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"Everyone wants investment from venture capitalists". I have a bootstrapped side project, Tunnelmole, turning a small profit and growing at a slow and steady r

"Everyone wants investment from venture capitalists". I have a bootstrapped side project, Tunnelmole, turning a small profit and growing at a slow and steady rate on its own. I'm the engineer so I only really pay hosting costs, which are covered by the revenue, although in the early days I had to cover this. While venture capital is an option, if it continues to grow, it's entirely possible the venture capitalists may not be needed.

djbusby 3y ago
The longer you go w/o raising money the better your position can be.
- ant6n 3y ago
  Unless you run out of cash
smurda 3y ago
I work at a VC firm. If the business can finance itself, you absolutely don’t need VC cash. Ultimately, that’s the goal - build a profitable business.
- aussieguy1234 3y ago
  The only reason I'd consider it, is to accelerate the current growth, beyond what I can drive myself. But it depends how my own efforts go, there's still a long way to go before my current methods become ineffective.
jakey_bakey 3y ago
I address this in the second sentence when I explain that this puts you in the same category as many famous grifters. The ending of the piece helps to confirm exactly what you said - really, you want to bootstrap unless you are going so gangbusters that a lack of quick cash is damaging your ability to grow.
striking 3y ago
The very end of the article I think addresses this in a plain and direct way: > 9. VC funding is cool and all, but essentially, it is a waste of time if you haven’t validated your market: bootstrapping to get paying customers quickly is the most effective tactic available. > 10. In all honesty, you don’t want to take external funding unless you have intensely strong user growth; and being unable to hire becomes your bottleneck.
- robertlagrant 3y ago
  > unless you have intensely strong user growth Or you have a business that needs capital to get going.

djbusby 3y ago

The longer you go w/o raising money the better your position can be.

ant6n 3y ago
Unless you run out of cash

smurda 3y ago

I work at a VC firm. If the business can finance itself, you absolutely don’t need VC cash. Ultimately, that’s the goal - build a profitable business.

aussieguy1234 3y ago
The only reason I'd consider it, is to accelerate the current growth, beyond what I can drive myself. But it depends how my own efforts go, there's still a long way to go before my current methods become ineffective.

jakey_bakey 3y ago

I address this in the second sentence when I explain that this puts you in the same category as many famous grifters. The ending of the piece helps to confirm exactly what you said - really, you want to bootstrap unless you are going so gangbusters that a lack of quick cash is damaging your ability to grow.

striking 3y ago

The very end of the article I think addresses this in a plain and direct way: > 9. VC funding is cool and all, but essentially, it is a waste of time if you haven’t validated your market: bootstrapping to get paying customers quickly is the most effective tactic available. > 10. In all honesty, you don’t want to take external funding unless you have intensely strong user growth; and being unable to hire becomes your bottleneck.

robertlagrant 3y ago
> unless you have intensely strong user growth Or you have a business that needs capital to get going.