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Imo, bootstrapped startups can only exist feasibly in the B2B space. And definitely not in the B2C space. Would Uber have succeeded if it were bootstrapped (wit
by fakedang 6y ago
Imo, bootstrapped startups can only exist feasibly in the B2B space. And definitely not in the B2C space. Would Uber have succeeded if it were bootstrapped (with higher pricing), or would it have spawned enough copycats during its slow growth phase who would soon make it infeasible to scale up and hire the kind of engineers that a venture like ridesharing would need?
- TeMPOraL 6y ago> or would it have spawned enough copycats during its slow growth phase who would soon make it infeasible to scale up and hire the kind of engineers that a venture like ridesharing would need? Would that be a problem? At least from the point of view of a customer, I don't want a single megacorp owning the market (and let's cut the marketing BS: Uber is not a startup, and hasn't been for a while; it's a multinational corporation). More "copycats" is usually better, as they compete (until they start racing to the bottom, but that's another issue entirely).
- fakedang 6y agoI was talking about Uber circa 2009. Were it bootstrapped, we would have seen 5-6 loss making entities competing against each other by 2014 - and Uber wouldn't have likely expanded outside the US.
- TeMPOraL 6y agoI understand. But I don't consider Uber's success a good thing - it was a ruthless company that cornered the market through illegal and antisocial behavior, and unfortunately set a path for other startups to follow. I believe we'd be better off if Uber died very early, and allowed one of their above-board competitors to disrupt the taxi space.