Blog

The Bootstrap Blog shares news about the bootstrap community updated by Contributors who post directly to the blog. It is also a place where Bootstrap members can share their expertise and gain readers for their own blogs.

BD Tech Daily

BD Tech Daily is a daily email newsletter (see below) produced by Jason and his team at Business District Magazine. Bootstrap has a weekly post on Fridays, which also appears on the Bootstrap Austin blog. I kicked off the weekly posts last year with a series on the stages of bootstrapping from Preideation, Ideation, Valley of Death, Growth and Rebootstrap. I concluded by describing bootstrapping as the third way of entrepreneurship, integrating the best of the other 2 models, the cookie-cutter/franchise and the funding/VC. This was part of a year-long PR/Branding exercise developed with Jason. If you want to do an extended PR/branding campaign similar to what we did for Boostrap, look into Jason's Get Fully Exposed service with ABD Mag. This service is appropriate for companies in the Growth stage.

We are creating an opportunity for the bootstrap community's expertise to be heard with the ability to post to BD Tech Daily and the Bootstrap blog. See below for some of the past posts. Content varies from reporting on a Bootstrap Austin meeting, to reflecting on an aspect of bootstrapping. The idea is that you will promote bootstrapping/the community AND your business. Ideally, you give people a place to continue the conversation with you as Brian did on his post on David Ansel, the Soup Peddler.

Steps to Get your Post on Bootstrap Austin

1. Pick a date from the calendar below
2. Create a post on a Google doc. See Brian's post for pointers on content and format. Your post should be educational, relevant to some aspect of the bootstrap process and appeal to a broader business audience beyond the bootstrap community.
3. Share your google doc with me at along with the expected date: sendbijoynews AT gmail
4. Go back and forth on editing
5. Once it's good to go, we will add it to the queue and post it on the Thursday before the due date

NOTE: If you have an existing post that you think would be appropriate send the link.

If you aren't blogging for your business, perhaps this will help spur you on. Regardless of your stage, blogging is one of the easiest and cheapest ways to build credibility and notoriety for you and your venture.

Post Schedule

January - Getting Started

• Jan 18, Brandy Rainey: Bootstrap Film Subgroup
• Jan 31, Brian Massey: If You're Selling to Humans, You've Got to Tell Stories

February

• Feb 7, Kevin Koym: Building Business in Austin Despite a Possible Recession
• Feb 14, Geoff Chudleigh: Paul Carrozza Talk

March - SXSW Panelists

• Mar 7, Dan Gutknecht, founder InHouse Assist: Bootstrapping, Art and SXSW
• Mar 14, Marcy Hoen, founder Austin Art Start: I am Bootstrap (and so can you!)
• Mar 21, Jonathan McCoy, founder Perception Labs: Entrepreneur vs. Wild
• Mar 28, Nancy Schill: Moving Safely into Collaborations

April - Innovative Web Apps

• Apr 4, Mark Smith:
• Apr 11, Marcus Mateus:
• Apr 18, Kyle Johnson:
• Apr 25, Miles Sims

May

• May 2: Michael Wilson,
• May 9: Jon Lebkowsky,
• May 16: Mason Arnold
• May 23: Rey Madolora
• May 30: Gronthik Chatterjee

June

• Jun 6: Lou Ellman, founder Play with Pride and
• Jun 13: Reuben Swartz, founder Mimiran, "The Road Less Taken on Pricing"
• Jun 20: Sarah Siddiqi, founder Experience Bangladesh
• Jun 27: Tina Schweiger, founder Spoonbend

July

• Jul 4: Neelan Choksi, founder SolarMetric
• Jul 11: Josh Baer, founder SKYLIST and OtherInbox
• Jul 18
• Jul 25

August

• Aug 1
• Aug 8
• Aug 15
• Aug 22
• Aug 29

September

• Sep 5
• Sep 12
• Sep 19
• Sep 26

October

• Oct 3
• Oct 10
• Oct 17
• Oct 24
• Oct 31

November

• Nov 7
• Nov 14
• Nov 21
• Nov 28

December

• Dec 5
• Dec 12
• Dec 19
• Dec 26