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"If you factor out the "bootstrapped" companies that were actually funded by their founders through savings or a day job, the remainder either (a) got really lu
by tc7 18y ago
"If you factor out the "bootstrapped" companies that were actually funded by their founders through savings or a day job, the remainder either (a) got really lucky, which is hard to do on demand, or (b) began life as consulting companies and gradually transformed themselves into product companies."
I had to read the paragraph a few times, so I may be misunderstanding it, but why do we factor out bootstrapping through savings or a day job? Is that not 'real' bootstrapping?
- cperciva 18y agowhy do we factor out bootstrapping through savings or a day job? Is that not 'real' bootstrapping? I'd say that those have more in common with angel funding -- the money is coming from an external source which has lots of it. Bootstrapping, in contrast, suggests that the company is being funded out of the company's revenues. But it's a rather blurry line: What do you call a company which operates for N months out of the founders' savings and is self-funding beyond that point? The answer has to depend on N -- at T=0 a "bootstrapped" company has nothing to sell, so there must always be some initial period when a company if funded by external sources.
- netcan 18y agoDoesn't bootstrapping also imply operating on founders' credit?
- pg 18y agoI'm distinguishing between companies that took no investment (truly bootstrapped) and those that merely took no outside investment.