Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 26, 2010

When someone asks me for the best way to fund a startup, I always say bootstrap it, meaning fund it yourself and grow organically. Bootstrapping avoids all the cost, pain, and distractions of finding angels or VCs, and allows you to keep control and all your hard-earned equity for yourself. Take little to no net profit.

Bootstrapping 240

Bootstrapping Merger Salary .Net 240

Gust

JUNE 17, 2012

For example, with any outside investment, you give up some ownership and control, and with bootstrapping your growth curve will likely be longer and more organic. Following is my prioritized larger list of sources, with some “rules of thumb” which may save you a lot of time and energy: Bootstrapping. Friends and family.

Technical Review 164

Technical Review Bootstrapping Venture Capital Incubator 164

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 1, 2010

For example, with any outside investment, you give up some ownership and control, and with bootstrapping you growth curve will likely be longer and more organic. Following is my prioritized larger list of sources, with some “rules of thumb” which may save you a lot of time and energy: Bootstrapping. Friends and family. Angel investors.

Technical Review 149

Technical Review Bootstrapping Startup Venture Capital 149

Hippoland

OCTOBER 18, 2018

Should you raise money or bootstrap? (By By bootstrap, I actually mean raise < $250k from individuals / angels). Having run a startup that raised money and now in running a VC, ironically, if I were starting a product company today, I would start out with the mentality of bootstrapping for as long as I could.

Bootstrapping 48

Bootstrapping Cap Table Salary .Net 48

Tim Keane

MARCH 9, 2011

Can you bootstrap your way to positive cash flow?   If the answer is relatively soon, then bootstrapping is a very serious consideration.    Even if it isn’t soon, early bootstrapping can reduce risk and increase chances for success, resulting in more aligned interests for entrepreneurs and investors.

Finance 83

Finance Bootstrapping Startup Equity 83

Feld Thoughts

JANUARY 2, 2014

” I bootstrapped my first company and, while we did a lot of work for VCs, I liked taking money from them as “revenue” (where they paid Feld Technologies for our services) rather than as investment. Amy likes to remind me that when I was an entrepreneur, I used to regularly give talks at MIT about entrepreneurship.

San Francisco 159

San Francisco Boston Venture Capital Angel Investor 159

David Teten

AUGUST 20, 2019

I’ve been a traditional equity VC for 8 years, and I’m now researching Revenue-Based Investing and other new approaches to VC. The question I’m asking myself: should a new VC fund use Revenue-Based Investing, traditional equity VC, or possibly both (likely from two separate pools of capital)? Potentially harder to recruit employees.

Revenue 60

Revenue SBIC Cofounder Venture Capital 60

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 23, 2013

When someone asks me for the best way to fund a startup, I always say bootstrap it, meaning fund it yourself and grow organically. Bootstrapping avoids all the cost, pain, and distractions of finding angels or VCs, and allows you to keep control and all your hard-earned equity for yourself. Take little to no net profit.

Equity 241

Equity Bootstrapping Startup Merger 241

Berkonomics

AUGUST 3, 2023

Bootstrapping: This term describes your ability to start a business with little investment and grow it using internally generated funds. Private equity investments are available from firms created for this later stage opportunity, but typically are available only for businesses that have achieved revenues well above $50 million.

Private Equity 118

Private Equity Valuation Cap Table Accredited Investor 118

Up and Running

MAY 15, 2018

Your business model must show the potential to increase the revenue with minimal expenditure in the coming months or years. Bootstrapping or self-funding. Most traditional bank loans require at least two years tax returns showing gross and net profits. Save the splurge for when you’re bringing in more revenue.

SBA 84

SBA Angel Investor Technical Review Startup 84

Up and Running

JULY 1, 2015

Bootstrapping. Many entrepreneurs use bootstrapping, which means financing your company by scraping together funds in unconventional ways. Many entrepreneurs use bootstrapping, which means financing your company by scraping together funds in unconventional ways. Here are some popular ways of bootstrapping your business.

Bootstrapping 60

Bootstrapping Angel Investor Venture Capital Finder 60

Austin Startup

DECEMBER 17, 2017

I will always remember his pre-speech pep talk: “Dyer, your entire net worth rides on not screwing this up.” Hurricane Irma had a major negative revenue impact on one whose fall book of business was mostly in Florida. I got the message. Might your company be the bell-ringer that makes one of them a big winner? May you be disturbed.

Silicon Valley 48

Silicon Valley Atlanta Software Review Early Stage 48

Version One Ventures

JULY 22, 2014

First, there will be a consolidation in the accelerator space, with the net effect of reducing the number of available spaces for start-ups. If not, revenue from your customers will be your best source of financing. That’s okay: many great companies have been built by bootstrapping. Is your opportunity at least $100M?

