Congrats on getting your MVP up and running. That's a big accomplishment.
However, you're at a point in your business's life where things might get dicey. I think you'll find that the business grows slower than you might hope, and no amount of coding will change that. For bootstrappers, it's just the way it goes. You're not going to spend $10,000 on ads, so you just have to do things the slow way (talking to bloggers, writing articles, posting on forums, etc, etc).
Your business will still require a lot of work from you, but at this stage it also requires time overall for people to hear about it, find it, leave, and come back later when they hear about it again. You have to give it time to grow and that means providing yourself with income. Maybe think about getting a job or doing freelancing. I know you said jobs require too much mental energy, but once the MVP is launched, you can dial back on the coding. You have to dial up the selling, but I've found this to be possible in parallel with a normal job, especially if selling doesn't involve phone calls and is just you emailing bloggers.
Anyways, I'm sure you'll find your way. Good luck!
Your thoughts are spot on. I am a technical guy who is trying to bootstrap my startup.
I have an MVP which I have been testing with early users. But scaling up marketing is the really hard bit. It is something which will take time, because its not really in your control. You have to keep showing up in the right places in tasteful ways.
And then people _may_ convert.
But I think it all can be done with a side income. Right now, if you have web-development + mobile skills, getting freelance jobs to pay the bills is not a bad option.
I agree. However, freelancing takes a bunch of time and focus and it's up to you to make sure you still give your startup enough focus. Otherwise, it may be better to take a lax job instead.
However, you're at a point in your business's life where things might get dicey. I think you'll find that the business grows slower than you might hope, and no amount of coding will change that. For bootstrappers, it's just the way it goes. You're not going to spend $10,000 on ads, so you just have to do things the slow way (talking to bloggers, writing articles, posting on forums, etc, etc).
Your business will still require a lot of work from you, but at this stage it also requires time overall for people to hear about it, find it, leave, and come back later when they hear about it again. You have to give it time to grow and that means providing yourself with income. Maybe think about getting a job or doing freelancing. I know you said jobs require too much mental energy, but once the MVP is launched, you can dial back on the coding. You have to dial up the selling, but I've found this to be possible in parallel with a normal job, especially if selling doesn't involve phone calls and is just you emailing bloggers.
Anyways, I'm sure you'll find your way. Good luck!