Turning this mission into a business

I'm turning the Bootstrapped Giants newsletter into a business and I want to bring you along for the ride by showing both my process AND the revenue.

First, let's talk about WHY Bootstrapped Giants MUST be a business.

When my partners and I sold Ampush for life-changing money, we saw how powerful bootstrapping can be.

Today, I continue to see how big bootstrapped companies can be, because I'm growing several of them at Gateway X.

My startup studio will build a billion-dollar business that's bootstrapped.

I committed to helping people discover this approach and to helping them become Bootstrapped Giants.

So, in my limited spare time, I wrote this newsletter, and I tweeted, and I podcasted, and I kept spreading the word. And I wore myself out.

I couldn't keep up with it while building my businesses and raising a family.

So I asked my friends who achieved "business influencer" status how they did it.

You know the ones, Codie Sanchez, Sam Parr, Michael Girdley, etc.

What they said shocked me. Most have TEAMS behind them. Editors, producers, videographers, etc.

I was dismayed. But if that's what it takes to spread the word, I'm willing to step up.

What I'm not willing to do is burn money. If this mission is going to grow it has to earn its keep.

So today I'm announcing that Bootstrapped Giants is going to start generating revenue that will enable it to recruit the team this mission needs.

As I looked at all the ways we could generate revenue, none felt right to me.

Then it hit me.

The Gateway X teams constantly test tools to find the ones that can grow our companies. We have 20+ tools that we use and LOVE.

What if I could get them to buy ads AND give exclusive benefits to my community? That would be a win-win-win.

If you read my previous newsletters, you know that I like to validate ideas with sales.

Here are the steps I took to sell and our current revenue.

And here’s what it looks like:

For Q2, we closed $40k PER MONTH in sponsorships! Woohoo!

This is all I need to get a small team (1-2 full-time and contractors).

For each sponsor, there is a flat fee and some performance component.

But ultimately they will judge us on the number of leads/customers/trials this delivers.

My hope is that we can crush their goals and expand/renew the partnerships so we can continue to fund more content and more value for everyone following along.

Think videos of Bootstrapped Giants stories, a new podcast where I give advice to BG founders, producing lessons or workshops, and more!

If we do it right, we’ll have a movement for entrepreneurs who love the Bootstrapped Giants approach and follow this path.

Spiritually, I feel fulfilled helping others.

Commercially, I use my public platform to give my other companies (e.g., GrowthAssistant) an advantage in selling & hiring.

EVERYONE wins.

So who are the sponsors and why do I love them? I’m glad you asked! Here they are:

1. Superhuman - ahhh Superhuman. My absolute favorite product.

As you can see below… it is my top-used app other than iMessage.

If you Google my name and inbox zero, you’ll see I’ve been all about this approach this 2012.

You see, I’m disorganized. I can’t do folders or tags or any of that stuff. It’s just not how my brain works.

I also know that leadership and sales are about FAST communication.

So 10+ years ago, I got serious about inbox zero. I had shortcuts from Google, another company that allowed reminders, etc etc.

And then SUPERHUMAN came along and made it all incredibly easy, integrated, and FAST.

Yesterday, without internet on a plane, I triaged 75 emails.

I can read emails super fast by clicking the “M” key, triggering the AI summary feature.

I could not recommend Superhuman more highly and it is required for all GX CEOs.

2. Notion - Gateway X runs on Notion.

Mostly thanks to Nak, our COO. But I’ve never seen such a flexible and powerful tool.

It is the first place we go to solve any problem: CRM, Hiring tools, internal wiki, you name it.

We build a quick version on Notion that gets us moving fast and easily. I highly recommend you get fluent with it!

As we roll out their sponsorship, we'll show you what it can do.

We also made a special offer with Notion where I will share internal templates with you + we’ll host a workshop where we walk through use cases.

Through this partnership, you can get 6 months free of Notion and access the limitless power of AI to build and scale your company and team with one tool.

3. Rippling - when I first got a demo of Rippling, I felt super angry.

For two reasons: 1) How come no one invented this sooner? And 2) why the hell didn’t I think of it?

At Ampush, for 10+ years we used ADP for payroll. Now, I don’t like to be a hater, but ADP was the WORST.

It was archaic, you had to call in to get anything done and it wasn’t integrated.

Rippling is the opposite. It's amazing SaaS software.

We use them for payroll + we use their PEO for healthcare enables us to give amazing benefits.

And they're quick to support anything we need.

4. Mystery AI company - this co is already a sponsor though it isn’t launching until next month… but I’m already in love with it and the founding team.

It’s one thing to take notes in a meeting but these guys go to the next level.

Thoughtful summaries, next steps, super smart video integration, sharing capabilities, and much much more.

Stay tuned for this one, it has quickly become my favorite tool. Now I’m sad when I'm in a meeting and I forget to have it listening in!

5. [EMPTY SLOT] Coming Soon

We are working to finalize our 5th and final sponsor for the quarter, please hit reply and share some of your favorite tools for me to check out.

I’m going to learn and experiment. I would love your feedback.

I want this to be as authentic and as helpful as possible.

In the coming weeks, you'll see me insert sponsorship callouts in emails, send a weekly email with a video/example of how we use these tools and post different one-offs on social.

I have never done this so I have no idea what I’m doing! But I want it to feel valuable to you and the sponsors.

If I'm missing the mark for you or if you have ideas for how I could improve, hit reply and tell me. I want to learn.

Thanks again for reading and for your support.

​

jesse