12 videos · 9 hr 19 minSmall, Profitable, Nobody's Unicorn
Hacker News is funded by a startup accelerator, yet a large share of its readers don't want venture capital, and these are the talks they pass around. It opens on luck and cheap experiments, then gets to the 2008 argument for charging customers, then practical advice on pricing, contracts and solo shipping. It ends with people who have kept small, independent operations going for decades.
Play all on YouTube- 121:40
Darius Kazemi, Tiny Subversions - XOXO Festival (2014)
XOXO Festival · Picked by 7 · 2015–2024Opens with how luck works: 72 odd side projects in one year, and HN's favorite answer to survivorship-bias success stories.
- 231:56
David Heinemeier Hansson at Startup School 08
startupschool · Picked by 8 · 2010–2023The founding text, given at Y Combinator's own event: charge money, stay small, ignore the exit, which founders still call career-changing.
- 341:39
BOLTR: Juicero, Cold Press Juicer for Rich Weirdos
AvE · Picked by 6 · 2017–2026The counterexample: AvE takes apart a venture-funded juicer and shows what unlimited money and no constraints look like in machined aluminum.
- 439:23
Maciej Ceglowski - Barely succeed! It's easier!
webdirections · Picked by 3 · 2015–2020The Pinboard founder's dry case for aiming lower, and a gem HN found inspiring even though few have watched it.
- 5
58:50David Heinemeier Hansson-Unlearn Your MBA (Entire talk)
Entrepreneurship.org · Picked by 2 · 2017–2022DHH five years on, with the argument expanded: planning is guessing and constraints help you.
- 6
4:56Understanding the Job
Edward Capaldi · Picked by 3 · 2019–2024Five minutes of Clayton Christensen's milkshake story, the simplest tool here for working out what customers would actually pay for.
- 7
1:05:37Designing the Ideal Bootstrapped Business with Jason Cohen
Rob Walling · Picked by 13 · 2020–2024The practical core and the top-scoring video in the startup section: start from your own life and constraints, and work back to pricing and market.
- 8
37:54Mike Monteiro: F*ck You, Pay Me
CreativeMornings HQ · Picked by 12 · 2015–2026The part bootstrappers forget: contracts, lawyers and collecting payment, which HN sends to every freelancer whose client won't pay.
- 9
1:00:00How to Build a Startup Without Funding by Pieter Levels @ Dojo Bali
@levelsio · Picked by 2 · 2018–2021The solo-maker version: a tour of many shipped projects and why being a generalist matters when nobody is paying for a team.
- 10
30:58Emojli: Behind the Scenes and Why You Should Never Build An App
Tom Scott · Picked by 3 · 2016–2019A funny cautionary tale about a joke app that got real users, and the support burden that came with them.
- 11
59:47Failing to Fail: The Spiderweb Software Way
GDC Festival of Gaming · Picked by 11 · 2018–2025Long-run proof: Jeff Vogel has made a comfortable living from indie games since 1994, and HN calls the talk legendary.
- 12
1:46:51"Money doesn't interest me" - Ton Roosendaal 2017 Interview
Blender Guru · Picked by 7 · 2018–2025Ends with the furthest version of the idea: Blender's creator on building world-class software without running it as a business at all.