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Wait a second... we'll have to find a new word for the concept currently known as bootstrapping, because articles like these make the word completely meaningles

Wait a second... we'll have to find a new word for the concept currently known as bootstrapping, because articles like these make the word completely meaningless. Bootstrapping means creating a self-sustaining business. At a minimum, this means you have revenue to cover your running costs. You can only say "bootstrap with less than $10K" if that 10K gives your business enough revenue to cover its running costs. Yet this is what one of the founders has to say in another comment here on HN: We will try first to build a community/traffic and then will look for revenues. I guess it's not the founders' fault that the article was written this way. But once they've spent a lot of time and money on actually building their community/traffic + the inevitable further development costs, and they start making some revenue, we'll know how much it cost them to bootstrap the business. Some great tips for getting an MVP together though.

saikat 16y ago
Yeah, according to the metric used by this article, I've been bootstrapping my startup for under $1k over the past 8 months. And I don't find what I'm doing to be all that incredible.
ahoyhere 16y ago
I think this is part of the misconception that many Europeans have about "the way startups work." Even if they read everything that's published, the "Hey, this new thing just launched!" and "This Social Network for Dogs is a STARTUP!" fluff outnumbers the "Yeah, we busted ass and charged real money" meat 10:1. Naturally, what's more common is what sticks in their minds. As an American in Vienna, I find this kind of cargo-culting everywhere.
- gametheory 16y ago
  sounds very much like the misconceptions of much of those in Silicon Valley
  - ahoyhere 16y ago
    Having spent enough time in both places I can tell you that it's much, much, much worse here. In SV, you have actual businesses to counter-weight. Here, you don't.

saikat 16y ago

Yeah, according to the metric used by this article, I've been bootstrapping my startup for under $1k over the past 8 months. And I don't find what I'm doing to be all that incredible.

ahoyhere 16y ago

I think this is part of the misconception that many Europeans have about "the way startups work." Even if they read everything that's published, the "Hey, this new thing just launched!" and "This Social Network for Dogs is a STARTUP!" fluff outnumbers the "Yeah, we busted ass and charged real money" meat 10:1. Naturally, what's more common is what sticks in their minds. As an American in Vienna, I find this kind of cargo-culting everywhere.

gametheory 16y ago
sounds very much like the misconceptions of much of those in Silicon Valley
- ahoyhere 16y ago
  Having spent enough time in both places I can tell you that it's much, much, much worse here. In SV, you have actual businesses to counter-weight. Here, you don't.