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It's somehow the prisoner dilemma applied to startups. I've raised ~30M$ as a founder in my past startup. For my next adventure, I'd love to bootstrap (with per
by openmosix 10y ago
It's somehow the prisoner dilemma applied to startups. I've raised ~30M$ as a founder in my past startup. For my next adventure, I'd love to bootstrap (with personal savings from my last exit). But here is the (prisoner) dilemma: if I start something that needs to be profitable and my competitor(s) are also bootstrapped businesses that needs to be profitable, game on. If my competitor is a VC-backed startup, I might be in serious trouble. So either I find an industry VC won't touch (porn?) or the prisoner-dilemma for startups is hanging over my head.
- staticautomatic 10y agoI don't think it's fair to assume that a war of attrition must be fought by parties with equal resources. I can't think of any reason why a patient enough small player could not wait long enough by the river. There is also the option of aiming for a segment of the giant market a la 37 signals. Me, I don't think I would ever go after one of these giant markets if I truly believed that the only way forward was to raise 8-9 figures and pray that my competitors die first. It's unreasonably risky.