Comments on: The viability of bootstrapping a business

By: Phair

Phair — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 06:48:36 +0000

gragg advertising made the top tweets site 100tweets of whatever its called. gragg is working towards trying to break the barrier on becoming the kansas cities top twitter profile that has the most followers. I am pretty excited about this endeavor. gragg advertising

By: The Private Equiteer

The Private Equiteer — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 00:10:33 +0000

@vlade, excellent point about building communities. I’m about to give a talk on this to our investees. As you suggested, not necessarily about GTFB, but about becoming thoughtleaders in your industry by interacting with the community and raising your profile.

@yuri, agreed, it’s all relative. A lean chip manufacturer is going to be an expensive startup no matter how hard you try. But I think we’re more inclined to spend too much than spend too little, hence the focus on the former. It’s the same way we’re inclined to eat too much rather than too little in the western world. It’s insane to think our number one health issue is caused by eating too much (we should be ashamed in light of world poverty). But, it’s equally insane to think a major issue for startups is raising too much money. It’s not the money that’s the problem, it’s the mentality and discipline.

Bootstrapping helps to instill some of that discipline that will ensure once you’re offered millions by a VC, you’ll make good use of it. Too many people throw good money at bad ideas.

By: VC Nuggets of the day « VC World Journey

VC Nuggets of the day « VC World Journey — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 01:12:46 +0000

[...] is the art of building a business via one’s own financial means. Read more… Possibly related posts: (automatically generated)VC and Angel nuggets of the dayVC and Angel [...]

By: Yuri Ammosov

Yuri Ammosov — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 17:34:28 +0000

Steve Blank recently said that lead startup does not mean cheap startup, though.

By: vlade

vlade — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 12:43:11 +0000

I managed to have a look at it today. It’s definitely something I find interesting and something that has value. I think the most important part is really not about the google/twitter/facebook/blog whatever – which lots of people will focus on – but about building a community for your customers/users whatever.
GTFB are tools that help you to build the community in some cases – say I think it’s easier to use it in US than UK/Europe (not sure about Asia).
Build-your-community was the most important message for me. It was sad to see the guy with the last question, who didn’t seem to get it, asking which one should be prioritised – it doesn’t matter, what you want is community, not the tool. To some extent, it’s like going back two-three hundred years back, to having your village baker. Having your business tool provider, who knows you and your needs is where the value for you (as a customer) can very well be – even if the tool might be slightly worse than other in some other objective aspect.

By: startupbug.com

startupbug.com — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 07:43:24 +0000

The viability of bootstrapping a business…

For those uninitiated, bootstrapping is the art of building a business via one’s own financial means. That is, not taking external investment, or at least not taking significant or professional external investment. (It’s still bootstrapping if you borr…

By: The Private Equiteer

The Private Equiteer — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 21:54:13 +0000

vlade: Yes, i think you’re right about Godin’s suggestion. If you’re really intent on succeeding, like most entrepreneurs should be, then you’re playing with fire by selling a % of revenue. Novel idea nonetheless.

Did you get a chance to watch Dharmesh’s video? I’ve also got a link to his book in the right-hand column –>

I’m a little besotted with this idea of inbound marketing even though it is nothing revolutionary and nothing more than common sense. Sure, you probably won’t get the traction Twitter did with inbound marketing, but for those of us in specific domains with a unique product or service, I think it’s worth the initial effort. Especially if you’re bootstrapping.

By: vlade

vlade — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 20:48:42 +0000

Nice entries.
I’m not sure I’d go with Seth’s suggestion, simply because I’d think it would be hard to predict what margin I’d have, or could be squeezed to. Otoh if I can predict margin reasonably, I think I’d be able to get some funding on better terms than % of revenue.
BTW, for me personaly (and I’m a sort-of banker ), debt is differnt from equity only from tax perspective (and who knows how long that will last).

Jessica post’s great. I have a strong belief that limiting the amount of money (as opposed the amount of personal time) you spend on business development is much better than throwing on the money regardless.

Not the least problem with lots of money spent on something is that people fear sunk cost, and will pretend no end that costs aren’t sunk, cruising in the wrong direction.
Spend little money and lots of time, and see whether it moves you forward, and then spend a bit more money (and yet more time).
And I think this approach is the right one not only in startup, but in larger projects in much larger companies.