BootStrapper.com
So here’s a quick post explaining the roots of this site…a couple years ago I was bored and 2 friends over a short period of time asked me to do some consulting for them. To be honest, I didn’t really know what a “consultant” did at the time but I figured I could help them out a bit get their companies growing. So I “engaged” (good consultant word eh?) with them and started putting some time in. After thorough analysis (another consultant word - I’ll save the acronym SWOT) I decided that I didn’t want to sell consulting by itself so I decided I’ll create an “organization” around my consulting services (read: what I spew) and bought the domain bootstrapper.com - which I was super surprised was still available and hired a firm in india run by a buddy to build me a website around it. So a few weeks later, the site was done and we were about to launch when my developer friend says “Richie , we have a problem”. I’m like “oh shit, what’s wrong?”…
Turns out I didn’t own bootstrapper.com but i owned bootstapper.com (I never said I was smart & I clearly can’t spell). So what did I do? I panic’d, scrambled and searched. Turns out bootstrapper.com was for sale from buydomains.com (Thank you Mike Mann) and I bought it, after a little haggling and $1200 I owned this great domain. It was the best $1200 I ever spent and the only domain I ever paid more than retail for.
So what happened? I recruited a bunch of friends with different specialties and starting selling consulting services. I took on a few clients and made some money but a) I realized that i hate when i give people carefully researched ideas and they don’t get put to use and b) I never took on a client that came to me cold from BootStrapper.com. While, I am a firm believer in goodwill marketing - I don’t believe in wasting such a prized (at least to me) domain name.
So after months of soul searching, I found a great designer and decided to turn it into a multi-user blog. Why? There ain’t any sites with both entrepreneurs & investors blogging about whatever the heck they want. I like commentary, I like stories, I can get news and reviews from a million places but I can’t get true off the cuff straight from the mouth of James Joyce opinion and thus bootstrapper.com v2 was borne.
Over the next few months, we’ll be fine tuning this site and be adding lots more bloggers (so you can read other crazy peoples’ writing besides for just my own) and start building this out. I don’t have grand aspirations for the site, I don’t even plan on turning it into much of a business (unless you insist on buying advertising! :) but I want to get as many bloggers that are relevant and as much quality content as humanly possible onto this site.
If you’d like to be a blogger, let me know (we are looking for successful entrepreneurs, investors and connectors only) - the people that can add value to everyone else (hopefully).
Anywhooo its getting late, time for bed.
PS. I’ve been to the gym 2 days in a row and it feels GREAT!
