I’m a bootstrapped founder of a six-person company, and I spent this week testing different tools for hiring candidates.

This post summarizes my experience with the applicant tracking systems (ATS) I found and how well they serve small, bootstrapped businesses.

Why use an applicant tracking system (ATS)?

The last time I hired for a role, I posted the job on WeWorkRemotely and directed candidates to email me. I ended up receiving 221 applications, so managing them in email became messy. I came up with a folder labeling system that worked okay, but this time around, I want a purpose-built tool for tracking applications.

Earlier this year, I created an open-source app called PicoShare. It’s a simple Golang web app for sharing files. I use it to send files that are too large to be email attachments, but I don’t want the recipient to deal with Dropbox or Google Drive.

A few months ago, I started seeing my PicoShare server die every few days. When I checked the logs, I saw an out of memory error:

Highlights

• My blog post about redesigning the TinyPilot website became my second most popular article of all time
• I’m exploring ways to preserve more knowledge on my blog
• I’ve lowered TinyPilot’s prices in an effort to reduce inventory

Goal grades

At the start of each month, I declare what I’d like to accomplish. Here’s how I did against those goals:

Finalize plans for managing TinyPilot licenses

• Result: Made no progress
• Grade: F

Migrating to the next-gen update system took longer than I expected, so I ended up not making progress on this.

I recently built my first home TrueNAS server. I use it to store the bulk of my personal and work data, so I’ve been learning how to make the most of TrueNAS and its filesystem, ZFS.

Today, I want to tell you about backing up encrypted data.

Two years ago, I created a website for my business. By combining my terrible design skills with a decent-looking template, I created a site that looked okay. I told myself that if the business took off, I’d hire a real designer to make it look professional.

A year later, the business was generating $45k/month in revenue, but my website still looked like a college student’s hobby project. It was time for that professional redesign I’d promised myself.