Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 19, 2013

Bootstrap if you can, otherwise climb the pyramid of family, friends, Angels, and VCs. If you take investor money, expect a push for hockey-stick growth and a liquidity event, like going public (IPO) or sale (M&A), to get the payback. The right motivated employees dilemma. The control and growth dilemma.

Founder 245

Founder Hockey Stick Cofounder Liquidity Event 245

Software By Rob

SEPTEMBER 17, 2013

VC companies need hockey stick growth. Let’s say you have a bootstrapped SaaS product and you get 20 new customers in January, 10 in February, and 15 in March. Since a bootstrapped startup is dealing with much smaller numbers of customers then you have an advantage. Well, not when you’re a bootstrapper. Startups'

Hockey Stick 69

Hockey Stick Bootstrapping Cofounder Acquisition 69

Startup Lessons Learned

APRIL 14, 2009

This wasn’t very impressive, but we had two things going for us: A hockey stick shaped growth curve. People often forget the most important part of the hockey stick: the long flat part. People talk about funding funding funding, bootstrapping, etc., And will lead to longer term success.

Customer 167

Customer San Francisco Lean Hockey Stick 167

Up and Running

JUNE 26, 2013

Bootstrapped, lean and already providing (in a small way at least) for the needs of my family and that of my co-founder. The day we set foot into the doors of the accelerator, we had a business that DHH would be proud of.

Hockey Stick 72

Hockey Stick Entrepreneur Startup Bootstrapping 72

Software By Rob

SEPTEMBER 17, 2013

VC companies need hockey stick growth. Let’s say you have a bootstrapped SaaS product and you get 20 new customers in January, 10 in February, and 15 in March. Since a bootstrapped startup is dealing with much smaller numbers of customers then you have an advantage. Well, not when you’re a bootstrapper.

Hockey Stick 27

Hockey Stick Bootstrapping Cofounder Acquisition 27

Hippoland

AUGUST 8, 2018

Forget about traction and hockey stick growth. Examples of this include startups that are building a new airplane or a new car or a rocketship or a new power plant, etc… Most first time founders cannot just start bootstrapping a new rocketship startup. don’t think about at all.

Founder 48

Founder Sales Cycle Affiliate Retention 48

Hippoland

AUGUST 8, 2018

Forget about traction and hockey stick growth. Examples of this include startups that are building a new airplane or a new car or a rocketship or a new power plant, etc… Most first time founders cannot just start bootstrapping a new rocketship startup. don’t think about at all.

Founder 48

Founder Sales Cycle Affiliate Retention 48

The Startup Toolkit

DECEMBER 14, 2011

Your traffic graph isn’t going to spike or hockey-stick, and that doesn’t matter one bit if you’re talking to the right people. I can’t think of a quicker way to bootstrap your credibility and make opportunities appear. [1]

Hockey Stick 54

Hockey Stick Affiliate Analytics Bootstrapping 54

Professor VC

AUGUST 26, 2011

The objections range from "its hard", "nobody believes them" to "all hockey sticks look alike". Bootstrapping 101. I often feel like a Dad (which I am to two wonderful teenage daughters) when I respond, "Yes, because I say so".Everyone Survey says VC's invest on Gut Instinct. ► July. (1). ► May. (1).

Silicon Valley 35

Silicon Valley San Jose Hockey Stick Venture Capital 35

David Teten

AUGUST 20, 2019

BJ Lackland observes, “Our customers are 10% VC-backed, 45% bootstrapped and 45% angel-backed.”. There’s less selling the big dream, pie in the sky, hockey stick forever. Can work for all levels of growth and all funding histories. More attractive to women and underrepresented founders.

Revenue 60

Revenue SBIC Cofounder Venture Capital 60