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> but neither is shipping a product yet. I wouldn't call it "bootstrapped", then. For me, a company is bootstrapped if it makes enough money from its products
by perlgeek 11y ago
> but neither is shipping a product yet.
I wouldn't call it "bootstrapped", then.
For me, a company is bootstrapped if it makes enough money from its products to sustain itself and its founders/employees.
- greglindahl 11y agoI've never run into anyone who's defined it the way you do; everyone I've heard define it does it in terms of not yet having taken a cash investment from a non-founder. "We've bootstrapped the company so far, but we don't think we will ship a MVP without taking at least a seed round" wouldn't draw any protests of misuse, in my experience. You are correct that most bootstrapped companies that have launched end up supporting themselves; that's survivor bias in action.
- jwatte 11y agoI'm more used to three previous definition. I would say those companies have tried to bootstrap, but bit successfully achieved it. Of you are a successfully bootstrapped business, you achieved goals without taking outside investment money.