I am an experienced(7 years) middleware developer making a living working for the man. I have experience in Performance, scalability, high availability, Caching and the JEE/J2EE application protocol stack.

I harbor a desire to lean boostrap my own entrepreneurial venture and become profitable with no resources other than my own sweat equity. After getting customers and becoming cash flow positive I want to grow the startup and exit in a meaningful way.

I need help in understanding how to do market research, how to identify a target market, if a problem is important to solve and whether it is worth solving. I need a reality check to see how I measure up with other entrepreneurs.

The BOS conference will be an ideal avenue to learn from illustrious programmers and techies who have already overcome these challenges and self-doubts. BOS will show me the way and put me on the path to eternal enlightenment.

Why I cant afford it. Monetary situation + principles. Rule #1 of lean startup is to "Not spend money you don't have".