Our customers are the only investors we've ever had
We've had investors since day one, even though they've never asked for shares. They're our customers. And seeing it that way changes how you look at everyday work.
Leer más →How to start a business with no money: the way of thinking that makes it possible
Can you start a business with no money? Yes, just not the way it's usually sold. You don't need a trick. You need to change the question you ask yourself.
Can you start a business with no money?
Yes. Just not the way it's usually sold.
There's no trick. No €997 course that unlocks it. No "zero to ten grand in thirty days".
What there is, is a way of thinking. And that one you can copy.
I started Foxnice in 2014 with my business partner, Yeray, and €300. €150 each. Twelve years later we still haven't taken a single euro from investors.
I'm not telling you this to pin a medal on myself. I'm telling you because over all this time one thing has become clear: what lets you start without money isn't the money you don't have. It's how you think about the money you're going to earn.
Change the question
Almost everyone who wants to start a business with no money asks the same thing: "What business can I start without investing anything?"
It's the wrong question. It sends you looking for cheap ideas. And cheap isn't the same as viable.
The right question is a different one: who would pay me next week to solve something for them?
Notice the difference. The first one looks inwards: your bank account, your fear, your idea. The second looks outwards: a person, a problem, a date.
When you start with no money, your first customer isn't just a customer. They're your investor. The only one you'll have at the beginning. And the best one, because they don't ask for a stake in your company. They ask you to solve something.
Sell before you build
With no money, you can't afford to build something nobody wants.
That sounds like a limitation. It's a huge advantage.
Someone with money can spend a year building in a back room. You can't. You have to talk to someone who has the problem, offer them a solution and see if they pay. That, scary as it is, is exactly what all of us should be doing.
We started by doing work for clients. Websites, projects, support. Nothing glamorous. But every project paid for the next step, and every client taught us something about their industry that no report ever would have.
Years later, our products came out of that work. PagoCRM started as a form for the parents at a football club. Nobody planned it as a startup. It was one client with one specific problem. It turned out lots of other clubs had the same one.
Services first, product later
If you ask me what business to start with no money, my answer isn't a list of ideas. It's an order:
- Sell something you already know how to do. Your time and your skills are the only capital you don't have to borrow.
- Watch for what repeats. If three clients ask you for the same thing, there's something there.
- Turn it into a product once you're already getting paid for it. Not before.
It's slow. I know. It doesn't look good on LinkedIn.
But every step is paid for. And that gives you something outside money never will: you can test, adjust and test again without the game being over.
The money you don't have makes decisions too
Starting with no money forces you to think in a way that's very hard to learn later, once you have money.
It forces you to charge from day one. To spend only on what brings sales closer. To say no to what distracts you. To choose clients who pay well over clients who look good.
That isn't austerity for show. It's focus. And in a small company, focus is worth more than a funding round.
Without money you can't buy time. So you learn not to waste it.
What you do need
Not needing money doesn't mean you need nothing. You need:
- A skill someone will pay for. Coding, design, sales, organising, cooking. It doesn't matter which. But someone has to pay for it.
- Patience. What you build with customers grows more slowly. It also lasts longer.
- Something to live on while you get going. A small cushion or a part-time job. Starting with no money doesn't mean starting with no safety net.
- A willingness to talk to people. More than to design a logo.
If you're just starting
Don't wait until you have the money. You'll probably never feel you have enough.
Find one person with a problem. Solve it. Charge them. Repeat.
It isn't epic. But it works.
And twelve years on, I still think it's the most honest way to build something of your own.
P.S. If you want to see what it was like from the inside, here's how we started Foxnice with €300.