Design the product
Shape modules, features, architecture, UX, and target platforms. Every decision creates a different product.
Software, from the ground up
Make something
that matters.
A software-company tycoon set at the dawn of personal computing. Start with a desk, a dream, and a handful of bytes. Build the empire.
In active development · Follow the build in public
01 / THE PREMISE
From one terminal
to a software empire.
Bootstrapped is a grounded business sim about making software, finding a market, and surviving long enough to matter.
Choose what to build. Hire people who complement your strengths. Navigate changing technology, demanding customers, and the economics of running a real company.
Build the SQUAD!
Grow a roster of specialists across Speed, Quality, UI, Algorithms, and Design.
Ship with trade-offs
Balance scope, deadlines, QA, energy, and bugs before committing to release.
Research the future
Turn new knowledge, prototypes, languages, and hardware into a lasting advantage.
Find your market
Launch into a living economy where buyers have priorities, budgets, and memories.
Build a legacy
Create product lines, improve successors, and carry your company into each new era.
02 / INSIDE THE COMPANY
Ideas on screen.
Consequences in the world.
Plan the product down to its features, choose the technology beneath it, then return to the office and live with the result.
“
There are no abstract points here.
There is only the company you build.
— A simulation of ambition, risk, and the next big thing
03 / THE JOURNEY
Start small.
Think long-term.
1975
The beginning
One founder. One machine. Your first product.
NOW
The company loop
Product design, hiring, research, development, marketing, and sales now run as one connected simulation.
NEXT
A longer history
Richer development tools, new eras, employee training, and enterprise deals are still ahead.
The office is open
Be there
from the start.
Join the community, watch the project take shape, and be first to hear when Bootstrapped is ready.
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