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This is true. But the chances of landing in that valley and being able to consistently produce those low millions of revenue year-in, year-out are about as rare

This is true. But the chances of landing in that valley and being able to consistently produce those low millions of revenue year-in, year-out are about as rare as an exit in the VC world. This is the part of the story that doesn't get presented in people's romanticized view of the bootstrap path.

katzgrau 10y ago
This is absolutely not true. There are plenty of entrepreneurs we'll never hear about who built their company to 1-2 million/yr (I know a handful). Some of them are app/sass developers, some of them are basic Wordpress consultants, and plenty of them have nothing to do with tech. The current VC/incubator oriented startup culture has largely convinced the software community that building a business is impossible without their help. I'd bet every reader on HN could hit 1-2 million/yr bootstrapping their own company. I'm not saying it's easy — it took me almost 5 years to the point where I could hire my first employee (I moonlighted for the first 4 years). It takes someone open to learning new things, a little bit of software-dev talent (you don't need to be a superstar), and dogged-effing-persistence. Given enough time, if you persist, you will get there. PS: Remember that most bootstrappers have no real incentive in encouraging you to go that route, unless they're selling you a book. In my experience, bootstrappers care a lot for each other and stick together. Investors on the other hand ... they clearly have incentive.