In late 2020, when I launched HabitStrong, we had little money, no tech team, and zero marketing people. There were just four of us.
Since we could not afford a tech team, for the first few months we did not even have a website. Heck, we did not even have the HabitStrong brand. The whole business was run via Google forms, emails, and the goodwill of our customers.
A few months later, when we created the HabitStrong brand, I created the logo, and my colleague Nisha built the website on Wix.
Total spend on technology = zero.
Because we built the website ourselves, updating it was really easy. So not having money proved to be a really good thing 🙂
Since we could not afford to spend on marketing, we spent nothing. All our users came into contact with us through my writings or videos we shared on YouTube.
Once again, not having money propelled us in the right direction. In short, every constraint showed us a new way.
However, don’t get me wrong – I am not suggesting that having money is a bad thing. Money can help you grow really fast. But you don’t need a boatload of money to get started.
Whatever your dreams are, chances are, you feel that you don’t have what it takes. But you do – you have yourself. Start with what you can do, at whatever scale you can.
Remember, the size of a tree has no correlation with the size of its seed – even the most gigantic trees have small seeds.
Where you start, has nothing to do with what you will achieve. Provided you start.
– Rajan