Your first priority is survival, not optimization

Just don't die. And when you go and buy software, you should be going, 'We're a tiny startup. Can you sell it for half?' Everything you buy, just keep the burn rate as low as possible, because you need as many shots on goal as you can possibly get.

The only thing you can really control are your costs. You can't control the alternatives in the market. The competition, you can't control them. You can't determine the market itself. You can't control the economy.

Figure out how to do as much as they can on their own before they bring on a second person. Really work and struggle through something on your own. The moment you bring on someone else, you've got another mouth to feed.

You can't mow your lawn while your house is on fire. You kind of put out the fire and then deal with everything else.

I think if you're a startup your enemy is the status quo. And when you don't take risks, when you minimize risk by doing nothing, the best way to minimize risk is to do nothing. You're letting the status quo win. You're letting your greatest enemy and rival and threat to your business win by default, because you're not even going to try to compete.

The reason I think it's great for entrepreneurs to start bootstrapping is because they just have more practice making money, and they get better, and better, and better at the fundamental skill you need to have ultimately to run a successful business, which is to make money.