Zero to Sold

How to start, run, and sell a bootstrapped business

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Arvid shares his learnings from building FeedbackPanda, a bootstrapped EdTech SaaS business that grew from 0 to $55,000 MRR in two years and was then sold for a life-changing amount. You will learn how to start, run, and sell your own bootstrapped business.
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Arvid Kahl
The Embedded Entrepreneur
Maker
Hello hunters! 👋 This book is my attempt to share what I learned over a decade of trying to build startups without sounding like I've figured out everything now that I had some success. I share my learnings in the context of what we tried, how it worked, and how it didn't — more often than not. So, what is this all about? *FeedbackPanda* is an EdTech SaaS that I founded with my life-partner Danielle Simpson. She was an English Online teacher who had English Online teacher problems in a huge English Online teacher community, so we build an English Online teacher productivity product to solve her problem, and sold it to her peers. We bootstrapped all the way, were profitable a few weeks after we launched, and grew the business for two years before we sold it. Being a good German, I made lots of notes and documented almost everything in the business. Zero to Sold is the ultimate document of a successful bootstrapped business: a memoir, a manual, a journal, and a guide. The book is a culmination of over 6 months of writing, every single day. It contains everything I know — and nothing else. It's as actionable and pragmatic as I could make it. You will: -🔍 Learn how to explore and validate your idea before you jump into building a proto type that no one needs. - 🎯 Find a well-defined audience, locate their critical problem, envision a solution that fits into their workflow, and build a product that makes them want to pay. Then, build a repeatable process of selling your product: a business. - 💰 Grow your business sustainably and make it sellable, even if you want to keep it forever. Or sell it for a life-changing amount of money. Either way, you can prepare. I hope it will help you validate your ideas, build your products, and grow your businesses. Because building a business allows for wonderful things to happen, like this: Danielle and I worked hard while we ran FeedbackPanda, but we also had amazing opportunities. Here's us taking a well-earned sightseeing day on top of the Great Wall of China during a visit to a Chinese EdTech conference in 2018. That's the kind of stuff that building a business can make possible. Quick update: the book has now reached this incredible, INCREDIBLE milestone:
Sasha Eslami
Eversnap
@arvidkahl Congrats Arvid! Any plans on releasing an audio version anytime soon?
Fernando Nikolic (mindfold.co)
@arvidkahl Definitely in the company of other great books. And I can appreciate the German-ness that went into making it! Looking great!
Arvid Kahl
The Embedded Entrepreneur
Maker
@sashaeversnap I'm definitely planning to. Not sure how, really. I wonder if I should record it myself.
Arvid Kahl
The Embedded Entrepreneur
Maker
@fernikolic1 Thank you, that's very kind!
Scott Mathson
Amplitude
@arvidkahl congrats, can only imagine the learnings and information you’ve distilled into this! Big launch - great work.
Sungho Yahng
Fire Hunt
Isn't there any preview of this book? Even the table of contents is not seen properly.
Arvid Kahl
The Embedded Entrepreneur
Maker
@sungho I uploaded the ToC again, you can see it as a big image here:
Jeremy Mauboussin
Hi Everyone, Arvid is not only a great guy, he is also a great writer. His content about entrepreneurship is always inspiring and actionable.
Arvid Kahl
The Embedded Entrepreneur
Maker
@jeremy_maub Thank you very much, Jeremy. You don't know how much this means to me. The ever-looming imposter syndrome and creeping self-doubt are washed away for me right now :D
Jeremy Mauboussin
Ari Bajo
I started reading this yesterday. Nicely written, which makes a difference to other books on the topic... Fresh from the press! :)
Arvid Kahl
The Embedded Entrepreneur
Maker
@ari_bajo_rouvinen Thank you for the kind words, Ari. The credit here should go to my editors. They really polished the writing, because I tend to be a bit... verbose and repetitive :D
Glenn McWhinney
@ari_bajo_rouvinen Ditto Ari! Started yesterday and loving it as I knew I would.
Kyle
I'm curious, how did you decide on the $28 price point for a book? That seems almost twice the price of what I see most books released at.
Arvid Kahl
The Embedded Entrepreneur
Maker
@kraftykyle In the Small Business space, you will see prices all over the place. I priced Zero to Sold along the lines of my favorite books' paperback prices: Hooked ($26) and The Mom Test ($27). The former is half the size of Zero to Sold, the latter one quarter. So I added a dollar and that's the price. Since for Print-on-Demand, a large portion of the price goes into the print cost and Amazon takes a good chunk of the rest, that leaves me roughly with the same that I'd generate in revenue from a Kindle sale. I did a lot of math, since the price is on the higher end, as you rightly observed. I eventually figured that if people don't want to pay that, they can either get the digital version or not become a customer. I learned quite painfully over many years that price often indicates perceived value, and (with the maximum possible bias, of course) I think that Zero to Sold is worth $28. Does this answer your question? Thanks for asking it!
Kyle
@arvidkahl thanks for the reply. Great explanation, that makes sense. It looks like a great read, best of luck to you!
Arvid Kahl
The Embedded Entrepreneur
Maker
@kraftykyle Thank you kindly! I've been blown away by the response so far, and the readers seem to really like it. Could not have asked for more.
Habib Khan
I don’t consume too much content, so this book and Arvid’s podcasts are great signals in the noise. @arvidkahl - do you have other top recommendations? - I would love to know. Indie Hackers, Mom Test, Wildbit, and Anything Jason Fried / DHH are on my short list so far. Anyway great work as always Arvid - so useful! I got a copy on Amazon and Gumroad.
Arvid Kahl
The Embedded Entrepreneur
Maker
@habibmkhan Thanks so much, wow! I think your list is pretty good already. I always recommend three books: Hooked, Built to Sell, and The E-Myth. For other book recommendations, check out my bookshelf: https://thebootstrappedfounder.c...
Habib Khan
@arvidkahl Thank you so much for your curated suggestions! I want to spend my time wisely between building and learning. hope you enjoy this week! :)
flowdee
Congrats to the Launch Arvid and thanks for sharing your experience. This Books saves a lot of time for new founders.
Arvid Kahl
The Embedded Entrepreneur
Maker
@flowdee Thanks! That was indeed the point. Back in 2017 when I was joining the IndieHacker community, I was looking for a central resource, and beyond a plethora of guides and articles that touched on some but not all parts of the journey, I felt lost. Zero to Sold is my attempt to create that resource. Not saying it's the only resource needed, far from that, but offering something more comprehensive than a scattered collection of articles.
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