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What classifies as "bootstrapped" these days? Because many of the companies on the list have taken VC/Angel money. The following have taken VC/Angel money: -
by alberth 13y ago
What classifies as "bootstrapped" these days?
Because many of the companies on the list have taken VC/Angel money.
The following have taken VC/Angel money:
- Github [1]
- 37signals [2]
- BigCommerce [3]
- BrainTree [4]
[1] http://www.crunchbase.com/company/github http://www.crunchbase.com/company/github
[2] http://www.crunchbase.com/company/37signals http://www.crunchbase.com/company/37signals
[3] https://angel.co/bigcommerce https://angel.co/bigcommerce
[4] http://www.crunchbase.com/company/braintree-payment-solutions http://www.crunchbase.com/company/braintree-payment-solution...
- fookyong 13y agotaking a funding round after you've done millions of dollars in revenue via bootstrapping, doesn't suddenly make your bootstrapping experience redundant. perhaps the correct title should be "companies who bootstrapped themselves to success" but it's not quite as catchy ;)
- mijustin 13y agoI don't think Bezos investing in 37signals qualifies as normal VC/Angel money. He took a small personal ownership stake in the company - it's likely he can't "sell" that stock, and that he makes very little from it (compared to his other investments). http://37signals.com/svn/archives2/bezos_expeditions_invests_in_37signals.php http://37signals.com/svn/archives2/bezos_expeditions_invests...
- alberth 13y ago37signals is paying Bezos a regular dividend, as peer DHH comments [1]. Regardless of the terms of the agreement, 37signals still took outside money. [1] http://37signals.com/svn/posts/2565-acquisition-condolences?41#all_comments http://37signals.com/svn/posts/2565-acquisition-condolences?...
- j45 13y agoBootstrapping is a self-funded startup that makes money from real paying customers, often from Day 1, or close to it. Bootstrapping hasn't changed.. one test to being bootstrapped is: If they didn't get funding, would they run out of money and have to shut down? It's not uncommon for a bootstrapped startup, which has baked 'making money' into the bread from the beginning, to accept funding to grow faster once they have a business model that's already making money. They already have a repeatable and scalable _business model_. Without funding, bootstrapped startups would continue to exist, and would most probably keep growing, though.
- my_username_is_ 13y agoSo is any startup that has a sustainable business model from day one considered bootstrapped?
- j45 13y agoBootstrapping implies being self-funded. To some who might have some seed funding, they might make sure the business is making money from day one. One thing that was really attractive to me about the YC model (besides having PG as a mentor) was when there was only $10-20,000 of funding. You likely have little choice to focus on anything except making value for customers that pay. As other funding streams have come online the types of ideas have broadened. Having no choice but to learn how to make money is how I had to learn business as a teen. I started in bootstrapping because YC didn't exist in my late teens or early 20's or I most certainly would have known it was a place for me to seek out. I had to learn to make money to pay for what I wanted to do when starting business full time in my late teens that was one valid way to make sure no one could tell me to go home because the money ran out. In Canada, one source found that 98% of all startups across all industries are bootstrapped / self-funded. It wouldn't be surprising if this was largely true in other places too. http://www.techvibes.com/blog/how-canadian-entrepreneurs-finance-their-startups-2012-08-30 http://www.techvibes.com/blog/how-canadian-entrepreneurs-fin...
- somewhatjustin 13y agoI would call a bootstrapped startup one that was entirely self-funded to begin with and had to operate under the bootstrapper mentality (cheap marketing, cutting costs, low employee count, etc).
- jusben1369 13y agoI would argue that these companies represent "Companies that realized they needed to raise funding to remain competitive" A lot of startups that taking early funding could take this route too but realize that's not the most optimal path to success?
- 13y ago
- hyperpape 13y agoGiven that 37 signals had been around for seven years when they took money from Bezos, you certainly can't conclude that they're not bootstrapped. Everything depends on how much money it was, how they used it, why they needed it, etc, but it does look like they built a sustainable business by that time.
- RealGeek 13y agoThese companies were bootstrapped for the first few years and were profitable with 7 to 8 figures revenue. The eventually raised money at growth stage, and the founders were able to take some money off the table without selling the company.
- callmeed 13y agoYeah, this is not a good blog post. I feel like the author did some basic Google'ing for content without doing much due diligence or checking dates. Also, I've seen Carbonmade come up in lists before [1], but I wouldn't ever list them in any current list of bootstrapped companies. Their homepage hasn't changed much in 3 years [2], their traffic appears to be headed south [3], and frankly I don't know any professional creative who uses their service for their portfolio (anecdotal I know, but I work in the industry). No offense to anyone at Carbonmade, but I think you can find much better examples of bootstrapped companies in the photo/creative world (SmugMug for example). [1] http://www.softwarebyrob.com/2011/09/01/ten-highly-successful-bootstrapped-startups/ http://www.softwarebyrob.com/2011/09/01/ten-highly-successfu... [2] https://web.archive.org/web/20110129083114/http://carbonmade.com/ https://web.archive.org/web/20110129083114/http://carbonmade... [3] http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/carbonmade.com http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/carbonmade.com
- austinstorm 13y agoYeah, if you're going to call all of these bootstrapped you could include Wordpress, which is dramatically more successful than the ones on the list.