Start Small, Stay Small is a step-by-step guide to launching a self-funded startup. If you're a desktop, mobile or web developer, this book is your blueprint to getting your startup off the ground with no outside investment. This book intentionally avoids topics restricted to venture-backed startups such as: honing your investment pitch, securing funding, and figuring out how to use the piles of cash investors keep placing in your lap. This book assumes: * You don't have $6M of investor funds sitting in your bank account * You're not going to relocate to the handful of startup hubs in the world * You're not going to work 70 hour weeks for low pay with the hope of someday making millions from stock options There's nothing wrong with pursuing venture funding and attempting to grow fast like Amazon, Google, Twitter, and Facebook. It just so happened that most people are not in a place to do this. Start Small, Stay Small also focuses on the single most important element of a startup that most developers avoid: marketing. There are many great resources for learning how to write code, organize source control, or connect to a database. This book does not cover the technical aspects developers already know or can learn elsewhere. It focuses on finding your idea, testing it before you build, and getting it into the hands of your customers.

“从小处开始，保持小规模”是启动自筹资金初创公司的一个循序渐进的指南。如果你是一个台式机、移动设备或网络开发人员，这本书是你的蓝图，可以让你的初创企业在没有外部投资的情况下起步。这本书有意避开仅限于风险投资支持的初创公司的话题，例如：磨练你的投资基调，获得资金，以及弄清楚如何使用投资者一直放在你膝上的大量现金。这本书假设：*你的银行账户里没有600万美元的投资者资金*你不会搬到世界上为数不多的创业中心*你不会每周工作70个小时，拿着低工资，希望有朝一日能从股票期权中赚几百万。追求风险投资和试图发展没有错像亚马逊、谷歌、推特和Facebook一样快速。碰巧大多数人都不适合这样做。从小处开始，保持小规模也关注大多数开发人员避免的最重要的创业元素：营销。学习如何编写代码、组织源代码管理或连接到数据库有很多很好的资源。本书不涉及开发人员已经知道或可以在其他地方学习的技术方面。它专注于发现您的想法，在构建之前对其进行测试，并将其交到客户手中。