bootstrapped startup pattern: agency-to-product
bootstrap your product by solving problems you find while doing client work
I've looked at a few bootstrapped startups that made it big without taking investor money.
I keep seeing one type of pattern with companies like MailChimp and Basecamp.
These companies started around the early 2000s when the internet was new. They were design agencies first. They built websites for clients. While doing this work, they found problems (their clients’ or their own) that needed fixing. So they built tools to fix these problems.
It connects to common startup advice: if you have a problem yourself, then solve that problem first.
If you start when a market is new, then you can become a leader in that market. This happened with MailChimp in email marketing and Basecamp in project management.
They were one of the first in a market, and so people used their product because they don't have that many choices. This is what happened with these companies at the dawn os SaaS. Add to that the happy incidents that were inbound marketing, physical ad virality, freemium - lots of other waves that helped fan the flames. There was innovation both on the product and the distribution side as the overall space matured.
Consulting/agency-to-product as a bootstrapping pattern makes a ton of sense.
You can use that client money to support yourself while you create your own product. And it’s almost inevitable that you start to notice the same problems coming up again and again.
What does this mean for people starting businesses today?
If you start a web agency now and try to build a project management tool, then you will have a very hard time.
You would compete against big companies with lots of money like ClickUp, Monday.com, Asana, and Basecamp. The market is full, and the winners are already chosen.
There could still be chances if you can find problems no one has solved yet, but your chances are lower now because the internet is mature. It's 2025, and most obvious problems have solutions already.
That said, if you run an AI consultancy/agency helping companies use artificial intelligence, then you might still find good product ideas and untapped markets.
AI is still new, like the internet was in the early days.
If you help companies with AI, then you will see problems that need solving.
You might find a great product idea this way.