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I do find it interesting that in spite of the fact that so few companies will ever accept VC money or go public, this model is viewed by many as the dominant or

I do find it interesting that in spite of the fact that so few companies will ever accept VC money or go public, this model is viewed by many as the dominant or only way to start a tech business. This is in spite of the fact that Technology businesses may very well have the lowest capital requirements of any type of company in history. It was the same way in the 80s with finance. Even though most finance workers were (and are) accountants working boring 9-to-5 corporate jobs, everyone assumed that anyone in finance worked on Wall Street and snorted coke off of strippers in NYC nightclubs every weekend.

kipply 6y ago
Yah my feelings about running a startup are completely different for bootstrapped/hacked up companies (I think that's the term?)
- jaxn 6y ago
  The downsides are still there it takes the same level of commitment, dedication, and obsessive effort to bootstrap. It has taken me 5 years to bootstrap a niche b2b saas to $1m ARR. It is both awesome and terrible.
  - imprettycool 6y ago
    It doesn't have to be stressful or full-commitment. I'm cool with $50k ARR.
    - tonyedgecombe 6y ago
      I'm not even sure revenue is that good of a signal of the work put in. Didn't the Basecamp guys start off on just 10 hours a week inbetween their day job.
      - dasil003 6y ago
        By day job do you mean running 37signals the new media design firm at the dawn of the web? I wouldn’t really isolate the “day job” part here, it was sort of the quintessential dogfood SaaS.
  - Axsuul 6y ago
    That's an amazing achievement to have reached that milestone!
op03 6y ago
Its talked about a lot because the VCs are out there beating a drum, as they should. Drawing a crowd. Hopefully an interesting one. Once you get a crowd, everyone starts doing what the people around them do. Its natural. It takes some time and experience to figure out whether you need to be there or not.
d3nj4l 6y ago
> Technology businesses may very well have the lowest capital requirements of any type of company in history. Is it? You still have the traditional expenses of sales and marketing, often higher because they're aiming to acquire users at scale. Instead of putting down tons of capital on factories, you have to pay through the nose for quality devs + office space in areas where quality devs tend to congregate. Besides, capital requirements may be low, but we've seen technology pay massive returns due to its ability to scale so well, so I don't think anybody minds paying a bit more because the expected return is much higher.

kipply 6y ago

Yah my feelings about running a startup are completely different for bootstrapped/hacked up companies (I think that's the term?)

jaxn 6y ago
The downsides are still there it takes the same level of commitment, dedication, and obsessive effort to bootstrap. It has taken me 5 years to bootstrap a niche b2b saas to $1m ARR. It is both awesome and terrible.
- imprettycool 6y ago
  It doesn't have to be stressful or full-commitment. I'm cool with $50k ARR.
  - tonyedgecombe 6y ago
    I'm not even sure revenue is that good of a signal of the work put in. Didn't the Basecamp guys start off on just 10 hours a week inbetween their day job.
    - dasil003 6y ago
      By day job do you mean running 37signals the new media design firm at the dawn of the web? I wouldn’t really isolate the “day job” part here, it was sort of the quintessential dogfood SaaS.
- Axsuul 6y ago
  That's an amazing achievement to have reached that milestone!

op03 6y ago

Its talked about a lot because the VCs are out there beating a drum, as they should. Drawing a crowd. Hopefully an interesting one. Once you get a crowd, everyone starts doing what the people around them do. Its natural. It takes some time and experience to figure out whether you need to be there or not.

d3nj4l 6y ago

> Technology businesses may very well have the lowest capital requirements of any type of company in history. Is it? You still have the traditional expenses of sales and marketing, often higher because they're aiming to acquire users at scale. Instead of putting down tons of capital on factories, you have to pay through the nose for quality devs + office space in areas where quality devs tend to congregate. Besides, capital requirements may be low, but we've seen technology pay massive returns due to its ability to scale so well, so I don't think anybody minds paying a bit more because the expected return is much higher.