifying and exhilarating. You realize it’s your job to answer the toughest question: “Does anyone actually want this?”

Yet there’s a common piece of advice—“Don’t build if you don’t know how to sell”—that can be a trap. If you take it too literally, you might end up building something dull, just because you think it will be easy to sell. That kills your motivation in the long run; boredom is the enemy of good products. Sure, you need to understand how to reach your audience, but if you’re not at least partially passionate about the solution, it’s going to show. People pick up on that lack of excitement; it makes you a less convincing salesperson.

I built ScrapeNinja web scraping API because I needed to scrape a specific site - and found the process exciting. That passion pushed me to keep iterating, figuring out the marketing and sales along the way. Sure, it was challenging, but having a genuine spark for your own product makes selling a more natural, less forced experience. When you care about what you’ve built, you’ll do whatever it takes to connect with the right people. That drive—not a formulaic sales strategy—is what truly keeps you and your product alive.

Dealing with isolation

But watch out for loneliness. When you are the entire company, you can't rely on coworkers to bounce ideas off - you are all the coworkers. You have to be comfortable spending time on your own. At the same time, you need community outside your own head: talk to friends, family (if they're not toxic), and other founders. Those conversations spark fresh insights and remind you you're not the only crazy person trying to do something big.

The art of delegation

Delegating is non-negotiable. Doing the same repetitive tasks over and over again is a huge time drain and kills your motivation. Once you understand a process and it's working, hand it off to someone else. If you absolutely hate sales, at least do it yourself enough times to figure out the basics, then hire or outsource.

Choosing the right niche

Picking a niche that’s too ambitious or capital-intensive can sink an indie dev before they even start. If you’re building a super high-tech AI solution requiring an army of PhDs or trying to dethrone a mega-corporation with billions in funding, you’ll get stuck scaling those massive complexities. On the flip side, if the scope is so tiny that it’s basically a weekend hobby project, you won’t see real traction - or enough revenue to keep you motivated. Aim for a middle ground: a problem that’s valid, clear, and solvable with your current skill set and resources.

You want something you can launch quickly (I never launch a product if I cannot implement the main, core feature of the product in 3 weeks max), pivot if needed, and see tangible results. Focus on niches you find interesting enough to stick with during the inevitable tough times. Solve a problem that a specific user base actually cares about, but don’t go for a target market of ten people. Likewise, avoid fads that might disappear next month. Steady, proven demand plus your personal curiosity is the sweet spot that can sustain an indie dev journey.

Minimalistic lifestyle & cost control

Keeping your personal expenses low is one of the smartest moves you can make as a solo founder. The lower your costs, the longer your runway — meaning you don’t have to scramble to raise money or get desperate for quick revenue. Bootstrapping is a maraphon. It’s about being content with a simpler lifestyle so you can focus your resources on the business. That could mean sharing an apartment, cooking meals at home, or getting rid of monthly subscriptions you don’t actually need. Little sacrifices add up, and the peace of mind you get from having more time is priceless. But, you’re not trying to punish yourself or prove how frugal you can be - if I really want this bike right now, I just get it.

Minimalism also frees up mental space. When you’re not juggling a bunch of bills or worrying about living paycheck to paycheck, you can allow yourself to be “bored” and just think. That boredom, ironically, is where some of the best ideas often come from. Instead of constantly rushing between tasks, you can take leisurely walks in the park—giving your brain the breathing room it needs to solve problems creatively.

The Freedom is the real wealth

I have a friend who (from time to time) suggests, “Why do you keep messing around alone with these indie, bootstrapped projects? Let’s hire five developers, get some funding, and sell for tens of millions at least.” And for a while, that proposition made me feel bad. I couldn’t explain why, but I knew deep down that path wasn’t for me, at least not now. But why I was feeling bad? Part of me felt like maybe I was being “unambitious” by not building the classic venture-backed startup. But the more I thought about it, the more I realized that a glossy, investor-friendly narrative just wasn’t my personal compass. I found genuine fulfillment doing things exactly the way I wanted — no board meetings, no forced decisions, no external scripts to follow.

"Unambitous"...
Boostrapping is not about rejecting ambition altogether. Ambition is crucial; without it, we’re just couch potatoes going nowhere. The real trick is recognizing and honoring your own ambitions rather than the ones people try to pin on you. There’s a certain kind of wealth that doesn’t show up on your bank statements or in a piece of real estate in Dubai - it’s the wealth of deciding what you do with your own time, every day, without being "lost" in life in philosophical sense - you have a clear trajectory. Your own trajectory. When you’re not locked into someone else’s objectives, you can pivot, pause, or double down the moment you sense it’s right. Some folks assume venture capital is an easy way to “do nothing” while your employees build your dream. In reality, it’s a high-stakes game with a completely different set of pressures. By staying solo, you’re never a hostage to outside demands; you work like crazy, but on your own terms, fueled by your own passion. That, in my book, is real freedom.