Description

MicroConf is a community for bootstrapped startups and indie founders. It gathers people that have built, launched, or are growing their startups without venture funding. The goal is to unite independent founders of SaaS startups in a space that allows them to learn and evolve while scaling their businesses to multiple figures.

The community works in a Slack group. Inside, members can discuss specific topics related to startups and bootstrapping. Weekly, MicroConf hosts AMAs with industry leaders to share knowledge about different subjects regarding startups.

Besides the Slack group, you can join the annual MicroConf conferences. Conferences are both in the United States and in the United Kingdom. There are different conferences depending on the stage your startup is in. If you are just starting out, MicroConf Local is the event for you, where early-stage founders gather to learn and network in different cities in Europe and the US.

On the other hand, if you are an established startup that is looking to scale to seven or eight figures, you can join MicroConf Growth or MicroConf Growth Europe, events hosted in Minessota and Croatia, respectively. These events are for startups that are looking to scale and grow further.

The Slack group is free, however, the events are not and you must register for them. To further deepen your knowledge, you can leverage MicroConf's content library, which consists of a huge video vault and two podcasts, all content crafted and curated for bootstrapped startups and independent founders.

Video
YouTube video

Details

  • Membership: Free Community
  • Year Founded: 2011
  • Founders:

    Rob Walling

  • Amount of members: 1,600
  • Online Group: Yes
  • Job board: Yes
  • Language: English
  • Method: In Person, Virtual
Platform

Benefits

Connect with like-minded founders:
The MicroConf's Slack group allows you to network with like-minded founders that know the struggle of building, launching, and growing a startup without venture funding.

Join a weekly, virtual AMA with industry leaders:
By being part of the community you can leverage the knowledge of leaders of the SaaS industry that have scaled their business to multiple figures and reached success.

Only for indie and bootstrapped founders:
MicroConf's community is thought only for independent founders, that built their startups without venture funding. This allows you to get advice and insights specially tailored to your situation.

In-person conferences to network and learn:
MicroConf hosts in-person conferences in Europe and the United States, once a year. In these conferences, you can listen to expert speakers and network with like-minded peers. There are different conferences you can join, whether you are just starting out or are looking to scale your startup to multiple figures.

Categories

Requirements

Being an independent startup founder or bootstrapper, or aspiring to become one. MicroConf it's not a good fit if your business is service-based.

Place

Meetings

MicroConf members keep up with each other on a Slack group, where everyone is free to ask questions and provide advice to help others. Weekly, there are live AMAs sessions with influential founders and leaders from SaaS companies around the world.

You can also participate in MicroConf Masterminds, a series of sessions in a group of founders to help with accountability and support. These masterminds have the purpose of allowing founders to double-check critical business decisions with the rest of the group, and to receive feedback on projects they undertake.

To join, you must fill a simple application that will ask your location, what stage is your startup in, your team size and your annual revenue. This data helps to match you with a similar group of like-minded founders, to make the meetings productive for everyone.

Learning Events

MicroConf hosts events for bootstrapped startups with a focus on SaaS. On the one hand, you can join "MicroConf Local", an in-person event that takes place in different cities in the United States and the United Kingdom, and is designed for early-stage startups.

On the other hand, you can join "MicroConf Growth" and "MicroConf Growth Europe" if your startup is independently funded and looking to become a seven or eight-figure business. The conferences will take place in Minnesota and Croatia, respectively.

Networking Events

The community interacts on a Slack group, where members can introduce each other and share some parts of their lives outside the startup they are building, launching, or scaling.

This allows getting to know other members in the group, creating strong relationships both professionally and personally. You will be able to network as well, self-promoting your startup and knowing other founders and their projects.

Content Library

MicroConf has an extensive content library that consists of resources like videos with featured speakers and past events.

The community also has two podcasts: MicroConf's podcast and "Startups For the Rest of Us", both dedicated to helping you build, launch and grow your startup.

Courses/Cohorts

MicroConf masterminds are designed to help you keep accountable and motivated on the long journey of building and launching a startup.

To join, you have to pass a process of application that asks you details like your revenue, team size, location, and what stage of founding you are in. Based on these data points, MicroConf's system will pair you with a small group of like-minded founders. 

Quote

"If you’re an Indie Hacker you’ll love MicroConf. Go for camaraderie, leave with actionable ideas. Or vice versa. Only conference I’ve been to where people say it’s the 1 conference they make sure to attend each year." -Jonathan Zacks

Add a review

Reviews

  • Henry A.
    April 26, 2023 at 10:17 am

    1. People try to make when you approach them with a reply of their public message in the direct chat look like you did a horrible thing to them. (A selection of people go as far as try to find ways to label you as doing cold sales to them, or selling services to them in public with no evidence and logic behind their labelling):
    – When the group is full of founders, the first assumption to make is that, the person approaching you is a founder/soon to be founder.
    – Nothing less, nothing more.
    – If your confused with something not being as it looks, you ask questions as a reasonable person would do.

    2. The community manager(Jessica Malinik) is lost. -(I don’t have enough words to describe her and the reasoning with which she operates the group):
    – Incompetence is an understatement.
    – A lack of commitment to truth and allowing her truth to be what someone subjectively assumes is the right answer.
    – Because of this, there is no integrity/commitment to the reason the group exists in the first place.
    – People like to think its a self promotion channel or a place where you go and only get talked to when you want to be talked to.
    – They don’t even understand its a community and it’s not the type where you bought a physical house in or something antithetical to that.

    Rest assured, you get a lot of bizarre moments with lost people trying to redefine the group in pursuit of trying to accuse you of doing something they didn’t expect or like as horrible/bad thing to do and you as a horrible/bad person in addition to that. – A lot of people manipulating this so they can make a claim against someone in the most bizarest* forms possible.

    You can’t trust that you will not get this experience in your first 2 messages as well. It’s just sporadic and unprovoked each time.
    – Even when you are not in violation of the community code of conduct (The level with which violations are checked against).
    – With these events, you tend to see new lows.

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