Finance 167

Finance Seed Money Bootstrapping Angel Investor 167

Austin Startup

JUNE 26, 2019

and * on a bootstrapped budget* : We first engaged in customer surveys and validated a huge problem?—?several You might notice what’s not on that list above: revenue, investors. No revenue isn’t always a problem for venture-style businesses; no investors + no revenue = challenges for most founders without tremendous self-funding.

Silicon Valley 54

Silicon Valley Startup B2C Sweat Equity 54

The Next Web

FEBRUARY 27, 2014

As an example, a new restaurant may get valued at 3-4x EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization) and a hot dot com business with meteoric traffic growth could get valued at 5-10x revenues. Freshman are a piece of paper to beta site (bootstrap financed—raise $50K to $500K). The valuation techniques.

Valuation 167

Valuation Forecast Seed Stage .Net 167

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

JANUARY 13, 2015

and 5%” or “cost to acquire a customer between $50 and $500″ or “average monthly revenue per customer between $20 and $200.” So they’ll need 1666 customers to achieve their revenue target. (We Including future cancellations, they’ll need to sign up a total of 2000 customers to net 1666.

Business Model 120

Business Model Affiliate Startup Bootstrapping 120

Hearpreneur

DECEMBER 8, 2019

What makes me really proud though is we’ve been 100% bootstrapped for our 3.5 Entering our 4th year of business, we doubled our headcount, became a certified B Corporation, and released our revenue model which aligned with our becoming a 1% for the Planet member. Thanks to Joe Sinkwitz, Intellifluence ! #3- 3- Publishing a book.

Entrepreneur 120

Entrepreneur Technical Review Vertical Las Vegas 120

This is going to be BIG.

MARCH 1, 2010

Content companies, for example, should be able to amass traffic and sell advertising on a bootstrapped budget before they come close to seeking equity financing—because you can, and because that’s the market expectation and that’s what your competitors are already doing. > Office rents?

New York City 113

New York City New York Startup Burn Rate 113

Berkonomics

JUNE 8, 2017

Email readers, continue here…] Bootstrapping: This term describes your ability to start a business with little investment and grow it using internally-generated funds. It might be useful to list some of the ways in which you can raise money for growth with and without outside investors. It’s an option, even though an expensive one.

Private Equity 106

Private Equity Valuation Cap Table Accredited Investor 106

This is going to be BIG.

DECEMBER 21, 2017

Nothing seems to apply--you're not a tech company, you bootstrapped your way to millions in revenues before taking on capital, and you sell mostly through brick and mortar. Technically, that's what we called it, but it didn't seem entirely appropriate given that it had already been up and running for years and had millions in revenue.

Cap Table 90

Cap Table Cofounder Valuation .Net 90

Hippoland

MARCH 13, 2016

Do you bootstrap and attempt to raise again when you have made more progress? To be clear, growth means increased revenue or increased number of users/customers (or both!). It’s measured in revenue results. Could you turn $50M into $1B in revenue in the next 2 years? Below your target raise? Your target raise?

Seed Stage 48

Seed Stage .Net Revenue Acquisition 48

Up and Running

FEBRUARY 17, 2016

Friends and family are the most common backers, and many startups bootstrap. Within any model, there are things breweries can focus on to stand out and increase revenue. It helps you plan, helps you get return, and ultimately helps you generate revenue.”. What is your leverage, the ratio between total liabilities and net worth?

Oregon 60

Oregon Jordan SBA Cofounder 60

www.mint.com

MARCH 9, 2010

What is your net outflow per month? If the answer to the question centers around “We will achieve revenue soon so our net will improve and give us more runway,” it means the company is in trouble because no product ever ships on time nor achieves the company’s “conservative forecast.” Who is on your board of directors?

Software Review 68

Software Review Startup Post-Money Valuation Technical Review 68

ReadWriteStart

MARCH 3, 2011

Then Greg Snead, also from Tacoma, discussed Orbiter , an RFID venture that is moving along quite nicely, having clocked more than $700,000 in revenue last year. Orbiter expects to give its investors a 15 times return on investment based on their current pipeline and revenue forecast. Happy Grasshopper. Social Pulse.

San Jose 115

San Jose Entrepreneur United States Washington 115

techcrunch.com

FEBRUARY 19, 2010

Respondents deemed between 12%-16% of companies generating revenues to be essentially “worthless” and deemed 20%-26% of their pre-revenue investments to be “worthless.” However, enough on digital, so Sarah, please stop with the positive news- where will VC go to invest outside of net negative or zero ROI on green?

