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> There cannot be a Bell Labs or Fairchild Semi in silicon valley today, because they could not promise 10,000,000% user growth and a massive acquisition in N y
by mi100hael 9y ago
> There cannot be a Bell Labs or Fairchild Semi in silicon valley today, because they could not promise 10,000,000% user growth and a massive acquisition in N years.
Sure there can, they just can't have VC as a part of their business plan.
Thankfully, more and more startups are realizing that VC is not their only option, nor usually their best one.
- leggomylibro 9y agoGood point - they will still need someone to front a lot of money, though. Talent and film-deposition facilities ain't cheap. I guess they could go with a Bajillionaire Patron, or get funding through usury. Sorry, those aren't even close to fair comparisons, but 'bootstrapping' does seem pretty out of reach these days, for people who don't already have 8-10 figures laying around.
- mi100hael 9y agoYeah, I agree. It's not like Bell Labs was ever "scrappy," though.
- leggomylibro 9y agoHa, yeah I guess they did sort of get the 'wealthy benefactor' thing with Ma Bell.
- derefr 9y agoI've always understood the real "bootstrapping" story to be "we build a successful business around a product we don't really care about in order to fun an R&D department that can build the products we do care about." Like Google, with ads.