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Not only that, but the longer you can delay taking funding, the less of your business you'll have to give away. I hate the thought that getting funded is like
by tomgallard 15y ago
Not only that, but the longer you can delay taking funding, the less of your business you'll have to give away.
I hate the thought that getting funded is like winning the lottery. Yes, it is absolutely necessary for some startups, but far too many seem to treat it as an end in itself (presumably there are bragging points associated with being able to say you've been funded to the tune of X million)
Bootstrapping encourages you to keep your costs tight, focus on profit and revenue, ship early, quickly and often, and build something people want.
- j45 15y agoBootstrapping profitable companies also have more leverage when ready for funding. My use of the term startup lottery was meant to describe the communual celebration and veneration of quite often earning some runway. The businesses that need it are ones that have to find a product-market fit and a repeatable business model. I just think you're better equipped to find validated scalable business models once you've done it without money. There's nothing quite like having to find and build what people are willing to pay for out of the gate instead of putting it off. From where I see it, I don't see enough technologically complex startups that need a runway, and in hindsight could have been built without funding. The startups that would, tremendously benefit from the coaching, introductions, and business model development are rare, and special, and maybe that reflects in the small number of startups accepted to Y!. The rest shouldn't consider themselves a failure either... this startup certainly fit the mantra build something people want (and will pay for)