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Start Small, Stay Small: A Developer's Guide to Launching a Startup Paperback – June 8, 2010
Purchase options and add-ons
- You don't have $6M of investor funds sitting in your bank account
- You're not going to relocate to the handful of startup hubs in the world
- You're not going to work 70 hour weeks for low pay with the hope of someday making millions from stock options
- Print length213 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- Publication dateJune 8, 2010
- Dimensions6 x 0.54 x 9 inches
- ISBN-100615373968
- ISBN-13978-0615373966
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Editorial Reviews
About the Author
Rob's popular podcast Startups for the Rest of Us has well over 10 million downloads, and he's written three best-selling books about startups: Start Small, Stay Small, The Entrepreneur's Guide to Keeping your Sh*t Together, and The SaaS Playbook. Over the past seventeen years, he has helped tens of thousands of entrepreneurs.
Rob has been featured in The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, HuffPost, CNET, Mixergy, Investor's Business Daily, and Inc.
Learn more at RobWalling.com
Product details
- Publisher : The Numa Group, LLC (June 8, 2010)
- Language : English
- Paperback : 213 pages
- ISBN-10 : 0615373968
- ISBN-13 : 978-0615373966
- Item Weight : 11.2 ounces
- Dimensions : 6 x 0.54 x 9 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #387,570 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #2,382 in Entrepreneurship (Books)
- Customer Reviews:
About the author
Rob Walling is a serial entrepreneur who has built several multimillion-dollar companies and invested in more than 120 startups. He runs MicroConf, the largest community for non-venture track SaaS founders, and TinySeed, a category-leading accelerator for B2B SaaS.
Rob’s popular podcast Startups for the Rest of Us has well over 10 million downloads, and he’s written three best-selling books about startups: Start Small, Stay Small, The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Keeping your Sh*t Together, and The SaaS Playbook. Over the past seventeen years, he has helped tens of thousands of entrepreneurs.
Rob has been featured in The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, HuffPost, CNET, Mixergy, Investor’s Business Daily, and Inc.
Learn more at RobWalling.com
Customer reviews
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Learn more how customers reviews work on AmazonCustomers say
Customers find the book provides practical and useful advice for bootstrapping startups. They describe it as an excellent guide that is worth the time and money. The book is written in an easy-to-read, concise style that's straightforward and efficient. Customers appreciate the author's focus on getting to the point and avoiding unnecessary details.
AI-generated from the text of customer reviews
Customers find the book provides practical and useful information about starting a small business. They appreciate the strategic guidance and technical details, from editing to organization. The advice is helpful and actionable, providing insights and best practices needed for bootstrapping. Readers find the book thorough yet concise, getting right to the point.
"...Rob outlined what I believe to be some very fundamental ideas that anybody can put into practice immediately which will prove to be extremely..." Read more
"...Start Small, Stay Small, on the other hand, is jam-packed with actionable advice for bootstrappers...." Read more
"...Not only does the book effectively help layout the strategy but some other topics that have been alluding me are much..." Read more
"I liked the core ideas of the book, very much aligned with ideas of Lean...." Read more
Customers find the book provides good value for money. They say it's a quick, entertaining read that provides quality content and an outstanding blueprint that saves time.
"...been able to test several ideas of my own (all within a month) for hardly any money (about $100) and am expecting to see a return on my investment..." Read more
"...However, I would still say it's worth the price of purchase just to have all this advice collected in one place. )" Read more
"It's a good book...." Read more
"...Rob does an excellent job of illustrating how to find a space where there is a need, or market, and building your product around that demand...." Read more
Customers find the book easy to read and concise. They say it's a quick, efficient read with clear advice. The author doesn't waste time delving into the topic and providing actionable advice.
"...Marketing and outsourcing tips are great, well explained...." Read more
"Rob Walling has written a practical, easy-to-understand approach for the new entrepreneur to take the first steps toward building a business based..." Read more
"...The book is written in a blog-like reader friendly style. Short paragraphs and without unneccessary fluff." Read more
"...This book exceeded my expectations. It is written extremely well in an easy to ready manner...." Read more
Customers find the book simple and straightforward. They say it's a great time-saving adjunct to the Lean Startup movement, providing useful information on getting things up and running quickly.
"...say it really helped me to clear lots of questions and saved me ton of time and frustration." Read more
"...effective sales web site, Rob builds a thoughtful plan with straightforward action steps...." Read more
"...use of Virtual Assistants is a great money-saving and time-saving adjunct to the Lean Startup movement...." Read more
"...It is written extremely well in an easy to ready manner...." Read more
Customers appreciate the book's focus. They find it concise and helpful for narrowing their focus.
"...a master in this topic, because the way he wrote the book, very focused to the point and based on the products that he have finished in the..." Read more
"...It's extremely thorough but not bloated - he gets right to the point...." Read more
"...He was straight to the point. This allowed me to finish the book in 2-3 days and start applying all that I learned...." Read more
"pretty good. at minimum reminds you to narrow your focus." Read more
Top reviews from the United States
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- Reviewed in the United States on November 23, 2016I loved this book!
Rob outlined what I believe to be some very fundamental ideas that anybody can put into practice immediately which will prove to be extremely valuable!
I think nowadays a lot of people believe they need a lot of money to start a business or prove a concept and this book turns that way of thinking completely on it's head. I'm guilty of thinking that way as I have been fascinated with watching shows like Shark Tank, the Profit and others that are very similar. Nowadays you hear about that big VC backed company on Tech Crunch and want to believe that that's the only way to get your startup off the ground. I even went to the extent of participating in an accelerator in the bay recently and while that was an amazing experience that taught me a lot, I've learned that getting an investment isn't the only way to get your company off the ground.
