Essay · about a 20 minute read

Finding an Audience for Your Side Business

Arvid Kahl · The Bootstrapped Founder Free Beginner

This is the most direct answer to your question we could find: a step by step method for someone with a job and a few spare hours to pick an audience they already belong to and size it so it is reachable. Kahl has you list audiences from your own hobbies, past jobs and communities, then rate them for affinity, real problems, budget and market size. He is explicit that the whole exercise fits into a week of evenings, which is the constraint you are working under.

  • Start from audiences you already belong to (hobbies, past jobs, communities), then rank them.
  • Score each one on affinity, real problems, willingness to pay, and market size before committing.
  • Aim for the Goldilocks zone: big enough to sustain you, small enough that giants ignore it.
Open on thebootstrappedfounder.com ↗

The question it answers

  1. I'm a solo founder with a full-time job. How do I pick a beachhead I can actually serve with 10 hours a week?

Read with it

  1. Lavingia's whole thesis is the one you need as a part-time founder: start with a community you already know and belong to, then... Penguin Random House Book · 288 pages The Minimalist Entrepreneur: How Great Founders Do More with Less Sahil Lavingia
  2. Instead of theory, this is hundreds of interviews with real solo founders who started a profitable business on the side of a... Apple Podcasts Podcast · episodes run 45 to 75 minutes Indie Hackers Podcast Courtland Allen
eChai Partner Brands The partnership →