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Sleeping in Boats Led to This $300k Studio

Published 4 days ago • 2 min read

Sleeping in Boats Led to This $300k Studio

Matt Gira

June 3rd, 2025

Quick idea I'm testing: What if I did a monthly report on bootstrapped companies?

Different focus each month. Examples could be data on how founders spend their time, growth channel deep dives, the most popular tools among bootstrapped companies. Similar vibe to The Bootstrapped Report 2025.

Would you pay $20/month for something like that?

When I started my entrepreneurial journey, Kylen Blom was one of the founders I immediately looked up to. He had legendary stories like sleeping in boats to sell his t-shirts, and he was already running his business full-time right after college while I was just getting started.

That felt like the dream.

Today, Kylen is a good friend and someone I still admire. He's the founder of Silkscreen Marketing, an art-focused production studio in Holland, MI. He's built an incredible studio that takes swag items that usually come out generic and boring and makes them genuinely creative and memorable.

In this deep dive, we'll explore how a college pitch competition led to sleeping in boats around the Great Lakes, how a small local team competes with giant competitors, and how Kylen and his team think about growth in a different way than most.

Secret

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There are tons of software tools out there, and all those costs add up fast. One tool that helps simplify things and makes costs a bit more manageable is Secret.

Secret offers software deals for all kinds of founders. It also makes it easier to discover tools you might not have heard of yet, and there could even be some free credits waiting for you to use.

A Secret membership might actually pay for itself depending on which tools you sign up for!

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Recommendations

​Strategic AF​

Tired of “just post more” advice from marketing bros who conveniently forget to mention they bought half their followers? My friend Adriana Tica put together Audience Accelerator, a free guide that helps you build a large and relevant audience without selling your soul to social media darklords.

No engagement pods. No fake urgency. No wasting time on social media hamster wheels. Just actionable, proven tactics to grow faster without playing the algorithm game.

​Idea Kitchen​

There's a lot of bad content about how to use AI. My friend, Marissa Goldberg, recently launched the Idea Kitchen which has a lot of amazing tips and tricks to using the different platforms. A great place to get started if you're feeling behind with AI.

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Matt Gira

Connect with me on LinkedIn!

113 Cherry St #92768, Seattle, WA 98104-2205
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The Quarter

Matthew Gira

How bootstrapped businsses go from $0 to $250k in annual revenue.

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