Bootstrapping a Startup on a $0 Budget: Share Your Tips, Tools, and Stories!
Hey Product Hunt community! 🚀
I'm diving into the world of bootstrapping and want to build something amazing without spending a dime. I know many of you have been there—starting from scratch, hustling with free tools, and leveraging creativity to grow.
Let’s share our best tips, hacks, and stories! What free tools, platforms, or strategies have you used to launch or scale a project on a $0 budget? From no-cost marketing tactics to open-source software or scrappy growth hacks, spill the beans!
Here are a few questions to kick things off:
What’s the best free tool you’ve used to build or promote your product?
How did you validate your idea without spending money?
Any creative ways to get early users or feedback on a tight budget?
Looking forward to learning from this awesome community! Let’s inspire each other to bootstrap smarter. 💡
Replies
much places to do marketing for free:
Producthunt
X
HackerNews
Communities
DM
Cold emails
@sayyidalijufri I think sticking to one will give more results then spreading your energy
Bits programming knowledge
ChatGPT
VS Code with Augment
Vercel for deployemnt
@d_devil_nightraid Chatgpt has been my co-founder for a long time and it does not ask for equity as weill
Hey James!
Love the $0 hustle vibe—been there! For us, Facebook groups were gold. We spammed them (nicely, lol) to grab early users for SAMURAI+. No cash, just begging designers to try our templates. Worked like a charm! For validation, we slid into LinkedIn DMs—yep, straight-up asking randos for feedback like broke college kids. Got some solid tips that way.
What about you? Product Hunt threads are smart—gonna steal that one! What’s your fave free hack so far?
Marko
@marko_jurisic Spamming nicely, I have been there too 🤣🤣
Smart Keys for Mac
So, you are not willing to spend some money on your idea? This seems like a recipe for failure. Having a budget can actually help you focus and set a deadline.
This obsession with a zero budget seems to come from those BS startup gurus.
@diegodottac You misunderstood. The problem is not willing to spend, but whether one has the money or not, and learning to scale or grow without spending money is a great skill, it will come in handy one way or another
Smart Keys for Mac
@betaboard Got it. Thanks for the clarification. I agree with you that launching on a tight or zero budget is a valuable learning experience.
However, be careful. Is this just an excuse to stay in our comfort zone, a matter of spending priorities, or a real financial struggle?
Building and launching are no longer the biggest challenges. As you said, scale is the real challenge. The real difficulty lies in making money or getting people to use your product. People are exposed to thousands of new products every day. Launching on platforms like PH or Reddit might give you some initial feedback, backlinks, and some vanity upvote metrics. Launching with zero budget can often lead to frustration, wasted time, and possibly abandoning your product, thinking it failed when that might not actually be the case.
Going back to your points, if you have the little funds, prioritize using it because it will speed up your learning. If you don’t, forget about scaling for now and focus on having some funds first. So, if you’re thinking about making money with a product on a $0 budget, and you don't have any online presence, don't launch or build nothing before doing this:
Ask your friends and family to share their main problems at the moment.
Ask them how much they are willing to pay to solve that problem. Choose the ones they value the most.
Do a research and come up with an idea, pitch them, and ask for half of the amount they said they would pay.
If they don't pay: try adjusting or come up with another idea they are willing to pay for.
If they pay: use that money to fund your idea by paying for software or services that will speed up your development and help you acquire customers faster.
PS: This is my rant. Every time I hear talk about zero budgets, I feel like we're being misled into thinking it's possible to build something sustainable just because someone else did it. Some people even pay for books or courses on how to launch something with zero budget, which is a paradox.
One of the best ways I’ve driven marketing and growth was by creating a group for people facing the same problem my product addresses, about a month before launch.
This gave me enough time to build solid relationships with members, understand their needs, and get them excited about the solution. By launch day, these folks became my first 100 customers—eager to jump in and spread the word, all without spending a dime!
Here’s how I made it happen:
Set up a free community on [e.g., Discord or a Reddit thread] to connect with potential users.
Shared valuable insights and encouraged discussions to keep the group active.
Used feedback from the community to refine my product before launch.
Have you tried building a community to kickstart your growth? What other $0 marketing tactics have worked for you?
@betaboard Interesting strategy, how hard was it to get people to join your subreddit or discord? How did you promote your community?
@reid_hearthealthaiI joined the relevant subreddit and connected with people facing the same issue. I openly shared that I’m creating a private group and invited them to join, explaining how it could be helpful. I also shared my journey candidly, without any filter.
Product Hunt Dark Screen
Hi, I'm excited to read some good insights here!
I have took a challenge to Make 1$ building saas and posting updates daily on X and through reels on Instagram.
You can check out and support me in the journey:- https://www.instagram.com/aryan.dev.codes/
Also, i am trying to write Reddit posts.
Basically, i am trying to build myself a Brand instead of focusing on a single product for now.
You can share your views and if any improvements i could do. Thanks
@aryansharma17That's a great initiative! I'm currently doing something similar, working on a project with $0 investment to guide those who are hesitant to start due to a lack of funds.
I've built quip, a way to talk to AI's and have not spent a cent on anything.
@mysticshadow That's great What are you doing to get that in front of people?
@betaboard nothing, i know it's not the best idea but i am just hoping that it takes off 😅
Build a community around your target audinece. Don't think about 1000s, but just around 100 or even less. Try talking to them personally, hype them up in discussions. You will gradually build UGC. That's the initial momentum you need.
@laxman_karthik Yes, but most people make this complicated by doing 100 things and getting nowhere.
Is linked in a good platform to post about your product?
@haris_designer Can you be specific
Ko-fi.com
Hello. I am in the same situation. First I tried to sell. Then I lowered the price. Then I put it for free with the possibility of donations. Then I added programs that really pulled me out of the psychological hole. I don’t understand marketing at all. I published a showcase of my programs here and on indiehackers. Of the free tools - of course AI, it is very convenient to create a basis. All this is certainly fascinating. But I will tell you frankly - there is no financial return. Apparently, I am doing something wrong.
Here is what we did to get our first 10 paying users with $0:
Pre Launch
1.We shared our challenges and asked for feedback during the building phase (design, user persona, pricing, marketing, basically anything).
2. Help and support others, and make friends on Twitter.
3.Engaged in conversations where people are talking about the problem we were solving (you can use F5Bot, a free service that emails you when your selected keywords are mentioned on Reddit or Hacker News).
Soft-Launch
4. Create a no-brainer offer and DM potential users to share their feedback.
5. Reach out to users over DM of our previous product.
6. Joined the PH community on LinkedIn and share love with people asking for support and ask for feedback if they are our ICP.
About to Launch
7. Promoted our product in the communities of products we used to build your product (like softr, a no code website builder, has a community)
8. Promoted our product on "pitch your product" tweets.
9. Launched on launchpads like Uneed, Microlaunch.
10. Launched our product on relevant platforms and directories. If you don't have time, I will be happy to help with Submission part with Boringlaunch. I am the founder of Boringlaunch.
Cross- Launch
11. Collaborated with founders and platforms having the same audience as ours.
12. Find creators and founders whose products or services work well with ours. (For example, we are building a platform submission service, Boringlaunch so we collaborated with a launch platform to create a bundle of featured listings on the platform with our submission services on other platforms)
Post-Launch
13. Overdelivered and ask for a testimonial.
14. Shared your small wins and learning over the internet.
15. Try, try, and try until something works, and double down on what works.
P.S. The order of these steps may vary based on your product, audience, and 99 other factors. So, feel free to adapt and experiment. I have shared the list of communities where you can promote your product here