Since reading this book I've been able to test several ideas of my own (all within a month) for hardly any money (about $100) and am expecting to see a return on my investment very soon now.
Before this book I would built out an entire application (a very time consuming process) come to find out that it wouldn't work 6 months and several thousand dollars later.
This book has helped me avoid those pitfalls so I'm really glad I read it.
I HIGHLY recommend anybody looking to start an ecommerce, software, and even a traditional business read this book as a lot of the concepts still apply to traditional businesses.
- Reviewed in the United States on February 8, 2014One of the best books on starting a startup I have ever read. I have bought and read both Eric Ries' The Lean Startup and Steve Blank's The Startup Owner's Manual and while they were good books, it felt like they didn't provide much advice on how to bootstrap a startup.
Start Small, Stay Small, on the other hand, is jam-packed with actionable advice for bootstrappers. If you want to know how to start a startup without venture capital, start with this book.
(The only reason I'm not giving it five stars is that a lot of the content is available on Rob Walling's blog. If you're a long-time reader of his, maybe you will not get as much value out of the book. However, I would still say it's worth the price of purchase just to have all this advice collected in one place. )
- Reviewed in the United States on August 6, 2013I've been following Rob's podcast "Startups for the Rest of Us" for a while now. And long before I stumbled across it, I've been developing my ideas on how I want to build and market software products but just haven't really been able to tie it all together. So after listening a while and realizing that our viewpoints seem to be pretty similar (I write software for a living, but believe that marketing of it is almost more important), I decided to invest a little bit to see if Rob really knows what he's talking about or can at least fill in some of the holes I've had in my overall plan and strategy.
Well, let me tell you, for me this book is a bit of a godsend. Once I started reading, I couldn't put it down and finished it in less than a week - highly uncommon for me. Not only does the book effectively help layout the strategy but some other topics that have been alluding me are much (VA's and outsourcing, how to really niche your market). The other thing that Rob does that similar books on the topic don't do as well is actually try to put some rough numbers on things, actionable concrete steps to get the ball rolling in certain areas and also paint the world through "less rose colored" glasses so you get a hunch as to what you're stepping into.
My only minor complaint is I'm wondering on the timeliness of some of the information. I found a link or two listed in the book no longer seem to be in service that are referenced in the book. I'm also not an SEO expert, but I get the impression that due to the ever changing landscape of SEO might mean some of the strategies listed are a little dated or may not work as well today. But again, I'm not an expert and I'm basing this solely on what I read in the book and comparing it to things I've heard at a high level from other sources out in the world.
Next step is to go put it into action and see how well that fares....
- Reviewed in the United States on December 29, 2019I liked the core ideas of the book, very much aligned with ideas of Lean.
However it is pretty old and outdated, especially the parts about marketing and SEO.
- Reviewed in the United States on November 27, 2022Probably the most practical book on starting a bootstrapped software business that I've read so far. Maybe that's because the author is software developer so we tend to think alike. Book is to the point and with actionable advice, numbers. Marketing and outsourcing tips are great, well explained. I'd say it really helped me to clear lots of questions and saved me ton of time and frustration.
- Reviewed in the United States on June 28, 2014It's a good book. There's good amount of pragmatic advice built into this which will help especially starting entrepreneurs avoid some of the strategically failing approaches when first starting out. I loved the overall theme of the book which is to basically focus and grow rather than splatter your attention and resources without knowing where something sticks. In that respect alone, it's a book worth reading for any aspiring entrepreneurs.
The reason for 4 instead of 5 stars is I would have liked to see the author go more in detail about finding niche markets, tools to be used, some empirical approaches to bridge that market research to business tactics and daily goals of gaining traction for a fledgling business.
- Reviewed in the United States on August 17, 2024My business plan shifted significantly after reading this book, and I started seeing better results. I recommend it to every software entrepreneur.
Top reviews from other countries
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Ronaldo ScottiReviewed in Brazil on May 6, 2024
5.0 out of 5 stars Apesar de antigo, os princípios ainda são aplicáveis.
Além disso, vale muito acompanhar o trabalho atual do autor com o podcast "Startups for the rest of us", e também seus novos livros!
- Martín ValenzuelaReviewed in Mexico on October 16, 2023
5.0 out of 5 stars Really good book
This book is a nice guide and has tips to start a new SaaS project.
- CloReviewed in the United Kingdom on April 20, 2023
5.0 out of 5 stars Actionable and helpful
Devoured this book in a morning. Full of actionable tips and big concepts that I’m going to implement to launch my first product. Couldn’t recommend more!
- VigneshReviewed in India on April 2, 2020
5.0 out of 5 stars Good one
If you are a developer and thinking about starting the next big thing, the author has some good advice for you. Though this book is aimed at microproducts, the knowledge can be transferred to any level of product. The author also convinced me that going through the micropreneur is the low risk way of getting into entrepreneurship.
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MichaelReviewed in Germany on December 23, 2019
5.0 out of 5 stars Außergewöhnlich gut!
Voll mit konkreten und umsetzbaren Empfehlungen, kein unnötiges Geschwafel. Außerdem ist er ehrlich und verspricht nicht das Blaue vom Himmel: Ein Startup sei weder ein Ponyhof, noch besonders glamourös. In einigen Monaten werde ich hier berichten, wie gut sich das Buch in der Praxis geschlagen hat.