There is nothing wrong with being frugal.
I picked up an old side project and was thinking yesterday about the launch strategy. From a marketing standpoint I could probably dump thousands or tens of thousands of dollars into marketing and get a quick response at launch. But if it catches on organically, its growth might be delayed by a few months to a year, it will grow - without the risk of dumping thousands of dollars into a side project. Besides, this side project is over three years old. It’s waited this long. It can wait another few months.
Right now I’m building the prototype. I don’t need anyone else. When it launches I might need some advice on how to scale it up really quickly. But I’ll worry about that after I get the prototype built and know that this is something I still want to pursue.
Hosting will be very cheap most of the year but it will need to scale up quickly around certain events. I’m confident I can cover the cost myself for the first year. There isn’t much else required to launch this other than my time.
I just need myself, a laptop, and some free time in the evenings.
Note: This is part of a series of posts inspired by re-reading Rework, by DHH and Jason Fried.
