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However, in notes prepared for Marcus Gibson, co-author of Bootstrapping Your Business: Start And Grow a Successful Company With Almost No Money, written with
RightNow Technologies CEO and founder Greg Gianforte, Feld advises perspective bootstrappers:

• Figure out how much cash you really have: Here Brad's talking about personal resources not money for the company, because bootstrappers must understand they'll be personally supporting their venture through time, money or both.

• Figure out how much time you really have: This is the other side of the equation and correlates to the old saying about time being money, but Feld says entrepreneurs often underestimate the time their new venture will take up.

• Pick a domain and go deep: Here Brad's talking not about domains as in the Internet world but rather about specialties or niches and he recommends a narrow focus

• Surround yourself with experienced people: This one sounds exactly the opposite of Guy Kawasaki's advice to "forget the proven team" but here Brad's talking about mentors, partners, people with experience from whom to draw not employees.

• Find angels: No, not angel investors exactly, but people who will work for equity in lieu of cash.

• Figure out who you want to look like in 5 years: The other side of this is that it doesn't need to and probably won't turn out the way you planned, but having a plan gives you a point of departure from which you can adjust.

• Get customers: They not only generate revenue but help you develop your business by providing feedback and generating more customers.

• Learn everything you can about what you are about to do: product, market, competitors, costumers--Feld says a successful bootsrapper should be continuously learning about them all.

• Figure out your fallback plan: This is a sort of counterpoint to the third suggestion, because while it might be a mistake to be too vague about your niche, Feld says it's good to have a Plan B if Plan A doesn't work out.

• Figure out what to do if you fail: Fled incorporates a quote from dune, insisting that "Fear is the mind killer" and failure isn't the end of the world.

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