Buy a big whiteboard. Don't use calendaring, bug tracking or project management software. Put it all on the whiteboard. At the start of each week, erase and start over. Worried about losing something? If you erase it and forget, it wasn't that important in the first place.
Congratulations on your successful exit and thanks for posting this. Sometimes it's hard to read these things and think they are true, but they are.
Yesterday, I was thinking, "Why am I doing this? Why do I work so hard for ~nothing?" and then it dawned on me that if it isn't hard, it isn't worth anything. If it was easy, everyone else could do it. If everyone else can do it, why would they pay you to do it? They won't.
It has to be hard. You have to feel the pain. You have to lie awake at night wondering if you're crazy -- YOU ARE! Keep being crazy. Do the crazy things, the impossible things and keep doing them until you have something someone thinks is worth buying and then sell it and go on vacation, until you get bored with that and then do it all over again!
Great comment, I agree 100% correct. It may sound weird, but I can only help to feel this kind of pain one day. The journey, at least for me, is just as important as the destination.
Can you talk more about point 9 on your post? I asked the same question in the comments there.
Partnering with huge brands is obviously a great move, but everyone could do it if it was easy. All the other points, while not necessarily easy, are doable. I'd like to hear a bit more about how you guys hitched those rides.
Interesting startup, compete says 1+ million visitors? Not bad.
Although I've heard points on your list many times before on HN. I also disagree with using friends (unless they really fit the requirements and your comfortable telling them when they do something wrong) and outsourcing.
I would say the friend component often overlaps with people you already know are really great to work with. Many of my best friends are people who I've had the most positive experiences working with on the job. One of the most important things to have in co-founders (especially bootstrapped ones, I suppose) is trust in them to stick it out and not let you down. While it may be risky to go into a difficult situation with friends, at least you're much more sure you can probably rely on them and know what they're capable of.
Working with friends can be bittersweet. The trick is to figure out how to work with friends. Do they have the right risk tolerance? Can they contribute in an area that will move the company forward. Will there be ego clashes that jeopardize the future of the organization?
And if you start down the road with a friend and it doesn't work out, remain cordial and remember that this isn't your last startup. You're going to make mistakes. It's how you recover from those mistakes and how you use the lessons you learn from them that will be the test of your mettle years later.
It's nice to hear a success story like this from time to time as reassurance and that it's not entirely impossible possible achieve. I am walking down the same path as you guys are, and I hope we come out as successful as you. Good job!
Buy a big whiteboard. Don't use calendaring, bug tracking or project management software. Put it all on the whiteboard. At the start of each week, erase and start over. Worried about losing something? If you erase it and forget, it wasn't that important in the first place.