Dharmesh Shah explains why recessions help bootstrapped startups. Laid-off tech workers become available to hire, your team stays put instead of chasing big offers, competitors spend less on ads so your acquisition costs drop, and rent softens. The noise around fundraising disappears, leaving you free to build.
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Greetings. Now, I'm not sure if you've read the news, but we are going through an economic downturn, and everyone's sort of doom and gloom out there in startup world. But if you're a self-funded bootstrap startup, there's actually some good news. There are several ways the economic downturn can actually help you as a self-funded entrepreneur. Number one, because there are hiring freezes and layoffs across many of the biggest companies in tech, You'll see a lot more talent available on the market. People that you may not have ever had a shot at recruiting before, you can now actually have a conversation with and possibly bring onto the team. 2, the team you have now is more likely to stick with you. They're less likely to be tempted by the lure of joining one of the big tech companies. They're less likely to be getting weekly calls from tech recruiters as they've been getting ever since the day they joined you. Number 3, remember how you used to get a bit of a mini ulcer every time you heard news of one of your competitors raising a mega round of capital? Like $50, $100, $200 million. So yeah, that's gonna be a lot less common in a downturn. As a result of which, number 3, all those mega-funded startups aren't going to be driving up the cost of Google AdWords as much as they used to be doing. And so there's chance that you'll be paying less to promote your startup in some of those common channels. Number 4, the price of office space is not gonna spike up in some of the hottest markets. If you even need office space anymore, that's totally up to you. And finally, and most importantly, a downturn helps those that are just keeping their heads down and executing. This is a great time to just keep building your business without all the extra noise that often comes when we're partying like it's 1999. So if you're a self-funded bootstrap founder, just go build your business. This is as good a time as any. Downturn can actually help you. Thank you.
