Bootstrapping in startups can be challenging. But it also allows you to build your business idea from your vision and values.
Bootstrapping is often common during the pre-seed stage of the startup. In this stage, your minimum viable product (MVP) is being developed from conceptualization to prototype building.
In this article, we explore the steps to develop your MVP while pulling yourself by the bootstraps (so to speak).
Defining Your Target Market
While market research determines the demand size within a specific industry, defining your target market is getting to know your ideal customers better. By discovering their needs and pain points, you can develop your MVP with them in mind. Here are free customer interviewer tools that can help you out:
LinkedIn search helps you find professionals relevant to your product’s target market within its industry. By giving them a direct message on LinkedIn, you can interview your ideal customers. Your second connections will most likely respond due to shared associations, especially if your LinkedIn page is complete and professional.
Google Forms also allows you to do quick surveys and collect data. While it lacks customizability and flexibility, free add-ons like Form Notifications let you create custom emails.
TypeForm is another survey and data collection tool. Unlike Google Forms, it embeds videos and images smoothly for a more engaging experience. Its free version always displays the Typeform link at the end of your surveys.
Build an MVP Landing Page
Your MVP landing page is the first page the user will see on your website. Your landing page further gauges your target market’s interest in your offer through its click-through rate.
Squarespace starts for free. It doesn’t require coding skills, and you can create email marketing campaigns and video advertisements that link to your landing page. You will have to use a paid plan later on to get your website online.
Building Your Minimum Viable Product Prototype
With your landing page complete, the next step is to build your MVP prototype. This is still in the pre-seed stage. The prototype will be the basis of your MVP development. It has yet to be intended to be tested in the market.
Can you see your business idea in your mind? It is time to give it structure and basic form through the following:
- Wireframes: a simple and quick visualization of the product or service’s design and user interface.
- Mockups: a static but realistic rendering of your product or service with no active features.
- Storyboard: create a story that shows how your product or service is applicable.
- Animation: animations can show how your product is structured through a sequence of images.
Free MVP Prototype Building Tools
Here are the tools that start free for making prototypes of your MVP. All free versions allow one project for the user.
Webflow helps you build website prototypes and functional websites. You can develop your prototype here and later develop it into your MVP, ready to launch online. Or it can be exported into an automatically generated code you can hand to your developers.
Marvel focuses more on user interface designs with no coding skills required. Like Webflow, it automatically generates code you can easily export and hand to your developers. It also has a user testing feature, which allows you to see how users navigate through your prototype with screen, audio, and video recordings.
Designing Your MVP
With your prototype’s structure and function built, the next step is adding a design that will add to the user experience. Both Canva and VistaCreate start as free.
VistaCreate is best for users who want to create mostly animated designs.
Meanwhile, Canva offers third-party integrations, no download limit, more template options, and better features.
Building Your MVP
Here are some MVP no-code tools you can use to bootstrap on building an app:
Thunkable uses drag-and-drop blocks to create logic for your apps, similar to coding. Because of its simple interface, you can control how you want your app to work. However, it is limited in features. Fortunately, you can look for third-party add-ons to compensate for this limitation.
Bubble.io focuses on creating a web app first, which can be converted into a mobile app later. Instead of drag-and-drop blocks, it uses workflows of “what happens next if this button is clicked.“ Its built-in components give you more creative freedom but a higher learning curve.
Use Thunkable if logic is one of your strengths. Use Bubble if you don’t mind a high learning curve. The free versions of Bubble and Thunkable allow you to explore and learn how to use the app. But Bubble has fewer restrictions on how many apps you can create and other quantities. While both have affordable plans, Bubble gives you most of its features at that plan level.
Launching Your MVP
When you have finished your MVP, the next step is to test it with a small target audience. This is the startup stage. Through testing, you’ll learn how much they are willing to pay for your finished product and improve upon it.
You can test your product through the following platforms:
ProductHunt has a community of testers in which the website allows them to rate and comment about your product.
BetaList allows fellow entrepreneurs to use startups as early birds. This website has more diverse categories to enable entrepreneurs to find precisely what they want.
Reddit r/startups lets you bounce ideas with fellow entrepreneurs and receive feedback and answers to your most important questions.
MVP Analyzer
After launching your MVP, constantly monitoring your launch success is vital. Google Analytics can provide website traffic, engagement, and conversion rate data.
By integrating GA into your landing page, you can track where your customers are coming from and what they are interested in. GA allows you to measure the number of customers who interacted with your product page, who added which items to their shopping cart, and who completed the sales funnel.
You can use the list of customers for retargeting ads.
Bootstrap Your Way to Startup Success
There are many free tools to bootstrap your MVP development from the pre-seed to the startup stage. Eventually, you must invest more money into your devices and strategies as your business grows. The tools above will give you the start while you look for investors to fund your product. To discover how to find seed investors, see our “How to Get Seed Investors: A Guide for Startups.”
