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

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.