It's Not Just for Artists

Though written about musicians and authors, the logic transfers cleanly to anyone making things for a niche: indie software, newsletters, hardware, courses, small SaaS. Substitute 'customer who buys every release' for 'fan who buys every album' and the equations are identical.

A bootstrapped product with 1,000 customers paying $100 a year is a $100k business with no investors and no requirement to be a household name. Same dials, too: 200 customers at $500 a year works just as well, and B2B pricing turns the dials dramatically.

The strategic lesson underneath it all: depth of relationship can substitute for breadth of reach. Before chasing scale, ask whether you could instead be indispensable to a small group that pays you directly, repeatedly, and gladly.