4 ms·
why the "back then" modifier? it's still hard/risky now.
by lowercased 8y ago
why the "back then" modifier? it's still hard/risky now.
- walrus01 8y ago1993-1994 was before the first flush of "dotcom 1.0" era VC money, which showed up in the 1996-2000 era before the big crash.
- lowercased 8y agoExistence of VC money is irrelevant to 'bootstrapping'. Taking VC money is sort of the opposite of bootstrapping.
- walrus01 8y agoExistence of easy seed and pre-series-A funding nowadays means people don't even try to bootstrap with 50k in personal 20% APR debt. Similarly in 1998, 1999, a lot of wild dreamers with harebrained ideas got VC money pretty easily after a few PowerPoints and some bullshitting.
- tibbon 8y agoGoogle also used a bunch of credit cards initially from what I understand. I'd rather have 20% APR, than give away 20% equity. Why? Because when the debt is paid to the credit card company they go away. The VCs will always want more and more, pushing your company faster than it should go.
- brianwawok 8y agoDepends on risk profile. 30 with 3 kids and no savings? Yes please, give away some of my profits so VCs can derisk the startup. 20 and living with parents? Bootstrap away, if I fail I will be fine.
- SimbaOnSteroids 8y agoIIRC the google guys had VC crawling down there back and had to tell them to back off.