Venture Capital 62

Venture Capital Technical Review Sweat Equity Valuation 62

Hippoland

AUGUST 16, 2018

But outcome-differentiation is probably lacking – people who use Mailchimp use it to increase revenue by selling more products / services via their emails. In order to bootstrap your way to success, it largely means you need high margins and fast sales cycles. That’s a feature difference.

Sales Cycle 54

Sales Cycle Differentiation Early Stage Bootstrapping 54

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

JUNE 27, 2011

There are plenty of folks who wouldn’t sell their company for a billion dollars; Jason Fried and Joel Spolsky are public examples from the bootstrapped startup world. “Net net,&# some people say. Most entrepreneurs would love to be in a position to have to decide! Most, but not all. Most, but not all.

Sales 235

Sales Term Sheet Stock Deal Structure 235

NZ Entrepreneur

JUNE 11, 2019

While globally, the 26 wealthiest individuals own as much as half of the rest of the world combined , the wealthiest 20% of households here in New Zealand own 70% of household net wealth. What do I mean by this? Take “The Warehouse” for instance. And who can blame us “rational consumers”?

New Zealand 75

New Zealand Small Business Global Dividend 75

Hippoland

AUGUST 16, 2018

But outcome-differentiation is probably lacking – people who use Mailchimp use it to increase revenue by selling more products / services via their emails. In order to bootstrap your way to success, it largely means you need high margins and fast sales cycles. That’s a feature difference.

Sales Cycle 48

Sales Cycle Differentiation Early Stage Bootstrapping 48

Spencer Fry

JUNE 29, 2011

You may see a lot of signups by a certain type of user, but that cohort may bring in only half the revenue of another cohort that may provide fewer total signups. You can give away free paid accounts (see: Bootstrap Marketing ), offer limited edition virtual goods such as icons, and special early adopter features.

Philippines 77

Philippines Viral Bootstrapping Europe 77

Austin Startup

FEBRUARY 4, 2018

How do you raise a family and friends round to prove out your MVP when your network equals little net worth? You’ll have to build out a team, product and gain revenue before you’re even considered. Those who tout they pulled themselves up from their bootstraps forget someone gave them their boots.

Reputation 48

Reputation Austin Networking Bootstrapping 48

Small Business Force

FEBRUARY 21, 2014

Follow the "gospel of cash flow" and it starts with revenue generation. So, the biggest focus, early on, is driving revenue.and then collecting on that revenue, the earlier the better. If it's net 30, don't pay in 25, pay in 30. This is more than just revenue or expense. If don't generate it, you have nothing to manage.

Finance 37

Finance Management Forecast Entrepreneur 37

Start Up Blog

APRIL 29, 2013

The art of activating idle assets to bring in new revenue is occurring for both the service provider and the service creator. Residents are collaborating to start, finance and manage public works projects and proving they can bootstrap a better job themselves. In today’s world people know that access is greater than ownership.

Uruguay 123

Uruguay Technical Review Vertical Las Vegas 123

Berkonomics

JANUARY 20, 2010

Email readers continue here.]. Bootstrapping: This term describes your ability to start a business with little investment and grow it using internally-generated funds. Before we explore the next insight, it might be useful to list some of the ways in which you can raise money for growth with and without outside investors.

Private Equity 69

Private Equity Valuation Cap Table Accredited Investor 69

Tim Keane

APRIL 14, 2008

Now, as their revenue grows substantially, its time to make the shift toward a more quantitative management environment. If our automated warehousing system is state of the art and provides us a 10% increase in Net Operating Income, what can we do with that money? Bootstrapping. Add another sales capability? October 2010.

Ireland 60

Ireland Wisconsin Forecast Sales Cycle 60

Up and Running

MAY 15, 2019

Friends and family are the most common backers, and many startups bootstrap. Within any model, there are things breweries can focus on to stand out and increase revenue. It helps you plan, helps you get a return, and ultimately helps you generate revenue.”. Managing your own distribution is ideal. Metrics: Know your numbers.

Oregon 24

Oregon Jordan Software Review Distribution 24

Reid Hoffman

MARCH 19, 2019

Google realized that being the way to find the world’s information was a blitzscalable market, thanks to the network effects in its AdWords revenue engine. There is no such thing as a company that generates billions of dollars of revenue with a team of less than 10 people. The second is a lack of operational scalability.

Cofounder 28

Cofounder Business Model IPO Non-Compete 28