A Bootstrapper's DiaryVisual diary of bootstrapping an open-source product to $1M ARRhttps://diary.boyney.io/The Three Layers of Internal Budgets I've Learned When Selling Softwarehttps://diary.boyney.io/notes/internal-budget-tiers/https://diary.boyney.io/notes/internal-budget-tiers/Three budget tiers, three very different sales motions. Here's how I think about pricing as a bootstrapper, and why chasing the top tier might not be worth it.Wed, 13 May 2026 00:00:00 GMTI Stopped Working on My Product and It Made Me a Better Founderhttps://diary.boyney.io/notes/stopped-working-on-product/https://diary.boyney.io/notes/stopped-working-on-product/Sometimes the most productive thing you can do is give yourself permission to learn something that has nothing to do with your product.Sat, 11 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMTWhy You Have to Stop to Move Forwardhttps://diary.boyney.io/notes/stop-to-keep-going/https://diary.boyney.io/notes/stop-to-keep-going/The pressure to keep shipping is real, but the smartest thing you can do for your company is step away from it.Thu, 02 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMTWhy I Treat AI as a Teammate Not a Strategyhttps://diary.boyney.io/notes/ai-fomo-paralysis/https://diary.boyney.io/notes/ai-fomo-paralysis/AI was derailing my focus until I stopped chasing trends and started treating it like a teammate on my solo team.Mon, 23 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMTWhy Building Solo Is the Hardest Thing I've Ever Done and What Keeps Me Going Anywayhttps://diary.boyney.io/notes/psychological-impact-solo-building/https://diary.boyney.io/notes/psychological-impact-solo-building/What nobody tells you about the psychological grind of bootstrapping alone, and how to stay in the game.Fri, 13 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMTWhy Being a One Person Company Is Actually a Superpowerhttps://diary.boyney.io/notes/being-small-superpower/https://diary.boyney.io/notes/being-small-superpower/Being small feels like a weakness until you realize it's the thing your customers actually value.Fri, 27 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMTHow Internal Champions Helped Me Grow EventCatalog and Why They're Worth More Than Any Marketing Campaignhttps://diary.boyney.io/notes/internal-champions/https://diary.boyney.io/notes/internal-champions/The people already using your product are often your best salespeople -- if you treat them like more than just users.Fri, 20 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMTWhy I Chose to Bootstrap EventCatalog and What It Taught Me About Defining Success on Your Own Termshttps://diary.boyney.io/notes/why-i-chose-bootstrap/https://diary.boyney.io/notes/why-i-chose-bootstrap/What changes when you stop chasing VC milestones and start building for the life you actually want.Fri, 13 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMTHow AI Made Scope Creep My Biggest Threat and Why Speed Is Not a Strategyhttps://diary.boyney.io/notes/ai-scope-creep/https://diary.boyney.io/notes/ai-scope-creep/AI makes building faster than ever. That's exactly why it's more important than ever to build less.Wed, 11 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMTHow AI Gave Me the Capacity of a Small Team and Why That Changes Everything for Solo Foundershttps://diary.boyney.io/notes/ai-bottleneck/https://diary.boyney.io/notes/ai-bottleneck/The bottleneck used to be building. Now it's deciding what to build. Here's how AI shifted what's possible when you're bootstrapping alone.Sun, 08 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMTWhy I Spent All My Time Chasing New Customers and What I Learned When Renewals Hithttps://diary.boyney.io/notes/chasing-new-customers/https://diary.boyney.io/notes/chasing-new-customers/What happens when you focus all your energy on acquisition and forget the people already paying you.Sun, 08 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMTWhy I Undercharged for EventCatalog and What I Learned About How Developers Get Pricing Wronghttps://diary.boyney.io/notes/developers-undersell/https://diary.boyney.io/notes/developers-undersell/Why developers are wired to undersell their products and how to start pricing based on the problem you solve, not the code you wrote.Sun, 08 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMTI Confused Shipping Speed With Product Speedhttps://diary.boyney.io/notes/product-heartbeat/https://diary.boyney.io/notes/product-heartbeat/Shipping fast doesn't mean shipping smart. Here's what I learned about finding the right release cadence when your users have jobs and limited bandwidth.Sun, 08 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMTI Got to $23K MRR Without Stripe and What That Taught Me About Starting Simplehttps://diary.boyney.io/notes/starting-simple/https://diary.boyney.io/notes/starting-simple/You don't need half the infrastructure you think you need. Here's what actually matters when you're building something from zero.Sun, 08 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMTHow I Turned Content Into a Growth Engine and Why It Works Better Than Adshttps://diary.boyney.io/notes/content-as-product/https://diary.boyney.io/notes/content-as-product/Why developer advocacy and problem-space thinking created a compounding growth flywheel for meFri, 06 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMTMy First Sale and What I Learned About Turning Free Users Into Paying Customershttps://diary.boyney.io/notes/path-to-first-sale/https://diary.boyney.io/notes/path-to-first-sale/How I went from free open source project to someone actually paying me for it.Fri, 06 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMTWhy I Quit My Job to Build EventCatalog and What I Learned About Taking the Leaphttps://diary.boyney.io/notes/taking-the-leap/https://diary.boyney.io/notes/taking-the-leap/What it really looks like to leave your job and go all-in on an open source project.Fri, 06 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT