Others go through multiple rounds of funding – each bigger than the last which usually also results in steeper burn rates (driven by the need to show growth). This is the case even if the startup starts generating profit because it was built on “other peoples’ money” which comes at a 10x rate of return. MORE >>

At a rate of 10 cents/GB we get a cost of $770,000/month. With Amazons rate of 8 cents/GB we get around $620,000/month. At this level of profitability we see that Dropbox would need between 317,000 and 393,000 paid users to cover costs, or a conversion rate of 1.3% paid users, or a conversion rate of 3.4% Web 2.0 and 2.4% MORE >>

The Valley has a burn rate like no other. Some bootstrapping start-ups aren’t going to be able to swallow those kinds of numbers. A recent transplant from Minneapolis dishes on what you need to know if you want to live in the start-up capital of the world. Will you be leaving friends and family behind? Will it be worth it? MORE >>

Matching cash outlays to a timeline helps us monitor our "burn rate" and remaining months of runway, and it helps us get a handle on how deep in the red we might get before hitting breakeven. They take a ton of time to build. They are complex and often messy. They are never truly “right.&# Here’s why. Why Build A Model? MORE >>

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. You know what—it’s supposed to work like that! was there, too. MORE >>