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From Idea to Profitable Product: Building Without Investors

Build a software product that pays for itself. Follow two founders from the first problem worth solving to paying customers, pricing, churn, systems and an offer to buy the company, and learn to make each decision with your own numbers.

Free30 lessons~9 h 56 min of learning

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  1. Module 1

    Before you start

    Your own money or investors, a side project or full time, how much runway you need, and the money milestones that tell you where the business stands.

    1. 1.1Your own money or investors?What an investor really buys, why venture money expects huge growth, what bootstrapping costs you and three questions for choosing how to fund a new product.~19 min
    2. 1.2Side project or full time?Keeping the job while you start versus quitting, how co-founders with different finances agree on it, and how to protect time and energy either way.~17 min
    3. 1.3Personal runwayHow to calculate how many months you can live without income from the product, why you keep a reserve, and how many customers stop the countdown.~16 min
    4. 1.4Money milestonesA ladder of sums you can check in the bank: which bill each milestone covers, what it changes in the founders’ week and which work can wait.~18 min
    Module examComplete 4 more lessons to unlock

  2. Module 2

    One repair shop, one problem

    Finding a problem shops already pay for, who in a shop decides and who pays, checking the problem in a week and choosing one to solve.

    1. 2.1A problem they already pay forMoney, hours and homemade systems already spent on a workaround tell a critical problem from a loud complaint.~17 min
    2. 2.2Who decides and who paysIn a small business the person who feels the problem, the person who decides and the person who pays are often different people. Talk to each in their own terms.~17 min
    3. 2.3Checking the problem in a weekA short, planned round of visits and calls, with the rule for dropping a problem written down before the first one, confirms or kills a problem before any code.~20 min
    4. 2.4Choosing one problemComparing the candidate problems on the same criteria, committing to one, and parking the rest with a date to look again.~24 min
    Module examComplete 4 more lessons to unlock

  3. Module 3

    Sell before you build

    Pricing from the cost of how shops cope today, prepayments as the strongest test, a yearly plan from day one and the first prepaying customers.

    1. 3.1A price from the cost of todayAnchor the first price to what the current workaround costs the customer and what the result is worth, not to your own costs or your fears.~18 min
    2. 3.2Prepayment as a testWhy money up front beats compliments, how to check the solution fits the customer’s week, and how to ask honestly for payment before the product exists.~17 min
    3. 3.3A yearly plan from day oneMonthly and yearly plans side by side: the discount, the cash up front, how a yearly customer counts in monthly revenue, and what it does to the runway.~19 min
    4. 3.4The first five prepaymentsA module case: read the pre-sale answers against a rule set in advance, treat prepaid money as a promise, and decide whether to start building.~25 min
    Module examComplete 4 more lessons to unlock

  4. Module 4

    The smallest thing that works

    From a solution to a first version: what the MVP must include, what to take ready-made instead of building, and how to release without fear.

    1. 4.1A solution is not a productA solution has to fit the customer's working day, not just fix the problem on paper: three questions to check it before writing code.~20 min
    2. 4.2An MVP: sign up, get value, payThe three things a first version needs, how much can stay manual behind the scenes, and when a manual step has to be automated.~19 min
    3. 4.3Ready-made instead of your ownWhich parts a two-person team should rent instead of building, how to pick a service that lasts, and how to keep a way out.~17 min
    4. 4.4Releases without fearA module case: a late-night release goes wrong, and the habits that limit the damage: small releases, a quick way back, on/off switches and a calm apology.~23 min
    Module examComplete 4 more lessons to unlock

  5. Module 5

    Is the market big enough?

    With the first customers paying: narrow or widen the niche, find where the audience gathers, size the market bottom up and choose where to grow next.

    1. 5.1Narrow or widen the nicheDefine the niche from the customers who actually get the result, say who is out, and find where its members already talk to each other.~17 min
    2. 5.2The market, bottom upCount the businesses that can buy, multiply by the price and check whether your revenue goal fits inside, with GarageDesk in Vinnytsia as the worked example.~20 min
    3. 5.3Another city or another kind of shop?A module case: compare two directions for growth, a new city with the same product or a new kind of customer at home, with the same numbers, and choose one.~24 min
    Module examComplete 3 more lessons to unlock

  6. Module 6

    Numbers every month

    MRR and churn, why customers leave, raising a price without losing existing customers, and the risk of one customer that is too big.

    1. 6.1MRR and churnHow to count monthly recurring revenue when some customers pay for a year, and how to measure the share of customers and money lost each month, on one real month of GarageDesk.~21 min
    2. 6.2Why shops leaveLeaving by choice and leaving by accident: failed payments, customers who never got value, owners who close, and customers who were never a fit, with a different fix for each.~19 min
    3. 6.3Raising the priceWhen the evidence says the price is too low, a new price for new customers, a fair and time-limited path for existing ones, and two tempting offers that quietly cost money: a lifetime deal and a free plan.~18 min
    4. 6.4One customer too bigA franchise of 40 shops wants a special price, custom work and its own branding. Compute what share of revenue it would become, and answer in a way that keeps the product yours. Ends with the module case.~25 min
    Module examComplete 4 more lessons to unlock

  7. Module 7

    Growth without an ad budget

    Referrals and community, support that doesn't eat the founders' week, and a clear answer to "why you and not the alternatives".

    1. 7.1Referrals and communityCustomers who bring customers: what a referral reward really costs, how many shops it truly adds, and a community the founders serve before they sell to it.~20 min
    2. 7.2Support that doesn't eat the weekAnswers written once and used many times, questions that disappear when the product changes, and the moment support becomes someone's job.~19 min
    3. 7.3Why you and not a notebook?What customers really compare you with, what only you do, what it's worth in their money, and how to say it in one line in their words. Ends with the module case.~25 min
    Module examComplete 3 more lessons to unlock

  8. Module 8

    Without heroics, and for sale

    A business that runs without the founders' overtime, then an offer to buy it: sell, keep or raise, what it is worth and how the deal works.

    1. 8.1Burnout and written proceduresWhen the founders become the bottleneck: which work to write down first, what a step-by-step procedure needs, what to automate, and how others take over the work.~19 min
    2. 8.2Sell, keep or raiseTwo offers in one week: a company wants to buy GarageDesk, an investor wants a stake. Three possible answers, who is really buying, and the questions that decide between them.~18 min
    3. 8.3What the business is worthARR, yearly owner earnings and a multiple: how to turn a small subscription business's numbers into a price range, what moves the multiple, and how an offer compares.~20 min
    4. 8.4The dealThe letter of intent, checking the buyer, six weeks of due diligence and an earn-out: how GarageDesk's sale is negotiated and closed. Ends with the final case of the course.~25 min
    Module examComplete 4 more lessons to unlock