Litebooks: OilyRag Budget
Bootstrap reality: Founder time + $5K/month across the portfolio
The Reality
Litebooks is the cash engine. It has the shortest path to recurring revenue, the clearest product-market fit signal, and success here unlocks budget for everything else. If Litebooks works, it funds the portfolio. If it doesn't, we learn fast and pivot cheap.
Monthly $2,500 Allocation
| Category | Monthly | % | What It Buys |
|---|---|---|---|
| Outreach Tools | $500 | 20% | Apollo/LinkedIn Sales Nav, email sequences |
| AI Assistance | $200 | 8% | Claude/GPT for research, copy, analysis |
| Content & Assets | $300 | 12% | Case study design, landing page tweaks, video |
| Infrastructure | $300 | 12% | Hosting, CRM (free tier), email deliverability |
| Contract Dev (Bank) | $1,000 | 40% | Accumulates until needed for critical fixes/features |
| Contingency | $200 | 8% | Unexpected costs, quick experiments |
| TOTAL | $2,500 | 100% |
The Dev Bank Strategy
$1,000/month accumulates. By Month 3, you have $3K for a meaningful dev sprint. By Month 6, $6K. Use it only for features that 3+ prospects have explicitly requested. Never for "nice to have."
Founder Time: The Real Budget
With limited cash, founder time is the primary resource. Protect it ruthlessly.
Weekly Time Budget (24 hrs/week on Litebooks)
| Outreach & Prospecting | 8 hrs | 33% |
| Discovery Calls & Demos | 6 hrs | 25% |
| Customer Success | 4 hrs | 17% |
| Product Work | 4 hrs | 17% |
| Admin & Reporting | 2 hrs | 8% |
Time Protection Rules
- Morning block (8-12): Outreach only. No meetings.
- Afternoon (1-5): Calls and demos. Batch them.
- Friday PM: Product work and planning.
- Say no to: Conferences, "coffee chats," advisory requests
OilyRag Tactics: Maximum Leverage
Free Acquisition Channels
- → LinkedIn organic: 3 posts/week about accountant pain points. Costs nothing but time.
- → Xero ecosystem: Comment on Xero community posts. Be helpful, not salesy.
- → Referral program: Existing customers get $200 for each referral that converts.
- → Accountant associations: Offer free webinars to CAANZ, CPA groups.
Force Multipliers
- → AI for research: Use Claude to research 50 prospects/day. Build custom lists.
- → Video demos: Record once, send to many. Loom is free.
- → Customer stories: Every success becomes a case study. Free content.
- → Template everything: Email sequences, demo scripts, onboarding.
The Oily Rag Mindset
Every dollar spent must generate 10x in learning or revenue. If it doesn't have a direct line to a customer, don't spend it. Polish comes later. Traction comes first.
Adjusted KPIs: Bootstrap Targets
Lower volume than funded approach, but same conversion discipline.
| Metric | Weekly Target | Why This Number |
|---|---|---|
| Personalized Outreaches | 30 | 6/day × 5 days. Quality over quantity. |
| Reply Rate | ≥20% | Higher than funded because more personalized. |
| Discovery Calls | 3 | From outreach + inbound + referrals. |
| Demos Delivered | 2 | Quality demos, not spray and pray. |
Monthly Milestones (Bootstrap Track)
| Month | Pilots | Paying | MRR | Key Focus |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| M1 | 2 | 0 | $0 | Outreach machine working, message-market fit |
| M2 | 5 | 1 | $1,450 | First paying customer (proof of life) |
| M3 | 8 | 3 | $4,350 | Conversion rate validated |
| M6 | 18 | 8 | $11,600 | Covering Litebooks costs + contributing to portfolio |
| M12 | 40 | 20 | $29,000 | Self-sustaining + funding RiskSense scale |
How Litebooks Levers Up the Whole Beast
Cash Engine → Portfolio Funding
At $29K MRR, Litebooks generates $348K/year. That funds the SDR hire, RiskSense partner program, and optionality for VALU.
Customer Base → RiskSense Pipeline
Every Litebooks customer is a warm lead for RiskSense. Same accountants, same trust relationship, different product.
Sales Machine → Repeatable Playbook
The outreach sequences, demo scripts, and onboarding templates built for Litebooks transfer to other GTMs.
Proof of Execution → Investor Leverage
20 paying customers with <5% churn is the story that raises the next round. Traction beats decks.
Kill Criteria: Bootstrap Edition
With limited runway, we must be ruthless about signal. If these don't hit, reallocate to BP2 internal efficiency.
Hard Stops
- ✕ Week 4: Reply rate <10% after 120 outreaches
- ✕ Month 3: Zero paying customers
- ✕ Month 4: <3 paying customers + no referrals
Double Down Signals
- ✓ Any time: Unprompted referral happens
- ✓ Month 3: >40% trial-to-paid conversion
- ✓ Month 4: Inbound > outbound leads
Decision Points: When to Shift Allocation
| Trigger | Action |
|---|---|
| MRR hits $15K | Increase Litebooks to $3K/month, fund part-time SDR ($1K/month VA) |
| MRR hits $25K | Litebooks self-funding. Shift $2.5K/month to RiskSense launch. |
| M3 hard stop triggered | Reduce Litebooks to $500/month maintenance. Reallocate to BP2. |
| First unprompted referral | Launch referral program immediately. This is the leverage moment. |