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> The main reason behind it all, was realising I’d been too narrowly focussed on one part of my life, work and building a business, and that I’d neglected other

by a13n 8y ago

> The main reason behind it all, was realising I’d been too narrowly focussed on one part of my life, work and building a business, and that I’d neglected other areas. Building a successful business from scratch is incredibly hard, and therefore requires sacrifice in other areas of your life. Doing a startup is never an optimization for personal happiness. I think raising VC will only make the problem worse. They're expecting a unicorn, which requires significantly more personal sacrifice than a (potentially) less ambitious bootstrapped business. Fred, you mentioned that you felt unhappy while abroad. Maybe the problem isn't with bootstrapping, but it's with being away from friends/family? After a year of traveling I felt similarly, and we've been spending several months back home with friends/family. Still bootstrapping – doing better now. Just an idea.

fredrivett 8y ago
Hey Andrew, appreciate your perspective here. I agree bootstrapping itself wasn't the problem. The problem was that I felt my focus on building a business on the side of my day job limiting to what I could do next. At the start of the year I decided the healthiest thing for me to do was to start from a clean slate and bed down somewhere. I wasn't sure where, but London is where I ended up. I realise there are much more sane ways to live our lives than a startup, bootstrapped or funded. I agree it takes a lot of personal sacrifice too, mentally more than anything. I realise my path looks strange, going from "I need more time to focus on things outside of work" to "I'm starting a startup", and it was never my plan when I came back. It was only 4 months after returning that the opportunity came up and it was the best fit for me at the time. I may be too naive, but both myself and my co-founder believe that working excessive hours isn't a necessity to make a startup succeed. Sure there are times when you need to work longer in short periods to get something over the line, but the idea that being on the brink of burnout gives the best odds of success goes against what I've read about how the human mind works, and my experience too. Maybe in a year or two I'll do a follow up post.

by a13n 8y ago

fredrivett 8y ago

Hey Andrew, appreciate your perspective here. I agree bootstrapping itself wasn't the problem. The problem was that I felt my focus on building a business on the side of my day job limiting to what I could do next. At the start of the year I decided the healthiest thing for me to do was to start from a clean slate and bed down somewhere. I wasn't sure where, but London is where I ended up. I realise there are much more sane ways to live our lives than a startup, bootstrapped or funded. I agree it takes a lot of personal sacrifice too, mentally more than anything. I realise my path looks strange, going from "I need more time to focus on things outside of work" to "I'm starting a startup", and it was never my plan when I came back. It was only 4 months after returning that the opportunity came up and it was the best fit for me at the time. I may be too naive, but both myself and my co-founder believe that working excessive hours isn't a necessity to make a startup succeed. Sure there are times when you need to work longer in short periods to get something over the line, but the idea that being on the brink of burnout gives the best odds of success goes against what I've read about how the human mind works, and my experience too. Maybe in a year or two I'll do a follow up post.