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The tough thing to about bootstrapping for people working in BigTech is opportunity cost. Assuming you do not work on your startup while working your full time

The tough thing to about bootstrapping for people working in BigTech is opportunity cost. Assuming you do not work on your startup while working your full time job, the revenue you'd have to hit to justify the effort is generally just too high. Considering even this post: if you had a team of ex-BigTech consisting of just 4 people, collectively they were probably making at least a million assuming they were all located in a HCOL area in United States and were mid-level. Making 1.5ARR wouldn't be worth it considering that there would've been a long period of no revenue. In a sense it's better to be broke because the opportunity cost is lower and incentive is higher. Golden weights slow you down. This is why most BigTech founders want VC money to make the reward potentially bigger and justify the effort. On the other hand, if you make a lot of money - some types of bootstrapped companies are slow burn and you can subsidize yourself and just wait until it surpasses your income, but it's hard to have a healthy life balance.

ldjkfkdsjnv 3y ago
Yeah, working at FAANG and investing your income is basically the highest return on a risk adjusted basis for engineers. In the last decade, there are many cases where people built a startup, exited for 10M, and still made less than they would have had they climbed the ladder in a FAANG and held onto their equity.
stocknoob 3y ago
But what’s the opportunity cost of dealing with BigCo politics while your soul withers away in a meeting? There’s other goals beyond money, most bootstrappers want to live life on their own terms, even at a salary cut.
ilrwbwrkhv 3y ago
You don't start a company because you should and it is the most optimal choice with the current info. You start a company because you have to. You have that idea that you must build or you cannot stand the corporate hypocrisy of large tech companies anymore (my case).

ldjkfkdsjnv 3y ago

Yeah, working at FAANG and investing your income is basically the highest return on a risk adjusted basis for engineers. In the last decade, there are many cases where people built a startup, exited for 10M, and still made less than they would have had they climbed the ladder in a FAANG and held onto their equity.

stocknoob 3y ago

But what’s the opportunity cost of dealing with BigCo politics while your soul withers away in a meeting? There’s other goals beyond money, most bootstrappers want to live life on their own terms, even at a salary cut.

ilrwbwrkhv 3y ago

You don't start a company because you should and it is the most optimal choice with the current info. You start a company because you have to. You have that idea that you must build or you cannot stand the corporate hypocrisy of large tech companies anymore (my case).