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Ask HN: Bootstrapped startup 'forced' to spend $10k. How?

9 points by throwaway1267 ↗ HN
Im in an odd situation.

We are a bootstrapped startup. We got a $10k grant to use in startup services, but we cant use it in paying ourselves. And if we don't spend it completely there's a fine we have to pay.

We have to spend the money before the end of July.

Why we asked for the grant in the first place? We thought we need the money to hire developers, but in the end we did the MVP ourselves (I learned to program in rails in the process :)

Being a pre-launch bootstrapped startup, we are not used to spend money like this, so I have been looking in for services that we can pay for 12 months in advance, but they are scarce.

Also I'm looking for some consulting work like web designers for a new logo, get domain names in multiple languages, etc.

Fellow HNers, How can I spend the money? (I have around $8k left)

15 comments

[ 2.8 ms ] story [ 19.5 ms ] thread
kitcar
Legal fees for incorporation and shareholder agreement. The rest on PPC to gather your first customers. or Prepay some of your recurring expenses to get a discount (hosting, etc...)
throwaway1267
Thanks kitcar! Great idea about the legal fees. We are already incorporated but we can look on things like the ToS, etc. PPC is a good idea also.
coryl
Yuck, legal documents? I'd suggest spending it on things that really matter, like user acquisition.

You especially don't need a lawyer to write up TOS until you actually have a user base, imo.

kitcar
In my experience, one of the biggest mistakes startups make is not defining a clear shareholders agreement from day 1 - just leads to conflict down the road. While you could hypothetically write your own, if either you or your partner have never done so in the past I strongly recommend you bring in an outside party, as they will force you and your business partners to have discussions you may not want to have otherwise (i.e. what to do if one of the partner gets a job offer and chooses to leave the company shortly after your product launches, what to do if one partner wants to buy another partner out, etc...

Agreed don't spend it on TOS though, you can build a pretty strong one yourself by reading similar sites TOS for inspiration.

ultrasaurus
Call sales at the services you want to pay in advance, they'll let you pre-pay somehow.
cabinguy
Spend it ALL on client acquisition. Test Google, Facebook, Yahoo, etc... Do 5 tests of $1k each (or 10 @ $500). Spend the remaining 5k on whatever works best.
TheSkeptic
Simple answer: one weekend in Las Vegas.

Honest rationale: if you accept a $10,000 grant for your "startup" but don't know how to spend it, you're clearly gambling your time away. You might as well gamble the money away.

bgg
I think you are being overly harsh. Having $10,000 in free money to spend doesn't seem like such a bad problem to have. It's not clear they are wasting time or money,

If the grant was easy to apply for, I don't fault them for not having a plan of how to spend the money they didn't yet have. (I do fault the grant granting people though. Shouldn't "what are you gonna do with it?" be a major factor in picking the grant recipients?)

EDIT: forgot to add: to the OP, I'll Nth the concept of spending a big chunk of it on customer acquisition or field testing your MVP. Buy traffic you can convert to paying customers (or failing that, names and addresses of interested customers).

TheSkeptic
The HN set may not want to accept it, but in the real world, when somebody trying to build a business doesn't have any clue as to how to allocate their resources, it's a huge red flag. Period.
rawsyntax
Maybe they'll learn how along the way
gregpilling
If you want domain names in other languages, you could spend a bundle on translations. You could also get some copywriting done in several versions, and then a/b test with them. You could talk to a patent lawyer and try to get some of your tech patented (file provisionals at this point), file trademarks both nationally and internationally, ... and spend some money on design. If you learned to code by yourself, did you design it too? I have been amazed at what a good designer has done when they have remade some of my creations.

But mostly I agree with customer acquisition. That is the best place to put your extra cash.

shg5004
Land grab your domain names if the start-up successful you won't have to worry about squatters.

I am interested in your learning rails were you a previous programmer in another language or Business/Designer.

pdebruic
Hire some writers to make your help docs and how-to guides more robust. That content can last forever and boosts your page rank plus eases customer retention/acquisition (at least while its still accurate to your implementation) but the ppc ad investments only last until the money is spent. Also get those articles translated into some languages as the non-English world is under served.

Run many ad tests but spend small amounts (less than $50) each time while you learn how to do it (analytics, AB tests) and what works (platform, content, offerings) and what changes help.

guillermovs
You can always buy a premium domain name via Sedo.com or a similar domain marketplace. Then sell it if you don't want it and the money is yours.
x03
If you're looking for some language/translation help, then feel free shoot an email to the address in my profile and we'll see what we can do to help you guys out. :)