I rode at least one '90s dot com into the ground on that first curve. Starting with something like $6M on day one, they staffed up, built the product over the

I rode at least one '90s dot com into the ground on that first curve. Starting with something like $6M on day one, they staffed up, built the product over the course of a year, launched in August and hit the ground in September. I'm following a somewhat flatter trajectory with FairTutor (my latest bootstrapped startup): Registered the domain a year ago, built a demo, spent 7 months traveling through South America talking to Spanish schools and building the product into something they'll be happy to use, filed down the sharp corners over the last month, and it should go live to paying users in about a week. Still have about a year's worth of runway left to polish it into something good before it needs to start paying the bills.