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The piece is written completely in reverse, spreading popular myths as opposed to debunking them. Actually it does take a lot of money to start a new business.

The piece is written completely in reverse, spreading popular myths as opposed to debunking them. Actually it does take a lot of money to start a new business. True, an "average startup" probably "gets going" on 25K or less, but you don't want to head where average startups usually go (oblivion). And just for the record, 25K is about 3 months of modest living for a team of 3 in SF/NYC/Boston. Then you should start generating ~20K/month of revenue to support yourself. Zero to 20K in 3 months? Good luck with that. An "average" successful startup goes through several rounds of funding, just look at some recent exits and see how many of them took 25K or less. About bank financing: the "myth" is true. You won't use it. Banks always tie their loans to either solid revenue history or personal obligations of the founders. It won't be any different from taking a home equity, don't do it. Tech startups aren't restaurants: they have zero revenue for the first 1..3 years. That's why looking at federal reserve stats for small businesses is pointless. Getting a loan to run a roofing business isn't the same as getting a loan to sit and code for a year.

idlewords 17y ago
> 25K is about 3 months of modest living for a team of 3 in SF/NYC/Boston An excellent reason not to do a startup in one of those cities. They are expensive to live in and full of tempting and expensive distractions. If you're serious about bootstrapping a web startup and can choose where you live, then living in an unglamorous place with a great net connection is one of the easiest ways to stretch the time you have before funds run out.
- weaksauce 17y ago
  That is true. That will definitely get you more time to build your app. What you lose out on is the connections to the people that being in a startup hub will get you. Those connections are king for getting talent to help you build and scale your app. The other thing those connections can get you is face time with the media to actually market the app. None of the above items are essential to building a successful internet startup, but like most things in life there are tradeoffs.
il 17y ago
Umm..generating 20K a month in revenue in 3 months isn't hard when you have actual customers and run your startup like a business, not like a hobby. If you're building something people are willing to pay for, 20K is really not that much. If you're building the next revolution in social networking 2.0 webapps and plan to support it with AdSense, 20k may not possible ever.

idlewords 17y ago

> 25K is about 3 months of modest living for a team of 3 in SF/NYC/Boston An excellent reason not to do a startup in one of those cities. They are expensive to live in and full of tempting and expensive distractions. If you're serious about bootstrapping a web startup and can choose where you live, then living in an unglamorous place with a great net connection is one of the easiest ways to stretch the time you have before funds run out.

weaksauce 17y ago
That is true. That will definitely get you more time to build your app. What you lose out on is the connections to the people that being in a startup hub will get you. Those connections are king for getting talent to help you build and scale your app. The other thing those connections can get you is face time with the media to actually market the app. None of the above items are essential to building a successful internet startup, but like most things in life there are tradeoffs.

il 17y ago

Umm..generating 20K a month in revenue in 3 months isn't hard when you have actual customers and run your startup like a business, not like a hobby. If you're building something people are willing to pay for, 20K is really not that much. If you're building the next revolution in social networking 2.0 webapps and plan to support it with AdSense, 20k may not possible ever.