Here’s where it started. My friend and I both used to teach at coding bootcamps. It was a pretty predictable way for us to make some cash to put away in both the stormy day and bad ideas funds. Plus we got paid to drill our basics.

I indexed on office hours by using scheduling software and made the grading easy. We pair-programmed every lab so as long as you attended, you had the solution and working code.

They did the inverse, indexing on reducing ad-hoc meetings and blocking off chunks of the week to review submissions.

We started noticing that our former students weren’t finding dev jobs; we were getting asked less for interview advice.

So like any good technology professional, we pivoted. Started looking at other solutions to solve our problem.

We wanted something that had a similar level of sustainability as teaching. Something that could be done during weekends and evenings. And at a rate that could cover a couple months of expenses. A nice to have would be writing off hardware and software.

How did we achieve that?

Zeroth. Partners. Make sure y’all are complementary. Two systems-minded backend developers don’t usually catch each other’s blind spots.

First. Focus on customers who have customers. There’s a reason every SaaS startup targets B2B, businesses generally have more money to spend than consumers. Most small businesses don’t have a dedicated technology department.

Second. Provide services people are willing to pay for. Some folks struggle to wire up URLs with DNS, make or maintain a website, glue it together with their CRM and/or CMS, perform thorough testing, deploy their app idea, and so on. They don’t need microservices, they need something like Wordpress.

Third. Keep your costs low. This is an insurance policy not a career. Minimize the toolchain. Domains, a hosting provider, an email/office suite, and the minimum number of SaaS you need. In this case, a dedicated project management software with built-in chat is ample; it happens to be built in Rails.

Fourth. Keep enough runway in the bank to keep the lights on for a couple months to a year. Unless you’re a machine, you’re gonna want to take a break.

Fifth. It’s important to be multi-faceted and wear many hats. Don’t immediately outsource everything. But know when you can’t do something at a quality standard. Find reliable people; treat them well; pay them fairly. Trust builds slowly and breaks quickly.

Sixth. Keep relationships friendly and don’t be an ass. No one likes being patronized by their vendors. If they dread the moments they talk to you, they’re gonna be less inclined to call the next time they need work done.

Seventh. Sometimes Waterfall is more apt than Agile. Most folks don’t work in software; they want a line item on their budget and a concrete deadline.

Eighth. Define roles, responsibilities, deliverables, and escape hatches up front. Unless you want to be on the hook for work you didn’t sign up for. Guess who got to learn about bespoke integrations between an elearning platform, CRM, and payment processor.

This information isn’t groundbreaking.

You don’t need to be a 10x growth-maxing boss-bro. Small teams solving small problems is fine. The goal’s an insurance policy, not a unicorn.