Why Done is Better Than Perfect for Bootstrapped Founders

For bootstrapped founders venturing into indie hacking or developing Micro SaaS products, there’s often a strong urge to pursue perfection. The idea of launching something flawless is enticing, but it can be a significant roadblock, especially when you're working with limited time, money, and resources. In this blog, I’ll share 10 reasons why "done is better than perfect" when building a lean startup. This mindset is essential for founders operating with limited resources and looking to make the most of their opportunities.

1. Building Features for an Unvalidated Idea is a Waste of Time

A common mistake many founders make is adding more features before even validating their core idea. You might think that adding a few more bells and whistles will make your product more appealing, but if the core problem you're solving isn't compelling to users, no number of features will save it. Until you have validation that your idea solves a real pain point, focus on launching a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) something simple that can test the waters.

According to research, 34% of small businesses that fail lack the proper product-market fit. That means, if you haven't validated that your product solves a real problem, there’s a high chance your startup could fail. So, instead of endlessly refining features, launch early and find out if the market even wants your solution.

Example: Dropbox’s MVP was a simple video explaining how the product would work. It validated the idea without a full-fledged app, allowing them to gather early feedback and adjust their approach accordingly.

2. Launch Early to Validate Your Idea

One of the most crucial reasons to launch early is to ensure you’re building something people care about. Spending months perfecting every detail could backfire if your audience isn’t interested in your solution. Getting your MVP out into the world lets you validate your idea and gather user feedback. If no one cares about your product, it’s better to know sooner rather than later. You can pivot, refine, or scrap the idea without wasting months or years of effort.

Example: Airbnb initially launched as a simple site offering air mattresses for rent during conferences. By launching early, they discovered there was a real need for alternative lodging options, and they pivoted based on early feedback, growing into the giant they are today.

3. Building in Public Helps Build Trust and Generate Feedback

There’s a growing trend among indie hackers and bootstrapped founders: building in public. Sharing your progress, challenges, and even failures transparently on platforms like Twitter or LinkedIn builds a community around your product and attracts early adopters. These early users provide invaluable feedback and become advocates for your product. Plus, building in public helps you gain visibility, trust, and a following well before you officially launch.

Example: Pieter Levels, the creator of NomadList, built his entire product in public. This not only allowed him to gather feedback but also helped him gain a strong community of supporters even before his product was fully ready.

4. Don’t Try to Be the Next Silicon Valley Unicorn

When you look at successful Silicon Valley companies like Google or Airbnb, it's easy to feel like you need to be overly innovative or disrupt a market. But for most bootstrapped founders, this is neither practical nor necessary. You're not building the next billion-dollar tech giant you’re likely solving an existing problem in a niche market. Focus on being the best at solving that problem rather than reinventing the wheel. Simple solutions can have significant impact if they address real customer pain points. Many successful Micro SaaS products also started by solving the founder’s own pain points.

Example: Basecamp, a project management tool, was initially created by its founders to solve internal project management problems. By solving their own issue, they were able to build a product that resonated with other businesses facing the same challenges.

5. A Good Product Won’t Sell Itself: Marketing Matters

As developers, it’s tempting to believe that if you build a great product, users will naturally flock to it. However, 22% of startups fail because of incorrect marketing strategies . Even a perfect product can flop if no one knows about it. You need to actively work on marketing, whether through social media, SEO, content marketing, or other channels. Don’t expect people to just show up you need to reach them.

Example: Slack grew through a combination of organic marketing and word-of-mouth, but it was strategic marketing efforts that ensured widespread adoption within teams.

6. Getting Out of Your Comfort Zone: Focus on the Hard Things

For many technical founders, coding is their comfort zone. It’s something they know and love, and it’s easy to get lost in writing cleaner code or perfecting the UI. But often, the hard things like marketing, product analytics, and soliciting customer feedback are more important to your business's long-term success. It’s tempting to keep working on the product because it feels productive, but stepping into unfamiliar territory and tackling these challenges is critical for growth.

7. Iterative and Lean Development Over Perfect Planning

When you're bootstrapping, time and money are finite resources. Meticulous planning, extensive research, and perfect execution might be a luxury available to well-funded startups, but for indie hackers, an iterative and lean approach is much more practical. Launch fast, learn fast, and adjust based on what works and what doesn’t. This approach not only helps you stay agile but also ensures that you’re building based on real-world feedback, not assumptions.

The core of this approach lies in the Build-Measure-Learn Loop, a critical concept from the Lean Startup methodology. This iterative cycle emphasizes building a MVP, measuring how customers react to it, and learning from the feedback to improve the product. By repeating this loop, you refine your product quickly and efficiently based on real-world insights rather than long-term assumptions.

8. Timing Can Give You a First-Mover Advantage

Bootstrapped founders should not underestimate the crucial role that timing plays in the success of a startup. Launching early not only allows you to validate your idea, but it can also give you a first-mover advantage. Being the first to solve a particular problem in a niche can set you apart from competitors who come later.

According to research, timing accounted for 42% of the differences between successful and failed startups, followed by the team (32%), idea (28%), business model (24%) and funding (14%). So, while perfection is tempting, getting your product out at the right moment could make the difference between leading your niche or being a latecomer.

Example: In 2013, ConvertKit entered the email marketing space focusing specifically on creators, bloggers, and small content producers which was an underserved niche at the time. Most existing email marketing tools, like Mailchimp, catered to larger businesses or general audiences, but ConvertKit identified the growing need for simpler, more creator-friendly tools. By being one of the first to build an email marketing platform focused on this niche, ConvertKit quickly gained traction and established itself as a leading tool for creators, despite competing with much larger, established companies.

9. Accept That Not All Projects Will Succeed

One of the hardest truths to accept is that not every project will succeed. Instead of sinking years of effort into a failing product because of the sunk cost fallacy, learn to iterate quickly and, if needed, pivot or abandon the idea. The faster you validate (or invalidate) an idea, the sooner you can move on to something more promising. It's better to fail fast than to waste years on a project with no future.

This mindset is echoed by Pieter Levels, the creator of Nomad List, who tweeted:

"Go straight to lean prototyping, launch fast, throw stuff at the wall and see what sticks, nuke it if it doesn’t work, and go on to the next project while broadcasting your journey publicly as marketing."

This approach of rapid prototyping and public iteration not only accelerates the validation process but also builds momentum as you move from one idea to the next.

10. Avoid Over-Engineering

Another trap technical founders often fall into is over-engineering. You might feel compelled to add excessive functionality or optimize systems for edge cases that most users will never encounter. While this level of precision is necessary in certain fields like aerospace or medical technology, it’s not usually needed for most SaaS products. Over-engineering can lead to wasted time and resources when a simpler solution would work just as well for your users. Focus on solving the core problem first; you can always optimize later if the product gains traction.

Example: GitHub started as a straightforward platform to host git repositories. It wasn’t feature-rich at launch, but it solved a core problem effectively. They scaled and improved features over time, but their MVP worked because it addressed a real need.

Conclusion

For bootstrapped founders, the temptation to perfect every detail can be a roadblock to progress. Done is better than perfect isn't about lowering your standards it's about recognizing the importance of launching, learning, and iterating quickly. Focus on validating your idea with a minimum viable product, gather feedback, and don’t shy away from the hard work of marketing and soliciting customer feedback. By embracing an iterative, lean approach and avoiding perfectionism, you’ll maximize your chances of building a successful product with limited resources.