Sol Nasisi, Founder of Online Publishing Platform Booksie, Shares his Insights into Building a Successful Startup

Sol Nasisi has always had a knack for bringing creative ideas to life. As a student building rockets and gadgets with friends, to forming a band in high school, Sol saw the potential in nurturing creativity from a young age. This drive led him to pioneer one of the internet’s first digital companies and eventually found Booksie – a global online publishing platform aiming to elevate writers worldwide.

During a recent interview with Entrepreneur Loop, Sol reflected on Booksie’s 18-year journey and shared insights every startup founder should heed. From recruiting the right team to weathering challenges, Sol’s story offers a inspiring blueprint for building sustainable ventures focused on empowering communities. Under his guidance, Booksie continues pushing boundaries through pioneering AI and blockchain tools that provide avenues for artistic expression and monetization.

Sol Nasisi’s Journey

Neha Mehra: Please provide a brief introduction of yourself and your professional background.

Sol Nasisi: I grew up in a suburb of Boston in a small neighborhood with two friends living next door. We spent most of our time building things – forts, games, rockets, gizmos and gadgets. In high school, I formed a band and we spent hours writing and rehearsing our songs. We played a few gigs where we opened for some well-known local Boston bands. I think all of this provided me with a taste of creating something new and the exhilaration that comes from seeing it come to life.

In business school I started playing around with this thing called the Internet. It was early days and I was captivated. I started my first Internet company with a classmate selling posters and prints. Since then, I’ve started two more online companies, worked in the digital space for a Fortune 500 company, start-ups, and a higher education institution. I started Booksie eighteen years ago as a community of writers and readers and have bootstrapped it into an increasingly robust and large platform. AI is the first of several new technologies we’re going to be adding over the next couple of months.

Neha Mehra: Please tell us a bit more about your startup – what does it offer, what problem does it solve, and who is your target audience?

Sol Nasisi: Over the past 18 years, Booksie has helped hundreds of thousands of writers from across the globe tell their story via its online publishing and promotion platform. Its vibrant platform is a place where writers have practiced their craft, received feedback on their work, and connected with readers eager to find the next big writer. With the introduction of its AI and blockchain tools, Booksie will become an even better platform for writers to develop their craft and monetize their creativity. The Booksie Online Bot has been trained on millions of pieces of content, books, poems, short stories, and more so that it can provide writers with specific advice on how to make a work commercially and artistically successful. In addition, there will be new features launched on the platform throughout the year to continue to elevate the capabilities of Booksie for the writers. Booksie is an entity of TheNextBigWriter, LLC, a private, bootstrapped company founded to help writers tell their stories.

Building Booksie

Neha Mehra: What were some of the biggest initial challenges you faced in getting your business off the ground? How did you overcome them?

Sol Nasisi: One of the biggest challenges I faced early in my career was finding the right people to work with to build the products I dreamed about. When you’re young, you think the right fit comes along all the time. Like meeting someone romantically. But it doesn’t. I learned you really have to be deliberate in looking for people, have to put yourself out there, and once you find the right people, hang on to them.

I think another challenge was getting people to see the future. I started my first digital company in the early days of the Internet. At the time, I remember my business school classmates looking at me like I was cr@zy. They were all getting jobs at management consulting companies or Wall Street and here I was betting in something called the Internet. I took the plunge and never looked back. You have to make calculated bets and have the conviction to stick with it.

Neha Mehra: What have been your key strategies for growth and gaining traction/users?

Sol Nasisi: Our strategy has been to listen to our users and develop easy-to-use tools to help them achieve their goals. We’ve paired that with an acquisition strategy that cost effectively allows us to market and acquire new customers. For example, we run frequent writing contests which aren’t big money makers, but they draw a lot of traffic to the site and we’re successful at cross-selling our other services to these users.

It’s a formula. How much does it cost to acquire a customer versus the lifetime value? We’re constantly monitoring those metrics and increasing our marketing budget when the ROI is positive. Our product development roadmap is to create new products that increase our conversion rate and positive ROI. At least that’s the financial way of looking at it. Going back to where I started, we really want to create a great, valuable experience for our users so that they are willing to engage and take advantage of the platform.

Succeeding as an Entrepreneur

Neha Mehra: How do you stand out from the competition in your space? What sets your product/service apart?

Sol Nasisi: With a few clicks, we provide writers with the ability to publish their work, get feedback on their writing from humans to AI, promote their work, build an audience and following, and soon, earn money via blockchain platform we are calling Limited Editions. For readers, we provide an intimate way to discover new writers, become a fan, interact, and support your favorite work and authors. It’s a comprehensive site made to benefit writers and readers and we don’t think anyone has a platform that comes close.

And we’re going to keep adding functionality based on what our users tell us but also based on where we think the industry is going.

Neha Mehra: What do you know now that you wish you knew when you were first starting out?

Sol Nasisi: I wish I knew how hard building a business could be. You read all of the stories of entrepreneurs becoming overnight successes but I realize now that’s not the norm. It can take years of hard work with lots of ups and downs. Some people win the lottery with their company, but I suspect the vast majority need to put in years of toil to make it a success. Related to this is the fact that the highs are never so high and the lows are never so low. It’s important not to get stuck in the moment but keep moving towards that original dream. Progress can come in fits and starts but that’s normal. Entrepreneurs need to stay mentally tough.

Neha Mehra: What are the most important skills someone needs to be a successful founder, in your opinion?

Sol Nasisi: One of the most important skills is not really a skill but a mindset. As I mentioned, founders need to be mentally tough. You don’t receive any pats on the back or congratulations or adulation. It’s a constant grind to make your customers happy and satisfied and there are lots of long hours and hard work. So, being willing to put up with that is a key necessity.

As far as skills go, I think the most important is being able to recruit and retain the right people for your project. Without other people to help you achieve your vision, you won’t go far. No person can start and grow a successful venture by themselves.

In Booksie’s case, I needed technical people to code the website and maintain it because I’m not a developer. And I needed legal advice and help managing customer service. Creating a well-functioning team is as important as the initial idea, maybe even more so.

Neha Mehra: What advice would you give to aspiring entrepreneurs who want to start their own company?

Sol Nasisi: I would tell them to make sure they pursue something which they believe in and feel some passion for. There will be times when the money won’t be there and you need some higher motivation to keep you going. If it’s just the money, then when the money is tight, you’ll fold. For Booksie, I was always interested in helping people across the world tell their stories. This is my north star and what motivates me to keep going. I think the world is a better place for it and it keeps me motivated. Find your north star, whatever it may be, and apply it to the business you want to start. Then, you’ll create something fantastic and the money will follow.

Sol leaves us with an important reminder that entrepreneurship is a marathon, not a sprint. While the excitement of an initial idea fuels many founders, long-term success requires mental fortitude and true belief in a vision. Booksie has flourished due to Sol’s commitment to nurturing creativity and bringing writers’ dreams to life. Through ambitious plans to incorporate AI and blockchain, the platform looks primed to revolutionize the publishing industry. Most of all, Sol’s journey exemplifies that by empowering community, both founders and their customers can reach