MicroConf is a community and conference series for bootstrapped software founders. Rob Walling co-founded it in 2011, and it began with the tagline “The Conference for Self-Funded Startups.”
What it is
The company describes itself as the largest community in the world for bootstrapped SaaS founders. Beyond the in person events, it offers an online community called MicroConf Connect, matching for mastermind groups and a library of recorded talks. Its audience is the founder who wants to build a profitable software company without venture funding.
History
The first event was a two day conference in Las Vegas, with speakers including Patrick McKenzie, Hiten Shah and Andrew Warner. In a 2021 interview with Failory, the team said it had hoped for 225 attendees and sold about 85 tickets, nearly lost tens of thousands of dollars and was saved by a last minute sponsorship from Microsoft, breaking roughly even. The same interview says the community had since hosted more than two dozen in person events with thousands of attendees.
Walling is also the host of the podcast Startups for the Rest of Us and the founder of TinySeed, an accelerator for bootstrapped SaaS companies.
Why it matters to founders
MicroConf gave the bootstrapped path a public home. It is a reference point for founders who choose profit over funding. See Bootstrapping and Micro-SaaS.
Related entries
See Rob Walling, Bootstrapping, Micro-SaaS and Community-led growth.
MicroConf is part of Communities and communication.
Sources
Failory interview with MicroConf, November 2021, and Startups for the Rest of Us about page. Reviewed October 2026.
